Favorite Nights for Specialty Dining

[MoCruiseFan]

On 7/18/2022 at 7:24 PM, Elsammo46 said:

Always try and do the steakhouse on Embarkation night as a good kick-off to the cruise. Easier to get reservations that night I've found as well. 

We try TO eat at Cagney's 1st and last nights.

[MoCruiseFan]

14 hours ago, CTCruiser001 said:

 

Sorry, I know you didn't want to hijack the thread, but I need to correct this...It has always been my experiance that Le Bistro is the ONLY specialty dining which is strict with a dress code. The only exception is the first night, where shorts are allowed due to luggage being delayed to your stateroom. Other than the first night, long pants are required of men, no ripped pants, and so on...

 

Fyi, for myself, I believe the French restaurant has the best filet on the ship. Even better than Cagney's or from the Haven. Their onion soup is A.M.A.Z.I.N.G!!! 

 

Enjoy your cruise. 

 

Jeans and a tshirt are acceptable for all dining.

[grozzy1]

On my first cruise I learnt not to book speciality on first night. Inexperienced me booked a bit to early and had to rush down before we cleared Sydney heads. Next cruise I will aim for sea days and not consecutive nights.

[Huntingdon1701]

9 hours ago, CruizinSusan70 said:

Depending upon which ship you're on, it really won't matter regarding looking at the MDR menu.  Starting with the Prima and then expanding throughout the rest of the fleet in 2023, the MDR menu will be standardized and the same each and every night.

https://thepointsguy.com/news/norwegian-cruise-line-prima-dining-changes/

Yes, and not looking forward to that. Personally, I'm hoping they rethink the approach.

 

However, that's not currently in place and hasn't been there to shape past history, which is what the question was about. 

[CruizinSusan70]

8 hours ago, Huntingdon1701 said:

 

However, that's not currently in place and hasn't been there to shape past history, which is what the question was about. 

The OP inquired about what was everyone's favorite nights.  You're inferring that it has to do with past cruises.  The past is the past.  Wanting to know about people's choices could influence the OP as to when they will make FUTURE choices regarding which night to try to get reservations at the 120 day mark.  Since I currently have 3 out of my 4 future NCL bookings on the Prima, then the new policy would come into play.  I also gave the link in case others were not aware of the change, which I'm sure there are many.  Just like those who are not in the know regarding early reservations with Vibe could be disappointed when they show up early for the running of the passes and they find out they are sold out.

[alysonofagun]

Personally, I never enjoy the speciality restaurants on the last night and always wish I'd eaten there earlier. It's probably a mixture of sadness at the cruise coming to an end, and the fact that I will have eaten and drunk more in the previous 6 days than in the past 6 months combined though 😄 

[MoCruiseFan]

1 hour ago, CruizinSusan70 said:

The OP inquired about what was everyone's favorite nights.  You're inferring that it has to do with past cruises.  The past is the past.  Wanting to know about people's choices could influence the OP as to when they will make FUTURE choices regarding which night to try to get reservations at the 120 day mark.  Since I currently have 3 out of my 4 future NCL bookings on the Prima, then the new policy would come into play.  I also gave the link in case others were not aware of the change, which I'm sure there are many.  Just like those who are not in the know regarding early reservations with Vibe could be disappointed when they show up early for the running of the passes and they find out they are sold out.

 

10 hours ago, grozzy1 said:

On my first cruise I learnt not to book speciality on first night. Inexperienced me booked a bit to early and had to rush down before we cleared Sydney heads. Next cruise I will aim for sea days and not consecutive nights.

 

HA HA HA

[CruizinSusan70]

13 hours ago, MoCruiseFan said:

HA HA HA

So, what's so funny?

[nferr]

On 7/19/2022 at 2:37 AM, CruizinSusan70 said:

I count five.....but 5 nights of specialty dining is now 202.80 pp after gratuity.  Between the raise in price and the reduction of included nights, it's more profits for the line.  If you're in a solo, inside or OV, you only get 1 night up to an 11 night cruise.  We're getting 4 on our 11 night Prima because we booked it so long ago, but those booking today get 1 night. And it would cost them 142.80 for those extra 3 nights of specialty meals pp.

 

Yeah, on my 15 night solo cruise I got five which was just about perfect IMO. Now you get two. I would purchase at least two more which is added expense.

[Travelling2Some]

On 7/20/2022 at 11:46 AM, alysonofagun said:

Personally, I never enjoy the speciality restaurants on the last night and always wish I'd eaten there earlier. It's probably a mixture of sadness at the cruise coming to an end, and the fact that I will have eaten and drunk more in the previous 6 days than in the past 6 months combined though 😄 

Those are both very good points.  I was also thinking that, with all the reports of ingredient shortages these days, I would lean towards booking earlier in the cruise rather than later.  Don't want to get that last steak that's been passed over all week or hear that they are out of a favorite dish.

[MoCruiseFan]

On 7/21/2022 at 2:25 AM, CruizinSusan70 said:

So, what's so funny?

 

Notice the highlight.

[ColeThornton]

19 minutes ago, MoCruiseFan said:

 

Notice the highlight.

 

 

Do you think that's an incorrect word?

[poohdreaming]

I also do not understand what was so funny about the highlighted word "learnt"

Learnt is not an incorrect word. Learned and Learnt are both correct.

Let's go back to the original topic.

 

To each his/her own opinion.

I myself do not like it on the last night of the cruise.

They might give less portion of the food or ran out of certain items.

 

I usually like it on the first day and then on sea days.

[MoCruiseFan]

7 hours ago, ColeThornton said:

 

 

Do you think that's an incorrect word?

I was just laughing at it is all.  You do know what LOL means right?   I did not say nor did imply that it was wrong.  Apologies if you inferred anything.

[CruizinSusan70]

10 hours ago, MoCruiseFan said:

 

Notice the highlight.

And....it wasn't relative to my post, so why did you quote it? (my post)

Edited July 24, 2022 by CruizinSusan70

[CruizinSusan70]

7 hours ago, poohdreaming said:

I myself do not like it on the last night of the cruise.

They might give less portion of the food or ran out of certain items.

I personally think the last night of the cruise is perfect for a specialty dinner since it's a great way to end your vacation.  Never experienced a specialty venue running out of food and have spent 52 nights at sea in 2022 including 15 specialty dinners.

[MoCruiseFan]

1 hour ago, CruizinSusan70 said:

And....it wasn't relative to my post, so why did you quote it? (my post)

 

BECAUSE I DID NOT NOTICE THAT THE SYSTEM INCKUDED YOUR POST WHEN I CLICKED QUOTE, SYSTEM GLITCH I GUESS

[KeithJenner]

5 hours ago, MoCruiseFan said:

 

BECAUSE I DID NOT NOTICE THAT THE SYSTEM INCKUDED YOUR POST WHEN I CLICKED QUOTE, SYSTEM GLITCH I GUESS

Ha Ha Ha

[complawyer]

hey,mocruisefan: you gave out a ha ha ha to "learnt", but what the heck is  inckuded? did  you flunk typing 101? 

 

so now as they say the "ha ha ha" is on the other foot!

[CruizinSusan70]

9 hours ago, MoCruiseFan said:

 

BECAUSE I DID NOT NOTICE THAT THE SYSTEM INCKUDED YOUR POST WHEN I CLICKED QUOTE, SYSTEM GLITCH I GUESS

No reason to be a jerk and yell which is exactly what you're doing by typing in caps.  And it wasn't a system glitch at all, pure incompetence on your part.

[CruizinSusan70]

21 minutes ago, complawyer said:

hey,mocruisefan: you gave out a ha ha ha to "learnt", but what the heck is  inckuded? 

Sausage fingers?

[mearsfansinboise]

On 7/19/2022 at 8:20 AM, cruiseny4life said:

On our upcoming cruise we have three specialty dining meals which is so not ideal (for me). We also are staying in the Haven - not saying this to toot my horn - there's strategy behind our specialty dinner bookings.

 

We have not eaten at Le Bistro or ever had fancy French food which means we don't know if we'll enjoy it - I'm guessing we will, though I'm not sure about the snails that I'm going to attempt to eat. So - we are eating at Le Bistro on our first evening at 5:30 for three reasons:

 

1. Le Bistro does not require dress clothes (yes, I consider pants and a button down dress clothes - let's please not hijack this thread RE: the dress code);

2. We're eating early, because we naturally eat around 5:30 and if we don't like the food, other locations will be open.

3. We're in the Haven, which means we can head up to the Haven Restaurant for a lobster tail and filet mignon if fancy French food does not appeal to us.

 

The next night (a sea day evening), we'll be dining in Moderno, then on our last sea day we'll be dining at La Cucina. We know we love Brazilian steakhouses and Olive Garden is a staple around here, so La Cucina should be fine. All of these reservations are at 5:30 or 6, so we can head back to the Haven if the food isn't particularly good. We had to do this when we chose Cagney's on our last cruise - the food was just not good, so we aren't expecting much of anything from specialty dining. 

 

Anyway, those are our reasons - not sure they'll apply to you, but enjoy your lovely cuisine! 

 

@Brian V - my husband would agree on the 3 hour meal....me, not so much. I prefer the American style 1 hour feeding trough and get out. 

 

We are in the Haven also.

We always do the Haven restaurant the first night to see the menu (though we just saw it in March) and know what we're looking at for the week in the way of likes and planning.

We always do the Haven restaurant on the last night too - say goodbye and tip the people that have been serving us all week.

 

We have 4 specialty dining meals - we did the upgrade for 2 more in addition to what came with the booking package - to answer the OP's question:  sea days.  Just more time to schedule onboard meals around the reservation time. 

 

Because we did the upgrade, I need to figure out where else to plug a meal in.  We have one port day that ends at 1:15, so, likely that one ... and then not sure where the last meal will go, so I'm interested in reading other peoples' strategies and thoughts on this.

[auie2]

We have all our reservation for 630pm. We ussally do the specialty dinners the night before sea days and/or ports that we get into late. Since we ussaly eat very well these dinners we like to be able to relax the next day.

 

David

[weltek]

My rationale four our four nights of specialty dining:

 

1) Sea Days are a priority, as I like to treat it as a romantic night out that I have time to properly get ready for, and go have a pre-dinner cocktail somewhere while dressed up, etc. I choose the "fanciest" restaurants for those nights.

2) Look at planned excursions activities and departure times for all port days. Early departure (e.g., 3:00)? If it's a heavy beach/water day, I usually want a nap in the air conditioning when I get back on board and will be happy to just use the MDRs those nights.  If it's a late departure (e.g., 5 pm), I'll want more flexibility when I get back on board and just use the MDRs those nights.

Edited August 12, 2022 by weltek

[curlstravel]

We have never had a problem making reservations or changing our times as soon as we get on the ship. I have also called from our room to change our reservation to another night even though they said they were completely booked and they were able to give us a different reservation. As far as which nights we like to go to specialty dining rooms, I agree that Sea days are our first choice. The days we don’t like to go are the first and last day of the cruise. The first day we are tired from traveling unpacking our luggage etc. and the last day for the same reason we are busy packing to go home so we always go to one of the free restaurants on those days. LeBistro has been our favorite restaurant through the years. We have had a lot of great meals there and a lot of good memories.  The last time I ate there you could literally cut the steak with your fork it was so tender and so good. 
 

Edited August 31, 2022 by curlstravel