Norwegian Cruise Lines NCL, Dawn and Sun

We'll be sailing the NCL Dawn and Sun soon and were curious if anyone
knows which restaurants on the ship do and do not have the extra
surcharge. There used to be a page on their website (so I've been
told) that outlined this. Anyone know of such a page or if they have
recently traveled on either of these two ships?

Thanks!!

When I was on the dawn a few years ago, I think it was the steakhouse,
the french restaurant and maybe the asian restaurant only.

Not sure about the Sun, but the Dawn has 13 restaurants:

(1) The Venetian--Main Dining Room No Cover Charge
Same menu as Impressions

(2) Impressions--Secondary Dining Room No Cover Charge
Same Menu as Venetian

(3) Aqua--Secondary Dining Room No Cover Charge
Modified Menu from Impressions and Venetian, often features
lighter cuisine and extra salads.

(4) Salsa--Tex-Mex Specialty Restaurant. No Cover Charge or
maybe a small one ($5??pp)

(5) Le Bistro--French Specialty Restaurant (NCL signature room)
Original paintings by Renior, Matisse, Van Gogh and Monet on the Dawn
are in this room. Nouvelle Cuisine--very fancy and tasty. Cover
charge is $15 or $20pp

(6) Cagney's--The on board Steakhouse--Fabulous food and well
worth the $20pp cover charge.

(7) Bamboo--On board Asian Restaurant--Excellent. Well worth
the $13 or $15pp cover charge.

(8) Teppannyaki--A separate room off Bamboo--Benny-Hana
style food preparation right in front of you. Lots of fun and
well worth the $15pp cover charge. Room is small and difficult
to get reservations for!!

(9) Sushi Bar--Also part of the Bamboo Asian Restaurant.
Excellent Sushi and all you can eat for $10pp cover charge.

(10) Trattoria--Italian Restaurant--part of the Garden Cafe
which is separated off by a curtain and lots of Italian flags.
No cover charge and a wonderful selection of pasta and
various sauces.

(11) The Garden Cafe (Lido) The main Lido cafeteria.
Features a separate area for children and their own
mini-buffet too. No cover charge

(12) Blue Lagoon The 24 hour short order cafe. Good
French Fries and great tomato soup!! No cover charge

(13) Bimini Grill Part of the Lido area serving Burgers and
Hot Dogs with French Fries and Salads all day--does not
operate at night.

The Main Dining Rooms (Venetian, Impressions and Aqua) changed their
menus last year. Very nice selection of foods with more emphasis on
healthy eating. Avoid the Fish dishes (frozen).

We love Cagneys and the Asian Restaurants--well worth the cover
charge. Try to get into Teppanyaki if you can--it's fun!! Trattoria is
good too.

Reservations are recommended for all of the restaurants, and
absolutely essential for the Speciality Restaurants. There are three
ways to do this:
(1) Stand in Line to make reservations--No fun, and the lines are
usually horrendous every single day, especially at the beginning of
the cruise. Odd that most people do not think to use their on board
phone in the cabin or the good services of the Conceirge!!
(2) Call from the comfort of your cabin in the mornings to make
reservations for the evening. The number on the Dawn is 9930.
(3) If you can plan your dining choices and times in advance, make a
list of what you want--reservation name, cabin number, dining room
choice and time that you want. Give it to the Guest Relations
officers in an envelope labeled for the Concierge right at the start
of the voyage. You will get a list back from the Concierge of your
reservations, all pre-booked for you for the whole voyage. This is
what we do--in fact, we usually make our choices well before the trip
and e-mail our list to the Concierge!! Never fails--and we have
learned that this is the BEST way to ensure that we get what we want,
especially for popular restaurants like Teppanyaki and Cagney's!!

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!!. You do not have to watch your watch and show up at the
DR at just the right moment or they will slam the door in your face
and tell you no service!! Worst case scenario, there is always the
Lido and Blue Lagoon--often the last resort for people who cannot make
up their minds, or who erroneously interpret "Freestyle" as "spur of
the moment"!!

Basis for information: 3 previous cruises on the Dawn and 4 on the
Spirit. We ADORE freestyle and will probably not go back to anything
less in the future!! VBG Current bookings are for the Gem at
Christmas time and back-to-backs on the Spirit for next summer.

Bestest,

PegNDerek in NYC


On Sat, 20 Oct 2007 14:56:18 -0700, J wrote:

We'll be sailing the NCL Dawn and Sun soon and were curious if anyone
knows which restaurants on the ship do and do not have the extra
surcharge. There used to be a page on their website (so I've been
told) that outlined this. Anyone know of such a page or if they have
recently traveled on either of these two ships?

Thanks!!

Peg Caldwell-Ott wrote:
Not sure about the Sun, but the Dawn has 13 restaurants:

(1) The Venetian--Main Dining Room No Cover Charge
Same menu as Impressions

(2) Impressions--Secondary Dining Room No Cover Charge
Same Menu as Venetian

(3) Aqua--Secondary Dining Room No Cover Charge
Modified Menu from Impressions and Venetian, often features
lighter cuisine and extra salads.

(4) Salsa--Tex-Mex Specialty Restaurant. No Cover Charge or
maybe a small one ($5??pp)

(5) Le Bistro--French Specialty Restaurant (NCL signature room)
Original paintings by Renior, Matisse, Van Gogh and Monet on the Dawn
are in this room. Nouvelle Cuisine--very fancy and tasty. Cover
charge is $15 or $20pp

(6) Cagney's--The on board Steakhouse--Fabulous food and well
worth the $20pp cover charge.

(7) Bamboo--On board Asian Restaurant--Excellent. Well worth
the $13 or $15pp cover charge.

(8) Teppannyaki--A separate room off Bamboo--Benny-Hana
style food preparation right in front of you. Lots of fun and
well worth the $15pp cover charge. Room is small and difficult
to get reservations for!!

(9) Sushi Bar--Also part of the Bamboo Asian Restaurant.
Excellent Sushi and all you can eat for $10pp cover charge.

(10) Trattoria--Italian Restaurant--part of the Garden Cafe
which is separated off by a curtain and lots of Italian flags.
No cover charge and a wonderful selection of pasta and
various sauces.

(11) The Garden Cafe (Lido) The main Lido cafeteria.
Features a separate area for children and their own
mini-buffet too. No cover charge

(12) Blue Lagoon The 24 hour short order cafe. Good
French Fries and great tomato soup!! No cover charge

(13) Bimini Grill Part of the Lido area serving Burgers and
Hot Dogs with French Fries and Salads all day--does not
operate at night.

The Main Dining Rooms (Venetian, Impressions and Aqua) changed their
menus last year. Very nice selection of foods with more emphasis on
healthy eating. Avoid the Fish dishes (frozen).

We love Cagneys and the Asian Restaurants--well worth the cover
charge. Try to get into Teppanyaki if you can--it's fun!! Trattoria is
good too.

Reservations are recommended for all of the restaurants, and
absolutely essential for the Speciality Restaurants. There are three
ways to do this:
(1) Stand in Line to make reservations--No fun, and the lines are
usually horrendous every single day, especially at the beginning of
the cruise. Odd that most people do not think to use their on board
phone in the cabin or the good services of the Conceirge!!
(2) Call from the comfort of your cabin in the mornings to make
reservations for the evening. The number on the Dawn is 9930.
(3) If you can plan your dining choices and times in advance, make a
list of what you want--reservation name, cabin number, dining room
choice and time that you want. Give it to the Guest Relations
officers in an envelope labeled for the Concierge right at the start
of the voyage. You will get a list back from the Concierge of your
reservations, all pre-booked for you for the whole voyage. This is
what we do--in fact, we usually make our choices well before the trip
and e-mail our list to the Concierge!! Never fails--and we have
learned that this is the BEST way to ensure that we get what we want,
especially for popular restaurants like Teppanyaki and Cagney's!!

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!!. You do not have to watch your watch and show up at the
DR at just the right moment or they will slam the door in your face
and tell you no service!! Worst case scenario, there is always the
Lido and Blue Lagoon--often the last resort for people who cannot make
up their minds, or who erroneously interpret "Freestyle" as "spur of
the moment"!!

Basis for information: 3 previous cruises on the Dawn and 4 on the
Spirit. We ADORE freestyle and will probably not go back to anything
less in the future!! VBG Current bookings are for the Gem at
Christmas time and back-to-backs on the Spirit for next summer.

Bestest,

PegNDerek in NYC


On Sat, 20 Oct 2007 14:56:18 -0700, J wrote:

We'll be sailing the NCL Dawn and Sun soon and were curious if anyone
knows which restaurants on the ship do and do not have the extra
surcharge. There used to be a page on their website (so I've been
told) that outlined this. Anyone know of such a page or if they have
recently traveled on either of these two ships?

Thanks!!


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.

In article , Peg
Caldwell-Ott wrote:

(2) Call from the comfort of your cabin in the mornings to make
reservations for the evening. The number on the Dawn is 9930.

Do that and have a choice of 5:30 or 9:30 PM.

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!!.

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.

Basis for information: 3 previous cruises on the Dawn and 4 on the
Spirit. We ADORE freestyle and will probably not go back to anything
less in the future!!

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

--
Charles

Many thanks for the information. We have not been on the Dawn since
December 2005/January 2006 (Christmas and New Year's voyage),
and did not know this. Useful information for future reference!!

Best Regards,

Peg

On Sun, 21 Oct 2007 13:47:12 -0400, "MrLee"
wrote:


While in drydock last spring Impressions was changed to the Italian
restaurant. I guess they were so popular they needed more room! (g)

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!! Yes, you
have to be a little flexible (as you would with any good restaurant at
home), but we never got stuck with "5:30 or 9:30" time slot
reservations unless we wanted them!! We prefer to eat later on usually
anyway (avoiding all of the kids). Using the Concierge has made all of
that unnecessary.

We have never tried Carnival, although we have heard that the food is
much better now than it used to be. Perhaps some day--although
"guzzle and belch" cruising still does not appeal to us, nor does the
extreme size and passenger load of the Carnival ships. "Each to his
own"!!. We have found that the food in the non-specialty restaurants
on NCL is very good to excellent, especially over the past year after
they changed the menus. Worst case scenario, you can always get a
steak-baker-salad combo (that will satisfy anyone) if nothing on the
menu appeals.Or, ask for a "kiddie" menu--the hot dogs and fries are
always good, or even the grilled cheese sandwich!! As long as I don't
have to cook it, clean it up, or do the dishes, I am happy, especially
with meals that are tasty and palatable!! 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!!

Too bad you are unwilling to keep an open mind about NCL as are many
others. Don't let anyone drag you on board--the rest of us enjoy the
ships and "freestyle" way and prefer not to have to put up with the
disgruntled who are not where they choose to be. "Each to his
own"--which is the best thing about modern cruising!!

PegNDerek



On Sun, 21 Oct 2007 13:43:46 -0400, Charles
wrote:

In article , Peg
Caldwell-Ott wrote:

(2) Call from the comfort of your cabin in the mornings to make
reservations for the evening. The number on the Dawn is 9930.

Do that and have a choice of 5:30 or 9:30 PM.

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!!.

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.

Basis for information: 3 previous cruises on the Dawn and 4 on the
Spirit. We ADORE freestyle and will probably not go back to anything
less in the future!!

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

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.

In article , Peg
Caldwell-Ott wrote:

We have never tried Carnival, although we have heard that the food is
much better now than it used to be. Perhaps some day--although
"guzzle and belch" cruising still does not appeal to us, nor does the
extreme size and passenger load of the Carnival ships. "Each to his
own"!!.

I didn't care for Carnival but at least I tried it. And at least the
food was better on Carnival then on NCL. The passenger load on the NCL
Dawn was more crowded than on the Carnival Miracle which is the
Carnival ship I tried. And if a line was a guzzle and belch line, I
would say it was more NCL than Carnival. However Carnival and NCL are
both budget lines that I'd rather not cruise on in the future. I'll
never say never though!

--
Charles

Peg Caldwell-Ott wrote:

We have never tried Carnival, although we have heard that the food is
much better now than it used to be. Perhaps some day--although
"guzzle and belch" cruising still does not appeal to us, nor does the
extreme size and passenger load of the Carnival ships. "Each to his
own"!!.

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