Specialty dining with teens

[WhenIsOurNextCruise]

We have free specialty dining but what happens regarding our 16 year old grandson who will not be dining on the kid’s menu?  Do we  need to purchase specialty dining for him?

[complawyer]

either do so, or just pay the price on the menu at whichever specialty restaurant you choose

[KeithJenner]

We always used to just buy a package for our son to cover the meals that he would be joining us for.

 

In most circumstances buying a package is cheaper than paying as you go. The main exceptions are if you are just doing one meal or if he is an extremely light eater.

[MCMC100]

The speciality dining menus are . in the Explore-Cruise Ships-

[MCMC100]

The speciality dining menus are available for review to help you decide which course of action is best. Go to NCL.com and click the Explore-tab; Cruise Ship-tab; select your ship; What’s on Board-tab; Speciality dining-tab; each restaurant on board has a sample menu with prices. 
 

If your grandson is going to eat like my 16 yr old son did, you’re better off with the package. Paying al a carte gets expensive.  

[sebas030]

If you have multiple dinners included you should buy a package for the third guest. I have 3 meals included for passenger 1-2 and I bought a 3 meal package for my teen ( passenger 3 ) The price of the a la carte items are crazy high... buy a package !

[BirdTravels]

6 hours ago, WhenIsOurNextCruise said:

We have free specialty dining but what happens regarding our 16 year old grandson who will not be dining on the kid’s menu?  Do we  need to purchase specialty dining for him?

You need to purchase a dining package for him. It will be far cheaper than paying a la cart or sitting there telling him he can only eat one appetizer while you have a 4 course meal. 
 

Also enroll the grandson in the Entourage teen club and [force] him to go on embarkation night to make cruise-long friends. 

Edited December 15, 2023 by BirdTravels

[wil e coyote]

Another option that might work for you - if you are Platinum or higher, you can use your specialty dining coupons to cover your child.

Enjoy!

[rbxlady]

2 hours ago, wil e coyote said:

Another option that might work for you - if you are Platinum or higher, you can use your specialty dining coupons to cover your child.

Enjoy!

Are these transferrable if you are not Platinum or higher? My husband and I have 4 specialty dining credits each for our upcoming 7-day because we purchased FAS+. We are sailing in the Haven and love the Haven restaurant, so 4 nights eating elsewhere is overkill-- 2 nights is more than sufficient for us. Our two kids will be traveling with us, so can we use our dining credits for them?

 

In other words, can we eat at specialty dining restaurants as a party of 4 twice without paying anything additional?

[wolft927]

I was under the impression Specialty dining was no transferable, but I could be wrong. 

[rbxlady]

1 minute ago, wolft927 said:

I was under the impression Specialty dining was no transferable, but I could be wrong. 

That's what I thought, too, but I didn't know if that was an option when you have a higher status. (I do not.)

 

I should just ask my TA next time I talk to him.

[TheDawg79]

I’ve never heard of dining being transferable. But yes, OP will either need to buy a dining package or pay menu prices for the grandkid 

[cruiser2015]

12 minutes ago, wolft927 said:

I was under the impression Specialty dining was no transferable, but I could be wrong. 

They may not be transferrable.

But how can they stop you from using it if you are sitting at the table with the "transferee"?

You order 2 complete meals for yourself at the same time and slide half of the plates across the table.

No guarantees that this will work, but it would be truly nasty for them to try and stop you when you are nominally ordering for yourself.

What can they say - you're not allowed to give away your food?.

[mjkacmom]

47 minutes ago, cruiser2015 said:

They may not be transferrable.

But how can they stop you from using it if you are sitting at the table with the "transferee"?

You order 2 complete meals for yourself at the same time and slide half of the plates across the table.

No guarantees that this will work, but it would be truly nasty for them to try and stop you when you are nominally ordering for yourself.

What can they say - you're not allowed to give away your food?.

I’ve never heard of anyone doing this, I assume one meal would be charged. It makes sense, the bigger the dining package, the cheaper each meal is. What would stop families from purchasing larger dining plans and giving meals away?

[wolft927]

I know from experience Wife and I had dining Package and where traveling with our daughter and her friend 16 and 17, We asked if we could use our 4 dining credits for the 4 of us and were instructed we couldn't. Not a big deal all we do now is purchase the dining prior to cruise. Well worth it. 

[KeithJenner]

1 hour ago, rbxlady said:

That's what I thought, too, but I didn't know if that was an option when you have a higher status. (I do not.)

 

I should just ask my TA next time I talk to him.

Status has no effect on whether dining package meals are transferable.

 

The reference to higher latitudes levels relates to the meals for two that you get as platinum and above. Those meals are not tied to specific people and can be used in situations such as the OPs.

 

We have done this in the past where my wife and son used one of the meals and I and my son used the other. This means that we didn’t need to get him a package.

[ColeThornton]

3 hours ago, cruiser2015 said:

They may not be transferrable.

But how can they stop you from using it if you are sitting at the table with the "transferee"?

You order 2 complete meals for yourself at the same time and slide half of the plates across the table.

No guarantees that this will work, but it would be truly nasty for them to try and stop you when you are nominally ordering for yourself.

What can they say - you're not allowed to give away your food?.

 

Why put the employees in a possibly embarrassing situation?  They know what you are doing, it isn't their first rodeo.  You know the terms and conditions of your perks, act accordingly.  Buy the other folks a package, it's not that expensive.

[cruiser2015]

2 hours ago, mjkacmom said:

I’ve never heard of anyone doing this, I assume one meal would be charged. It makes sense, the bigger the dining package, the cheaper each meal is. What would stop families from purchasing larger dining plans and giving meals away?

As long as the holder is at the table, nothing.

As I said, I wasn't certain that you could.

Edited December 15, 2023 by cruiser2015

[cruiser2015]

54 minutes ago, ColeThornton said:

 

Why put the employees in a possibly embarrassing situation?  They know what you are doing, it isn't their first rodeo.  You know the terms and conditions of your perks, act accordingly.  Buy the other folks a package, it's not that expensive.

I would inquire about this possibility onboard prior to dining,

If they say no, you could then purchase the additional meals.

[cruiser2015]

3 hours ago, wolft927 said:

I know from experience Wife and I had dining Package and where traveling with our daughter and her friend 16 and 17, We asked if we could use our 4 dining credits for the 4 of us and were instructed we couldn't. Not a big deal all we do now is purchase the dining prior to cruise. Well worth it. 

I don't doubt your story.

But, I just took a few minutes to peruse the NCL site. Looked at anything to do with dining, add on package (to FAS dining), FAQ's and T&C's.

Not a word about transferability. Or multi-use meal vouchers.

Now, I can understand if the meals cannot be, literally, given away (it's in your name and you can't send your pal in their trying to claim on your voucher.

In my suggestion, it's your voucher, at your table, and you are entitled to use it when you want.

And NCL loses nothing, theoretically - they only give up the expected number of meals. Anyone else was not compelled to buy in.

[wilmingtech]

I'll share my experience from this past week.  Understand that this is quite out of the normal and we went into this with the understanding that both my wife and I would get our dining credit and we would be paying the flat rate of $59 +12$ grat for Modernos for the kids.

 

My wife and I both had the 2 dinner specialty package that everyone gets with a standard NCL "Sale" when we booked.  We had a date night on Wednesday and each used one of our dining credits at Bayamo.  On Thursday we planned to take our 2 teen kids to Moderno for a special family dinner night to burn through our OBC that we had quite a bit of to spend.  

 

When we came up to the hostess we told her it would be 4 of us and that we would be paying Ala Carte for the kids.  She sat us, we had dinner.  It was a fantastic time and we all loved it.  Food was fantastic.  When it came time to pay our waiter (Who was mostly non existent through our dinner as the assistant and the "meat guys" provided the service) he told us that if we each gave him our room cards he would use our dining credits for the kids as well.  He walked away with our cards, came back 10 minutes later and the bill was zeroed out for all 4 of us.  So we were stuck with the ~150.00 of OBC and had to find other ways to spend it.

 

The waiter said he would use all our dining credits (I'm assuming he thought we had 4) and we were quite suprised when he came back with a zero dollar ticket for each of us as we only had one credit each left on our account. 

 

This being said, you should not expect to be able to share your dining credits with your kids or fellow cruisers.  But that may be a decision that is going to be up to the Maitre 'd / manager to decide. 

 

I would go into this either purchasing the 2 dinner package for your grandson or expect to pay Ala Carte for him and leave it up to the waiter/maitre'd to decide how to bill you.  Just be sure you take care of them if they take care of you.

 

 

Edited December 15, 2023 by wilmingtech

[mjkacmom]

42 minutes ago, cruiser2015 said:

I don't doubt your story.

But, I just took a few minutes to peruse the NCL site. Looked at anything to do with dining, add on package (to FAS dining), FAQ's and T&C's.

Not a word about transferability. Or multi-use meal vouchers.

Now, I can understand if the meals cannot be, literally, given away (it's in your name and you can't send your pal in their trying to claim on your voucher.

In my suggestion, it's your voucher, at your table, and you are entitled to use it when you want.

And NCL loses nothing, theoretically - they only give up the expected number of meals. Anyone else was not compelled to buy in.

But the meals are less expensive if bought in a package. We are a family of 7. If we bought 2 night dining for everyone, each meal would cost $50. However if we bought a 14 meal package and divided it up, each meal would cost $33. Therefore, it’s not allowed and it has been reported here many times that it wasn’t allowed.

[zqvol]

1 hour ago, cruiser2015 said:

I don't doubt your story.

But, I just took a few minutes to peruse the NCL site. Looked at anything to do with dining, add on package (to FAS dining), FAQ's and T&C's.

Not a word about transferability. Or multi-use meal vouchers.

Now, I can understand if the meals cannot be, literally, given away (it's in your name and you can't send your pal in their trying to claim on your voucher.

In my suggestion, it's your voucher, at your table, and you are entitled to use it when you want.

And NCL loses nothing, theoretically - they only give up the expected number of meals. Anyone else was not compelled to buy in.

Go look again. Meals cannot be shared or transferred. It’s in the FAQs

 

https://www.ncl.com/faq#!%23dining-terms-conditions

Edited December 15, 2023 by zqvol

[cruiser2015]

1 hour ago, mjkacmom said:

But the meals are less expensive if bought in a package. We are a family of 7. If we bought 2 night dining for everyone, each meal would cost $50. However if we bought a 14 meal package and divided it up, each meal would cost $33. Therefore, it’s not allowed and it has been reported here many times that it wasn’t allowed.

If it's firm that it's not allowed, so be it.

[cruiser2015]

1 hour ago, zqvol said:

Go look again. Meals cannot be shared or transferred. It’s in the FAQs

 

https://www.ncl.com/faq#!%23dining-terms-conditions

Okay, got it now.