What is Freestyle dining?
Unlike traditional dining arrangements where you receive either the early or late seating and are assigned to a particular table for the duration of the cruise, with freestyle dining there are no fixed seating times, assigned tables, or set dining companions. You can dine when, where, and with whom you like. Because you will not have the same wait staff each night, gratuities are usually automatically charged to your shipboard account, to be distrubuted to the appropriate crew members. Although the concept of freestyle dining allows for a less formal atmosphere, many people still enjoy getting dressed up for the formal nights, even on a freestyle cruise. Many of the newer “freestyle ships” also offer specialty restaurants, which require reservations and for which an additional fee is charged.
Norwegian Cruise Line introduced this concept and unlike traditional dining arrangements where you receive either the early or late seating and are assigned to a particular table for the duration of the cruise, with freestyle dining there are no fixed seating times, assigned tables, or set dining companions. You can dine when, where, and with whom you like. Because you will not have the same wait staff each night, gratuities are usually automatically charged to your shipboard account, to be distributed to the appropriate crew members. Although the concept of freestyle dining allows for a less formal atmosphere, many people still enjoy getting dressed up for the formal nights, even on a freestyle cruise. Many of the newer “freestyle ships” also offer specialty restaurants, which require reservations and for which an additional fee is charged. Norwegian Cruise Line is the cruise line that has started this concept and so far has perfected it.
