New to NCL Need any info and helpful suggestions for spirit out of NY in April

[LuvTheSea14]

Never been on NCL but we are going in April on Spirit with our children and 2 grandchildren. We never were on a ship with free style dining. How does this work? What restaurants are free but sit down restaurants with waiters? When do you make reservations for these restaurants? had a friend who complained he couldn't get any reservations They were all booked. I'd like to avoid that! Any help would be greatly appreciated thanks

[KeystoneCruiser]

Here is a quick synopsis of Freestyle Dining:

 

I love Freestyle and that is why I only cruise on NCL.

 

Freestyle is all about your choice. Freestyle gives you the choice to eat WHEN you want, with WHO you want, WHERE you want, and HOW you want.

 

1.) You do not have assigned dining times. You can go the main restaurants anytime that they are open (5:30-9:30) and simply tell them how many of you there are and they will seat you, just like a shoreside restaurant. Unless you are a large group, you cannot make reservations in the main dining rooms. Sometimes this can cause you to wait a few minutes (usually less than 20) for a table if you dine during the peak hours of 6:30-8:00.

 

2.) You do have to make reservations for the Specialty Restaurants and most of them have a cover charge of $10-20 per person. (but that is only for the entree, you can have as many apetizers, salads, sides and desserts that you want.). You can make these for the entire week when you board. Not all specialty restaurants have a cover charge (LaTrattatoria for example) but all require reservations. There is an Italian one, a steakhouse, a tex-mex, and an asian one, just to name a few.

 

3.) You do not have assigned tablemates. You can dine with just your family or perhaps the friends you met that day. They have tables from 2 people to 10 people. You can also request to be seated with new people if you like. You usually do not have the same waiters each night, but you can request them!

 

4.) You can dress as you like. (within limits) All formal nights on all NCL ships are OPTIONAL in all dining venues. You do not have to dress up and can still eat anywhere. On formal night, only about 40% of the passengers will dress up and that will range from tuxes to shirt/tie. The other 60% will be in resort casual. (the 40% drops to about 30% dressed up on the Hawaiin cruises since Hawaiian attire is also an acceptable dress.)

 

With that said, you do have to dress in at least Resort Casual every night to dine in the restaurants. Resort casual simply means no shorts, jeans or t-shirts. Polo shirts, sun dresses, kahkis, and sneakers are all perfectly acceptable! I have never worn any more than a polo shirt, kahkis and sneakers to any meal on five NCL cruises! You will not feel out of place! The best part...the chance to dress as you feel comfortable.

 

(btw: if you have to wear jeans or shorts, you can then choose to dine in the Blue Lagoon (diner) or the buffet for dinner!)

[johnql]

Never been on NCL but we are going in April on Spirit with our children and 2 grandchildren. We never were on a ship with free style dining. How does this work? What restaurants are free but sit down restaurants with waiters? When do you make reservations for these restaurants? had a friend who complained he couldn't get any reservations They were all booked. I'd like to avoid that! Any help would be greatly appreciated thanks

Here's how the dining breaks down on the Spirit.

 

Included, no reservations required

Windows Restaurant (Main Dining Room)

The Garden Room (Main Dining Room)

Blue Lagoon (24/7 diner)

Raffles buffet

Henry's Pub (Fish & Chips)

Bier Garten (Bavarian snacks)

Late night snacks in the casino

On-deck BBQs

Chocoholic buffet

 

Included, reservations required

La Trattoria (Italian)

 

Surcharge, reservations required

Le Bistro (French/Continental)

Cagney's Steakhouse

Shogun Restaurant (Asian) - divided into 3 sections: Shogun, sushi bar & Teppanyaki

 

Miscellaneous

Le Cafe - delicious desserts, complimentary with the purchase of a specialty coffee ($6 or so)

 

My advice is to book the specialty restaurants as soon as you've decided that you want to dine there. La Trattoria usually books up fast since it's non-surcharge. Teppanyaki also books up fast because it's a very small venue (serves only 10-12 people). And Le Bistro usually book up fast because it's NCL's signature restaurant and is very popular.

[mypyr]

grannypattt- We just sailed the Spirit and this is our opinion: NCL talks about freestyle dining, but I think it should be called "Reservations dining". We were in a suite, so we had the concierge book all of our restaurants at the pier before boarding, plush she changed them as needed.

 

However, Our friends went right the the Grand Centrum(deck 7) upon boarding and made reservations for the week. I DO suggest reservations in the non-specialty restaurants as well. On the first optional formal night, we breezed into Windows with our 7p.m. reservation, and we watched couples and families dressed formally sitting on the stairs outside!!

 

We personally loved Le Bistro(great filet mignon), Shogun(amazing asian food) and Cagneys( good, but not as good as the other 2). We also enjoyed the Blue Lagoon at least twice during the week(just a walk-in kind of place).

We were quite dissapointed with the food in both Windows and Garden,, although we could always find something to eat. The wait staff was great, service was exceptional, but the food just lacked alot of flavor. It LOOKED good but just tasted so-so. If we were to sail her again, we would only eat in the Specialty restaurants. We never tried the Teppanyaki(Benni-Hanna type) or La Trattoria, so I can't comment on them.

 

Hope this helps,

 

Cindy

[jimswims]

grannypatttttttt:

 

We have just returned from the Spirit. We were on the 8/19 sailing, 8 day Eastern Caribbean. I agree with what many of the posters already said.

We were a family of 4. I traveled with my wife, 11 year old son, and 8 year old daughter. I have a few things to add:

 

1: We did make reservations for the Garden Room (main dining room) on the Captain's Dinner day. Others did as well.

2: We tried to make reservations a Windows (larger Main Dining room) later in the week. The Reservation person told us that they had reached the maximum number of reservations for our time request but we could just go to the resturant. We did this and were seated right away, it was early, 5:30 pm.

3: Time of dining in Freestyle is key. We choose to eat on the early side, between 5:30-6:00. We have never had to wait for a table for 2 or 4 and we have been on 3 NCL cruises.

4: You do need to make reservations for the Speciality Resturants and the earlier, the better. We went to the desk when we first boarded with ship with a written plan of where and when we wanted to eat. We did make some changes throughout the week based on our dining experiences in the resturants with no problem at all because they were done 24 hours in advance.

 

On another note, the cabins are not well designed for 4 people. I am happy to provide our experience with 4 people in an inside cabin if you would like.

 

Enjoy your trip, we all loved the Spirit!

[LuvTheSea14]

Thank you all I am still a little confused but I know so much more than I did before. Which restaurants are the Specialty Restaurants? How early do you suggest getting to the Spirit in Ny to board and get on line and get reservations? We leave on Sunday and come back to NY on Saturday Can anyone tell me what they would reccomend for each night. We are 4 adults and 2 children age 9 and 6. Thank you again for the help any other tips will be greatly appreciated

[KeystoneCruiser]

The Specialty Restaurants are:

No cover charge, but reservations required:

La Trattoria (Italian)

 

Cover Charge of between $15-20 per persson, reservations required

Le Bistro (French/Continental)

Cagney's Steakhouse

Shogun Restaurant (Asian)

 

 

 

I would definately try Cagneys and LaTrattoria, both are excellent. The kids can order off the Kids Menus in all dining venues including the specialty restaurants. The Kids Menus are the same in all venues. There is no charge for kids in the specialty restuarants if they order off the kids menus.

 

Since I have not sailed the Spirit, I can't answer the other questions as well but when we sailed the Dawn out NYC in June, we got to the pier about noon and got right on the ship and was able to enjoy lunch on board.

[mommybunny21]

Our limo picked us up at 10:30 we were at the port by 11:30 and having lunch at Windows by 1:00. Couldn't have been easier. Disembarking was another story-very long and confusing for the limo driver-tell him to get there early rather than later. Be sure to reserve Teppanyaki IMMEDIATELY-the kids will love it-a private japanese chef who puts on a liitle show for about 10 people in Shogun-well worth the additional charge.

[bambilin]

We sailed the Spirit 5/14-5/20/06.

We went straight to our cabin and called and made our reservations for the specialty restaurants on the phone instead of going to wait in line.

We got everythign we asked for and we made most of them for 7:30-8 PM.

 

We did not make reservations for the main dinigroom and never had a wait (it was just three of us)

 

The cabins are kind of small, but the crew is very family frinedly and we had a GREAT time!

 

Have fun!

 

Linda

[LuvTheSea14]

We have a catagory DC Balcony room. You can make the reservations on the phone even if you aren't in a suite? Thanks for the help!

[johnql]

We have a catagory DC Balcony room. You can make the reservations on the phone even if you aren't in a suite? Thanks for the help!

Yes, anybody can make phone reservations for the specialty restaurants. Did you mean BC?

[LuvTheSea14]

YES BC!!! Thanks

[mush71]

Here is a quick synopsis of Freestyle Dining:

 

I love Freestyle and that is why I only cruise on NCL.

 

Freestyle is all about your choice. Freestyle gives you the choice to eat WHEN you want, with WHO you want, WHERE you want, and HOW you want.

 

1.) You do not have assigned dining times. You can go the main restaurants anytime that they are open (5:30-9:30) and simply tell them how many of you there are and they will seat you, just like a shoreside restaurant. Unless you are a large group, you cannot make reservations in the main dining rooms. Sometimes this can cause you to wait a few minutes (usually less than 20) for a table if you dine during the peak hours of 6:30-8:00.

 

I was on the Spirit on 8/19 and we made reservations at all the restaurants for evey night. It is not just the special restaurants. You just have to make sure as soon as you board to go to the main lobby and make the reservations, they do run out of available reservation times.

[KeystoneCruiser]

I was on the Spirit on 8/19 and we made reservations at all the restaurants for evey night. It is not just the special restaurants. You just have to make sure as soon as you board to go to the main lobby and make the reservations, they do run out of available reservation times.

 

It must vary between ship because on the Star, Dawn and Pride of Aloha only large groups could make reservations in the main dining rooms.