Specialty Dining on Norwegian-Teppanyaki Review

 A Visit to Teppanyaki on the Norwegian cruise ships is always a fun evening! Similar to your local hibachi venue on land, Teppanyaki is a loud, energizing, entertaining and delicious dining experience. Every diner starts with a miso soup and salad if they wish, and then patrons choose whatever they want to have on the menu. There is a price fix and cruisers can use one of their SDP (Specialty Dining Package) dinners for this restaurant with no extra charge. Our family ordered steak, calamari, shrimp and chicken. As typical to a hibachi experience the chef makes a fried rice, vegetables and noodles. Special dietary requests and preferences will be honored but be sure to state this to your server and chef up front. Your UDP, or Unlimited Drink Package is included at Teppanyaki so feel free to enjoy a special themed cocktail too. :)

A light and fresh fruit plate with dip is one of the dessert offerings- as is the green tea cake and ice cream. While the green dessert looks odd it actually tastes pretty good!

The entertainment is fun for sure, albeit a bit hectic. The chefs do tricks with the food, sing and light a few fires! :) The tables are close together, as is the seating, and the rooms are packed full. Getting a seat is usually hard too- so if you want to dine here do make a reservation before cruising online, with your travel planner or as soon as you get on board. Families with little children who have trouble sitting for a length of time or those folks who don't like raucous environments may not appreciate Teppanyaki. If you are a fan of the hibachi experience on land give Teppanyaki a try at sea! :) 
 

Cruise Reviews and Previews!

After receiving messages from several Cheerful Cruiser Facebook Fans for a list of links to all my cruise reviews I decided to put them all in one blog post! Hopefully this will help anyone who is looking for a quick link to these cruise reviews. :) I also wanted to give folks an idea of my upcoming cruise reviews. :) Soon I will be headed on the Norwegian Sky to enjoy a cruise in a forward penthouse suite. I am looking forward to seeing how our suite experience compares to our suite on the Pearl in March of this year. I plan to post a thorough review of the Sky, as well as our family experience dining at all three specialty restaurants. In the Fall my hubby and I will be sailing for a week on the beautiful MSC Divina- this time in an Aurea Class cabin. As we enjoyed the Fantastica experience on the Divina last year we thought it would be great to try the Aurea Spa package and upgraded amenities. A full report of the Aurea experience will be shared! :) In 2018 we have two cruises planned so far- a third trip on the Norwegian Getaway and the Norwegian Jade. On the Getaway we will have a Spa balcony cabin to enjoy with our son, which he will be able to do since he will be 18 years of age. We plan to do different things on the ship as well, and look forward to the Margaritaville cocktails, spa amenities, the new Cirque dinner show and the Million Dollar Quartet show. Our voyage on the Jade will be in an aft penthouse suite- actually the same one we were in on the Jade's sister ship the Pearl! We are excited to see how the Jade compares and we really love the Jewel class ships on Norwegian. Here is an overview of past cruise reviews and links to these:

The Norwegian Getaway Cruise #1-
http://thecheerfulcruiser.blogspot.com/2017/07/the-norwegian-getaway-cruise-review-our.html

The Norwegian Getaway Cruise #2-

http://thecheerfulcruiser.blogspot.com/2016/06/norwegian-getaway-review.html

 

The Norwegian Pearl- http://thecheerfulcruiser.blogspot.com/2017/03/the-norwegian-pearl-post-dry-dock.html

and https://thecheerfulcruiser.blogspot.com/2017/04/our-first-suite-experience-norwegian.html

The Norwegian Spirit- http://thecheerfulcruiser.blogspot.com/2016/05/the-norweigian-spirit-cruise-review.html

The MSC Divina- http://thecheerfulcruiser.blogspot.com/2016/07/msc-divina-review-all-about-ship.html

and http://thecheerfulcruiser.blogspot.com/search?q=divina

The Carnival Conquest- http://thecheerfulcruiser.blogspot.com/2016/08/carnival-conquest-cruise-review.html

The Carnival Liberty- http://thecheerfulcruiser.blogspot.com/2016/06/carnival-liberty-cruise-review.html

The Carnival Fascination- http://thecheerfulcruiser.blogspot.com/2016/06/carnival-fascination-cruise-review.html

The Carnival Triumph- http://thecheerfulcruiser.blogspot.com/2017/07/carnival-triumph-review.html

The Norwegian Getaway Cruise Review- Our First Voyage

Our first cruise with Norwegian Cruise Line was the Getaway in May of 2015. We embarked again in May of 2016- http://thecheerfulcruiser.blogspot.com/2016/06/norwegian-getaway-review.html -and will be on her a third time next June for our twenty fifth wedding anniversary. As the Getaway is such a big ship with so much to do we have found the last two cruises to be both fun and different! Our cruise next year will be in a Spa Balcony and we plan to attend the new dinner show and eat at Ocean Blue which are two things we have not done yet. As our son will be 18 he will be of age to enjoy the spa amenities too. :) I must say the Getaway is still my favorite ship! Maybe because our first cruise with NCL was on this amazing vessel, or perhaps it was the unlimited beverage package! Here is a breakdown of our first NCL Getaway cruise:

Our balcony room was forward (12730) and was very modern and new. There were plenty of closet shelves to store clothing and our steward kept the cabin immaculate. The balcony was a wee bit smaller than our previous balconies on Carnival Cruise Lines, but we made due! I spotted the huge balconies on deck 8 from our balcony- which is why we got one of those large balconies on our second Getaway voyage. We got 3 towel animals from our steward throughout the week, a dog, an elephant and a really cute gerbil in a glass.

Joel “Jersey Boy” was the MOST AMAZING CD ever! He had high energy, humor, charisma and you could tell he was giving 200% to his job every day. The shows, Legally Blonde and Burn the Floor were broadway caliber, and the additional performances of the Burn the Floor troop in the Tropicana dining room was such a treat! There were multiple shows offered throughout the week at various times, and you could pre-reserve your spot if you wanted to a specific show, or via the easy touchscreens throughout the ship. You could also get an app for your I Phone to schedule show and dinner reservations. The comedians performed many times in a smaller theater, but there was also a family comedy show in the large Getaway theater with all new material from the comedians which was wonderful! In addition to these shows there were nightly performances by a Grammy winning artist in The Grammy Experience (now Fat Cats Jazz Club), dueling piano bars/performances and a plethora of shows at the Atrium stage, including the fabulous Celebrity Dance off. The “Dance Off” was better than Dancing with the Stars and so funny!!!! There were parties every night for families to enjoy, fireworks ( 2015 was the last year they did them), the usual fun pool contests, line dance classes, ballroom lessons with the Burn the Floor troop, live music in the Tropicana dining room, daily activities like origami and scrapbooking, cupcake decorating ($), a family party with face painters, pizza making and treats the last night, as well as an art gallery show/auction. My son did the Teen Club, coined Entourage, which he liked a lot. They offered games, dancing, karaoke, scavenger hunts and fun activities throughout the week. The amount of activities and things to do, in addition to the ship amenities, such as the pools, rock climbing wall, etc.- as well as the port stops- made it impossible to do everything you wanted to do in a week! :)

We did not do the specialty restaurants other than Moderno on our first Getaway voyage- so we made sure to try a few of them on our second trip. The food offered in all the dining venues was amazing, however, and we really enjoyed the delicious offerings day and night! The dining rooms Taste, Savor and the Tropicana all have the same menu, which changes nightly. People usually choose which dining room they prefer or which one fits their time frame best. We loved the live entertainment in the Tropicana so we went there 3 times! Savor and Taste are also open for breakfast and lunch on sea and embarkation days. They have a unique menu that has special items daily. My son really liked their Heuvos Rancheros for breakfast one day and the “English” breakfast another day. O’Sheehans is open 24/7 and offers typical pub fare, along with some great corned beef hash for breakfast (according to my hubby). The burgers, fries, wings, etc. were good and reminded me of a TGI Fridays or Applebees fare. The Garden Café is the buffet which is really great! I was surprised that the food choices were so varied, especially for lunch. The had ice cream machines and hard scoop ice cream, yogurt and sherbet as well. There is a bar to get drinks (alcoholic and sodas) in the buffet also. My son and hubby liked the Indian selection of food, as well as the Asian options. The buffet times were changed to be open to meet the needs of guests based on port times, etc. I found there was always a time to go there- even for their late night snack buffet from 9:30-11:30!! Hot dogs, salads, cookies, etc are all available for your late night cravings! The Flamingo Grill was another complimentary option for breakfast and lunch (this is now a paid venue-Margaritaville) which had yummy Latin themed cuisine.  Shanghai’s was yet another complimentary dining spot- and the food was excellent! We ordered at least one of everything throughout the cruise and every single dish was delicious! 

  The drink package was a seriously awesome perk on our first Getaway cruise- and it has been a major factor when booking our additional cruises with Norwegian. We love the idea of enjoying both favorite and new cocktails without the worry of a big bill! The "Chocolate Cowboy", who I am told is on the Escape now was a fantastic bartender at the Sugarcane Mojito Bar. He was entertaining and made fabulous mojitos! 

Our first trip on the Getaway definitely was the catalyst to our loyalty to Norwegian Cruise lines. I am looking forward to our third cruise on her next year! :)