5:30 Dining

[ldubs]

 

When just Mrs Ldubs and I take a cruise, we opt for the flex dining.  But when we travel with a group, which is most cruises, they like the planning convenience of the fixed dining.  I'm sure the planners will opt for the early seating.  I always  kind of groused at a 6 pm seating.  Looks like I'll be eating dinner at 5:30 for our cruise in April on Jewel.  I will enjoy (I always do), but it just seems kind of like the early bird special.  

 

I know the 5:30 seating isn't new.  Now I'm curious why the time moved to 5:30.  I would suspect the change would only be made due to popular demand.  Must be that a large number of folks really like to eat dinner that early.

 

 

[cruiseguy1016]

We typically eat around 5:30 at home so we have always booked the early seating on the ship so our schedule doesn't get thrown off too far. The problem with dining early is that (1) sometimes you have to rush back from shore to get ready for dinner and (2) we almost always miss sail away.

[Clarea]

11 minutes ago, ldubs said:

 

When just Mrs Ldubs and I take a cruise, we opt for the flex dining.  But when we travel with a group, which is most cruises, they like the planning convenience of the fixed dining.  I'm sure the planners will opt for the early seating.  I always  kind of groused at a 6 pm seating.  Looks like I'll be eating dinner at 5:30 for our cruise in April on Jewel.  I will enjoy (I always do), but it just seems kind of like the early bird special.  

 

I know the 5:30 seating isn't new.  Now I'm curious why the time moved to 5:30.  I would suspect the change would only be made due to popular demand.  Must be that a large number of folks really like to eat dinner that early.

 

 

 

Royal has not commented on the move to earlier fixed dining times.  I've always suspected that it somehow helps the MTD process, but have never figured out that relationship.

[Ashland]

We do MTD usually around 6:00pm (if we want to eat in the dining room) and this works great for us even if we're sailing alone or with extended family. And we easily do this without reservations...we like to be flexible all part of being on vacation...but the WJ has become our go to place for dinner most (95%) of the time now.

[misty57]

It makes it easier to get to the early seating for shows. We pull up the sidewalk by 10-11pm so that works for us. 

[Williamsburgcruiser]

I agree with the poster who said that it accommodates MTD - we saw that on Anthem this past October.  Our dining was 5:30 - and if you weren't at the table by 5:45, they released it to MTD.  In my opinon, that really threw off the wait staff, as their "schedule" and "flow" of handling the set diners got messed up when new people started showing up halfway through the seating.

 

We roll up the sidewalks too after the early show, as we're early birds in the morning, and love the walk around the ship before everyone else gets up.

 

Happy sailing!

[wildcat46]

I always liked the 6:00 pm time and was not happy when I noticed it was changed to 5:30.  But, hey the new 5:30 pm time gives me a little more time to digest and be ready for the late evening meal that inevitably occurs.  I'll be on a cruise so no sense fretting about things.  Theirs always a  positive take if I look hard enough.

 

Can anyone tell me howto get those dumb previous sailings out of my signature?

Edited February 26, 2019 by wildcat46

[ldubs]

7 hours ago, wildcat46 said:

 I'll be on a cruise so no sense fretting about things.  Theirs always a  positive take if I look hard enough.

 

 

Yep, definable a "high class problem".   haha

[Grandma Petania]

9 hours ago, Host Clarea said:

 

Royal has not commented on the move to earlier fixed dining times.  I've always suspected that it somehow helps the MTD process, but have never figured out that relationship.

 

My daughter and I have chosen MTD at 5:15 or 5:30 on our last few cruises.  That way we can have a leisurely dinner and still have time to go to an evening show.  In our experience, we are usually finished by 6:45 or 7:00.  As we leave, we see people checking in for dinner.  It seems to me that most tables could be filled three times in an evening.

[Thorben-Hendrik]

10 hours ago, ldubs said:

I would suspect the change would only be made due to popular demand.  

They found people eat too much if they are actually hungry! 😱🤣

[tinkr2]

We are late eaters but I have never understood how people made 6 on port days and now you are saying its 530. That seems crazy to me. and that is definitely the early bird special... or a late lunch for us.

[sellwingri]

Im currently on Jewel.  I was excited to see that my set dining time was 6pm, instead of the 5:30pm as has been the case on the majority of my cruises in the past couple of years.  Unfortunately, my reservation was wrong and it is indeed at 5:30pm.  We’re fine with it but were looking forward to that extra 30 minutes.

[Wine-O]

We're on Jewel TA 29 March, and early dining is 5:30pm, and for the B2B 12 April Med cruise, early dining is 6:00pm.  When is your sailing?  I'm surprised they are going back to 5:30 as most Med cruises we've been on have been at 6:00pm.

[ldubs]

57 minutes ago, Wine-O said:

We're on Jewel TA 29 March, and early dining is 5:30pm, and for the B2B 12 April Med cruise, early dining is 6:00pm.  When is your sailing?  I'm surprised they are going back to 5:30 as most Med cruises we've been on have been at 6:00pm.

 

Uummmm, I made a slight error.  😳

 

We are on Jewel Apr 23rd, but that isn't where we have 5:30 dining.  For our April cruise on Jewel it is just Mrs Ldubs and I and we have the MTD dining.   

 

The 5:30 fixed dining is on Quantum out of Singapore Jan 2020.  It is a short cruise we are tacking on to the back of a land trip to Hong Kong & Philippines.  

 

Sorry about that.  Honest mistake anyone could make, right?  I mean one is Med and other is Asia.  One starts with "J" and other starts with "Q".  One is in 56 days and other is in 2020.  I claim "senior-itis". 

Edited February 27, 2019 by ldubs
Typo

[The Fun Researcher]

5:30 is MUCH better than the alternative 8pm fixed dining time for us.  8 is far too late.  

 

However, even though we typically eat around 5:30pm at home, it does feel really early on a ship.  It can cramp the afternoon festivities, especially when going back to the room to change, shower, etc...

 

With My Time Dining, we do like to find a good pair of wait staff and table, and try to stick with them for the remainder of the cruise.  This provides us a good table and staff, with the flexibility to adjust dinner times if we have to.   However, in this situation you are typically no better off either, because in order to hold a specific a table you still need to show up early (5:15-5:45ish) so that you don't bump into the passengers that will need that table for later seatings.

 

Dan

[sparks1093]

I figure by the time we get seated and the orders are placed we'll actually start eating around 6. The only port day we'll miss in the MDR is when we're in Port Canaveral but then we'd likely miss the 8pm dining in that port anyway.

[ShillyShally]

We eat earlier at home BUT I refuse to miss sunset and that always seems to happen if I go with early seating.  I know I could try MTD and may one day, or just do WJ which we do sometimes too but for now we stick with late seating and it works while on vacation when I pretend I can still hang out late 🙂  Now that it's 5:30 though it just screams early, our sweet spot is 7PM which is also super popular for MTD so I'd rather just stay with late seating or WJ and go with the mood of the day.

[rncruiser]

At home we usually eat at 7-7:15. We had early seating in our last cruise and thought we would hate it. It actually wasn’t that bad because we had more time for evening activities. On our previous cruise on Allure we had MTD and usuasoate around 7. By the time we finished with dinner, it was time for a show. After that we were too tired for much of anything else. This time on Allure we found we had more time to enjoy the various music venues around the ship prior to bedtime. 

[ONECRUISER]

21 hours ago, wildcat46 said:

I always liked the 6:00 pm time and was not happy when I noticed it was changed to 5:30.  But, hey the new 5:30 pm time gives me a little more time to digest and be ready for the late evening meal that inevitably occurs.  I'll be on a cruise so no sense fretting about things.  Theirs always a  positive take if I look hard enough.

 

Can anyone tell me howto get those dumb previous sailings out of my signature?

I do B2B2B all the times, sometimes early is 5:30 then next cruise it's 6pm. Even boarded ship and was changed that day. More and more they are earlier. Last couple years 2-3 shows on my sailings are now in middle of Early and Late Dining as they combine them as less are going to the Main Shows...

[The Fun Researcher]

28 minutes ago, ONECRUISER said:

 Last couple years 2-3 shows on my sailings are now in middle of Early and Late Dining as they combine them as less are going to the Main Shows...

 

Well, there will absolutely be less people at shows if they put shows at times where everyone eating in the MDR is going to overlap the show!  :)

 

Dan

[ONECRUISER]

19 minutes ago, The Fun Researcher said:

 

Well, there will absolutely be less people at shows if they put shows at times where everyone eating in the MDR is going to overlap the show!  🙂

 

Dan

Good point. In old days late Dinner ended at 1030pm with Late Show at 10:45pm. Now they eat after the show

Edited February 27, 2019 by ONECRUISER

[prodoc]

My group is traveling on b2b cruises on Serenade of the Seas in June.  Our early traditional dining is set for 6 p.m. on that ship.  I guess it depends on which ship you are on.

Penny