Norwegian Jewel..Your experiences?
We are leaving out of New York on the Jewel this Saturday. YIPPPEE!! This is our second cruise, but our first with NCL. Our first was with Carnival and we had absolutely no complaints. I have been reading a lot of negative reviews about NCL. Mostly because people seem to not like the "freestyle" dining. I am just curious about people's experiences with NCL.
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I hate to answer a question and be negative but I hate freestyle also. I have been on about 8 NCL cruises all together, about half of those before they started freestyle. So my experience is with them both before and after it began. Before freestyle I loved NCL and didn't cruise with anyone else. Now I absolutely hate it.
Now days all of the cruise lines have the same optional, eat dinner when you want to option, they just call it by different names. But I think its more a service issue on NCL because they have freestyle only and you rarely get the same wait staff for dinner. So if the person serving you is not gonna see you again, or maybe only once more, then why provide exceptional service for the tips which he/she will get automatically anyway.
I prefer the traditional dining option so I know that if I plan to go to dinner at 6:00 or 8:30 my table and waiter are expecting me and will "serve" me. I get to know that person by name and have a conversation other than "can I take your order". MY waiter knows I want a glass of iced tea with dinner and not coffee after dinner. My waiter calls me by name instead of addressing me as sir./madam as they did on NCL.Some people like to be free spirits and just go eat whenever they want and don't care that much if they have to wait for a table or have a different person each evening. So its pretty much your preference. I have not had good experiences with the anytime on other ships and cruise lines so I stick with traditional seating.
Yes there are long lines on some days, usually worse or more often on "at sea" days when there are no port stops and everyone seems to want to go to dinner early and at the same time. We found that its best to go early as soon as the main dining room opens. You can also make reservations in the main dining room but we found that you could only do reservations for 2 days at a time. That was another hassle, remembering to reserve. OR, just go to the buffet and serve yourself. Most days they have some of the same food.
The bottom line is you'll have a good time and don't let the dinner thing disrupt your cruise. Just have fun and don't sweat the small stuff. Even if the wait staff is not the best the food will be good and there will be plenty of it.