Dinner in the main dining room

Do you need to make a reservation for dinner in the main dining room or do you just show up and are seated?

Thanks.

Either. You can make a reservation or just show up.

Either. You can make a reservation or just show up.

Did the waiters in MDR get to know you over the course of your cruise? Did you sit in the same area or table each night?

I am coming from Celebrity "late dining with fixed seating". I loved that the waiters got to know your preference and I got to trust them on their recommendations on the menu items too. I will be on a 15 day cruise.

Did the waiters in MDR get to know you over the course of your cruise? Did you sit in the same area or table each night?

I am coming from Celebrity "late dining with fixed seating". I loved that the waiters got to know your preference and I got to trust them on their recommendations on the menu items too. I will be on a 15 day cruise.

You may request to be seated in a certain areas or with certain waiters and they will oblige if possible. If there is a certain waiter you want, you can make a standing reservation so that you will be seated in their station each night.

Personally, I've done the fixed seating thing (and it is wonderful if you hit it off with your table mates) but then came river cruising with open seating and I just got used to the variety, which I have come to enjoy since we can request to be seated with others, or make dinner dates with others or just enjoy a table for two.

Thanks Peregrina for your quick response.

Good to know we have a variety of options.

I always sat at 6 or 8 table top. I love meeting people and most of our table mates were enjoyable with very interesting conversations .

Do like the option to invite others to join you for dinner too.

And eating at a table for two is new option for us.

We are two women who are good friends traveling on our first Viking cruise.

Thanks Peregrina for your quick response.

Good to know we have a variety of options.

I always sat at 6 or 8 table top. I love meeting people and most of our table mates were enjoyable with very interesting conversations .

Do like the option to invite others to join you for dinner too.

And eating at a table for two is new option for us.

We are two women who are good friends traveling on our first Viking cruise.

Our first cruise, we were traveling with my brother in law and his wife so dinner was always just the four of us, no matter where we were dining. On our second cruise, it was just the two of us. One night we had dinner with friends of my brother's sister-in-law, who in this small world also happened to have been the principal of my husband's high school (but not while my husband was there; and yes we had met them years ago but had no idea they would be on the ship). Another night, we invited one of the solo cruisers to join us and then we ended up joining two other couples at a table. My feeling is that I don't have to go on a cruise just to share a dinner table with my husband; I'm on vacation and I want to do something out of the ordinary.

Another thing about the Viking dining is the amount of table to table conversation, especially among the 2-tops, but not limited to. You would never do this in a restaurant but ship-board is different. (Most) Everybody is friendly and looking for the opportunity to meet new people.

We never found out until almost the end of the cruise that we could have sat with other people at a larger table. We did that and ended up having a very nice evening.

We were at a table for two and I saw a couple come in and were sat at a table for eight. Then I saw another couple come in, introduce themselves, and then a third couple and finally a fourth couple. I asked on the way out what that was all about and was told it was a sharing table.

Peregrina is right about the tables for two being close to each other. Although not everyone is sat at the same time, so some might be leaving or close to finishing when you are sat. We did have some nice conversations with the people at those tables.

Does the Restaurant Manager not ask people on entering the restaurant if they wish to sit at a table for two or join a large table?

Does the Restaurant Manager not ask people on entering the restaurant if they wish to sit at a table for two or join a large table?

It depends. Sometimes yes and sometimes, no; I don't think it is a pro-forma question asked to everyone who enters. I didn't even know they did this until our second cruise; we were traveling with another couple. If you are already more than just a couple, you probably won't be asked because it is assumed that you have already formed your own group.

Does the Restaurant Manager not ask people on entering the restaurant if they wish to sit at a table for two or join a large table?

We were never asked.

We were never asked.

Interesting. I hope more people chime in on this because now I am really curious.

We were asked a few times if we wanted to eat alone or with others. We chose alone (2 seats) but almost every time we talked with people on either side. We were lucky we like to eat early and arrived at 6pm and had window seats to see the beautiful sunsets as we left for our next port. Even in the World Cafe they have multiple seating options to enjoy.

Thank you for all the information about the main dining room.

We have been on a lot of cruises and on one of the first ones we were asked if we wanted to join a share table. We tried it and now wouldn't do anything else. We have met some fantastically interesting people with great stories to tell. Sometimes it takes a long time for dinner as everyone is so interested in the conversation nobody wants to leave. Only one time did I have what I would call an unpleasant experience and that actually ended up pretty humorous. We were seated with a very outspoken conservative lady from Texas who wanted to talk about politics and how horrible the Democrats and President Obama was. This was a bit uncomfortable for several of us but she insisted on making this the main topic of conversation. She finally made the remark about how she couldn't believe anyone would have voted for Obama, so I piped up with telling her I voted for him and would do it again. She then got up and left the table saying she wouldn't eat with people who would vote for Obama. Everyone else stayed including the people she had come with, and we had a very enjoyable dinner sans political talk. As it turns out one of the other couples were also Obama supporters but they were just afraid to speak up. That was the only time that I can remember where politics dominated the conversation and that was only because of this very opinionated lady. Usually conversations about politics and religion are just not brought up at the table as they tend to be divisive and people on a cruise are more interested in making connections with fellow cruisers rather than with alienating them.

carld, I have no idea what to say over that dining experience. It would be horrible to sit there and listen to her rant. I don't care who voted for who. It's better to have a nice dining experience than worry over how someone voted. Her loss. Good for you for speaking up. It put her in her place and she couldn't handle it. I would be one of those that would have been afraid to. Can you imagine how horrifying it was for the others that she was actually with?

Carl's, lol, that's funny because I get the opposite, people get nasty at me because I didn't vote for either democratic or republican candidate. I like how you handled that rude person. My husband know not to talk politics with strangers because he would be leaving with a sore ankle, lol

You folks remind me of our first (so far only, but we have another one lined up for next year) Viking River cruise. We learned pretty early that even tho there were those who always ate together, there was a nice mixture of "free floaters" like us who basically "formed tables". Something that I think VR encouraged because there were not that many (any???) tables for 2. So the common practice was to sit at a table for 6 or 8. If a couple had "started" a table, you'd walk up and ask if there was room for you. Often times (rarely not) the answer was "of course". And the table would fill with very interesting people. You could continue that for the entire cruise or, if you found you clicked with some of the folks you'd met using this random method, you'd seek them out or vice versa at dinner time. Reading this thread, I'm regretting we didn't try this on the Star last Summer but stuck with the World Cafe, where this kind of "joining" wasn't quite so easy.

Oh and yes, fully agree that folks were pretty circumspect about their politics. You might genty bump up against it, I.e., realize you were polar opposites politically and either tactfully disengage from that person to the extent one can on a small river ship or mutually (independently) seek other topics to discuss that didn't elicit fireworks.

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Carl's, lol, that's funny because I get the opposite, people get nasty at me because I didn't vote for either democratic or republican candidate. I like how you handled that rude person. My husband know not to talk politics with strangers because he would be leaving with a sore ankle, lol

Hilarious! I do the same to my husband.

Carld, in that case you were lucky she got up and left---you got to enjoy the rest of the evening. I think after 10 to 15 mins of her talking I would have asked for another table.

Interesting. I hope more people chime in on this because now I am really curious.

We were never asked but I am sure you could ask for a certain section.

We have been on 2 Viking Ocean cruises with a 3rd booked and in the MDR we ask for a shared table. We have met many interesting people and met one couple on our cruise last Oct. with whom we really clicked. We found we all were staying in Barcelona postcruise and so planned to have dinner together both evenings and also attended a flamenco show together. During the day, each couple went their own way, but it was nice to get back together and compare the day's adventures.

Luckily so far, we haven't encountered anyone who persisted in their very vocal political views as mentioned. :p

I think I would have had to say at some point, "How about we change the subject for something more pleasant?" :D

Becki