Preferred Main Dining Room - Breakaway

The last time we sailed NCL, making reservations for the MDR was not necessary. Something I have read on the NCL threads leads me to believe that it is "advisable" now to make MDR reservations. This was strongly suggested if you prefer to eat during prime times. I have seen reference to Taste and Savor as the two preferred MDRs. Can anyone enlighten me on which MDR would be better? Thanks!

they are identical in menus and near identical in appearance.

we ALWAYS book all dinners on all ships in advance. we like to eat at a set time so we can plan our evening accordingly.

Manahatan is the fancier MDR, same menu but they have dancing, etc. and you have to dress up a bit.

Manhattan is our preferred main dining room.

Manhattan is our preferred main dining room.

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The only MDR I go to for dinner is Manhattan Room. I think it has the best ambiance of any dining venue on the ship, including specialty restaurants. It's large and elegant with views in 3 directions as well as live music and dancing.

I liked the Manhattan Room, with live music and dancing.

It was amazing when Burn the Floor staffs popped up one nights in the MDR to do some dancing.

The last time we sailed NCL, making reservations for the MDR was not necessary. Something I have read on the NCL threads leads me to believe that it is "advisable" now to make MDR reservations. This was strongly suggested if you prefer to eat during prime times. I have seen reference to Taste and Savor as the two preferred MDRs. Can anyone enlighten me on which MDR would be better? Thanks!

Manhattan Room is a great choice. It feels more elegant (even though much larger), with potentially some great ocean views, and live music. Taste & Savor are absolutely fine too...but in my mind, no comparison. The menu for all 3 is the same.

Yes, you should try to make reservations online if you can. It's not that difficult, and is worth the effort. However, I will say that on our recent Transatlantic cruise, we occasionally went without reservations, and we never waited very long. They give you a buzzer (and we then spent that time at the bar!). One time, it took 20 minutes. Usually more like 5. But I still preferred just showing up and being seated. Bear in mind that even with a reservation, you are likely to stand in a line just to get up to the receptionist. Allow 5 minutes just for that.

The last time we sailed NCL, making reservations for the MDR was not necessary. Something I have read on the NCL threads leads me to believe that it is "advisable" now to make MDR reservations. This was strongly suggested if you prefer to eat during prime times. I have seen reference to Taste and Savor as the two preferred MDRs. Can anyone enlighten me on which MDR would be better? Thanks!

Taste and Savor are identical twins. Smaller. Sometimes more quiet.

We always dine in the Manhattan Room. We always make reservations. We always try to go early and get a window seat (more unsuccessful with that than successful).

I have never needed reservations for the MDR. The one cruise when I did make reservations, I still had to wait in line to reach the hostess table and when I mentioned that I had reservations I was told that they weren’t needed and I waited just like everyone else who didn’t have reservations. Wasn’t long at all, just a few minutes.

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It’s vacation. We don’t want to go by a schedule. We start in late afternoon to check the menu boxes of the MDRs. If we see some items we really like, we’ll come back after 7 pm and ask for a table for 2. If they don’t have one available now, we may settle for later - or we go to the next MDR. That M.O. has never failed us. At times we bypass the MDRs and head straight for the Garden Café for some Asian food.

If you aren't very particular about which MDR you eat in, if there was a wait in Taste we would walk over to Savor or visa versa which ever one had the shorter wait time. A few times the hostess mentioned that seats were available at the other restaurant.

Only sailed the Breakaway 4X over the years, and we preferred Taste & Savor, both are smaller, virtually identical & served the same nightly menu as the "fancier" Manhattan MDR/Supper Club, where often, only a handful will dance to music on the floor - not always live music, sometimes just playing back recordings.

Services tend to be, IMHO, a little faster & food temperature as served, a little "warmer" (difficult to expect "hot" entrees when the central gallery (kitchen) is catering easily 1,000 meals at a given seating with all 3 MDR combined - and, the "runners" for the wait teams need to take a much longer walk and up/down the escalators with the food trays to bring out the food - thus, always seemed slower for the Manhattan MDR.

The evening menu is usually posted outside the MDR by the morning of to be checked out, and, if you go there a few minutes before it open ... usually 5:30 pm but sometimes at 6 pm due to port schedules, and queue up to see the host/ess - they can usually seat you without an advanced reservations - especially ... tables for 2, 3 or 4 or even 5 and 6's. No-shows are automatically released after a 15 minutes hold (thus, at 5:45, 6:15, 6:45, 7:15 & so forth ...) for others waiting or on a walk-up basis.

Lots of options! It would be a bit of a change if we had to or thought reservations were necessary for a MDR. [emoji33]

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I never make reservations because I'm on vacation.

I hate the Manhattan room. It is too loud. I can't hear my dining partner over the "show". It is too slow. Dinner takes 3 hours and I'd rather be outside.

I just walk up to Taste or Savor. Never wait more than 15 minutes whether I eat at 5 or 9....or any time in between.

Savor & Taste are more intimate and quiet. The Manhattan Room can be loud at times... annoyingly loud if your table is right near the band/dance floor. But the ambience is nice in the Manhattan and when the troop dancers are in there for dinner they sometimes do a little bit of dancing which is quite entertaining. On our last Breakway cruise in 2017 we had 3 girls ages 10-13 with us who absolutely loved the shows and our waiter took them over the meet the dancers who were all in there having dinner and the girls were so excited. Much livelier (but sometimes loud) atmosphere in the Manhattan.

Oh, and be sure to hit Savor or Taste for breakfast a couple of mornings, the service was excellent as was the food.

The only reason to make a reservation for one of the main dining rooms is if your party is larger than six people, any table size of six or less they seat pretty quickly even at the busy times.

I preferred Taste/ Savor over Manhattan Room. I found the service more "turn and burn" style in the larger MDR (Manhattan Room) where as I actually made some great connections with staff in the smaller more intimate dining rooms. Ask if Jovie is working! He was such a great waiter!