Norwegian Freestyle vs Princess Anytime

[cmarshall9]

I'm sorry if I'm being persistant, I'm not doubting your experience, it just makes no sense to me. Again I say-There is NO formal night. What did the maitre'd say? Did he say that your husband couldn't come in because your husband was wearing khaki's? Or that there were no tables for your party? The latter can make sense, depending on the size of your party. I cruised twice in 07 on NCL and there was always a Dress Up or Not night. Never a Formal night. Was everyone else in the dining room dressed formally? No Formal Night, is part of the whole Freestyle concept. It's just strange that one would suddenly show up.

 

I actually see that you cruised on NCLA, which is different from NCL. Be that as it may, I'd actually think that there'd be even less a chance of a "Formal Night", in Hawaii.

 

One of the big reasons we chose NCL or NCLA (I didn't realize they were different companies) was because of Freestyle dining and the casualness of the cruise. Especially in Hawaii which we visit twice a year anyway, we felt that casual was appropriate and we didn't really want to see the islands, we wanted to experience the cruise.

 

This was dress up night and a lot of people were dressed up including me, but DH, not so much. The maitre' d looked at him and said that he could not come into the dining room dressed like that but we could go to the more informal dining room (which is where we went).

 

Is cruising on NCL different than cruising on NCLA? If so, how?

[iancal]

We have been on the NCL Sun and Princess Star (anytime dining). We liked NCL's choices of restaurants better, in particular the Tapas bar and the Pacific whatever (healthier eating). The food was first rate, as was the food in their buffet stations-Italian and Asian. Better choices here than Princess. We never really lined up for either. Sure we had a ten minute wait on Princess a few nights but it was hardly an incovenience and they gave us one of those buzzers. On NCL we made same day reservations with no issue and were walkins on a few occasions with little or no wait. We thought that the Princess dining room had better food and service than the NCL Sun dining room. Entertainment on NCL was far superior in every way to Princess. I travelled with my elderly father. He could not have had better service on NCL, I do not think that he had a tray or a cup of coffee in his hand for 20 seconds before a staff member would come along, take the tray or coffee, and escort him to his table. Having said that, probably much depends on the specific ship and crew. We have never had a bad cruise on any line and would go on either in a heartbeat. They are just different and you need to match your wants, desires, and preferences to the specific ship and cruise line.

[WCAB]

I think the food on Princess is better. We always went right at 5:30 and never had to wait. We have done this several times. We are a party of five.

[Rita & Tim O]

We went on our first cruise in March - Norwegian Dawn - and loved it. My husband is not the "sociable" time so we chose Norwegian because of the freestyle dining, i.e. the ability to eat when we wanted, by ouselves. We also wanted a more casual atmosphere - no dressing up. We would like to cruise again and I would like to try other cruise lines. How does the Princess's anytime dining compare to freestyle? Does my husband have to wear a jacket and tie with Princess? Appreciate your comments re the differences between the two cruise lines.

 

We went with Princess last year and we chose the anytime dining. Its not quite as easy to get seated as with Norwegian and we did have to sit with other passengers a couple of nights. You do not have to wear a jacket and tie but you do have to wear a shirt with a collar and I don't think shorts are allowed during dinner. We did enjoy Princess and plan to go with them to Hawaii this year.