Procedure on first night Coral in Whittier.Alaska

Will the first night on the Alaska Southbound itinerary be all open dining? And what time is muster?

Since many will be doing land portions precruise and arriving after 5:00, wondering how that first night is handled for early traditional diners?

We leave port at 8:30.

I remember that we arrived from the land portion about 7:30 pm. Muster immediately and then had a card waiting on the desk telling us which DR and time for that evening. I don't think the usual itinerary for meals applied at all. Hope this eases your concern.

IIRC, It really is just like all dining rooms become ANYTIME DINING for that first night. Just go when you are hungry and you will be seated. I arrived very late as well and do not remember exactly what time muster was held. Ask your room steward or check the patter or call passenger services and ask. Enjoy the cruise!

Thanks. I suspected with lots of late arrivals it would have to be anytime for all.

Filling my suitcase now.;) Seeing rain in the forecast. sigh

When arriving on the ship, you will be given a card indicating what time to have dinner in your dining room. It will be open seating at the regular scheduled times.

Once all the cards are handed out for the first seating (which will be before muster), they will start handing out cards for the second seating (which starts once muster is finished).

So whether you get the 1st or 2nd seating depends on when you arrive at the ship, not what you have booked for the cruise.

When we went in 2010 we went when our cruise card told us to as we had early dining. It was pretty empty due to land tours not being in yet..believe they were given the alternate dining options as a set dining room for them. But us that just did the cruise portion we just followed what our cruise card said, no special other card given to us.

This brings up a question that just occurred to me. For those who have done this Alaska Southbound itinerary, and stayed in a full suite, were you able to eat in the specialty dining room the first night? If so, did you have to wait until after the muster drill? Since the scheduled departure is 8:00PM, I would expect the muster drill to be 7:00 - 7:30pm if all were on board.

We plan on arriving at the ship around noon to board as soon as we, so will already be onboard. We would typically eat at the 5:00 - 5:30pm time frame and not thought about the first night's dining with a late departure.

When arriving on the ship, you will be given a card indicating what time to have dinner in your dining room. It will be open seating at the regular scheduled times.

 

Once all the cards are handed out for the first seating (which will be before muster), they will start handing out cards for the second seating (which starts once muster is finished).

 

So whether you get the 1st or 2nd seating depends on when you arrive at the ship, not what you have booked for the cruise.

I agree, this is what we experienced.

This brings up a question that just occurred to me. For those who have done this Alaska Southbound itinerary, and stayed in a full suite, were you able to eat in the specialty dining room the first night? If so, did you have to wait until after the muster drill? Since the scheduled departure is 8:00PM, I would expect the muster drill to be 7:00 - 7:30pm if all were on board.

 

We plan on arriving at the ship around noon to board as soon as we, so will already be onboard. We would typically eat at the 5:00 - 5:30pm time frame and not thought about the first night's dining with a late departure.

Muster is usually 45 minutes or so before departure.

I would imagine the specialty restaurants would open at the normal time but will stop service during muster. Maybe the opening time has changed?

I have seen cards given out and also just free for all.

Also, they clear all dining rooms for muster. So if you are eating, you finish when muster happens. We were on a B2B and had to leave the dining room even though we were not required to do muster.

As a follow up..... yes we were given the 8:30 seating on boarding. We opted to go to the meager dinner buffet.

We chose and booked early dining 5:45. On boarding, found out early was 5:15. Late was to be at 7:30. We spoke to the maitre d who agreed if we arrived by 5:45, we would cause no problem. Indeed, very few tables were completely full. The waiters had no trouble serving the smaller numbers in their assigned sections. BIG lines for anytime dining by 7 every night.

This brings up a question that just occurred to me. For those who have done this Alaska Southbound itinerary, and stayed in a full suite, were you able to eat in the specialty dining room the first night? If so, did you have to wait until after the muster drill? Since the scheduled departure is 8:00PM, I would expect the muster drill to be 7:00 - 7:30pm if all were on board.

 

When we did a southbound several years ago the specialty restaurants on embarkation day did not open until immediately after muster.

Of course you can call or see them when you board to make a reservation for that evening or see if they will allow you to switch to a different day because they will not be open when you want to dine.