Best restaurant on boudicca?

[LUNASA]

Which restaurant should we choose? We're sailing on Boudicca in August 2010 - Norwegian fjiords. Opinions would be welcome.

[westmorland sailor]

Which restaurant should we choose? We're sailing on Boudicca in August 2010 - Norwegian fjiords. Opinions would be welcome.

 

There are three restaurants on Boudicca, the Tintagel, Four Seasons and Secret Garden. You are assigned a restaurant when you book, we should have been in the Tintagel on our cruise in November but were put in Four Seasons for some reason which I found disappointing.

 

It seemed quite a souless place with rather odd art. It is the lagest of the restaurants. The Tintagel looked quite nice but we were not able to use it. You have to eat at the sitting and restaurant you are assigned but you do have the choice of using the Secret Garden which we did for breakfast and most lunch-times. We were hoping to use it one evening as well but there is usually a queue - it is not very large but had more atmosphere and was not as large.

 

Lunch-time in the Four Seasons was very chaotic and not in my opinion all that pleasurable, so we opted for the Secret Garden fairly quickly. :mad:

 

We have always been assigned a restaurant when we book but I suspose you can choose I don't know, perhaps someone else can verify that. The Secret Garden is an open seating restaurant - not a restaurant you can book to dine permanently, you have to choose one of the other two.

 

I believe you can also have breakfast and lunch in the Poolside Cafe and Marquee Pool bar but we did not experience that as the weather during our cruise was not suitable but you should be able to do so as you are going in the summer.

 

Service is good in all the restaurants.:)

Enjoy.

[amberline]

We are booked on boudicca 29th april, we had to choose when we booked and chose 4 seasons :( after reading previous post wish we had chosen smaller one but think will use secret garden for breakfast and lunch, this is our first cruise on boudicca having previously been on black prince, any info on boudicca will be very welcome.

[sw18]

The Tintagel & Four Seasons restaurants on Boudicca are the same size, have the same service, and have the same menu - only the decor differs.

 

The Heligan Room is a much smaller annexe to the main restaurant and is predominantly assigned to those in suite grade cabins - again, same menu & same service.

[westmorland sailor]

The Tintagel & Four Seasons restaurants on Boudicca are the same size, have the same service, and have the same menu - only the decor differs.

 

The Heligan Room is a much smaller annexe to the main restaurant and is predominantly assigned to those in suite grade cabins - again, same menu & same service.

 

We had a superior suite but were not assigned the Tintagel when we boarded despite being told we were in that restaurant when we booked. So be aware of that.

 

The Tintagel appeared smaller to me although I didn't go into it and I would guess it is only the same size when combined with the Heligan Room which seemed to have a partition across it when we were away unlike the Four Seasons which is quite a big space.

 

As for the rest of the ship it is fine, particularly the observation lounge where you can enjoy a drink and have an excellent view of the seascape, especially good when coming into port if you don't want to go outside.

 

We were surprised at the cost of the drinks which we thought were more than reasonable and at first when we boarded thought they had made a mistake with the price.

 

Boudicca does not have the atmosphere of the Black Prince which we really enjoyed and I was told by another passenger who has sailed on Black Watch that he preferred that ship but it is a matter of taste and we found Boudicca suited us. There is plenty to do on board and we found the tours quite good this time too.

 

I think the freedom to use the Secret Garden is really a bonus and once on board you will soon find it easy to decide where to eat - the menu is different in the Secret Garden to that in the main restaurant and on one occasion when I didn't like what was on in the Four Seasons for dinner we went into the Secret Garden, so the choice is yours.

[stephen@stoneyard.co.uk]

The main restaurants on Boudicca are all very nice. We have had the Heligan and Tintagel for our assigned sitting. The restaurants join together and share the same buffet area.

 

The four seasons would not be my choice as the chairs have high backs and seem to be in rows making it feel a little claustrophobic for me. I would avoid certain tables for two in the Heligan. At one side they are against an inside wall and on the other side the are on to the main thoroughfare through the Heligan to the Four Season. Some of them are also next to waiter stations.

 

On my last cruise there were plenty of empty tables (including tables for two) on late seating. So if a passenger was not happy with a table it should have been possible to change. First seating was apparently full so would have had less flexibility.

 

I really like the dinning rooms on Boudicca. The decoration is modern, light, elegant and colourful without being gaudy. All in all very relaxing. The food and service is generally good too.

 

Best wishes, Stephen.

[mazzee]

Which restaurant should we choose? We're sailing on Boudicca in August 2010 - Norwegian fjiords. Opinions would be welcome.

 

Well .. we always ate in the secret Garden which is buffet style. we had to wait for the waiters to serve us as we couldnt touch anything because of the norovirus. Be careful of the chicken as it had red blood in the centre of the leg and we left it. A lot of people got the "bug" and I wondered if it was food poisening .

 

We found we had to keep getting up for spoons etc as the tables were not set properly and it was all a bit weary.

 

Staff were very stressed ( all that extra cleaning ) and overall it wasnt an experience I would want to repeat.

 

Good luck.