Cruise Ship Dining Options

Some repeat cruisers still prefer traditional formal dining, however
Carnival Cruise Line is offering flexible dining options on their ships.
Photos courtesy of Carnival Cruise Lines.

Today’s cruise customers want more flexibility when they cruise. They want to dine when they want and where they want. While many repeat cruisers still like the traditional formal dining and want to dress up for dinner, some new cruise passengers do not! Recently three major cruise lines reacted to this trend, and announced flexible and varied dining and activity options on their ships. Each of these cruise lines offers distinctly different options and you need to understand what is offered to make your vacation choice.

Norwegian® Cruise Line
The first cruise line to announce their new dining experience was Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) with their "freestyle dining." This new dining option is presently offered on their Norwegian Sky, Majesty, and now the Sea. Beginning this summer, the Norwegian Sea will offer one-week Bahamas cruises out of New York, making NCL the only cruise line offering these departures.

Freestyle dining allows you to dine at the time and location of your choice during the designated dining hours. It is totally open dining in all dining rooms and restaurants. Onboard guests tell us they never waited more than a few minutes for a table on any night. The Garden Café even offers dinner buffets supplemented with meat and pasta stations, and is very popular with families who prefer a more relaxed atmosphere.

NCL is adding significant numbers of serving staff to their ships to activate Freestyle dining. The cruise line also offers freestyle dress codes for evening meals so there is no requirement to pack a tuxedo. Currently NCL is serving the same menu in each dining room onboard, but they hope to offer different menus in each dining room in 2001. They do have different menus in the alternative restaurants.

Although the dress code is resort wear casual, many couples still opt to dress up in their formal attire for the formal night. The ships make adjustments and designate some dining rooms as formal to accommodate these guests. They do not mix guests with varying attire together at the same table.

Princess Cruises®
Princess Cruises’ new dining option focuses more on the food component of dining. Their new experience is called "Personal Choices Dining," your choice just the way you ordered it! The new restaurant-style seating which enables passengers to dine when and with whom they wish, just as they would be able to do at a shore-side restaurant at home. However the traditional cruise dining option where passengers have the same dining time, waiter and tablemates each evening will be available, as well as a new "no reservations restaurant style" seating in their alternative restaurants.

"This new program is both revolutionary and evolutionary," explained Dean Brown, executive vice president of sales, marketing and customer service. "It’s revolutionary because no cruise line offers both, and also because our new restaurant-style dining option will be operated like a shore-side restaurant – it’s definitely not a typical open seating alternative. And Personal Choices Dining is evolutionary because Princess has been at the forefront of eliminating regimentation and providing personalized choice to passengers since the mid 90s beginning with the introduction of Sun Princess."

They offer smaller, more intimate dining rooms, each with their own galley, more dining space per passenger, and the option to accommodate table requests from two to ten people. Their alternative restaurants (which vary by ship) include a 24-hour Lido Cafe/Bistro for very casual dining, a Pizzeria, Hamburger Grill, Patisserie, Wine and Caviar Bar, Ice Cream Sundae Bar, Southwestern Restaurant, an Italian Trattoria, and 24-hour in-room service. Their dining rooms will stay open from 5:30 p.m. to midnight to accommodate the "no-reservation" seating as well as the "traditional assigned" seating. And cruise passengers can move from table to table night after night.

A special dining desk will be open throughout the day where passengers can make their dinner reservations, and passengers will also be able to dine without reservations at their leisure.

How to pack? Whatever you want. With so many dining options you choose how formal you want to be. Princess will also continue their Black Tie Optional evenings. The program started January 2001 on the Grand Princess, and will be offered on the Golden Princess in May 2001.

Carnival Cruise Lines®
Carnival Cruise line also plans to introduce flexible dining options in phases onboard all of their 15 ships. They plan to do this by offering four staggered seating times in their main restaurants. They will also offer casual alternative dining in their Seaview Bistros with no reservations. Many restaurants are adopting a new Team Service structure under which each table is served by three wait staff instead of two to elevate the service quality.

In the main restaurants, guests will be assigned to one of four seating times: 6 p.m.; 6:45 p.m.; 8 p.m.; and 8:45 p.m. Studies show that many families prefer early seating, while most Americans prefer to dine between 7-8:30 p.m. International guests prefer the 8:45 p.m. seating.

In the Seaview Bistros, Carnival is upgrading their menus and, on an occasional basis will offer, full table service instead of the buffet. Carnival believes that their flexible dining options remain one of the most popular aspects of the cruise experience—as well as rapport with the wait staff in the main dining rooms who provide personalized service, remembering guests’ names and preferences, and entertaining the kids. Casual dining will be offered from 6-9 p.m. All of the Lido Deck poolside eateries will be converted nightly to Seaview Bistros, offering a range of dining options. There are no assigned tables, designated seating times or dress codes. Further enhancements to the Bistro menus include new featured items including shrimp, lamb, salmon and pasta dishes. This new dining is already in place on Carnival’s Imagination, and will be completed fleet wide by the end of 2001.

As the Director of Travel for AAA, I have all too often seen our customers disappointed because they could not get the dining time of their choice for their cruise vacation. They may have booked late and ended up with early dining at 6 p.m. when their choice was 8:30 p.m. These new flexible dining options all provide a range of choices at dinnertime. They are hassle free and give you—the cruise passenger—new choices for dress and dining to fit your lifestyle.

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Published in the February 2001 issue of the AAA Traveler.