What is your dining tactic ??

[weebobby]

Do you book your meals in advance ?

 

Or do you embrace the "Freestyle" and just decide where you are going to dine on the day on the ship ?

 

I am due to go on my first cruise and would prefer just to book it on the day or even just turn up . Obviously I appreciate the limitations of this tactic can be a lack of availability in popular restaurants

[LrgPizza]

We had UDP on our past 2 cruises, and had dinner reservations booked in advance each night. After the most recent cruise, we decided we would never do UDP again, and would not book in advance again. We plan to wing it now.

Edited June 1, 2015 by LrgPizza

[brookie848]

On our Epic cruise in March, for the first half of the cruise, we had no reservations and just showed up at the MDR when we were ready to eat. We had one instance where we had a bit of a wait (we expected that -- it was after an early show).

 

For the second half of the cruise, after the concierge staff seemed concerned that they weren't doing enough for us (we were in a suite), we had them make us reservations. However, the reservations were made a couple of hours before we were ready to eat.

 

I'm not sure what we'll do for our upcoming Escape cruise. We'll have the UDP but won't use it all nights. If there is a specific place we'd like to eat, we might make reservations before we leave, but most likely we'll take a look at the MDR menus when we get on board and then decide if we want to do a specialty.

[geegee1]

I always book in advance. Don't know if it's the planner in me or what, but it's just something I do. Especially the last 2 times on the Breakaway. IMO makes life easier knowing that I have reservations and won't be waiting or shut out from the restaurant.

[newmexicoNita]

We like to split up using special dining and the MDRs, so here is what we do: When we get on the ship we decide which nights we want to eat in specialty dining rooms. We always start, the first night with the Asian restaurant. Now, of course we do not have to pay for the Asian restaurant. We like to eat every other night in a specialty dining room on a 7 day cruise and about every 3rd night on longer cruises. So for us, it will be Asian the first night, just like it was a specialty dining room: the second night MDR, third specialty and so on.

[NLH Arizona]

I am a huge planner and I only eat dinner in the specialty restaurants. Saying that, I book my dinner reservations as soon as they become available (100 days prior if in a suite and 90 days prior in a non-suite cabin). One reason I book in advance, is because I want to make sure that I can get a particular time slot; many have recently come back saying that some restaurants were not available or that the only time slots available is 5:30 (too early) or 9:00 (way too late) and I like to eat at 7:00.

[vicocala]

We are embarking Saturday, I had pre-booked not only our specialties and Wine Lover's but also our times in the Tropicana just to be safe. I did not want to take a chance on everything being booked, especially as this is our first NCL cruise and we are unfamiliar with how things work on this line.

 

Now however, we will be in a suite thanks to an upsell so I guess the Tropicana nights may need changing if we try out the haven restaurant. Since concierge is included, we may also try for another night in the specialties since it is more likely to get in on short notice.

 

I have a differing view of freestyle than many here. It isn't just eat whenever you want for me, but also the option to book various venues at various times.

[biker@sea]

We wing it .

 

We eat late and rarely wait at an restaurant .

[punkincc]

We like to just go with the flow. Sometimes we make a couple reservations pre cruise, but there's nothing worse than having made a 5:30 reservation for dinner and then everyone gets ravenous and ends up having a big late lunch and no one is hungry come 5:30.

 

Or you didn't know you were doing the martini tasting that afternoon, would need a nice long nap afterward, and everyone is rushed and grumpy for the 5:30. It just makes life so much simpler to be able to do what you want when and not be tied to any schedule.

[slsmith374]

If I make reservations, I don'd do it until day-of. That way, I can check out the daily beforehand and make sure I'm not going to miss any must-sees.

[Planmaam]

We wing it most nights, too. We have been traveling with as large a group as 22 people, and as small as two couples. Most times, it's 3 couples, as will be the situation on our next cruise.

 

Once we board, we decide what night(s) we want to do specialty restaurants, and make reservations for those. Otherwise we just go to one of the main dining rooms when we are ready to eat and sign up. There have been times when we see that they are pretty booked by viewing the boards outside and decide to go to another restaurant. Once in the MDR we were given a beeper and went to the closest bar for the free drink; it buzzed before we even got our drinks!

 

Rarely have we had to wait; and we've never booked anything prior to boarding.

 

We've never had the UDP, and will not our next cruise. We're all in suites for this upcoming cruise, and two of us are platinum, so we may have options not available to us previously.

Edited June 1, 2015 by planma'am

[Sand and Seas]

We like to just go with the flow. Sometimes we make a couple reservations pre cruise, but there's nothing worse than having made a 5:30 reservation for dinner and then everyone gets ravenous and ends up having a big late lunch and no one is hungry come 5:30.

 

 

Totally agree! Freestyle is the best way to go. If we want a dinner at Cagneys, we will book that as we get onboard. We enjoy the MDRs and have never had a problem getting seated. Once in awhile they hand you a beeper and a coupon for a glass of wine while you wait :D

[perkydebrajean]

I prefer planning my dining around my day instead of my day around my dining. We had the UDP on our 11 day cruise and never ate at the same time twice. We made reservations 4 out of 11 nights because two of those were a group of us from CC getting together for dinner. All of those 4 reservations were done a couple of hours before we ate. So nothing was really planned ahead of time.

[NMLady]

Do you book your meals in advance ?

 

Or do you embrace the "Freestyle" and just decide where you are going to dine on the day on the ship ?

 

I am due to go on my first cruise and would prefer just to book it on the day or even just turn up . Obviously I appreciate the limitations of this tactic can be a lack of availability in popular restaurants

 

We do not have UDP, just the Platinum perk Le Bistro dinners. Those we book the day we'll use them, almost the Freestyle concept.

MDR we just show up. I've never understood the reasoning behind reserving meal time in MDR. I have a hard enough time scheduling Le Bistro because for me scheduling defeats the whole purpose of freestyle.

[GoAndHaveFun]

In the past, we just go to MDR, buffet, or booked teppanyaki on whichever night (typically 5th or 6th night even).

 

Recently, we will either book specialty dining off the bat (if we have Concierge) or we try to decide which nights to eat at specialty dining and then book whichever night.

 

Despite past and present habits, I still love dropping by Garden Cafe at like 5pm just to see what they have for dinner..even if we have specialty dining booked later. If a dish looks great or I am just curious on how it tastes, I will grab a piece of it. I also love going to the buffet at night to see what kinda snacks they got and maybe get some of that too.

[lisakoivu]

Having to be a certain place at a certain time reminds me of something .... work! I've never made a restaurant reservation in my life on a cruise. That would defeat the purpose of freestyle. I have been known to pre-book an excursion when travelling with offspring, but otherwise, we wing that too.

[mypleasure]

We have always 100% embraced freestyle. We never know what we want to eat or when we want to eat it until we are ready. We rarely if ever eat before 8 or 9PM. If we have UDP we go and look at the boards and choose a place to eat and go there. If we don't have UDP (we have never had a promo for this we always pay) we will on some nights go to the main dining room or sometimes we choose to go to a speciality. We love this concept but all these folks with reservations are making it harder to be freestyle about things and I have to say it is spoiling it for me. I still wouldn't want to do fixed dining of the traditional type though. That is the one change that would make me stop cruising with NCL, and any other line, altogether. I am not a person who likes being told when my body will need to be fed.

[mugtech]

If I make reservations, I don'd do it until day-of. That way, I can check out the daily beforehand and make sure I'm not going to miss any must-sees.

 

Exactly:D

[Gershep]

We make reservations ahead of time even for the MDR. Once onboard if we decide we no longer want that reservation I just pick up my room phone and either cancel or change the time.

[GateGuardian]

I usually eat at 6pm at the MDR. Usually, I'm done by 7pm, which is when the doors open for the 7:30pm show. I get a good seat and have a couple of drinks.

[NJGeorge]

We wing it .

 

We eat late and rarely wait at an restaurant .

 

^^^^^^^This

 

Free styling:)

[IWORK2CRUISE]

We thought that Freestyle Dining meant we were free to choose.

So far, we have been pretty successful.

For the most part, we wing it. We usually pick one or two days to make a reservation in advance. Maybe one day in advance!

 

The above being stated we have not yet experienced the Breakaway, Getaway ships that have even more dining venues.

[MCAT48]

We prebook one or two nights but usually end up changing the times.

[ncklhaus]

We make reservations ahead of time even for the MDR. Once onboard if we decide we no longer want that reservation I just pick up my room phone and either cancel or change the time.

 

That's exactly what we do.

We had reservations for Teppanyaki on the second night, but were invited to the VIP Captain's Reception for the same time. We just called the reservations desk, and they moved our reservation for 1 1/2 hours later.

[bangzoom6877]

We like to eat dinner early and we make reservations every night. But we are used to eating early since the kids were really little (they're 8 and 10 now). At home we always eat dinner between 5:30 and 6:30 (early for many people, I know!). So we book 5:30 in the MDR, then bring the boys to the kids club for the evening (opens at 7pm) and DH and I enjoy the evening. Or we all enjoy a show together if the boys feel like coming with us.

 

DH and I also like to eat at Le Bistro one night just the two of us. We go a little later for that one. Last time we went for 7:30 and brought the boys to the buffet for dinner before the kids club opened for the evening. We dropped them off at 7 when it opened and then went to dinner. This time my parents are bringing the boys to the MDR with them the night we go to Le Bistro, so DH and I made a 6:30 reservation for our date night dinner.

 

I am a huge planner though, especially when it comes to vacations. And we don't like waiting too long at a restaurant with the boys. Everyone is different. Before we had children, DH and I winged it more on NCL! It worked out, and a few times when there was a longer wait for a table for 2 in the MDR, we opted to sit with another couple. We met some nice people!