Freedom of choice: NCL's "Freestyle Cruising" revolutionizes shipboard dining - Sailing With The Chefs - Norwegian Cruise Line

Cruise Travel, Sept-Oct, 2002 by Lorraine Shapiro

Dressing up for the captain's welcome party, dining with the same passengers at early or late seating, Broadway-style and variety shows, diverse activities onboard, and tours and excursions ashore are all well-established cruise traditions.

But now Norwegian Cruise Line has put a spin on the traditional experience with its "Freestyle Cruising" concept. A dramatic departure from past formality and schedules, a cruise vacation on NCL resembles a stay at a top hotel combined with the best cruising has to offer. Although there's at least one formal night for those who enjoy dressing for dinner, resort casual attire is the role. Flexible dining hours with open seating at different restaurants and countless events onboard and ashore permit planning days and nights to the fullest---or you can simply relax.

NCL's two, new large ships--the Norwegian Star and Norwegian Sun--were purpose-built in 2001 to implement this novel idea. You'll find more dining venues, bars, lounges, and a larger staff--where gratuities added automatically to the bill eliminate the need to sit at one table with one waiter.

While most cruise ships provide a "taste of the world" by serving international dishes, NCL's specialty restaurants provide a closer look at foreign favorites with miso soup at breakfast, Indian buffet at lunch, and escargot for dinner. The first ship to offer Freestyle Cruising, the Norwegian Sky has been making waves since 1999 with her resort-like atmosphere and six restaurants. In addition to two main dining rooms serving international and regional specialties, vegetarian and "Cooking Light" dishes, there are inviting buffets at the cafe and three alternative by-reservation dining venues seating 80 to 90 with a cover charge.

An intimate ambiance, better service, gourmet products, and more dishes cooked to order--like a shoreside restaurant--distinguish these small eateries. Le Bistro has contemporary and classic French fare, Horizon features an Italian-Mediterranean menu, and Ciao Chow offers Asian cuisine from Asian-style pizza to traditional sushi prepared with fresh fish (air freighted) from Japan. Passengers develop preferences, dining several nights at their favorite restaurant, trying different menu items, or repeating a favorite. (It's advised to make reservations early.) Flexible dining hours and more restaurant options provide the opportunity for such higher quality, leisurely meals. Dishes are prepared in smaller quantities, more a la minute, since the kitchen isn't rushed to serve 2,000 people in four hours.

The Norwegian Sky kitchen brigade of 200 hails from 22 countries, and turns out dishes that reflect seasonal and regional flavors. On Alaska cruises, fish and seafood are popular with fresh salmon and halibut vying with the runaway favorite lobster (85 to 90 percent of the passengers order the eight-ounce Florida lobster tails). But the Pacific Rim restaurants on the Norwegian Star and Norwegian Sun feature fresh 174- to 1 h-pound Maine lobsters directly from their lobster tanks, the first such tanks at sea.

Although NCL typically has offered cruises to Alaska, Bermuda, Canada/New England, and the Caribbean, recent plans to visit 140 ports--including more exotic destinations worldwide--have been shelved since 9-11. NCL schedules now provide many cruises originating from U.S. and Canadian ports that include shorter flights for North Americans--part of a program NCL calls "Homeland Cruising."

Since the Norwegian Star is cruising Hawaiian waters full time, with fleetmates sailing there seasonally, there's a greater interest in Hawaiian, Californian, and Asian cuisine. The line's list of Asian ingredients has expanded dramatically. Potstickers, shiitake mushrooms, napa cabbage, soba and rice noodles, baby shrimp, and spicy sambal oeleck and soy are offered daily at the Garden Cafe so passengers can design their own soup bowls.

Major provisions are loaded in Seattle or Vancouver for Alaskan cruises, Boston for Bermuda, New York for the Eastern Seaboard, and Miami for Caribbean destinations. Delicacies loaded in Honolulu may include chocolate-covered macadamia nuts, papaya, and pineapple. Previously NCL brought perishable fruits and vegetables onboard for worldwide cruises in Barcelona, Beijing, Buenos Aires, Dover, Hong Kong, Istanbul, Piraeus, and Valparaiso.

To provide 12,000 pounds of beef, 10,000 pounds of poultry, 9,500 pounds of seafood, 2,500 pounds of veal, 25,000 pounds each of fresh vegetables and fruit, and 24,000 dozen eggs weekly on the Norwegian Sun, astronomical amounts of food are procured. It's hard to imagine the busy crew bustling in galley prep areas continuously round-the-clock, readying the food that is presented so effortlessly to passengers.

While many other cruise lines have discontinued the gala midnight buffet, NCL continues with this cruise custom. The signature Chocoholic Buffet is a highlight showcasing chocolate black and white cheesecake, chocolate-covered strawberries, chocolate velvet cake, chocolate-chip cookies, an ice-cream sundae bar, perhaps the award-winning Kentucky chocolate cake, and many more.