Dining question

[OttawaJohn]

Hi all

 

I'm sure this exists elsewhere but couldn't seem to find a quick answer on it.

 

My wife and I are used to more NCL 'freestyle' dining where you make reservations when/where you want.  This is our first real 'set dining' cruise.

We have the early time at 6pm on the Edge.

 

How does that work?  Can we go to any of the four complimentary restaurants at 6 or is there a rotation or do you choose in advance?

 

Thanks in advance

[Tierun]

Actually no real set dining times. Just show up to any of the dining rooms when you’re ready to eat. Usually no wait, but if there is a wait, you can just go to another dining room that’s available. It is never an issue getting a table on edge class ships in my experience. Enjoy your cruise.

[OttawaJohn]

Very cool, thanks!  May be a bit of a wait since we prefer a private table,

[NutsAboutGolf]

I see your sig that you appear to be going on the Beyond which is E-Class which does have multiple dining rooms which are all anytime.  The E-Class has no traditional dining even if the app says it does.  The S/M class doesn't have multiple dining rooms beyond one for traditional and one for anytime/"select"

[jelayne]

32 minutes ago, Tierun said:

Actually no real set dining times. Just show up to any of the dining rooms when you’re ready to eat. Usually no wait, but if there is a wait, you can just go to another dining room that’s available. It is never an issue getting a table on edge class ships in my experience. Enjoy your cruise.

Just off the Edge and they do have set dining.  Not sure how it works but they have brought back Set dining at least on Edge.  It was at 5 and 7:30, see below.

[Pinboy]

11 minutes ago, OttawaJohn said:

Very cool, thanks!  May be a bit of a wait since we prefer a private table,

We also prefer a table for two--- never a problem---- Just mention it to the Hostess.

You can select to dine at any of the 4 restaurants and can order any of the " specialties " from any of the other restaurants.

( Ottawa---We met a couple on a cruise that told us about a Chinese restaurant that serves " famous " eggrolls---Do you know it, in case we come to Ottawa some day ) ?

[Tierun]

5 minutes ago, jelayne said:

Just off the Edge and they do have set dining.  Not sure how it works but they have brought back Set dining at least on Edge.  It was at 5 and 7:30, see below.

 

 Just as NutsAboutGolf stated above, although it says that, no one is held to a dining time.

[NutsAboutGolf]

4 minutes ago, jelayne said:

Just off the Edge and they do have set dining.  Not sure how it works but they have brought back Set dining at least on Edge.  It was at 5 and 7:30, see below.

 

Other than seeing traditional dining times in the daily, do you know for sure traditional dining happened on your sailing? 

 

Others have claimed despite being able to make traditional MDR reservations in the app, the reality was E-Class ships only had select/anytime

 

 

 

Here's one random thread...

 

 

[SbbquilterUT]

We found that on the E class ships we could wait until about 6:45 when the folks who want to see the early show leave and we could get a table quickly and sometimes by a window.

[OttawaJohn]

39 minutes ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

I see your sig that you appear to be going on the Beyond which is E-Class which does have multiple dining rooms which are all anytime.  The E-Class has no traditional dining even if the app says it does.  The S/M class doesn't have multiple dining rooms beyond one for traditional and one for anytime/"select"

Thanks for the reminder!  Actually we just changed our cruise so updated my signature accordingly 🙂 

[OttawaJohn]

29 minutes ago, Pinboy said:

( Ottawa---We met a couple on a cruise that told us about a Chinese restaurant that serves " famous " eggrolls---Do you know it, in case we come to Ottawa some day ) ?

My guess would be they meant the Golden Palace.  I personally don't think it's amazing but many people do.  Every year they do a sale on eggrolls and people line up for hours to get them.

[jelayne]

7 minutes ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

 

Other than seeing traditional dining times in the daily, do you know for sure traditional dining happened on your sailing? 

 

Others have claimed despite being able to make traditional MDR reservations in the app, the reality was E-Class ships only had select/anytime

 

 

 

Here's one random thread...

 

 

I seen all those claims/threads probably posted on the, that fixed time dining was gone.    I have also been on the on 10 E class cruises since the restart, including the Beyond TA where fixed time dining was discontinued mid cruise because wait time to be seated were over a hour.

 

Yes, fixed time was available on our recent cruise.  Spoke to a dining room host who said they set aside a section of the dining room for those that want the same time. Same staff every night.  Because it is at 5 by they knew by 5:20 who wasn’t going to be there and could use any empty tables for walk up diners until about 6.   Then those tables would be ready for the 7:30 fixed time diners. 
 

It seemed to be working.  We were in a Suite but ate in the MDRs  about 40% of the time and never experienced or saw a wait of over 5-6 minutes.

 

[OttawaJohn]

30 minutes ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

 

Other than seeing traditional dining times in the daily, do you know for sure traditional dining happened on your sailing? 

 

Others have claimed despite being able to make traditional MDR reservations in the app, the reality was E-Class ships only had select/anytime

 

 

It does seem a bit unclear but their website talks about it still.  My booking says we are booked for the 'early' at 6pm and when I go to the site, I can't reserve anything as it says I have a set time already.

[jelayne]

4 minutes ago, OttawaJohn said:

It does seem a bit unclear but their website talks about it still.  My booking says we are booked for the 'early' at 6pm and when I go to the site, I can't reserve anything as it says I have a set time already.

It is because you have set time the system won’t let you make reservation othe reservations.

[hcat]

21 minutes ago, jelayne said:

I seen all those claims/threads probably posted on the, that fixed time dining was gone.    I have also been on the on 10 E class cruises since the restart, including the Beyond TA where fixed time dining was discontinued mid cruise because wait time to be seated were over a hour.

 

Yes, fixed time was available on our recent cruise.  Spoke to a dining room host who said they set aside a section of the dining room for those that want the same time. Same staff every night.  Because it is at 5 by they knew by 5:20 who wasn’t going to be there and could use any empty tables for walk up diners until about 6.   Then those tables would be ready for the 7:30 fixed time diners. 
 

It seemed to be working.  We were in a Suite but ate in the MDRs  about 40% of the time and never experienced or saw a wait of over 5-6 minutes.

 

 Can you pick the dining rm we prefer?    we prefer Cyprus and Tuscan..early dinner, 2  of us at a window.

 

In the 2 larger dining rms, the long tables of 2 across from each other are quite uncomfy and like a boarding house!  We  got stuck  first night of our first EDGE cruise but never again after that!

[lv2cruisgrl]

For the last few cruises on Edge class ships we have had the same time and table for 6 of us. The first night for dinner we showed up at Normandy, told them what we wanted and they said no problem. We show up at 5:15/5:30 and just go to our table. 

[NutsAboutGolf]

45 minutes ago, hcat said:

 Can you pick the dining rm we prefer?    we prefer Cyprus and Tuscan..early dinner, 2  of us at a window.

 

In the 2 larger dining rms, the long tables of 2 across from each other are quite uncomfy and like a boarding house!  We  got stuck  first night of our first EDGE cruise but never again after that!

 

Previously, if you had E-Class had the traditional option, you were assigned to one MDR.  You could go to your M'D and request a night in another MDR.  If you have select/anytime dining, you can go to any MDR you want.  If traditional is back, you'd imagine it would be the same but that is an assumption, not a fact

Edited May 14 by NutsAboutGolf

[OttawaJohn]

6 minutes ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

 

Previously, if you had E-Class had the traditional option, you were assigned to one MDR.  You could go to your M'D and request a night in another MDR.  If you have select/anytime dining, you can go to any MDR you want.  If traditional is back, you'd imagine it would be the same but that is an assumption, not a fact

That seems odd.  So you were told 'you have to eat Italian all week since we put you in Tuscon'?  You can't choose which ones to go to?

[jelayne]

Tuscan isn’t all Italian.  In fact you can get an item from any of the 4 MDRs any of them.  So if you want one of the Normandy exclusive items you can get that whether you are on Normandie, Tuscan, Cyprus or Cosmopolitan.  

[DennysDad]

I booked Beyond with Next cruise on Royal. They said 6pm or 830pm dinning. We picked 6pm. I get there are 4 MDR. But what one to go to what night and what time is now very confusing after reading all this. I'm lost. LOL.

[asctony]

Another example of COMPLETE STUPIDITY!

How to keep clients happy!

[jelayne]

Don’t stress over this.  You may find something in your cabin with info on what dining room and time.  If not just go to one and ask.  It really works quite well and they are pretty flexible.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 14 by jelayne

[RTShaker]

2 hours ago, OttawaJohn said:

My guess would be they meant the Golden Palace.  I personally don't think it's amazing but many people do.  Every year they do a sale on eggrolls and people line up for hours to get them.

I agree. To us they just didn't live up to the hype.

[Pinboy]

2 hours ago, OttawaJohn said:

It does seem a bit unclear but their website talks about it still.  My booking says we are booked for the 'early' at 6pm and when I go to the site, I can't reserve anything as it says I have a set time already.

This whole thing is getting confusing---

All I can say is---- When we were on the Edge in March 2023 we had the choice of any of the 4 dining rooms, at any time. If you wanted a specific dining room and it was full, the Hostess gave you a beeper. Pretty simple--- no confusion.

Has that changed now ?? If so, why because everything seemed to work well in the past.

 

[hcat]

2 hours ago, DennysDad said:

I booked Beyond with Next cruise on Royal. They said 6pm or 830pm dinning. We picked 6pm. I get there are 4 MDR. But what one to go to what night and what time is now very confusing after reading all this. I'm lost. LOL.

Each restaurant has sample menus and photos on the Celeb website.  Once you board you can take a peek at the venues and the daily menu.

 

You can skip any nite if you  booked a Specialty Restaurant

(upcharge)  or just want to go casual at the buffet .

 

   One mdr will offer sit down bkfst and lunch.(not sure abt port days for lunch?)

Edited May 14 by hcat