New to Freestyle

[Toyz711]

for the non-suite rooms (the only ones i can talk about) room service is free..but limited. not sure about the times it's available. we had the blue lagoon on our cruise..great pound cake/cookies and such. dh could Not walk by without getting a treat. it's a 24 hours cafe style. i understand that for suites, the regualar menus are available. surcharges would apply if from those restaurants.

 

i thought the greatest thing about freestyle was "choice". l like NOT having to have a 5 course meal if i didn't want it. there were so many places to go (no surcharges). we would just wander around and decide what we wanted. hubby just said (2 days ago), he can't believe how great it was (freestyle). fil paid for one family dinner at a surcharge restaurants. only because some of the family are meat/taters type people..they wanted to try the steaks at cagney's. i could have cared less..i enjoyed all the other ones. :D i do not think i could go back to set dining hours or limited meal selections.

[joyful1nh]

I'm sailing on the Spirit Feb 24 - Mar 4, and this is my first experience with Freestyle also. I've sailed all of the other major cruise lines, so I'm a bit apprehensive about the dining on this cruise.

 

I'm a planner anyway, so we will definitely book our dining right after we board? Is this normally done in one of the restaurants, or do they vary the location?

 

I'm sailing with a pretty big group (14 total) so if we want to dine altogether any night we have to decide in advance. Trying to get a decision out of this group is difficult and definitely won't happen if we wait until we board. Does anyone know what night lobster is normally offered in the main dining rooms? Are there sample menus posted anywhere for the other dining rooms?

 

TIA!

 

Joy

[harveysalva]

"It is a ploy to get you to pay DOUBLE for your meals...

I have already paid for my meal in the dining room, as well as tips, etc...

but not...I can pay AGAIN by eating in one of the "specialty" dining rooms..."

 

The truth is, You'd be prettty hard up to find the kind of meal that you will get in one of the "specialty restaurants" at home for $12.50, $15 or even $20. The food is fabulous and the service is too.

I've been to "specialties" on Norwegian Sun and Caribbean Princess and I can tell you that one of the things I'm looking forward to the most on my upcoming cruise aboard the Jewel is the specialty dining.:D

[hotspur]

The more I read the more this FreeStyle thing it sounds like a bunch of crapola.

What about prepaid tips, traditional tips for waiter and busboy are based on service performed by your service team of the week. Perhaps with extra cash in hand at the end of the week for VERY good service.

With FreeStyle you could have 6,7 or more table servers some great some poor but they still want you to to fork over the standard gratuity anyway on your statement.

 

Having been on over 30 cruises , all cruise lines have at least 1 and usually 2 alt dining options. It works great for $20 extra and none of this pretentious FreeStyle stuff.

Here it is: the ultimate example of multiple misconceptions. How people can write this "crapola" again and again is amazing. You want pretentious, stutz? Sail Celebrity. Please.

[hotspur]

It is a ploy to get you to pay DOUBLE for your meals...

I will assure all that I will hold off on final feelings on this until after I sail...and will compare costs of the trip after I am done.

 

Remarkable. First the bald statement that "it is a ploy to get you to pay double for your meals..." and then "I will assure that I will hold off on final feelings on this until after I sail..." This is an open mind? Unreal.

[stutz]

Here it is: the ultimate example of multiple misconceptions. How people can write this "crapola" again and again is amazing. You want pretentious, stutz? Sail Celebrity. Please.

Hots

I have sailed them all,bring something to the table instead of being critical of others comments...

If you know all about this why not answer or comment on my question about tipping??

[samtig]

We have cruised on Carnival, RCI, and NCL and auto-tipped on them all, tipping extra for those outstanding employees. Didn't affect our service one bit. There was also no difference in the level of service between cruiselines -all were great! It is a misconception that service on NCL is below par with other cruiselines. Regarding "paying double" for meals, speciality restaurants are optional and if you don't want to go to them, you don't have too. Sometimes we do, sometimes we don't. They are fantastic though. Just an option available for those who want to participate. To me, options are great on a cruise. We enjoy all the lines we've been on & will go on all again.

[KeystoneCruiser]

I'm sailing with a pretty big group (14 total) so if we want to dine altogether any night we have to decide in advance. Trying to get a decision out of this group is difficult and definitely won't happen if we wait until we board. Does anyone know what night lobster is normally offered in the main dining rooms? Are there sample menus posted anywhere for the other dining rooms?

Joy

 

Joy: actually a group of 14 can be helpful but be prepared to be split up. I'm not sure of the Spirit, but on most of the other ships, the largest tables are generally 10 or 12 and there are not that many of them. My group of 12 usually split into two sixes or an 8 and 4 at tables next to each other. (I was part of a group of 18 once and we did split up every night). The spliting up alllowed us to get quicker service as well. (the one night all 12 of us had a table together was the slowest meal of all since they wait until everyone is ready before the next course.)

 

The main dining rooms only take reservations for large groups of 8 or more (even if you split up, you are still considered a large group.). They only take large group reservations for 5:30, 5:45, 6:00 or after 8:30 and not during the prime dining times of 6:15-8:15. The specialty restaurants will take large group reservations for any times that they have room for you.

[KeystoneCruiser]

The more I read the more this FreeStyle thing it sounds like a bunch of crapola.

 

Bold statement for having never experienced freestyle yourself. To judge something without having trying it first does not make sense.

[KeystoneCruiser]

Hots

If you know all about this why not answer or comment on my question about tipping??

 

On my four NCL cruises I have had some great waiters and some great room stewards. I have had some bad waiters and bad room stewards.

 

In my travels, I have had some good waiters and I have had some bad waiters. (even when tips are included)

 

I had an Assistant Maitre'd on the Dawn last year that went out of his way to take care of us. When my mom couldn't find anything on the buffet that she could eat, he had the cooks fix up a special meal for her (at the buffet for lunch!). When my dad and I became sick and couldn't go to dinner one night, he had his cooks fix us chicken soup and toast and had one of his own waiters (not room service) bring the food to us in our cabins and then called to check on us later!! When we did try to tip him at the end of the cruise, he at first rejected it but we made him take it!

 

There are bad eggs in every service industry, but there are also some great ones that you don't have to bribe with money to get good service out of.

[Leafpeeper]

I guess the first poster did as good a job as anyone explaining the dining options.

 

We sail lots of different cruiselines and enjoy things about each one. What we love on NCL is the ability to dine when we want where we want.

 

Another nice thing on our NCL ship is the free laundromat. It helps keep my packing to a minimum.

 

We also love the movie theater on NCL Dawn. We are sailing NCL Star and expect it to be the same. I hope so.

 

The stadium style pool area is nice too and the lunchtime bbq poolside is great. We loved sitting at the bar atop the pool area on our sailaways from each port. Great panoramic views on the Dawn.

[carrievision]

I find all of this talk of having to make reservations for specialty restaurants the second you get on the boat pretty surprising. We usually make reserverations when we get our Freestyle Daily at night, for the next day (ie.. we see that the main dining room will be having "Caribbean night", which we don't enjoy, so we make a reservation at Le Bistro). I don't remember ever being turned away in this case.

 

We've only had to wait once at a restaurant -for about half an hour at the main dining room on formal night on the Spirit. If you're flexible in your seating arrangement (ie you'll sit with other folks), you'll get seated faster. They only have so many 2-person tables. This night was an oddity, though.