Food Questions

[Bases5]

Food Questions

 

For all you NCL experts.

 

We are thinking about trying the Jewel in Alaska next year.

I have been snooping around reading many post.

There is a lot of posting about the dining package.

 

This seems very important to a lot of you.

 

I'm a little worried, from a outside view you make it seem that there is no food available or decent food anyhow, without buying this package.

Please ease my worries.

[zounds]

On the Jewel last Dec., we found plenty of good comp. food, always available, altho we did an anniv. splurge at LeBistro.

[SteveH2508]

We are both foodies - we have found that we are using the speciality restaurants less as we cruise more. The MDR offering are getting better and the menus are getting more tempting (IOHO).

 

We do not see the point in tying ourselves to doing speciality dining each night to get our 'moneys worth'. After all - Freestyle is about choice, spontaneity and going with the flow - we never pre-book before boarding - why pre-restrict yourself?

[caribsun]

Have recently sailed on the Jewel and Gem and never ate in the specialty restaurants. The 2 dining rooms, buffet and the Blue lagoon was very good.:)

[RIvacationgirl]

Food is a personal choice, but we found the food on the Jewel to be very appetizing.

If you want pub food, Blue Lagoon is open 24 hours, and the brownie sundae was delish.

The main dining rooms had enough choices for us, and they were very good-butterscotch bread pudding- sweet and decadent.

The buffet always had something for the both of us, and my DH and I do not have similar tastes for food. Pretzel rolls on the buffet-yum!:p

[Dorhead1230]

It is not at all necessary to eat in the specialty restaurants to have good food on NCL. There was a recent thread on this topic that has many useful comments: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2017062

 

I hope that information will be helpful to you!

[garycarla]

Based on comments here, you would think the food package was all important. Nope... just that people that eat in buffet, MDR and Blue Lagoon often do not post.

 

Rest assured, if even 30% of the ship only did the specialty, they would run out of tables.

[jmcookiemonster25]

Food Questions

 

For all you NCL experts.

 

We are thinking about trying the Jewel in Alaska next year.

I have been snooping around reading many post.

There is a lot of posting about the dining package.

 

This seems very important to a lot of you.

 

I'm a little worried, from a outside view you make it seem that there is no food available or decent food anyhow, without buying this package.

Please ease my worries.

 

There are plenty of places to eat on the ship that are free, and really delicious. You don't need the dining package to eat well.

[phoenix1181]

IMHO, NCL added the dining package because their pay restaurants weren't getting enough action. If they were running at or near capacity, they wouldn't need to try to entice people with a package that isn't necessarily saving people any $$.

 

We haven't cruised the Jewel but we've had no problem with the food available at no additional cost. We generally avoid the MDR and go to Cagney's the first night but the rest of the cruise, we have our meals one of the included venues.

[Cubechick]

Food Questions

 

For all you NCL experts.

 

We are thinking about trying the Jewel in Alaska next year.

I have been snooping around reading many post.

There is a lot of posting about the dining package.

 

This seems very important to a lot of you.

 

I'm a little worried, from a outside view you make it seem that there is no food available or decent food anyhow, without buying this package.

Please ease my worries.

 

I think a lot of people posting about the UDP happen to love Cagney's and LeBistro and are looking to maximize their savings.

 

I don't regard this as commentary on quality in the free dining venues, which is very good.

[Valen9]

In addition to what everyone else has said, the UDP is new and therefore a popular topic. It wasn't available at this time last year... plus in March NCL had a promotion where it came for free in certain cabin classes. So a whole lot of people are trying it and talking about it nowadays.

[newmexicoNita]

Food Questions

 

For all you NCL experts.

 

We are thinking about trying the Jewel in Alaska next year.

I have been snooping around reading many post.

There is a lot of posting about the dining package.

 

This seems very important to a lot of you.

 

I'm a little worried, from a outside view you make it seem that there is no food available or decent food anyhow, without buying this package.

Please ease my worries.

 

Just like others have said for years: food is subjective, but there is no reason to feel you have to buy a dining package or even eat in a specialty restaurant to get decent food. I do advise everyone to give one restaurant, at least a try, normally you will be pleased.

 

Here are your free choices, I am sure you can find something that you enjoy. All the food we have had and we have sailed NCL a heck of a lot has been decent, usually good and some very good to outstanding. The buffets are great for breakfast and lunch. I can't imagine anyone complaining and there are so many choices. There are 2 MDRs, one will serve B/L/and D daily, one only dinner. The breakfast choices are not outstanding but you can order anything you would at home plus lox and bagels, eggs benedict, etc. Lunch is so/so in the MDR Dinners have 3 or 4 selections daily plus the always available choices. Add to this you have the great outdoors near the buffet and Blue Lagoon, which is a place for to enjoy comfort food including breakfast. We love the buffalo wings and the fish and chips. You can even get room service, but I will tell you it isn't very good.

 

As you can see, if you can't find something everyday to enjoy must be accustom to top of the line eating. Do not expect 5 star dining, but you can expect 3 plus star.

[GORDONCHICK]

So far, we've spent 28 nights on NCL ships since 2009 (not a lot compared to many). Our Christmas 2013 cruise was on the Jewel. In 28 nights, we've had only 3 specialty meals. Is it necessary? Absolutely not. I think the service tends to be more attentive in the specialties.

[rbrugler]

We have been on thirteen cruises, 11 of them on NCL. I laugh at the comments about the UDP because we have already paid for wonderful food in our cruise fare. NCL, like any business, wants to make money. We use our platinum free meal for a splurge on a cruise. Last winter we did not use it at all.

 

We cruised on Carnival once. They only had one specialty venue. The never-ending debates about it were hilarious.

[kdzkatz]

We are taking our 6th NCL cruise to Alaska next month. 2 of us in our party decided to get the UDP. We are in a suite so we can have our butler bring us food from various specialties without worrying about the various charges. Also, at the end of this cruise we will be platinum status and have a 9 day to Alaska booked for next year and thought this would be a good opportunity to try all of the specialty restaurants to see what we have been missing. We have only tried 3 specialty restaurants and 2 of them are no longer available. If we decide the UDP is for us we will get it for next years cruise. If we find feel like we have to "work" at it to get the value out of it then we won't.

We have always been happy with the included food offerings on NCL but thought we would explore our other options. Since we prepaid we won't have to be fretting about how much more each specialty meal will be...it's paid for :D

[johnsak123]

I like to eat in specialty restaurants when traveling alone.

Last few cruises I traveled with friends and ate mostly in the MDR and it was just wonderful

[EasyPeasy]

I cruised on the Jewel last month, and there are tons of great options for food that is included with your cruise. I thought the MDR food was very tasty, as well as the buffet. I will say, however, if you would like a really special night, splurge on dinner at Le Bistro. It was phenomenal. We ended up going twice, it was that good.

[tarps14]

We are in a suite so we can have our butler bring us food from various specialties without worrying about the various charges.

 

Not sure where you might have gotten this info, but, you will be charged for any entrees that come from the specialty restaurants. The exception being the Haven restaurant of course.

 

To the OP-we got the UDP last cruise and thoroughly enjoyed it. Is it necessary? No way. It's all about personal choice, i.e. free style!

[Bases5]

Thanks everyone for your reassurance.

 

I'm not opposed to dining at a specialty restaurant

We have many time's but a specialty restaurant is just that a specialty restaurant

We like to do for a treat, but normally find the other food options quite fulfilling.

 

I just keep reading how this was the way to go (UDP) I thought the other options were not that good.

 

We are doing the Jewel for 10 days and the best I can tell it has 5 pay venues (not a la cart)

If we ate at them all once it would be $180.00 the package would be $328

I think just picking and choosing would be the way to go for us.

[kdzkatz]

Not sure where you might have gotten this info, but, you will be charged for any entrees that come from the specialty restaurants. The exception being the Haven restaurant of course.

 

To the OP-we got the UDP last cruise and thoroughly enjoyed it. Is it necessary? No way. It's all about personal choice, i.e. free style!

 

Not sure where you got your info. I think we are both a little right and a little wrong. I believe there is some small print to the effect of an additional charge for more than one entrée per person in Cagneys. I am not sure about other specialty restaurants. So as to not misinform the OP if you are in a suite and you get the UDP you may want to inquire further on this.

 

tarps14 thank you for pointing that out. The good thing is we will make sure we only order one entree for each of us and then whatever else tickles our fancy from any of the specialties when we have our butler deliver to our room (with the exception of Teppenyaki and Moderno)

[tarps14]

kdkatz-so very sorry. I completely flaked on the fact that you were getting the UDP. You are absolutely correct in that there won't be an additional charge. Wow, definitely my duh moment of the day.