NCL announces quality enhancements to its already unique Free-style cruising service.

When NCL first announced its trademarked "Free-style" service on its ships, the cruise industry was already ripe for changes in what was becoming known as an over regimented vacation experience. The company was the first "contemporary cruise line" to introduce "anytime" dining in its regular dining rooms as a start to its freestyle service, and then followed up by adding as many as 10 additional alternative dining venues to its new ships.

The first NCL ship to be built from inception fully in the freestyle manner was Norwegian Sun in 2001. With the introduction of five new ships this decade, NCL now has not only implemented freestyle cruising throughout its entire fleet, but it also has the youngest fleet in the cruise industry.

What is freestyle cruising? In a nutshell, it means relaxed dress codes, the option of several dining venues for each passenger every night (some of them carry an extra service charge, but some do not) and less regimentation in standard cruise ship procedures such as embarkation and disembarkation.

The first phase of purpose-built freestyle ships was known within the company as F1. NCL is now introducing what they are referring to as F2. This new initiative features significant enhancements in its onboard experience and will begin rolling out immediately with the goal of having them largely implemented by the summer of 2008.

The enhancements include a significant investment in the total dining experience, upgrading state rooms across the entire ship for each ship in the fleet, a whole new range of onboard activities for guests of all ages and special additional recognition, service and amenities for all balcony, suite and Villa guests.

The ability of NCL to offer these new enhancements can be directly attributed to the infusion of $1 billion by Apollo Management, which was announced six months ago. The enhancements are based upon quantitative and qualitative feedback from both guests and travel agent partners.

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Here are what the new freestyle 2.0 enhancements will include:

Freestyle Dining