How cruise ship dining works: main dining room, buffet and set vs flexible times

What food is included on a cruise?

Most meals are included. Your fare covers breakfast, lunch and dinner in the main dining room, the buffet, and a handful of casual venues such as pizza, burgers, deli counters and soft-serve ice cream. You could eat well all week without spending a cent more on food.

What costs extra on mainstream lines is the specialty dining: steakhouses, sushi bars, teppanyaki grills and similar restaurants with a cover charge or à la carte prices. Most drinks beyond water, iced tea, basic coffee and tea, and breakfast juice also cost extra. On luxury lines, almost everything is included.

The main dining room: what to expect

The main dining room is the ship's big, sit-down restaurant, sometimes spread across two or three decks or split into several smaller rooms. Dinner is a waiter-served, multi-course affair: starters, soups and salads, a choice of mains, and dessert. The menu changes every night, with a few classics, like a steak or chicken dish, available throughout the cruise.

You can order more than one starter or dessert at no extra cost, and if you don't like a dish, you can simply ask for something else. Many main dining rooms also serve breakfast and lunch, often with open seating, and some lines host a popular sea-day brunch, such as Carnival's.

Vegetarian dishes appear on every menu, and many lines also mark gluten-free, vegan or lighter options. On formal or dressy nights, the menu often features a lobster tail or another premium dish.

Set dining vs flexible dining: which should you choose?

Set dining, also called traditional or fixed seating, means you eat dinner at the same time, at the same table and with the same waiters every night. Flexible dining lets you turn up whenever you like within the dining room's opening hours, sometimes with a reservation, and you'll usually get a different table and team each time.

Each has fans. Choose set dining if you like routine, enjoy getting to know your waiters and table-mates, or are traveling with a big family group that wants to eat together. Choose flexible dining if your days vary, you plan long port days or late shows, or you'd rather not commit to a fixed time.

• Early seating usually starts around 5:30 to 6 p.m. and suits families with young kids and early risers.
• Late seating usually starts around 8 to 8:30 p.m. and suits people who like long port days and a relaxed evening.
• Set dining can mean sharing a table with other guests; tables for two exist but are limited, so request one early.
• Flexible dining can involve a wait at peak times; reserving a time in the app or at the restaurant avoids it.
• Your choice is usually made when you book, but you can often ask to change on board if there's space.

How dining works on the major cruise lines

Each line has its own name and twist on the main dining room. The basics are similar, but a few lines do things very differently.

• Royal Caribbean: set dining or My Time Dining, its flexible option.
• Carnival: set dining or Your Time Dining, plus included favorites such as Guy's Burger Joint and BlueIguana Cantina.
• Norwegian Cruise Line: Freestyle, with no assigned times or tables and several included restaurants to choose from each night.
• Princess: traditional set dining or Anytime Dining.
• Holland America: set dining or As You Wish open dining.
• MSC: mostly traditional set dining times in the main restaurants, with a separate restaurant for Yacht Club suite guests.
• Disney: rotational dining, where you move to a different themed restaurant each night and your servers move with you; examples include Animator's Palate on several ships and Arendelle, themed on Frozen, on the Disney Wish.
• Virgin Voyages: no main dining room and no buffet. Instead, many restaurants are included, plus The Galley food hall for casual meals.

The cruise ship buffet

The buffet is the ship's all-day casual restaurant, usually on an upper deck near the pool. It serves a wide spread at breakfast and lunch, often with made-to-order eggs, carving stations, salads, international dishes and desserts, and on many ships it's open for dinner too. You'll know it as the Windjammer on Royal Caribbean, the Lido Marketplace on Carnival, the Garden Café on Norwegian, the Oceanview Café on Celebrity and the World Fresh Marketplace on Princess.

The buffet is the easiest option on embarkation day, when cabins may not be ready, and on formal nights if you'd rather not dress up. It gets busy at peak breakfast and lunch times, so arrive early or late. Wash your hands before you eat, and use the serving utensils rather than your fingers, since buffets are shared by thousands of people.

Specialty restaurants: are they worth it?

Specialty restaurants charge a cover price or à la carte prices in exchange for a quieter room, more polished service and food a step above the main dining room. Popular examples include Chops Grille steakhouse and Izumi on Royal Caribbean, Fahrenheit 555 steakhouse on Carnival, Cagney's Steakhouse and Teppanyaki on Norwegian, the Crown Grill on Princess, Le Petit Chef animated dinners on Celebrity, and the adults-only Palo on Disney ships.

They're worth it for a special occasion, a break from the dining room routine or a quieter dinner for two. Many cruisers book one or two specialty meals a week rather than eating there every night. If you plan to eat at several, look at dining packages; Royal Caribbean sells an Unlimited Dining Package, and other lines offer multi-meal bundles.

Book specialty restaurants before you sail or on the first day, since prime times fill up fast on busy sailings.

Room service, snacks and late-night food

Room service is available around the clock on most ships, but on many mainstream lines it now carries a fee for most items, though a continental breakfast is often still free. Read the menu card in your cabin for the current rules.

For snacks, you rarely need to look far. Pizza counters, cafés with pastries and sandwiches, and soft-serve machines are included on most mainstream ships; Royal Caribbean's Sorrento's pizzeria and Café Promenade are typical. Specialty coffee and premium ice cream shops usually charge.

Drinks, dietary needs and dining with kids

Water, iced tea, lemonade, regular coffee and tea, and juice at breakfast are included on mainstream lines. Sodas, specialty coffee, bottled water and alcohol usually cost extra, with a service charge added to bar bills. Drinks packages are sold separately and are worth it only if you'll drink a lot.

If you have allergies or dietary requirements, tell the cruise line when you book or through its online pre-cruise forms, and remind the head waiter on your first night. Gluten-free, vegetarian and vegan meals are routinely available; kosher meals and some other requests need advance notice.

Kids eat free in every included venue. Main dining rooms have children's menus with familiar favorites, and early seating or flexible dining makes evenings easier with little ones. Cruise lines with big kids clubs often run evening activities, so older children can head off to the club while parents finish dessert.

Frequently asked questions