Dinner Time on River Cruises

[travelfirst]

I have been on three Viking cruises and I have never seen a lineup yet.

[SfromATX]

We have only been on two Viking cruises and but we have never seen scrum (whatever that is) lining up for dinner. As a previous poster said, everyone just moves from the bar to the dining room and fills in tables with old or new friends. Very civilized. And, now I'm going to add a couple of little rants: I am tired of so many posters comparing European river cruises to their experiences with big ocean-liner cruises. They are not the same so please do not expect to have multi-dining rooms with various serving times, casinos, lavish entertainment, etc. River cruises are destination-oriented; it's not about the ship and life on board. My second pet peeve here is people posting opinions about cruise lines on which they have never traveled. Just "what I've heard" or "what I think." I enjoy hearing from travelers who have actually been on different lines, but not from those who bash Viking just because it's the pioneer in European river cruising and has become so large. That does not mean that it's not a quality product. If you've read this far, thanks a lot! I am now dismounting my soapbox!

[followyourheart]

We were on a Viking longship last fall and did not ever experience any lines going into the dining room.

[mathladyca]

We have only been on two Viking cruises and but we have never seen scrum (whatever that is) lining up for dinner. As a previous poster said, everyone just moves from the bar to the dining room and fills in tables with old or new friends. Very civilized. And, now I'm going to add a couple of little rants: I am tired of so many posters comparing European river cruises to their experiences with big ocean-liner cruises. They are not the same so please do not expect to have multi-dining rooms with various serving times, casinos, lavish entertainment, etc. River cruises are destination-oriented; it's not about the ship and life on board. My second pet peeve here is people posting opinions about cruise lines on which they have never traveled. Just "what I've heard" or "what I think." I enjoy hearing from travelers who have actually been on different lines, but not from those who bash Viking just because it's the pioneer in European river cruising and has become so large. That does not mean that it's not a quality product. If you've read this far, thanks a lot! I am now dismounting my soapbox!

 

Well said!

[jiminyC_fan]

And, now I'm going to add a couple of little rants: I am tired of so many posters comparing European river cruises to their experiences with big ocean-liner cruises. They are not the same so please do not expect to have multi-dining rooms with various serving times, casinos, lavish entertainment, etc. River cruises are destination-oriented; it's not about the ship and life on board. My second pet peeve here is people posting opinions about cruise lines on which they have never traveled. Just "what I've heard" or "what I think." I enjoy hearing from travelers who have actually been on different lines, but not from those who bash Viking just because it's the pioneer in European river cruising and has become so large. That does not mean that it's not a quality product. If you've read this far, thanks a lot! I am now dismounting my soapbox!

 

I haven't yet done a river cruise (booked) but I so agree.

[tassietravellers]

the scrum for tables and standing in the long line every evening stretching almost the whole length of the ship really frustrated and annoyed us -- if no line offers anything different, it will make us think twice about a repeat.

 

We didnt see this on our Avalon cruise last year, we know there were a few people that did line up each night, but definitely not queues up the stairs and through the ship, we walked in just around 7 and never had a problem finding seats.

It was all quite civilised too, everyone just wandered downstairs from the bar lounge after the happy hour/port talk.

 

Do the galley tour and you will see how little space the chef and all the staff have on a river cruise, I'm sure its easier for them to concentrate on one course at a time to all passengers, than to be trying to serve meals all night.

 

btw - well said SfromATX

 

Deb

[TravelBugM]

We appreciate the insight from experienced river cruisers. In fact, we are "virgin" cruisers having never done any sort of cruise previously, so very much in the dark not knowing what to expect.

 

What we've read and researched so far leads us to believe we are in for a very unique, enjoyable experience.

[H2Otstr]

We have been on 11 river cruises and five different cruise lines. Some people will line up at the door a few minutes before they open so that they can get a specific table. There are enough seats for everyone, but some people want a specific table or wait staff. Most of the time people just come in after the port talk and sit with people they have already met or new people that they are just meeting.

 

BTW, a "scrum" is a rugby term or defined as "a usually tightly packed or disorderly crowd" :D.

The only time that I found anything even close to this was on the GCT to Russia that we did last year and that was mainly due to the layout of the ship.

[ddschur]

We sailed with Tauck Amsterdam-Budapest in September 2011 on the MS Treasures with 106 other souls and never once saw any problems at dinner. The nominal times for dinner were usually 7-9.30 and no one frowned nor did the wait staff ignore you if you arrived after 7pm. There was no rush for tables and as an Aussie I can confirm there were no scrums. People usually move down from the bar to the dinning room as they finished their pre-dinner drinks, took a seat with new or old friends and started another fine meal. On one occasion a group of us had dinner in the Lido and had a magnificent evening.

 

I believe many of the "dining problems" come about because there are upwards of 160 to 200+ passengers on the boat. With Tauck you can relax knowing that currently their maximum is 118 passengers. Dining on a Tauck boat was not a hassle for us.

 

We have been on two Tauck river cruises and NEVER had any issues with seating. Tables were available with no waiting at every meal.

[Bob++]

A rugby scrum.....:)

[RachelG]

On our AMA cruise, there was no lineup for dinner even though everyone arrived around 7 as soon as the dining room opened. We were on a totally full cruise which meant that there were exactly the number of seats in the dining room as there were passengers on the ship. As a result, if you wanted to dine with another couple, you had to arrive early or you risked not being seated together. We learned this early on.

[Sylve1]

We have only been on two Viking cruises and but we have never seen scrum (whatever that is) lining up for dinner. As a previous poster said, everyone just moves from the bar to the dining room and fills in tables with old or new friends. Very civilized. And, now I'm going to add a couple of little rants: I am tired of so many posters comparing European river cruises to their experiences with big ocean-liner cruises. They are not the same so please do not expect to have multi-dining rooms with various serving times, casinos, lavish entertainment, etc. River cruises are destination-oriented; it's not about the ship and life on board. My second pet peeve here is people posting opinions about cruise lines on which they have never traveled. Just "what I've heard" or "what I think." I enjoy hearing from travelers who have actually been on different lines, but not from those who bash Viking just because it's the pioneer in European river cruising and has become so large. That does not mean that it's not a quality product. If you've read this far, thanks a lot! I am now dismounting my soapbox!

 

 

Agree with you. No lines for dinner on our Avalon Cruise last year. As someone else said it was very civilised and easy. As for comparing a river cruise with an ocean cruise you may as well compare a bus tour with driving yourself- completely different experiences and both have their place for different people at different times and places.