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Diners Arriving Late


osiebosie

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Posted

I was laying in bed this morning remembering my cruise and for some reason thought about the people who arrived very late for dinner every night. One family, around 8 people, arrived at 6:25 - 6:35 every night. Of course, dinner begins at 6:00. Another family, around 5 people, arrived at 6:45 every night. Every night of the cruise that we were in the dining room, which was every night except one when we went to Sun King these people waltzed in late. You could see the faces on the wait staff fall. I believe the same waitress had both families.

 

I just don't understand how people can be so rude. :mad:

 

Please, if this is your first cruise coming up, or even if not, try to be somewhat timely. It is your vacation, but it's not all about you.

 

We cruised with friends, and she works at Cracker Barrel. We discussed the late diners and she said of course Carnival won't say anything, because then the late diners would get mad, and you can't have that. She said you wouldn't believe what people pull at Cracker Barrel all of the time for a free meal, and CB just pays it.

 

Okay, that's off of my chest. Now for the good memories... :p

 

Shay

Posted

As rude as it to the staff, it's also rude to the latecomers table mates. We had a couple that always arrived late on our first cruise. Our waiters would start our service, but then when they'd come in late, we'd have to wait for them to catch up with us course wise. So if we already had our apps and were waiting for entrees, we had to wait for them to order and get their apps so we could all get our entrees together. How rude of the latecomers- no regard for anyone else!

Posted

Oh, you're right, I didn't think of that. But these were large enough parties that they had their own tables. One of the parties had a hc person in a wheelchair.

 

I can understand it one night or so, but every night? Come on!

 

Shay

Posted
Oh, you're right, I didn't think of that. But these were large enough parties that they had their own tables. One of the parties had a hc person in a wheelchair.

 

I can understand it one night or so, but every night? Come on!

 

Shay

 

 

I hate to be a bother, so it would take a lot for me to ask for a new table, but i HATE to wait (major personality flaw) and I can assure you if I were at their table and they did that two or three nights in a row...and caused me to be in the DR for more than normal, they would want me to be moved!!!

 

on a side note, you signature makes me chuckle! I luv the name 'seaweed':D

Posted

On the first night of our last cruise the party of four at the table next to us arrived about 45 minutes late. The waiter quickly but politely pointed out that "dinner is at 6:00". They were on time every night after that.

Posted
I was laying in bed this morning remembering my cruise and for some reason thought about the people who arrived very late for dinner every night. One family, around 8 people, arrived at 6:25 - 6:35 every night. Of course, dinner begins at 6:00. Another family, around 5 people, arrived at 6:45 every night. Every night of the cruise that we were in the dining room, which was every night except one when we went to Sun King these people waltzed in late. You could see the faces on the wait staff fall. I believe the same waitress had both families.

 

I just don't understand how people can be so rude. :mad:

 

Please, if this is your first cruise coming up, or even if not, try to be somewhat timely. It is your vacation, but it's not all about you.

 

We cruised with friends, and she works at Cracker Barrel. We discussed the late diners and she said of course Carnival won't say anything, because then the late diners would get mad, and you can't have that. She said you wouldn't believe what people pull at Cracker Barrel all of the time for a free meal, and CB just pays it.

 

Okay, that's off of my chest. Now for the good memories... :p

 

Shay

You have 2 slightly negative threads going at this time. I truly understand what you have probably been mulling over in your mind as it happens to me all the time. I usually lose sleep the night before and then I want to post all the nonsense that I have observed on cruises/restaurants/etc.

 

Now, believe me I am not disagreeing with you. I usually don't bother to start the threads as mine would only garner flames anyway.

 

It is good to know that I am not alone out there with knowing what is the right way to do things......6:00 is 6:10 at the latest. Although we are always on time. And we love Cracker Barrel way too much to be nasty to the very pleasant staff we have always encountered there.:)

Posted

We had the same exact problem on our last cruise. The family at the next table (mom, dad and 2 kids) would waltz in at least 25 minutes late every night. Not only that, but when the waiter came to take their order, they would take forever asking questions and cutting up trying to be cute. Even though our order had been taken, our food was always delayed to catch them up. Not once did we get our food until it was time for "showtime" and we got really fed up. Several times we didn't even have our entree yet when the show started. We finally just gave up on the last couple of nights and ate at the buffet so that we could dine when we wanted to rather than be held up by inconsiderate bores. Sorry, but I blame the Maitre'd for allowing this family to not only inconvenience the wait staff but the passengers as well.

Posted

In this day and age of me me me, there are some that couldn't care less they are making people wait

 

It falls on the cruise lines to make showing on time or within 10mins, otherwise the doors are closed and only option is buffet.

 

But we all know that if the same "me" person wasn't allowed in the dining room they would be removing the tips as soon as the door hit them in the A$$ on the way back out. :D:D

Posted

I agree with you. It's rude to arrive so late every night. I think if you're going to be more than 15 minutes late you should eat somewhere else. It's difficult for the wait staff to keep things flowing smoothly when one of their tables arrives so late.

 

And as for people pulling stuff at Cracker Barrel so they get a free meal, I was a waitress for 12 years and we had a few of those too. What irked me the most was when someone would complain about something at the cash register when they were paying their bill. I would ask them if they ate their meal and they would say "well, yes..." Well, then I'm sorry but there isn't anything I can do for you. After your first couple of bites is when you should tell your server that something isn't right, not after you've cleaned your plate.

Posted

What's the protocol for when you don't want to eat in the dining room a particular night? I don't want to be rude to the other table mates or the waiter/waitress. I always thought eating in the dining room was a dining choice and if you wanted to eat there you could but if not, you didn't have to.

Posted

Happened to us on our Legend cruise and the late comers made a comment about us always getting the window seat, I said if you want the window seat then you should show up on time :) Every night they would show up late and be half in the bag, fortunately or should I say unfortunately they were crusing with us so I didn't feel badly about saying something to them. DH is a stickler about being on time for everything so we rarely if ever show up late. For times when we knew we weren't going to be in the dining room we always let the wait team know the night before if at all possible :)

Posted
What's the protocol for when you don't want to eat in the dining room a particular night? I don't want to be rude to the other table mates or the waiter/waitress. I always thought eating in the dining room was a dining choice and if you wanted to eat there you could but if not' date=' you didn't have to.[/quote']

 

If you know in advance that you won't be at dinner, ie, the night before, tell the waitstaff and table mates that you will not be there. If you don't know in advance, you could tell the waitstaff, any night I am not here by 10 minutes into dinner time, 6:10 as an example, it means we are not going to be there for dinner, so don't wait for us.

 

That, of course, means you need to be on time for dinner the nights you will be there. The above has worked for us.

Enjoy!

Posted

Two years ago there was a family that always showed up at 7 pm. The poor waiter was just run ragged. The waiter told his boss about this family so they would know what was going on. Sure enough the family did complain about him for not being friendly enough. The good thing was that his boss stood up for him and they were told that if they would show up on time he may have more time to be a little friendlier to them. I refer to people like this as mind over matter. I don't mind because you don't matter.

Posted

I don't know about anytime dining. I'm not sure how that works with a regular main/late seating. I suppose it's possible if it means you just come in when you want. But I thought that main dining had to be finished in time for them to get cleaned up and set up for late dining.

 

Shay

Posted
In this day and age of me me me, there are some that couldn't care less they are making people wait

 

It falls on the cruise lines to make showing on time or within 10mins, otherwise the doors are closed and only option is buffet.

 

But we all know that if the same "me" person wasn't allowed in the dining room they would be removing the tips as soon as the door hit them in the A$$ on the way back out. :D:D

 

i seem to remember many many years ago they closed the doors to the dining room a little after meal time. i am sure that the idiots that wanted to break these rules threw a big enough fit that changed. i keep my mouth shut to alot of things , but rest assure if someone messed up our timing i would have to comment. we make it on time (usually outside the door waiting for it to open)

the attitude of cruisers has gotten very much "it's all about me, me, me" for some strange reason the cruise lines have allowed this to snowball.

Posted

I am one of those people that has to be everywhere 10 minutes early, however to be honest we were 15-20 minutes late for every dinner on our last cruise, we were traveling as a group, the group had it's own table and at least for us the problem was the early seating.

 

We always have the late seating, this time however we were traveling with our nieces (4,7) so we had to have early seating. This proved to be more trouble (for us) then we thought it would be, just getting freshened up and changed proved to be a hassle.

 

Now we were totally to blame, however the staff could not of been better with it, I did say sorry to the wait staff, the family is used to it.

 

We are back on late seating for our next 3 cruises.

Posted

I remember them shutting the doors. And, I had heard that (not sure which cruise line) after a certain time all you could order was the entree.

 

Shay

Posted

I do like sitting at a big table and meeting new people. But over the years, I have had my share of late diners at my table. My companions and I get there on time, and the waiter takes our orders. Sometimes we get our appetizers when the late diners show up. This makes the rest of our meal late. We have to wait until the late guests give their orders and get their appetizers. Then we all get served our entrees, usually when everyone around us is finishing their desserts. I absolutely hate having to wait for people who can't get to an assigned seating on time. If you can't make it on time, go to the buffet.

 

Sometimes the head waiter will seat late people at various tables with empty seats. Most of the time, it's my table (seems that way, anyway). After so many cruises of annoying tablemates, we just ask the maitre d' for a table for two.

Posted
Just curious. Are you sure that the latecomers were not anytime dining?

 

 

 

Anytime diners are seated in a separate area from scheduled dining. As an aside, if you're with a group of more than 4, it'll be a wait for you to be seated in the anytime dining.

Posted

On our Sensation cruise, we were seated with four other people. The other couple were always prompt and the two young 20 something girls were not, in fact after the first night they never showed back up at our table. But our dining partners simply stated to the waiter, "we are not waiting for them", if they are not here, then getting fed was there own problem. Our service was wonderful.

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