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Norwegian Cruise Line’s Norwegian Getaway and its dining which is included in the Waterfront. (Photo courtesy of Norwegian Cruise Line and cruiseweb.com)
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In
the past a lot of ships had these options, usually outside their regular buffet
room there would be a dining terrace and by the pool possibly a grill and a
pizza bar. But cruisers moved inside to the specialty restaurant or dining room when the sun went down. These places
had them insulated from the salt air and warm weather.
But
now wind and rain are being weathered by cruise lines and a variety of choices
for outdoor dining in the evenings are being offered.
One
of the first to create additional dining outdoor and spaces for drinking is the
Norwegian Cruise
Line which two years ago introduced its class of Breakaway ships.
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Running most of the length of the ship is the restaurant of Viking’s World Café (Photo courtesy of Viking Cruises and foxnews.com)
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The vice president of product development
for Norwegian Frank Weber stated that waterfront
was a premium for anybody who went into a restaurant or a hotel. Since they
were on a ship they had a situation which was unique where they were at the
waterfront always.
He stated further that with the class for
Breakaway, the revelation that they had was that the ocean and the sea should
be embraced by them. The design of most ships has been made inwards, and they
made the decision to have the ship’s design taken outwards.
The Norwegian Breakaway and the Norwegian Getaway its sister ship have a
deck of bars and restaurants with outdoor and indoor options for seating. Even the
line’s dining choice that is the most upscale the Ocean Blue restaurant has a
seating area that is al fresco. Managed by Geoffrey Zakarian its Iron Chef and
star of the Food Network fresh seafood dishes are featured in the restaurant. With
its $49-per-person cover charge it made headlines, even though it has a
tendency of getting filled up easily.
Weber
said that with their guests it was very popular. The choice of outdoor or
indoor was yours in Miami, so now on the ship they had that as well.
There
is equally a shack for seafood which has fried clams and lobster rolls served
and outdoor seating for some of the bars on the ship. La Cucina, Mojito’s, Moderno,
and Cagney’s are other dining spaces with outdoor seating.
This is
however not restricted to only Norwegian. Other lines that are popular like Carnival are having more
dining spaces in the open air created.
Carnival’s
director of product development Greg Poplewko stated that it was sort of a
natural thing for them to desire to provide more space outdoors. People wished
to stay outside, the weather is what they wanted to enjoy.
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A casual outdoor/indoor dining venue like the Seafood Shack which is New England-inspired is going to be on the Carnival Vista. (Photo: courtesy of Carnival and yahoo.com)
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In
2011, when its Carnival 2.0 improvements were introduced across the fleet by
the line, an outdoor taco bar with tortilla chips that were house made called
Blue Iguana and a partnership with Guy Fieri the Food Network personality
called Guy’s Burger Joint were introduced on some ships. Fat Jimmy’s Seaside
Barbecue is on other ships and a more upscale dinner restaurant Gigi’s Asian
Kitchen is on Carnival Sunshine. Outdoor
spaces are on all of them, but Carnival
Vista which is the newest ship of Carnival billed to be launched in January
2016 will have dining outdoors taken even further because it would have on
offer a variety of more formal and casual restaurants with seating outdoor and
indoor.
Poplewko
stated that they were able to go even further with Vista so one of those is
Seafood Shack and there would be some expansion in the area for pizza. An outdoor
and indoor space is the Havana Bar. Fahrenheit 555 and Alchemy Bar are going to
also have seating area outdoor which is bound to be amazingly wonderful on a
sunset night. They had added seating outdoor for Bonsai as well, and it has
been made a little more like a lounge. It opens late, which means that anyone
can get one roll because it is a la carte.
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In
May, the Viking Star which is its
first ship that would be oceangoing is going to be launched by Viking. It is
also going to have a lot of options for diners who would like to eat outside.
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The senior
vice president of marketing for Viking Richard Marnell stated that the line’s
chairman Torsten Hagen is an al fresco dining fan. This was why they knew that
they wanted to have included for Viking
Star as many options for al fresco dining as possible.
Of course,
some concerns are added by including outdoor. There is the need to provide the
right balance of seats in the sun and in the shade, the need to close and open
windows, and there was rain. But Marnell said all those concerns were all
trumped by the wish to make an al fresco environment with a view that was
spectacular in an absolute way.
Most of
the ship’s length would be run by the World Café restaurant and to open up completely
its doors are going to fold back. Hagen is quite excited about the location at
the stern of the Aquavit Terrace that a “Chairman’s Table” has already been
designated and claimed by him.
Marnell
stated that coast guard regulations and structural considerations had to be
dealt with by Viking when a ship was being designed with a focus that was more
of outdoors, and in some situations the areas for the kitchen and other staff
had to be moved to an interior space from the outside.
Marnell
said that they were an object that moves and sails. This was why wind gets
created. They had to obviously make considerations of this and have windbreaks
built in, strategically placing some form of glass partitions to have the
airflow managed so that you are in an enviromnet of comfort when you were
sitting out there.
He compared
it to sticking one’s head out of the window while driving a car. Definitely there
was going to be airflow there.
However,
the issues that were faced in having these spaces designed appear to be worth
the efforst in customer satisfaction terms. And even though not everybody enjoys
eating outside due to the effect of humidity on mean wearing suits and on women
wearing makeup the cruise lines have discovered that these spaces get filled
up.
Weber
stated that he did think that in the future there was going to be more of this. A very competitive industry was what the
cruise industry was. For their guests, they were all striving to have the most
attractive ship created, and the design of the best ship. They wanted to be the
innovator and the leader.
