7:30pm Late Seating??

[jsglow]

11 hours ago, kwokpot said:

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!!!'

I find it somewhat interesting (and disappointing) to watch Americans 'demand' that their customs be adhered to when they are overseas. I guess that can also apply sometimes to a European when visiting America, or in this case, on what is essentially an American ship.

 

I actually liked the protocol in Rome.  We knew our big meal was essentially 'late lunch' to the locals. 

[jimbo5544]

1 hour ago, jsglow said:

I find it somewhat interesting (and disappointing) to watch Americans 'demand' that their customs be adhered to when they are overseas. 

Careful now, it is their vacation…..

[kwokpot]

17 hours ago, FastShip24 said:

Come on

Carnival apparently confirmed my assumptions. You may choose not to believe it but my explanation was PRECISELY why the dining times were changed. Furthermore, as this Cruisehive article confirms it's Americans that eat their last meals early, not most other countries. 

https://www.cruisehive.com/carnival-cruise-line-clarifies-dining-time-adjustment/108713

[VentureMan_2000]

13 minutes ago, kwokpot said:

Carnival apparently confirmed my assumptions. You may choose not to believe it but my explanation was PRECISELY why the dining times were changed.

Your explanation is pure conjecture... a guess.  The Cruisehive article clearly states:

[kwokpot]

27 minutes ago, VentureMan_2000 said:

Your explanation is pure conjecture... a guess.  The Cruisehive article clearly states:

As explained by John Heald, Carnival Brand Ambassador:

 

There have been quite a few questions about dinning times with people asking if we are changing them across the fleet. The answer is no, we are not. However on the Carnival Legend cruises to Greenland and Canada we have done so to the following:

 

Early dinner is 5.00pm

Late dinner is 7.30pm

YTD is 5.00pm to 8.30pm

 

This is based on the demographics we have on board.

 

But this is only for these specific cruises. 

 

Cheers

 

Edit: I can 100% assure you that if the majority of the passengers were from South America and/or Spain these dinner times would never have been changed to these times. It was already explained that there was a huge demand for early set seating which is why it was altered this way. 

Edited August 15, 2023 by kwokpot

[jimbo5544]

1 hour ago, kwokpot said:

Carnival apparently confirmed my assumptions. You may choose not to believe it but my explanation was PRECISELY why the dining times were changed. Furthermore, as this Cruisehive article confirms it's Americans that eat their last meals early, not most other countries. 

https://www.cruisehive.com/carnival-cruise-line-clarifies-dining-time-adjustment/108713

Who cares what European travelers want.  This cruise line is SPECIFICALLY driven to American cruisers.  I am on this cruise, really do not care, but change from early to late when this was announced.  To read this is forecast of all their fleet is a major leap.

[kwokpot]

2 minutes ago, jimbo5544 said:

Who cares what European travelers want.  This cruise line is SPECIFICALLY driven to American cruisers.  I am on this cruise, really do not care, but change from early to late when this was announced.  To read this is forecast of all their fleet is a major leap.

When did I ever imply this was a permanent change? All I commented on was that it was probably due to an influx of AMERICAN cruisers from areas of the country that eat dinner early that all requested early set dining and thus Carnival had to make this change on this cruise to accommodate the onslaught of requests. Then ANOTHER poster quoted my comment and implied that my statement was ridiculous. I'm just backing up that my assertions are the correct reasons for the changes and contrasted that by saying if the demographic was made up of Spaniards and South Americans not only would the dinner times not have been changed to those times but it would have changed to the exact opposite, with early set dining probably at 7:00 and late at 9:00. It all boils down to the demographic makeup of the particular sailing. There's no pejorative implications when saying Americans in general eat dinner earlier than other nationalities. 

[BlerkOne]

I've cruised South America a few times and dining times were never shifted later. Last time there were many nationalities represented.

[jimbo5544]

43 minutes ago, kwokpot said:

When did I ever imply this was a permanent change? All I commented on was that it was probably due to an influx of AMERICAN cruisers from areas of the country that eat dinner early that all requested early set dining and thus Carnival had to make this change on this cruise to accommodate the onslaught of requests. Then ANOTHER poster quoted my comment and implied that my statement was ridiculous. I'm just backing up that my assertions are the correct reasons for the changes and contrasted that by saying if the demographic was made up of Spaniards and South Americans not only would the dinner times not have been changed to those times but it would have changed to the exact opposite, with early set dining probably at 7:00 and late at 9:00. It all boils down to the demographic makeup of the particular sailing. There's no pejorative implications when saying Americans in general eat dinner earlier than other nationalities. 

Did I say you implied it was a permeant change?

[kwokpot]

5 minutes ago, jimbo5544 said:

Did I say you implied it was a permeant change?

To read this is forecast of all their fleet is a major leap.

[jimbo5544]

8 minutes ago, kwokpot said:

To read this is forecast of all their fleet is a major leap.

Ummm it is.  I have seen lesser posts turn into major rumors here.  The thread DOES imply our dining times are “out of sync”, simply saying that is misguided judgement if someone reads into it.   

Edited August 15, 2023 by jimbo5544

[jimbo5544]

2 hours ago, kwokpot said:

As explained by John Heald, Carnival Brand Ambassador:

 

There have been quite a few questions about dinning times with people asking if we are changing them across the fleet. The answer is no, we are not. However on the Carnival Legend cruises to Greenland and Canada we have done so to the following:

 

Early dinner is 5.00pm

Late dinner is 7.30pm

YTD is 5.00pm to 8.30pm

 

This is based on the demographics we have on board.

 

But this is only for these specific cruises. 

 

Cheers

 

Edit: I can 100% assure you that if the majority of the passengers were from South America and/or Spain these dinner times would never have been changed to these times. It was already explained that there was a huge demand for early set seating which is why it was altered this way. 

To my point.

[kwokpot]

19 minutes ago, jimbo5544 said:

Ummm it is.  I have seen lesser posts turn into major rumors here.  The thread DOES imply our dining times are “out of sync”, simply saying that is misguided judgement if someone reads into it.   

So what exactly is your beef with my post that you quoted? I'm not understanding. 

[MadManOfBethesda]

As the OP of this thread, let me refer everyone back to my first post. The reason the change was made has never been in question. In fact, I specifically stated in that first post that I was told why it was made. I have no idea why people then started giving their opinion on why they thought the change was made. Once again, my one and only question was whether anyone else had ever encountered a similar situation where the confirmed late dining time was subsequently changed to 7:30pm.

 

But since we're talking demographics, I've been on longer (30 days) Holland America cruises where most of the passengers not only were American, but the average age was much older than this particular Carnival cruise. And yet, late seating was still kept at the usual "late" seating time.

 

I simply found this change unusual.

[jimbo5544]

1 hour ago, kwokpot said:

So what exactly is your beef with my post that you quoted? I'm not understanding. 

I do not have one.  I was just making a point about how people might react to the thread

 

[kwokpot]

15 minutes ago, jimbo5544 said:

I do not have one.  I was just making a point about how people might react to the thread

 

Ok. No worries then. Sorry if I overreacted. Now back to our regular bitching and moaning posts! 😉😆

[CorrieCJ]

We just came off the Legend (right before your Greenland cruise) and our late dining was at 7:45. I actually preferred it to the old 8:15 because there was actually time to get to the after-dinner shows.