Can't find this information on dining...can you make reservations for any time dining

Just wondering if and when this can be done...before the cruise or when you board?

Just wondering if and when this can be done...before the cruise or when you board?

All dining is Freestyle Dining. You can make reservations for specialty restaurants online, 45 days before sailing (55 days if you're in a suite). You can also make them onboard.

For the MDRs, typically they're first-come, first-served....but I've seen large groups arrange a reservation in advance.

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They may advertise 45 days, but the reality is closer to 30 for restaurant reservations. 45 days (closer to 42) is for excursions.

All dining is Freestyle Dining. You can make reservations for specialty restaurants online, 45 days before sailing (55 days if you're in a suite). You can also make them onboard.

 

For the MDRs, typically they're first-come, first-served....but I've seen large groups arrange a reservation in advance.

 

 

 

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Must be a glitch in the system. It is definitely 45 days from your date of sailing.

55 days and 45 days have always worked for us. If you can't get in under 45 days, give them a call.

Dining reservations can be done 45 days prior

Norwegian Star-March 2010, Mexican Rivera

Norwegian Sky-August 2009 Bahamas

They may advertise 45 days, but the reality is closer to 30 for restaurant reservations. 45 days (closer to 42) is for excursions.

Must be a problem with your particular reservation. Are you on one of the first Breakaway sailings (there were and still are some problems with the Breakaway's system)? Always been able to book excursions as soon as I book the cruise (have always booked less than six months out, so maybe longer might have to wait if they aren't in the system yet. Never had a problem booking restaurant reservations at 45 days (until the Breakaway glitches).. Never heard of any issues with this before from anyone else either..

Robin

Specialty restaurants showed up for us right at 45 days but for some reason you could not book the "at sea" days, so we called and they did it for us over the phone

All other restaurants are considered "anytime" dining or Freestyle as NCL calls it. You can just walk up. During peak hours you may have to wait a bit but it wont be long

I havent cruised freestyle before

So I have a few general questions:

1. Is it usual to meet fellow cruisers on board and arrange a joint meal?

2. Apart from reserving specialty restaurants, how are tables allocated for freestyle - what I mean is can ONE member of a party of 8 stand in line and be given a table for 8 or must ALL party be there?

3. Is it usual for a party of 2 to arrive and request that they be seated with a large table? If we were first in and asked for table of 6 how do the wait staff handle the staggered arrivals?

Any other tips?

:D

For the MDRs, typically they're first-come, first-served....but I've seen large groups arrange a reservation in advance.

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Personal experience speaking... Suite guests can get an MDR reservation, and we were also seating quicker without one than others showing up at the doors.

DML

I havent cruised freestyle before

So I have a few general questions:

 

1. Is it usual to meet fellow cruisers on board and arrange a joint meal?

 

2. Apart from reserving specialty restaurants, how are tables allocated for freestyle - what I mean is can ONE member of a party of 8 stand in line and be given a table for 8 or must ALL party be there?

 

3. Is it usual for a party of 2 to arrive and request that they be seated with a large table? If we were first in and asked for table of 6 how do the wait staff handle the staggered arrivals?

 

Any other tips?

:D

I think the answers to these questions may vary somewhat from ship to ship, sailing to sailing. But I'll get this started:

1) Yes, cruisers sometimes meet onboard and then arrange to have a meal together. You may meet on a shore excursion, or at the Cruise Critic meet and greet. Not sure how common this is, however.

2) I believe the rule is usually that your whole party needs to be there before you are shown to your table. I'm not saying it never happens that one person sits down and waits for everyone else, but I have heard the hostess ask if the whole party is present. However, if there is a wait and you will be given a beeper, then I think it's okay for just 1 person to stand in line to pick that up.

3) Yes, sometimes people arrive at the dining room and ask to be seated at a group table. Sometimes this fills up quickly, but sometimes it doesn't. I have never done this myself but have seen it around me, and it seems that they wait a few minutes for more diners and then "close" the table so to speak and proceed to take orders. I have never seen a couple shown to a table when other diners there were well into their meals, I am not saying it has never happened but I don't think that would be the norm.

4) As far as other tips, remember that if one of the MDRs has a line, the others may not so it is usually worth checking. Also, some times of course are busier than others, so you may want to adjust your dining times of the waits seem lengthy. Freestyle dining has its pros and cons, many of us love it for the freedom to vary our dining times and venues, but it is not really as conducive to dining with others as traditional dining is on other ships.

I havent cruised freestyle before

So I have a few general questions:

 

1. Is it usual to meet fellow cruisers on board and arrange a joint meal?

 

2. Apart from reserving specialty restaurants, how are tables allocated for freestyle - what I mean is can ONE member of a party of 8 stand in line and be given a table for 8 or must ALL party be there?

 

3. Is it usual for a party of 2 to arrive and request that they be seated with a large table? If we were first in and asked for table of 6 how do the wait staff handle the staggered arrivals?

 

Any other tips?

:D

Your whole party should be ready to be seated when you go to the restaurant. A party of two can request to join other diners...if you would like others to join you, tell them at the desk. They won't hold the food orders of the first diners to be seated.

thanks for those helpful responses

much appreciated

Three of us will be sailing on the Norwegian Pearl 24 Oct. We plan on the Freestyle dining and I was wondering if we can reserve a table in the Summer Palace near the windows? Or is it "first come first served" in regards to table selection?

Also, upon boarding, should we sign up for the dining time? If so, where is this done?

This will be our first time on a NCL ship and looking forward to it. Many good reviews of this ship.

Three of us will be sailing on the Norwegian Pearl 24 Oct. We plan on the Freestyle dining and I was wondering if we can reserve a table in the Summer Palace near the windows? Or is it "first come first served" in regards to table selection?

 

Also, upon boarding, should we sign up for the dining time? If so, where is this done?

 

This will be our first time on a NCL ship and looking forward to it. Many good reviews of this ship.

All dining on Norwegian is Freestyle. There are no assigned times or tables. The Freestyle concept means that you don't have to make any plans at all. It means you dine where you want, at whatever time you want each day. You simply show up at one of the Main Dining rooms, and they will seat you at an open table. You can certainly ask if a table is available near the windows, and they will try to accommodate you if possible.

Should you choose to dine at a specialty restaurant, you can make a reservation for any of those. Many times you can still dine at one of the specialties, even without a reservation.

It's Freestyle - which means you can relax and go with the flow each day. It's wonderful.

:)

Three of us will be sailing on the Norwegian Pearl 24 Oct. We plan on the Freestyle dining and I was wondering if we can reserve a table in the Summer Palace near the windows? Or is it "first come first served" in regards to table selection?

 

Also, upon boarding, should we sign up for the dining time? If so, where is this done?

 

This will be our first time on a NCL ship and looking forward to it. Many good reviews of this ship.

I hope you wont be as disappointed with "Freestyle" as we were. You can read my full review on this site (sailed 14 Sep on Gem) but here is the Dining review:

DINING

The food was considerably inferior to Princess and Costa in my opinion. Breakfast selection was limited. The dinners (selection and quality) were not as good as other ships. Both other lines went all out with a Bomb (Baked) Alaska parade on final nights.

Freestyle = Wait in Line Style. I will never travel this way again. The setup for Grand Pacific was dreadful: Try to dine at 7pm – push down the narrow passageway (obstructed by throngs of passengers viewing photos, or lining up against the wall to wait, or using the elevators, plus a disabled restroom door that protrudes into the narrow space) – wait in line for buzzer, whilst partner struggles back through crowd to bar, waits for service, carries 2 full glasses back through pack – get buzzer and struggle back to bar carrying glass. Buzzer sounds – struggle through pack, wait in line AGAIN because the single hostess is dealing with everything including group reservations – get seated at a table for 2 after specifically requesting to share a table.

Why could not the buzzers be distributed in the Atrium which is an uncrowded and more pleasant area? We spent about 40 minutes per dinner on this frustrating process, whereas on other ships we would be seated in the Atrium enjoying table service before our meal. Yes, I know that we could have eaten at 5pm or 9pm!

On the 'pay extra' side we enjoyed the Chef's Table - one seating for 12 per cruise so HURRY! and the Teppanyaki (although it was extremely noisy).

Good Luck!

1. If you want to

2. No

3. Not usually they way it works but maybe they could accommodate you

I hope you wont be as disappointed with "Freestyle" as we were. You can read my full review on this site (sailed 14 Sep on Gem) but here is the Dining review:

DINING

The food was considerably inferior to Princess and Costa in my opinion. Breakfast selection was limited. The dinners (selection and quality) were not as good as other ships. Both other lines went all out with a Bomb (Baked) Alaska parade on final nights.

Freestyle = Wait in Line Style. I will never travel this way again. The setup for Grand Pacific was dreadful: Try to dine at 7pm – push down the narrow passageway (obstructed by throngs of passengers viewing photos, or lining up against the wall to wait, or using the elevators, plus a disabled restroom door that protrudes into the narrow space) – wait in line for buzzer, whilst partner struggles back through crowd to bar, waits for service, carries 2 full glasses back through pack – get buzzer and struggle back to bar carrying glass. Buzzer sounds – struggle through pack, wait in line AGAIN because the single hostess is dealing with everything including group reservations – get seated at a table for 2 after specifically requesting to share a table.

Why could not the buzzers be distributed in the Atrium which is an uncrowded and more pleasant area? We spent about 40 minutes per dinner on this frustrating process, whereas on other ships we would be seated in the Atrium enjoying table service before our meal. Yes, I know that we could have eaten at 5pm or 9pm!

 

 

On the 'pay extra' side we enjoyed the Chef's Table - one seating for 12 per cruise so HURRY! and the Teppanyaki (although it was extremely noisy).

 

 

 

Good Luck!

Interesting to note that on Princess your traditional seating would have no 7 PM option at all.

Interesting to note that on Princess your traditional seating would have no 7 PM option at all.

Correct - but we'd be comfortably seated in the Atrium lounge at 7pm, enjoying table service with cocktails and light snacks prior to walking in to our reserved table without any line. The wait staff would greet us by name, and have our favourite wine ready.

get seated at a table for 2 after specifically requesting to share a table.

Well sure...YOU requested to share a table. Does that mean that anybody else asked the hostess to share a table? If nobody else has asked to share, what should the hostess do with you? Should they then force other people to share simply because you wanted to?

Well sure...YOU requested to share a table. Does that mean that anybody else asked the hostess to share a table? If nobody else has asked to share, what should the hostess do with you? Should they then force other people to share simply because you wanted to?

And this:

"Most of the cruise lines have gotten out of the practice of forcing you to sit down to dinner with people you don't know, which I think is the most barbaric custom ever created."

They may advertise 45 days, but the reality is closer to 30 for restaurant reservations. 45 days (closer to 42) is for excursions.

I guess it depends because I'm 60+ days from sailing date (on breakaway) and I've already booked all my excursions!

And this:

"Most of the cruise lines have gotten out of the practice of forcing you to sit down to dinner with people you don't know, which I think is the most barbaric custom ever created."

--

Cruise Critic Editor-in-Chief Carolyn Spencer Brown

 

Well guys, great for you if you love eating alone or with your cruise buddies..we try to be a little more SOCIAL than that...we LOVE meeting new people...here's what REALLY happened:

 

1. We enquired BEFORE we booked - and were told we could share tables

 

2. - and MOST IMPORTANT - we ASKED the hostess and were assured that we could eat on a table of 6 with fellow cruisers... we were given a buzzer and asked to wait - we did.

 

- so we WAITED 40 mins for our buzzer to go off, then we reported to the hostess again. Without a word she sent us to a table set for 2. We asked to be reseated and without a problem we were moved to a vacant table already set for 6. We then waited another 15 minutes before two other couples were seated with us - we enquired, and EACH of them had requested a SHARE table, at least 30 minutes prior - so YES, there were other social cruisers wishing to share a table.

What was so hard for NCL to get it right?

 

And

Carolyn Spencer Brown - I feel sorry for you - broaden your horizons girl. You may learn something.

You can share a table if someone else also wants to at the same time your asking. Most book Freestyle because the like dining with their group and not a bunch of strangers. You almost certainly will have to wait if you ask to share until someone else asks for the same. We have never waited more than 5 minutes or so for a table for two. NCL did get it "right" they probably seated dozens or hundreds more while you were waiting for dinner partners. If you don't like or care for Freestyle, there are many cruise lines that will give you assigned seating. My guess is the single thing that NCL is known for is Freestyle dining and it is clearly explained in almost all of NCL's documentation.

I've cruised 6 times with NCL and I've never waited long to be seated in the dining rooms. When there are a few minutes wait (I think the longest we've experienced was 10 minutes), we take the pager and go for a walk on the promenade. Very pleasant! We've also never had any problem getting a table near a window. Of course we're only 2, it may be more difficult with a large group. I love freestyle. I tried fixed time dining with shared tables on other lines and I hated it. Freestyle is just a wonderful concept!