Never eating in the main dining room? - Oasis

[rubysue]

Greetings - we are booked on Oasis at Christmas, veteran cruisers and such, although this is our first cruise on RCI since 1991.

 

I'm too lazy to search tonight - has anyone done a cruise on one of the Oasis ships and never set foot in the main dining room? We have booked three specialty restaurants so far and are thinking about rounding out our experience with more restaurants outside of the dining room. Suggestions?

[Merion_Mom]

Many people do this.

 

I just returned from two weeks on the Oasis, and ate almost every meal in the MDR. They were WONDERFUL dinners. (I am also a "veteran cruiser" ;))

 

:)

[Bette And Bill]

Greetings - we are booked on Oasis at Christmas, veteran cruisers and such, although this is our first cruise on RCI since 1991.

 

I'm too lazy to search tonight - has anyone done a cruise on one of the Oasis ships and never set foot in the main dining room? We have booked three specialty restaurants so far and are thinking about rounding out our experience with more restaurants outside of the dining room. Suggestions?

 

I know a couple who actually only eat in the Windjammer. They can head there when they want and dress casually. It suits them. We have also met a few people who have eaten in the specialty restaurants.

[Lionesss]

Just curious . . . . why?

I know the ship has many options, but, just wondered why you dont want to try out the MDR.

I always like to hear what others are thinking about:D

Sea Ya

[janetz]

We also ate most all our meals in the MDR. No complaints. Everything was great! ;)

[jahannah]

Greetings - we are booked on Oasis at Christmas, veteran cruisers and such, although this is our first cruise on RCI since 1991.

 

I'm too lazy to search tonight - has anyone done a cruise on one of the Oasis ships and never set foot in the main dining room? We have booked three specialty restaurants so far and are thinking about rounding out our experience with more restaurants outside of the dining room. Suggestions?

 

We only ate in the MDR once during our trip on the Allure. The specialty restaurants are great, particularly Giovanni's Table. We even ate at the Chef's Table, which was a very good experience, albeit expensive. Our MDR night was the second formal "lobster" night, which was very good.

[GalloAJ]

Greetings - we are booked on Oasis at Christmas, veteran cruisers and such, although this is our first cruise on RCI since 1991.

 

I'm too lazy to search tonight - has anyone done a cruise on one of the Oasis ships and never set foot in the main dining room? We have booked three specialty restaurants so far and are thinking about rounding out our experience with more restaurants outside of the dining room. Suggestions?

 

Just returned from a cruise on the Oasis..Sept 21-28, 2013...we ate in MDR every evening, but two nights..and it was great............we do not have any complaints.............. we did eat at Giovannio's and Vintage's...,but honestly, missed our dining table members and servers...they were Awesome...........

[skiiergirl]

On all of the other ships we do specialty dining maybe one night as we really enjoy the tradional MDR experience. On OA/AL we do specialty almost every night. There are just way too many specialty restaurants to do he MDR. Nothing wrong with the MDR....we just want to do all of the specialty restaurants!

[VegasChic]

I was on the Allure (different ship), did not care for the food in the MDR (just being honest). Especially after eating at Giovanni's on the 1st night and 150 Central Park on the 2nd. However the specialty restaurants were great! I ate at Chops, Giovanni's and 150 Central Park. My favorites were Giovanni's and Chops, hope you have a wonderful time:)

[Pirateologist]

if you book their specialty restaurants online or by 5pm the 1st day onboard there is a discount program

[VegasChic]

I booked the Central Park package on the 1st day onboard and it was $70 pp if you do them separate its $90 pp.

[Merion_Mom]

if you book their specialty restaurants online or by 5pm the 1st day onboard there is a discount program

 

The "discount program" is a package of restaurants. You commit to eating in those restaurants, and the aggregate package price is lower than the three or four restaurants' separate charges.

 

Chef's Dining Package

 

Oasis Choice Dining Package

 

There are more packages. Some for larger groups, rather than for multiple restaurants.

 

And different packages on different ships.

 

But the premise is the same, as stated above.

 

You can, as far as I have been able to discover, only see them in your own reservations, via My Cruises.

 

I tried to post actual links, but they led to my own reservations, and I have no desire to share them with all of you. :D

[maureencruiser]

Just curious . . . . why?

 

I know the ship has many options, but, just wondered why you dont want to try out the MDR.

 

I always like to hear what others are thinking about:D

 

Sea Ya

 

 

For me, I just got off Allure and did not want to waste 2 hours eating dinner every night, missing out on activities. I used to like the whole dressing up for dinner thing, but, now I just want to be comfortable. On this cruise at least. Maybe next time will be different. I couldn't even tell you what deck, decks the MDR was on. My cabin was right around the corner from the Boardwalk, so, I enjoyed Rita's Fiesta, Johnny Rockets, and I even had a few post-breakfast donuts. Never made it to the Doghouse, though...:mad:

[FionaMG]

MDR is a big part of our cruise experience so we always eat there and have never gone to any other dinner venues. But what we have noticed is that there are lots of empty seats now in MDR as more and more people try the different options. On our last cruise we were placed at a four-top but the other couple never turned up. We were fine with that, especially since it was our anniversary cruise, but if it had been a bigger table we might have felt uncomfortable. I think RCI should have a system that allows people to completely opt out of MDR if they know they are not going to be using it, so that they are not allocated seats in MDR.

[molly361]

For me, I just got off Allure and did not want to waste 2 hours eating dinner every night, missing out on activities. I used to like the whole dressing up for dinner thing, but, now I just want to be comfortable. On this cruise at least. Maybe next time will be different. I couldn't even tell you what deck, decks the MDR was on. My cabin was right around the corner from the Boardwalk, so, I enjoyed Rita's Fiesta, Johnny Rockets, and I even had a few post-breakfast donuts. Never made it to the Doghouse, though...:mad:

 

 

Hot dogs were good!!! Donuts too. We were on the same sailing as you. Sorry we did not get to meet:(. Were you at the slot pull? Ellen

[maureencruiser]

I think RCI should have a system that allows people to completely opt out of MDR if they know they are not going to be using it, so that they are not allocated seats in MDR.

 

I agree 100% - maybe everyone should have MTD??

 

Hot dogs were good!!! Donuts too. We were on the same sailing as you. Sorry we did not get to meet:(. Were you at the slot pull? Ellen

 

The first person I talked to about the hot dogs said it was terrible, she had to throw it away. So, I stupidly let her decision become mine. People later told me they were good. :( Oh, well, one good reason to go back! No, I was supposed to be at slot pull but forgot about it. I had everything on Gambees spreadsheet, but, couldn't get that to print out, had to open computer to look at it. I agree about the donuts!:)

[PCWalton1]

We were on Oasis sister Allure back in May and never set foot in MDR. It was nothing against main dining, we just wanted to try all the venues. :)

 

Bill

 

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[PCWalton1]

I think RCI should have a system that allows people to completely opt out of MDR if they know they are not going to be using it, so that they are not allocated seats in MDR.

 

 

I agree 100% - maybe everyone should have MTD??

 

That is exactly what we did. We had MTD but didn't make any reservations. :D

 

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[Loyal2RCCL]

When I cruised Oasis, I never set foot in the MDR or WJ the entire week. Breakfasts were at Park Cafe or the Solarium Cafe. Lunch was Park Cafe, Solarium Cafe, Giovanni's or Vintages which has a fantastic and reasonably priced Tapas menu. Dinner we dined in all of the Specialty restaurants, including Chef's Table. The food in all of these venues was fantastic.

[lacruiser]

We sailed Oasis in August -- my first time on that class. We didn't set foot in the MDR because we were anxious to try the specialty dining venues that are not available on other classes. We also had a BOGO since we are D+ that we wanted to use. We ate at 150 Central Park twice, Giovanni's Table, Chef's Table, and the solarium restaurant -- name escapes me at the moment. I think we also ran into the WJ late one evening. Of all these, my personal favorite was Chef's Table. A little pricey, but if you love food and wine it's a must-do. I was most pleasantly surprised by the wine quality.

 

While we enjoyed (for the most part) the specialty venues, I found that I really missed the MDR experience. Meeting your dinner companions and discussing the day, and getting to know the waitstaff, are such enjoyable parts of cruising, and although we were on OAS with good friends whose company we certainly enjoyed, I did miss MDR.

 

Overall, OAS felt impersonal to me on many levels, and I suspect that not having the MDR experience contributed toward that. YMMV, of course!

[OCruisers]

When we were on Oasis, we had dinner three nights at Giovanni's, two nights at Chops, and one night at 150 Central Ave.

 

We only had dinner one evening in the MDR because we didn't like the food there. Actually, we have never cared for the MDR food for dinner on any RCCL ship. Fortunately, we love their specialty restaurants!

 

LuLu

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[iriemon]

When my wife and I cruised (42 of them) we would do multiple ones a year. At least one of them we would never eat in the MDR since we wanted to be casual and just do things as we wanted to in the clothes we were in. One cruise a year which is when we usually brought our family we did the whole dress up thing. Now that my wife has passed away and I am traveling alone, I don't have any plans to eat in the MDR. Just want to be relaxed and come and go as I please. I know I will meet lots of people without going to the MDR and from what I have heard the food in the other locations is great. Will let you know after I return

[rubysue]

What a wonderful group of responses!! Thanks so much for the different perspectives. Right now we have reservations at the Chef's Table (on Christmas Eve), Giovanni's and Chop's. We are looking at the remaining evenings on board and wondering if it is common practice to not go to the MDR at all with all of the fun choices. Several of our most recent cruises were on Oceania, with no formal nights and reservations only required for specialty restaurants, so dressing formally is not our preference, although we would dress appropriately for Chef's Table, etc. I'm sure the MDR is very nice, so we might go there one evening to see how it compares, but all of the other choices are much more tantalizing. And we are perfectly content quite often with a good buffet or a burger.

 

Thanks so much for so many responses! A lot to think about, as our last cruise was on a small ships with five different dining options (one only for lunch). A bit of a contrast...

[Debde]

I know a couple who actually only eat in the Windjammer. They can head there when they want and dress casually. It suits them.

 

Add me to that list!! True MTD!!:)

[cruzkitty]

Just off the Oasis 09/21/13-and we only ate in the MDR the first night. Service was very slow, and we never went back. We ate at Giovanni's, Windjammer, Sorrento's, and Café Promenade. All the food was very good! Two years ago on Oais, we never ate in the MDR at all. We tried Chops, it was ok, but wouldn't go back.

 

Breakfast was Room Service on the Balcony!:D