If the other cruiselines go "Freestyle"...

[steve1era]

We've been on 2 cruises with Carnival and loved the Legend out of NY. We are now trying NCL Dawn in January because we hear great things about the Dawn & Freestyle cruising. Mostly, though we like sailing out of NY.

 

Our first cruise we flew to Miami, stayed overnight, sailed & flew back. Never again. Even though the cruise was great, it was no comparison to going out of NY and skipping the flights.

 

We'll be able to make a good comparison of the Dawn & the Legend in January. Hoping Freestyle is as good as it sounds from all you CC'ers. It sure fits with our idea of a vacation. BTW, we will still probably get dressed up for dinner a couple of times. As you all say, it's our choice.

[electricron]

I don't think the other cruise lines will go exclusively to "Freestyle" or "Anytime" dining soon. They'll have to make a huge investment in enlarging their galleys and adding more restaurants onto all their ships.

 

What we will see is more and more Speciality restaurantrs, like Carnival's Supper Clubs and Royal Caribbean's Johnny Rocket's Diners and Portofino Italian Restaurants. At the finer speciality restaurants like Supper Clubs and Portofino Restaurants, reservations will be required, as they just aren't large enough for first come-first served.

 

Whereas I prefer sailing on NCl ships because of Freestyle, not specifically for first come-first serve at the Main Restaurants, but for "Resort Casual" attire every night. The last thing I wish to do is dress to the "nines" while on vacation. Never-the-less, with NCL departing the Houston/Galveston market next year, it looks like I'm going to have to start packing some formal clothes..........

[emilygrace]

Maybe someone here can set me straight.....I've never sailed on NCL, but I do have a cruise coming up in January. So I've been lurking on the boards here. What I have noticed is people saying that as soon as you board you should make all your dinner reservations for the week so that you won't have to wait in any lines. Excuse me, but doesn't that defeat the concept of "freestyle"? If you're booked for the week, you know where and when you are eating each night. May as well be traditional dining, except that you could change the time that you eat each night.

 

Or am I unclear on the concept?

[electricron]

Maybe someone here can set me straight.....I've never sailed on NCL, but I do have a cruise coming up in January. So I've been lurking on the boards here. What I have noticed is people saying that as soon as you board you should make all your dinner reservations for the week so that you won't have to wait in any lines. Excuse me, but doesn't that defeat the concept of "freestyle"? If you're booked for the week, you know where and when you are eating each night. May as well be traditional dining, except that you could change the time that you eat each night.

Or am I unclear on the concept?

 

Freestyle is much more than dining when you like. It's getting a table for two or four, instead of being forced to dine at a table for eight. It's about picking your table mates, instead of NCL picking them for you. It's about dining in the main restaurants in Resort Casual attire on Formal Night instead of a business suit or tuxedo. It's about selecting to dine at a Steakhouse, Italian, Asian, or French restaurants instead of the Main Dining Rooms.

[mbisson]

What I have noticed is people saying that as soon as you board you should make all your dinner reservations for the week so that you won't have to wait in any lines.

 

I have never waited more than a minute or two (usually walk right in) to get into any of the main dining room without reservations. I've only made them for the specialty dining rooms.

 

-Monte

[newmexicoNita]

Maybe someone here can set me straight.....I've never sailed on NCL, but I do have a cruise coming up in January. So I've been lurking on the boards here. What I have noticed is people saying that as soon as you board you should make all your dinner reservations for the week so that you won't have to wait in any lines. Excuse me, but doesn't that defeat the concept of "freestyle"? If you're booked for the week, you know where and when you are eating each night. May as well be traditional dining, except that you could change the time that you eat each night.

 

Or am I unclear on the concept?

There are 2 types of restaurants on NCL ships and that could be where the confusion comes in: if you want to dine in a specialty restaurant, yes, you should book as soon as you arrive on ship, but when dining in the main dining rooms you just go when and where you want. If you are with a large group there may be a wait period, otherwise a long wait would be 5 or 10 minutes. We have never even had that. I do recommend on Lobster night (first formal optional night) you don't try to eat in the main dining rooms between 7 and 8pm. That is the one time some seem to have a wait. Everyone else that is complaining just for the sake of complaining. Believe me, I have done freestyle 6 times. DD and I did decide to eat in 4 specialty restaurants on the Sun last April so part of what you are saying is true: we still choose the time that fit us best: DH and I usually only dine in specialty dining once or twice. NMnita

[jingle5616]

We'd be gone in a New York minute. An RCCL ship with freestyle concepts on par with NCL would be awesome. Plus I'd never be subjected to NCL awful- surly shoreside customer service again. We put up with NCL customer service only because of we like the freestyle concept for our cruising vacations.

 

Jingle

[emilygrace]

Thanks for all your input on my concerns. So I see that the need to make reservations early only applies to the specialty restaurants. I am traveling with 3 friends, so we shouldn't have a problem getting a table. Although I do see that some of these specialty restaurants are rather small.

 

As for traditional dining, I do enjoy sitting with strangers and meeting new people. Maybe this is because so far we have been lucky and not had any bad table mates. We've always looked forward to dinner and catching up on everyone's day. As for formal nights, if we don't feel like doing them we don't even take the clothes. We just eat elsewhere that night. I wouldn't feel comfortable wearing casual clothes in the dining room on formal night, even on NCL. But that's just me.

[uneamie]

We've been on 2 cruises with Carnival and loved the Legend out of NY. We are now trying NCL Dawn in January because we hear great things about the Dawn & Freestyle cruising. Mostly, though we like sailing out of NY.

 

Our first cruise we flew to Miami, stayed overnight, sailed & flew back. Never again. Even though the cruise was great, it was no comparison to going out of NY and skipping the flights.

 

We'll be able to make a good comparison of the Dawn & the Legend in January. Hoping Freestyle is as good as it sounds from all you CC'ers. It sure fits with our idea of a vacation. BTW, we will still probably get dressed up for dinner a couple of times. As you all say, it's our choice.

 

We did the Carnival Legend as well as NCL Dawn. The Legend is my all time favorite ship and I do love Carnival for it's shows and food quality, a bit better than NCL but,... NCL freestyle won us over because we just don't want to center our vacation time around our meal times and we don't want to cart several jackets and dresses along either. So, in light of all this if Carnival ever adopted "freestyle" we'd go back in a heartbeat...especially on the Legend, but for now we are happy doing NCL Dawn.

[cruzbums]

We have cruised on HAL (9 times), RCCL ( 3 times), Princess ( 3 times) and NCL (1 time last year).

 

We are in our seventies so you would probably think we would be stuck in our ways.

 

We sailed on the NCL Star last year and then back to HAL this year and we have come to the conclusion that we really like the freestyle dining, choice of eating places, the friendly crew, the cheerfulness of the many different public areas, etc.

 

We are booked on the Pearl next year and really looking forward to it.

[ce2000]

I don't think offering both ways is workable, a cruise line needs to go one way or the other.

Tom, why do you believe that offering traditional and personal choice dinning is not workable. I was on the Caribbean Princess in August and had the personal choice dinning. We were able to eat in the Palm and Coral Dinning rooms, the Island Dinning Room was reserved for the traditional dinners. It seemed very workable to me. What am I missing?

[flvol77]

Tom, why do you believe that offering traditional and personal choice dinning is not workable. I was on the Caribbean Princess in August and had the personal choice dinning. We were able to eat in the Palm and Coral Dinning rooms, the Island Dinning Room was reserved for the traditional dinners. It seemed very workable to me. What am I missing?

 

I was wondering the same question...I have been on three princess cruises with number four booked and I have never seen the problem that Tom O speaks of.

 

I also have never waited more than five mins to be seated, and that has only happened once. On our last cruise two weeks ago we went to eat at the Palm dining room...the maitre D said I have a table for you in the Island Dining room...he saw my puzzled look and said we are having more and more people request anytime dining, so when we are full in the anytime dining rooms we are sending them to the empty tables in the Island....I asked our waiter about it and he confirmed it was true.

[flvol77]

Maybe someone here can set me straight.....I've never sailed on NCL, but I do have a cruise coming up in January. So I've been lurking on the boards here. What I have noticed is people saying that as soon as you board you should make all your dinner reservations for the week so that you won't have to wait in any lines. Excuse me, but doesn't that defeat the concept of "freestyle"? If you're booked for the week, you know where and when you are eating each night. May as well be traditional dining, except that you could change the time that you eat each night.

 

Or am I unclear on the concept?

 

I have never sailed either...but, this is what I was told....there are actually three sets of dining options

 

1) Main Dining Rooms - that are included in the price of the cruise. no reservations are required unless you have a large group.

 

2) Speciality Dining options that are in included in the price on the cruise. IE Jewel - Mama's and Tsars. Usually these fill up very quickly and you need to make reservations when you board the ship.

 

3) Speciality Dining Options that require a Fee- From what I have gathered (and have been told) they don't fill up as quick and if you have a smaller group 2-4 people then a lot of times you can make reservations the day of wanting to eat at that location, or if it is early sometimes you can walk right in and be seated.

 

That is just what I have gathered, if I am wrong please let me know...

 

I hope this is correct, because I don't really want to make reservations for the entire week with in two hours of boarded the ship. Actually I won't do it. Because IMO that isn't freestyle.

[mbisson]

3) Speciality Dining Options that require a Fee- From what I have gathered (and have been told) they don't fill up as quick and if you have a smaller group 2-4 people then a lot of times you can make reservations the day of wanting to eat at that location, or if it is early sometimes you can walk right in and be seated.

 

Actually, these can (and often do) fill up early in the cruise. Le Bistro, Teppanyaki, and steak house in particular. But like you say, sometimes you can get walk up seating but don't count on it.

 

-Monte

[flvol77]

Actually, these can (and often do) fill up early in the cruise. Le Bistro, Teppanyaki, and steak house in particular.

 

-Monte

 

Wonderful...that is not what I wanted to hear.

 

Well, if the sushi is good the wife and I love sushi. :D

[Tom O.]

Tom, why do you believe that offering traditional and personal choice dinning is not workable. I was on the Caribbean Princess in August and had the personal choice dinning. We were able to eat in the Palm and Coral Dinning rooms, the Island Dinning Room was reserved for the traditional dinners. It seemed very workable to me. What am I missing?

 

It seemed workable to you because you got what you asked for. I was refering to the wait list problem for traditional dining. On Princess, many people ask for traditional, they are permanently wait listed, and are forced into the anytime. They may very well like anytime after they try it, but it was not their choice. But the staff manage to make most people happy, even if "Personal Choice" was their choice at all.

[Cruise_More_Often]

Actually, these can (and often do) fill up early in the cruise. Le Bistro, Teppanyaki, and steak house in particular. But like you say, sometimes you can get walk up seating but don't count on it.

-Monte

 

Wonderful...that is not what I wanted to hear.

 

flvol77: Compare these small, very popular, restaurants with the very popular restaurants in your hometown. You can't expect to show up on Saturday night without reservations and get in. Freestyle doesn't mean "no planning necessary."

 

We consider our itinerary stops (and excursions), decide when we're likely to be back on the ship, and make our reservations accordingly -- and, yes, within the first hour of boarding. We like them that much!

[Dolphins]

For Freestyle Dining to be effective, the ship's must be configured for it. I don't see other cruise lines making the investment to add additional dining venues to their ships.

Another factor that keeps us going back to NCL is their year round itineraries out of New York.

I don't see any other cruise lines matching NCL in those areas in the near future.

[Zeno]

flvol77: Compare these small, very popular, restaurants with the very popular restaurants in your hometown. You can't expect to show up on Saturday night without reservations and get in. Freestyle doesn't mean "no planning necessary."

 

 

Or "no common sense required". Small popular restaurants require reservations just like they do on land.

Well put Cruise_More_Often!