Planning dinners with freestyle

[akachop]

Does anyone know a way to get the dinner menus for a ship's main dining rooms prior to the cruise? We will be on the Pearl for an upcoming cruise. I'm sure I may not want to eat what is on the menu in the main dining rooms every night. How can I decide which night to make a reservation in one of the specialty restaurants? I understand that ideally you should make the specialty restaurant reservation the day before so therefore I can't go to the main dining room , read the menu, decide I don't want to eat there, and then go to a specialty restaurant because they will be booked for the night. Is there a place on these boards where people post the menus or the dailies for the different ships? Thanks.

[CanadianTwosome]

I found menus for the Star that were posted from last March, and they were similar, but not exactly, like what we found on board in January. With 2.0 rolling out, also, it's going to be difficult to find up to date menus as well.

 

We decided before we went which specialty restaurants we wanted to eat in, and because I celebrated my birthday on board, that was one of the days we chose (Teppanyaki), so that didn't depend on the menu at all. I don't know what I missed in the main dining room that night. :) Teppanyaki was surely better than anything I could have had, though, it was my favourite meal of the entire cruise. The other restaurant we wanted to have an evening meal in was Cagney's, and we ended up there on the first night, because we got on board and went to the reservations desk to see if we could look at menus and were able to see that night's main selections. It was an easy choice and that was that. The other specialty restaurant that we enjoyed (twice) was Ginza (the main asian fusion restaurant), where we had lunch on two port days. If the main asian fusion restaurant or the sushi bar appeal to you, they are open for lunch on port days, so that's something to keep in mind also.

 

All in all, we enjoyed all of the meals we had on board. Something I didn't think of until it was too late was to go into a roll call for a cruise ahead of yours and ask if anyone would do you the favour of bringing back some pictures of the menus for you.

 

Enjoy your cruise!

[greywillow]

There should be a book of menus available at one of the ship's reception desks.

[flashdog_1]

do you just glance at it and give it back? Thanks.

[Duffys wife 1957]

At the coffee bar on the POAL they took your reservations and also had every menu for each restaurant there. The menus were available each day.(You can call also) If the menus were not there when we got there to make our reservations we just made reservations at one of the main dining rooms and a speciality restaurant. She explained that you needed to cancel your reservations at the speciality restaurants before 5:30 or you would be charged for them. The menus at the speciality restaurants never change. We also like to make reservations in the main dining room due to the fact we like to have the same waiter,(not necessary you can just walk in). So idk if the other ships allow you to make double reservations but POAL did it worked out great for us. The only time the menus changed was on Valentines Day when they had a special menu. So if they will allow you on the Pearl to make 2 reservations the day before I say go for it..(Piece of advice the last day of sailing the speciality restaurants and main dining room reservations filled up early. (Book early) ENJOY.. We loved the food on POAL :D

[flashdog_1]

You look at it, decide which nights you might want to try specialty restaurants, and give it back. My sense is you are making much more out of this topic than it's worth.

 

You are probably right. My son went to culinary school, and I hope he got his love for cooking from watching his mom. Therefore trying new foods/tastes is something I really look forward to on cruises, and want to make the best use of the freestyle restaurant choice. Was hoping I could take the sample menus back to him, too. Celebrity gave me the menus when he was in school.

[cassrebecca]

I have menus from the Sun.....East Meets West, Ginza, Teppanyaki, Le Bistro, IL Adagio, ....All the specialty...

[DMRick]

My adult daughter does scrapbooking and has asked the Maitre D on our NCL cruises for copies of the menu's and was able to get them with no problem. Also, at the reservation area set up up in Endless, they had take away little menus for some of the restaurants.

 

Was hoping I could take the sample menus back to him, too. Celebrity gave me the menus when he was in school.

[flashdog_1]

and he came thru. He'd have a copy of every menu for me. Judging from the condition of them they must have been "discards" they were ready to dispose of anyway!

[Toyz711]

on the star, in 2006, they had copies that you could keep. they weren't fancy, but still nice to have. on the spirit, last december, i asked...she told me that (while) they know some ships have copies of menus, they didn't. on the spirit, you could only look and give back. you could take a camera with you and photo the menus?

[DaisyL]

On our last cruise on the Dawn (Sept/07) we asked to see the book of menus for the main dining room, on the first day, but it was not much help since they were not dated as to which menu was served on any particular day and the hostess said they were not in order.

 

All our previous Dawn cruises we were able to view the menus in the Atrium and they were filed in order by day.

 

We also like to use the main dining room menus as a guide to plan which days to dine in a specialty restaurant.

[ande54]

Cassrebecca,

Would you be willing to e-mail me the menus from the Sun? Would be so thrilled! Thanks. Ande54@aol.com

[HalfWhit]

Does anyone have a list of the "free dining" vs the "copay dining options" on the Pearl. We have a group of folks going and they are asking me these questions.

Thanks,

Dianne

:)

[angeljt]

If you look in my webshots albums, you'll find the menus from our last 11 day Dawn cruise. I believe they're still using the same menus, but they change the order. I went to the reception desk and asked for copies which they gave me. Make sure you ask which order they will be in.

The link is in my signature.

[Toyz711]

here's a link to a past post with list of the pearl dining venus:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=730277&highlight=pearl+restaurant+list

[garycarla]

As indicated by others, the daily menu is subject to change based on factors such as available food in each port, the whims of the chef or purchasing, etc. And, of course there is always the "I am not in the mood for...", or "I am really in the mood for...." which just happens.

 

Not slamming you for your advance planning at all, but personally, I am not sure what I feel like eating tonight, and for sure not next month.

[HalfWhit]

here's a link to a past post with list of the pearl dining venus:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=730277&highlight=pearl+restaurant+list

 

 

Thanks, that was great info!

Dianne