Open dining on Thomson Spirit

[Sailorsheila]

We have just booked a cruise for next April on Thomson Spirit. How does the open dining for dinner work? We have previously enjoyed becoming acquainted with our fellow diners over the course of the cruise. Does open dining mean dining with different people every night and does it mean queuing for tables? We would be interested in your experiences with open dining. Do you prefer it to having a fixed time and table with the same people each night? What are the pros and cons? Any other information/comments on Thomson Spirit would be appreciated. :confused:

[jaceyar]

Hi, as you probably realize, you don't have a fixed time to dine which I prefer. Having said that, if you take a shine to a particular waiter, you can request to be seated in his area every night. If you are happy to share a table you can or just have a table for two. There is queuing at peak times but they are very quick at seating you.

 

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[Malch_uk]

The waiter service restaurant is open from about 6:30 to about 9:00 in the evening and you dine when you prefer (except on the weekly Gala night when there are 2 fixed sittings. You are allocated to one or the other but can change if you wish). Short queues can form around 8:00pm which seems to be a popular time but as soon as the early diners start to leave, tables are quickly re-set so any wait is not very long.

 

You do tend to be seated with different people each evening but once you get to know the waiters you can request to be seated with a particular waiter if you have a favourite and you may find that other people do the same, so you can end up with the same people each evening, particularly if you dine at the same time each day. We usually dine around 7:00pm and then move on to the first performance in the Broadway Showlounge at around 8:45, leaving the rest of the evening free to sample the other entertainments around the ship. I can't give a comparison with fixed dining as we have never experienced this, but am sure others will. The buffet is also OK in the evenings too, with candles on the tables and the staff in their best uniforms.

 

The Spirit is a great ship and gets the best feedback scores of all the Thomson ships. She may be getting on a bit but has style, not like the floating tower blocks of other cruise lines. You will love her I am sure.

 

Malc.

 

.

Edited September 12, 2013 by Malch_uk

[gunn3rs3]

The waiter service restaurant is open from about 6:30 to about 9:00 in the evening and you dine when you prefer (except on the weekly Gala night when there are 2 fixed sittings. You are allocated to one or the other but can change if you wish). Short queues can form around 8:00pm which seems to be a popular time but as soon as the early diners start to leave, tables are quickly re-set so any wait is not very long.

 

You do tend to be seated with different people each evening but once you get to know the waiters you can request to be seated with a particular waiter if you have a favourite and you may find that other people do the same, so you can end up with the same people each evening, particularly if you dine at the same time each day. We usually dine around 7:00pm and then move on to the first performance in the Broadway Showlounge at around 8:45, leaving the rest of the evening free to sample the other entertainments around the ship. I can't give a comparison with fixed dining as we have never experienced this, but am sure others will. The buffet is also OK in the evenings too, with candles on the tables and the staff in their best uniforms.

 

The Spirit is a great ship and gets the best feedback scores of all the Thomson ships. She may be getting on a bit but has style, not like the floating tower blocks of other cruise lines. You will love her I am sure.

 

Malc.

 

.

 

Hi,We were on Spirit last week and some evenings we went into dinner at 6pm, we got our waiters from last 2 years again this year,Sam and Rambo,they were very good,Roy.

[delapsthrowingarm]

for me it just doesnt work,iwas on the dream a couple of weeks ago and the mdr at peak times was like piccadilly circus,i dont like to rush my meals but one night we were in there for 2 hours,i was on the destiny in 2010 and this was set dining and i have not had service as good on my 2 subsequent cruises(2nd cruise was on spirit 2011)the waiter however work miracles but my wif found it a little uncomfortable at how stressed some of them looked,,,each to their own but i think it one aspect of the thomson product that lets them down.

[Langtoncouple]

We prefer open dining as its less rushed and you can saunter down when ready. We do tend to eat early just after its open when its less quiet and can be out beofre the first Broadway show. I'm talking about the Dream in the waiter served Orion. But occasionally we find we are in a hurry but if we mention this to our waiter then they serve meals quicker.

Edited September 13, 2013 by Langtoncouple

[CRUISIN LINDA]

On Princess (and other lines I think) you can chose between fixed dining and anytime dining. We chose anytime as we sometimes like to go to the buffet if they have a theme night, like curry night :) Also we met lots of different people that way. We have done fixed dining, and luckily had lovely people every time, but I have heard stories of people who have not been so lucky ;)

 

We did notice that more people seem to be doing anytime dining now though :)

[Eboracum_d]

We like the Open Dining option.

 

If you find yourself getting on well with particular people you can arrange to sit together on future nights simply by meeting up outtside and then asking to be seated together on a larger table,