Dining questions

[seadams15]

What is your opinion? Early, late or anytime dining? We've only chosen late dining and would be curious to get a second opinion. :)

 

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[superduper123]

What is your opinion? Early, late or anytime dining? We've only chosen late dining and would be curious to get a second opinion. :)

 

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I almost always do early. But that is because I am an early to rise, and fairly early to bed type of person.

[Keith1010]

They both have pros/cons.

 

Early,

 

Pro: You don't go to bed so late too close to after having had dinner and you can enjoy time afterward seeing entertainment.

 

Con: If you are in ports that day you might feel rushed to get ready for dinner.

 

Late.

 

Pro: You don't have to rush back to the ship and you can take your time getting ready for dinner.

 

Con: It can make for a late night.

 

Anytime.

 

Pro: You can come as you please and you can adjust arrival time based on what you are doing that day.

 

Con: You don't have the same waitstaff each night who overtime gets to know what you like and you sometimes have to wait for a table.

 

There is no right or wrong on any of this.

 

Keith

[KirkNC]

We used to do fixed but than had a couple of times that we were seated at tables where we did not mesh with some of our table mates. That's fine for one night but no so much for the whole cruise. Now we do anytime, we like the flexibility plus we meet lots more people with new table mates every night.

[Bonnie J.]

We had not done 1st seating for a long time so decided to try it again. We still HATED it. If ship leaves say 5:30 you get back and have to dress right away for dinner and can't take a nap before dinner with 1st seating. The night seems to end a lot earlier for us if we eat that early. Don't care when you eat at home, you won't starve before 2nd seating!

We do not like NCL because we have had a wait of up to 40 minutes to get into the dining room, have asked to share a table and taken to a table for two (we've had just the two of us for dinner since our youngest moved out 20+ years ago!) and you get a different waiter every time who doesn't know you want milk, ice tea or whatever every night.

If you don't care for your tablemates just ask the maitre'd to move you to a different table. He doesn't have a problem doing that!

[seadams15]

We don't mind eating later or getting a late start. We're a younger couple just looking to relax on "vacation time" :beer:. We've only done the late dining where we got seated with a table of other couples. Some friendly, others took a while to open up. And we were

 

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[cruzeluver]

We prefer late because:

 

-few children

-no rush to get to dinner on port days

-can linger over coffee/dessert

[seadams15]

Well above post sent to early! Woops!***

 

We've already chosen late dining. But hoping for friendlier table mates. We both work in the restaurant industry and are just naturally social people. Total buzz kill when others at the table are so quiet!

 

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[Bonnie J.]

As I said above, if you have tablemates you don't care for, just ask maitre'd to change tables. He has a map of the dining room and can show you what tables are available and he can also tell you the age of people at every table.

[spookwife]

What is your opinion? Early, late or anytime dining? We've only chosen late dining and would be curious to get a second opinion. :)

 

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you know we were always late dining snobs.. we liked the possibility of less small kids making a ruckus and the ability to just take our time getting to dinner.

 

last cruise we did Flex/My Time/Anytime and decided we liked that better as sometimes late was too late.. we'd eat and then go to bed. when we had a table to ourselves dinner went at OUR pace. we actually choose a time that is pretty much between the two fixed seating times and that works for us.

[paul929207]

We take AD when available. We usually request a shared table with about 6 people. We take longer cruises, so we often find there is a group of people, maybe 10 or 20 couples, that we occasionally eat with, just by chance. So we get to know them. We also get to know most of the staff in the dining room over the cruise.

[Krazy Kruizers]

We like early, fixed dining. Gives us the change to eat, see a show and have a cordial before retiring.

We used to ask for tables for 4 or 6 but gave that up after we few not-compatible tables mates. Now we request a table for 2.

[John Bull]

A lot of folk choose a sitting which coincides with the time they usually eat at home.

 

If anytime isn't available, we choose 2nd sitting. A decent break between coming aboard after a day ashore, not rushed out of the dining room to make way for the next sitting, generally more convivial company, no kids. And still plenty of entertainment after dinner on most ships.

 

But anytime is our preference. We prefer large shared tables so rarely a line waiting for a table (ask to be seated with English-speakers). Not the same waiters each evening, though often it is. Not the same tablemates each evening - can be a bore going through the same conversations each evening (where are you from? etc) but you're not saddled for the whole cruise with folk who are possibly not your type ( a rarity, but can happen), or even the empty chairs of folk who don't use the main dining room. With anytime we've usually hooked-up with like-minded table-sharers & gone to dinner together on subsequent evenings.

 

My opinion, but that's all it is - an opinion.

As Keith says, there's no right or wrong. Just personal preferences.;)

 

JB :)

[nathuhbelle]

We prefer late for a few reasons: we eat around 7:30 at home, so waiting until 8 is not a big ordeal; more time in port and time for a nap before dinner; and we aren't big on the shows. I prefer fixed seating, because I tend to enjoy seeing the same people and waitstaff every night. Our one time of anytime dining on NCL was not a success, it always felt like the food service was MUCH slower than our usual fixed dining. Our next two cruises are open-seating only, so we will see how they compare.

[Nebr.cruiser]

We always used to do early dining--just thought the late dining sounded so, well, late.

 

Now our preference is Anytime Dining, and if that isn't available then late dining--it's so nice not to have to rush to get to an early dinner, and we're kind of night owls anyway.

 

We like the flexibility of AD and have cruised enough that getting to know a certain set of waiters isn't so important anymore.

[dorisis]

We prefer anytime dining when possible. &PM seems to work well for us on most cruises but so much depends on what we are doing if the ship is in port and hoe dining times fir in with evening activities.

[AZ Ocean Lover]

I actually cancelled a cruise once because, despite the online information, they only had traditional dining for the one cruise we had booked. Early is way too early and late is way too late. Anytime dining for us.

[iuki]

They both have pros/cons.

 

Early,

 

Pro: You don't go to bed so late too close to after having had dinner and you can enjoy time afterward seeing entertainment.

 

Con: If you are in ports that day you might feel rushed to get ready for dinner.

 

Late.

 

Pro: You don't have to rush back to the ship and you can take your time getting ready for dinner.

 

Con: It can make for a late night.

 

Anytime.

 

Pro: You can come as you please and you can adjust arrival time based on what you are doing that day.

 

Con: You don't have the same waitstaff each night who overtime gets to know what you like and you sometimes have to wait for a table.

 

There is no right or wrong on any of this.

 

Keith

 

Excellent post - covered all pros and cons! Also, when I eat late, I suffer from acid reflux and chest pains due to GERD. :(

[xxoocruiser]

What is your opinion? Early, late or anytime dining? We've only chosen late dining and would be curious to get a second opinion. :)

 

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Totally depends on your lifestyle. Also if you choose to take any excursions that arrive back to the ship later in the day.

[NMLady]

What is your opinion? Early, late or anytime dining? We've only chosen late dining and would be curious to get a second opinion. :)

 

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We prefer anytime dining. That way we can choose early, mid, or late, depending on what we are doing before/after dinner.

 

We can also choose dining by ourselves or choose shared, depending on what we want to do.

 

Anytime dining offers the most options.

[NoobCruise]

I like anytime. I don't like to have to eat at a specific time. Also, we can request table size each time we go so if we want to meet people on one night, we can ask for a larger table, and if we want a romantic table for 2 the next night, we can do that too. It's also easier to eat at times that allow you to go to activities and shows you're interested in. We found we either missed stuff at set dining or had to eat in the buffet more.

[Bonnie J.]

I wonder about ages and cruise experience of people who prefer the anytime dining. We have been cruising since the mid 80's when all they had was the traditional dining and no room service or diner buffet back then. We HATE anytime! We don't like NCL because they have no traditional, had a 40 minute wait once and have seen LONG lines waiting to get into the dining room & not just on NCL.

I get the feeling the new cruisers are the ones who want anytime. What are your thoughts????

[nathuhbelle]

I wonder about ages and cruise experience of people who prefer the anytime dining. We have been cruising since the mid 80's when all they had was the traditional dining and no room service or diner buffet back then. We HATE anytime! We don't like NCL because they have no traditional, had a 40 minute wait once and have seen LONG lines waiting to get into the dining room & not just on NCL.

I get the feeling the new cruisers are the ones who want anytime. What are your thoughts????

 

I'll add to the data: I'm in my mid-20s and have been cruising since I was 14 (7 cruises, 2 upcoming); I can't stand NCL's Anytime Dining; we will see how I feel about anytime dining on a small ship (Azamara and Paul Gauguin) this winter.

[paul929207]

I wonder about ages and cruise experience of people who prefer the anytime dining. We have been cruising since the mid 80's when all they had was the traditional dining and no room service or diner buffet back then. We HATE anytime! We don't like NCL because they have no traditional, had a 40 minute wait once and have seen LONG lines waiting to get into the dining room & not just on NCL.

I get the feeling the new cruisers are the ones who want anytime. What are your thoughts????

We are in our 60's and have cruised since the late 80's. We take longer cruises, so there are few young people on board. We love Anytime and there are obviously lots who agree with us.

[Bookish Angel]

Early dining is too early on an excursion day and late is always too late for us so Anytime Dining is perfect. We'd never go back to the rigidity of traditional dining. We also like dining at a 2-top which is difficult to do with traditional.