10/22 Oosterdam Dining Change - No, I'm not kidding...

[tspinn]

This is just not the way I want to be treated. I booked HAL because everyone raved about the service, the "traditional" dining experience, the customer care. Does HAL really care about the pax if they will do this? I have had a confirmed late seating for a year. This is my first HAL cruise, and may be the last. I won't let dining times ruin my vacation, but I do feel let down by how HAL has handled (or not) this "experiment. I have been on cruiselines with PC dining. For small groups or singles, it doesn't give the experience of getting to know your dining companions over the course of the week. I have truly enjoyed all my cruises, but what makes them special are the memories of new found friends.

 

Fellow CC'ers on the "O" see you on Sunday. We will have a lot to discuss and will toast the fine posters of CC.

 

Thanks Heavenly for letting us all know about this in advance. Imagine boarding and finding this out?

 

Tim

["Wandering Wino's&quo]

Just one last thing, I was thinking as I was packing for the cruise. We live in Southern California and Orange County and as you might expect we have a lot of restaurants opening in our area every month or at least it seems that way. After dining during the "Grand Opening Period" at several restaurants we have learned that no matter how good a restaurant might be or how wonderful the chief is, during the first few weeks and even sometimes months, you are not going to have the dining experience that you might expect. It always takes time to put everything in order. Many times these establishments will have a solf opening and send out VIP invitations to dine during this period, a discount is sometimes offered and this way the customer isn't expected to pay for the full tab while the restaurant is pulling things together. So do you think that Holland America might experience some of these difficulties during our cruise? Good chance, and had we known this was going to be the first of HAL's Open Seating Tests, do you think we might have given it some thought? So I guess the issue really comes down to not being given the information so we could make a choice, the choice was made for us. Keep your fingers crossed, I really want to have a big smile on my face on the 29th. Thanks for everyone well wishes.

[heavenly]

This is just not the way I want to be treated. I booked HAL because everyone raved about the service, the "traditional" dining experience, the customer care. Does HAL really care about the pax if they will do this? I have had a confirmed late seating for a year. This is my first HAL cruise, and may be the last. I won't let dining times ruin my vacation, but I do feel let down by how HAL has handled (or not) this "experiment. I have been on cruiselines with PC dining. For small groups or singles, it doesn't give the experience of getting to know your dining companions over the course of the week. I have truly enjoyed all my cruises, but what makes them special are the memories of new found friends.

 

Fellow CC'ers on the "O" see you on Sunday. We will have a lot to discuss and will toast the fine posters of CC.

 

Thanks Heavenly for letting us all know about this in advance. Imagine boarding and finding this out?

 

Tim

 

You are so very welcome Tim, that is the reason I posted. LOL I was typing that first post as I was talking to her on the phone.;) See y'all on Sunday!

[stanford's girl]

I have thought about this "test" all day long and I have decided to run my own little test. I'm not going to let HAL know about it in advance, I'm just going to spring it on them and then wait for their feedback.;)

I am going to wear shorts, a tank top, and flip flops every night in the dining room. The heck with formal night!! If they want to throw out my confirmed dining time, why should I even bother to dress up? Obviously tradition is something that HAL wants to do away with so I will be more than happy to help them achieve this.:rolleyes:

And this will definitely streamline my packing tonight.:D

[cdkempton]

As sad as this makes me for you all sailing this Saturday, I hope some good comes from it and the whole idea is dumped overboard. We too tried free style with NCL and did not like the dinning at all. We longed for our set seating table and time. It was not enjoyable to us to have a new waiter each night and have to wait sometimes for long periods between courses because our waiter was busy taking orders from one table, while serving dessert to another. It was very confusing to us and we couldn't be happier waiting for our Christmas cruise on the Ryndam. I'm feeling that this experiment will not spread to the Ryndam in the near future. (I say with fingers and toes crossed.)

If HAL wanted to try this "little test" why did it have to occur so suddenly?? Why couldn't they have planned it further out with fair warning. I'm sure a lot of people would have booked elsewhere to avoid this confusion.

If HAL spreads this dining debacle across the fleet, we will find alternative cruising or vacationing plans.

 

PLEASE SAY IT WON'T BE SO...... ARE YOU LISTENING, HAL????????

[Cruiseoften]

All I can say to this, and all the other recent changes on HAL, I am sure glad we have cruised when we did! Have seen so many changes since '67 when we first started cruising and have been able to accept the changes until this past year or so with HAL. It is no longer the cruise line we wish to cruise on --perhaps one more cruise or so -- and that's it.

 

Too bad it is no longer an upscale Line but one now in the mass market of cruising! So much for their "Tradition of Excellence"!!!

 

Like LizB1 we're very glad we've cruised as often as we have - closing in on 100,000 miles, long time Mariners, the more we hear about the changes the less interested we are in cruising HAL. Perhaps that's what HAL wants.

 

Mariners outnumber new comers and those 'Captain's Receptions' cost money! ;) Think of what HAL would save!

 

There's no way we want to eat dinner around 5.30 - anyway it's not feasible on shore days. Nothing booked at the moment but we'll be keeping watch on this board and asking many questions before we make another reservation - there is more than HAL out there.........

[Guest Celestia]

Anything is possible when you slip the right person a couple of bills...

;)

 

But this is a ridiculous way to do business. Seriously. I should not have to slip the maitre'd (or anyone else for that matter) 'a couple of bills' to receive a service or consideration or style of dining that one would normally expect to be provided in the fare....and the folks who booked this upcoming cruise did so believing they were going to have tradtional dining at set dining times.

 

We *do* tip extra, when extra service or consideration has been provided. But I will not stoop to bribery. I have worked in service industries much of my life, and yes, the person you slip those couple of bills to *does* know darn good and well you are bribing them for special consideration.

 

Part of the reason we like cruising is that the costs are essentially a 'controlled' amount. We know in advance how much we're taking for tipping, and beverage purchases. We do not gamble. We have a set amount for purchases on-shore and in the shops. We do not exceed these amounts - we simply cannot afford to do so.

 

One of the big headaches of land vacations is constantly budgeting for meals - I have no interest in having to bribe for a decent table, dining time or as someone suggested, eventually paying per-meal... cruising takes away that worry from us, and gives us a real vacation.

 

FW&FS,

 

Celestia

[mechcc]

If HAL wanted to try this "little test" why did it have to occur so suddenly?? Why couldn't they have planned it further out with fair warning. I'm sure a lot of people would have booked elsewhere to avoid this confusion.

If HAL spreads this dining debacle across the fleet, we will find alternative cruising or vacationing plans.

 

PLEASE SAY IT WON'T BE SO...... ARE YOU LISTENING, HAL????????

 

Actually, it may be a good thing that HAL didn't plan it out and publish it. I'm sure they would have attracted more guests who like the personal choice dining and get a more favorable response to their test. Now with surprising passengers they are going to get more negative feedback. Hopefully.

[Guest Celestia]

Anything is possible when you slip the right person a couple of bills...

;)

 

But this is a ridiculous way to do business. Seriously. I should not have to slip the maitre'd (or anyone else for that matter) 'a couple of bills' to receive a service or consideration or style of dining that one would normally expect to be provided in the fare....and the folks who booked this upcoming cruise did so believing they were going to have tradtional dining at set dining times.

 

We *do* tip extra, when extra service or consideration has been provided. But I will not stoop to bribery. I have worked in service industries much of my life, and yes, the person you slip those couple of bills to *does* know darn good and well you are bribing them for special consideration.

 

Part of the reason we like cruising is that the costs are essentially a 'controlled' amount. We know in advance how much we're taking for tipping, and beverage purchases. We do not gamble. We have a set amount for purchases on-shore and in the shops. We do not exceed these amounts - we simply cannot afford to do so.

 

One of the big headaches of land vacations is constantly budgeting for meals - I have no interest in having to bribe for a decent table, dining time or as someone suggested, eventually paying per-meal... cruising takes away that worry from us, and gives us a real vacation.

 

FW&FS,

 

Celestia

[sevigny]

I don't post very often, since it's hard to wrestle the computer away from my husband. We have travelled almost exclusively with HAL for over 10 years. We've logged over 20 cruises with them, from 7 day spring breaks to transatlantics to a repositioning. Why do we choose HAL repeatedly? Because we like the tradition, we like our table for two by the railing, we like our 8:00 dining time, and before they went to four seatings ( which I never really have cared for), we liked the 8:15 to 8:30 time. We went thru the four seatings, we went thru the tipping issue, but this is the last straw. Why does HAL seemingly persist in trying to alienate its biggest customer base? Why does HAL have to become like NCL or Princess? I really don't get it. Why must they be everything to everyone? Why not concentrate on pleasing your core customers - the ones that want to come back to you every year or more, because they like what you do. Why not concentrate on trying to do what HAL has traditionally done best - providing a refined, yet easy going cruise experience where you enjoy meeting and being with the same waiters every night. There have been some nights when I've felt too tired to go down to the dining room, or not wanted to get dressed up - but that's part of the HAL experience. Each time my husband would say, but Robbie is waiting, and I would get dressed, and enjoy dinner in the dining room. If some travelers want "personal choice" dining, let them go to Princess. There are plenty of us out there who want to enjoy the traditional HAL cruise, not something that seems to be constantly changing, and not for the better.

As for using this next sailing as unknowing guinea pigs for this "test", if I were on this ship, I would be livid. Already, just hearing about what they are doing to these passengers, is making my blood pressure soar. Some of these passengers can only cruise once a year - and yes, every aspect of the cruise is important to them. Taking away previously made dining arrangements is improper and downright asinine in my opinion. Just the thought of half the ship trying to get into the dining room at 7:30, especially in the narrow hallways of the Oosterdam, makes me wonder what they were smoking when they thought of this one! I pity the poor maitre d' and captains, as they try to arrange everyone's seating to their satisfaction. It's difficult enough on the first day with assigned seating! What's even more interesting, is that the agent I deal with, whose agency is one of the centurion or whatever top agencies with HAL, had absolutely no idea this was going on! When I called her today, she immediately got on the phone with her sales rep, and I heard most of her conversation. When the rep asked if there was any feedback on this, I said to the agent, "oh please, let me give her some feedback!" She was actually grateful they had very few clients on this trip, so that she wouldn't have to hear the reaction afterwards. Just my opinion, but I truly can't understand why HAL seems to keep trying to kick themselves - don't they realize it will hurt them eventually?

[cruznon]

Our Oosterdam experience was so wonderful in Feb. We love traditional dining ! We specifically chose HAL because of it's reputation for traditional cruising.

It seems incredibly unfair to"test" new dining times/options without notification to paying pax. Just imagine the hundreds of pax who still have no idea what awaits them at dinner in a few days. I also feel badly for the dining room staff who'll have to deal with some disappointed pax. After the mass cancellation of late seating on the Oosterdam this past week, I can't believe this is the next move. I would be very unhappy if I encountered this "test" on my cruise.

[cruznon]

duplicate post

[Venture]

I hope it was not Mr. Potts who made the decision to limit 'The Rosario Strings' to 30 minute sets on formal nights only in the beautiful dining room and replaced them on the remaining days with a player piano !!

 

I hope it was not Mr. Potts who made the decision to steal wonderful open deck space for an enlarged forward spa and a teen waterfall aft!!

 

It would not be too much of a surprise that HAL are now in preparation of designing new vessels. A senior deck officer indicated to me, on a recent HAL cruise, that they are looking at a 'full size' vista class design hull- the same hull size as Carnival Spirit. They could be considering two dining rooms- one for open seating and the other for those of us who prefer set seating and times.

[julia]

We've done the freestyle dining on Princess and found we had mixed feelings about it. While the flexibilty was nice, it really did not make for a pleasant and relaxing dining experience. But, with that said, we at least KNEW what we were getting upon booking, as opposed to this being sprung upon already booked passengers boarding the Oosterdam on Saturday.

 

As the previous poster stated.... why not create two dining rooms... one with set times, and one with open times. The Oosterdam essentially already HAS two dining rooms... upper and lower, and each has it's own entrance. Why not just separate the two and give passengers their choice?

[tumeroll]

HAL is looking to where the growth in the industry lies. No business can remain stagnant. It is not just families that want something more easy-going than HAL traditional. There is a large just retired/about-to-retire market that has the disposable income and the time to find luxury and upper-end mass market cruising a perfect vacation.

 

But if our friends are any indication, HAL is not getting its share of those new cruisers. Our friends all want the same thing- 4-5 star service and food, an elegant quality adult atmosphere, open seat dining and country club casual/resort dress.

 

From what I have observed most people's idea of country club/resort casual comes from places like "Big Bobs rustic cabin resort" not the likes of the Greenbrier, the Homestead or the Balsam's. Real country club casual still calls for a blazer and fine shirt and linen slacks. Not jeans and a flannel shirt. The folks that sail on HAL know the difference and want to keep to the real traditional style of dining and attire. Just becasue the "new" folks have lots of money does not mean they really "know" the proper way of traditional cruising.

[MBeamTX]

HAL wants the family cruiser because that's where the money is. I'd be willing to bet a lot of those family cruisers ... especially those doing Alaska or Caribbean itineraries ... have been screaming for these options for quite a while. If the family could eat whenever they wished (within certain parameters) mom and dad could go to the dining room with the kids, instead of having to take the kids to dinner in the Lido earlier ...

 

And that's exactly why I don't want to sail on a ship that is primarily geared to open dinner seating. If I had to be surrounded by families trying to cajole or threaten their rugrats into behaving long enough to get through a four-course dinner, I'd slit my wrists. A multi-course dinner is not the best choice for smaller children. Why do some people want to pretend otherwise? Take the kids to the Lido or leave them home. (Guess which one I strongly urge?)

 

Curmudgeonly yours,

Susan

[dougnewmanatsea]

Don't Crystal, Radisson, Silversea, and Oceania- the cruiselines I consider in the luxury class- all have open seating dining.

This is true of those lines you mentioned except Crystal, who have traditional two-seating dining.

 

Now, I still think I'd prefer traditional dining (and yes I do know people who avoid lines like Silversea because they don't like open seating) but personally I'd give it a try on Silversea, Seabourn, RSSC, Oceania or similar, at least to see what I think.

 

However it is important to note that all of these ships are, first, fairly small (the biggest are about the size of PRINSENDAM in terms of capacity), and second, are designed with open seating in mind. Generally, they have lots of small tables (for two and four), large dining rooms which can accomodate more than half (but usually not all) passengers at one time, and in the case of the larger vessels, several alternative restaurants (for example the Oceania ships have four restaurants; the Vista-class ships have only three but carry more than three times as many passengers). HAL's ships have none of these characteristics, which to me is a very important difference between these lines and HAL.

 

Even NCL ships - the new ones designed for Freestyle - are of a very different design from ships like HAL's. They are large - larger than HAL ships - but they give over a lot of space to restaurants (and have many alternative restaurants) because their designers anticipated that most of the passengers would want to be eating dinner at some point within a two or three hour time frame, so a lot more space would have to be given over to dining than on a traditional two-seating ship. Ships like HAL's are not designed with this expectation, and that makes a big difference. (I know a lot of people who have been both on NCL ships designed, like HAL's, for two seating dining and those designed for Freestyle, and they pretty universally agree that Freestyle works much better on the specially-designed ships - which is only logical, really.)

 

According the Ship Services, it is truly open.

In this case, well, it sounds like a disaster.

 

To be honest I do not really have trouble with Princess-style Personal Choice where one can choose to have traditional dining at a normal time (not 5:30) if one so desires - mind you, I don't necessarily think it's the way for HAL to go, but if they did it it would not deter me from choosing HAL.

 

On the other hand, if they do do what you describe - traditional seating at 5:30, and then open seating from 7:30 on - I honestly can say that as much as I love HAL, their days as my line of choice would be over. I'm not saying I'd never sail them - I'm open to just about any cruise line or ship - but would they be my first choice? No, not any longer. To me this really does seem to be a "worst of both worlds" situation, and I cannot imagine many people being happy with it. For this reason I'm optimistic that this pilot program will not be a success, and they'll either go back to what they've been doing, or come up with something else. Indeed, Princess' Personal Choice system would seem greatly superior to this proposal - those who wish to have traditional dining need not eat as early as 5:30, and those who like open seating wouldn't have to wait until 7:30 or later.

 

So notwithstanding my reservations about open seating on ships designed for two seatings - it does seem to work fairly well on Princess, admittedly - I still think this is pretty much the worst possible solution. If HAL really want to go Personal Choice, they should do it like Princess, offering traditional dining on one level of the dining room (normal 6:15 and 8:30 seatings) and open seating (from, say, 5:30 to 10:00) on the other. I don't see why this couldn't work for HAL if it works for Princess, and it seems much preferable to what is apparently going to be tried.

 

I wonder if people are filing out comment cards requesting this, or if Carnival has decided to "Princessize" HAL.

It could be comment cards, or it could be a "bright idea" in Seattle, but I doubt this is coming from Carnival.

 

Yes, whenever we see something we don't like at HAL, the blame usual goes to Carnival... But most of the changes we've seen at HAL in past years, for better or for worse, have been dreamed up in Seattle, not Miami. I doubt this is any different.

 

Does anyone know if they are making any changes on Carnival to the dinning arrangements?

I would say no, except that I didn't think they were making any changes at HAL either!

 

I know what they are doing is horrible, that is why I quite lurking and posted when I found out, I didn't want everyone to get hit upside the head with it when they boarded.

Well, I for one am glad you did come out of lurkerdom to post this and hope you stay!

 

And please don't feel bad that some people didn't believe this at first... Many of us do tend to err on the side of skepticism considering the number of false rumors we've seen over the years, but obviously this one is real - and unfortunate. Thanks for letting us know about it.

 

It may well be that Herr Kruse used to be with Princess ...

Mr. Kruse was previously with RSSC. (Yes, they have open seating... Read into that what you like.)

 

Personally I think most of the previous changes he has made have been positive - but this one, well... Not. However, everyone who comes up with good ideas comes up with not-so-good ones too. Hopefully HAL will see that this one is not so good and abandon it.

 

That said, I do feel sorry for those on this cruise who have had their previous dining reservations obliterated. At the very least, if one asks to have ones old reservation reinstated, then that should be possible. Even on Princess and NCL it is possible to reserve the same table at the same time every night if one wishes to do so. I certainly hope that when these passengers board, if they go to the maitre d' to ask to have a specific table and time, that this request will be honored, as it would be even on lines which already have open seating, like NCL.

[terrascape]

HAL, Seattle - you can add us to the list of disappointed HAL cruisers that you would pull this type of a stunt. We have only returned to cruising three years ago after a ten year absence. Since then we have enjoyed 8 HAL cruises. Yes - fixed dining times, same tablemates for the entire cruise etc etc. Having the option of the main dining room, the Lido, or the P. Grill is more than enough choices for us. Would this change in dining be a "deal-breaker" for us? I don't know, but it certainly brings us a step closer to trying "X".

One thought that maybe HAL is trying this on a seven day Mexican Riviera cruise where there may tend to be somewhat more younger families cruising and more people new to HAL and the whole cruising life style. Maybe they think this group may be more agreeable to these changes, where if they tried this on a "Rotterdam" or "Amsterdam" cruise it may get blown out of the water immediately. Let us hope that enough comments are made to Mr. Potts, that HAL will go back to the drawing boards - and maybe try to design something more traditional in keeping with their long history of traditional cruising. We will be on the Volendam next month, and I will be sure to include my feelings on this "trial", when the comment cards come around - even though there are currently no plans to include any other of the ships -- yet.

[PSR]

We were really looking forward to this cruise. We have had a very stressful last 6 months. Death in the family, job layoff, spouse's parent injury, etc. and were looking forward to the "structure" of our traditional dining on the Oosterdam as one stabilizing feature of our long awaited cruise on 10/22. Now, we have"open dining" instead of our table for 2, which was one of our highlights on HAL. Now, every night will be like the first night at a table >2. We have to deal every day as part of our job with conversing with strangers and we do not enjoy it. We have been on other cruise lines, and even though we have 100+ days with HAL, this may be the final straw, especially since some of the newer RCI ships have wrap around decks. We prefer set dining times and the same tablemates/servers each night. And we do like to dress up for dinner!

 

Penny

[stanford's girl]

We were really looking forward to this cruise. We have had a very stressful last 6 months. Death in the family, job layoff, spouse's parent injury, etc. and were looking forward to the "structure" of our traditional dining on the Oosterdam as one stabilizing feature of our long awaited cruise on 10/22. Now, we have"open dining" instead of our table for 2, which was one of our highlights on HAL. Now, every night will be like the first night at a table >2. We have to deal every day as part of our job with conversing with strangers and we do not enjoy it. We have been on other cruise lines, and even though we have 100+ days with HAL, this may be the final straw, especially since some of the newer RCI ships have wrap around decks. We prefer set dining times and the same tablemates/servers each night. And we do like to dress up for dinner!

 

Penny

Penny,

A group of CCer's are meeting in the Crow's Nest on Sunday at 11 am. We'd love for you to stop in and say Hi. I'm sure we all will find one thing in common that we can talk about.;) Hope to see you there.

[kryos]

We were really looking forward to this cruise. We have had a very stressful last 6 months. Death in the family, job layoff, spouse's parent injury, etc. and were looking forward to the "structure" of our traditional dining on the Oosterdam as one stabilizing feature of our long awaited cruise on 10/22. Now, we have"open dining" instead of our table for 2, which was one of our highlights on HAL. Now, every night will be like the first night at a table >2. We have to deal every day as part of our job with conversing with strangers and we do not enjoy it. We have been on other cruise lines, and even though we have 100+ days with HAL, this may be the final straw, especially since some of the newer RCI ships have wrap around decks. We prefer set dining times and the same tablemates/servers each night. And we do like to dress up for dinner!

I don't think anyone has actually determined that anytime dining will be casual attire every night, have they? I don't think that will work out on HAL very well since the dress code is the standard for the entire evening, not just for dinner. Anyone dining casual would have to go and put on their formal attire after eating if they wanted to remain on the main decks (anything but the Lido deck) after dinner. So, what would be the point of casual dining? I'm thinking that the anytime dining option on HAL will probablly follow the same dress code as the traditional dining room.

 

Also, why can't you get a table for two in anytime dining? I was under the impression you could do that ... and could even make a standing reservation for the same time every night of the cruise.

 

In actuality, anytime dining is not that bad from what I understand. You can readily turn it into traditional dining by just requesting the same table for the week ... at the same time. Wala ... anytime becomes traditional.

 

At least that's how it is on Princess.

 

Blue skies ...

 

--rita

[LoveLifeAtSea]

After digesting all of this and thinking more about it, I have to say that I'm not totally against 'Leisure Dining', but I AM against the times they have set up. I think everyone should dine as they please, but THAT's MY POINT! "I", not only prefer Traditional Dining, but more importantly, I prefer Traditional Dining at 8:00 pm. In order for me to dine traditionally, doing so at 5:30 is not at all anything "I" would enjoy and will not do.

 

It just seems that in order to satisfy those who prefer Leisure Dining, those of us who prefer Traditional Dining should not have to compromise what makes our cruises so special. My objection is giving up the time I like to dine. I have made some very special, long lasting friendships which began at the dining table. In addition to new friendships, I always enjoy interacting with my waiter and busboy. And quite frankly, I think they enjoy that as well.

 

Another point brought out by so many others already that I really hope HAL gives some very serious thought to is maintaining (and yes, trying to enforce as much as possible) the dress code already in place. HAL has always been known for it's elegance. Once they allow their dress code to change, then their reputation for elegance is bound to slip and possibly deminish.

 

One other thought came to me that has me questioning "Why Not?". Do any of you remember . . . BEFORE HAL changed their 'No Tipping Required' policy . . . that they emailed us a questionnaire with multiple choices as to what our preferences would be. They explained that they were entertaining the idea of changing their policy and wanted our feedback. I'm assuming the email list was derived from their Mariner list. Why didn't they ask for feedback from the Mariners on this issue? At least that way we could have injected some other ideas.

 

I hope HAL is reading this board and taking in our feedback and will look for ways of satisfying what they are trying to accomplish, while not taking away what we have come to love about cruising onboard their ships.

[Grumpy1]

I think that it is very important that everyone that is sailing on ANY HAL ship in the near future take the time to make a note on the comment card about how much the traditional dining and your choice of dining time means to you. Let them know that not being able to book dining time and table size in advance will cause you to look at other cruiselines in the future.

[KAKcruiser]

Are we sure it is only the Oosterdam that is going to be affected this week? I noticed that the Volendam has the late seating available at both times for October 26 on the HAL website.

[kryos]

Are we sure it is only the Oosterdam that is going to be affected this week? I noticed that the Volendam has the late seating available at both times for October 26 on the HAL website.

My Amsterdam cruise has the late seating still available too ... at least the last time I checked it did. It's the early seating that is all booked up.

 

I have a feeling that this "experiment" might only be to determine if this "Leisure Dining" concept is something that can be phased in on the Vista Class ships only. Would the other ships have the dining room facilities to even offer this?

 

I have a feeling ... but I could be talking out of my you know what here ... that "Leisure Dining" will only be something that has a chance of being embraced on the larger ships that do more "family style" itineraries ... Alaska and the Caribbean ... since it would be primarily families that might take to this idea.

 

Blue skies ...

 

--rita