NCL boasts about it's "Freestyle Cruising", but in my opinion, it's nothing to boast about. Freestyle cruising is supposedly a great option because it allows you to eat when, where and with whom you want. Great idea, but the execution of their concept needs work. There are several dining options to choose from. You can eat a traditional dinner in one of two dining rooms. We chose to eat at Windows 3 nights and we ate in the Garden Main Dining room one night. We also ate at Cagney's Steakhouse one night. "Freestyle" basically means poor service if you don't pay the up-charge to dine in one of the restaurants with a cover charge.

When you have traditional dining, you have the same waiter every night. In fact, I still remember the names of our waiters on the last two cruises we took on Carnival. With freestyle dining, the waiter doesn't seem to care how long you wait for food. They seem annoyed when you need a refill of tea, or when you order more than one appetizer. The quality of the food was on the level of a moderately priced hotel. Nothing special, but not bad. The steaks we had in Cagney's were good, but nothing I haven't had on other cruises without having to pay the up-charge. Then, if you wanted lobster, there was an additional up-charge!

Not all of the food was bad. The breakfast buffet in Raffles was wonderful everyday. Omelet stations, waffle stations, and plenty of just about anything you can imagine for breakfast. Lunch buffet in Raffles was ok. Not as good as breakfast, but certainly what I expect from a cruise line for lunch. The bright spot for us was the Blue Lagoon. They had excellent hamburgers, hot dogs, salads, chicken wings, chicken strips etc, open 24 hours. We ate there quite a bit. In fact, it is so popular, I expect NCL to begin charging for this at any time. Read more