NCL on Christmas - Anything special on the menu in main dining rooms?

[The Fun Researcher]

Hi all,

 

Our first time sailing NCL (on the Getaway) is over Christmas this year.  For those of you who have sailed NCL over Christmas, or others who may know, does NCL have a special menu of any kind in their main dining rooms on Christmas Eve or Christmas day?

 

We're trying to plan meals and our activities those two days, especially Christmas day.  

 

Thanks in advance!

Dan

[www3traveler]

The ship will be fully deccorated including a huge Ginngerbrread village display.

 

All of the main dining rooms will have afull turkey dinner on the menu including green bean casserole.

 

It is a great time to be on a ship.

 

[The Fun Researcher]

45 minutes ago, www3traveler said:

The ship will be fully deccorated including a huge Ginngerbrread village display.

 

All of the main dining rooms will have afull turkey dinner on the menu including green bean casserole.

 

It is a great time to be on a ship.

 

 

Thank you for the reply.  This will be the first time in the 48 years of my life that I won't be "home" for Christmas.  Various circumstances this year made it something worth looking into, so we decided to give it a shot.  We'll celebrate Christmas at home the weekend before.

 

It's funny.  I'm not complaining, but turkey and green been casserole aligns more with Thanksgiving in our household.  I'm secretly holding out for a special beef option, like wellington, prime rib, tenderloin, etc, or seafood.  While it's not "Christmas" fare, it would still be something a little more special.  Our other option is to book a specialty restaurant.  It's weird though.  Even though our cruise leaves only 35 days from now we still can't book any dining reservations.  I suspect this has something to do with the fact that our cruise is the very first after the Getaway's repositioning from Europe.

 

Dan

[www3traveler]

No, system wide for right now dining reservations and show resevations are made on board.

 

I am not a green bean casserole fan at all-- but to be polite Iate it.

 

It has been several years since I have done a Christmas cruise, which great fun even for Senior citizen type person sailing solo.  If I remember correctly there was a beef offering but I do not remember what it was.  For seafood, I would reccomend the restaurant Ocean Blue.  Very small dining room and wonderful service.

 

Enjoy

[OrcaGirl]

1 hour ago, www3traveler said:

No, system wide for right now dining reservations and show resevations are made on board.

 

 

We were able to make dinner reservations for our cruise last month on the Encore, and already have our dinner reservations made for our Christmas cruise on the Bliss. But yes, entertainment needs to be booked once onboard for now.

 

OP might want to consider hopping onto a chat with an NCL agent just to confirm why no dining reservations are currently available. But with ships sailing at reduced capacity, you shouldn't have a problem getting making reservations once on board - though you might miss out on a prime time slot.

[flaminog]

I made reservations for dining at 120 days by chatting with the NCL agent online. It didn’t show up as “available to book” on my app recently until about 30 days ahead but my reservations have been there for months. Just call or chat. 

[OrlandoSquirrel]

I’ve made all my speciality dining reservations for my upcoming Christmas / NYE cruise on the Joy. So I would also recommend calling or chatting with NCL. 
 

We are eating at Ocean Blue for Christmas Eve and Cagney’s on Christmas Day. NYE we’ll be at La Cucina. 
 

We tend to eat almost all our meals at speciality restaurants because I find the MDR to be very hit or miss.

[KeithJenner]

The topic of dining reservations keeps on coming up lately, as people find they can’t make them.

 

I haven’t been following closely, but my understanding is that you can’t make reservations, either online or by calling, for European sailings at the moment. If this is the first cruise after returning from Europe then I suspect that is the reason why, but it may be worth a call in case it can be done over the phone as the ship will be back in the US.

[KeithJenner]

14 hours ago, The Fun Researcher said:

 

Thank you for the reply.  This will be the first time in the 48 years of my life that I won't be "home" for Christmas.  Various circumstances this year made it something worth looking into, so we decided to give it a shot.  We'll celebrate Christmas at home the weekend before.

 

It's funny.  I'm not complaining, but turkey and green been casserole aligns more with Thanksgiving in our household.  I'm secretly holding out for a special beef option, like wellington, prime rib, tenderloin, etc, or seafood.  While it's not "Christmas" fare, it would still be something a little more special.  Our other option is to book a specialty restaurant.  It's weird though.  Even though our cruise leaves only 35 days from now we still can't book any dining reservations.  I suspect this has something to do with the fact that our cruise is the very first after the Getaway's repositioning from Europe.

 

Dan

We went to Cagneys on Christmas Day when we were onboard over Christmas. Much more appealing than mass produced Turkey meal.

 

We had a Christmas Dinner of sorts at home the weekend before we left.

[Laszlo]

Do they have Roast Beef and Yorkshire Pudding?

[fabby50]

When we went on our Christmas cruise (a year before the shutdown), the specialty restaurants all had their normal menus for Christmas.  Since we ate in one every other night, we decided to try the dining room for Christmas dinner.  I was really underwhelmed.  Not to say your experience will be the same, I'm glad we tried it to see, but I wouldn't do it again.  It was loud, crowded, people seemed to be very demanding, not sure if it was just the night or if it was the crowd for that particular trip.  The servers were rushed, the food not good, the desserts a terrible let down.  Next time, if we go on a Christmas cruise, we will either got to a French restaurant if available or the steakhouse. 

[flaminog]

On 11/18/2021 at 8:41 AM, OrlandoSquirrel said:

I’ve made all my speciality dining reservations for my upcoming Christmas / NYE cruise on the Joy. So I would also recommend calling or chatting with NCL. 
 

We are eating at Ocean Blue for Christmas Eve and Cagney’s on Christmas Day. NYE we’ll be at La Cucina. 
 

We tend to eat almost all our meals at speciality restaurants because I find the MDR to be very hit or miss.

We will also be on the Joy for Christmas 😄 

 

[bluesea777]

On 11/18/2021 at 11:35 AM, fabby50 said:

When we went on our Christmas cruise (a year before the shutdown), the specialty restaurants all had their normal menus for Christmas.  Since we ate in one every other night, we decided to try the dining room for Christmas dinner.  I was really underwhelmed.  Not to say your experience will be the same, I'm glad we tried it to see, but I wouldn't do it again.  It was loud, crowded, people seemed to be very demanding, not sure if it was just the night or if it was the crowd for that particular trip.  The servers were rushed, the food not good, the desserts a terrible let down.  Next time, if we go on a Christmas cruise, we will either got to a French restaurant if available or the steakhouse. 

If you still fancy turkey, go to Garden Cafe instead of MDRs.