Do you like NCL food?

[mcatmcat]

Some people will say that Royal food is terrible but for some reason I like it a lot. I was in NCL sky once and the food was really bad, I remember I was in a port and Liberty of the seas was docked next to us and we were in the Buffett craving for royal food

 

I'm willing to sail in NCl again but I'm so scared because of my bad experience with their food

 

My question is, if you were loyal to royal ( at least before the price increase for 2016 lol) do you prefer NCL food over royal?

 

Compare it to the MDR and buffet, no special restaurant please

 

Thank you

[Yorkvillain]

I haven't been on NCL in a few years but I thought the food in the MDR and buffet were comparable to RCI. I think the Dynamic Dining restaurants on the Quantum are better then the MDR on NCL and better than the MDRs on other RCI ships.

 

I know you don't want to hear about specialty restaurants but I have to add that I thought they were very good on NCL - Le Bistro, Cagneys Steakhouse and the hibachi restaurant were all delicious. I ate at the hibachi on the Oasis and thought it was below average.

Edited March 20, 2015 by Yorkvillain

[tahqa]

I was on Sky last weekend and found the MDR food and menu worse than Royal but the buffet, in general, was better.

[OCruisers]

Food is very good in the $pecialty Restaurants on both NCL and RCCL .... but we aren't fond of the food in the MDR or buffet on either.

LuLu

Edited March 20, 2015 by OCruisers

[SchoolNurseMom]

I've cruised RCL and NCL and liked the food equally. Had things I liked and things I didn't like as much! I like the way NCL's buffets are set up better, but The actual food is comparable I think.

[UtahCruise]

We were on the Oasis February 2014 and ate all our dinners in the mdr and enjoyed all our meals. Including the one night we ate in the windjammer. They had some of the same main courses as the mdr. We ate breakfast one breakfast in the buffet and it was ok but way too crowded. At the time there were not any made to order omelettes at the wipeout. We ended up at Johnny Rockets every morning. We love Park Cafe for lunch.

This past July we did the NCL Jewel to Alaska (loved the ship,entertainment, and crew) but we tried 2 meals in the mdr for dinner and it was awful. We ended up eating at the buffet for most of our meals since we could at least find something to eat. Pretzel rolls are the best. A couple of times we ate at O'Sheehans (we liked the pot pie and prime rib). Overall we weren't happy with their food. Since then I have heard they were supposedly improving their food quality. I did enjoy their buffet for breakfast.

I think our next cruise we will be trying NCL again or even a newer ship on Carnival because of the high prices on Royal.

[Doc Rick]

We were just on Norwegian Breakaway a few weeks ago. Buffet on Breakaway was better than any RC ship I've been on (almost all of them). The MDR food was slightly better on Breakaway than most RC ships.

 

They also have a free "Uptown Grill" with the best burgers - ever!

 

We enjoyed dining in the Manhattan Room on the Breakaway - which is one of 3 free MDR's on the ship. The service is better and a little more relaxed than RC. Service was not rushed and they have live dinner music playing with a large dance floor - if you care to have a romantic dance while waiting for your dinner.

 

Top 5 cruises on the Breakaway out of almost 30 cruises. 25 of them with RC.

 

I think Norwegian recently did a major overhaul on their food across the entire line of ships. I would recommend trying them out!

 

- Doc

[somerandomidiot]

Some people will say that Royal food is terrible but for some reason I like it a lot. I was in NCL sky once and the food was really bad, I remember I was in a port and Liberty of the seas was docked next to us and we were in the Buffett craving for royal food

 

I'm willing to sail in NCl again but I'm so scared because of my bad experience with their food

 

My question is, if you were loyal to royal ( at least before the price increase for 2016 lol) do you prefer NCL food over royal?

 

Compare it to the MDR and buffet, no special restaurant please

 

Thank you

[ATTACH]343805[/ATTACH]

 

I've only been on the Breakway but I would say the NCL MDR/buffett is similar in quality to RCI but I had a particularly clueless and incompetent bunch of waitstaff for that cruise . They had 3 separate "MDR" and the service, for the most part, was inefficient and ineffective in each restaurant. This was true of lunches and dinners. Everything took a loooooooong time. I stopped ordering dessert at the end of meals to avoid the extra 30 minutes of waiting.

 

I really liked having the takeout wings from the bar though. ate about 15 wings a night as a midnight snack. on a related note, the ncl gym class offerings completely beat the RCI ones.

[drarill]

Some people will say that Royal food is terrible but for some reason I like it a lot. I was in NCL sky once and the food was really bad, I remember I was in a port and Liberty of the seas was docked next to us and we were in the Buffett craving for royal food

 

I'm willing to sail in NCl again but I'm so scared because of my bad experience with their food

 

My question is, if you were loyal to royal ( at least before the price increase for 2016 lol) do you prefer NCL food over royal?

 

Compare it to the MDR and buffet, no special restaurant please

 

Thank you

[ATTACH]343805[/ATTACH]

Sorry, but the only way we cruise with NCL is on a suite and booking specialty restaurants every night. ;) At the end it can be cheaper than a RCCL even when you add the cost of the specialty restaurants... BTW, their Suite experience is much better than Royal's IMHO.

[Susie51]

I like the buffet on NCL much better than RCCL. In Dec. we liked our MDR meals on NCL Jewel. Le Bistro has excellent food on NCL. On RCCL we have been happy with MDR food so we haven't eaten in the specialty restaurants.

[MADflyer]

We were just on Norwegian Breakaway a few weeks ago. Buffet on Breakaway was better than any RC ship I've been on (almost all of them). I think Norwegian recently did a major overhaul on their food across the entire line of ships. I would recommend trying them out!

 

- Doc

 

I am not a fan of buffets normally, but have to admit that NCL sure have gotten this right now.

 

I sailed on Getaway and Spirit from NCL last year and Vision, Liberty, Legend, Oasis and Quantum from RCI last year.

 

I really liked the 'Specialty' section they have on Breakaway and Getaway for breakfast, a separate section forward of the elevators with direct access to the deck seating area, where they had eggs benedict, salmon and cream cheese along with my favorite Bircher Muesli.

 

RCI have a better sit down breakfast when they do it right. They sometimes get lazy now that they have put a buffet section in their MDRs.

 

RCI won hands down for lunch in the MDR with Tutti Salad and good menu selection.

 

The NCL real ice cream bar at the buffet is a nice touch. NCL changed their lunch buffet variety more from day to day.

 

Royal really tried to improve the WJ with Quantum, but while the layout was improved the selection was average buffet fare and many RCI classics such as 'cold soups' were gone.

 

The Liberty nightly sushi at Jade Sushi was a highlight for RCI.

 

Both lines have excellent specialty dining from Izumi with RCI to Shogun/Teppanyaki with NCL, the very creative Wonderland for RCI and then the excellent Moderno Brazilian restaurant with NCL.

[Stateroom_Sailor]

NCL has a special where you pick from Free Booze, Free Specialty Dining, OBC, or Free Tips. Get all 4 if you book a suite!

 

Personally I would pick specialty dining.

[DirtyDawg]

We were on the Pearl last Fall. The food is quite good. We've sailed on Carnival, Royal, Celebrity and NCL. I think X has the best food of the four but we would sail NCL again. Their freestyle dining is very convenient, Le Bistro is very good and they are much more laid back vs. X and Royal.

[OfTheSeasCruiser]

I sailed on the NCL Epic in 2013 and on the Radiance of the Seas in 2014. Radiance's MDR food was much better, by far. Buffets were about equal.

Edited March 21, 2015 by OfTheSeasCruiser

[Redcat]

Sailed on Getaway last year and food was very good. MDR specialty but not buffet

[Granny DI]

We gave up on the Oasis MDR after 2 nights. We went to specialty restaurants. The specialty restaurants on the Oasis don't compare Ocean Blu, Cagneys or Moderno on the Breakaway.

[kaftigr]

I was on the Getaway in Jan and Oasis in Feb and I thought the food on the Getaway was better than Oasis and I ate most of my meals in the Coastal Kitchen and Chops one time. I thought the buffet on the Getaway was equivalent to my 2 Celebrity cruises I've been on.

[big al]

Some people will say that Royal food is terrible but for some reason I like it a lot. I was in NCL sky once and the food was really bad, I remember I was in a port and Liberty of the seas was docked next to us and we were in the Buffett craving for royal food

 

I'm willing to sail in NCl again but I'm so scared because of my bad experience with their food

 

My question is, if you were loyal to royal ( at least before the price increase for 2016 lol) do you prefer NCL food over royal?

 

Compare it to the MDR and buffet, no special restaurant please

 

Thank you

[ATTACH]343805[/ATTACH]

 

FIRST of all, food is VERY subjective..what you might think is good, others may think is awful...that being said, food on NCL has improved greatly in the MDR on Epic, Getaway & Breakaway..I thought the buffet on those three ships was outstanding..You should know, one cruises NCL BECAUSE of specialty dining & entertainment..it would be foolish IMO, to go on NCL & not do the much better specialty dining..that would be like going to Ruth Chris or Morton's and ordering chicken...you can get chicken anywhere..these places are for beef I.E.....BUT, where NCL outshines RCI is the specialty dining- Le Bistro ( French), Cagney's ( steak), Teppanyaki ( Japanese hibachi), Moderno ( Brazilian steak), Ocean Blue ( seafood) & La Cucina ( Italian), are all outstanding IMO..better yet, you can dine at some of these OUTSIDE over-looking the sea on the Getaway, Breakaway & the new Escape ( Nov. '15) or inside..also their Irish Pub called O'Sheehans is a 24/7 pub that serves FREE food like fish & chips, ribs & wings..great idea & my friends, who are almost Diamond ( like me) on RCI, went on the Breakaway twice in the last 14 months and said, it "blows RCI away in food & entertainment"..they recently cruised 12 nights on the Breakaway & took the "Ultimate Dining Package" and dined all 12 nights in specialty & raved about ALL of them...conversely, they sailed the AOS last year and said the food was "the worst we've ever had on any ship" and entertainment also was lacking...in fact, my DW & I are going on the AOS this Nov & I asked them if they wanted to join us, and they replied, "not even if it was free"..,WOW, big statement!! Best of all, Norwegian runs specials where you can get the specialty dining package for free right now or 3 other packages ( beverage, gratuities, etc..)..Between the free packages, great dining & shows, I would cruise the Getaway, Breakaway & Epic in a heartbeat, not the smaller ships mind you, but the newer, bigger ones..and the new Escape coming in Nov. 2015, looks even better!

 

Big Al

[TryingCruising]

We sailed the Dawn in 2013 and thought the MDR food was not good. While we didn't starve and had a great trip, that was our worst food choice cruise. The buffet was a bit more comparable to Royal, but the specialty restaurants on ncl weren't even worth the up charge in our opinion. The dining room food was sometimes inedible. Food pushed us back to royal when we sailed the allure last year. We really enjoyed all our meals and the many options!

 

We're pricing cruises for next year and thinking of doing a newer NCL ship. OP, the food concern is our hesitation too.

[roquejo]

I've cruised RCL and NCL and liked the food equally. Had things I liked and things I didn't like as much! I like the way NCL's buffets are set up better, but The actual food is comparable I think.

 

Same here as I cruised both lines... food is equal. But NCL has ultimate dining package for the specialty restaurants, I wish RCCL has it too.

 

If you want slightly better food, then sail Celebrity...

[HACKT]

Going to sound repetitive but we like RCCL MDR food better than NCL. And we like NCL buffet food better than RCCL. Been on 7 RCCL cruises and 2 NCL. NCL buffet is less crowded, better layout, and more choices. Still going on both cruise lines this year. NCL is a great bargain and we took their UDP so have free spec restaurants every night. But RCCL has better ships so doing Oasis and Allure this year too

[HACKT]

Meant to add that we did a Disney cruise and their MDR food was far better than anyone else's now. However we didn't like their buffet. It was like a cafeteria line so both RCCL and NCL had better buffets.

[LEtue]

We sailed the Dawn in 2013 and thought the MDR food was not good. While we didn't starve and had a great trip, that was our worst food choice cruise. The buffet was a bit more comparable to Royal, but the specialty restaurants on ncl weren't even worth the up charge in our opinion. The dining room food was sometimes inedible. Food pushed us back to royal when we sailed the allure last year. We really enjoyed all our meals and the many options!

 

We're pricing cruises for next year and thinking of doing a newer NCL ship. OP, the food concern is our hesitation too.

 

I sailed on the NCL Dawn in 2013 too and found the food in the dining rooms to be mediocure at best. The buffet was about the same as RCI but less choices.

 

I have been thinking of trying NCL again someday - but I hesitate too. However, I am a firm believer that you should never base anything on a sample of 1 so maybe the Getaway will be a good choice.....

[Homosassa]

The one reason I no longer cruise NCl is the inedible food in the buffet and MDR. The specialty results are just average and not worth the upcharge.

 

Last cruise on RCCL was about a month ago. Breakfast in the Windjammer was good. Lunch in the WJ ranged from somewhat edible to awful. Dinner in the MDR was good, but nothing to rave about.

[American Bear]

I was on Sky last weekend and found the MDR food and menu worse than Royal but the buffet, in general, was better.

 

 

We'd agree, RCL is better in the MDR, although we like freestyle better then assigned times, and we also thought the buffet on NCL is better.