In general, do the main dining rooms on NCL compare to other main stream cruise lines

[flashdog_1]

I've been doing alot of research by reading lots of NCL reviews. Many times it seems the major negative against NCL is the food quality and service in the main dining rooms. This is usually voiced by seasoned cruisers from the other lines.

 

So do any of the NCL fans want to explain how they think the main dining experience compares. We do love to eat in the main dining room and tend to avoid buffets and specialty restaurants. We are happy at a table for two as long as the service is polished (mainly that water is refilled, wine served, and food delivered in around 2 hours) and the food is hot and flavorable. We normally order appetizer, soup, salad, entree, and dessert at dinner. And we enjoy lighter meals in the dining room for breakfast and lunch.

 

I know the specific experience changes from cruise and from ship to ship. I just wonder in general what to expect.

 

I see that you have cruised on some of the best ships/lines for food. From what I've read about how wonderful food and service are on Crystal and Oceana, and my own experience with Celebrity and Hal, I think it would be safe to say NCL will not, in the main dining rooms, give you the Crystal and Oceana experience. But if you select your menu carefully you will have a nice meal. Freestyle is different because of not having the same waiter every night, but if I remember right, Oceana has open seating, too, so perhaps you've experienced something like this.

 

And if formal nights are part of what you expect in a dining room experience, it will be different on NCL's "Dress up or Not" nights. People do seem to get cleaned up for dinner, so it's not as if they are wearing beach clothing in the dining room, but not all get dressed up.

 

I have adjusted. My husband does not like to dress up at all, but will "clean up" and take my advise on what to wear to dinner! So he likes NCL. If he is not cruising with me, my daughter goes, and she and I love Celebrity for great food and service, and their professionalism. I hope you will enjoy NCL.

[happy cruzer]

I see that you have cruised on some of the best ships/lines for food. From what I've read about how wonderful food and service are on Crystal and Oceana, and my own experience with Celebrity and Hal, I think it would be safe to say NCL will not, in the main dining rooms, give you the Crystal and Oceana experience. But if you select your menu carefully you will have a nice meal. Freestyle is different because of not having the same waiter every night, but if I remember right, Oceana has open seating, too, so perhaps you've experienced something like this.

 

And if formal nights are part of what you expect in a dining room experience, it will be different on NCL's "Dress up or Not" nights. People do seem to get cleaned up for dinner, so it's not as if they are wearing beach clothing in the dining room, but not all get dressed up.

 

I have adjusted. My husband does not like to dress up at all, but will "clean up" and take my advise on what to wear to dinner! So he likes NCL. If he is not cruising with me, my daughter goes, and she and I love Celebrity for great food and service, and their professionalism. I hope you will enjoy NCL.

everyone has provided great info, thanks again.

 

I notice in your signature that NCL canada caught your eye too. The 10 night itenary is what has me doing my NCL research. DH just enjoys being on a ship and eating good food, where the ship goes is up to my selcetion.

[NanaEvelyn]

I have been on many cruises...Norwegian dining experiences are average at best.

[newmexicoNita]

We are both foodies as well as cruise-aholics. We have found, you get what you pay for.

Oceania's food is excellent, but you can take 2 NCL cruises for the fare. NCL's MDR food is good, just not a great deal of variety or imagination. Their specialty restaurants are excellent. Celebrity and Princess have better MDR choice, but you pay for it in the fare. We love NCL's attitude and ships, so put back part of the money we save on the fare into going to the specialty restaurants, when nothing on the main menu speaks to us. We check at the restaurant part of the main desk to see that night's menu and then make reservations at the specialty restaurant if desired.

Some people swear by Burger King and others Mc Donalds. Some people prefer Burger King to "21" so it's all subjective. I've never seen anyone, on any line starve.

Sam and Audrey

'Very good points, it is not only getting what you pay for but the subjectivity of everything, not just food. We found the entrees on Princess better and yes, more imaginary than NCL, but found the MDR breakfasts and the buffets better on NCL. I always think it is a good idea to allow about an extra $100 for eating in the sur charge dining rooms. That way we have the best of both worlds..

 

I think it is also a matter of when you have cruised NCL and which ships..I have noticed or it appears peoples opinion of food on ships differ depending on what part of the country you are from.

 

Nita

[momofmeg]

I've been doing alot of research by reading lots of NCL reviews. Many times it seems the major negative against NCL is the food quality and service in the main dining rooms. This is usually voiced by seasoned cruisers from the other lines.

 

So do any of the NCL fans want to explain how they think the main dining experience compares. We do love to eat in the main dining room and tend to avoid buffets and specialty restaurants. We are happy at a table for two as long as the service is polished (mainly that water is refilled, wine served, and food delivered in around 2 hours) and the food is hot and flavorable. We normally order appetizer, soup, salad, entree, and dessert at dinner. And we enjoy lighter meals in the dining room for breakfast and lunch.

 

I know the specific experience changes from cruise and from ship to ship. I just wonder in general what to expect.

 

Well you know there is a thread in "Ask a cruise question?" that asks is Carnival food better than RCI food. Some said yes. Others said no. Happy KS pointed out over there that all cruise line food is basically banquet food, although you do get better quality in the pay extra restaurants.

 

That pretty much sums it up-and as to which is line actually has the besttasting banquet food in the main no pay extra dining room, I do believe it depends on the ship, not the line, and how good a head chef is under contract on that ship at that time as to which has the better banquet food. For ex. it may be good on the Pearl now-but say 6 months from now (or 2 weeks form now-depending on when the current chef's contract ends) when there is a different head chef, it may be the pits, or it could actually be better,who knows?

 

BTW-don't forget $12.95 per day per PAX is budgeted for food. So it is not going to be 4 star on any ship, or any line, for that price.

[Addictedtwo]

12 cruises with NCL and have never had food problems.

[UandMe4Ever]

So glad to know that! We have 2 booked 1st time cruisers on NCL 8-30 7 nite Bermuda & 10-30 14 nite repo from NYC. Cant Wait!

[wg6530]

I have experienced some variability in food quality within the same line (specifically NCL and Princess come to mind). I do not know if fresher/better ingredients were delivered, or better cooks, or better managers, or something else. I've sailed NCL, Princess, X, RC, and HA. I found HA food bland (only one cruise though), but all the others were fine to very good. X gets my vote for food quality, but I like NCL just fine (8 NCL cruises on 7 different ships).

 

To me, NCL Freestyle service is a bit like dining in a nice restaurant on land. Though friendly, the waiter doesn't really know you and, he probably will not try to get super chummy. You will probably get a different waiter the next meal, so you and the waiter start fresh again. The staff knows you are paying the NCL service charges, and I feel they earn them.

 

Service on lines with traditional dining seems more friendly to me, and waiters are more likely to try to get to know you and your preferences. After all they will see you again on future nights, including tip night. They know your name. They may have your iced tea waiting on the table, your leftover wine bottle ready, extra breadsticks, etc. Some people really miss these extra efforts and therefore may be dissappointed in NCL service.

 

My husband doesn't think he should have to pack a suit on vacation so he loves NCL. I see differences, but I love every cruise, each in its own way.

[melbur]

We have had an excellent dining expereince on NCL each and every time. Food was comparable to RCI, with great choices and great service.

In terms of the buffet, NCL beats everybody hands down. By far the best.

The worst for us - Princess. MDR is OK, their Lido buffet the worst!

[S&Dcruising]

With my limited cruises, I found our cruise on the NCL Spirit to be as good as any restaurant around town. And the spec. rest. to be on par with the much more costly (100-200 a person) restaurants ie mortons, ruthchris, palm, ect..

I found the food on RCL to be terrible, we ate more at the burger place (johnyrockers?) than any place else. the buffett was 1/3 Indian food, with we both dislike. so our food experance was bad at best on rcl. with saying that we only did 1 cruise with them and will most likely try them again.

1 thing, I beleive NCL has over the others is the PRETZELS ROLLS, Them ALONE is worth the cruise it self. (i'm serious, if that's all i had to eat for 7 days, I'd be one HAPPY man)

[appletx]

This is an interesting discussion. We are booked on Spirit in October and TA tried to dissuade us from NCL because their food was not as good as others. But we wanted the itenerary of the Spirit cruise. My only prior experience was on HAL. I had heard much in advance about how great their food was and I found it very boring. Not bad, just bland. But, I would guess that all cruise lines must have to aim for the boring middle as they have to please so many different tastes. I was raised on southern and southwestern food and enjoy cooking creole, cajun, Mexican and Italian foods, so my expectations of seasonings are probably different from those of many. We sometimes plan vacations around cooking classes or restaurants we want to visit, so when we want to cruise, food is not the highest priority.

[pex]

If you are accustomed to eating at Applebees you are probably going to rate the dining experience as exquisite. If you dine at places that employ someone nominally designated as a "chef," you'll be disappointed.

 

I'd rate the quality as high level institutional. Personally, I am fine with that--it's all edible and fresh. However, if you're booking NCL for some sort of sublime food experience, you're making a mistake.

[sottovoce]

However, if you're booking NCL for some sort of sublime food experience, you're making a mistake.

In our experience, this is true of all mass-market cruise lines...including HAL and Celebrity. And I'd agree with whoever wrote that HAL's food was boring.

[Zeno]

I've been doing alot of research by reading lots of NCL reviews. Many times it seems the major negative against NCL is the food quality and service in the main dining rooms. This is usually voiced by seasoned cruisers from the other lines.

 

So do any of the NCL fans want to explain how they think the main dining experience compares. We do love to eat in the main dining room and tend to avoid buffets and specialty restaurants. We are happy at a table for two as long as the service is polished (mainly that water is refilled, wine served, and food delivered in around 2 hours) and the food is hot and flavorable. We normally order appetizer, soup, salad, entree, and dessert at dinner. And we enjoy lighter meals in the dining room for breakfast and lunch.

 

I know the specific experience changes from cruise and from ship to ship. I just wonder in general what to expect.

 

I have been on 3 NCL cruises and have found the food to be for the most part - good to very good with the occasional excellent (note this is just my opinion). Of course it does not compare to the incredible French food I had on my birthday at our local French restaurant where the chef only does 30 covers a night. But as far as mass-produced food goes NCL is fine.

 

We eat mainly in the dining rooms (I am NOT a buffet person). Like you we order appetizer, soup, salad entree and dessert. Occasionally I have had something that did not appeal to me (the waiter was always ready to bring something else). Except for one evening when we had a seriously over-worked server (she had another VERY demanding table that was extremely large - so we really could not blame her but rather the maitre d' for giving her too many tables) service in the dining rooms ranged from acceptable to excellent.

 

The only truly bad service I have had in an NCL eating area was on our last cruise in one of the specialty restaurants (which normally have great service). The other specialty restaurant that we went to on that cruise had very good service.

 

In general I would say - expect good quality mass-produced food (but not gourmet dining) and decent (but not always perfect) service. If you don't get either - complain on board. Water should be re-filled. Food should be served at the correct temp. I can't think of any dinner that we had that lasted longer than two hours (the range seemed to be mostly from 1 hour to 1.5 hours - which seems pretty acceptable to me). Some servers were definitely more efficient and polished than others but with that one exception in the specialty restaurant - all tried to please (even the over-worked girl with the demanding table).

[G-Funk]

I've been doing alot of research by reading lots of NCL reviews. Many times it seems the major negative against NCL is the food quality and service in the main dining rooms. This is usually voiced by seasoned cruisers from the other lines.

 

So do any of the NCL fans want to explain how they think the main dining experience compares. We do love to eat in the main dining room and tend to avoid buffets and specialty restaurants. We are happy at a table for two as long as the service is polished (mainly that water is refilled, wine served, and food delivered in around 2 hours) and the food is hot and flavorable. We normally order appetizer, soup, salad, entree, and dessert at dinner. And we enjoy lighter meals in the dining room for breakfast and lunch.

 

I know the specific experience changes from cruise and from ship to ship. I just wonder in general what to expect.

 

I've repeated this a number of times to different people, but Freestyle is great! The cost is that the main dining room food and service is not. Speciality dining rooms are better, probably up to the level of main dining rooms on other ships.

 

Sorry, I would type more, but I just got tired of typing . . .

[suzyed]

I've repeated this a number of times to different people, but Freestyle is great! The cost is that the main dining room food and service is not. Speciality dining rooms are better, probably up to the level of main dining rooms on other ships.

 

Sorry, I would type more, but I just got tired of typing . . .

 

Had to chuckle at that! :D I feel that way sometimes...lol.

[dtracker]

I think part of appreciating the total dining experience comes from dining with friends. Every cruise I've been on, I've dined with close friends and the experience always seemed marvelous. I think part of it is you're so engrossed in conversation, that you don't always notice the lack luster service or sub-par food. I have had a marvelous time on Princess and RCL with meals that I thought were pretty spectacular. I'm sure they weren't all that great, but they seemed absolutely wonderful to me. To me, dining with friends is more important than whether a soup is a tad luke-warm or not; or my waterglass sits empty a few extra minutes; or the serving on my entree was too small. Maybe the fault is due to living in the most self-absorbed, lavished, spoiled society in the world.

 

We will be taking our next cruise with no one we've known before, but have discovered some wonderful new friends in our roll call, thanks to Cruise Critic. I expect I will again be busy with stimulating conversation, and not paying as much attention to the service or food. Maybe that makes me a non-foodie, but I never seem to miss a meal! :D Like I've always said, "You can call me most anything, but don't call me late for supper!" That will apply to my next cruise, as well! :rolleyes:

 

DT

[aquatic]

We have been on RCCL, Carnival, Costa, Princess and NCL. They all have their similar and unique features, but we prefer NCL for their slightly outside the norm ideas, freestyle, nice ethnic restaurants, raw fish entrees, BBQ's on deck, dessert souffles, and experimental lunches. When they try out new dishes they offer them at lunch to see how it goes. Princess has the best buffet by far, so if you are a fan of eating in the buffet they are great. Their food tends to be rather "vanilla" meaning to appeal to the tastes of many, and not too exotic. RCCL has cut back alot in quality over the last few years, trying to fill you up on cheaper items, but they all do this. Costa used to be so great, really homemade pastas from imported flour, wines from Italy, etc. But they too have had to cut back. Last time we took a tour of their kitchen we saw boxes of Jello Cheesecake mix in the trash. Overall, you have to look for and pick out the creative items but they all have the basic foods too for people who are not as experimental. We feel NCL still holds on to some adventerous choices and it's really all about what you expect and like.

[nancydrw]

I was on the Dawn in April and I agree with "doglover5." The food and service in the main dining rooms is very good, and LeBistro is definitely the best restaurant on the ship. I dined at several of the other specialty restaurants as well as LeBistro. Some were very good while a couple were nothing really special, but nothing to complain about either. The food is well presented and generally good in the main dining rooms of Venetian and Aqua, and Venetian is so beautifully decorated (a bonus!) I dined at LeBistro twice and the food and service there were really outstanding. The rack of lamb at LeBistro was truly memorable, and the duck pate' appetizer with figs was delicious and presented with flair. Cagney's wasn't worth the upcharge, but LeBistro definitely was worth it. Salsa served a fabulous brunch with a jazz band playing, and everything about it was first rate; the food, the service and the atmosphere were perfect.

 

The service on the Dawn is consistently good, no matter which restaurant or dining room you choose, though I would say there is a little something extra provided in a few of the specialty restaurants, and the fact that the staff remembers you if you eat there more than once. But I don't really expect to be remembered or especially pampered in the main dining rooms, since they deal in greater volumes of people than the specialty restaurants do. I am happy if the food is attractive, well prepared and on time, and if they respond nicely to my requests. There is the occasional bad choice in the main dining room, but you can get something different whenever you want, and noone bats an eye when you ask for a replacement. They are polite as ever, so what's not to like? It's all good and enjoyable dining on the Dawn, if not always perfect food .

[Warmer Climes]

My comparison is between RCI and NCL. I agree with whoever said it's all banquet food.

 

DH felt that the food was much worse on our second RCI cruise than our first. On our last RCI cruise, the dinner service was good except we were never able to order a pre-dinner drink for some reason and the wait for wine was very long. I disliked the people we were seated with very much (primarily because they spent every dinner complaining about how nasty the food was! (and it wasn't nasty.))

 

Neither of us felt that our specialty restaurant dining was worth the $ on our most recent NCL cruise on the Dawn (ate at Cagneys, Impressions and Bamboo). Not that we had bad meals, but we thought the food was just as good in the MDR. The one cruise we have had that I felt the dinner service was lacking was the Majesty Boston-Bermuda. The servers seemed very rushed.

 

I prefer Freestyle Dining because I do not like waiters fawning over me and I don't like things like the Parade of Chefs (which for some reason makes me squirm with embarrassment, kind of like mariachi bands or belly dancing at your table.) However, my kids love that stuff. To each his own.

 

DH and I are foodies and have eaten in some of the finest restaurants in the country and I have always found the food on NCL (and RCI) to be acceptable. When I read reviews which say the food was TERRIBLE or FANTASTIC I take it with a grain of salt. We cruise with the expectation that the food will be "ok" and so far that has been the case.

 

Barb

[suzyed]

My comparison is between RCI and NCL. I agree with whoever said it's all banquet food.

 

DH felt that the food was much worse on our second RCI cruise than our first. On our last RCI cruise, the dinner service was good except we were never able to order a pre-dinner drink for some reason and the wait for wine was very long. I disliked the people we were seated with very much (primarily because they spent every dinner complaining about how nasty the food was! (and it wasn't nasty.))

 

Neither of us felt that our specialty restaurant dining was worth the $ on our most recent NCL cruise on the Dawn (ate at Cagneys, Impressions and Bamboo). Not that we had bad meals, but we thought the food was just as good in the MDR. The one cruise we have had that I felt the dinner service was lacking was the Majesty Boston-Bermuda. The servers seemed very rushed.

 

I prefer Freestyle Dining because I do not like waiters fawning over me and I don't like things like the Parade of Chefs (which for some reason makes me squirm with embarrassment, kind of like mariachi bands or belly dancing at your table.) However, my kids love that stuff. To each his own.

 

DH and I are foodies and have eaten in some of the finest restaurants in the country and I have always found the food on NCL (and RCI) to be acceptable. When I read reviews which say the food was TERRIBLE or FANTASTIC I take it with a grain of salt. We cruise with the expectation that the food will be "ok" and so far that has been the case.

 

Barb

Well said.

 

I am a firm believer in "never say never and never say always"...it will back fire on you every time.

[happy cruzer]

I have been on 3 NCL cruises and have found the food to be for the most part - good to very good with the occasional excellent (note this is just my opinion). Of course it does not compare to the incredible French food I had on my birthday at our local French restaurant where the chef only does 30 covers a night. But as far as mass-produced food goes NCL is fine.

 

We eat mainly in the dining rooms (I am NOT a buffet person). Like you we order appetizer, soup, salad entree and dessert. Occasionally I have had something that did not appeal to me (the waiter was always ready to bring something else). Except for one evening when we had a seriously over-worked server (she had another VERY demanding table that was extremely large - so we really could not blame her but rather the maitre d' for giving her too many tables) service in the dining rooms ranged from acceptable to excellent.

 

The only truly bad service I have had in an NCL eating area was on our last cruise in one of the specialty restaurants (which normally have great service). The other specialty restaurant that we went to on that cruise had very good service.

 

In general I would say - expect good quality mass-produced food (but not gourmet dining) and decent (but not always perfect) service. If you don't get either - complain on board. Water should be re-filled. Food should be served at the correct temp. I can't think of any dinner that we had that lasted longer than two hours (the range seemed to be mostly from 1 hour to 1.5 hours - which seems pretty acceptable to me). Some servers were definitely more efficient and polished than others but with that one exception in the specialty restaurant - all tried to please (even the over-worked girl with the demanding table).

 

This does sound like what I expect from Freestyle. But I just read so many reviews that rated the dining room poorly for example two items that you mention the water refill and the temp of food. I think those two and a few other things are not so subjective and can be used to understand the experience.

 

Thanks to everyone for helping get a balanced view.