Dinner Preferences

[SusieV]

Having dinner at four different times would make things difficult for the shows, wouldn't it?

 

We find the traditional dining experience with formal nights to be part of the magic of cruising. Although early dining is too early and late dining is too late, we much prefer it to open seating.

 

Not to mention that my husband and I always prefer a table for two (the few times we've eaten with strangers at open seating, we've had little in common with them), and whenever we request this at breakfast or lunch, the person greeting us always makes us feel a little uncomfortable for choosing not to sit with others, to the point where we sometimes choose not to eat in the dining room as a result of this. I would not want to have to start dinner that way as well.

[Drew B]

Skysweet, that's a great idea. I've been on Carnival ships with two dining rooms that had four seating times. One dining room had (I believe) a 6:00 and a 7:45. The other had a 6:45 and an 8:30. Things worked out fine with the shows. The early show time worked for both the 6:00 and the 6:45 seatings. The later show time worked for both the 7:45 and the 8:30 seatings. I see no reason why X couldn't do the same thing with the separate levels...

[DedeM]

Skysweet, that's a great idea. I've been on Carnival ships with two dining rooms that had four seating times. One dining room had (I believe) a 6:00 and a 7:45. The other had a 6:45 and an 8:30. Things worked out fine with the shows. The early show time worked for both the 6:00 and the 6:45 seatings. The later show time worked for both the 7:45 and the 8:30 seatings. I see no reason why X couldn't do the same thing with the separate levels...

That sounds great! Wouldn't it ease the burden on the kitchen too?

[GORDONCHICK]

Skysweet, that's a great idea. I've been on Carnival ships with two dining rooms that had four seating times. One dining room had (I believe) a 6:00 and a 7:45. The other had a 6:45 and an 8:30. Things worked out fine with the shows. The early show time worked for both the 6:00 and the 6:45 seatings. The later show time worked for both the 7:45 and the 8:30 seatings. I see no reason why X couldn't do the same thing with the separate levels...

 

The dining times I saw in October were 6:00, 6:15, 8:00, & 8:15, but that was the first time I had been on a ship that had two different dining rooms, each with two floors.

[suzeyQ]

I like the traditional dining experience. Part of the fun of a cruise for us is the anticipation of who we'll get for tablemates this time. We've only ever had one bad experience (in 8 cruises) and even then, we didn't bother changing.

 

I also like having the waiters and assistant waiters lean our names and our preferences - it's much more personal.

 

We're going on NCL in December - that will be my first experience with so-called Freestyle cruising and I'm not sure how I'm going to like it. (it wasn't my choice, but the choice of our travelling companions) I'm sure I'll still enjoy the cruise but I suspect I'll end up back on a more traditional line in the future.

 

It is nice to have the specialty restaurants for a night or two, to have a more romatic dinner, but I like the main dining room for most of the nights.

[elena7seas]

We really like the traditional dining experience, and would never choose a cruise with open dining. We prefer longer cruises, and really, really enjoy the dynamic that builds at dinner as we get to know our tablemates and service staff over a period of time.

 

Although we have only cruised three times, we have always chosen to sit at tables for 8, and have always had wonderful tablemates. Celebrity does a particularly good job of matching table companions.

 

Having the opportunity to get to know our waiter, assistant waiter and maitre d' has been one of the things we enjoy most about cruise dining. The dining room staff members have always gone out of their way to make our dining experience expecially enjoyable, and this has been particularly true of Celebrity.

 

We choose early dining so that we can attend the shows after dinner. I would prefer to dine at about 7:00 p.m. or 7:30 p.m. If the split dining times could work, that would be an interesting development. For the cruises that we have taken so far, early dining works. We would probably select late dining for the Mediterranean. The Med itineraries are so port intensive that I'm sure we wouldn't even attend most shows :rolleyes: .

 

I have absolutely no interest in having to make reservations every night, and don't want to stand in line for dinner when we are on a cruise. We love the ambience of Celebrity cruises and the implementation of open dining on a ship with 2000 passengers would not be a change that we would welcome.

[KLG]

I guess we represent a minority opinion.

 

We've done more than a dozen cruises, and 4 of them have been on small ships (300 to 700 pax) with open seating. We booked a cruise on the new Journey with a great deal of trepidation--early seating is too early, but late seating is way too late for us--and we were relieved to hear that Journey will offer open seating. On the other lines, we ate when we wanted to, usually around 7:00. We usually got a table for 6 or 8 and met a variety of new people. The ships are small enough that we'd see those people again and again during the cruise. We'd get a table for 2 if it suited our mood at the time.

 

One downside, which several posters have mentioned, is that the waitstaff doesn't learn your preferences so they can always bring the Coke or skim milk or whatever it is that you always want. Tips also become something of an issue when you don't have the same waitstaff. It will be interesting to see how X handles tips on Journey.

 

We had a great table on our last big-ship cruise, on Summit, but we've done 3 small-ship cruises on other lines since then and don't see ourselves on a big ship or a ship with fixed-seating again. We even considered a small ship, the Tahitian Princess, and rejected it when we heard about the fixed seating. I guess it boils down to what works best for each cruiser.

KLG

[marpau]

We far prefer the traditional dining with assigned tablemates and the same wait staff. We have found in open seating situations that the service is not near as good.

[dedlaw]

We've had mixed experience on ships which go to some traditional / some open seating. We were on Princess not too long after they introduced open seating -- one of the dining rooms was open seating, one traditional. We opted for traditional, but noticed two problems. First, the room was maybe only half full, which took away some of the "buzz." Second, show times were all over the place, but it was hard to get to many of them with traditional dining. Maybe the new Princess ships designed for this mix uses smaller traditional dining rooms to deal with the first problem.

 

We enjoy the whole traditional dining experience -- fixed time, same companions, same wait staff. This is true even though on one cruise we had boring companions and on two cruises we've had mediocre (or worse) staff. That said, our last cruise on X we noticed that some of the shows were set at times that those in late seating really couldn't get to them -- shapes of things to come?

[justhanging]

We had early assigned seating on a 15 day cruise on the Island Princess. On the first night we found we were assigned to a table of 12 for the two of us. Went to the matri de in the anytime dining room and he right away assigned us a table for two in that dining room at a time of our choosing for the rest of the cruise. They will work with you. Assign tables is the way to go.

[Traceybell]

Sorry to sound harsh, but I spend 50 weekends a year standing in line at local restaurants that no longer accept reservations ... is it too much to ask for a reserved table where I can meet a few nice people?

 

If we could get in line for the restaurant on the ship would we get one of those coaster thing'eys with the blinking lights? Just think we could use them in the Martini Bar while we waited;) Come on - I know you want to:rolleyes: :rolleyes:

[Sky Sweet]

Has anyone ever cancelled a reservation at the specialty restaurant because they felt so close to their table mates?

[MrLee]

Hi Babylene :)

 

I've often thought that the ideal solution to the problem of too early or too late would be to have each level of the dining room start at a slightly different time, so there would be four different times for dinner instead of just two.

 

If I remember correctly Holland America and Carnival do exactly that. There are 2 early seatings 1/2 hour apart and 2 late seatings 1/2 hour apart.

[Rev22:17]

Sky Sweet,

 

If open seating on the new Journey is successful, how would you feel if Celebrity decided to implement that policy fleet wide?

 

I once got stuck in "Anytime Dining" on a Princess cruise, and found that arrangement to be very undesirable for several reason.

 

>> 1. The practical reality is that the normal dinner seatings are timed to coincide with the shows. Thus, you are pretty much forced to dine within a few minutes of the scheduled seatings if you want to see the evening show anyway. As a result, the supposed flexibility is imaginary.

 

>> 2. When you have the same table, and thus the same waitstaff, every evening, your waitstaff get to know your preferences during the first evening or two of the cruise and anticipate your requests thereafter, bringing what they know that you will want without waiting for you to ask. With open seating, this is impossible so the service is considerably less efficient beyond the first or second evening.

 

>> 3. With an open seating arrangment, there tends to be a lot more commotion in the dining room due to the traffic created by passengers entering and leaving at random times. With fixed seating, most passengers sit down to dinner and remain settled until the end of the meal so the amount of commotion is a lot less.

 

>> 4. When you have different tablemates each evening, the relationship tends to remain at a superficial level. When you have the same tablemates each evening, there's an opportunity to develop real friendships that can endure beyond the end of the cruise.

 

Indeed, the introduction of "Anytime Dining" and the attendant difficulty in getting "Traditional Dining (often oversubscribed) on Princess was a major factor in my decision to change cruise lines about four years ago.

 

That said, you seem to have fallen into the trap of interpreing the "open seating" arrangement aboard MV Celebrity Journey and MV Celebrity Quest is a trial for the rest of the Celebrity fleet. In fact, the parent company has stated clearly that these vessels are joining MY Celebrity Xpedition in the "Celebrity Expeditions" fleet, which the company is evolving into a distinct subbrand from Celebrity Cruises. The main dining room of MY Celebrity Xpedition already has "open seating" for dinner, so it's logical for its new fleetmates to do likewise.

 

Norm.

[ron46936]

There is a big difference between the "Freestyle" dining on NCL and open seating on other lines. That is because the newer (since 2000) NCL ships were designed for that type of dining from the beginning. Also the show schedules are designed with that in mind. Trying to implement that open seating on a ship with limited dining options just doesn't fly very well.

 

One of the consideration with fixed dining is that if you book last minute cruises then you will often not get your preference for dining times. On our last RCCL cruise we were assigned to early seating even though we booked late seating months in advance. After waiting several minutes in line we were told they could set up a table in the aisle for us. We declined that option. Did I mention that was our last RCCL cruise?

 

For my wife and I we have found that if we are traveling with a group of friends we prefer open seating. When traveling alone we prefer assigned seating because it gives us a chance to make new friends.

 

As far as picking a cruise line we choose the one that goes where and when we want and is the best value. Dining options are secondary.

 

Our cruise experience is:

 

NCL 10 cruises, RCCL 7 cruises, Celebrity 3 cruises, HAL 2 cruises, and Carnival one cruise.

[CrabbyHarper]

We cruised on Summit two years ago - for 14 days. Only ate in the dining room the first two nights. We had a table for eight, and it was the last one in the dining room to be served and cleared. I have a bad back and simply cannot sit at a table for two hours. We then ate at the dining room on the upper deck where one can get reservations every night. The view was gorgeous. We always made our reservations for 6:00, had the same wait staff, tipped them every night on the spot, were finished by 7:00 and went to the spa thalassotherapy pool which we had for ourselves. Now this schedule is not for everyone but it sure suited us!

Looking forward to Journey cruise on Sept 8. We will be with another couple, and can eat as early as 5:30. It is also a boon NOT to have to bring formal clothes.

Nope, don't book us on NCL or Princess: tried them once, but never again. Just because we don't like formal attire doesn't mean we eat peas with our knives or show up in tattered blue jeans. We love X and think we'll love the new Journey.

But for you folks who love to dress up - more power to ya!:)

[BikerAl]

I want to change my vote. I think traditional is the best and pushed the wrong button, so minus one for open and plus one for traditional.

[spencerdrivecruiser]

We prefer assigned seating.

[Captain Cosmo]

I think the issue of open dining on the M-Class ships is probably moot, since there simply isn't room enough to seat more than half the passengers at a time. However, if the ship can handle it - like Journey, with only 700 passengers - then I think open dining offers more flexibility. I think the idea of sitting down to dine with total strangers is somewhat strange, but I understand that its a personal preference. My wife and I have very "social" jobs, dealing with a variety of people all day long. Going on vacation is a time for us to relax and experience new places and NOT have to make small talk with others while trying to enjoy dinner. That said, I do like having the same waiters each night, but I would prefer the freedom to have dinner at any time. We choose late seatings so that we're not rushed to dinner on days when we have shore excursions, but on "at sea" days would prefer to eat earlier, so open dining at least offers that appeal. I do think it would be a mistake for X to implement open dining, not just because the ships won't be able to handle it, but also because its a feature that most X cruisers like. I never play bridge and don't need a dance host, but when those things were eliminated I did feel bad for those who enjoyed those activities. So, probably best to leave it alone, but in view of the decisions being made by X lately, if they can figure out some way that this will save them money they'll dump the traditional dining.