Specialty Restaurants on Embarkation Day

[bebe1977]

My DH and I are now Platinum after our last cruise on the Jewel. We will be embarking the Getaway on his birthday. We will of course each be receiving free dinners in certain specialty restaurants. Since his birthday is embarkation day, I would like to take him to a nice dinner. Is it easy to get a reservation once on board? I don't want to book ahead of time since we will be getting it free. In our 6 previous cruises, we have eaten in the MDR one time, never in a specialty restaurant. I'm a little clueless about it all.

 

Also, if I understand the correctly, the dress code is not enforced on embarkation day. Is that right?

 

Thank you for your help.

[phrogpilot73]

You are correct, the evening dress code for the aft main dining room and Le Bistro does not apply on embarkation day (you may not have received your luggage yet).

 

I've never booked as soon as I got on board, but I know there was a desk set up for us to make reservations for the same day. I've never really had a problem waiting to book all our specialty restaurants when we're onboard.

[Demonyte]

From what I've read here and seen on my own cruises, I'd say that the embarkation day is the slowest in speciality restaurants. I don't think that you'll have any problems getting in one covered with the voucher you get by being a Platinum.

[njhorseman]

We've eaten in a specialty restaurant on embarkation day many times and never had a problem getting a reservation when we boarded. As someone already noted it's probably the slowest day in the specialties.

Edited November 17, 2014 by njhorseman

[Ronni G]

We usually eat in LeBistro the very first night. Make our reservation once on the ship for that evening.... never an issue and the restaurant never seems to be crowded.

 

FYI - The dress in even the specialty restaurants seems to have gotten VERY casual. Even in Cagney's later on in the cruise no one was really dressed... jeans, etc.

[L3GWG]

Why wouldn't you want to make an effort dress wise if a special occasion, not exactly hard is it

 

 

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[njhorseman]

We usually eat in LeBistro the very first night. Make our reservation once on the ship for that evening.... never an issue and the restaurant never seems to be crowded.

 

FYI - The dress in even the specialty restaurants seems to have gotten VERY casual. Even in Cagney's later on in the cruise no one was really dressed... jeans, etc.

 

Since jeans have been acceptable in all of NCL's restaurants for years why would you be surprised that people were wearing them? In most NCL restaurants even shorts are permitted.

[Freckles83]

is there a discount for specialty restaurants on the first night as well?

[bebe1977]

Why wouldn't you want to make an effort dress wise if a special occasion, not exactly hard is it

 

 

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I would be happy to make the effort if I have my luggage and my clothes aren't too terribly wrinkled. I was asking just in case.

 

Thanks for all the replies.

[ncklhaus]

We were on the Breakaway October 5-12 and ate in specialty restaurants every night. We ate at 6:30, 7:30, and 8:00 and not one of the specialty restaurants were fully booked. There were always empty tables. Even at Teppanyaki, there was room for at least a couple or two. I wouldn't worry about making reservations in advance. Make them onboard from your room through your interactive TV or simply call the reservations desk.