Topic: Open Dining

In a probably vain attempt to get away from the two most written about subjects can I ask for your thoughts on:

OPEN DINING

Do you think that it is about time that the cruise lines stopped messing about with two sittings? Surely it is not beyond their expertise to provide an open dining situation each and every night. People always want to eat at different times and yet they are still regimented into filing sheep-like to the same tables every night irrespective of what they have been doing, what plans they have and what new friends they have made.

One of the best bits of cruising on Azamara, and some of the more expensive lines, is being able to come to dinner when you want and to dine on your own or with different companions each time. There is nothing to stop a party of family or friends having a table to themselves or joining someone on a regular basis but I think that they should give us the option.

I realise that this provision is partly satisfied by the new "My Time" dining schemes but many of them require you to book a time at which you wish to dine and few allow you just to turn up.

I am not saying this is imperative or what must happen....I just want to know what you think. ....Neil

As someone who has never had ' bad' set dining companions, I would be against this idea. Late/set dining suits us. Our holidays are our down time and the thought of having to reserve a specific dining time every day scenario is not my idea of down time. I'm not a good queuer and the idea of a lineup to dine in the evening is also dreadful thought.

I find myself with very mixed views on this, but can see the need for change otherwise the large grand restaurants will die, as I have witnessed at times cruising out of the US, down to 50% usage on some cruises. I like the ‘buzz’ of the traditional dining where you all arrive together and the waiters are all geared up to serve, but that said, dining times are getting later & later, particularly on some Med cruises recently, 8.45 and even 9.15pm on one cruise. It’s just too late for ageing stomachs like mine!

I have done Freestyle on a few cruises and quite honestly it’s not for me. Unless you pre book every morning the chances are you may have to wait for a table or given the choice of a pager, no thanks! I also miss the rapport you can build up over a cruise with your table waiter(s), which only comes with fixed dining. I have however booked ‘Select Dining’ on a forthcoming Celebrity, the bonus with that is you can pre book times over the net prior to sailing, a good compromise for me.

On the plus side we now have some excellent alternative specialty restaurants available, again omitting the need for a fixed MDR reservation, but the down side for me is with all these options, the formal nights are becoming less of a feature of cruising. I much preferred the old days where there was no cafes and burger bars open at night and you either dressed for the code of the evening or you didn’t get fed……..Now that will upset some!

QUOTE:

Do you think that it is about time that the cruise lines stopped messing about with two sittings? Surely it is not beyond their expertise to provide an open dining situation each and every night. People always want to eat at different times and yet they are still regimented into filing sheep-like to the same tables every night irrespective of what they have been doing, what plans they have and what new friends they have made. ....Neil

Perhaps you should try Fred Olsen...?

Either: Go to your allocated table at the allocated time,
Or: Go to the open dining restaurant at a time of your choosing where the Maitre 'D greets you with "How many Sir?" and directs you to a table. You then choose either to order from the menu or to visit the buffet.

On the occasions we chose open dining on a recent cruise our table waiter always visited us to check we were being looked after in 'the other restaurant'.

Surely it's done like this on other cruise lines?

When P&O introduced Freedom dining on Oceana and Ventura, the procedure was that you had to book a time for each evening but you could only book from 8am that day. The result was the phone lines were engaged and by the time you got through, the popular time slots had gone. Then you had the problem of people turning up late for their allocated slot causing more chaos. So it was not really living up to the name of Freedom. It was not very long before the booking system was abolished and then you just turned up when you wanted, between 6pm and 9:30pm, and you were allocated a table. On the few occasions where you could not be seated immediately, you were given a pager. This system now seems to be working quite well from what I have heard, although I have never tried it myself, prefering to have the fixed time club dining. For the benefit of anyone who has not been on these ships, you cannot flip from one system to the other and you have to decide at the time of booking whether you want Freedom dining or Club dining, first or second sitting. The menus and food and more importantly, dress code, is the same whichever you choose.

To futher confuse things, P&O have in recent years introduced a themed buffet (i.e. Chinese, Indian, Italian, etc) in the self service restaurant, which is open to either Freedom or Club diners. Also on Ventura, they have in one section of the self service, an American style "diner", serving grills, steaks etc, with waiter service, which is operated on a first come first served basis.

Additionally, there are the speciality (i.e. extra supplement payable) restaurants.

There seem to be more and more dining options over and above the traditional main dining room experience.

I dont see how booking in advance for Select, My Time or Freedom, call it what you will, dining, gives you the flexibility on the day, which seems to defeat the object. You might as well book for fixed time dining and have done with it, although I suppose you can pick your own time slots,
Brian

Two x 1-week cruises on lowly Ocean Village Two
showed us that anytime dining can work for that cruise line
OK that ship..
although our other cruises on Carnival, with dining set at 6:00 or 6:15 p.m.
also worked very well -on those ships
which leads one to analyse that maybe it's the individual ship/Maitre d'
who gets their act together
rather than the system they opted for?



Great guys on Carnival Victory!
.

We prefer fixed dining, late sitting on a large table. From our previous experiences, we have enjoyed the company of the people we were seated with and looked forward to meeting them each evening. On our last cruise, we went with a couple we had first met on a cruise 2 years ago. In addition, we are able to enjoy the service and rapport with the same restaurant staff each evening.

On the only occasion we experienced open dining, which was on a Princess cruise some years ago, we just turned up when we felt like it, often had to queue and then shared a table with whoever turned up at that time. I understand that others prefer open dining and think that there should be the flexibility to offer both open and fixed. However, if you don't want queueing or reservations, how are the restaurants going to cope?

QUOTE:

I dont see how booking in advance for Select, My Time or Freedom, call it what you will, dining, gives you the flexibility on the day, which seems to defeat the object. You might as well book for fixed time dining and have done with it, although I suppose you can pick your own time slots,
Brian

Whilst I like having the fixed dining option and the routine, building up rapport with the table waiters etc, the problem is that early sitting is too early and late sitting is too late.
Late sittings seem to have got later and later in time. 8 or 8.15 is not so bad, but more recently we are finding that late sitting is more like 8.45 which means you actually do not start getting served until past 9, then finishing dinner really late, so late that all you then want to do is retire to bed. On some of the Carnival line ships, they actually have split shifts for early and late; 6 and 6.30 then 8.45 and 9.15.
Ideally I like to start dining at somewhere between 7.30 and 8pm, hence I like the new Celebrity option of being able to preselect your dining time on their new Select Dining option. It will be interesting to find out whether as we have selected the same time each evening, if we will be allocated the same table each evening, as this would make it just perfect.

On Thomsons Celebration and Spirit, plus the new Dream they have anytime dining with the restaurant open from 6pm to 9.30. This worked for me as I like eating early and at 6.45 you walk right in and can even have the same table each night. In contrast on Destiny they have two sittings with allocated tables and I can't understand why differing ships in the same company have different policies, unlesss it is something to do with the kitchen layout, staffing levels etc. The restaurants can seat 50% of the passengers so if everyone decides to eat at once it could be chaos.

What I dont like at the moment with the current system of 2 set dining times and then the 'alternative restaurants', is you see so many tables empty in the main dining room obviously as the occupants have chosen to dine in the buffet or elsewhere.
I have had a rare occasion where we were landed with first sitting dinner which we hate (far too early) and on occasion went to the second sitting to see if the Maitre D would kindly find us a table. Despite nearly 50% of tables being unoccupied it was a No No - the table was reserved for whomever (who obviously were not going to turn) this was now 15 to 20 minutes past the set dining time.
They should put a time limit on being late to your table and then be able to offer it to those who would like to dine at a different sitting.
This being apart from the freedom/anytime dining of course.