Oceanview Cafe dinner service being eliminated?

[LMaxwell]

1 minute ago, gold1953 said:

 Husband hates the dining room when we are near dish stations as he is hearing impaired

 

It's loud and chaotic. Not enjoyable at all. 

[Ipeeinthepools]

5 minutes ago, LMaxwell said:

 

Deck chairs should require daily rental fee for Lido deck and Solarium.  Front row premium. Chairs on a different deck can be free.  I am not a sun worshipper, why am I paying for others to lay in the sun? 

 

I'm fine with this approach as long as I can sit on the edge of the pool.

[chamima]

8 minutes ago, LMaxwell said:

 

Deck chairs should require daily rental fee for Lido deck and Solarium.  Front row premium. Chairs on a different deck can be free.  I am not a sun worshipper, why am I paying for others to lay in the sun? 

 

 

That's actually the way cruising used to be.

On our first cruises the first day you met with a deck steward and , depending on your tip, you were assigned a chair.They put your name on a slip of paper in a slot at the top. It actually worked because it was your chair and you didn't have to worry about sleeping in, etc. Your steward also moved the chair in and out of the sun as you wished. (I tried to move it myself once and was told "Madam, that is my job".)

 

*

Edited January 4, 2023 by chamima

[NutsAboutGolf]

5 hours ago, aggiejd2000 said:

I'm well aware of how just cruising itself is detrimental to the environment.  But cruising on ships running on regular gas doesn't mean it's okay to otherwise engage in wasteful behavior.  It's easy to just say "who cares" and not do anything by arguing that it is basically meaningless.  If everyone thought that, we'd never be able to make a collective difference.    

 

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

[TowandaUK]

On 1/3/2023 at 3:09 AM, Bo1953 said:

I can concur with this approach, yet for those of us who get spooked by such issues we can cancel immediately and book another line in order to 'potentially' avoid the situation... instead of only promulgating it.

 

True or not, personally, it would not affect my sailing X in the least... either we work with it or around it or move on as we may not like it...

 

bon voyage

Not so easy to cancel if from the uk. We do not have the option of refundable deposits and lose money if we cancel. 

[cruisemom42]

49 minutes ago, Ipeeinthepools said:

 

I'm fine with this approach as long as I can sit on the edge of the pool.

 

Wouldn't you then have to change your name to Ipeenearthepools?

[cruisemom42]

Is this change being carried out fleetwide or just on the E-class ships?

 

I don't favor the OV for dinners, but the situation still concerns me. One of the big problems I have with this is that most ships were designed with the idea that not everyone would eat in the ship's MDR in the evening. I'm not sure there are even enough covers if every single person decided to dine in the MDR on a given night.... 

 

I haven't been on E-class, so maybe it is different with the four MDRs, but do they really seat more people or are they each just 1/4 the size of the previous MDR?

Edited January 4, 2023 by cruisemom42

[newtocruiseinblue]

19 hours ago, dreamer321 said:

If you think there are cutback coming in Oceanview Café, check out the main dining room menus for Beyond's Jan 3rd - 8th cruise. No entree's or appetizers.

So it's only dessert now? I could get into that. 😁

[DaKahuna]

1 hour ago, LMaxwell said:

They should charge for hot tubs. I don't use them often, sometimes not at all.  I resent paying for a hot tub others use all day. Can't they just use the pool and take a hot shower later? Make it $5 for 10 minutes please. 

 

 Why stop there. $10.00 an hour for pool side chairs would be a definite revenue and reduce comments on chair hogs.  

 

[LMaxwell]

1 minute ago, DaKahuna said:

 

 Why stop there. $10.00 an hour for pool side chairs would be a definite revenue and reduce comments on chair hogs.  

 

Sun chairs $10 

Shade chairs $7

Chairs on another deck no charge 

[Charles4515]

10 hours ago, WonderMan3 said:

It's not true BUT according to someone on Edge right now (and I believe on another ship) they have drastically reduced the number of items in the buffet for dinner service. Sounds like it's just pasta station, salad, pizza and one station of other hot items. It sounds like grill and carving station may be closed. There is another thread about the Edge report. Can't recall where I saw the comment about the other ship.

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. 

[Charles4515]

56 minutes ago, cruisemom42 said:

Is this change being carried out fleetwide or just on the E-class ships?

 

I don't favor the OV for dinners, but the situation still concerns me. One of the big problems I have with this is that most ships were designed with the idea that not everyone would eat in the ship's MDR in the evening. I'm not sure there are even enough covers if every single person decided to dine in the MDR on a given night.... 

 

I haven't been on E-class, so maybe it is different with the four MDRs, but do they really seat more people or are they each just 1/4 the size of the previous MDR?

With no traditional seating I think they can move more people through the MDR. Plus a lot eat at speciality restaurants and get packages, Blu and suite restaurants.

Edited January 4, 2023 by Charles4515

[dlh015]

2 hours ago, Ipeeinthepools said:

 

Now you've gone too far.  The pool and the hot tub are the heartbeat of the ship's activity.  I object to any charges for using the pool or the hot tub.  Please look somewhere else for your nickels and dimes.

And, gosh, where would you pee if you had to pay for it??   🤣

[39august]

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.

[Ex-Airbalancer]

2 hours ago, Ipeeinthepools said:

 

Now you've gone too far.  The pool and the hot tub are the heartbeat of the ship's activity.  I object to any charges for using the pool or the hot tub.  Please look somewhere else for your nickels and dimes.

I second the vote to charge extra for pool and hot tubes 😁

[Ex-Airbalancer]

2 hours ago, chamima said:

 

 

That's actually the way cruising used to be.

On our first cruises the first day you met with a deck steward and , depending on your tip, you were assigned a chair.They put your name on a slip of paper in a slot at the top. It actually worked because it was your chair and you didn't have to worry about sleeping in, etc. Your steward also moved the chair in and out of the sun as you wished. (I tried to move it myself once and was told "Madam, that is my job".)

 

*

I wonder if I could get my name on a chair at the Sunset Bar 🤔😁

[LMaxwell]

33 minutes 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. 

You think people that eat in the buffet did so in order to remove tips? That's really strange. How does that logic work? 

 

 

[cruisemom42]

31 minutes ago, Charles4515 said:

With no traditional seating I think they can move more people through the MDR. Plus a lot eat at speciality restaurants and get packages, Blu and suite restaurants.

 

Even so, I strongly suspect that the OV was supposed to absorb a portion of evening diners in their planning.

 

And with the space already devoted to Luminae and Blu, MDRs are already tightly packed seating. Not like they can install additional tables....

 

Another thing to consider -- so many people now do not like sharing a table that there are inevitably unused seats all around the dining room -- two or three people at a 4-top, two couples at a 6-top, etc. Will they start to enforce sharing of tables?

 

[Bo1953]

1 hour ago, TowandaUK said:

Not so easy to cancel if from the uk. We do not have the option of refundable deposits and lose money if we cancel. 

Yes, I know and it is a bummer to be sure not to have the flexibility to do so... YET

 

You do have other protections which we, generally, do not here in the States... the trade off.. LOL

 

You can book through a few U.S. TA's, as I understand it. How to find them is totally foreign to me, at the moment, but if you want I will keep an eye out for a few for you...

 

bon voyage

[LMaxwell]

2 minutes ago, cruisemom42 said:

 Will they start to enforce sharing of tables?

 

 

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. 

[prmssk]

Do we have any confirmation that this limited evening buffet is happening on any other ships yet?  With the Edge being only at about 75% of its double occupancy capacity at least part of what is happening there could be due to lower capacity and underutilization of the evening buffet. 

[BermudaBound2014]

Just now, prmssk said:

Do we have any confirmation that this limited evening buffet is happening on any other ships yet? 

 

Yes. There have been confirmed reports of these changes implemented this week on both the equinox and reflection.

[prmssk]

Just now, BermudaBound2014 said:

 

Yes. There have been confirmed reports of these changes implemented this week on both the equinox and reflection.

What’s the capacity like on those ships right now?  How limited is the buffet in those cases?

[LGW59]

2 minutes ago, prmssk said:

Do we have any confirmation that this limited evening buffet is happening on any other ships yet?  With the Edge being only at about 75% of its double occupancy capacity at least part of what is happening there could be due to lower capacity and underutilization of the evening buffet. 

No confirmation yet, but Investigating News Team 5 is on it.

[BermudaBound2014]

1 minute ago, prmssk said:

What’s the capacity like on those ships right now?  How limited is the buffet in those cases?

 

I'm unaware of capacity, but reports of offerings have been reasonably consistent. Only things open are salad bar, dessert, pizza. Grill station removed. Stir fry was reported on one ship and a burger/hot dog station was reported on another ship but I can't remember which was which (sorry).