with all the advanced booking what happened to Freestyle?

[2ManyCruises]

The Freestyle Concept (If you can call it that. Let's face it, NCL didn't invent a concept here, they just copied what people do every single day and put it on a ship) simply means that YOU the guest make the decisions about when/where to eat, who to eat with, what shows to see, and how to dress instead of the cruise line making those decisions for you.

 

Allowing reservations is really a part of Freestyle...now you have the additional OPTION of scheduling things in advance...again only if YOU the guest choose to do so.

 

 

Try not to confuse the Freestyle Concept with the Spontaneity Concept.

 

Well said.

[sjmbruce]

new to NCL and will be on the POA next year. do i need to worry about making reservations for any of the evening shows or the main dining room?

[ilovetotravel1977]

When we boarded the Epic last April, while we were waiting for our room to be available, we sat on the stairs and used my iPhone and iConcierge and booked our shows for the week. Glad we did that, actually. I'm a major planner by nature, so having NO plan stresses me out more LOL

[anonmom]

Only the ships including the Epic and those who came after have shows that offer reservations. You'll be fine on the Star just showing up at the theatre before show time. You have the option to make reservations for Specialty restaurants.

 

Glad to hear this! For a moment this thread stressed me out. I have no desire to make reservations for every night of the week while I'm on vacation. We'll just walk up to whatever shows are playing on the Jade on whatever day. I'd like to see a couple of things just to chill with my boyfriend while our daughter is in the kids club, but I don't really care what we see. If it is awful, I want to be able to just walk out without feeling like I've ruined a plan that we set in stone months before!

[Sauer-kraut]

new to NCL and will be on the POA next year. do i need to worry about making reservations for any of the evening shows or the main dining room?

 

No you don't need to worry, and if you do your port tours thoroughly you'll probably be too tired to do much but grad something from the buffet and relax in your cabin :D

[Cruzncutie]

The Freestyle Concept (If you can call it that. Let's face it, NCL didn't invent a concept here, they just copied what people do every single day and put it on a ship) simply means that YOU the guest make the decisions about when/where to eat, who to eat with, what shows to see, and how to dress instead of the cruise line making those decisions for you.

 

 

 

Allowing reservations is really a part of Freestyle...now you have the additional OPTION of scheduling things in advance...again only if YOU the guest choose to do so.

 

 

 

 

 

Try not to confuse the Freestyle Concept with the Spontaneity Concept.

 

 

Agree 100%. I don't like the idea of needing to make show/dinner reservations months in advance bc that takes some of the spontaneity out of my vacation, but I'd rather do that than be disappointed once on board. I typically only reserve shows in advance and use the concierge to make same day dinner reservations. I will be on the Escape in January and now I'm beginning to think I need to reserve a few dinners as well, especially taking into consideration the new restaurants and so many people having the UDP.

[trish1c]

A couple booked shows and dinners are not going to put that big a crimp in your Freestyle vacation. Much more relaxing than stressing out all week on the cruise over getting into shows and restaurants.

 

The Freestyle Concept simply means that YOU the guest make the decisions about when/where to eat, who to eat with, what shows to see, and how to dress instead of the cruise line making those decisions for you.

 

Try not to confuse the Freestyle Concept with the Spontaneity Concept.

 

I liked the spontaneous aspects of Freestyle! And my past experience is that if I don't make these entertainment reservations now, 3 months out, I will not be able to do them at all. Plus or minus 1/2 hour I never had a problem with dining reservations but will concede Teppenaki is hard to come by.

 

But if I make the reservations now, I have to write them down (or at least put them in my phone) and remember them. I will stress & worry about them all cruise thereby ruining the relaxation because I will constantly be looking at a clock . . . which I have to then bring with me because there are no clocks on board. Then I have to stop what I'm doing on board at the allotted time & rush, rush, rush to be at a specified place at a specified time. So yes, that puts a crimp in MY vacation. The whole rest of my life is scheduled to the hilt so on vacation I want to be able to pick & chose close in time to the activity.

 

The system must be working for somebody or it would have been scrapped a long time ago. My point was that I don't like it.

[SeaShark]

I liked the spontaneous aspects of Freestyle! And my past experience is that if I don't make these entertainment reservations now, 3 months out, I will not be able to do them at all. Plus or minus 1/2 hour I never had a problem with dining reservations but will concede Teppenaki is hard to come by.

 

But if I make the reservations now, I have to write them down (or at least put them in my phone) and remember them. I will stress & worry about them all cruise thereby ruining the relaxation because I will constantly be looking at a clock . . . which I have to then bring with me because there are no clocks on board. Then I have to stop what I'm doing on board at the allotted time & rush, rush, rush to be at a specified place at a specified time. So yes, that puts a crimp in MY vacation. The whole rest of my life is scheduled to the hilt so on vacation I want to be able to pick & chose close in time to the activity.

 

The system must be working for somebody or it would have been scrapped a long time ago. My point was that I don't like it.

 

But, if that is happening, it is only because of YOUR choices, not because of something that the cruise line made you do.

 

 

So called traditional cruising is when the cruise line makes the decisions, freestyle cruising is when the guest makes the decisions.

 

The guest can choose to plan every little detail far far in advance and stick to their schedule.....OR....the guest can choose to be 100% spontaneous and have no pre-arranged schedule at all.....or anything in between.

 

 

If you don't like the way your vacation planning is going, then simply choose to change it to something that you do like. The cruise line is doing nothing to require you to stick to that schedule.

[Shawnino]

I don't like pre-planning, but I like lineups even less.

I book in advance so I get what I want.

The cruise line isn't assigning my dining time; I'm still picking my own.

If you can't deal with pre-planning, deal with the lineups.

[shorefolks]

The first cruise my wife and I took together was on the NCL Skyward to the Caribbean in the early 80s. The enforced regimen (set meal times, dress codes, table mates, etc.) was so unpleasant that we did not cruise again for over 20 years. When NCL introduced Freestyle, we decided to give it a try. We enjoyed it so much that we have been actively cruising for the last 10 years. As other lines have adopted versions of Freestyle, we have expanded our selections to Princess and Celebrity, as well as continuing with NCL.

 

In recent years, however, we have noticed that the general Freestyle concept (or its equivalent on other lines) has eroded and become gradually less workable. This has three causes: (1) the increased size of ships, with more passengers fighting for resources that have not greatly expanded; (2) the use of reservations for dining and, now, entertainment; and (3) on the other lines, allowing passengers who have opted for traditional dining to use the "anytime" dining rooms when they wish. The result is that walk-up dining has become much more of a hassle, with wait times on a recent Celebrity cruise averaging 30 minutes regardless of when we arrived at the dining room.

 

How to fight this? We have mostly avoided the larger ships in the past, but now we won't even look at them. Make dining reservations weeks or months ahead? No. That takes us back almost to where we were 30-some years ago. One of the things that we really enjoy about a cruise vacation is exactly the freedom to be spontaneous in our (lack of) dining planning. We will plan our excursions but not our meals.

 

No, what I see us doing is moving away gradually from the mass-market lines. Thus, despite my native cheapness, we just booked our second Oceania cruise- smaller ship, smart-casual dress code, and a much more relaxed feeling. All of which means that we have been driven to pay more to try to regain what we enjoyed in the past. Sounds an awful lot like airline travel.

[trish1c]

But, if that is happening, it is only because of YOUR choices, not because of something that the cruise line made you do.

 

The guest can choose to plan every little detail far far in advance and stick to their schedule.....OR....the guest can choose to be 100% spontaneous and have no pre-arranged schedule at all.....or anything in between..

 

Once the cruise industry introduced the idea of making reservations in advance and stopped making the entertainment available only on a 1st come 1st serve basis the day of, that business model is forcing passengers' hands. If the passenger choses not to make a reservation and tries to use the walk up system, it has been my experience that there is no availability. Thus the choice is an illusion & that is what makes it even more maddening. The choice is make a reservation or accept that you can't go. Hence, not freestyle

Edited October 28, 2015 by trish1c

[SeaShark]

Once the cruise industry introduced the idea of making reservations in advance and stopped making the entertainment available only on a 1st come 1st serve basis the day of, that business model is forcing passengers' hands. If the passenger choses not to make a reservation and tries to use the walk up system, it has been my experience that there is no availability. Thus the choice is an illusion & that is what makes it even more maddening. The choice is make a reservation or accept that you can't go. Hence, not freestyle

 

As long as the cruise line is not making the decisions, it isn't correct to say its not freestyle. The whole of freestyle vs traditional rests on WHO makes the decisions.

 

You are getting lost in the availability of choices. When we travel we are not alone...we share the ship with many other people....we can't all do the same things at the same time. Lack of availability does not mean that the option was never there (especially given that it was there for all of the people who were able to make that choice).

 

If I book a cruise two years in advance, I have a wide variety of cabins from which to choose. Same as preplanning my dining or entertainment in advance.

 

However...if I wait until the week of the cruise to book, the cabin availability will be much smaller. In fact, some types of cabins may no longer be available at all. Same as trying to be spontaneous with my dining or entertainment choices.

 

It sounds like what you want is to be able to make your choices "on the fly", but you still want the options available to those who book well in advance.

 

Can't have your cake and eat it too.

[fshagan]

We had the UDP on our recent cruise, and it's the first time we have eaten in a specialty restaurant more than once on a cruise. And we bailed on one duplicate night to eat in the MDR where we actually had the best tasting dinner of the entire cruise. Seriously.

 

Le Bristro and Cagney's are almost worth the hassle, but not quite. They just aren't that good, and if you were not on a ship you would not pay any attention to them.

 

When choosing promos in the future, we know the UDP is not one we will enjoy. I'll bet the more than 1,000 on the recent Epic cruise includes a lot of people like us. We won't choose it, and won't pre-book restaurant times 90 days out so we "don't miss" what is mostly a forgettable experience anyway. We didn't feel a single specialty was worth the usual cover charge. And even free, we kept thinking about any of the other promos we could have chosen. It was great to be able to try all of the specialties.

 

That means as promo-mania winds down a bit the overcrowding for the specialties will ease up. My wife and I won't be in competition with you for the reservation.

 

That may change with the move to higher prices and a la carte in the more expensive specialties, but until the food quality improves drastically the specialties are certainly not worth reserving 90 days in advance.

[SwissLe]

I just see freestyle as doing what you want on your schedule, and that can mean a schedule planned 100 days out. Say goodbye to fixed dining times at an assigned table in a specified restaurant - that still stands.

[mpcaruth]

NCL boasts a unique "Freestyle". Yet, I have also sailed Royal and Carnival, and I hardly see where NCL is anymore freestyle than the others. Each allows the option of My Time or Any Time dining where you eat in the dining on your schedule anywhere from 5:30 to 9:30. The other lines also have speciality restaurants and other food choices. The only difference I see is that NCL has two (or more) free dining rooms without set dining times, whereas the others have only one. Now granted, NCL typically has way more fee-based specialty restaurants than the others.

 

All three cruise lines have multiple entertainment options in the evening. I don't see where NCL is any more freestyle than the others with regards to entertainment. I have never had to make reservations on Carnival and have had to only once on Royal. But on NCL (Getaway in particular), we feel gently pushed to make reservations.

 

I agree with a previous poster that the big ships must incorporate reservations to spread out the great number of cruisers. So, maybe the smaller ships allow for the traditional "Freestyle" experience.

[rowlady]

I had the same experience on the Breakaway last December. I do not like to plan every little detail which is the reason I kept returning to Norwegian freestyle. We were unable to dine in most specialty restaurants because they were all full before we even stepped on board. I think this is contradicting the freestyle concept and I am not really a fan of this new structure :(

[Sauer-kraut]

NCL boasts a unique "Freestyle". Yet, I have also sailed Royal and Carnival, and I hardly see where NCL is anymore freestyle than the others. Each allows the option of My Time or Any Time dining where you eat in the dining on your schedule anywhere from 5:30 to 9:30. The other lines also have speciality restaurants and other food choices. The only difference I see is that NCL has two (or more) free dining rooms without set dining times, whereas the others have only one. Now granted, NCL typically has way more fee-based specialty restaurants than the others.

 

All three cruise lines have multiple entertainment options in the evening. I don't see where NCL is any more freestyle than the others with regards to entertainment. I have never had to make reservations on Carnival and have had to only once on Royal. But on NCL (Getaway in particular), we feel gently pushed to make reservations.

 

I agree with a previous poster that the big ships must incorporate reservations to spread out the great number of cruisers. So, maybe the smaller ships allow for the traditional "Freestyle" experience.

 

Amazing how the trends that Norwegian started have gone almost industry wide! :D

Edited October 30, 2015 by Sauer-kraut

[Cloudyrain]

We have cruised on the Epic twice in "full capacity" sailings in May (2013 and 2015) and NEVER struggled to see anything and never "pre-booked" before we arrived. We booked a few of the shows a day or two before, although we cancelled the bookings a few times and went to other shows on "stand bys" (which actually gets the best seats in my book - at the back on the stools near the bar).

 

They do tend to repeat the shows many times and the only thing that ever seems to be fully booked from day one is Cirque and one of the asian restaurants (but it's limited seating, so not a surprise).

 

We also booked speciality dining the day before we wanted it for Le Bistro and Cagneys (although for later times, 9pm I think) - although both times we ended up cancelling as we were happier with the MDR menu one night, and had a few problems with the waves that didn't give me much of an appetite the other.

 

Oh dear, just realised I'm probably more of a "canceller" than a "planner" :D

 

We are on the Breakaway to the Bahamas in a few weeks - I hope I don't come back having had a different experience! :eek:

[Cloudyrain]

I meant to add - for us NCL Freestyle is better than we experienced on P&O, especially as I feel the Freestyle concept extends not only to dining options but also clothing styles. At least with NCL we aren't shunned or relegated for men being tie-less at dinner. We also haven't really experienced much MDR waiting times on NCL compared to P&O - although I quite miss the Cava vouchers you used to get on the Epic if they couldn't seat you immediately. I don't mind waiting to be seated for up to half an hour as I always find the speed of the food being brought out compensates for any waiting for tables.