worth booking?

[PeanutBudder]

Is it worth booking specialty restaurants is advance? We are brand new cruisers, going with our 2 young children. Will there be enough options without having to book a specialty restaurant or do you think it is worth it...even for just my husband and I? And do we have to book ahead of time or will there be lots of availability once we are onboard?

[ColinIllinois]

For the most part it's not hard to get in to the specialty restaurants without a reservation once onboard as long as you are willing to be a bit flexible on times which most people are. One exception is the Teppanyaki restaurant which has limited seatings.

 

 

Personally, I never pre-book for dinner. I like to keep it "Freestyle". :D

 

 

Enjoy.

 

One other thing since I noted you are sailing with young'uns, if you arent familiar with NCL dining:

 

CHILDREN EAT FOR LESS

Children 3-years old and younger always eat for free. In our specialty restaurants, children 4- to 12-years old can choose from a complimentary Kids’ Menu or from the restaurant’s Specialty Kids’ Menu for half price.

Edited November 7, 2013 by ColinIllinois

[gra2172]

We dont pre-book because we never know when we will actually want to eat. Sometimes after an exhausting excursion, you want to nap for a bit, then eat. Or youre hungry right away. Or youre still full from the buffet...

 

I agree with the other poster, we like to keep it freestyle. ;)

 

 

There are also a number of free restaurants you can choose from that dont take reservations.

Edited November 7, 2013 by gra2172

[champagne123]

Congrats on your first cruise. We made all of our specialty restaurant reservations on the Breakaway day by day. Never had a problem.

[kcwingwalker]

Is it worth booking specialty restaurants is advance? We are brand new cruisers, going with our 2 young children. Will there be enough options without having to book a specialty restaurant or do you think it is worth it...even for just my husband and I? And do we have to book ahead of time or will there be lots of availability once we are onboard?

 

We do not book excursions or restaurants in advance. Never had any problems with either. We like to decide what our plans will be on a daily basis. Sometimes it just spur of the moment and everything works out great. This is why we love Freestyle!

[gatorsfam]

It's not worth it booking ahead of time IMO.

 

Much easier to make those reservations once onboard. The only exception is with the Teppenyaki - either book ahead, or make your booking when you embark as that is the only one that is super limited in seating.

 

Also - the final sea day(s) tend to be the busiest at the specialty restaurants. But you can almost always get seated same day - at worst early or late.

[Demonyte]

One thing that the other posters didn't mention is that only a fraction (one third or less) of the tables are even available for online booking.

 

I agree with others, besides Teppanyaki and special dates like Valentines day etc, there is no need for prebooking speciality restaurants in order to enjoy the flexibility of Freestyle Cruising.

[PeanutBudder]

Thank you everyone....your response of "going with the flow" is exactly what we were thinking. We were drawn to NCL because of its laid back feel with freestyle dining...we are on vacation and don't want to operate via an alarm clock. So we are happy to hear that it is not hard to book specialty the "day of" should we choose to. :)

[PeanutBudder]

For the most part it's not hard to get in to the specialty restaurants without a reservation once onboard as long as you are willing to be a bit flexible on times which most people are. One exception is the Teppanyaki restaurant which has limited seatings.

 

 

Personally, I never pre-book for dinner. I like to keep it "Freestyle". :D

 

 

Enjoy.

 

One other thing since I noted you are sailing with young'uns, if you arent familiar with NCL dining:

 

CHILDREN EAT FOR LESS

Children 3-years old and younger always eat for free. In our specialty restaurants, children 4- to 12-years old can choose from a complimentary Kids’ Menu or from the restaurant’s Specialty Kids’ Menu for half price.

 

Thank you for that...I had NO idea about that for the kids. Our kids would fall in the free complimentary or half price off the specialty menu. That definitely makes me feel better about it as I was struggling having to pay $25-30 a kid to eat! VERY useful information!!!

[skyfire53]

Another good thing about waiting until onboard, is that you can use your OBC (on board credits) to pay for it, you dont need to pay with a credit card. ;)

[lshpak]

How about Thanksgiving? Would you pre-book anything for that day? Thank you

[emcelh]

How about Thanksgiving? Would you pre-book anything for that day? Thank you

 

Just a guess, but unless the specialty restaurants would be serving a traditional Thanksgiving dinner, I don't know that they would be more difficult to get into than other times. I was only on a ship once on Thanksgiving and the turkey dinner was in the MDR only.

[gatorsfam]

How about Thanksgiving? Would you pre-book anything for that day? Thank you

 

Thanksgiving is a date that I would pre-book. I've sailed twice over Thanksgiving and was happy with the MDR, but they did mention that traditional turkey dinner is available in every dining venue that day... That said, not sure why you'd go to Cagney's or wherever and get turkey... lol

 

If you want the specialty dining experience on Thanksgiving, go for it, then swing by the buffet afterwards to grab a small plate of turkey and call it good

[jdvmd]

If you prebook, you cannot use any onboard credit that you may have as you have to pay with a credit card for the booking at the time you make the reservation. Also, only 1/3 of all the available time slots are made available for prebooking.

[Karysa]

I would ore-book a special date like Valentines Day or a special occasion like an Anniversary. If you book early you will have a better chance of getting the time and perhaps the table that you would like. Otherwise I am like others and prefer to keep it freestyle.:)

[ibcnusoon]

We prebooked using the Signature Trio Special of La Cucina, Le Bistro and Cagney's for $57. That was the best deal!

 

I booked all of our restaurants at 7:00 p.m. figuring if we were a little early that would be ok, some nights I called ahead and was able to get in earlier.

 

The first night I took advantage of the Cirque discount and booked that. The 2nd night was "seafood night" in the buffet so I didn't book that (was the worse meal every). The third night was Port Canaveral and sailaway was at 9:00pm. I knew were were eating a late lunch so I booked a 9:30pm dinner at Le Bistro. It would out well, we called ahead and were able to get in at 8:30pm since we were ready to eat then.

 

The next night was Wednesday, booked LaCucina again at 7:00pm but arrived early and was able to be seated right away. Thursday and Friday we ate at the Manhattan Room because the menu looked very good, better than Taste and Savor. Saturday night we had a reservation for Cagney's, again at 7:00 p.m., our final meal. I tried to move it earlier, but it was booked solid.

 

I had heard people talking on the ship about NOT finding specialty dining times available during our cruise. Alot of the pre-booking was taken prior to the cruise and alot of people, on the first night, booked dining for the rest of the week. I think only Le Bistro was available at any time on any date, the other restaurants were booked solid by the following morning after boarding.

 

So if you want to wait until on board, book the entire week once you are on board. BUT, you can't take advantage of the Signature Trio Special of $57.

[Demonyte]

Thursday and Friday we ate at the Manhattan Room because the menu looked very good, better than Taste and Savor.

 

Just a small comment since that cruise seems to have been your first on NCL:

 

The daily changing half of the MDR menu ("today's specialities") is exactly the same in all MDRs.

 

The other half side ("always available" or "favourites" etc) that isn't, has largely just dishes named differently or f.ex a different cut of meat or different form of pasta etc.

 

So the differences on menus between MDRs on NCL are actually very minimal and to say that a menu in aft MDR looked better can only be about the static half of the menu and applies every day because the daily changing side is the same in all MDRs.

[ibcnusoon]

Just a small comment since that cruise seems to have been your first on NCL:

 

The daily changing half of the MDR menu ("today's specialities") is exactly the same in all MDRs.

 

The other half side ("always available" or "favourites" etc) that isn't, has largely just dishes named differently or f.ex a different cut of meat or different form of pasta etc.

 

So the differences on menus between MDRs on NCL are actually very minimal and to say that a menu in aft MDR looked better can only be about the static half of the menu and applies every day because the daily changing side is the same in all MDRs.

 

I thought I saw that Taste and Savor had the same dining menus but that on one night The Manhattan Dining room had a different menu than Taste and Savor. I remember distinctly seeing Turkey on the Taste and Savor menu and Strip Steak and Shrimp on The Manhattan Dining room.