Info on Freestyle cruising please...

[Babushka]

We are thinking about going on the Norwegian Jewel next March. My first cruise 10 years ago was on the Norwegian Dream, then known as the Dreamward. We had a wonderful time but haven't been on Norwegian since. They did not have this program back then. We have been on 3 Carnival and 3 Royal Caribbean cruises since and have a had a great time every time.

I would like information on Freestyle cruising. I understand the basic concept of it in that you choose when you want to eat and whether you want to dress up or not. Is there more to it than that? For those of you that have done the Freestyling and have been on other ships, which do you prefer? Is there a really big difference? Is it difficult to get seated at dinners? I have to say it seems a little inconvenient trying to find places to eat every evening. I could be wrong and this is why I'd love some input. We are just really ready to try a new ship and atmosphere. We are in our 30's and will be traveling with several other couples in the same age group. We are not big partiers but like to have fun. I also had a great time on their private island and would love to go back. Carnival doesn't have it's own island, RCCL does, but it wasn't my favorite stop. For those that have been on different lines I would love to hear how the newer Norwegian ships compare to the newer ships of the other lines. I have to say we do prefer the newer, larger ships.

Any information would be greatly appreciated!

 

[ZefH]

I became interested in this issue too, as I am set to sail on the Norwegian Star on October 8. My boss is a big fan of Norwegian. This will be my first cruise on Norwegian (5th cruise overall). Last year several people from work were on the Norwegian Wind in Alaska. So I asked them about it.

I was told that you have to get everyone together if you want to all eat together. When you have a set time all you have to do is show up, you know the others will be there soon.

They made reservations every night. So I asked, what is the difference between making reservations and showing up at a pre-assigned time every night? The answer was there is none. However, it seems to me that if you have to make reservations, that is one more thing you have to do that you don't have to do when the time and place is already set for you.

I have read several reviews. They seem fairly well split down the middle as to what happens if you do not make reservations. Some say you might have to wait zero to ten minutes. Others indicate it is more like 30 to 60 minutes.

It is my understanding that Norwegian does this because it is owned by an Asian Cruise Line (I forget the name right off hand) and Asians do not like having to eat at a set time.

So Norwegian promotes its flexible eating schedule. However, it has been my experience that being flexible and organized requires more planning than having everything set and being organized. Put in the extra effort, and it should work well. Don't put in the extra effort and being flexible is just an excuse for poor planning.

Also, I found that set times can be changed to suit the circumstances. For example, on a Royal Carribbean cruise last summer we ate at 6:00pm every night except when we were in Cozumel. We did not leave Cosumel until 7:00pm and thus everyone had to be on board by 6:30pm. RCCL moved back the dinner time for both early and late seating by 30 minutes. So even a set time can be flexible.

Sorry I can not give you an answer on the ins and outs of freestyle. Even after my October 8 cruise I will only have one freestyle cruise under my belt - hardly a representative example. For that you need someone with five or more freestyle cruises under their belt in order to get a general feel for how it works.

As to a comparison of the ships, I was recently on the 138,000 GRT Navigator of the Seas. There is no way that a 91,000 GRT ton ship is going to compare favorably when it comes to options on board the ship (the RCCL ship is 50% bigger). However, I became interested in the Star because of its speed. It get to Acapulco two hours ahead of the Carnival Spirit even though it starts from a port that is 100 miles further north. The Voyager class ships cruise at about the same speed as the Spirit class ships do. The Star is about 2.5 knots faster. That may not sound like much, but after spending over 60 hours at sea, that is a 150 knot gain, or a savings of about six hours (as I said, it starts 100 miles back and arrives two hours earlier).

All I can suggest is that you do what I did. Book a trip and see for yourself. If you like it, great, book another cruise on Norwegian. If not, next cruise try a different cruise line. However, I am not going with a group, so I will not have the problem of trying to coordinate with everyone, and make sure everyone remembers that tonight we eat at 6pm in resturant A, and tomorrow we eat at 6:30pm in resturant B. If your group is big enough, I can promise you a few confused people.

 

[Babushka]

Thanks so much for your response. It was helpful. I was beginning to wonder if I would get any responses. After my post I noticed that I posted in the Roll Call section so I thought maybe this is why I hadn't had any messages.

You are right that the best way for me to find out about Freestyle cruising is to try it. However, the group we are traveling with seems so be growing by the minute and we definately all want to eat together. Sometimes dinner time is the only time some of us will see eachother all day since we're busy doing our own things during the day. So I'm not sure that this line will be best for a group of our size. I definately plan on cruising with Norwegian in the future but think we will wait till it is just a small group.

Thanks again for your information!

 

[texascruiser]

Personal Choice Dining

You may also want to consider princess cruises if you liked the private island stop, Princess Cays was a really nice stop when we went on the Grand Princess a few years ago. I've been on RCCL several times but never stopped at their private island, so I can't compare them. We did the "Personal Choice Dining" on that cruise which is the same thing as Freestyle except with princess you have a choice of traditional assigned seating or personal choice. You can even switch to Personal Choice during the cruise but not to traditional. As far as NCL, I'm not sure yet, we sail this Sunday on the Pride of Aloha for our first cruise on NCL.