Dancing wait staff????

I've been watching YouTube videos getting Geared up for our Monday Victory sailing. Question- do the waiters really stop dinner service and perform/dance??? On every carnival cruise and every night? We have my time dining, that means dinner will not be synced by courses. So diners just stop being waited on, stop eating and watch their performance? I have to be missing something. I cringe when I see it happening on video and cannot imagine it live! I'm not just talking flaming Baked Alaska. This seems way more common. Oh my... tell me it isn't so.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yeah they did “Happy” tonight on breeze. They wore hats and these light up gloves. It wasn’t every server. My server was working.

It's usually done a little after 7:00 pm and not every night lately.

To the OP

I see that you have three NCL cruises listed in your signature.

No dancing waiters on that cruise line.

It seems to be a thing on Carnival which goes back to the time when they were advertised as the Fun Ships.

After your cruise on the Valor, you may decide to continue with Carnival or return to NCL or try other lines such as RCCL or Princess.

YMMV

Hope you enjoy your upcoming cruise.

When we were on Vista 8 day....song/dance 5 nights. As stated above...based on workload some waitors did not participate. Was the same time everynight. I would image if you do YTD at 7pm....you will miss it....so plan accoringly LOL

To the OP

 

I see that you have three NCL cruises listed in your signature.

 

No dancing waiters on that cruise line.

 

It seems to be a thing on Carnival which goes back to the time when they were advertised as the Fun Ships.

 

After your cruise on the Valor, you may decide to continue with Carnival or return to NCL or try other lines such as RCCL or Princess.

 

YMMV

 

Hope you enjoy your upcoming cruise.

Thank you for the well wishes! Have a carnival cruise sailing Monday and a RCCL cruise leaving march 31. But we have Loved our NCL sailing and expect we will also love these new experiences. The dancing waiter threw me though...

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

When we were on Vista 8 day....song/dance 5 nights. As stated above...based on workload some waitors did not participate. Was the same time everynight. I would image if you do YTD at 7pm....you will miss it....so plan accoringly LOL

We are late diners. 8pm or later. Sounds like we just might miss it. Thanks for the reply!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

It's not every night and service only stops for like 5 minutes. Cruising is all about doing things you normally wouldn't do at home. (Hairy chest competition anyone?) Just sit back and enjoy the show.

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Yeah, its true, they do dance. Not as bad as you may think though, actually kinda fun. I was like you at first thinking what are they doing, I want to eat. But I chilled out and went along with it, after all it is vacation, and just have fun with it.

:)

When we were on Vista 8 day....song/dance 5 nights. As stated above...based on workload some waitors did not participate. Was the same time everynight. I would image if you do YTD at 7pm....you will miss it....so plan accoringly LOL

I had YTD and saw it tonight around 7

It’s something we have gotten used to and come to enjoy. The waiter take a short break to perform a routine. Most times they try to get the crowd engaged and a lot of people participate. We do it because we really enjoy our wait staff and it’s all in fun. I would hate to think the wait staff is made to feel bad about performing because someone didn’t want to wait a few more minutes for their food. Yes it’s cheesy, but they work hard and want to see people have a good time. I agree with the hairy chest contest, it’s cheesy but so fun to just laugh at stuff that we don’t get to see in our every day worlds. People that don’t want to do any of those things can opt out, there are many other options for dining and always somewhere quiet on the ship for those times. I look at it like this, I don’t eat tons of food and take multiple naps, read while looking out and sitting in front of the ocean, or drink alcohol on a daily basis until I am on vacation. I relax and go with the flow.

Sent from my iPad using Forums

We were on the Victory the weekend before last and they did the song and dance on two out of the three nights in the main dining room. We had the late dinner seating time 8:15.

As to your question, yes the service stops during the performance. They will announce “it’s SHOWTIME!” when it begins. Usually just at the end of the meal when most are eating dessert.

Like others have said it’s usually pretty short.

We are avid NCL cruisers but found this to be a fun, quirky difference on Carnival that we enjoyed.

If you don’t care for it and want to have some separation from the spectacle I would recommend getting a windowside table as most of the action occurs in the center of the dining room.

We actually liked it so we made sure that we got a table in the middle of the room on the last night!

I had YTD and saw it tonight around 7

We ate around 8pm every night and our show began between 8:45 and 9pm each evening . So I assumed early seating show was around 6:30-6;45.... I guess those that have early seating can get out before LOL....Our dining time was 1 hour max every evening (for 2 of us)

I had early seating on the Triumph and the Dream in January. It was at 7:00pm each night. A few times the show started right before ordering dessert, but most of the time it was after ordering dessert but before dessert was brought to the table. A couple times my table's desserts were sitting on the pedestal next to our table while they were dancing.

Yes, they do dance (in our experience not every night) but even with the dance routine thrown in dinner rarely takes more than an hour and a half. We traveled with two 5 year olds and a 2 year old on Pride last week and they loved getting up to dance with the wait staff.

They don't necessarily dance every night, and yes, it does slow down or stop the service. When it comes to Carnival cruisers, I seem to be in the minority in that I'm not really a fan of it. I do YTD and usually go early and hopefully miss it, but it does happen in YTD too. That's the great thing about cruising--whatever I like I can find, and what I'm not fond of, but what others like, I can find a way to avoid.

They will do it most nights. We typically have early seating and they will do it right about dessert time. Some of the waitstaff enjoy it and some go thru the motions.

After seeing it on many cruises does get a bit boring.

We're with you Naxer, we are not fans of it at all but like you said, apparently we're in the minority. So be it. Just have to wait it out, that's all we can do. Not going to kill us or ruin our cruise, that's for sure.

Sometimes it's just the worst timing, like when you've just gotten your dessert menus and you just want to order and eat your WCMC and get on with your evening. At these times it seems like the shenanigans last over half an hour.

We tolerate it, but tend to think it's a successful evening if we can get out of MDR before it starts.

Appreciate the responses. Glad to know many enjoy it! Agree, a cruise is what you make of it...

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

First off, no one said "Hey, stop eating, and watch the dancers"...LoL So you may to continue to eat if you wish. Secondly in our experience, we have noticed that they will serve a course, and right after then start the dancing. This way minimal waitering/waitessing is needed:cool:. So with that said, sit back relax and enjoy the dinner and show.:cool:

Someone said not as bad as you think. I think it is twice as bad as you think. Watch their souls dying in their eyes as some of them dance. This really is a degrading pony show that the staff clearly hates. It is very evident. Then we all start spinning our napkins in the air just to make sure Norovirus has the best possible chance.

Someone said not as bad as you think. I think it is twice as bad as you think. Watch their souls dying in their eyes as some of them dance. This really is a degrading pony show that the staff clearly hates. It is very evident. Then we all start spinning our napkins in the air just to make sure Norovirus has the best possible chance.

This. Honestly watching the videos, it felt a human rights violations against the dancing waiters! I struggle to imagine they want to perform. Of course it will not ruin my first carnival cruise since the 80s and I'm a pretty go with the flow kind of person, it simply didn't feel right to me.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

First off, no one said "Hey, stop eating, and watch the dancers"...LoL So you may to continue to eat if you wish. Secondly in our experience, we have noticed that they will serve a course, and right after then start the dancing. This way minimal waitering/waitessing is needed:cool:. So with that said, sit back relax and enjoy the dinner and show.:cool:

Ha! Permission accepted!! I have MYD so assuming courses aren't in any way synced. Honestly, my personal inconvenience is the least of it. I hated it for the wait staff when watching it on video... like another poster said, felt a bit like a pony show for the paying patrons.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Someone said not as bad as you think. I think it is twice as bad as you think. Watch their souls dying in their eyes as some of them dance. This really is a degrading pony show that the staff clearly hates. It is very evident. Then we all start spinning our napkins in the air just to make sure Norovirus has the best possible chance.

the napkin twirling is really gross. Amazing that they allow this or even promote this.