Norwegian's Free-style Cruising
Jun 26th, 2006, 09:13 PM
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Feb 2003
Posts: 93
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Norwegian's Free-style Cruising
We are thinking about the New England/Canada Norwegian Dawn cruise for this fall. We have never been on a cruise, and are a little confused about this style of cruising/dining. Norwegian offers several restaurants on board. Is dining in these restaurants included in your cruise fee, or is additional?
Jun 27th, 2006, 02:13 AM
#2
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 23,138
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
There are several "gourmet" restaurants that carry an extra fee, but also several that do not.
There are pluses and minuses to freestyle cruising - biggest complaint I have read here is the wait time in restaurants.
We did Boston-Bermuda. Found everyone wanted to eat at 7 PM first night. After that, there was a peak dining time between 6:30-7:30. We dealt with it by putting in our name, going back to cabin to change or having a drink. The wait time they stated was generally accurate, but sitting around outside the restaurant gets old after a while - so plan on doing something else during that time.
Menus for each restaurant are posted each AM - we would take a walk after breakfast and decide where we wanted to eat that PM.
There are pluses and minuses to freestyle cruising - biggest complaint I have read here is the wait time in restaurants.
We did Boston-Bermuda. Found everyone wanted to eat at 7 PM first night. After that, there was a peak dining time between 6:30-7:30. We dealt with it by putting in our name, going back to cabin to change or having a drink. The wait time they stated was generally accurate, but sitting around outside the restaurant gets old after a while - so plan on doing something else during that time.
Menus for each restaurant are posted each AM - we would take a walk after breakfast and decide where we wanted to eat that PM.
Jun 27th, 2006, 04:53 AM
#3
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 2,334
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
First of all you will love the NE/Canada cruise.. it is highly underated and the cities and towns actually welcome tourists, including Boston..lol To me.. Freestyle definetely has advantages because if you are enjoying yourself on land.. t here is no need to come back and rush to your "seating".. We've come back at 9:30 and had no problem in the dining room.. Yet. we are early eaters somewere about 6:00 p.m. normally since we are retired. Yes, I agree most people want to eat at a certain time.. like 7:00... and don't like the long lines... gail has great advice.. and if you want advice on the ports... both of us would be delighted to help you, won't you Gail..lol
Jun 27th, 2006, 07:46 AM
#4
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 3,503
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Check out www.cruisecritic.com
Jun 27th, 2006, 08:56 AM
#5
Join Date: Nov 2004
Posts: 5,967
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I have been on NCL a few times and enjoy Freestyle dining. The number of "specialty" restaurants varies from ship to ship. The ships I have been on
had 2 main dining rooms (included), a buffet(included) and 3-5 "specialty" restaurants (2 were included and 3 were "pay extra". You do need reservations for the 'specialty' restaurants (because they are MUCH smaller than the dining rooms and some are quite popular). We never had any significant wait times to be seated in the dining rooms (longest was about 5 minutes at 7PM (prime time)). We tend to eat a little earlier (6PM-6:30PM) and when we went at those hours, we never had to wait at all. Be especially aware that on the Captain's Dinner night, the dining rooms do tend to be busy. On our last cruise we dined at 6PM that night and had no problems with waiting but when we left (after 7PM)there was quite a big line-up - so on that night it would be better to dine early or late.
had 2 main dining rooms (included), a buffet(included) and 3-5 "specialty" restaurants (2 were included and 3 were "pay extra". You do need reservations for the 'specialty' restaurants (because they are MUCH smaller than the dining rooms and some are quite popular). We never had any significant wait times to be seated in the dining rooms (longest was about 5 minutes at 7PM (prime time)). We tend to eat a little earlier (6PM-6:30PM) and when we went at those hours, we never had to wait at all. Be especially aware that on the Captain's Dinner night, the dining rooms do tend to be busy. On our last cruise we dined at 6PM that night and had no problems with waiting but when we left (after 7PM)there was quite a big line-up - so on that night it would be better to dine early or late.
