First time NCl on the Getaway questions

[realnice46]

First time NCL should I reserve anytime dining times? It looks like there are 3 main dining rooms, is one a better choice than others?

[Liljo22]

No need for MDR reservations.  You may have a short wait at Taste or Savor but Tropicana Room is huge and almost never a wait. 

 

The menus are the same at all three MDRs so its a matter of aesthetic.  Personally I liked the Tropicana Room better.  It feels more like a cruise ship dining room with its open floor plan and high ceilings.  There is also live music and on some nights the show dancers will perform.  It can be loud though. 

 

Taste and Savor both feel more like a nice land restaurant. 

 

You should make reservations for specialty restaurants though.  Reservations open up at 120 days for non-Haven/Suite cabins.  There will be reservations available as soon as you board the ship if you can't find times that work for you.   

Edited February 9 by Liljo22

[CruisnHallelujahs]

You don’t need to but I would recommend it.  You still get in line with everyone else but once checked in, if you have a reservation, you move forward more quickly. We preferred Tropicana with their nightly entertainment while dining. Taste was our choice for lunch. 

[UKstages]

16 minutes ago, Liljo22 said:

You may have a short wait at Taste or Savor but Tropicana Room is huge and almost never a wait. 

 

the capacity the ship sails at probably has more to do with wait times than any other factor. i'm just off the getaway a few days ago... tropicana, savor, taste, the local and the american diner all had waits of between 20 and 45 minutes on my sailing at full capacity.

 

tropicana, in particular, had people queued up all the way back and through the casino at first opening every day, around 5:30 pm, i think.  once those people were processed, they started issuing buzzers. there were huge crowds and feisty guests at taste and savor, as well. but as long as you showed up before closing time, you would be seated, however. you just might have to wait.

 

reserving for the MDRs is a moot point, as i don't believe they are accepting reservations any longer at MDRs, unless you have a large party.

[knitlady037]

we sailed GA 2 weeks ago. Ship was at capacity. I suggest making reservation in the dining rooms. Buffet was a waste of time so dining rooms were packed. 30-40 minute wait without reservations. If you do not go to the reserved time it will just be released after 15 minutes

 

[dbrown84]

1 hour ago, UKstages said:

 

the capacity the ship sails at probably has more to do with wait times than any other factor. i'm just off the getaway a few days ago... tropicana, savor, taste, the local and the american diner all had waits of between 20 and 45 minutes on my sailing at full capacity.

 

tropicana, in particular, had people queued up all the way back and through the casino at first opening every day, around 5:30 pm, i think.  once those people were processed, they started issuing buzzers. there were huge crowds and feisty guests at taste and savor, as well. but as long as you showed up before closing time, you would be seated, however. you just might have to wait.

 

reserving for the MDRs is a moot point, as i don't believe they are accepting reservations any longer at MDRs, unless you have a large party.

wow, if the tropicana line was that long, I can only image how much of a mess it was once the line hit shanghai's, which I'm sure also had an incredibly long line at 5:30.

[UKstages]

shanghai's had a crowd of only fifteen or twenty people upon opening....  so, it wasn't madness, but, yes, there was some confusion as to which line was which, as the tropicana line extended well beyond that.

[realnice46]

Is there a particular night the show dancers perform in the Tropicana?

[BirdTravels]

2 hours ago, realnice46 said:

Is there a particular night the show dancers perform in the Tropicana?

Nights that they are not doing a show in the Theater. 

 

When do they do shows in the theater? It varies depending on the guest performers onboard each week. Guest performers sign contracts from 1-6 weeks and their schedule, sometimes, drives changes in the main production show schedule. 

[knitlady037]

6 hours ago, UKstages said:

 

the capacity the ship sails at probably has more to do with wait times than any other factor. i'm just off the getaway a few days ago... tropicana, savor, taste, the local and the american diner all had waits of between 20 and 45 minutes on my sailing at full capacity.

 

tropicana, in particular, had people queued up all the way back and through the casino at first opening every day, around 5:30 pm, i think.  once those people were processed, they started issuing buzzers. there were huge crowds and feisty guests at taste and savor, as well. but as long as you showed up before closing time, you would be seated, however. you just might have to wait.

 

reserving for the MDRs is a moot point, as i don't believe they are accepting reservations any longer at MDRs, unless you have a large party.

 

[knitlady037]

not true. I made reservations for every night we didn't have specialty reservations and we were only 3.

[UKstages]

41 minutes ago, knitlady037 said:

not true.

 

you sailed two weeks ago and presumably made your reservations at that time or as long as two or three weeks before that. subsequent to your disembarkation, there have been reports by several people on cruise critic that reservations are no longer being accepted for MDRs. that appears to be the case.

 

things change.

 

hey, i remember eating smoked salmon in the buffet at breakfast. i can longer do that because NCL no longer offers it fleet wide. i remember when there was a charge for the american diner and when they used to serve lobster rolls. i remember drinking veuve cliquot at the casino bar. well, guess what? american diner is now free. (it wasn't last month.) but they no longer serve lobster rolls. and the only place you can reliably find veuve cliquot on an NCL ship is at le bistro.

 

have you considered that what you believe to be true based on your personal experience might no longer true? 

[IAcruising]

3 minutes ago, UKstages said:

have you considered that what you believe to be true based on your personal experience might no longer true? 

 

Here is what I know to be true.

 

I have reservations in the Manhattan Room on the Encore, April 7 and 8.

I made them about a month or so ago.

I made them via chat, they were not available online or the app.

I have an emailed confirmation, along with my specialty dining, but they do not show up in my bookings. The specialty restaurants do.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[CruisnHallelujahs]

My last cruise on getaway I made mdr reservations online.  That was a few months ago.  Last week I made reservations online for my cruise on sky in two weeks.  Don’t know if it is ship specific but if you click on dining in your reservation, click on Tropicana and see if it is offered. 

[omahabob]

We never did. We almost always ate in the buffet. Not perfect, but it was okay. Taste and Savor had nothing on their menus that appealed to us. We ate at Cagney's twice, but never had reservations. Never waited more than five minutes. But then, we checked the wait time several times, and didn't choose to eat there until it was low. And there was always O’Sheehan’s. We don't usually eat during 'typical' meal times anyway. We're retired, so we have our own schedule.

[cruiser2015]

7 hours ago, UKstages said:

 

you sailed two weeks ago and presumably made your reservations at that time or as long as two or three weeks before that. subsequent to your disembarkation, there have been reports by several people on cruise critic that reservations are no longer being accepted for MDRs. that appears to be the case.

 

things change.

 

hey, i remember eating smoked salmon in the buffet at breakfast. i can longer do that because NCL no longer offers it fleet wide. i remember when there was a charge for the american diner and when they used to serve lobster rolls. i remember drinking veuve cliquot at the casino bar. well, guess what? american diner is now free. (it wasn't last month.) but they no longer serve lobster rolls. and the only place you can reliably find veuve cliquot on an NCL ship is at le bistro.

 

have you considered that what you believe to be true based on your personal experience might no longer true? 

On the Bliss 2 weeks ago - MDR reservations were taken for Taste & Savor - although the one I made was done pre cruise ( a few weeks before departure). Could be that they stopped since then.

[Grandmafreddie]

Taste and savor always has smoked salmon for breakfast as well as same menu as manhattan. Usually eat in one if them better service and quiet.

[poohdreaming]

Even if reservations are made, still have to be in the same line as everyone else. So, what was the point of having one? No priority or to just walk straight in. The amount of wait time depends on the time. If it at a perk time like 5 pm, it will be very crazy. All the MDRs offer off the same menus, it just that of course the room/layout and colors are different. I believe Taste and Savor are about the same in room size. But the other one of course is much more bigger.

[IAcruising]

1 hour ago, poohdreaming said:

Even if reservations are made, still have to be in the same line as everyone else. 

 

What ship were you on? This was not our experience on the Encore, Joy, Prima, or Escape. There were 2 lines anytime there was any line at all.

 

[omahabob]

On 2/10/2024 at 2:32 PM, poohdreaming said:

Even if reservations are made, still have to be in the same line as everyone else.

 

Not on the Getaway.

[cruiseny4life]

On 2/9/2024 at 6:56 PM, UKstages said:

 

you sailed two weeks ago and presumably made your reservations at that time or as long as two or three weeks before that. subsequent to your disembarkation, there have been reports by several people on cruise critic that reservations are no longer being accepted for MDRs. that appears to be the case.

 

things change.

 

hey, i remember eating smoked salmon in the buffet at breakfast. i can longer do that because NCL no longer offers it fleet wide. i remember when there was a charge for the american diner and when they used to serve lobster rolls. i remember drinking veuve cliquot at the casino bar. well, guess what? american diner is now free. (it wasn't last month.) but they no longer serve lobster rolls. and the only place you can reliably find veuve cliquot on an NCL ship is at le bistro.

 

have you considered that what you believe to be true based on your personal experience might no longer true? 

Things change. Reservations are unable to be made anymore. If @IAcruising was able to, it was before NCL ended this ability. Groups of 6 or 8 may make reservations for either 5:30 or 8:30 PM. No other reservations are now allowed.

 

This change occurred roughly one month ago so IA must have just slipped in before the change. Around the time NCL took away my mozzarella sticks from American Diner! And before cookies became scarce.

[Jordan61]

32 minutes ago, cruiseny4life said:

This change occurred roughly one month ago so IA must have just slipped in before the change. Around the time NCL took away my mozzarella sticks from American Diner! And before cookies became scarce.

 

On a related note, my favorite local pizza joint replaced their lovely battered mozzarella sticks with gross breaded mozzarella triangle things.

[Smitheroo]

On 2/9/2024 at 11:45 AM, CruisnHallelujahs said:

You don’t need to but I would recommend it.  You still get in line with everyone else but once checked in, if you have a reservation, you move forward more quickly. We preferred Tropicana with their nightly entertainment while dining. Taste was our choice for lunch. 

I missed the Tropicana on my recent Getaway cruise. Sounds like it would have been very enjoyable. The Getaway isnt high on my list for repeats but if I ever do, I will be sure to try it out

[p5woody]

58 minutes ago, cruiseny4life said:

Things change. Reservations are unable to be made anymore. If @IAcruising was able to, it was before NCL ended this ability. Groups of 6 or 8 may make reservations for either 5:30 or 8:30 PM. No other reservations are now allowed.

 

This change occurred roughly one month ago so IA must have just slipped in before the change. Around the time NCL took away my mozzarella sticks from American Diner! And before cookies became scarce.

I wonder if some cruises still allow reservations?  On January 22nd, I was able to make reservations for 4 at 5:30 for a 12 day cruise coming up in April.  I also see, people saying they don't have two lines, we were on the Epic in January and they had two line one for reservations only.  I'm so confused

[cruiseny4life]

41 minutes ago, p5woody said:

I wonder if some cruises still allow reservations?  On January 22nd, I was able to make reservations for 4 at 5:30 for a 12 day cruise coming up in April.  I also see, people saying they don't have two lines, we were on the Epic in January and they had two line one for reservations only.  I'm so confused

According to all weekly promotional material I get from NCL, no you're not able to and it's also supposedly fleetwide. NCL being consistently inconsistent perhaps.