Pearl freestyle dining

[kktk]

Does anyone know what time these restaurants are open till on this particular ship?

 

I have heard that making reservations is highly recommended and that's kinda hard to do on a vacation. We eat late....after 9 usually and I am hoping that the big rush usually would be over by then.

 

Any ideas if eating after 9 would still be crowded OR restaurants wont be open that late?

[Don Haynes]

You won't have any problems dining at 9 or 9:30 PM. I believe they still sit diners at the main dining rooms until 10 PM.

[debshomespun]

How about if we want to go to the main dining room around 6:30 or 7:00? Can we make reservations for the main dining rooms? It will be really hard to figure out what time we want to eat each night. I have read conflicting stories of how it is very difficult to get in at that time, to it was a breeze to get in. We are a party of 4. Thanks!

[Zeno]

How about if we want to go to the main dining room around 6:30 or 7:00? Can we make reservations for the main dining rooms? It will be really hard to figure out what time we want to eat each night. I have read conflicting stories of how it is very difficult to get in at that time, to it was a breeze to get in. We are a party of 4. Thanks!

 

I can't speak for the Pearl specifically but I have been on 3 NCL cruises.

We were a party of 3 and on one cruise -2.

We never had any difficulty being seated at any time. Our longest wait to be seated (shortly after 7PM) was less than 10 minutes.

 

6:30-7:30 PM IS Prime Time - so if you encounter a wait it will most likely be in that time frame. My advice is eat when you want to (reservations for a group of 4 are totally unnecessary in the main dining rooms). HOWEVER on "lobster" night when EVERYONE seems to want to eat in the dining rooms, I hightly recommend eating early (before 6:15) or late after 8PM. The ONLY time we saw big line-ups to be seated was on our last cruise on "lobster" night at around 7PM - we had wisely chosen to dine early (6PM) that night and were seated immediately.

 

NOTE: the specialty restaurants are a lot smaller than the main dining rooms and you really do need to make a reservation for them.

[kktk]

hmmmm that raises two questions for me....

 

1. For the main dining halls---do we have to let them know that we will be doing it OR do we just show up? Also, Im sure we can cancel it and choose to freestyle if we want...but can we decide to go the main dining way half way through the cruise?

 

2. If reservations are required for the other restaurants....im just hoping i can get them easily for a late dinner time....true?

[Orator]

Just returned from the Pearl-wonderful experience.

If you want to guarantee a time and resturant go to Mambos ASAP, difficult to get a reservation after the first day, impossible after the second.They will give you a time at the venue of choice-very helpful. They have all the menus there for you to view. We were two and they even reserved a time and table at Summer Palace. If you dine prior to 6:30 you should be able to just walk in.

Cagneys seemed to be everyone 's favorite, followed by Le Bistro. The first sea day is lobster night.

Hope this helps.

[Zeno]

hmmmm that raises two questions for me....

 

1. For the main dining halls---do we have to let them know that we will be doing it OR do we just show up? Also, Im sure we can cancel it and choose to freestyle if we want...but can we decide to go the main dining way half way through the cruise?

 

2. If reservations are required for the other restaurants....im just hoping i can get them easily for a late dinner time....true?

 

 

1. No need to let them know your plans for the main dining rooms - you just show up when you want to eat (within opening hours of course). Check your Freestyle Daily for opening times and any theme nights. In my experience one of the main dining rooms opens at 5:30 PM and the other at 6PM. Don't line-up at the door waiting for them to open - there is absolutely no need to do that. They are open until about 10:30 or 11:00PM (last seating is 1/2 hour before closing - so if you dine late be sure to check the hours in the Freestyle Daily). You may have dinner anytime within their opening time frame. The fact that you can eat dinner on your own schedule (i.e. turning up when you want at the main dining rooms) IS Freestyle dining. Unlike traditional cruiseships there are no assigned seating times.

 

2. It is probably easier to get a late dinner time at the 'specialty' restaurants than it is to get an early or "prime" time reservation.

[Orator]

Don't want to start a debate however: Zeno is correct about not needing to inform them if you are going to one of the main dining rooms; however, you may find a line and be given a pager. I saw many people just leave rather than waiting for 30 minutes. It is "freestyle" so you decide. You will probably avoid a wait if you eat before or after the prime times.

[mlbcruiser]

I am willing to bet that when a ship is full, it isn't going to be so easy to eat in ANY venu w/out a reservation, no matter if your party is 2 or 10. Guess that is what I like best about traditional dining - being able to eat at a time we enjoy - which is usually 8-ish. Sounds like we might have some trouble being able to do this, and that "freestyle" requires planning ahead if one doesn't want to take a chance on getting in, or doesn't want to eat super early or super late. Everything is a trade-off, and I'm not complaining. It is going to be interesting to see how it works for us in March. Thanks for all the good info!

[Zeno]

Don't want to start a debate however: Zeno is correct about not needing to inform them if you are going to one of the main dining rooms; however, you may find a line and be given a pager. I saw many people just leave rather than waiting for 30 minutes. It is "freestyle" so you decide. You will probably avoid a wait if you eat before or after the prime times.

 

One of the things to be aware of is at 'prime' time they may tell you there will be a 20 minute or a 30 minute wait. In our experience it was a lot less. When we had to wait almost 10 minutes to be seated we were told that the wait would be "at least 20 minutes" - in reality it was less than 10 minutes.

Of course as you rightly point out, if you really don't want to wait at all, avoid 'prime' time.

[johnql]

I am willing to bet that when a ship is full, it isn't going to be so easy to eat in ANY venu w/out a reservation, no matter if your party is 2 or 10. Guess that is what I like best about traditional dining - being able to eat at a time we enjoy - which is usually 8-ish. Sounds like we might have some trouble being able to do this, and that "freestyle" requires planning ahead if one doesn't want to take a chance on getting in, or doesn't want to eat super early or super late. Everything is a trade-off, and I'm not complaining. It is going to be interesting to see how it works for us in March. Thanks for all the good info!

That hasn't been my experience. I've been on 6 Freestyle cruises and haven't had to wait more than 5-10 minutes to be seated and that's only occurred twice. However, I admit that I typically eat either early (seated between 5:30 and 6) or late (seated between 8 and 9). This is for a party of 2. If your preference is around 8, I seriously doubt if you will have trouble with long lines.

[addicted cruiser]

Hi everyone

 

We are just back off the PearL Jan 28/07. There was only two of us and we had trouble getting into the main dining rooms without reservations. The first night we tried The Summer Palace at 6:00 and we had to wait 45 min to hour so we went to Mambos no wait that night. Next day, we went to dinner reservation desk (at Mambos) and already most of the restuarants were booked for early dinning but we like late any how so we booked the Summer Palace for later in the week Thurs at 8:30 and Lu Cucina for the Wed night at 8:00 and Teppanyaki on Tues at 7:30 the rest of the time we took our chances and got into Indigos twice at 8:30 one time we had to share a table. One night we couldn't get into any restuarant so we ate in the Garden Cafe (buffet). The ship was sold out so that may be part of the reason it was so hard to get into the restaurants and I also think that because you can be dressed casual more people were eating in the dining rooms rather than having room service or eating in the buffet.

 

My advise to anyone on this ship for the next few months is to book dinner reservations so you won't be disapointed.

 

ADDICTED CRUISER

[mbisson]

I am willing to bet that when a ship is full, it isn't going to be so easy to eat in ANY venu w/out a reservation, no matter if your party is 2 or 10. Guess that is what I like best about traditional dining - being able to eat at a time we enjoy - which is usually 8-ish. Sounds like we might have some trouble being able to do this, and that "freestyle" requires planning ahead if one doesn't want to take a chance on getting in, or doesn't want to eat super early or super late. Everything is a trade-off, and I'm not complaining. It is going to be interesting to see how it works for us in March. Thanks for all the good info!

 

Well, since ships any more are either full or nearly full the majority of the time, you would probably lose that bet. My experience mirrors what johnql said in post 11

 

-Monte

[Toyz711]

on the star:

we had a party of 7 for lobster night, no problem. but we ate early in versailles. party of 5 in the agua..no problem. party of 2 for endless summer, we had to wait until 9pm with no reservations. party of 7 at cagney's for early bird specials..got reservations the day before. ship was sold out, but we were flexable. if anyone would have said NO, there were other pieces to eat.