What is Freestyle Dining on Norwegian Cruises?

Norwegian Cruises offers guests an opportunity to enjoy a concept coined Freestyle Dining- which essentially means that there are no set dining times in a specific dining room nightly. Many other cruise lines, such as MSC, Royal Caribbean and Carnival have two dining times which guests are seated for dinner, an early seating and a late seating. Most all cruise lines offer an option of anytime dining where guests can choose to dine at any time between certain hours that dinner is served, although a wait is often common. Many NCL customers wonder if they can make reservations for restaurants-even the complimentary venues-and the answer is absolutely yes! The freestyle concept is designed to offer flexibility and choice to the guests to dine where, when and how they wish. The larger NCL ships, such as the Epic, Escape, Getaway and Breakaway offer a plethora of dining venues, both paid and complimentary. This includes two to three complimentary main dining rooms and an ample buffet, a complimentary Asian themed venue, a 24 hour dining spot like O'Sheehan's or Blue Lagoon and a wide variety of specialty restaurants for a fee. All of these options can be reserved but they don't have to be. The smaller NCL ships have two complimentary main dining rooms and a buffet,a 24 hour dining spot like O'Sheehan's or Blue Lagoon (free), a complimentary Asian restaurant and several dining options for a fee. Here is the lowdown-if you are the sort of person who wants to choose a certain dining venue for a particular time to ensure you and your family or friends will have a specific dining experience or be able to see a show that evening then making a reservation is essential. Personally I always reserve dining choices for my family, whether it be complimentary or for fee venues, as I prefer knowing what our plans are. While my family is more comfortable having set reservations I know not everyone is. That is the beauty of freestyle dining! If you want to play it by ear and choose your dinner options when onboard you are able to do that to. The only word of advice is that you must be okay to accept if your first choice for restaurant, dining time or seating arrangement is not available. Particularly on the mega ships, such as the Getaway, specialty dining venues tend to fill up quickly- sometimes offering very late dining times for walk up patrons. Families with little ones who need to eat early would do best making reservations to ensure dining in a timely fashion.
The freestyle options for dining includes complimentary choices on each ship consisting of two to three main dining rooms, an ample buffet, and an Asian themed venue. Specialty dining ranges from several venues, commonly Cagney's Steakhouse, Le Bistro (French), Teppanyaki Japanese and an Italian restaurant. Larger ships have dinner shows, a seafood restaurant and a Brazilian churrascaria coined Moderno. NCL does charge an additional amount for a few of the specialty dining options, specifically the dinner shows and a few venues on the Breakaway, Getaway and Escape. This additional fee applies to those guests with and without the dining package so be sure to check out their information page to clarify your fees before you dine-www.ncl.com/specialty-dining-package/faq. 
Freestyle dining is a fun and tasty way to experience both unique restaurants and wonderful traditional dining venues in varied way. While you likely won't have the same servers and tablemates nightly (other than your personal family and friends), you will get to enjoy a mix of eateries and menus which leads to a robust and exciting dining experience.