Newbie questions on Star to Mexico: dining and drinking

[daldog]

Hi:

New to NCL and despite all my reading and searching (altho I am getting lots of fatal errors trying to search today) I still have some confusion. I hope someone can clarify for me:

 

- Drinks in your cabin: there is no way to get a liter of rum, for example, in your room without pre-ordering a bar set-up before your cruise? In other words, no room service liquor?

 

- Wine in your cabin: same question on wine.... can you or can't you? Some posts make it sound like you can carry on a bottle if it's not on their wine list.

 

- I saw some mention of restaurants style buzzers available as oppposed to waiting on line - are they on the Star? When would you say peak dining wait times are?

 

- Is it correct that you must have a reservation for the surcharge restaurants ahead of time, or is it possible to go to the booking place and see what's open at the moment? I gather the reservation location is central and you can't just walk up to a restaurant and ask if they have an opening .... so when does the booking close?

 

Thanks in advance!

[CRUZIN TOM]

No Rum in the cabin, legally without a setup. but a pint flask on your body will pass thru inspection.

 

Wine a corkage charge to have in your room

 

Reservations are usually made by phone. They should be made in advance 24-28 hours early. There are some cancellations, but I wouldn't take any chances. I have been in many of the surcharge restuarants and have found them half empty, but this is usually near clsoing time. They also load the places so they have enough servers to serve you. :)

[daldog]

But can you get a setup once you're on board the ship or only ahead of time?

[NEW 2 CRUISIN]

But can you get a setup once you're on board the ship or only ahead of time?

 

 

No....this must be ordered 2 weeks in advance and paid for up front through the Ship Coordinator.

 

:)

[daldog]

Ok, thanks everyone .... it just seems a little strange I guess. If someone wanted to give me an inflated price for a bottle of liquor I'd take their money whenever they wanted to give it to me! And the dining doesn't seem very "freestyle" - it seems just like elsewhere. ;) Maybe with a few more choices. I guess here has been a blurring of lines between all the cruise lines and NCL won't be as different as I thought it might be? Still ..... can't wait!

[theshireshihtzu]

Ok, thanks everyone .... it just seems a little strange I guess. If someone wanted to give me an inflated price for a bottle of liquor I'd take their money whenever they wanted to give it to me! And the dining doesn't seem very "freestyle" - it seems just like elsewhere. ;) Maybe with a few more choices. I guess here has been a blurring of lines between all the cruise lines and NCL won't be as different as I thought it might be? Still ..... can't wait!

We did this same cruise on the Star last October!

You will have a blast! We never had a wait in the free dining rooms, nor did we have problems getting the ressies we wanted in the specialtys

[*Wink*]

Take any wine you want on, as much as you'd like. They really don't check if it's on their menu. Order your bar setup at least 2 weeks prior to sailing. You can order room service, but it will be a drink, not a bottle. You have to wait till you board to make your reservations, so go to the reservations desk and check out the menus and pick the nights you'd like, but do it shortly after boarding. We've never eaten at the specialty restaurants, and were quite happy with our "included" meals.

[daldog]

So we can bring wine - just carry it on? On our Princess cruises they only charged a corkage fee if you bring it to the dining room, and they actually uncork it for you. Can you order a bottle of wine from room service or just by the glass?

 

Unless the menus really jazz us, we probably won't do the surcharge restaurants either, mostly because we won't want to commit to when and what we want to eat that far ahead. We went with groups the past two cruises - which was fun, but did require showing up at appointed dining all the time - so now it's just the two of us, so we are looking forward to choosing when to eat at the spur of the moment and 24-48 hours kind of defeats that pupose. So we'll see......

[CarolynB]

My understanding is that NCL charges $15 per bottle of wine that you bring on board.

 

Do not put the wine in your checked luggage or you could be called to the naughty room. All checked bags are scanned and anything looking like a bottle that might contain liquor shows up. Just carry it on the ship with you, pay your fees on embarkation, then you don't have to waste time being called to claim your bag.

[Lovergirl]

we did this same cruise this past Feb...here's my 2 Cents

 

we did order a bar setup, and would do it again in a heartbeat. $50 for a bottle of Bacardi Rum and we brought all our own mix on board in a rolling cooler...saved $$ on mix and asked for our ice bucket to be refilled twice a day, and it was no problem.

 

we rarely made reservations at the specialty restaurants and only once were we not able to get in somewhere. You can definately walk up and be seated.

 

I would recommend trying a few of the restaurants just for the fun of it...Cagney's for the Surf and Turf and Le Bistro for the choclate fondue (not on the menu but available)...we found we were bored with Aqua and Versailles every night so we liked the variety of the specialties...we tried them all except La Trattoria.

 

Enjoy your cruise! PS bring a fleece for the second sea day...it'll be chilly!

 

:) KIM

[daldog]

Do not put the wine in your checked luggage or you could be called to the naughty room.

 

I read about that - which is one of the reasons I was so confused about could you or could you not take on wine.

 

But that cracks me up! I was almost tempted to not tell my DH about it and .... "Uh oh, to the naughty room with you" I could say! LOL But then he probably wouldn't care, and what fun would that be.

 

Kim, that's great news - we'll be much more likely to try it if we can walk up.

 

And a fleece :eek: ! Really? Exactly how chilly - we're going Oct 25th.

[CarolynB]

It gets quite cool coming back from the Mexican Riviera! We always need a jacket or something. But we are from Az. We have done the Mexican Riviera 4 times in different months and have always been cool. The wind blows and the ship usually has a lot of motion, that is usually just on the way back to LA. They even have had to close the pools, and put out the barf bags. :rolleyes: So be prepared!