Freestyle/dynamic dining - bad for solos?

I notice that RCI is moving more and more towards dynamic dining - where you can eat anywhere each night, and you have no set dinner table/dining companions in the MDR. While families and couples are mainly delighted by the idea, it fills me with dread. I believe a number of other cruise lines already operate like this (NCL at least - any others?), and it's put me off trying them.

I'm sure there are many solos out there who prefer to eat alone and will enjoy changing things up a bit each night, I always aim for set dining, so that I'll have a solid touch point once a day. I always ask for a large table, and even if you don't become best friends with everyone at the table, it's nice to have some conversation over dinner.

I spend 350 days a year eating alone, and it's nice to find out how people's day went over dinner. I feel that this, along with increasingly high solo supplements are really part of the cruise lines trying to get rid of solo travelers. Even NCLs special studio apartments look uncomfortable. I realise they have a "shared" sitting room, but sometimes you want to sit and read/write for a while without having to get dressed, and it doesn't look like there's room to sit at the dressing table without sitting on the bed.

Some cruise lines currently do "solo lunch meet ups" - do you think they might expand this to dinner as well?

What are your thoughts - would dynamic/freestyle dining put you off a particular line?

What are your thoughts - would dynamic/freestyle dining put you off a particular line?

It all depends on what you want...and not all solos want the same thing. Personally, I would avoid any cruise line that only offered "traditional" dining.

It all depends on what you want...and not all solos want the same thing. Personally, I would avoid any cruise line that only offered "traditional" dining.

What do you do when eating alone? I usually have my kindle and phone with me, so can read something while eating, but I always feel a bit weird eating in public if I don't have those with me. I'm inclined to just rush through my meal to go do other things, whereas if there's company I take more time to "dine" rather than just eat :)

Facing a new set of people each night would send me to the buffet rather than eating in the MDR.

I like the flexibility of freestyle-type dining. As a solo, I get to choose how "sociable" I feel on a given evening. For some dinners I ask to be put at a large table. Other evenings, I ask for a solo table.

Even sitting alone, I have never had trouble striking up a conversation with adjacent diners. In fact, it often seems that most couples start the conversation with me-- perhaps they've run out of things to talk about between themselves!

I will NEVER again be "trapped" by fixed seating dining.

What do you do when eating alone?

I usually look around the dining room discreetly, trying to overhear some of the inane conversations that other people (mostly couples) are having. Makes me even happier that I'm ALONE!! :-)

Sometimes I like to count the dress code violations. :-)

I just recently got a smartphone that supports Kindle reading. In the future I will probably take that with me. But I don't feel obligated to have my nose stuck in a book at all times.

On the Epic studios had a desk, it was small but comfortable. On that boat the solo cruisers had a meet up before dinner each evening. The First night we went to the dining room as a group of 20 or so, but on later nights we met up in groups of 3-4 after we had met people we could have reasonable conversation with.

On another NCL Cruise I went to the MDR alone and waited 2 hours between my appetizer and main course. I really felt ignored that day and used specialty restaurants until I met some other people on the boat whose dinner company I enjoyed.

Last week I sailed on NCL again I received good service the 1 time I went to a dining room alone, they had a solo travelers meet up there and a few times I joined together with some of the people I had met there for dinner, and I joined some people I had met through out Cruise critic roll call other evenings. I received a bottle of wine each day from the casino and wanted to share it (I couldn't drink that much wine all by myself).

On Carnival I have always had a set dining room time, and always had good company and the one time a jerk was seated at our table he was only there for one meal.

I'm going on my first solo cruise soon and chose traditional dining, large table, in the hopes of having some people to chat with at dinner each night. I don't mind eating alone in casual and mid-range restaurants, where I enjoy reading a book while I dine. I feel less comfortable reading a book in fancier restaurants, and I would put the MDR in that category. I guess I want to be able to pay more attention to the dining experience when I'm at a nicer restaurant.

I was happy to read the comment about reading a book on one's smartphone. Even though I chose traditional dining, I had been thinking about bringing my iPad to dinner as a backup, in case my dining companions don't show up. However, if they ARE there, I wouldn't want to have the iPad in hand. The phone is a great compromise! I can fit it in my evening bag and don't have to bring it out unless I find myself dining alone. I need to check out what app I need to download to do this.

I like the flexibility of freestyle-type dining. As a solo, I get to choose how "sociable" I feel on a given evening. For some dinners I ask to be put at a large table. Other evenings, I ask for a solo table.

 

Even sitting alone, I have never had trouble striking up a conversation with adjacent diners. In fact, it often seems that most couples start the conversation with me-- perhaps they've run out of things to talk about between themselves!

 

I will NEVER again be "trapped" by fixed seating dining.

I TOTALLY feel the same way! :)

One other thing I failed to mention.

When I dine solo in the specialty restaurants, I REALLY taste my food. Frankly it becomes a better culinary experience because my focus is totally on the food and the wine-- instead of holding up my end of a conversation.

You should all try it sometime!

The phone is a great compromise! I can fit it in my evening bag and don't have to bring it out unless I find myself dining alone. I need to check out what app I need to download to do this.

If you already have a Kindle, and own Kindle books, then it's literally just the Kindle app. If you don't already have an ereader/books, then you can go to the Gutenberg Project where you can download out of copyright books (like Jane Austen, for example) as plain text, and something on your phone will read them. The format won't be beautiful, but will do as a way to pass time.

I deliberately brought my Kindle with me when evening-bag shopping, so I could make sure that my Kindle, phone, lipstick and tissues would all fit in!

I like the flexibility of freestyle-type dining. As a solo, I get to choose how "sociable" I feel on a given evening. For some dinners I ask to be put at a large table. Other evenings, I ask for a solo table.

I didn't realise it kind of operated like MDR breakfast - I had this idea that I'd have to eat alone, as everyone else would be in groups and not want anyone joining them. That's not as bad, but still a little daunting. I frequently ask for a breakfast table alone (as I'm not at my most sociable in the mornings), but have been seated at larger tables too. Sometimes it's a bit awkward when you have no languages in common, but it usually works out.