Open Seating?

[Jeka]

:) 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:

 

 

Small minority, says who?

[Wilba]

NCL were the pioneers of "Freestyle" & if it's so good why do they get so many complaints of poor food & service. I've done 2 NCL's & 55 other Cruises. The worst food & service has been on the 2 NCL Ships by a fair margin, waiters who couldn't care less, slow to non exsistant service, & food cold when it eventually arrived. As for eat anytime, don't be fooled, if the DR is full they give you a pager. So much for eating at your convenience. For me, part of the Cruise Experience is the rapport with your Table Waiters & if I wanted to eat "freestyle" I'd go to McDonalds.

[SherriZ366]

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...

We are on FOS on 2/23/08 -- will post if I find out if they are extending the trial through that sailing and offering freestyle. Hope more folks who have been on the trial sailings on FOS will post about the impact. Have heard that they used deck 5 for freestyle but only through hearsay from traditional passengers.

[billyelliot]

We are going on the freedom in april. i was asked by my TA which seating i wanted? please dont tell me we will all have to be free style:eek: Its something Im looking forward to:dressing up and meeting new people. Will we have a choice?

[RetireeWannabee]

NCL were the pioneers of "Freestyle" & if it's so good why do they get so many complaints of poor food & service. I've done 2 NCL's & 55 other Cruises. The worst food & service has been on the 2 NCL Ships by a fair margin, waiters who couldn't care less, slow to non exsistant service, & food cold when it eventually arrived. As for eat anytime, don't be fooled, if the DR is full they give you a pager. So much for eating at your convenience. For me, part of the Cruise Experience is the rapport with your Table Waiters & if I wanted to eat "freestyle" I'd go to McDonalds.

 

Sounds like open seating is not the problem with NCL but that staff is the real problem. Wait staff and kitchen staff.

 

When you eat should not affect quality. same should be true for service (I would, however, expect bumps with RC having not had this model previously).

 

If the food is bad, it would not be better with traditional seating. Horrible chef won't suddenly be great just because there are 2 seatings.

 

jmho

[SherriZ366]

We are going on the freedom in april. i was asked by my TA which seating i wanted? please dont tell me we will all have to be free style:eek: Its something Im looking forward to:dressing up and meeting new people. Will we have a choice?

I'm hoping that if you were asked "which seating" that RCCL was offering main, late and open seating. From the very sketchy information we have been able to glean on this board, RCCL has deck 5 for open and decks 4 and 3 for traditional.

[Oville]

We are going on the freedom in april. i was asked by my TA which seating i wanted? please dont tell me we will all have to be free style:eek: Its something Im looking forward to:dressing up and meeting new people. Will we have a choice?

 

Why wouldn't you dress up for free style? I didn't read anything that indicated what you wear would change for free style.

[RevSmith]

I'm hoping the food will improve with freestyle...we shall all see...and I certainly can dream. It not it will be speciality only for me.

[ottmar]

In June we cruised on the Sapphire Prices Alaska cruise and chose "Personal Choice", in essence freestyle dining. There were five separate dining rooms. We had to call ahead before and ask for whatever personal choice dinning room we wanted and when we would be arriving, the dinning rooms featured the same fare except one specialty dish unique to that room.

 

They allocated three personal choice dining rooms for what was the early seating for the regular diners and two open choice dining rooms for when the late seating regulars came.

 

On formal nights everyone in the personal dining rooms were in formal dress.

 

On two of our seven previous cruises we had table partners with whom we couldn't communicate, one were Brazilian soccer team members who didn't speak English, German or Croatian, but there was a lot of screaming of Oba Oba or some such, the other one was four young men who were the most foul mouthed individuals imaginable, in both cases we got a table for two after a couple of nights.

 

Next month we are cruising on the Empress out of San Juan and who knows who our table partners are going to be for eleven nights. Open dining isn't that bad.

 

....Ott

[Merion_Mom]

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.

 

BLECH. :p

[Ohunion Cruzers]

Small minority, says who?

 

Refer back to the polls on these boards....you'll see.

[Wilba]

Sounds like open seating is not the problem with NCL but that staff is the real problem. Wait staff and kitchen staff.

 

When you eat should not affect quality. same should be true for service (I would, however, expect bumps with RC having not had this model previously).

 

If the food is bad, it would not be better with traditional seating. Horrible chef won't suddenly be great just because there are 2 seatings.

 

jmho

I agree with your logic in principle, but as I see the problem, it's not the quality or training of the staff, but the LACK OF STAFF. Cruise Lines are not making changes in the main DR because passengers are shouting from the rooftops to go Freestyle, they see this as a way of cutting back on the Wait staff. This probably goes for the Kitchen Staff too. These guys are under extreme pressure to perform & couldn't cope on the 2 NCL's Ive been on. Maybe my comments on Post No 19 of this thread may shed further light on this issue, or may just provoke a different response.Regards

[Jeka]

Refer back to the polls on these boards....you'll see.

 

I'll see that the majority of RCI CC members prefer traditional. What about the other 3,000,000 who cruise this line each year?

[Ohunion Cruzers]

I'll see that the majority of RCI CC members prefer traditional. What about the other 3,000,000 who cruise this line each year?

 

You would probably see that 2,250,000 of them would favor traditional seating.

[mgmigs]

all i can say of my experience doing freestyle on ncl is that it was horrible. the service was really bad and they just could not get it together. but that semed to be true in regards to most of the service on the ship. in my opinion, the rooms were dusty and dirty, the food was sub-standard and at times, not fit to eat and the wait staff did not know how to do thier job at all ie, meals coming out in bits and pieces, people at the table getting food at different times, not refilling drinks and being nowhere to be found most of the time.

 

i like gettting to know my waitstaff and having a personalized dining experince based on our interaction and the waiter getting to know my likes and dislikes.

[paggerscorvette]

This is just my opinion, but I am in favor of open dining or freestyle.

 

We have only taken 1 cruise and of course had the tablemates from h*ll. We would find ourselves at the pool bar or some other activity having a great time and have to leave to get to the dining room on time.

Like I said this would be my option. Please be nice and dont throw anything, lol.

 

Patty

[Jeka]

You would probably see that 2,250,000 of them would favor traditional seating.

 

And you got you numbers from where?

 

Do you honestly think RCI is doing this with the knowledge that they're going to annoy the vast majority of their cruisers? I agree with others that there must be a finiancal savings for them, but competition certainly is playing a role here. Princess, HAL and NCL offer flexible dining options and they are the lines that RCI is competing with for market share.

 

Another way of looking at this, if flexible dining is in such disfavor with the cruising public, why aren't Princess, HAL and NCL customers migrating to RCI, and why is RCI is looking into offering this option.

[Tranquil Waters]

And you got you numbers from where?

 

Do you honestly think RCI is doing this with the knowledge that they're going to annoy the vast majority of their cruisers? I agree with others that there must be a finiancal savings for them, but competition certainly is playing a role here. Princess, HAL and NCL offer flexible dining options and they are the lines that RCI is competing with for market share.

 

Another way of looking at this, if flexible dining is in such disfavor with the cruising public, why aren't Princess, HAL and NCL customers migrating to RCI, and why is RCI is looking into offering this option.

 

It stands to reason that CC members are a cross section of the cruising public. So proportionally the numbers would follow.....

 

I don't think it is competition (note RCI latest profit statement) as much as a cheaper product (freestyle) combined with trying to be all things to all people combined with if you work it in slowly hopefully less annoying "the vast majority of their cruisers".

[Ohunion Cruzers]

It stands to reason that CC members are a cross section of the cruising public. So proportionally the numbers would follow.....

 

I don't think it is competition (note RCI latest profit statement) as much as a cheaper product (freestyle) combined with trying to be all things to all people combined with if you work it in slowly hopefully less annoying "the vast majority of their cruisers".

 

Exactly!!!

 

It does not matter if you poll 100 RCI cruisers or 5 million RCI cruisers, the majority will vote for traditional. These polls work just as any other poll. Look at election polls; they are reasonably acurate to the final result. And those polls are taken from a smaller cross section of people.

[Jeka]

Exactly!!!

 

It does not matter if you poll 100 RCI cruisers or 5 million RCI cruisers, the majority will vote for traditional. These polls work just as any other poll. Look at election polls; they are reasonably acurate to the final result. And those polls are taken from a smaller cross section of people.

 

I absolutely can't agree. Most people on CC have cruised many times and knew traditional way back when. They love it as it has always been a very positive experience and remember past cruises as being very special because of it. I don't think many would argue that today's traditional dining continues to live up to past.

 

Fast forward: RCI is marketing to families and younger people. Ships are full or near full. They know they have the business of frequent cruisers like those on these pages but are going after cruisers from their competitors. What do those lines offer that RCI doesn't, freestyle.

[Jeka]

It stands to reason that CC members are a cross section of the cruising public. So proportionally the numbers would follow.....

 

I don't think it is competition (note RCI latest profit statement) as much as a cheaper product (freestyle) combined with trying to be all things to all people combined with if you work it in slowly hopefully less annoying "the vast majority of their cruisers".

 

You really don't believe this right? CC is made up for the most part of people who cruise a lot, not your average passenger on any given cruise.

[Tranquil Waters]

I absolutely can't agree. Most people on CC have cruised many times and knew traditional way back when. They love it as it has always been a very positive experience and remember past cruises as being very special because of it. I don't think many would argue that today's traditional dining continues to live up to past.

 

Fast forward: RCI is marketing to families and younger people. Ships are full or near full. They know they have the business of frequent cruisers like those on these pages but are going after cruisers from their competitors. What do those lines offer that RCI doesn't, freestyle.

 

All the young CC members (and they are plenitful) will love being classified with us middle age and golden oldie cruisers......:p

[FitzLA]

They obviously did 'poll' and the results showed that there were enough people that wanted anytime dining to justify testing it.

[Tranquil Waters]

You really don't believe this right? CC is made up for the most part of people who cruise a lot, not your average passenger on any given cruise.

 

Most of the people that I have met on cruises are NOT novice cruisers. RCI, in fact, has always enjoyed a large base of repeat cruisers - of all ages. At least up to now they have. The future could be a different story. Only time will tell......;)

[Bakincakes]

I absolutely can't agree. Most people on CC have cruised many times and knew traditional way back when. They love it as it has always been a very positive experience and remember past cruises as being very special because of it. I don't think many would argue that today's traditional dining continues to live up to past.

 

Fast forward: RCI is marketing to families and younger people. Ships are full or near full. They know they have the business of frequent cruisers like those on these pages but are going after cruisers from their competitors. What do those lines offer that RCI doesn't, freestyle.

 

Traditonal dining does nothing more than request your presence at a certain time for dinner. Not much different there other than todays cruisers just can't seem to bring themselves to follow a schedule of any kind.

 

Anytime means you can decide what time you wish to eat but sometimes it means you arrive at that time and then wait to be seated.

 

I agree this is about money not convenience. The food in the main dining room has been progressively going down hill. Enter the specialties. Better food...ambiance...and an extra surcharge. So pax are paying more for meals they used to get in the main dining room. And people are lapping it up like fine wine.:rolleyes:

 

Marketing genius...convince people they are getting something special that not everyone can have and they will run over each other to make a reservation. Meanwhile the food in the main dining room is mediocre and sometimes downright inedible. Portions are smaller,,cuts of meat aren't as good as they used to be..the lobster has now shrunk to nothing...can meatloaf and boxed mashed be far behind?

 

So now you can choose exactly what time you would like to sit down and eat the substandard offerings on RCI. Big deal.:)