Specialty Restaurants

[Trimone]

Just about to order a package, then looked at restaurants on my cruise and they are al carte? So how does it work 

Speciality dining packages are honoured in the following speciality restaurants: Steakhouse, French, Italian, Churrascaria, Teppanyaki, Mexican, BBQ and Margaritaville at Sea.

 

[Shellbelle28]

When you have a specialty dining package, the package overrides the a la carte menu pricing. 

 

This thread has many details, it is long, but my advice is to read the whole thing, lots of good info. https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2561613-updated-speciality-restaurant-booking-guide/

[shof515]

with the dinning package, your bill for your meal should be $0.00. make sure you check the receipt at the end of dinner.

[BirdTravels]

4 hours ago, Trimone said:

Just about to order a package, then looked at restaurants on my cruise and they are al carte? So how does it work 

Speciality dining packages are honoured in the following speciality restaurants: Steakhouse, French, Italian, Churrascaria, Teppanyaki, Mexican, BBQ and Margaritaville at Sea.

 

You get one entree, multiple appetizers, multiple desserts. Some waiters suggest that there is a 1-1-1 limit (which is not in the promotion terms and conditions). We always order extra apps and have never been charged. 

[EndlessSea]

New to NCL.  We have a perk dining package.  Do we have to wait until we are onboard to make our reservations?  Thanks.

[kayjay76]

2 hours ago, EndlessSea said:

New to NCL.  We have a perk dining package.  Do we have to wait until we are onboard to make our reservations?  Thanks.

Nope, you can make your reservations online 120 days out and I think 130 days out for suites and haven.

[kayjay76]

9 hours ago, Trimone said:

Just about to order a package, then looked at restaurants on my cruise and they are al carte? So how does it work 

Speciality dining packages are honoured in the following speciality restaurants: Steakhouse, French, Italian, Churrascaria, Teppanyaki, Mexican, BBQ and Margaritaville at Sea.

 

To extend on what Bird said... Say you go to Cagneys (the steakhouse) the menu has prices on it but you can ignore those, you'll go ahead and order your apps, entrée, dessert. If you have the drinks package, those are free too. then at the end of dinner they will take your card or cards depending whose dining with you. then they come back with a receipt that you sign and total should be zero. you can add a tip or leave cash if you wish. And that's it. It's actually really simple even though seems more complex.

[h55zbt]

Question regarding tipping when eating meals with the dining package.  I was charged 20% of the value of the package as a service charge at booking time.  Am I still expected to tip on these meals?

 

Another question, is a tip added to meals that I eat outside of the dining package?

[BlueLadyBlue]

I'm watching for the answer too.  We didn't tip over and above the 20% already paid.  Frankly, never even occurred to me.

 

[Shellbelle28]

17 minutes ago, h55zbt said:

Question regarding tipping when eating meals with the dining package.  I was charged 20% of the value of the package as a service charge at booking time.  Am I still expected to tip on these meals?

 

Another question, is a tip added to meals that I eat outside of the dining package?

 

Tipping additionally for meals with the dining packages or drinks with the beverage package isn't expected. You could tip more if you wanted to, but I did not get the sense that any server or bartender was hoping or hinting for it.

Outside of the dining/beverage packages, you're charged a "daily service charge" per person which is meant to cover tips for much of the ship staff. That amount is added to your onboard charges at the end of the cruise unless you opt to pre-pay it before sailing. For all but the all-inclusive sailings of Sky and Sun, it is $17.50 USD per person per day for The Haven and Suites and $14.50 USD per person per day for all other stateroom types.  https://www.ncl.com/faq#service-charge

Edited October 23, 2018 by Shellbelle28

[Two Wheels Only]

49 minutes ago, h55zbt said:

Another question, is a tip added to meals that I eat outside of the dining package?

 

A 20% service charge is added to items (food or drink) ordered when not using a package.

[h55zbt]

Thanks everyone for the info!

[EndlessSea]

17 hours ago, kayjay76 said:

Nope, you can make your reservations online 120 days out and I think 130 days out for suites and haven.

So when we go on the website to reserve they won't try to charge us?  Our dining package is 'free' with our booking.

[shof515]

13 minutes ago, EndlessSea said:

So when we go on the website to reserve they won't try to charge us?  Our dining package is 'free' with our booking.

 

Correct. It is best to book the cover charge restaurants first like Moderno and teppanyaki. It should appear as 0.00 pricing when you book and then the al la carte last.

Edited October 24, 2018 by shof515

[BirdTravels]

4 hours ago, h55zbt said:

Question regarding tipping when eating meals with the dining package.  I was charged 20% of the value of the package as a service charge at booking time.  Am I still expected to tip on these meals?

 

Another question, is a tip added to meals that I eat outside of the dining package?

Nope and nope. The 20% covers anything eaten on the package. The Daily service charge covers complimentary restaurants. And anything else you buy will have a 20% tip. 

 

Extra gratuity for special service would always be appreciated. We always have about 100 $1 bills for bartender and bar staff tips. 

[kayjay76]

7 hours ago, h55zbt said:

Question regarding tipping when eating meals with the dining package.  I was charged 20% of the value of the package as a service charge at booking time.  Am I still expected to tip on these meals?

 

Another question, is a tip added to meals that I eat outside of the dining package?

No, you do not have to tip anything if you choose. It's totally up to you if you tip any extra. I think if you ask across the boards it's split right down the middle if people tip extra or don't tip anything extra.

 

For me personally, I find tipping gets a bit better service... say if I'm at a bar or have a server at say H20 that deals with us for hours.

 

This is just my personal preference and what I do for tipping.... 1st day we meet our room steward I give $20 and ask that we never run out of coffee as we are huge coffee drinkers (5 cups a day pp:) and Extra towels. For bartenders and bar back servers I usually do $1 each order. Dinner at sit down resturant we do $5.

 

All this depends on service.... On our Escape cruise we had a large group and mainly hung in the h20 area. We had a server named Nathaniel. Oh Nathaniel....lol. He made our trip!!! After day 1 we never had to even seek out a drink, he was right there with a fresh one or asking. Even when we showed up at glow or eighties party he found us and took care of us at all times. We were a large group of about 20+ people and I swear we put his 1st kid thru college lol but man was he worth it!!! My room steward was awesome and never once had to ask for extra coffee/creamer/sugar... was piled high everyday!

 

On our Getaway cruise last year service was, well, not even up to par, anywhere we went and I am by far the least picky person out there. Many others on these  boards that were on the same cruise said the same exact thing. Across the board staff was unfriendly and did not seem to care if you tipped or not, most not even a simple ty. Was shocking. So by day 4 I actually stopped tipping bartenders. And that killed me!!!! I hate not tipping. My steward who I tipped 1st thing actually reprimanded me for asking for extra coffee day 3.

 

So I truly think it's up to you on if you tip extra or not, no judgement here 🙂

[readingfast]

I have already booked a couple of meals at Le Bistro and am now wondering if it might be better to buy the three dining package.  Can you buy this and keep your original bookings? 

Has anyone copies of the menus for all the speciality restaurants or, can you tell me the approximate price of Entrees, so that I can work out what is best to do?

Many thanks

[KeithJenner]

40 minutes ago, readingfast said:

I have already booked a couple of meals at Le Bistro and am now wondering if it might be better to buy the three dining package.  Can you buy this and keep your original bookings? 

Has anyone copies of the menus for all the speciality restaurants or, can you tell me the approximate price of Entrees, so that I can work out what is best to do?

Many thanks

Yes, if you buy the dining package then you can use that to pay for the meals you have booked already.

 

As for the menus, they can differ a little between ships and I believe that new menus are being rolled out, but if you do a search on here then you should find some posted (as long as they haven't been lost in the changes to the forum). As a rule, we find that if you are going to have 2 meals then the cost of the 3 meal package is very little extra, and we aren't particularly big eaters.

Edited October 24, 2018 by KeithJenner

[lkjacobs]

A few notes on specialty dining with NCL:

 

If you have a dining package (your keycard shows #UDP, where # is the number of meals included), then the terms and conditions state that the only restriction at the included restaurants is a limit of one entree. If a server tries to tell you that you are limited on appetizers, side or desserts and they won't yield when you tell them that they're wrong, call the Maitre D' over. For some reason, I've found many servers on multiple ships who are not trained properly.

 

Be aware that some other specialty restaurants can be used with the UDP with a specified upcharge. Examples are Ocean Blue / Bayamo ($10 + $2 gratuity), Sushi Bar ($7 +), and some dinner shows (though do a calculation; some are more not a good deal compared to just booking them directly).

 

For reasons that no F&B Director nor Executive Chef whom I've asked can answer, NCL has 2 sets of specialty restaurant menus. I refer to them as the "large ship menus" and "small ship menus". The megaships all use the "large" set, the really small ships seem to all use the "small" set, and the mid-sized ships are a crap shoot. Some use a complete set of one or the other, and some use "large" in some restaurants and "small" in others. Many menu items are common to both, many have subtle differences, and others are completely omitted on one set or the other. So, don't assume that something you liked on one ship will be available on a different vessel.

 

If you have Platinum Latitudes vouchers, there are a couple of considerations if you travel solo as I do. If you're using one alone, I've never had a problem convincing the server to let me order whatever I want; I simply joke with them that I'll order 2 meals if they're not flexible. Of course, the other option is to pair up with another Platinum solo at the first night's gathering and share the vouchers to allow four meals for both of you. I've heard of people coercing the CruiseNext Manager into letting them get four solo meals, but I'm not willing to do that. Even if the rules are unfair, they are the rules.