First Time Freestyle Dining - Solo Cruiser

[LavenderRs]

It has been awhile since I went on NCL, which is all Freestyle Dining now.  I have only been on cruises that have two dining times in the MDR. 

Suggestions???  Will the host(ess) seat me by myself?  Can I be seated with a larger table?  Anything I should worry about, or what is the best way to navigate this?  

LavRs

1/6/24 - NCL Escape

[hallux]

You have a couple options -

• Go to the MDR on your own, ask to sit alone or at a shared table if others are looking to share, depending on your preference
• Go to the nightly solo meet (first one was at Tobacco Road whiskey bar then moved to the Studio lounge and was at the SL the rest of the week) and meet other solos to go to dinner when the solo host brings the group down.

[LavenderRs]

Thank you, Hallux.

 

[SailorJoe22]

Shared tables - how do they work? Is it just people wanting to meet other people type thing?

[hallux]

29 minutes ago, SailorJoe22 said:

Shared tables - how do they work? Is it just people wanting to meet other people type thing?

Pretty much.  On NCL the solo group will go to dinner as a group and get seated together or you could walk up to the dining room on your own and ask to be seated at a table with others that wanted to share.

[SoloAlaska]

I’ve done all of these and also went to dinner with new friends some nights. Specialty dinning we ended up going as a group since someone had a reservation. For the MDR the solo meetups work well or if you’re late coming back from an excursion then ask if there is a solo table going or if you can start one. By the time the first person was ready to order there was 3 of us at the table.

 

Since you can text on IPhone without being on your wifi minutes it was really handy to make plans with new friends onboard. Whomever had unlimited wifi they would reach out on WhatsApp to those who didn’t have iPhones to let them know the plan.

[stinkyharriet]

I just disembarked my first solo cruise on The Getaway this morning.  On the first day on the ship I went to O’Sheehans for lunch soon after boarding.  A minute or two after being seated they brought another solo over to the table next to mine so we talked through lunch.  At the first solo meeting that night one woman said she had reserved a table for 4 at Ocean Blue (specialty dining) so three of us went with her and used our specialty dining credit.  I did three nights in the MDR with the solo members and another specialty dining with three more solos.  
 

On my cruise the solo meeting was at 5:00 and they arranged for tables in the MDR right afterward, so it was an early dinner.  But, by the time we all decided what to order it was probably 6pm when we actually started eating.  We didn’t have to wait to get in, the solo coordinator went ahead and told them how many were dining and then we all went in.

 

I highly recommend going to the daily solo meetups.

[hallux]

18 hours ago, stinkyharriet said:

At the first solo meeting that night one woman said she had reserved a table for 4

I plan on doing exactly this on my cruise that boards in a week.  I have a table for two but plan to see if I can change it to 4 or 6...