I cruised on NCL Breakaway with my 25-year old daughter from 2/28 – 3/6, going to Port Canaveral, Great Stirrup Cay, and Nassau. NCL was running several free promos where you can choose two offers. I chose specialty dining and shore excursion packages for us.

I am familiar with NCL’s free specialty-dining package since I received this offer last year when I cruised on Getaway with my husband. I wasn’t sure if there were any changes to this promo, so I checked with their website “NCL.com/udp/faq” for the description of this offer. The website states: “you can dine in any specialty restaurant every night of your cruise…” Satisfied that it was still the same offer, I made my reservation online for every dinner of our cruise before leaving home. Imagine my surprise when this was NOT the case when we were onboard! Apparently, the free dining for a 7-day cruise is now restricted to FOUR specialty dinners! I didn’t mind this restriction – I just wished that someone had informed me beforehand. I didn’t appreciate being told that I had reached my dining limit just before being seated. Also, I had pre-paid our dining gratuities when I booked our cruise (required if you choose this promo). While I always left an extra tip at the end of our meals, I hope the wait staff knows that it was in ADDITION to the prepaid tip and that it wasn’t the entire tip. The nightly receipt did not indicate any pre-paid gratuity on it.

Note - the specialty restaurants (Cagney’s, Le Bistro, La Cucina) are now a la carte and no longer prix fixe. Read more