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Have it your way with freestyle cruising
By ARLINE and SAM BLEECKER © St. Petersburg Times, published October 8, 2000 Many passengers vacationing on larger cruise ships bristle at having to adjust their stomachs to shipboard mealtime seatings; you draw either the early bird seating at 5:30 or the night owl's at 8 or 8:30. Aside from the time, there is also the dining room formality, and not just the dress-up occasion of the captain's gala. And the traditional assigned seating can force passengers into awkward small talk night after night. "Resorts don't tell people what to wear, when and with whom to eat, and where to go after dinner," says Colin Veitch, the new president and chief executive officer of Norwegian Cruise Line. As a result, NCL is undertaking a bold move for a mainstream cruise line: Over the next two years, the line plans to graft luxury-style cruising elements more common to smaller, upscale lines onto its big ship fleet. NCL is terming it "freestyle" cruising. The goal, Veitch said, is "to give cruisers the unstructured romance and style of resorts. . . . We have to identify what today's younger, better traveled, more demanding consumer expects when he or she goes on vacation. "We also have to match resorts in their ability to offer an unstructured, casual, attentive atmosphere in which to decompress from everyday life." Since May, NCL has been offering freestyle cruising aboard its midsize Norwegian Sky. It proved so popular that in late August the line converted its Norwegian Majesty to the plan, under which passengers can dine in any of the two main dining rooms or three alternative restaurants, and at any time between 5:30 p.m. and midnight. Passengers will no longer be assigned a table, which means they can choose to dine alone at tables for two or with other guests at tables seating four to 10. Open-seating dining is usually considered the hallmark of luxury cruising. Freestyle cruising also dictates that meals be cooked to order, not prepared banquet-style, so every item arrives at the table fresh. For Myrna de los Santos of Long Beach, Calif., a recent Sky passenger,"The best part was not having to look at our watches constantly to be on time for dinner." Veteran cruisers such as Reini Jenken, who has taken more than 40 voyages, applaud the new dining option. The dining room "is not crowded," said Mrs. Jenken. "It seems like there's no one there. With two (pre-assigned) seatings, it's always pretty crowded." NCL also has revamped formal nights: The captain's gala and formal night, typically the tuxedo-and-gown occasions, still take place once a week, but only in one main dining room, one alternative restaurant and a lounge. The rest of the ship is open to resort wear. Tampering with the finer touches of cruising did rankle the 65-year-old Jenken, who felt that more casual diners "walked around looking like bums." On the other hand, de los Santos said she "enjoyed the relaxed dress code and not worrying about feeling awkward if we didn't dress up on the formal night." Tipping also has come under scrutiny at NCL. Many passengers resent having to scurry on the last evening stuffing envelopes with gratuities, usually in amounts recommended by the cruise line. Instead, NCL adds $9.75 per night per passenger to the passenger's onboard account. Passengers, however, can choose to reduce or increase gratuities at cruise end by notifying the purser's office. To ensure quality service with freestyle cruising, NCL plans to increase the number of crew attending passengers, so that the ratio of one crew member per cabin is in line with the ratio of staff to guests at upscale resorts. Other lines are considering some version of freestyle cruising. Industry giant Carnival Cruise Line, for example, plans to roll out its own version of freestyle dining fleetwide within the year. For some time, said Carnival spokeswoman Jennifer de la Cruz, the line has recognized that there has been an issue with two seatings: Most families with children want early seating, she said, but the main preference is for the late seating. "Some folks are always disappointed," she said. To rectify this, in July, Carnival increased the number of assigned seatings from two to four on its 2,044-passenger Imagination. In this new program, mealtimes are staggered between the Imagination's two dining rooms. The first seating begins at 6 p.m. in one dining room and the next is at 6:45 in the other, and so on. The last service starts at 8:45 p.m.. Within just a few weeks, Carnival recognized that the program was a hit and plans to make the option permanent fleetwide. Royal Caribbean and its subsidiary, Celebrity Cruises, also are eyeing NCL's experiment. But according to NCL's Veitch, freestyle cruising may not be easy for other lines to adopt. To provide this level of open-seating dining requires lots of space for multiple dining areas. Not all ships can earmark so much precious space for dining venues or afford additional crew to reach that one-crew-member-per-cabin ratio. In fact, NCL considerably revised the design of its 2,000-passenger Norwegian Sun, slated to sail beginning next September. According to Veitch, accommodating the freestyle concept compelled NCL to add restaurants, expand the spa and gym areas, and add more cabins for crew members. The Sun will feature nine restaurants, with 10 different menus each evening. Choices include two main dining rooms, a formal Italian restaurant, gourmet French fare, a tapas bar, a restaurant featuring spa menus and dishes from Cooking Light magazine, and a Pacific Rim restaurant with a sushi bar. Veitch expects the line to remain price-competitive. Some extra revenue is likely to come from cover charges for specialty dining and a la carte per-item pricing in about half the dining venues aboard new NCL vessels. - Sam and Arline Bleecker specialize in writing about the cruise industry.
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