NCL Freestyle Cruising vs. Traditional Cruising

We just returned home from our annual family cruise! This year, we took a 7 day Caribbean Cruise on the Norwegian Spirit.

The trip started in New Orleans and we stopped in Costa Maya, Mexico; Santo Tomas de Castilla, Guatemala; Belize City, Belize; and Cozumel, Mexico.

We’ve sailed with traditional cruise lines such as Carnival, Princess, and Royal Caribbean so we wanted to try a new cruise concept this time around: Freestyle Cruising.

Is Freestyle cruising really Freestyle or is it similar to other ‘traditional’ cruise lines?

According to the Norwegian Cruise Lines (NCL) website, here’s a look at what Freestyle® cruising is all about:

“Freestyle Cruising is all about giving you the freedom of choice to have your style of vacation. Relax or be adventurous. Eat a burger or filet. Dress up or go casual. And never have a fixed schedule or restriction to slow you down.”

Dining:

The Norwegian Spirit has 11 restaurants. However, only 3 “formal” restaurants don’t charge a cover: Raffles (the buffet), Windows, and The Garden Room. The latter two share the same menu.

Restaurants that have a $10-30 cover charge: Steakhouse, Asian, French, and Italian. This doesn’t include any wine or other drinks you might want to order.

You can, of course, grab a burger in the Bier Garten or Blue Lagoon Café at no extra charge.

Know before you go:

• Groups of 6 or more are highly encouraged to make a restaurant reservation if they don’t want to wait around for a table. What the NCL Freestyle website won’t tell you is there are only two reservation times: 5:30pm & 8:30pm. These are the same dining times on most traditional cruise lines.
• If there are fewer than 6 in your party, reservations aren’t possible (at least for Windows & The Garden Room) and it’s first-come, first-serve.

If there’s a particular waiter or waitress you like, it’s possible to request his/her station when you make your reservation (again, 6+) or try your luck the next night sans reservation if you’re a smaller party.

Our experience:

• Without a huge choice of Freestyle dining times for our group of 12, we found having the same waiter each day on a traditional cruise is the way to go for our group. Taking 12 people to a specialty restaurant each night was out of the question and nobody minded eating in the same restaurant as the menu changes daily.

• Because of NCL autogratuity ($12/day/passenger) and because waiters serve different passengers each night, we found the restaurant service isn’t always of the same quality as it is on traditional cruises. After a few nights of stressed waiters and one particularly bad waitress, we finally found our own rose in The Garden Room (Joanna from the Philippines) and requested her for the remainder of the cruise.

• The Garden Room closes later than Windows, so we found the 8:30pm dining service way better because we weren’t rushed through our meal by waiters who just wanted us out.

The Menu:

In true cruise fashion, NCL’s menu has something for almost everyone. From seafood (lobster & mahi mahi!) to steak and chicken piccata, you’ll find an abundance of options that will keep your taste buds happy.

Vegetarians are taken care of at mealtime with options (although fewer) ranging from tofu dishes to polenta and tempura.

The salad bar in Raffles deserves a medal for being among the best at sea. I’ve never seen such a consistently wide selection of fresh vegetables on a cruise ship.

Activities:

Whether you’re on an NCL Freestyle Cruise or another traditional cruise line, you’ll find the activities are pretty much the same – nightlife, music, shows, Champagne Art Auctions, wine tasting, pools, spa, fitness, excursions, and of course the casino.

We did, however, note the Cruise Director was a little more ‘announcement happy’ on NCL and Carnival. Luckily, if you’re anti-announcement, you don’t have to listen to what’s happening while you’re in your room!

Accommodations:

The rooms are generally the same setup on each ship, unless you’re splurging on a fancy suite.

The NCL Spirit is different in that they have huge bathrooms (by cruise standards) and in-room coffee makers. A roomy shower is a luxury on any cruise! Both put a smile on my face each morning.

On NCL, we found the same excellent stateroom attendant service as on any other cruise ship line. She was very helpful and always had a smile on her face.

Smoking:

If there is one thing that truly disappointed us about NCL, it would be their liberal smoking policy. As a non-smoker who is allergic to cigarette smoke, I was appalled at the number of areas people are allowed to smoke.

In addition to balcony smoking, guests are allowed to smoke in staterooms which lingers in the air and on the furniture for future guests. Not to mention, it’s no fun to walk down the hallway and be able to smell who is smoking in their room as the smoke knows no boundaries.

According to NCL policy “you can smoke cigarettes, pipes and cigars outside on open decks (just not around food venues, sport decks, kids’ pool areas and other designated non-smoking areas).”

Not exactly the experience a non-smoker is seeking on his/her Freestyle vacation. If NCL really wanted the majority be to “be comfortable on board” they’d reassess their smoking policy.

Wine:

NCL has a wide variety of wines by the bottle to win over even the most discerning palates as well as pair with any type of dish served onboard. In fact, they have the largest international wine selection I’ve seen on a cruise ship.

On NCL, you get a 20% discount if you buy 6 or more bottles of wine. The first night we carefully selected and purchased our wines for the week. The waiter gave us  a voucher for each bottle which we exchanged each evening.

As for wine by the glass, I was a bit disappointed in their small selection. You can choose from about 3 reds and 3-5 whites. If you go to Raffles from 5-9pm, they have a 2 for 1 special nearly every night. Definitely a money saver.

Click here for the 2009 NCL Wine List.

• BRING YOUR OWN WINE! Bring your own wine to drink as long as it’s not on their wine list. NCL charges a $15/bottle corkage fee. Now this is what I call Freestyle!

Other beverages:

Freestyle cruising has all the beverage options available on any other cruise. Name that cocktail and they can make it.

For one of the best cocktail deals as well as a nice buzz, sign up for the martini class. Bartenders will show you how to make 5 martinis and give you full glasses to taste! Make sure you bring a friend or two along to help you suck these down. A bargain at $15.

Drinks available for free: Water, iced tea, and coffee. A selection of juices are available at breakfast.

Feedback for future NCL passengers?

Have you sailed Freestyle with Norwegian Cruise Lines? What are your experiences, stories, or favorite wines? Is there anything you want people to know before booking with NCL? Or, what’s your favorite cruise line and why?

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