Sharing a FAS Meal

[ChicoCA]

Hello, cruising on Viva in March. Can my girlfriend and I go to a speciality restaurant and just use 1 of our FAS meals and share it? 

 

Example...What if she ordered a salad ala carte and then we shared my meal? 

[grouchomarx]

The only experience I have with this was in Food Republic and two of us ordered 4 items on my package only, which is the max, and shared them and it was fine. Not sure about other venues.  I also know you cannot give a meal to someone else from your package, it's not allowed (I tried).

[OrcaGirl]

I've been able to do this at Food Republic, Q, Los Lobos, Pinchos, the sushi restaurants... restaurants where it's more common to order a few things to share anyway. A couple of times I've gotten a "oh, well, we don't usually allow that, but..." but have never actually been denied.

 

That said, I haven't tried it at any of the more traditional 3-course meal restaurants.

[BirdTravels]

2 hours ago, ChicoCA said:

Hello, cruising on Viva in March. Can my girlfriend and I go to a speciality restaurant and just use 1 of our FAS meals and share it? 

 

Example...What if she ordered a salad ala carte and then we shared my meal? 

Per policy, no. 

[ChicoCA]

9 minutes ago, BirdTravels said:

Per policy, no. 

Ok, we wont tell them. 

 

Sounds like others have been able to. We just wont be overly obvious. 

[julig22]

2 minutes ago, ChicoCA said:

Ok, we wont tell them. 

 

Sounds like others have been able to. We just wont be overly obvious. 

You don't think they'll notice that there are 2 people at the table???

Whether or not it works will depend on the waiter at the time. And that is assuming they will seat both of you without scanning both cards.

[Two Wheels Only]

6 minutes ago, ChicoCA said:

Ok, we wont tell them. 

 

Sounds like others have been able to. We just wont be overly obvious. 

 

It used to be allowed in certain restaurants (Food Republic, for ex.) but NCL later added to the terms and conditions.....

 

"SDPs are personal (per person, e.g., 2 guests cannot share 1 SDP meal) and non-transferable (guests cannot give their SDP meals to someone else). An SDP meal in a la carte restaurants includes 1 appetizer, 1 soup or salad, 1 main course and 1 dessert (does not apply to cover charge restaurants or Food Republic, Pincho Tapas Bar and Sushi, where a meal includes any 4 menu items). No sharing or to go orders permitted." 

 

The server might look the other way but it isn't supposed to be allowed. 

[ChicoCA]

34 minutes ago, julig22 said:

You don't think they'll notice that there are 2 people at the table???

Whether or not it works will depend on the waiter at the time. And that is assuming they will seat both of you without scanning both cards.

So if we wanted to have our friends join us for dinner and they didnt have FAS but wanted to order off the menu, your thinking says we would not be seated together?

 

I see this is going to be easier than I thought. I was just wondering what other people's experience has been. Thanks to everyone. 

[david_sobe]

If you stick to only being allowed one appetizer, one entre, and one dessert, NCL does not lose any money.  But I know this is not allowed.

Friends can join you for dinner and its easier to share your appetizers with them when they order an entre. 

[KeithJenner]

57 minutes ago, ChicoCA said:

Ok, we wont tell them. 

 

Sounds like others have been able to. We just wont be overly obvious. 

A while ago there was lots of talk about sharing meals at places like food republic, and quite a few people did it.

 

My understanding is that they have tightened up on even this recently. I don’t know from first hand experience, as we never tried, but I’ve seen reports of this no longer being allowed.

[julig22]

18 minutes ago, ChicoCA said:

So if we wanted to have our friends join us for dinner and they didnt have FAS but wanted to order off the menu, your thinking says we would not be seated together?

 

I see this is going to be easier than I thought. I was just wondering what other people's experience has been. Thanks to everyone. 

Not at all what I said. They will scan the cards of everyone they are seating and ask how you will be paying. Waiter could look the other way or could charge your GF for a FAS meal.

[Travelling2Some]

We did this at Food Republic multiple times.  My husband states that he is using his FAS meal and I am going to order a la carte.  He orders the allowed 4 items and I order one of the least expensive items (I think it was the pot stickers).  Then we shared the 5 items.  Did this several times without any issue.  I think one of those times I "forgot" to order anything except a cocktail.  Still no issue. I think if the second person at least orders some item a la carte there shouldn't be an issue.

Edited Thursday at 12:18 AM by Travelling2Some

[RogerDodger247]

At Los Lobos on Prima a couple of weeks ago I was the only one at a table of 4 that had a FAS meal (the other 3 paid a la carte).  It was actually recommended by the waitstaff that I use one of my two appetizers (yes, I was allowed two) to order tableside guacamole for everybody.  I was allowed to share my side of grilled corn too.

 

Now if my friends were just sitting there drinking margaritas and mooching off my FAS meal, I suspect they would have had something to say but among a mixed group of FAS and a la carte where everybody was ordering an entree, it wasn't questioned.

 

Your mileage may vary but at least on this cruise, they were not sticklers about this sort of thing or even sharing a bottle of wine from the Premium Plus list.  Cheers.

[Travelling2Some]

There are circumstances where a person can eat very little.  We used to go to dinner with my sister-in-law who had a gastric bypass.  There are people who are ill or anorexic.  A waiter would be on pretty thin ice to insist somebody order more food as long as they order something.

[grouchomarx]

I think your best bet is just try it and see.  We were very blatant about what we were doing in FR and the waiter was completely unphased by it.  Odds are you’ll probably be able to do what you want to do. They offer way too much food for one person (to me) in the specialty restaurants so for all the people that order and/or eat the max, what’s the harm in the few who want to share because they eat way less than what is included. I’m a petite female and I eat one app, one entree, one side, 50/50 on dessert.  So I’m a cheap date to NCL and the specialty dining fees.   

[Pablo Diablo]

3 hours ago, KeithJenner said:

A while ago there was lots of talk about sharing meals at places like food republic, and quite a few people did it.

 

My understanding is that they have tightened up on even this recently. I don’t know from first hand experience, as we never tried, but I’ve seen reports of this no longer being allowed.

NCL has indeed become stricter about sharing FAS meal credits at Food Republic. On my most recent sailing in June on Joy, the Maitre’d informed us that the new policy is that all diners included on the reservation must use a FAS credit if they have one available/remaining on their account. Meaning, a party of two cannot go in and say person #1 will use a FAS credit and person #2 will order a la carte if person #2 has a FAS credit left. Person #2 also must their FAS credit then. The Maitre’d said the policy was just recently implemented at that time.

[pkay1]

My DH and I just shared 1 specialty dinner in Q on the Joy. We asked the hostess if it was okay and she said it was not a problem. It was more than enough food for he and I. We did tip our waiter as if we both had ordered entrees. 

[debenson0723]

31 minutes ago, Pablo Diablo said:

NCL has indeed become stricter about sharing FAS meal credits at Food Republic. On my most recent sailing in June on Joy, the Maitre’d informed us that the new policy is that all diners included on the reservation must use a FAS credit if they have one available/remaining on their account. Meaning, a party of two cannot go in and say person #1 will use a FAS credit and person #2 will order a la carte if person #2 has a FAS credit left. Person #2 also must their FAS credit then. The Maitre’d said the policy was just recently implemented at that time.

My recent experience on the Joy in June was similar but not as strict as yours. My travel companion used his FAS to order 4 items and I ordered one app and paid out of pocket...we were told we could not share all 4 items but as long as I ordered something, that was fine.  It was our first night on the ship and I had a FAS credit available, which I was not required to use.

So as you can see, it is going to vary from ship to ship and possibly even day to day on the same ship.

[pkay1]

@debenson0723 You may be right about the Joy. In addition to my comment above about using one dinner at Q, we also went to Food Republic and used a Platinum dinner that four of us shared. We only ordered 7 items, which was enough for us. No one had a problem with it.