Norwegian Cruise Lines NCL, Dawn and Sun

"Charles" wrote in message
d...
In article , Peg
Caldwell-Ott wrote:

How is this "Freestyle Cruising"? Well, even for popular restaurants
at home, you have to make reservations, right? And, you still have the
freedom to eat when you like and where you like--it only requires a
little advance planning--just like making your selections for Shore
Excursions!!.

If you want to spend the extra few hundred dollars for food.

At home I can pick really good restaurants. On the NCL Dawn the food is
generally below average. The ones that charge are almost equal to a
meal that is included on other cruise lines like Carnival.

We cruise to meet people and have good food and entertainment without having
to
move from hotel to hotel to see the sites.
We cruised NCL Spirit last year and tried the freestyle dining room (several
times).
We were NOT happy with the service or the food.
We finally gave up and made reservations at the specialty restaurants, for
the remainder of the cruise.
Where's a Johnny Rockets when we need one? lol

Cagney's--The on board Steakhouse--Not so fabulous food but worth the $20pp
cover charge unless we wanted their version of real French Onion soup or
anything
on the menu that we have come to expect on other lines without an EXTRA
charge
of $10pp to $15pp on top of the $20pp.

On board Asian Restaurant--Excellent. However NOT worth the cover charge.

Teppannyaki--food preparation right in front of you.
NOT worth the $30pp (If I remember correctly) cover charge.
I believe our 'chef' was new to cooking. He fumbled almost everything.
He dropped eggs trying to look 'fancy', was totally inept with everything
he tried to prepare.

Friends, relatives or the CEO of the company couldn't drag us
onto another NCL ship.

Splenda

To each their own. NCL's implementation of open seating is poor. I
will avoid NCL unless some friends drag me onboard.

--
Charles

"Peg Caldwell-Ott" wrote:

Before we learned our lesson, and how to use the good offices of the
Concierge, our "trick" was to wake up early in the morning, call the
Reservations Desk to make reservations for that night (and the next
one, if they would accept it) and then go back to sleep!!

Peg, is it possible you have made so many friends among officers and crew
that you've gone a bit "soft" when it comes to the things NCL does badly?
Being more forgiving of warts is part and parcel of friendship, so I'm not
being critical, just trying to analyze why you are so accepting of the
so-called "freestyle" dining process on NCL. For our family, the rigamarole
you describe just to get an evening's meal is exactly why we won't cruise
NCL again. I'm on vacation. Why in the world do I want to set my alarm to
wake up early to make a reservation so I can eat that night? Using a
concierge lessens the work...but you still have to assert yourself in some
way just to eat. I am not ashamed to admit I love being part of the
Pavlovian dining process aboard traditional dining lines like RCI! The clock
ticks, it's time to go eat. It's that simple...there's no tracking down the
concierge or waking up early to reserve, no queuing in reservation lines or
suffering busy reservation phone lines, and no need to schedule the act of
reserving.

Diana Ball
Austin, TX

On Oct 21, 2:19 pm, Peg Caldwell-Ott wrote:
We have found that the
extra-tariff restaurants on NCL ships are well worth the money, and
the food and service are generally much better than anything we can
get at home or even on other ships--and we live on the Upper East side
of Manhattan!!

That is just sad.

Lee

On Oct 22, 9:31 am, "Diana Ball" wrote:
For our family, the rigamarole
you describe just to get an evening's meal is exactly why we won't cruise
NCL again. I'm on vacation. Why in the world do I want to set my alarm to
wake up early to make a reservation so I can eat that night?

and...

I am not ashamed to admit I love being part of the
Pavlovian dining process aboard traditional dining lines like RCI! The clock
ticks, it's time to go eat. It's that simple...

Amen, Diana!! Couldn't agree more!

Lee

Peg Caldwell-Ott wrote:
That depends on which ship you are traveling on. Each ship has its
own e-mail number, but if it is the Dawn, the Concierge would be
reached at . The "con" in the e-mail address indicates
the Concierge, the number indicates the ship. The Dawn is number 14,
the Spirit is number 24. If it is another ship, please let me know
and I will try to find its e-mail designation for you, or you can ask
ncl for the information. They are happy to help, especially for
groups!

Best Regards,

PegNDerek


How did you contact the Concierge prior to your trip? I'm curious,
since I'm traveling with a group of 9, so it would be nice to be able to
pre-arrange a couple of special dinners.

Thanks! If all goes well (getting this group to come to a final
decision on where and when to go is like trying to herd cats!), it will
be Dawn.

Thans, Sue. Everything that we have heard about Carnival of late
sounds much better than what it used to be. Perhaps I am just stuck
in the mind-set that Carnival makes a good first cruise experience,
but then one wants to move on to something better. We have no plans
to try Carnival, but it might be more of a possible for us than it
used to be.

Cheers,

Peg

On Sun, 21 Oct 2007 15:44:29 -0400, Sue and Kevin Mullen
wrote:

We sailed on the Carnival Conquest about two years ago and at that time
it was the best food we had had on a cruise. I feel that the Azamara
Journey food is the best, Carnival Conquest 2nd and the Crown Princess
3rd. All three were far better than any of our other cruises food wise.

Carnival is only "guzzle and belch" if that is the behavior you are
looking for. We have never found this to be the case and our only
complaints are the smoke filled lounges/casinos and the singing waiters.

sue

Hi Diana,

Good point--and yes, we have made a number of exceptionally good
friends on our NCL cruises. But, that friendship does not cover up
what we really enjoy about the practice of freestyle. Even on ships
of other lines that offer Main and Late seatings, you still have to
"assert yourself" at some point to at least make a choice of one of
those, right??? And you are locked into your choice for the whole
cruise--no variations or alternatives allowed regardless of your
excursion plans, napping needs or some other issue--and heaven defend
you if you show up late to your seating!! You may well end up in your
cabin with no meal at all, or trying to find something palatable at
the buffet!! Presumably you have to make shore excursion choices too,
and let your selections be known to somebody! Using the good offices
of the concierge is easy (by e-mail before the voyage or a simple note
left at the Guest Relations Desk), and its nice to have everything in
place (shore excursions included) the minute we walk into our cabin
these days. The "waking up early routine" was only a means of getting
reservations by phone at the time we wanted, and before we found out
what the Concierge could do for us!! We always went back to sleep
anyway!! VBG

Derek and I also enjoy the choice of attire for the evenings too. It
is nice when everyone chooses to dress nicely on formal nights,
especially special events like Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve, but
it is also nice not to have to be "on code" every single night unless
you want to. After 16 voyages with Celebrity and all the frowns and
dirty looks at passengers who dared not to be dressed to the nines on
formal night or who (gasp) changed after dinner (not to mention the
horrendous dry cleaning bills when we got home), both Derek and I
enjoy the freedom to wear what we like when we like. We do still
follow "the code", but with a whole lot more flexibility than we used
to be able to.

Our choice for our first NCL cruise on the Dawn for New Year's
2003-2004 was not based on friendship--we didn't know anybody!
Instead, it was based on curiosity (I had not been on an NCL voyage
since 1972 and Derek and never tried it) and the desire to sail out of
NYC at a time of the year when the only other option was to fly to
Florida (or somewhere else) for our annual winter holiday trip. To be
perfectly honest, we also really liked the idea of a "year 'round ship
out of NYC" (as the Dawn was first advertised on TV here) and wanted
to support it. We had no idea what "freestyle"was all about--in fact,
I recall asking a lot of questions here on rtc before that voyage.
Once we realized what it was all about, we really liked it, and still
do--our on-bord friends just make it all the sweeter!! I would imagine
that we will go back to Celebrity or Holland America at some point, or
give RCI or Carnival a try, but for the time being, we are very happy
with our choices--and glad that you are with yours!

Bestest,

Peg


Peg, is it possible you have made so many friends among officers and crew
that you've gone a bit "soft" when it comes to the things NCL does badly?
Being more forgiving of warts is part and parcel of friendship, so I'm not
being critical, just trying to analyze why you are so accepting of the
so-called "freestyle" dining process on NCL. For our family, the rigamarole
you describe just to get an evening's meal is exactly why we won't cruise
NCL again. I'm on vacation. Why in the world do I want to set my alarm to
wake up early to make a reservation so I can eat that night? Using a
concierge lessens the work...but you still have to assert yourself in some
way just to eat. I am not ashamed to admit I love being part of the
Pavlovian dining process aboard traditional dining lines like RCI! The clock
ticks, it's time to go eat. It's that simple...there's no tracking down the
concierge or waking up early to reserve, no queuing in reservation lines or
suffering busy reservation phone lines, and no need to schedule the act of
reserving.

Diana Ball
Austin, TX

Very sorry for you, but that just has not been our experience with
NCL. Fortunately there are only two of us (Derek and myself), so our
"tab" for the extra-tariff restaurants rarely tops out at a very high
rate: Cagney's--usually twice during any given voyage (80 for 2
people on 2 nights), Teppanyaki --usually once during any voyage (40
for 2 people for one night--or luncheon, as it was on the Spirit this
last time out) and Bamboo (on the Dawn) or Shogun (on the
Spirit)--usually once during any given voyage (20 for 2 people for one
night). That is a grand total of $140 and we always feel that it is
well worth it!!Other dinners are in the non-extra-tariff rooms,
including Trattoria, which we really enjoyed on the Spirit this last
time out. We found the new regular menus in the standard Dining Rooms
to be very good, and there was always the steak and baker option if
nothing on the menu appealed. We also save a lot of money overall by
not being gamblers, and not being shoppers. The only other area where
we splurge on voyages is in the bar--embarassing, but most of the
charges that one sees on our bill at the end of a trip are for this
bar or that one!!!!! VBG

Peg


On Sun, 21 Oct 2007 17:47:20 -0500, "Splenda"
wrote:


If you want to spend the extra few hundred dollars for food.

We cruised NCL Spirit last year and tried the freestyle dining room (several
times).
We were NOT happy with the service or the food.
We finally gave up and made reservations at the specialty restaurants, for
the remainder of the cruise.
Where's a Johnny Rockets when we need one? lol

Cagney's--The on board Steakhouse--Not so fabulous food but worth the $20pp
cover charge unless we wanted their version of real French Onion soup or
anything
on the menu that we have come to expect on other lines without an EXTRA
charge
of $10pp to $15pp on top of the $20pp.

On board Asian Restaurant--Excellent. However NOT worth the cover charge.

Teppannyaki--food preparation right in front of you.
NOT worth the $30pp (If I remember correctly) cover charge.
I believe our 'chef' was new to cooking. He fumbled almost everything.
He dropped eggs trying to look 'fancy', was totally inept with everything
he tried to prepare.

Friends, relatives or the CEO of the company couldn't drag us
onto another NCL ship.

Splenda

On Oct 22, 6:54 pm, Peg Caldwell-Ott wrote:
Hi Diana,
\Even on ships
of other lines that offer Main and Late seatings, you still have to
"assert yourself" at some point to at least make a choice of one of
those, right???

You make the choice once, and you're set for the week. Shows and other
events are scheduled around the set dining times, so there's one less
thing to try to schedule around. With freestyle, what if you get all
your dining reservations made early in the cruise, only to find out
that you'll be missing all the shows because of the dining times you
picked? Shows aren't that important to me, truthfully, but I still
like knowing I have the option to attend, and that my evening meal
won't interfere with that schedule.

And you are locked into your choice for the whole
cruise--no variations or alternatives allowed regardless of your
excursion plans, napping needs or some other issue--and heaven defend
you if you show up late to your seating!!

Right. So, with a set dining time, you know when dinner is, and can
work your naps around that. Typically, I choose late seating (the
later of the two late seatings on HAL). The ship has already left port
by that time, so there's no conflict with shore activities. In fact,
there's plenty of time for nap before dinner. And, even ships with
tradtional dining have specialty restaurants, if you're looking for
something other than the dining room routine.

And, what happens with freestyle, if you show up late for your
reservation? How long do they hold the table for you?

You may well end up in your
cabin with no meal at all, or trying to find something palatable at
the buffet!!

The buffets are usually pretty good for the evening meal - quite a few
steps above "palatable".

Presumably you have to make shore excursion choices too,
and let your selections be known to somebody!

Usually plan my own independent tours - my schedule.

Using the good offices
of the concierge is easy (by e-mail before the voyage or a simple note
left at the Guest Relations Desk), and its nice to have everything in
place (shore excursions included) the minute we walk into our cabin
these days.

Is this concierge service available to all NCL passengers?

Lee

You make the choice once, and you're set for the week. Shows and other
events are scheduled around the set dining times, so there's one less
thing to try to schedule around. With freestyle, what if you get all
your dining reservations made early in the cruise, only to find out
that you'll be missing all the shows because of the dining times you
picked? Shows aren't that important to me, truthfully, but I still
like knowing I have the option to attend, and that my evening meal
won't interfere with that schedule.

We have only ever attended one show on a voyage--and that was on
the Meridian in 1993--our first voyage together for our honeymoon. We
very quickly realized that neither of us care for shows at all. We
would rather go to a bar and listen to music, or to one of the dance
venues on board where we can relax and dance if we want to.

And, what happens with freestyle, if you show up late for your
reservation? How long do they hold the table for you?

Usually 30 minutes, and they call your cabin to see if you have
changed your mind, or would prefer to make a different reservation.

Is this concierge service available to all NCL passengers?

Yes