Would you pay for SDP?

After terrible experiences in the Spirit MDR years ago, I only do specialties now. I enjoy Cagney's, Le Bistro, and Teppanyaki. I can also find a decent dinner in the buffet if I don't want to make plans ahead on a port day. Other than the tiny portions, I really enjoyed the meal at the Cirque show on the Epic. Food is so subjective. I don't compare to restaurants at home, I'm on vacation and try to enjoy what is offered at that particular location. That being said, other than the delicious bread, I did not enjoy La Cucina on the Gem. I have a 12 night coming up next year and I'll buy an extra three nights SDP to go along with the four I got as a perk.

If you didn't get the SDP as a benefit, would you buy it? How many days?

 

Also..... anyone want to rank their choices for dining? Really torn about how much to pre-book or which restaurants are not to be missed. Unfortunately we are a group of 7, which makes it a little harder to go by the 'seat of our pants'. :D

Sure would, and have, we actually bought 2 meals for our upcoming cruise even though we got the 3 included as promo. We just like the quieter atmosphere in the specialty dining rooms, not that the MDRs are horrible, they're fine, the food is great, just personally we preferred the specialty restaurants.

Our faves were Cagney's, Le Bistro and Los Lobos. The teppanyaki was meh, and moderno was good, but we have a brazillian steak house near us so there wasn't any novelty.

I still dream of the roasted beat and goatcheese appetizer I got at cagney's last year, ***** nom nom....

Thanks for the quick replies! We are sailing on the Getaway. I have been thinking of Teppanyaki, Cagney's and either Ocean Blue or Il Cucina. (Or do I do the Cirque show. So many choices. Aagggghh!) We are also booked in the Haven so I wondered how much we might eat there.

If you like seafood, Ocean Blue is a must! We've received a three night perk but purchased another three nights on three NCL cruises in the last year and we've not eaten in the MDR for dinner yet. Not that I expect the food to be of poor quality, we were seated once and decided the experience wasn't for us. Banquet-like atmosphere and we got three "no"answers before we had a chance to order entrees, and left. I can't think of anything they've said they cannot accommodate in a speciality restaurant (we actually aren't high maintenance! Requests had to do with large pour of wine? about that, sorry no! Sans sauce? no can do. Picky teen order off the kids menu? it isn't going to happen! You get the picture). The experience is far superior in the smaller speciality restaurants. More intimate experience. La Cucina is a family consensus poorest of the specialities and we do all but Moderno. Would recommend the rest!! Enjoy. So jealous!!!

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If we didn't have the specialty dining as a promo, or the specialty restaurant meal as a platinum, we wouldn't pay for it. We find the complimentary venues to be very good.

If you didn't get the SDP as a benefit, would you buy it?

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No, I wouldn't purchase it

Yup...we would! It would depend on the ship and restaurants. We took the 3-meal SDP as part of our promo on Escape in September - but would probably purchase 4. Interestingly, you cannot "buy up" from the 3-meal promo to make it a 4-meal package - presumably because NCL doesn't assign a cash value to the promos. Personally that's crazy - because they charge that extra 18% on some number! But yes....we really like the specialty dining!

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No .. We would not pay extra for the specialty restaurants even though we enjoy the food.

If you didn't get the SDP as a benefit, would you buy it? How many days?

 

Also..... anyone want to rank their choices for dining? Really torn about how much to pre-book or which restaurants are not to be missed. Unfortunately we are a group of 7, which makes it a little harder to go by the 'seat of our pants'. :D

We're not choosing it as a perk on either of our upcoming sailings (doing UBP and 3/4 Free) and we'll probably buy the 3 night package for our 7 day cruises. We had it included last year and really liked some of the specialties that we hadn't tried before (Cagney's especially) so will probably try to go again, and the savings over paying off menu make it worthwhile, I think.

In terms of places to go, if you're on the Escape, Food Republic (doesn't take the SDP) was amazing. As I said, we liked Cagney's a lot. Le Bistro was good, but had some terrible guests near us, which kind of ruined it. The Italian place (La Cucina) is fine, the Hibachi (Teppanyaki) is good, but not as good as the ones we have at home. Moderno is good, but we skipped it the last few times because it gets a bit old. We didn't try Bayamo or the tapas place last time, so may do them with the up-charge on the package.

Personally, I think La Cucina should be free.

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Nope, I wouldn't have even chose it with the free at sea.

When I think about NCL's dining thing I do wonder about the quality in regards to other lines as its so commonplace to have a dining package on NCL(how much a step up it is to the free food). That said....I dont see a huge amount of yay to buy extra food on a cruise anyway and I have only done it a few times due to curiousity/low price.

If you didn't get the SDP as a benefit, would you buy it? How many days?

 

Also..... anyone want to rank their choices for dining? Really torn about how much to pre-book or which restaurants are not to be missed. Unfortunately we are a group of 7, which makes it a little harder to go by the 'seat of our pants'. :D

If you are going to eat in the specialty restaurants at least three nights, it is a no brainer, you buy it.

I was using the old Ultimate Dining package for my first three cruises, and bought the SDP last year on the Spirit. Back on the Spirit in 9 days time and have again bought a SDP for all days.

I'm a relatively fussy eater and find there is more that I want to eat on the specialty menus than on the consistent part of the MDR menus, so for me I'd rather have pre-paid before the cruise to cover all meals and play it by ear once on board. I travel solo, and tend to only make my reservations each day of the cruise as am relatively flexible but like seeing the Daily for the that day first, as then I can plan to eat around the entertainment I want to see.

I did eat dinner once in the MDR on the Spirit last year and it wasn't particularly a memorable meal., That being said I did have lunch in there one day and regretted not having checked out the lunch menu earlier in the cruise, so will make that a priority this time around.

My favourite is actually Moderno, so it may be a while before I get to eat in there again, if I keep booking ships that don't have it.

Love Cagneys, love Le Bistro and ate in the Italian for the first time last year, and seem to recall thinking the steak I had in there was the best I'd had all cruise!

A few cruises ago, myself and my DW tried the Italian specialty restaurant on an RCI cruise and did not think it was worth the upcharge, and have stayed away from them since.

However, on this last cruise, with the Free at Sea promotion, we decided to try the specialty restaurants again since it would not cost us (much more).

• We tried the Cirque Steam and Dreams show for the entertainment with the additional up-charge (and we still had to pay for our kids). We really enjoyed the show, and the food was not not bad (but we did not come for the food).
  
• We tried Moderno - and paid for our children - having been to a number of Churrascarias over the years, we were disappointed with this one.
  
• We also tried Le Bistro (just the DW and myself) - although the food was good and the surroundings were aesthetically pleasing (but, IMHO, portions to small), there were a number of issues with service
  

We found the MDR menus (Savor, Taste, and Tropicana) to be fairly good for appetizers and main entrees (the desserts were mostly good, but could be hit or miss). Add to this list, the other non-specialty restaurants (we loved O'Sheehans), there are enough "free options" to keep us happy.

If we chose to travel on NCL again, and we decide on taking the SDP option, we would try three different venues than we had taken before. I am making my claim based on on only three of the specialty options, so to be fair, I would like to try the other specialty restaurants before becoming accountable for a definitive answer. But until that time has come, I shall stick with my initial response . . . . I would not pay for a SDP.

Interestingly, you cannot "buy up" from the 3-meal promo to make it a 4-meal package - presumably because NCL doesn't assign a cash value to the promos.

Sure would, and have, we actually bought 2 meals for our upcoming cruise even though we got the 3 included as promo.

So which is it, can you purchase additional SDP meals on top of the promo offer or not?

So which is it, can you purchase additional SDP meals on top of the promo offer or not?

We were told NO a few weeks ago. Sometimes it feels a bit arbitrary... maybe depends on who is asked.

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