Open Seating?

[flvol77]

What ships currently have Open Seating? (Mariner?)

 

How long is the "trial" for?

 

Thanks,

[FitzLA]

Right now, they are only testing open seating on Freedom of the Seas. I am not sure how long, but I think it will be ending within the next couple of months. No other ships currently offer this option.

[mitaxi]

Right now, they are only testing open seating on Freedom of the Seas. I am not sure how long, but I think it will be ending within the next couple of months. No other ships currently offer this option.

 

I just booked Freedom for April 09 - and was surprised to be asked if I wanted open seating... so must not be ending too soon...

[Tranquil Waters]

I just booked Freedom for April 09 - and was surprised to be asked if I wanted open seating... so must not be ending too soon...

 

I am not at all surprised. I said from the beginning that I thought it was more of a way to ease the loyal RCI customers who like traditional into the change. I never thougtht it was a real "trial".

 

RCI is not stupid (if their current profits statements are any indication). Any time/freestyle is a cheaper product to offer. So the change will come. But they think (probably rightly) that if they let people get used to the idea slowly - "It's only a trial." "It's only on Freedom class". "It's now fleetwide". - then they will lose less customers with the change.

 

That is how I am seeing it anyway. :( :)

[harleyglide]

:eek: I tried the open seating concept twice last time just few months ago,not for us they go this route its time to cruise with someone else:( fast food meets cruising imo

[mitaxi]

:eek: I tried the open seating concept twice last time just few months ago,not for us they go this route its time to cruise with someone else:( fast food meets cruising imo

 

You still have the choice of Main, Late or Open seating.... I did choose the traditional late seating....

[Tranquil Waters]

You still have the choice of Main, Late or Open seating.... I did choose the traditional late seating....

 

For now anyway.........

[cheaptravel]

Just knowing how we are, I think me and my hubby would work well with open seating. Many times, we missed out on a show or activity we wanted to do because of time conflicts with dinner. With "open seating," we could work around this.

[mitaxi]

For now anyway.........

 

When the choice disapears....then so do I...:(

[Tranquil Waters]

When the choice disapears....then so do I...:(

 

Needless to say I was being somewhat sarcastic. But I do think it is another case of RCI trying to be all things to all people. And as always seems to be the case, when you try that you end up pleasing no one.

 

I just picture it being a mess - the way RCI main dining rooms are structured with all levels being open to each other. It would be different if you had closed separate smaller dining rooms and you could vary how many of each would be traditional and how many would be freestyle depending on the preferences of cruisers on each sailing. So that people could truly all get what they preferred. But with the big, open RCI dining rooms it will be people constantly coming and going during the meal. And I can't imagine it being any better for the freestyle people who happen to be dining as the mass entrance and exit of the traditional seating occurs.

 

But only time will tell how it all works out........ If I, personally, am lucky - they will just have freestyle on the new mega ships that will sail with large numbers of children and families looking for all the activities of the larger ships. Freestyle seems to fit more with that demographic.

 

And then they can leave the smaller, more intimate ships that I really enjoy alone. ;) :D

[mitaxi]

Needless to say I was being somewhat sarcastic. But I do think it is another case of RCI trying to be all things to all people. And as always seems to be the case, when you try that you end up pleasing no one.

 

I just picture it being a mess - the way RCI main dining rooms are structured with all levels being open to each other. It would be different if you had closed separate smaller dining rooms and you could vary how many of each would be traditional and how many would be freestyle depending on the preferences of cruisers on each sailing. So that people could truly all get what they preferred. But with the big, open RCI dining rooms it will be people constantly coming and going during the meal. And I can't imagine it being any better for the freestyle people who happen to be dining as the mass entrance and exit of the traditional seating occurs.

 

But only time will tell how it all works out........ If I, personally, am lucky - they will just have freestyle on the new mega ships that will sail with large numbers of children and families looking for all the activities of the larger ships. Freestyle seems to fit more with that demographic.

 

And then they can leave the smaller, more intimate ships that I really enjoy alone. ;) :D

 

 

I hope you are right.....

[PSCruiser]

I am anti-open seating, but as for having to break up the big dining rooms, I could see them running it with maybe the 2nd and 3rd levels (and 4th on Genesis?) being open, while main level was traditional. Not as nice, but workable. Wonder how it is being done on Freedom?

Actually, the big Princess ships have a pretty good system offering both, the only problem is that the don't have enough traditional, so there is always a wait list.

Tranquil - why do you think open saves money?

[Ephraim]

When the choice disappears....then so do I...:(

 

Empty threat. If you don't go, they will certainly be able to sell the berth easily to someone else. Where are you going to go anyway? It's just going to cost you extra money to try to keep things the way they were. It's like keeping a Cadillac Coupe de Ville from 1970 in the age of the Honda Civic. Sure, it looks nice, but who the heck wants to pay the gas prices, roll down the windows and spend days hunting down the parts and/or air conditioner refrigerant.

 

The reality is that it will come, simply because so many people are choosing other cruise lines because of it. People want choice and not everyone likes to have dinner at 6PM or 8:30PM. Denial isn't a river in Egypt. These are mass-market cruise lines and they need to cater to the mass-market. The cruise lines have proved that you will accept changes without so much as a comment as the quality of food has decreased. Sure, you say, you are still being given lobster... but it's no longer from New England. The number of inferior cuts of meat now served on a cruise astonishes me. (It wouldn't be so bad if they at least knew how to prepare these cuts instead of trying to get away with cooking them like steaks and expecting them to be tender.)

 

I dislike having dinner with the 6PM crowd. After dinner and until the second seating ends the ship is essentially lifeless! (Go to the casino at that time and see how easy it is to get a seat, ANYWHERE!) On a European cruise out of Spain even dinner at 8:30PM is considered VERY EARLY. The reality is that you aren't just catering to Americans, a ship is now a worldwide community. Further, Americans are now the least profitable of consumers on a cruise ship. The prices for a cruise are far more profitable for the cruise lines when sold in Europe (which is why they go to such lengths to keep Europeans from paying US prices). And let's face it, money talk and all else walks. You will see more and more of what Europeans want on cruises in the future. Especially considering that the cruise lines are going to have more and more trouble finding employees as the salaries are generally paid in USD and the US currency has lost 20% of it's value in the last year. (How would you feel if your salary went down 20% in less than a year... for Canadians working on cruise ships, it's almost 25% in 4 months!)

 

The fact is, I would have never gone cruising a second time without it. Our first experience with cruising was Traditional Dining and our dining companions were so bad that we swore never to go cruising again. Then NCL offered freestyle and we gave it a try because we knew we couldn't get stuck with horrible table mates.

 

I think a lot of people are in for a few surprises over the next year or so. The cruise lines will have no choice but to start to move prices upward as well as tipping amounts will change if the USD doesn't regain some of it's value. It's going to be harder and harder to find good people to fill jobs. And the USD price of cruises in Europe will have to increase just to compensate for the costs in EUR.

[Tranquil Waters]

I am anti-open seating, but as for having to break up the big dining rooms, I could see them running it with maybe the 2nd and 3rd levels (and 4th on Genesis?) being open, while main level was traditional. Not as nice, but workable. Wonder how it is being done on Freedom?

Actually, the big Princess ships have a pretty good system offering both, the only problem is that the don't have enough traditional, so there is always a wait list.

Tranquil - why do you think open saves money?

 

I read an article a year or so ago in a travel magazine - could not tell you which one (was in a doctor's office) that talked about the difference. With traditonal dining, the meal is served in courses and each course is served - whether it is a course that you would normally eat or not. And since you are sitting there with your table mates -waiting for the course to be served and eaten anyway - what are you going to do. Sit and just watch everyone else eat? So you order something (anything) even if you just pick at it or eat more than you really want. Next course same thing. Everyone at table ends up ordering something from each course. $$$.

 

BTW, that is also why you see that RCI has now combined some of its courses. You can still order appetizer, soup, and salad but they are not all listed as separate course anymore and so not everyone at the table will order all three. Over the course of how many tables and how many ships and how many sailings a year - it does make a difference.

 

However, with freestyle people are not always eating on the exact same schedule and so they are less likely to order courses that they do not really want. Plus they are not as likely to order seconds of something if they are not just sitting waiting for time for the next course to be served because some of their table mates are talking more than eating and still working on their first servings. It is not really in RCI's financial interest to have more prolonged meals with tablemates really knowing each other and making an "event" of the meal - they tend to go through more food in that senerio. Which leads to increased costs.

 

That was the gist of the article anyway - and it does make sense to me. :)

[harleyglide]

:) We did the freestyle thing on ncl ,hated it! IMO its like fast food dining and i realy dont care about this global thing,they start losing cruisers this experiment will go nowhere.Whats everyone in a hurry ,theres a small minority trying to change a real good thing RCCL has going for them:confused:

[flvol77]

:) We did the freestyle thing on ncl ,hated it! IMO its like fast food dining and i realy dont care about this global thing,they start losing cruisers this experiment will go nowhere.Whats everyone in a hurry ,theres a small minority trying to change a real good thing RCCL has going for them:confused:

 

 

I haven't been on RCI in years but you can't compare the two. NCL's food (in the dining room) is just flat our horrible, its not because of open seating its because they spend the lowest pp on food than anyone in the industry, next is carnival. Also I think that NCL has below avg food in their dining rooms so that they can move people to their specialty restaurants and get the upcharge from them. It worked with us, on our NCL cruise we ate at 4 of the specialty restaurants and IMO Asian food was outstanding.

 

Princess would be a clearer indication of whether you like anytime dining or not.

 

I hope RCI at least offers open seating. We love it, we don't like the 2 and 3 hour meals that we have got with Traditional dining, yeah is it nice to have your server know your name and what you want to drink before you sit down? sure, but IMO my wife and I like to eat and be done with it, we are done with dinner in most cases in 45mins (on Princess) and we have the rest of the evening.

[Tranquil Waters]

I haven't been on RCI in years but you can't compare the two. NCL's food (in the dining room) is just flat our horrible, its not because of open seating its because they spend the lowest pp on food than anyone in the industry, next is carnival. Also I think that NCL has below avg food in their dining rooms so that they can move people to their specialty restaurants and get the upcharge from them. It worked with us, on our NCL cruise we ate at 4 of the specialty restaurants and IMO Asian food was outstanding.

 

Princess would be a clearer indication of whether you like anytime dining or not.

 

I hope RCI at least offers open seating. We love it, we don't like the 2 and 3 hour meals that we have got with Traditional dining, yeah is it nice to have your server know your name and what you want to drink before you sit down? sure, but IMO my wife and I like to eat and be done with it, we are done with dinner in most cases in 45mins (on Princess) and we have the rest of the evening.

 

Ahhh, you said a mouthful there. ;) RCI is working on that "below avg food in their dining rooms so they can move people to their specialty restaurants and get the upcharge from them" thing. They are also working on the open seating to encourage that "done with dinner in most cases in 45mins" thing. It is all a win-win for them.

[flvol77]

There is no way the food could ever be as bad as the dining room food on NCL

 

I would have rather ate at a steak and shake then go to their dining room (not that there is anything wrong with steak and shake)

 

 

I want RCI to go to Open Dining for selfish reasons, we we a different cruise line. We love Princess but honestly we are bored with the same ship design and the same ole things. Plus we are 45mins from Port Canaveral and it would be nice to try the Mariner before she leaves. (I assume another RCI ship will replace her?/?) But we have heard so many good things about the Mariner and its time to go back to RCI.

[Wilba]

Can I add a Europeans view to the move towards Freestyle. Up until about 10 years ago all my Cruises had been in & around the Mediterranean where people made more effort, & still do I might add, to dress for Dinner. It came as a culture shock to me on my first cruise out of the U.S. to see so many empty tables in the Main Dining Room, obviously because people like to "Relax" in the Open Buffet. I commented then that this would lead to the "Freestyle" becoming the way cruise ships would go. To answer PS Cruisers Question, how does it save money, If tables are empty in the Main Dining Room, staff are being paid to stand around for 2 hours. I go along with most comments that "Freestyle" is not for me. My imagination runs riot imagining all those pre prepared meals waiting to be microwaved for our eating pleasure.

[robntawn]

I am not at all surprised. I said from the beginning that I thought it was more of a way to ease the loyal RCI customers who like traditional into the change. I never thougtht it was a real "trial".

 

RCI is not stupid (if their current profits statements are any indication). Any time/freestyle is a cheaper product to offer. So the change will come. But they think (probably rightly) that if they let people get used to the idea slowly - "It's only a trial." "It's only on Freedom class". "It's now fleetwide". - then they will lose less customers with the change.

 

That is how I am seeing it anyway. :( :)

For what it's worth, I agree with you. I think RCCL has been planning on doing this for a while, and scheduled this "trial" even though they were going to roll it out anyway.

 

Hey, it's their company...they can do what they want. But please don't make it seem like we've got a say when we don't!

[robntawn]

Just knowing how we are, I think me and my hubby would work well with open seating. Many times, we missed out on a show or activity we wanted to do because of time conflicts with dinner. With "open seating," we could work around this.

Just curiously, how did dinner schedules conflict with show schedules on RCCL? Their shows are planned around the dinner schedules.

[Tranquil Waters]

For what it's worth, I agree with you. I think RCCL has been planning on doing this for a while, and scheduled this "trial" even though they were going to roll it out anyway.

 

Hey, it's their company...they can do what they want. But please don't make it seem like we've got a say when we don't!

 

I hear ya........

[cheaptravel]

Just curiously, how did dinner schedules conflict with show schedules on RCCL? Their shows are planned around the dinner schedules.

 

 

Excuse me, not shows in particular, but "happenings." We preferred and had the later seating, but there were a few nights we would have chosen to eat earlier. I know something had us tied up during the Captain's welcome speech, but I can't remember at this time what it was. Stuff like that.

[abridalmaven]

I haven't been on RCI in years but you can't compare the two. NCL's food (in the dining room) is just flat our horrible, its not because of open seating its because they spend the lowest pp on food than anyone in the industry, next is carnival. Also I think that NCL has below avg food in their dining rooms so that they can move people to their specialty restaurants and get the upcharge from them. It worked with us, on our NCL cruise we ate at 4 of the specialty restaurants and IMO Asian food was outstanding.

That was my thoughts exactly when we did NCL. And on our cruise (and we have 300 people who were on it who concurred, but with the exception of about 6-8 of us, we all went our different ways for meals) the maining DR dervice was painfully slow and inept and very bland.

[Emi's Mom]

:eek: I tried the open seating concept twice last time just few months ago,not for us they go this route its time to cruise with someone else:( fast food meets cruising imo

 

It seems that a lot of RCL cruisers are strongly opinionated (one way or the other) concerning open seating concept for dining. I think it would work out for me though, because early seating is really too early for me and late seating is a little too late. I can't wait for a ship that I'm sailing on has it so that I can form a true opinion of my own.