Is this the new trend?

[parrotfeathers]

I miss the waiter coming by with the big platter of bread.  Gosh I love those poppy seed rolls.  I do miss the dessert being ordered after the meal.  It's not that I can't adapt; it's just that it's not the cruising experience it used to be.  That's life.

[smplybcause]

30 minutes ago, J0Y0US said:

 

Everything you described is self inflicted by Royal. 

 

Also there are places that sit every seat in the place upon opening. You will find this occurring at places like dinner theater where everyone shows up for dinner prior to the show at the same time. 

 

You also find this every weekend at weddings and such. 

 

As an example with Disney they started doing 3 arrival times for both early and late dining. Royal could do that as well do spread out sittings. 

 

You mean dinner shows where a) the entire service is much longer and b) there's a set break built in to ask about dessert and c) most have a much smaller menu than royal has. 

 

I've never been to a wedding that had a menu where I picked it when I sat down. Everyone had the same app/salad, you choose your main ahead of time, and dessert was either the same or a self serve bar. Oh and it was like 3 mains not the 6+ royal offers. So, again, not the same. 

 

Does Disney do any time dining? But honestly I don't think that would help as much as you think. Especially if they refuse to turn people away. There were several nights on my last cruise we were practically running to get to the show - if I got stuck with the last of the hypothetical late seating we never would have made the shows.

[smplybcause]

14 minutes ago, parrotfeathers said:

I miss the waiter coming by with the big platter of bread.  Gosh I love those poppy seed rolls.  I do miss the dessert being ordered after the meal.  It's not that I can't adapt; it's just that it's not the cruising experience it used to be.  That's life.

 

Psst just ask what rolls you like in the basket. Assuming they still make it. We asked for the cheese rolls because that's what we love and we were over flowing with them from then on. 

[mek]

1 hour ago, la_croisiere_s'amuse said:

Well, nothing will prevent you from asking. 🙂 But like it or not, the entire cruise industry is short staffed right now. They may or may not be able to accommodate your request, but if so, it may mean you're kept waiting quite a bit longer.

 

Bottom line, this is probably not the best time to be cruising for passengers with a lower threshold for adapting, rolling with the punches and going with the flow.

It would be a polite request - certainly not rude or demanding; however, you are correct about probably not the best time to cruise with lower expectations.  I'm only taking my October cruise because I booked it late 2019 - long before Covid with a NRD, and I have postponed it 3x and I'm frankly at the point where I just want to go and make the best of it.  That more than likely means it will be my last cruise until things get back to a pre covid experience - realizing that may never happen.  And I'm OK with that.

[mek]

58 minutes ago, CoolChange37 said:

I can tell you that we have been on three cruises in the last 6 months and many cruises lines have moved to the iPad mode where they take your card every time you do something - order a drink, show up for a meal, show up for a show, etc.   They know where you are every second so they know who you've been around in case someone gets Covid.  Unless they are doing the bracelet thing like MSC.   They know where you are, even if you don't know where they are.   😳

Do they scan your card when you are in the Windjammer?

[billslowsky]

3 hours ago, MLP12 said:

Just back from sailing on Harmony.   When I went to the dining room the first night, I stood at the entrance waiting to be seated.  No one ever did greet me or escort me to my table.  This was throughout the entire cruise.  The first night people had to walk around searching for their table.  I have been on 23 cruises and this is the first time ever that I was not greeted and shown to my table. I had traditional seating.   Is this the new trend?  Also, when did they do away with the dessert menu?  You are asked to order dessert at the same time you order your main course and the starter and the appetizers are delivered at the same time instead of separate courses.  I am beginning to miss the decorum of cruising in the past.  

The horror.  Next you know, they'll serve riff raff not wearing tuxedos on formal night.

[ONECRUISER]

39 minutes ago, parrotfeathers said:

I miss the waiter coming by with the big platter of bread.  Gosh I love those poppy seed rolls.  I do miss the dessert being ordered after the meal.  It's not that I can't adapt; it's just that it's not the cruising experience it used to be.  That's life.

Had my Daughter & Grand Daughter with me last Month. We all like the Cheese Rolls so waiting every nite a Basket of only Cheese Rolls, this for next 3 wks. 

[Jimbo]

2 hours ago, taglovestocruise said:

One of the first things we do after boarding is to visit the MDR and find our table.  Easy to make a switch if we don't like the location or table size. After that you just walk in and seat yourself every night.  First stop is to make any Specialty reservations.

x1    We have always done that too on every cruise we have every been on.

[Jimbo]

19 minutes ago, mek said:

It would be a polite request - certainly not rude or demanding; however, you are correct about probably not the best time to cruise with lower expectations.  I'm only taking my October cruise because I booked it late 2019 - long before Covid with a NRD, and I have postponed it 3x and I'm frankly at the point where I just want to go and make the best of it.  That more than likely means it will be my last cruise until things get back to a pre covid experience - realizing that may never happen.  And I'm OK with that.

We have a cruise like that too, postponed a few times non refundable fully paid for. That will most likely be our next cruise and final cruise. We are okay with that too. plenty of other things to spend our money on now and make us happy. The last 2 and half years we have learned we don't need a cruise ship to make us happy. 🙂

[ONECRUISER]

8 minutes ago, mek said:

Do they scan your card when you are in the Windjammer?

They didn't on my recent Royal Cruises...or at the Shows, Main Dining, ect. Besides the Sweater I Bought my Grand Daughter the only place My Card was scanned in 4wks was Beginning and end of each of my Cruises

[Jimbo]

2 minutes ago, ONECRUISER said:

They didn't on my recent Royal Cruises...or at the Shows, Main Dining, ect. Besides the Sweater I Bought my Grand Daughter the only place My Card was scanned in 4wks was Beginning and end of each of my Cruises

Don't they still scan your card when you get on and off at each port?

[ONECRUISER]

1 minute ago, Jimbo said:

Don't they still scan your card when you get on and off at each port?

Didn't get off 😎  ...thought someone would ask

[Jimbo]

2 minutes ago, ONECRUISER said:

Didn't get off 😎  ...thought someone would ask

for 4 weeks? you sure you aren't the captain?

[shof515]

1 hour ago, CoolChange37 said:

I can tell you that we have been on three cruises in the last 6 months and many cruises lines have moved to the iPad mode where they take your card every time you do something - order a drink, show up for a meal, show up for a show, etc.   They know where you are every second so they know who you've been around in case someone gets Covid.  Unless they are doing the bracelet thing like MSC.   They know where you are, even if you don't know where they are.   😳

from my understanding on sailing on other cruise lines. at the mdr they scan your card so they know how to assign your daily gratuity to the correct wait staff, scanning at the shows shows if you have a reservation or not

[ONECRUISER]

19 minutes ago, Jimbo said:

for 4 weeks? you sure you aren't the captain?

Nope! Just enjoy having Ship to myself on Port Days. Twice a Day Walk the Ship every Deck Top to Bottom and back up, Read, Chat online, Watch Passengers Leaving/Returning and other Ships & Boats from my Balcony. 30+ yrs going same Ports, sometimes 2-3 times in one Month is usually too much for me. Pick Cruises for B2B same Cabin and Price, not where they Stop. Do plan on getting off on my Panama Canal Cruises, both leaving from West Coast going Stops havent been before

Edited May 19, 2022 by ONECRUISER

[Jimbo]

13 minutes ago, ONECRUISER said:

Nope! Just enjoy having Ship to myself on Port Days. Twice a Day Walk the Ship every Deck Top to Bottom and back up, Read, Chat online, Watch Passengers Leaving/Returning and other Ships & Boats from my Balcony. 30+ yrs going same Ports, sometimes 2-3 times in one Month is usually too much for me. Pick Cruises for B2B same Cabin and Price, not where they Stop. Do plan on getting off on my Panama Canal Cruises, both leaving from West Coast going Stops havent been before

I really think you will enjoy the PC cruises. It will have older passengers, only a few kids and the whole cruise atmosphere will be easy and laid back. Passengers you see will get along with each other too. So much different then Caribbean sailings where everyone is in a rush to do this and that.

 

The ships you are going on are also the right sizes..............Not as many people onboard like the mega over  crowded  larger ships. 

[Big_G]

Haven't done the MDR in a few years and have been sailing Royal for 20+ years. The only time we were escorted to our table outside of MTD was the first night. Once you were assigned a table it was survival of the fittest once the doors opened.

[Tlbecker1]

6 hours ago, taglovestocruise said:

One of the first things we do after boarding is to visit the MDR and find our table.  Easy to make a switch if we don't like the location or table size. After that you just walk in and seat yourself every night.  First stop is to make any Specialty reservations.

We also do this so that we know where our table is ahead of time. We can skip the long line leading into the dining room that way.  We are on the Brilliance right now and they escorted people to their tables the first day.  We are on a B2B and they even asked us last night if we wanted the same waitstaff.  That has never happened to us before, which was a nice change!

[Ashland]

2 hours ago, Jimbo said:

I really think you will enjoy the PC cruises. It will have older passengers, only a few kids and the whole cruise atmosphere will be easy and laid back. Passengers you see will get along with each other too. So much different then Caribbean sailings where everyone is in a rush to do this and that.

 

The ships you are going on are also the right sizes..............Not as many people onboard like the mega over  crowded  larger ships. 

We'll be on that Serenade Panama Canal also this October 2nd. Really looking forward to this one.

[molly361]

8 hours ago, taglovestocruise said:

One of the first things we do after boarding is to visit the MDR and find our table.  Easy to make a switch if we don't like the location or table size. After that you just walk in and seat yourself every night.  First stop is to make any Specialty reservations.

Me too

[nelblu]

11 hours ago, MLP12 said:

Just back from sailing on Harmony.   When I went to the dining room the first night, I stood at the entrance waiting to be seated.  No one ever did greet me or escort me to my table.  This was throughout the entire cruise.  The first night people had to walk around searching for their table.  I have been on 23 cruises and this is the first time ever that I was not greeted and shown to my table. I had traditional seating.   Is this the new trend?  Also, when did they do away with the dessert menu?  You are asked to order dessert at the same time you order your main course and the starter and the appetizers are delivered at the same time instead of separate courses.  I am beginning to miss the decorum of cruising in the past.  

I've been on 4 cruises since they began and on 4 different ships and 3 different classes.  I also, have traditional dining and was seated and escorted the first night.  Since I found where my table was, I simply waved the escorts and went directly to my dining table.  As a matter of fact on 3 of the ships, there were waiters and head waiters to both the right and left as I entered to escort diners.

 

With regards to the dessert menu, it's included in the overall menu and done away some 4-5 years ago.  You might as well have asked what happened to the breadbasket that the asst. waiter would pass around or disappearance of the pepper mills.

 

Ps.  I was able to get, by special order via the head waiter, those wonderful "tasty savory bites."😋

[parrotfeathers]

8 hours ago, Jimbo said:

The last 2 and half years we have learned we don't need a cruise ship to make us happy. 🙂

 

It's amazing what most of us have learned in the last 2 1/2 years about everything.   Dog shows were shut down for all of 2020 and the rules changed to adapt to covid in 2021.  I do performance and a friend does conformation.  We both found we wouldn't expire from not entering a dog show.  It's actually been kind of nice without all the stress.

 

I loved cruising and still do.  I don't want it to become "here's the ship and there's the water what more do you want?"

[Cruise a holic]

We all have to adjust now.  Unfortunately things have changed hopefully the service will improve as the cruise lines hire and train more people.  We were on a Celebrity cruise in March and it is just about 1/3 full.  Actually the service was excellent as the ship was empty.  However , I fear our cruise with Royal next week will be pretty full so I do not have the same expectations.

[cruiseguy1016]

11 hours ago, Ashland said:

Yep...easy to find with table numbers...Funny thing is on one of our recent Explorer B2B nights a single (self entitled obnoxious) cruiser switched table numbers...I guess he thought we wouldn't notice...we did and staff asked him to move and not do that again.

 

Weird story but true. My wife and I sailed on Adventure in 2019 with 3 other couples. I always go to the MDR after boarding to find our table. I can't remember our table number, but I think it was 212. On the starboard side of the ship, I found tables 200 -211 and 213 - 220. Table 212 was not in the area. I asked a crew member where 212 was. It was on the port side with the tables numbered in the 300s!

[BND]

What bothered us on the first leg of our b2b in April was DH (and a couple of people from our table) had scoped out the table location in the afternoon.  It was round.  When we all returned for actual dinner time, the number had been swapped with the two four top rectangular tables next to it.  All 8 of us came to dinner almost every single night.  The round table had 3-4 people most nights and like 5 one night.  We never asked the headwaiter, but we know someone swapped the tables so they could have the round table.  We actually needed it more because there were at least 6 of us every single night  on a 12 night cruise and we had trouble hearing each other.  We were that group that stayed late talking and took a photo together.  So, even though finding our table wasn't an issue, it changed between boarding and actual late seating.  That's the only time we've ever had that happen.