Oceanview Cafe dinner service being eliminated?

[PTC DAWG]

4 hours ago, 39august said:

On EQ now. Last night OVC had no grill and only a few dishes other  than pasta,pizza, and salad bar.  No Indian food and no stir fry.  Manager said they've been throwing so much food away due to seeing fewer people coming in at dinner.

I can deal with that a few nights of my cruise, I mainly eat in the specialties anyways...but the pasta station never disappoints, IMHO.  

[PTC DAWG]

3 hours ago, LMaxwell said:

 

This is a hard pass for me.  We have, from time to time, met people are bars, excursions, etc., and struck up conversations and decided we wanted to dine together. 

 

The forced sitting with people though, not interested.  I despise the quasi-job interview that turns into some form of cruise/airline/hotel points comparing.  That is not an elevated, premium experience. 

That's really not surprising this day and age, folks prefer emailing and texting rather than picking up the phone and actually carrying on a conversation.  I sort of miss the human interaction myself.  

[LMaxwell]

4 minutes ago, PTC DAWG said:

That's really not surprising this day and age, folks prefer emailing and texting rather than picking up the phone and actually carrying on a conversation.  I sort of miss the human interaction myself.  

What up Dawg - Where you been? Been looking for you.

 

I make plenty of new friends naturally. I never buy internet on a cruise and rarely even redeem complimentary time. I don't sit on a phone at dinner. I talk with my family.

 

I dislike the "What do you do, where do you live, what sports team do you like, I have 900,000 Delta miles, I drove the ship once" forced interactions. Even with nice people it is unrelaxing, I never feel like I can kick back and be casual w my family or discuss things better discussed amongst ourselves.  

[Ex-Airbalancer]

4 hours ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

Hang out at the seating by guest services the last night.  Someone charged like 3 coffees to my room so I went to guest services at 5pm on the last night.  Overheard three people in front of me and one behind me request to remove the auto gratitudes

I like auto tipping , I would feel more awkward handing people an envelope with tip money in it 

[NutsAboutGolf]

Just now, Ex-Airbalancer said:

I like auto tipping , I would feel more awkward handing people an envelope with tip money in it 

 

It's a two-headed monster.  If you turn them off, you are not paying the behind the scene crew often who are paid the lowest.  Yet many believe each cruise line "skims" some of the tips to keep for themselves.  Simply sharing two factual datapoints, tipping is a personal choice, has been debated for 50 years and will most likely continue to be debated for at least another 50 years

[aggiejd2000]

6 hours ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

 

Okay...So how do you stop the breakfast and lunch food waste that's apparently important to you?  As individuals, only real choice we have is which cruise line/ship to book...If we do not pick LNG, we are intentionally not making a difference

I never said that the breakfast and lunch buffet is important to me.  And to be honest, if X did away with buffet breakfast/lunch, I wouldn't care because I'd be fine with a coffee and pastry at Cafe al Bacio in the morning and then dinner, which is my normal practice at home. 

 

I never advocated for doing away with X's buffet service, dinner or otherwise.  I stated I understood why some prefer it.  I merely expressed a reservation about food waste in general.  I don't see how that has anything to do cruising on a LNG ship unless you're trying to insinuate that my concern for food waste is hypocritical because I cruised on X.  With that kind of logic, I could argue that you must be anti-conservation because you like buffets but I won't because I think that's unfair.  The truth is that our daily existence in the modern world -- the food we eat, the water we drink, the energy we consume, etc. -- has a negative impact on the environment if we think deeply enough about it.           

[phoenix_dream]

4 hours ago, cw2go said:

 

I've cruised the Caribbean many many times in Jan & Feb. The ships have always been FULL! I am back at it again a few weeks and I expect with what's sold out on my sailing it will be near full. In all fairness it is on The Beyond and right now that ship/captain is all the rage. 

 

Patty

I am of the same opinion.  Have sailed January (early or later) and February multiple times in recent years and always full ships, or very close to it.  Those of us retirees in cold climates love to head out of town to the Caribbean, often on B2B, and then some cruises.

[neverlaysup]

On 1/1/2023 at 8:16 AM, LMaxwell said:

There are several, uncorroborated, reports that the Oceanview Cafe dinner service is going to be suspended in 2023. I don't know if this is a test, set in stone, a few ships or all ships. Has anyone heard anything to this effect? Anything published somewhere? Some of the best meals on vacation are dinner in the Oceanview; love the cheese and hummus setup, get a nice dinner made to order at stir fry and usually sit out by one of the aft facing bars over the water. Can't get that view for any amount of $$$$ in a specialty restaurant, and it suits the 'If you aren't going to dress up, stay out of MDR' cries I face (only on social media though, never in person). 

 

I sincerely hope this is a false rumor or bad information and that Oceanview Cafe dinner service continues as it is/has been.  

Where did you get this information.....it seems ridiculous.

[zitsky]

1 hour ago, PTC DAWG said:

That's really not surprising this day and age, folks prefer emailing and texting rather than picking up the phone and actually carrying on a conversation.  I sort of miss the human interaction myself.  

I didn’t like the telephone as a kid in the 70-80s.  I’ve never been a big user of my cell phone minutes.

 

Tell me about the pasta station?  I guess they have both Alfredo and tomato sauce?  I like to be naughty on vacation.  Is it the same at lunch?

[NutsAboutGolf]

36 minutes ago, neverlaysup said:

Where did you get this information.....it seems ridiculous.

 

It does appear that while dinner at the buffet won't be outright eliminated but greatly scaled back, someone posted this on the Edge thread

[WonderMan3]

6 hours ago, Charles4515 said:

That is the way it was years ago. The buffet only had a few stations. Salad, pasta and pizza. Then they decided to provide an alternative to dressing up for formal evening and added the grill. So formal dress is gone to a more casual dress evening chic request they probably don’t need the large dinner buffet.  I know some liked dinner in the buffet so they could justify in their in their mind removing the gratuities. I guess they are screwed unless they are okay with pasta and pizza every night. 

 

I would go to the dinner buffet maybe once a cruise because sometimes I needed a break from the table service but I can live with the reduced buffet. 

Sometimes we just want a more casual option for the night either because the Luminae menu isn't what we're into or because we just want to wear shorts or because we're worn out from a busy day and don't want to deal with table service with multiple courses and dining room noise. It was nice to have an option that was relatively quiet with a good variety of food choices. I'd be less irritated by this decision if their prices were low, but prices keep going up, up, up while services and amenities keep getting reduced or cut.

[hcat]

So what's the answer.?

Does Cruise Critic know? If they do will they tell?

[WonderMan3]

I'm wondering if a better tactic for them would've been to implement a reservation system for dinner service at OVC? No concern about it being full but requiring a reservation might help them get an estimated number of people who will be dining so they can prepare an appropriate amount of food and not reduce waste. If they don't get to certain number on particular nights then maybe the grill wouldn't be open or there would be fewer stations? Just a thought...

[WonderMan3]

Just now, hcat said:

So what's the answer.?

Does Cruise Critic know? If they do will they tell?

The answer to what? Dinner service has not been cancelled at OVC. Food options have been reduced as reported by more than one passenger currently onboard Edge and at least one other ship in this thread and one other.

[cgolf1]

Here I thought the forum was getting stale and no topics were showing up that impacted my cruising. Last time I will think that with all that is happening now, so I suppose it is all my fault 😉

[crusinpeg]

38 minutes ago, WonderMan3 said:

I'm wondering if a better tactic for them would've been to implement a reservation system for dinner service at OVC? No concern about it being full but requiring a reservation might help them get an estimated number of people who will be dining so they can prepare an appropriate amount of food and not reduce waste. If they don't get to certain number on particular nights then maybe the grill wouldn't be open or there would be fewer stations? Just a thought...

Problem is OVC is sometimes a last minute choice.

[LGW59]

16 minutes ago, cgolf1 said:

Here I thought the forum was getting stale and no topics were showing up that impacted my cruising. Last time I will think that with all that is happening now, so I suppose it is all my fault 😉

Well if nothing else, it’s certainly providing a good entertainment value for free

[RichYak]

33 minutes ago, LGW59 said:

Well if nothing else, it’s certainly providing a good entertainment value for free

Thanks I’ll be here all week. 2 shows on Sunday. Take care of your waiters and waitresses… unless you eat in the buffet, then stiff everybody

[zitsky]

32 minutes ago, RichYak said:

Thanks I’ll be here all week. 2 shows on Sunday. Take care of your waiters and waitresses… unless you eat in the buffet, then stiff everybody

But have you tried the veal?

[GeroWA]

On 1/2/2023 at 1:24 AM, gold1953 said:

Exactly how we feel!!

Me too

[RichYak]

1 hour ago, zitsky said:

But have you tried the veal?

Is that by the pizza, salad, or pasta station?

[Honolulu Blue]

4 hours ago, WonderMan3 said:

I'm wondering if a better tactic for them would've been to implement a reservation system for dinner service at OVC? No concern about it being full but requiring a reservation might help them get an estimated number of people who will be dining so they can prepare an appropriate amount of food and not reduce waste. If they don't get to certain number on particular nights then maybe the grill wouldn't be open or there would be fewer stations? Just a thought...

This isn't what I want out of the OVC

[Wineaux007]

4 hours ago, crusinpeg said:

Problem is OVC is sometimes a last minute choice.

Exactly.

[C4HCG]

10 hours ago, aggiejd2000 said:

I never said that the breakfast and lunch buffet is important to me.  And to be honest, if X did away with buffet breakfast/lunch, I wouldn't care because I'd be fine with a coffee and pastry at Cafe al Bacio in the morning and then dinner, which is my normal practice at home. 

Have you considered how busy the Cafe would be if that was the case? It would be chaos.

[poffles]

I really hope that all this discussion ends up being nothing more than an interesting thought and that the buffet remains for dinner/supper or that any changes made have considered the impact elsewhere and changes made elsewhere to compensate.

 

As I read all this it makes me think of the challenge of designing and maintaining roads and highways.  Change one road and see what happens to traffic nearby.  If something is happening on one road I could say oh well I don't go that way so it won't bother me but it doesn't work that way, just watch how the road you do take is suddenly at a stand still.  Even reduce a road by a lane and it spills over. Changes have a ripple affect.

 

I go to the buffet (or counter service) for all meals, it is rare that I go to the MDR ... choices.  In short time spans, reduced choices along side rising prices is hard to reconcile even though it is understandable.  In the end vacation travel also comes down to choice and it might be whether cruising continues to check the box for me .. BUT I LOVE IT SO MUCH!

 

.

Edited January 5, 2023 by poffles