Traditional Dining Times

[herb]

What time is Main Seating and Late Seating on HAL?

[bigwally]

I don't know if it depends on the itinerary or not, as it does with some lines, but on our HAL cruise early is going to be 5:45pm and late is 8:00pm. Which seems pretty darn early to me!

[Bill HaHa]

Big Wally is right. We have the 5:45 time October 12th.....We think it is just right. We usually eat around 6pm. If we have to eat later, we can have room service or go to the Lido.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Early Traditonal is 5:45.

Main Traditional is 8.

[herb]

Early Traditonal is 5:45.

Main Traditional is 8.

no wonder main seating sells out so fast! 5:45 is really early.

[bigwally]

We usually eat around 6pm. If we have to eat later, we can have room service or go to the Lido.

We generally do at home too. But what we found on cruises is that if it's not dinner time when we get back from our hard day of touring, we'll end up snacking in the late afternoon, making early seating dinner sound very unappealing.

We've also found ourselves rushing back from longer tour days with time only to shed sweaty clothes and put on dinner attire (sometimes even without benefit of a shower! :eek: ) if we still wanted to make dinner, and this was on a ship where early seating was 6:30 and you could fudge a little bit and turn up as late as 6:45!

[RuthC]

The usual times for fixed seating have already been listed at 5:45 and 8:00, but it isn't as simple as that.
In Alaska you can expect the times to be 15 minutes earlier.
And there was a report last week that the Maasdam had gone to times 30 minutes earlier. It wasn't known if that was just for that cruise, or a trial on that ship.

Stay tuned for further developments. ;)

[Crusing Bob]

There have been two late seatings on Vistas: 8PM for Main Upper and 8:15 for Main Lower. The Lower may have been eliminated since AYWD has taken the Lower Vista Dining.

[Krazy Kruizers]

There have been two late seatings on Vistas: 8PM for Main Upper and 8:15 for Main Lower. The Lower may have been eliminated since AYWD has taken the Lower Vista Dining.

Now that AYWD dining is on all the ships -- only the 8 Traditional times remains for late dinners -- the lower level no longer has a set time.

[simplelife]

Early Traditonal is 5:45.

Main Traditional is 8.

I am confused.:confused:
Some are referring to the 5:45 as Main and some as early.
Others call the 8:00 Main others call it Late.

We want the earlier time due to DH's dietary restrictions. We requested this from our TA and "Main Requested" is listed on our receipt. Does this mean we have requested the ealier time or the later time?

[Mary Ellen]

I am confused.:confused:
Some are referring to the 5:45 as Main and some as early.
Others call the 8:00 Main others call it Late.

We want the earlier time due to DH's dietary restrictions. We requested this from our TA and "Main Requested" is listed on our receipt. Does this mean we have requested the ealier time or the later time?I would call your TA. From checking the HAL site for a cruise we've booked, it looks like HAL is calling the later (8:00) seating Main:

Early Upper Dining: Available
Main Upper Dining: Available
Open Seating: Available

[DesertDogs]

If the 8:00 PM time is moved to 7:30 PM as was alluded to on another thread, what time will the 5:45 PM time be moved to? 5:15?? Isn't that a bit early. We requested the early seating but not sure I want to eat that early. Could this be another way to move people to Open Seating perhaps?

[bigwally]

If the 8:00 PM time is moved to 7:30 PM

7:30 for late sounds perfect to me! But you're right about 5:15. :eek:

[Krazy Kruizers]

I am confused.:confused:
Some are referring to the 5:45 as Main and some as early.
Others call the 8:00 Main others call it Late.

We want the earlier time due to DH's dietary restrictions. We requested this from our TA and "Main Requested" is listed on our receipt. Does this mean we have requested the ealier time or the later time?

For years HAL referred to the 5:45 dining time as Early Upper.

And the 8 Pm dining time as Main Upper.

Main requested will be the 8 PM dining according to HAL.

If you check HAL's web site for your cruise -- pretend that you are going to book -- you will see what the dining times are.

[Krazy Kruizers]

no wonder main seating sells out so fast! 5:45 is really early.

We always chose 5:45 -- never get the first course until after 6 and the entree rarely arrives before 6:30.

So it really isn't that early.

[Krazy Kruizers]

If the 8:00 PM time is moved to 7:30 PM as was alluded to on another thread, what time will the 5:45 PM time be moved to? 5:15?? Isn't that a bit early. We requested the early seating but not sure I want to eat that early. Could this be another way to move people to Open Seating perhaps?

So far this has only has been experimented on the Maasdam as they saw that many people were not going to the shows.

Will be curious to see what people report from this week's Maasdam cruise.

[lorekauf]

no wonder main seating sells out so fast! 5:45 is really early.
Usually on HAL the early goes first.

[iceman93]

It's great the wealth of information that is shared on this board, as the OP's question was maddeningly difficult to answer on the HAL page itself when I was researching the same thing a few weeks ago. It seems that the whole website is devoted to AYWD, and while they off-handedly refer to fixed dining times, the times themselves are never stated!

[papadave]

While times vary from one HAL cruise to another, last month on the Volendam (Alaska) early traditional dining seating was 5:45. The doors open at 5:45 and close at 6:00. Food starts arriving around 6 and they ask everyone to leave the dining room at 7:30.

[martinimadam]

I'm with you, bigwally. Keeping my fingers crossed that the late seating on Maasdam for my Oct. 4 cruise stays at 7:30. That would be soooooo perfect!