By having their dining taken outside cruise ships are now hot and hip

Norwegian Cruise Line’s Norwegian Getaway and its dining which is included in the Waterfront. (Photo courtesy of Norwegian Cruise Line and cruiseweb.com)

The industry for cruise ships is really about showing off, and outdoor dining is its new big thing.

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.

Running most of the length of the ship is the restaurant of Viking’s World Café (Photo courtesy of Viking Cruises and foxnews.com)

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.

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) 

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.

On the Norwegian Breakaway is The Waterfront. (Photo courtesy: Norwegian Cruise Line and and ncl.com)

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.

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.