Dinner at the Lido - Statendam - Do we serve ourselves or are we waited on?

WE will be cruising aboard the Statendam very shortly. How does dinner 'Lido' dining work? Do we simply serve ourselves or are there waiters?

Thanks much!

Caroline

When we were on the Statendam last month some of us had to eat in the Lido one night because our tour got back too late. We had to serve ourselves and the menu was normal buffet stuff not the same entrees from the Dining Room. We also didn't see any tables set with tablecloths etc. This was not what I was expecting based on what others have reported but may have been because it was Alaska and a late port night or ?? It was ok for the one night but I definitely wouldn't want to eat there every night.

On our cruise, the week after SharonN's, we ate in the Lido twice for dinner and one night there were no table cloths and the next time there were. I don't know what the difference was. One night they carried our trays to the table and the other night they didn't.

When you enter the LIDO, you sanitize your hands and a greeter prepares your tray with napkin, utensils and a salad plate. You push the tray along and serve yourself from the "cold" items (salads, fruits, breads, etc) but for the "hot entree's, you choose from the varioius entrees and servers on the other side of the buffet scoop it on a plate, and hand you the plate. Then you continue down the line. We were never able to serve ourselves from the "hot entrees".

They have different stations, such as a pasta station, the meat/fish entree's with veggies station, a soup station, the sandwich station, etc.

I agree with SharonN, the food wasn's as good as in the dining room. Sometimes the entrees were the same, but the dining room always had one or two entrees that weren't being served in the Lido.

There doesn't seem to be the same rules from one night to the next.

I have reported that on one ship, everything for dinner in the Lido was buffet. Then we get on another ship -- table clothes, entree served to you at the table.

You never know what they are going to do.

The majority of times I've had dinner in the Lido it was always the same.

You go thru the buffet line for starter and salad. You place an order for the entree then procede to a table set with linen and setup for dinner. Wine glasses were on the tables. The waiter then bring your hot dinner to the table. For dessert you go select what you would like from the dessert table.