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Flexible Dining: Does it Belong on Carnival?


Should Carnival offer flexible dining fleetwide?  

712 members have voted

  1. 1. Should Carnival offer flexible dining fleetwide?

    • Yes, flexible dining is the best!
      239
    • No, it's not Carnival's style.
      47
    • Maybe, let's wait and see.
      82
    • I don't care, as long as the food is good.
      74
    • No, I prefer traditional dining.
      270


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Flexible dining, which has been introduced on lines including, Holland America, Royal Caribbean, NCL, Princess and now Carnival, is a controversial topic among cruisers. Is flexible dining a blessing or a curse? And should Carnival offer flexible dining fleetwide? Take our poll and speak your mind!

 

For more on this topic, read Carnival Extends Flexible Dining Trials.

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Caroline, I'm not sure if you have seen it or not, but this was a great recent thread and poll on this subject: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=800076&highlight=flexible

 

Personally, because I cruise with large CC groups, I prefer the way it is now, only because I know it would be hard to get tables for 100+ people using flexible dining. But if they can make it work and still allow people that like traditional dining to have it, I am all for it. I know there are many that want flexible dining, I might if it wasn't for the group thing...

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Caroline, I'm not sure if you have seen it or not, but this was a great recent thread and poll on this subject: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=800076&highlight=flexible

 

Personally, because I cruise with large CC groups, I prefer the way it is now, only because I know it would be hard to get tables for 100+ people using flexible dining. But if they can make it work and still allow people that like traditional dining to have it, I am all for it. I know there are many that want flexible dining, I might if it wasn't for the group thing...

 

Thanks for your link to that poll -- it was interesting! I hope you enjoy our coverage of this topic. Personally, I just care if the food tastes good. :) But I can't wait to find out what everyone else thinks....

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I don't mind if they offer it as long as I can get traditional dining. I like having the same waitstaff, the same table and the same tablemates. I understand that it makes more sense for some people to be able to eat when they want to eat, but I do think they need to offer both options.

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I like to have the same waiter & wait staff throughout my cruise

 

I also think that carnival should have more options for eating available if they do go to Flexible seating...

Many ships do not have the Supper Club , I have noticed

and a larger selection of other dining besides buffet and Pizza

 

I am not complaining mind you ... I love the Dining room and all the food options...and that would be my main choice right there...

 

traditional dining Please.

 

and lunch dining even on non sea days :(

por favor

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I prefer traditional dining, however, I also prefer an early seating time for dining. Call it selfish if you will, but I would rather see flexible dining than requesting early seating only to get late seating. Yes, I realize that there are other flexible dinner options (buffet, etc.), yet I don't believe that to be a reasonable expectation for every night on a 7 day cruise if Carnival cannot honor my stated dining preference.

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I think they should leave it alone..... Then again I think people should follow the dress code for dinner or be refused entry...

 

You would still have to follow the dress code for the flexible dining in the dining room.........

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Carnival has always had anytime dining. Its called the Lido deck buffet.

 

I like having the same wait staff and same table and table mates every night.

 

Thats just me.

 

If they want to offer anytime dining fine, but I also want them to offer traditional which I will continue to choose.

 

NCL has been doing anytime dining for years and according to some people, they still can't get it right. There seems to be problems with having to wait long periods of time to get seated. Of course the common response from the cheerleaders is that they shouldn't show up during peak times. Um...anytime dining means you can show up and eat at anytime. Right? :confused:

 

Of course I have only read of these complaints on NCL having not actually sailed that line. But I would think that a line that prides itself in the leader of "freestyle" could get it right.

 

Have any of you sailed NCL? Princess or any other line that offers any time dining? How did it work for you?

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As long as there will still be the option for traditional dining, it won't matter to me if they implement flexible dining. I enjoy having the same table and same wait staff every day. The waiters are usually one of the best parts of the cruise for me! I also don't like the idea of having to make reservations or waiting in line for a table. That kind of stuff is for when we're home, not on a cruise.

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Like it or not, it is something that is coming. If you haven't tried it you may not understand it, but if you do a careful review fo all of the luxury lines you will find that they have open seating. Maybe that is saying something, maybe not, but if the kitchen can make it work it is a nice benefit.

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Have any of you sailed NCL? Princess or any other line that offers any time dining? How did it work for you?

 

I believe this would be in the same category as trying different cruiselines.

You won't know unless you experience it for yourself. I have heard alot of negatives on here about other cruiselines and I chose to find out for myself and boy I'm glad I did. Because I would have missed some great experiences. Same could be said about anytime dining. Infact some people on our Princess cruise griped because they booked too late and got stuck with anytime. We met up with them during the cruise and they couldn't say enough good things about it. They are glad they got stuck with it lol!

With everything in life, you won't know until you try it;)

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Of course I have only read of these complaints on NCL having not actually sailed that line. But I would think that a line that prides itself in the leader of "freestyle" could get it right.

 

Have any of you sailed NCL? Princess or any other line that offers any time dining? How did it work for you?

 

We did the Hawaii circle in ‘04 on NCL and really liked the freestyle dining. We didn’t have any trouble with lines. But' date=' we like to eat early (6:00), so I’m not sure how it might be for those who prefer a later meal time (we were hitting the bars by then!:p ). Also, with traditional seating, I worry about being stuck at the same table every night with a boor (or two), which is what happened on our Princess cruise many years ago. On the other hand, it could be an opportunity to meet new and interesting people. We shall see in five months!!:D [/size']

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I believe this would be in the same category as trying different cruiselines.

You won't know unless you experience it for yourself. I have heard alot of negatives on here about other cruiselines and I chose to find out for myself and boy I'm glad I did. Because I would have missed some great experiences. Same could be said about anytime dining. Infact some people on our Princess cruise griped because they booked too late and got stuck with anytime. We met up with them during the cruise and they couldn't say enough good things about it. They are glad they got stuck with it lol!

With everything in life, you won't know until you try it;)

 

You are absolutely right.

 

I may try it sometime just to say I have, but in the meantime I will stick with what I know I like.

 

P.S.

 

How does anytime dining interfere it at all with the evening shows?

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If I would have believed some of the things I read about Carnival I would never have sailed, and we are now going on our 2nd Carnival cruise. I read some trip reports,even for cruises I was on and don't recognize the cruise the posters were on. I have sailed Princess 2x's and love anytime dining, I will miss it in September. We rotate Princess and Carnival because of the anytime on Princess.

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We always choose the early dining time, eating dinner late is not our style, since we like to be up and about early in the morning. Sometimes, though, it is a rush to get to dinner, so sometimes it would be nice to be able to go a bit later. We rarely miss dinner in the dining room, it's a great experience, so I don't know how badly I would miss getting to know our wait staff. I would be willing to try it, but I do love many things about traditional.

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My husband and I have been on three cruise, going on the fourth in January 2009. Two of them have been on NCL and one on Princess. Of course, NCL is all freestyle no traditional at all, and we really liked that. Princess has both and we choose anytime dining. So our upcoming cruise on Carnival Conquest will be our first tradtional dining cruise.

 

We've never had a problem with lines at dinner and we go anytime between 6:30 & 9 it just depends on what is going on that day.

 

I've heard good and bad about both traditional and anytime dining so I guess I'll have to reserve judgement until after January.:D

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