Question about freestyle dining...?

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TINKERTOY ..... the 1 & only

I have been on many NCL cruises including on the Spirit and experienced Freestyle dining. So I'll tell you what I think of NCL's Freestyle cruising. Freestyle Cruising means that you do not have to specify a dining option when you book your cruise and thus don't have a table and waiter assigned to you. "FREESTYLE" means you can go to dinner in the main dining room, or any other alternative restaurant, any time of the evening after about 6:00 PM.. But you will have to reserve a time in the alternate restaurants. It also means that you don't have to "dress up" for dinner, just go "sports casual". Freestyle also means that you may be standing in line awaiting a table on some days (like we had to do a couple times); not what I want on a cruise. Since you go when you want, you rarely get the same waiter and so never really get to know your waiter and he/she never learns your name or what you prefer as is done on â€œtraditionalâ€ cruise lines.

The option to traditional dining on NCL is their optional dining restaurants. However, these dining options can cost $5 to $20 a person for dinner each night. The daily Cruise Compass newsletter will tell you which restaurants have a fee and how much. The optional restaurants are very nice, including (depending upon the ship) French, Chinese/Sushi, Tex-Mex, Italian, and steak house restaurants. We always skipped the optional restaurants and just got to the main dining early. That worked fine, except on "at sea" days when everyone wanted to go eat early. We later found that we could reserve a time in the main dining room, but when we did this on our last NCL cruise (11/07) we found that they would take reservations for only two days at a time and so there was the hassle of reserving for dinner every two days. And, we still got a different table and waiter for dinner each night.

I prefer the traditional cruising with "my" wait staff and table and prefer getting to know my servers and have them call me by name rather than "sir/madam". And at the end of the cruise I prefer to know that my gratuities went to the person who served me rather than in a pot that all of the staff split.

So I think that if you have been on other cruise ships you may not like NCL, for the reasons given above.

donna c

Hi,

I have been on eight cruises and I prefer NCL freestyle. We went on the Spirit last T'giving out of New Orleans and the ship is absolutely beautiful!! You can eat in the 2 main dining rooms for dinner at 5:30 until 10;00 pm nightly. We usually ate around 6-7 and rarely had any type of wait. we never waited more than 4-5 minutes.They also have several restaurants that are great but they charge a cover charge per person. (but they are worth it!!) The main reason I like freestyle dining is because I have been on several cruises where our tablemates weren't very friendly. I don't want to make small talk all thru out dinner but it would have been nice to be seated with people who weren't completely miserable.
With freestyle you eat with your party or you can eat with new friends that you make onboard. I noticed some one else stated that you sit with new people every night. At every meal we had our own table. There were a few big tables for big parties but most were 2 people, 4 people, and 6 people tables. Have fun!!!

Kristina L

If you prefer the fancy and structured of formal dining than you may not like freestyle. I personally prefer it. I eat when I want, what I want, with who I want. No assigned seating. No rushing around or waiting around in order to be there at your assigned time. Plus if you meet other people on the cruise, you can eat dinner with them. This is much less formal. Much more relaxed.

rick d

I have been on the Spirit many times & think the ship & crew are GREAT. Freestylr dinning gives you the choice to eat when and where you want. After 5:30pm. You have several choice of resturants & the buffet where you can try all types of food & sit where ever you want. You grab a tray & plate & help yourself. Also on the way into the casino there is a great place to get a hamburger, fries, chilli,salad, soup.This too is included in your fare. As is room service. If you like afancy sitting & getting all dressed up then you should make plans to eat at one of the speciality resturants. This also gives you the chances to meet new people every day. I never waited more than 5 minutes for food or table.
ENJOY.

MCLS

ITS LIKE MAKING RESERVATION AT A RESTUARANT. THE PROBLEM IS THAT YOU HAVE TO EITHER WAIT IN LINE OR GET UP EARLY AND PUT YOUR NAME ON THE LSIT FOR THE TIME YOU WANT TO EAT DINNER. ONE GOOD THING ABOUT THIS IS IF YOU DON;T LIKE WHO YOU ARE SEATING WHO YOU DON'T HAVE TO EATH WITH THEM AGAIN BECAUSE EVERY TIME YOU GO TO DINNER YOU SEAT WITH DIFFERENT PEOPLE. YOU CANSTILL KEEP THE REGULAR TIME YOU HAVE FOR DINNER IF YOU WANT THAT IS WHAT WE DID THAT WYA WE KNEW WHAT TIME TO BE READY FOR DINNER AND DID NOTHAVE TO STAND IN LOINE FOR A TABLE

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