Explain Freestyle Dining

[avic77]

Ok Im confused. What is freestyle dining and whats so different that its made such a fuss?

 

I am booked for my first cruise, decided on NCL out of NOLA for the 4 port stops and price. I figured the 3 cruise lines out of NOLA were probably close to equal in quality and value so i made my choice based on ports of call. I called and booked the cruise, the sales person told me how wonderful freestyle cruiseing is(which honestly i had no idea hat he was talking about and was more interested in the price, ports, due dates, and cancelation policy).

 

So I understand we eat when ever we want, where ever we want and some locations have a surcharge/reservation system. Hubby likes to eat late, I eat early (as i always eat when i fed the kids and he eats after getting home from work). With freestyle dining can I go eat at 5:30 and if Hubby isnt hungry yet he can just get an appitizer and at 8:00 when he gets hungry we can go back and he get a meal and I get dessert? Is freestyle only the buffet and you have to reserve the regular MDR seating? Or is it like Disney where you have dining credits and must purchase your full meal at one time?

 

We plan to reserve a surcharge dinner for our "anniversary meal" which would you all recommend (Hubby loves steak and i like salmon when we go out to eat)

Sailing NCL Star from New Orleans in March :D

Thanks for the help

[Izzybeff]

I don't see why it would be a problem for you to eat in the dining room with the kids and go back later with DH. Just know that each meal will take awhile.

 

Maybe you could take the kids to the buffet, have a snack to tide you over and then you and DH go back to the dining room.

 

It's basically like a restaurant. you go whenever you want, if there's no line you get seated right away. If there is a line, you may have to wait a little while.

[MeHeartCruising]

You can eat at any of the dining venues anytime you want as many times as you want. Reservations are not required, but you can do a reservation if you really want a specific time in the specialty restaurants. Otherwise, just show up and you will be seated as soon as a table is available. You will be seated at a table with only your party unless you ask to share with someone (most people don't ask for this, but it can be done). If you go to a specialty (pay extra) restaurant, you will be charged each time you dine there, I think. But certainly for the buffet and other included venues you can go twice if you want to split things up as you mention. Most, if not all ships, have 2 main dining rooms in addition to the buffet restaurant and at least one or two other places to get food without paying anything extra. At peak dining times, some venues may have a short wait to be seated. It is similar to showing up at a land-based restaurant and walking in without a reservation. Many times, there will be no wait at all. I honestly can't recall if the main dining rooms even take reservations. I know they do for larger parties, but I can't recall if they take them for smaller parties. Cagneys or Le Bistro are the most commonly mentioned "special" places to celebrate an event. Menus for all the restaurants are available to review once you get on the ship, so you can decide when/where you want to work them all into your busy days.

[valleyvillage]

Love Freestyle, love the Star. Yes, one may eat early, one may eat late...it's Freestyle baby!

That applies to MDR, buffet, 24hr Restaurant The Blue Lagoon, whatever.

Le Bistro or Cagneys for your special dinner, you can't go wrong.

Be sure to join your sailing's roll call. They are a blast, you usually get invited for a free tour of the Bridge.

Have a great cruise!

[che5904]

Ok Im confused. What is freestyle dining and whats so different that its made such a fuss?

 

It's different than traditional cruiseship dining of someone telling you when you have to eat and with who, that's why the fuss. There actually shouldn't be a fuss IMO since it mirrors what people do every time they go out to eat a restaurant in real life.

 

I am booked for my first cruise, decided on NCL out of NOLA for the 4 port stops and price. I figured the 3 cruise lines out of NOLA were probably close to equal in quality and value so i made my choice based on ports of call. I called and booked the cruise, the sales person told me how wonderful freestyle cruiseing is(which honestly i had no idea hat he was talking about and was more interested in the price, ports, due dates, and cancelation policy).

 

NCL's gimmick of "freestyle", from the way I understand it, was because they were the pioneer cruiseline for cloning land based restaurant type of dining venues of go to the restaurant when you are hungry and sit with the people you go with. Other cruiselines have now offered some form of this, but to my understanding no one but NCL still offers all the dining venues like this.

 

So I understand we eat when ever we want, where ever we want and some locations have a surcharge/reservation system. Hubby likes to eat late, I eat early (as i always eat when i fed the kids and he eats after getting home from work). With freestyle dining can I go eat at 5:30 and if Hubby isnt hungry yet he can just get an appitizer and at 8:00 when he gets hungry we can go back and he get a meal and I get dessert? Is freestyle only the buffet and you have to reserve the regular MDR seating? Or is it like Disney where you have dining credits and must purchase your full meal at one time?

 

You can go into the included dining venues as many times as what you want to and eat whatever you want. The only time this would not work would be in the specialty venues. You pay the cover charge for each person in your party, so you would only want to do that once. But maybe you could go to the 24 hr or the buffet for a snack to tide you over. Then split the difference and eat sometime in the middle of both of your eating times.

 

 

Answers in red above

[luddite]

Freestyle means you do not have a fixed dining time and waiter at the same table every night.

NCL ONLY does Freestyle, as opposed to other outfits that try to do both systems, oftentimes failing miserably at both.

Eat whenever and as often as you want in the MDR, hog-trough, errr buffet, and Blue Lagoon as well as some options up ath the pool deck.

There are myriad surcharge restaurants for a different menu and level of service.

 

For your special meal...... LeBistro. Accept no substitutes.

[mrobstad]

Agreed....le bistro #1....cagneys second. I'd eat in the specialities every night if possible. If I recall, you could still choose fixed dining times. One big advantage is you may have great table mates and you will develop a nice relationship with servers.

2. Freestyle can result in a 45 minute wait if you go at a popular time and refuse to sit with others. NCL doesn't explain this well.

3. If fixed dining time, you could have table mates who never show up and you're eating alone.

4. For MDR, you'll all want t eat together. It's a minimum one hour.

[puddles99]

I'm always surprised by the range of experiences.

 

Here are mine:

You can eat as little or as much as you want - as often as you want - at the main dining rooms, buffets, and Blue Lagoon / Sports Bar. At the specialty restaurants (and Le Bistro would be my pick for a romantic date night), you can have more than one app or dessert, but only one entree per person.

 

I think you'll find that Norwegian's Freestyle will fit well with the preferences you describe. In addition, you can always order room service. I have also never waited for a table. Of course, your mileage may vary.

 

Enjoy your adventure!

[Noodle77]

On the Jewel in November, they told us you could only make reservations in the MDR for large parties.

[Demonyte]

On the Jewel in November, they told us you could only make reservations in the MDR for large parties.

 

Suite passengers can too make MDR reservations through the concierge, we've done that several times when having already set schedule for the evening. Usually the reservation would not have been needed though.

[avic77]

Thanks for the replies

The kids are not going on the cruise but I am used to eating early and hubby to eating late. He could probably eat twice LOL . We will probably adjust ourselves after a day or two and end up eating together.

[lamchops]

.

2. Freestyle can result in a 45 minute wait if you go at a popular time and refuse to sit with others. NCL doesn't explain this well.

4. For MDR, you'll all want t eat together. It's a minimum one hour.

 

We have never had to wait more than a couple of minutes for a table with NCL even on sold out ships. Half of the time we dined alone while the other times we joined a table of 6-8.

 

We tried anytime dining on our last cruise and it was a joke. If we wanted to dine alone we recieved pagers for 30+ minute waits and 1/2 of the time the table for 2 was only 6" apart from the table next to it. Even when we joined a group, there was a wait at the door or at the table till the table was full. We actually ate at the dinner buffet more than on any other cruise we been on.

 

If I sail on any other line than NCL, I will reserve the 2nd seating and just show up "anytime" if I want to eat earlier. They wouldn't take any of my reservation attempts and never checked my cruise card once at the door.

[avic77]

If its like normal dining where i show up at Olive Garden or Logan's steak house and have a short wait for a table to be located, bussed, and reset then I will be fine.