Seating for 2 or with others? questions

[tbmrt]

My husband and I are anxious to try out NCL's freestyle dining. Although we usually prefer to dine w/just each other, occasionally we may want to eat with others.

 

Do we give our preference when we make the reservation? Is it "usual" to request that we not be seated with children? (Please don't slam me w/this one.....I love my children, but don't want to spend time with kids on vacation)

[njhorseman]

You may request a table for two, or to share with others. In most cases you do not make reservations for NCL's main dining rooms, and unless you are a VIP they may not be available except during off peak hours, when they're not needed anyway. Just show up at the dining room when you're ready for dinner and tell the hostess what type of table you want. Once in a while there may be a short wait, but often there is not.

 

Honoring a request to not share with children might be difficult as parties are accomodated in their order of arrival, and you can't be certain of who was seated immediately before you or will be immediately after you. However, most families with children don't want to share a table with others anyway, so it's unlikely you'll be seated with children.

[cynbar]

In my experience, the specialty restaurants are geared to individual tables for the size of the party reserving --- teppanyaki is the obvious exception. The MDRs are usually where the question of sharing comes in ----- just tell the person at the check in desk what your preference for the evening is when you arrive. And feel free to tell them you would prefer to avoid families with children when sharing---- I would probably do this too since you never know in advance how well behaved the kids will be!

[RedHeadTexan]

We have shared a table at every lunch and dinner in the MDR. So far DH and I have never been seated with children. I don't know if they purposely do this or we have been lucky. That said, you should mention that you don't want to share a table with children just in case.

[Toyz711]

MDR: we have never been asked to share a table. always just got our table for 2. we would go up, the hostess would say "party of 2?"..

speciality: yes, at the time you make your reservation, you will tell them how many will be in your party.

there is a chance you MAY be seated near a family with kids (hasn't happened to us, yet), but there is no reason to be seated WITH a family with kids.

[CTCruisers]

DW and I always seat alone at tables for two. We never had a problem making the request.

[Georgia Buckeye]

On our Spirit Cruise last February (our 25th anniversary) we requested a table for two at each sitting and always were able to be seated almost immediately or only after a short wait.

[dtiger]

It's nice to meet others and share a table but I've found it can be painfully long. If you order one appetizer and others at the table order many the servers wait until all the appetizers are eaten to serve the main course and the same with dessert.

[hbsurfcitycruiser]

Hi Barbara!

 

As the others have stated at the main dining room you can request your own table or you can share a table :) But something I have noticed on my 5 NCL cruises....there normally aren't children at the specialty restaurants. These meals tend to take a while and I think even the most well behaved child on earth can't sit there for that long ;) Plus up in the buffet they have a special childrens buffet. And I noticed most parents take their children to eat there, then take the kids to the evening shift at the kids program, and then go out to eat at a specialty restaurant while the little ones are being baby sat. So try dinner while the kids are all at the kids center, and you should be good to go :)

[melligene]

On our Spirit Cruise last February (our 25th anniversary) we requested a table for two at each sitting and always were able to be seated almost immediately or only after a short wait.

 

Same for us on the Dawn last year. 10 minutes Tops....and probably less.

[jame_g]

In my experience, the specialty restaurants are geared to individual tables for the size of the party reserving --- teppanyaki is the obvious exception. The MDRs are usually where the question of sharing comes in ----- just tell the person at the check in desk what your preference for the evening is when you arrive. And feel free to tell them you would prefer to avoid families with children when sharing---- I would probably do this too since you never know in advance how well behaved the kids will be!

 

We have been asked if we wanted to share in a specialty restaurant before. Even when we had a reservation for a specific number. We saw the grouchy person who was waiting and how she was nasty to the staff and very quickly said no right in front of her. I think they will do this if they have someone without a reservation who is insistent on being seated and your reservation is at a table that has room for more.

[yahootelemundo]

i read on other forum that is funny how we go to restaurant and we want to eat alone , but when we go to a cruise we want to eat with other people that we dont even know.. I stick with my table of 2. Im really not into what you did that day :)

[jame_g]

i read on other forum that is funny how we go to restaurant and we want to eat alone , but when we go to a cruise we want to eat with other people that we dont even know.. I stick with my table of 2. Im really not into what you did that day :)

 

No. I don't want to eat dinner with strangers. This is one of the reasons I like NCL. Fortunately on my Carnival cruises, the first was with a group, so we were able to eat with others in our group, and the second was with a lot of family and we were able to eat with them. On NCL we don't eat with others unless we meet someone on board we hit it off with, then we might decide to have a dinner together too.

[johnjovi]

At busier times in the MDR, you may be asked if you are willing to share a table with others, but you can always just say no if you are not interested. Sometimes we share, but we usually don't.