MDR's on Jade

[10XCruiser]

Hi Everyone,

What is the difference between the Alizar and Grand Pacific Dining Rooms?  Do they serve the same menu at each?  Not sure which to make reservation at.

Thanks in advance!

[fshagan]

Unless you have a large group you don't have to make reservations for the main dining rooms. 

The Grand Pacific is the larger of the two, and it is positioned aft with large windows looking out at the wake the ship is making. We have never waited for any more than a minute or two to get a table for two and love sitting at a two-top with just us and looking out at the wake. We know a couple that prefers the Alizar because it feels more intimate with the lower ceiling. 

The official rules are that the Grand Pacific is considered more dressy than the Alizar, but I have never noticed any difference in the way people are dressed.

The menu is the same in both dining rooms. 

[10XCruiser]

Thanks fshagan.  Good to know that the wait should be minimal.  Many  people have the dining packages (we do not) which should make it even quicker. I was mainly curious if the menu was the same. 

[Oakman58]

33 minutes ago, 10XCruiser said:

Thanks fshagan.  Good to know that the wait should be minimal.  Many  people have the dining packages (we do not) which should make it even quicker. I was mainly curious if the menu was the same. 

Yes, the menus are the same in both dining rooms.  I just came off an 11 day British Isles cruise on the Jade.

[BirdTravels]

2 hours ago, 10XCruiser said:

Hi Everyone,

What is the difference between the Alizar and Grand Pacific Dining Rooms?  Do they serve the same menu at each?  Not sure which to make reservation at. Thanks in advance!

Same menu.

Grand Pacific Main Dining Room and the Le Bistro require long pants for gents (e.g., jeans, dockers). All other restaurants for all meals allow shorts to be worn. 

To us, the Alizar often has more families, more noise, more kids running around. We would always chose the Grand Pacific (which also can get kinda loud). 

[10XCruiser]

Thanks for the kid and noisy tip.  We are very pro "calm" dining! 

[lamchops]

13 hours ago, Oakman58 said:

Yes, the menus are the same in both dining rooms.  I just came off an 11 day British Isles cruise on the Jade.

We were on the same cruise and found the selections in the mdr subpar compared to the 2 previous NCL cruises. We were told by the f&b officer that it was a new menu to be rolled out fleet wide. I will not go back on the Jade without a specialty dining plan.

[ColdCruise]

On 10/18/2018 at 9:18 AM, lamchops said:

We were on the same cruise and found the selections in the mdr subpar compared to the 2 previous NCL cruises. We were told by the f&b officer that it was a new menu to be rolled out fleet wide. I will not go back on the Jade without a specialty dining plan.

 We just did an 11 day on Gem (sister ship) and we’re underwhelmed by MDR choices. This was also the new menu. Nothing had a “wow” to it in presentation or flavor. Nothing bad, just lackluster.

 

That being said there were lots of choices, the food was tasty enough, portions were fine ... just no WOW, unlike our previous NCL experience.  

 

That was pretty much our reaction to all the restaurants - Grand Pacific, Magnolia, O’Sheehan’s, buffet, Orchid Garden (Chinese)... even for the specialties - Cagneys (ok but not Ruths  Chris standard) and Tepanaki (show was okay/good been to better, food just okay).  

The best experience we had was at Moderno (Argentinian churrascuro style & best of bunch for flavor and presentation).

 

I wouldn’t label the food a deal breaker as food was fine for what the cruise cost. But our previous NCL sailing set much higher bar that we’ve been judging other cruises by. In hindsight I would say the food on Princess in June (Alaska) was much better overall than Gem’s.

 

For our upcoming Jade sailing, we’ve booked Moderno, La Cucina and are giving Cagneys a 2nd chance.