NCL - New Takeaway Food Policy

I read the above article and it was amazing that the President of the company had the same comments as I stated in my first post. But if your are on a cruise why would you want to eat in your room. My wife and I do occasionally will bring a piece of fruit or cookie back to the room but would never want to bring back a meal. The cruise ships are now the largest and most beautiful ever built with plenty of room and plenty of food venues. I'd be interesting to know where the cruise started from that the president of NCL was on.

Great news! Norwegian Cruise Line has reversed the new policy and passengers are once again allowed to take food back to their staterooms:

http://www.travelweekly.com/Cruise-Travel/Norwegian-Cruise-Line-reverses-ban-on-taking-food-to-cabins

Mandana - Ask your physician for a brief note explaining that you require specific access to specific types of food (e.g., protein). Be sure to bring some shelf stable protein with you (e.g., turkey jerky) just in case. A great turkey jerky product is available at Whole Foods but I'm sure you can find it elsewhere. Also, bring some zip lock bags with you so you can discretely. Also, bring some zip lock bags with you so you can discretely carry something out without arousing suspicion of crew members who are simply doing their jobs when they stop someone.

Complete and return the NCL medical needs form to explain your situation prior to the cruise. This provides an alert to NCL and they should be able to accommodate you without a problem. It may not prevent an overzealous dining room crew member from stopping you but at least you've done what you could ahead of time to minimize the potential problem.

Happy cruising!

I do not understand their reasoning for this new policy. Quite simply if it was for the cleanliness of the ship, they would have done this years ago.

So if you have a kid in a suite it is OK for that kids to track food through the passageways and continuously request room service but not any other kids. This doesn't make sense. I I think that it all comes down to money pure and simple. I'll. ask John H. When I get back home. Internet is slow on the boat.

We'll be taking our first NCL trip next April 2016 and all I hear is nice things about NCL. I'll bet that this policy was probably a result of abuse by many travelers. And without a doubt taking some food items back as for medical reasons will be accepted. My wife is a diabetic and an occasional cookie or fruit is taken from the cafe just in case. If someone really needs to have a snake a quick trip to the many free food venues is real easy to do. As a traveler there is nothing more inconsiderate to find trays of leftover food on the hallway floor on both hotels and cruise ships. On a cruise ship the hallways are not very wide and it would be very easy to to trip over one. I notice that most cabin stewart's work at least 12 hours a day. I usually never see a cabin stewart late at night but they are everywhere most of the day light hours.

Talk to the staff. If you have a serious reason they will try to accommodate you.

I just had Bariatric surgery 4 months ago and I specifically asked the person when I added the UDP to our cruise if it would be ok to take some of my food to my room for a snack later since I can only each very small portions at any given time. This is our first Norwegian cruise and I am not sure we will cruise with them again if they just change their policies after they tell you one thing.

I wounder if cruise lines stopped putting tray's at the buffet line to try and curb people from taking full trays back to the cabins?

An email to an NCL guest, direct from Andy Stuart, President of NCL, stated that the food takeaway policy did not extend to snacks taken from the buffet. What is intended is to stop people from taking full plates from restaurants and spilling it all over the ship. I suspect it was started as a result of kids running with food. In the same way, FDR has stated the $7.95 room service fee was started as a means to "throttle" excess use of room service, in order to provide better overall room service. Once again, I suspect it is kids calling too often for trivial room service deliveries. The room service fee does not apply to standard continental breakfasts before 10am, and is not charged to suite or Haven guests.