7:30pm Late Seating??

[MadManOfBethesda]

This is a first for us. We boarded Legend today in Baltimore for a two-week cruise to Greenland and Newfoundland. We normally request late seating, and this cruise was no exception. Our confirmation shows Late Seating 8:15pm. However, after boarding we discovered that "late" seating is actually only 7:30pm, with early seating at 5:00pm. When we ate dinner earlier this evening, I inquired at the host stand about the time change and was informed that out of 2,000 passengers on this cruise, 1,800 had requested early seating. So the dining times were moved up to accommodate the preference of most passengers to eat earlier.

 

We don't find dining at 7:30pm to be objectionable or a burden in any way, I just found it to be strange as it is not something that we've ever encountered. How about you? Have you been on a cruise where the pre-cruise announced dining times were subsequently changed to almost an hour earlier than the normal customary time?

[Honolulu Blue]

8 hours ago, MadManOfBethesda said:

We don't find dining at 7:30pm to be objectionable or a burden in any way, I just found it to be strange as it is not something that we've ever encountered. How about you? Have you been on a cruise where the pre-cruise announced dining times were subsequently changed to almost an hour earlier than the normal customary time?

I've been on a few cruises where the early and late dining times were tweaked from their usual times.  I think I experienced 5:15 early/7:30 late once.    It's not a big deal to me as I always use YTD for MDR dining.

[kwokpot]

13 hours ago, MadManOfBethesda said:

This is a first for us. We boarded Legend today in Baltimore for a two-week cruise to Greenland and Newfoundland. We normally request late seating, and this cruise was no exception. Our confirmation shows Late Seating 8:15pm. However, after boarding we discovered that "late" seating is actually only 7:30pm, with early seating at 5:00pm. When we ate dinner earlier this evening, I inquired at the host stand about the time change and was informed that out of 2,000 passengers on this cruise, 1,800 had requested early seating. So the dining times were moved up to accommodate the preference of most passengers to eat earlier.

 

We don't find dining at 7:30pm to be objectionable or a burden in any way, I just found it to be strange as it is not something that we've ever encountered. How about you? Have you been on a cruise where the pre-cruise announced dining times were subsequently changed to almost an hour earlier than the normal customary time?

It obviously shows that your cruise was all Americans and from areas that eat dinner early. 

[hard_eight]

Could possibly have to do with average passenger age?

[MadManOfBethesda]

21 minutes ago, kwokpot said:

It obviously shows that your cruise was all Americans and from areas that eat dinner early. 

We've been on dozens of cruises that were mostly Americans of the same age and demographic, but this is still the only one we've been on where late seating was changed to 7:30pm.

[kwokpot]

5 minutes ago, MadManOfBethesda said:

We've been on dozens of cruises that were mostly Americans of the same age and demographic, but this is still the only one we've been on where late seating was changed to 7:30pm.

I would LOVE for late seating to be 7:30. That's our preferred time to eat dinner, which is why we always choose mytime dining on every cruiseline so we can dine between 7-7:30.

[ProgRockCruiser]

14 hours ago, MadManOfBethesda said:

early seating at 5:00pm.

All them old folks trying to get the early-bird special at Cracker Barrel.

 

Oh come on, that's better than the derogatorily-intended comparison to Wal-Mart.

 

Since your sailing to Newfoundland & Greenland, the ship's time of 5pm (Baltimore, EDT, GMT-4) would be closer to the local time of 6pm or 7pm for much of the journey.  NS is one hour ahead (GMT-3), NL is 1.5 hrs ahead (GMT-2.5), and Greenland is two hours ahead (GMT-2).

 

So dinner will match the sky behavior, which is one way how humans trigger daily rhythms.

[kwokpot]

2 hours ago, ProgRockCruiser said:

All them old folks trying to get the early-bird special at Cracker Barrel.

 

Oh come on, that's better than the derogatorily-intended comparison to Wal-Mart.

 

Since your sailing to Newfoundland & Greenland, the ship's time of 5pm (Baltimore, EDT, GMT-4) would be closer to the local time of 6pm or 7pm for much of the journey.  NS is one hour ahead (GMT-3), NL is 1.5 hrs ahead (GMT-2.5), and Greenland is two hours ahead (GMT-2).

 

So dinner will match the sky behavior, which is one way how humans trigger daily rhythms.

I like this explanation,very logical!

[MadManOfBethesda]

2 hours ago, kwokpot said:

I would LOVE for late seating to be 7:30. That's our preferred time to eat dinner, which is why we always choose mytime dining on every cruiseline so we can dine between 7-7:30.

Yes, just to be clear, I wasn't complaining about the 7:30pm late seating time; it is just that I've never seen it before. Especially given the fact that it was originally designated to be 8:15pm. But I'm perfectly happy with the 7:30pm seating.

 

On a somewhat related note, I've come across a couple of other items that are new to us: 1) there are no cards to hang on your doorknob the night before when ordering room service for the following morning. You can call the night before (which we did) or use the app. We've used the cards on all of our previous cruises, including our most recent cruise on Pride two months ago. Interestingly, our room steward informed me that they haven't been available on Legend since before the pandemic.

 

The other unusual thing I found on this cruise is the self-serve beer dispenser up near the buffet on Lido deck. The cost is 50 cents per ounce with a 14oz maximum. Again, something that I've never seen before.

[MadManOfBethesda]

Another reason not to complain about the little things: we've just been informed by the captain that there is a passenger in medical distress and that the Coast Guard will be flying out here and landing a helicopter shortly to come pick him or her up. Passengers were asked to stay off of the outside deck areas and to refrain from taking any photos once the helicopter gets here. Thoughts and prayers go out to that passenger and family.

[Schoifmom]

6 minutes ago, MadManOfBethesda said:

On a somewhat related note, I've come across a couple of other items that are new to us: 1) there are no cards to hang on your doorknob the night before when ordering room service for the following morning. You can call the night before (which we did) or use the app. We've used the cards on all of our previous cruises, including our most recent cruise on Pride two months ago. Interestingly, our room steward informed me that they haven't been available on Legend since before the pandemic.

If you've seen those recently, you shouldn't have.  They did away with those post pandemic and they are never coming back.  

[kwokpot]

4 minutes ago, MadManOfBethesda said:

1) there are no cards to hang on your doorknob the night before when ordering room service for the following morning. You can call the night before (which we did) or use the app. We've used the cards on all of our previous cruises, including our most recent cruise on Pride two months ago. Interestingly, our room steward informed me that they haven't been available on Legend since before the pandemic.

Interesting about your experience on the Pride this year. We were on the Pride last May/June in Europe and there were no room service cards for the 32 consecutive days we were on the ship. TBH there were lots and lots of things that weren't right on the Pride last summer for their Europe sailings, but that's another thread!

 

[RobertL88]

2 hours ago, kwokpot said:

I would LOVE for late seating to be 7:30. That's our preferred time to eat dinner, which is why we always choose mytime dining on every cruiseline so we can dine between 7-7:30.

I would LOVE 7:30 for late seating too! 

[VentureMan_2000]

Dinners on Alaska cruises start earlier.

[BlerkOne]

30 minutes ago, VentureMan_2000 said:

Dinners on Alaska cruises start earlier.

I hope not.

[kwokpot]

53 minutes ago, BlerkOne said:

I hope not.

Is that 'luncher' or 'dinch' or maybe 'lunchper'?

https://www.thedailymeal.com/entertain/grandparents-supper-dinner/

[VentureMan_2000]

1 hour ago, BlerkOne said:

I hope not.

On Alaska cruises, Early dining starts at 5:30pm, Late dining at 7:45pm.

Most other cruises, Early dining starts at 6:00pm, Late dining at 8:15pm.

 

Edited August 14, 2023 by VentureMan_2000

[Jamman54]

I've noticed on several of our Journeys cruises that the dining times were skewed earlier. My belief is that is done because of an older crowd. JMHO. 😎

[kwokpot]

Just now, Jamman54 said:

I've noticed on several of our Journeys cruises that the dining times were skewed earlier. My belief is that is done because of an older crowd. JMHO. 😎

Older AMERICAN crowd. Europeans, Latin countries and other nationalities don't eat dinner early. 

[Jamman54]

Just now, kwokpot said:

Older AMERICAN crowd. Europeans, Latin countries and other nationalities don't eat dinner early. 

I stand corrected! 😀

[kwokpot]

6 minutes ago, Jamman54 said:

I stand corrected! 😀

I just finished a 7 day Greek Islands cruise on the Odyssey of the Seas disembarking on July 30th. The ship was full, and there were some interesting statistics.  Only 20% of the passengers had sailed Royal previously and about the same percentage were Americans, the rest were from other countries and from the looks of it mainly Europe. While I was online at the MDR on embarkation day to workout dinnertime for our party of 9 one of the people ahead of us said in a loud voice, "I don't want to eat dinner any earlier than 9:00!!!'

Edited August 14, 2023 by kwokpot

[CGinMTL]

I think it is great that they did this .

Great customer service 

[BlerkOne]

1 hour ago, VentureMan_2000 said:

On Alaska cruises, Early dining starts at 5:30pm, Late dining at 7:45pm.

Most other cruises, Early dining starts at 6:00pm, Late dining at 8:15pm.

 

I see a change in our future.

[BlerkOne]

1 hour ago, kwokpot said:

Older AMERICAN crowd. Europeans, Latin countries and other nationalities don't eat dinner early. 

Not this older American crowd. But there are what, 6 time zones across the US? That's a lot of different hours. They must think everyone lives on the East coast.

[FastShip24]

10 hours ago, kwokpot said:

It obviously shows that your cruise was all Americans and from areas that eat dinner early. 

Come on