Making dinner reservations on Norwegian

I am leaving on the Spirit in a few days, and wanted to get some
previous passengers experiences of how they made dinner reservations.
I read a few stories about people getting up early to make their
reservations, and did not understand why they did not just make them
the night before. Can you make them days in advance? Are the shows
at a set time so you can plan several days in advance? Can you just
show up at the main dining room at 6:00 and get a table, or?

"Tom" <thickerson555@> wrote in message
news:18d67944-52be-472d-ad7b-19840334c777@21g2000hsj..com...
>I am leaving on the Spirit in a few days, and wanted to get some
> previous passengers experiences of how they made dinner reservations.
> I read a few stories about people getting up early to make their
> reservations, and did not understand why they did not just make them
> the night before. Can you make them days in advance? Are the shows
> at a set time so you can plan several days in advance? Can you just
> show up at the main dining room at 6:00 and get a table, or?

We just got off the Pearl. I don't think you can make reservations more
than a day or so in advance. We tried to make reservations at the non-extra
pay restaurants (Italian and Mexican) and couldn't get anything before
10:15. They only way we got those reservations was that since this was a
two part cruise where we went on one part and then got off and got back on
before the rest of the people embarked - then we could get reservations for
those two restaurants.

As far as the main dining rooms - you don't need reservations, although
people do. But they have completely lost the original idea of freestyle
IMHO - you can no longer count on someone who might have interesting table
conversation to talk to. If there is one of you - you eat alone. If there
are two of you, you eat at a table for two. When we did it before, we just
lined up for dinner and said that we would share, and were put at a table
with 6 other people. This time, we'd ask to share, and we only managed it
three times in a 14 day cruise. And twice we were in line with people who
heard us say or we heard them say that they would share. Once I was having
a conversation with someone and mentioned that we liked to eat with various
people, and when she got up to the lady who was assigning the tables and was
asked if she wanted to share, she said Most emphatically that she did NOT.

Of course this might not be the case for most cruises, but this was a
Christmas cruise and there were a lot of large family groups. I saw one
large family at two large tables - one had the 12 adults, and the other had
the 9 children.

"Tom" <thickerson555@> wrote in message
news:18d67944-52be-472d-ad7b-
19840334c777@21g2000hsj..com...
>I am leaving on the Spirit in a few days, and wanted to get some
> previous passengers experiences of how they made dinner reservations.
> I read a few stories about people getting up early to make their
> reservations, and did not understand why they did not just make them
> the night before. Can you make them days in advance? Are the shows
> at a set time so you can plan several days in advance? Can you just
> show up at the main dining room at 6:00 and get a table, or?

We were on the Spirit early this year. They restricted reservations in the
specialty restaurants to be within 24 hours or less. We took advantage of
their deal on port days that if you went at 5:30 to, I believe 6:30, the
rate was 1/2 price.

If you go to the main dining rooms at 6:00, you will have no problem getting
a table of any size on any day. 7:00 to 8:00 will be the most crowded.

--
Greg

RosalieAnn Beasley wrote:
>
> We just got off the Pearl. I don't think you can make reservations more
> than a day or so in advance. We tried to make reservations at the non-extra
> pay restaurants (Italian and Mexican) and couldn't get anything before
> 10:15. They only way we got those reservations was that since this was a
> two part cruise where we went on one part and then got off and got back on
> before the rest of the people embarked - then we could get reservations for
> those two restaurants.

This is very similar to what I found on Pride of Hawaii this
past summer. I only discovered a couple of days before the
cruise ended that you could actually make reservations starting
at 7am the day before. The cruise daily implied that they opened
at 5pm and we could never figure out why we could not get
anything before 9pm when we got there at 5pm the day before. I
figured it was because the suite customers were all booking
them. I was finally told that we could make reservations at 7am
and when my kids went there the following morning, there were at
least a couple dozen people on line before they opened.

It is strange that people like shoreguy claim there is never a
problem making reservations. Maybe they cruise on a different
NCL than the rest of us (or have suites). I know that the
difficulty in getting reservations (not to mention the mediocre
food) caused most of the people I spoke to on our cruise swear
that they would never sail with NCL again). I figured it was an
NCLA thing.

Bill

On Dec 29, 11:08 pm, Bill <billru...@> wrote:

>
> It is strange that people like shoreguy claim there is never a
> problem making reservations. Maybe they cruise on a different
> NCL than the rest of us (or have suites). I know that the
> difficulty in getting reservations (not to mention the mediocre
> food) caused most of the people I spoke to on our cruise swear
> that they would never sail with NCL again). I figured it was an
> NCLA thing.

I could echo shoreguy's post ... I never have problems ... sometimes I
don't get exactly the time I want ... but dining at 7:30 when we
wanted 6:30 is not what I consider a fiasco ... Funny the mention
about suites ... On the NCL Crown in the Owners Suite ... (thanks for
another chance to recall that) ... the concierge informed us that she
couldn't get a reservation for one of the specialties ... So while
wandering around the ship I stopped at the restaurant ... and they
were more than willing to give us the time we wanted ... Oh at 5 PM we
couldn't get a reservation in the oriental restaurant for that
evening ... but again ... can't call that their problem ... many times
I am able to get a good time at the last minute ... In the extra fee
ones ...

Having this good luck was NCL fleetwide ...but not NCLA ... the
Sea,Sky,Sun,Spirit,Dawn,Crown - I'm missing one ... on 1/3-1/2 the
nights that we looked for a change of pace ... Next Feb. 29th on the
Jade ... Transatlantic ... six sea days in a row may make a
difference ... but I don't expect problems or disappointments ...Again
getting a hour away from the time one wants or not getting something
late in the day doesn't qualify ...

Bill C wrote:
>
> I still don't see how this is freestyle if you have to get up at 7am to
> make reservations? I didn't even eat breakfast yet, how do I know what
> restaurant and what time I want to eat dinner.

What restaurant and what time you want to eat dinner at THE
FOLLOWING DAY!!!

Bill

shoreguy wrote:
>
> No question La Cucina is the most difficult reservation onboard the Gem.
> Using that to reflect reservations in general is not a fair representation.
> It is small, it is Italian, and the number 1 reason it is FREE.

If it's so popular, why it is so small? Surely they could
rearrange things to have more availability in the restaurant
where people actually want to eat. Maybe they want to force
people to the extra-fee restaurants instead?

Of course if the dining room food were better, getting
reservations at the specialty places would not be as big of a
deal.

I ate at the Italian restaurant on PoH twice on our cruise. The
first was the 2nd night because we were able to make that
reservation (for 5:30, all they had before 9) the first night
when they turned us away. The second time was the last night of
the cruise, when my kids got up and got on line at 6:45am the
day before.

Bill

In article <13343-47781B70-918@storefull-3314.bay.>, RICK
DAVIS <RICKER64@> wrote:

> On the Dawn the Italian Rest. was just a curtained off area of the
> buffet. The food was awful. Awful is the kindest word I can think of.
> Ragu on cold pasta drained with dirty dish soap water would have been
> 100 times better than what they served as "italian" food. I just
> can't wait to hear someone review of this new enhanced freestyle dining.
> I really don't see how it could be anything but an improvement.

The enhanced Freestyle 2 is just marketing hype until I read otherwise.
The worst food on the Dawn was the buffet. It is the only food I had on
a cruise that was horrible. Almost as bad were the Tapas on Dawn at the
Salsa Tapas Bar. The food in the rest of the restaurants while not
horrible was nothing to write home about and the service was lousy. The
only thing I liked about NCL style Freestyle was the dress code. No
formal evenings. That is not enough to get me onboard again. The only
reason besides going on a cruise with a group that would get me on NCL
again is that they are pretty much the only cruise line right now doing
seven days to Bermuda. So I might have to hold my nose and book with
them for that but otherwise no way......

--
Charles

"RICK DAVIS" <RICKER64@> wrote in message
news:13343-47781B70-918@storefull-3314.bay....
> On the Dawn the Italian Rest. was just a curtained off area of the
> buffet. The food was awful. Awful is the kindest word I can think of.
> Ragu on cold pasta drained with dirty dish soap water would have been
> 100 times better than what they served as "italian" food. I just
> can't wait to hear someone review of this new enhanced freestyle dining.
> I really don't see how it could be anything but an improvement.
>

Granted we want on Dawn a few years before you did (it was right after the
ship came out), but the meal we had in the Italian Rest was the best meal we
had all weak on Dawn. The chef prepared pasta with ham for us right on the
spot. It was outstanding. We didn't go there until the last night, and
were sorry we didn't go there much earlier in the cruise. Times change.. so
things may have declined significantly.

--Tom

In article <4778225d$0$13873$607ed4bc@cv.net>, Tom K
<tkanitra@> wrote:

>
> Granted we want on Dawn a few years before you did (it was right after the
> ship came out), but the meal we had in the Italian Rest was the best meal we
> had all weak on Dawn. The chef prepared pasta with ham for us right on the
> spot. It was outstanding. We didn't go there until the last night, and
> were sorry we didn't go there much earlier in the cruise. Times change.. so
> things may have declined significantly.

The dinner I had in the Italian restaurant on Dawn was not bad but it
was not even close to being outstanding. Or the best meal I had on
Dawn. The best meal I had on Dawn was at Le Bistro and that was pretty
much because of the chocolate fondue dessert.

--
Charles