First time on NCL, Dining Reservation Question

[Rick&Jeannie]

Sorry if this has been asked (I'm sure it probably has!) I did a search but it came up with about 500 responses...

 

How/where do you make "normal" (non-specialty) dining reservations?  Main dining room and such?  I can't seem to find any of that in either the app or the main website.

[tallnthensome]

Under your booking you go into dining. I believe at around the 120 day mark you can make your reservation for the main free dining rooms. You can’t do it if you’re far out from your sail date. 

[Rick&Jeannie]

Well, I'm about 45 days out right now.

[MNcruisingcouple]

We've always done it as soon as we boarded the ship.  When you check in, ask where to go to make dining reservations. 

[JamieLogical]

You really shouldn't have to make dinner reservations for the main dining rooms. The only time I ever do is for the first night because I always like to have dinner in the Manhattan Room or whatever the "fancier" of the dining rooms are on the first night of a cruise.

[SSFun]

1 hour ago, tallnthensome said:

Under your booking you go into dining. I believe at around the 120 day mark you can make your reservation for the main free dining rooms. You can’t do it if you’re far out from your sail date. 

For some reason the Encore on 8/14 sailing still hasn't opened reservations for main dining rooms. 🙁

[tallnthensome]

Like Jamie said, walk up will be ok most likely …. Reservations probably won’t be necessary anyhow. 

[Rick&Jeannie]

Good to know...that's probably what we'll do.  Thanks!

[JamieLogical]

1 minute ago, Rick&Jeannie said:

Good to know...that's probably what we'll do.  Thanks!

 

If you are really stressed about having to wait a bit for a table, you should definitely be able to make reservations once onboard. You can do so through the My NCL app on your phone (connected to the ship's wifi in airplane mode), the TV in your stateroom, or the touchscreens near the elevators if you are on one of the newer ships. There is also a reservations desk in the Atrium that you can visit.

[Rick&Jeannie]

Nope...not really stressed.  Just didn't "know the ropes"!  We've done most of our cruising (earlier years) on Carnival and for the past few years on Princess.  Every line has their own procedures!

[hallux]

2 hours ago, Rick&Jeannie said:

Just didn't "know the ropes"!

They call it "Freestyle Cruising", though the MDR is really one of the FEW places on a bigger ship that doesn't require a reservation...

[kochleffel]

When I have a specialty dining package, I try to reserve one of the restaurants for the first night. This is because the sequence of boarding-muster-embarkation seems to put everyone on the same schedule and hardly anyone books specialty restaurants for the first night, sothe MDRs are usually slammed that night.

[Laszlo]

2 hours ago, Rick&Jeannie said:

Nope...not really stressed.  Just didn't "know the ropes"!  We've done most of our cruising (earlier years) on Carnival and for the past few years on Princess.  Every line has their own procedures!

My wife and I have done 10 NCL cruises. I think we only made reservations once at one of the non specialty restaurants. Then again its only two of us. The longest we ever waited was 15 minutes

[crystalaziza]

On 7/2/2021 at 3:33 PM, Rick&Jeannie said:

Good to know...that's probably what we'll do.  Thanks!

I thought they didn't take reservations for less than 8 for the main dining rooms. If and I say if, they are busy and are passing out beepers and tell you its a 30 - 45 minute wait, I have always had my beeper go off in about 10 - 15 minutes. In all my many cruises, I believe I've only had a beeper maybe 3 times and one of them was for the smaller free Chinese restaurant. Go for it, have a great time and don't worry. Cruising is back!!! Yahoo

 

[kochleffel]

44 minutes ago, crystalaziza said:

 If and I say if, they are busy and are passing out beepers and tell you its a 30 - 45 minute wait, I have always had my beeper go off in about 10 - 15 minutes. In all my many cruises, I believe I've only had a beeper maybe 3 times and one of them was for the smaller free Chinese restaurant. Go for it, have a great time and don't worry. Cruising is back!!! Yahoo

 

 

I've had the experience once, but only once, of the dining hosts' saying that they were out of beepers and just to come back in an hour. This was on the first night of a cruise.

[trivimp]

The MDRs work pretty much like your favorite land restaurant... if you decide you're going to go out to dinner, but you see that the place is really busy when you roll up, you can decide among a few options: 

 

You can resolve to be patient & wait for a table to open up

You can try to find another place to eat that's less slammed

You can go have a drink & come back later when they slow down 

 

As some others have said, I've never had more than a few minutes' wait even at very busy times.  Enjoy!

[complawyer]

most ncl ships have 2 mdr's and the menus are usually the same or similar.. if one is really busy, and you dont want to wait, merely go to the other. however , prior posts are correct, you dont need a reservation just go up and smile. it will also help if you figure out what times are busier than others.

 

as a final tip, most decks, and possibly on your room t.v. show the staus of all the rstaurants as far as availability is concerned. since you arent inquiring about the specialty restaurants, the  only one i have ever had a problem with a reservation is the teppanyaki. it only has 3 seatings and limited space.

[NW Pacific]

On your reservation NCL summary, click on dining, it should list all dining venues,  if it says reservations not accepted,, in one of the Main Dining rooms,  they just take walk ins, hope this helps.  Some Ships don't do reservations in what they refer to a MDR,s

[ClevelandCruisin]

I'd plan on going early or late to the MDR for dinner.

 

Breakfast fills up very fast.

 

Lunch you shouldn't have many issues with dining in the MDR.

 

You can call NCL or message through the talk feature on their website,  use the kiosks on board, or have the concierge book.

 

Swing by to check out the menus posted outside the MDRs each day.

[rscales2]

I’m going on a 7 day cruise in February on the Epic. I love the food on the Epic. I’m going on the Prima in September. My NCL Cruise Consultant said they may not have complementary dinners. 

[KeithJenner]

49 minutes ago, rscales2 said:

I’m going on a 7 day cruise in February on the Epic. I love the food on the Epic. I’m going on the Prima in September. My NCL Cruise Consultant said they may not have complementary dinners. 

I would take what you are told by NCL staff with a shovel of salt.

[SpainAlien]

2 hours ago, rscales2 said:

I’m going on a 7 day cruise in February on the Epic. I love the food on the Epic. I’m going on the Prima in September. My NCL Cruise Consultant said they may not have complementary dinners. 

Ignore that, they will definitely have complimentary dinners but you will of course be able to book speciality dinners instead if you wish.  One of the main selling points of cruises is that it is full board included in the fare, of course you can pay extra but you don't have to.  NCL would be off their trolley if they changed that premise

[hallux]

4 hours ago, rscales2 said:

My NCL Cruise Consultant said they may not have complementary dinners.

That's the biggest load of BS I've ever heard!

[Asan1956]

I did all ours for October including the regular dining only because they said they will be sailing at full capacity so why not ..but again that was us …

[JamieLogical]

2 minutes ago, Asan1956 said:

I did all ours for October including the regular dining only because they said they will be sailing at full capacity so why not ..but again that was us …

 

Where/when were you told your October sailing will be full capacity?