WANTED: Standard Dining and Dressing for Dinner

[flowoflife]

I hear a lot of grumblings when I cruise that passengers did not get the early dining selection that they desired because they are not late night people, eat on schedule, or for some odd reason felt that paying for a cruise allowed them to have the dining selection of their choice. I also hear many passengers desire to eat with the same companions each night. I am among these grumblers. Eating at a set time at an assigned table with the same companions was one of the main reasons cruising is (was) my vacation of choice. Sadly, I spend the first hour or so of each cruise attempting to obtain early (6:00) seating for dinner. I have many allergies, but I am not on vacation to gain weight or taste many new foods. Unfortunately, the quality of food appears to be declining, and I suppose this is an effort to have passengers pay for meals at specialty restaurants. Perhaps if enough of us grumblers let the cruise industry know our preferences, things may change. We are already directly paying the salaries of stewards and wait staff as a supplement to our cruise fare; now there seems to be a movement to have passengers pay the cooks as well. I love cruising and have enjoyed about 20 voyages. Yet, I find myself looking for other types of vacations because things are declining so swiftly. I'm willing to move from mainstream cruising to luxury cruising, but I will miss the large passenger base from which I meet new friends. Please join me in emailing cruise lines to let them know that many loyal passengers are disappointed with having to compromise on certain aspects of cruising that make it an enjoyable vacation.

[SailorJM]

I HEAR you! I prefer the smaller sailing cruise ships, none of which have any requirements re time to eat, where to eat or whom to sit with. Among the companies is Windstar Cruises, which has added non-sailing ships to its line. While these aren't the size of the megaships, they do offer lots of opportunities to meet many great folks. You might check them out. Look for their Star Pride, Star Breeze and Star Legend. windstarcruises.com or visit the Windstar forum under "Other Cruise Lines"

 

for the sailing tall ships, check out islandwindjammers.com, sailwindjammer.com and arabellavacations.com = Totally casually, extremely fun, very nice cabins, you don't work....just enjoy!

[George C]

I doubt you will find many vacations that are the value of cruises, food might have went down in last 40 years but it wasn't that great 35 or 40 years ago, service was. You can get a cruise starting at about 100 a day where else can you get that?? We love NYC and also AI resorts but most cost at least what a high end cabin would cost, NYC is at least the cost of a suite. We did my 57th cruise 6 months ago and food is MDR was good ( and I am picky).

[Host Jazzbeau]

There are many threads on almost all the cruise line forums about the declining quality of food in the MDR (and even in some specialty restaurants), and there are many posters who prefer set dining so that the waiters can learn their preferences and they can establish relationships with their tablemates. But the quality cuts are directly related to the cruise lines' need to keep prices low (I'll bet that what you paid for your last cruise was a bargain compared to the cost of your first cruise, inflation adjusted), and the switch to Anytime Dining was forced by passenger demand not the cruise lines (just as the watering down of dress codes was forced by passenger tastes). So you're not going to get anywhere complaining to the cruise lines about these trends.

 

But I can offer you two ideas to get at least some of what you are looking for:

(1) Smaller ships actually make it easier to meet new friends because you keep running in to the same people more often.

• Luxury Cruises are always smaller ships than the cruises you have been on. Some have fixed dining, but you can also choose Anytime Dining and tell the Maitre d' that you are happy to share a table -- voila! 6 new friends every night until you click with some and make your own table.

• River Cruises are even better for this: there are around 150 passengers on the boat and there is one fixed time for dining, so even though the seating isn't assigned you will meet most of the folks on your boat over the course of the week. We will be visiting a couple we met on a river cruise on the way home from our next trip -- how's that for making new friends?

(2) The other approach is to book early. Those early fixed seating reservations are available if you book at launch. Since you're from the US you can book with a small deposit which is fully refundable -- if the price goes down later, you get the discount; if you change your mind, you get your money back.