hammybee

I have always wondered if Samoa had a national beer and now I know.

That was simply delicious. Your review, I mean.

 

IMO, the decline of HAL stems from the motivation of senior HAL management. I suspect that HAL management (same for the other subsidiaries of Carnival HQ) are being compensated for the amount of $ profits. /quote]

 

I must sail with a different HAL. The one I sail is not in decline compared to my first cruises with HAL. I also pay substantially less for a better product than I did when I first began cruising.

 

Everyone, everywhere is compensated based on the profitability of their company. If the company can't make a buck, it will not be in business for long. If a company cannot /will not adapt to change, it's not going to survive.

 

Perhaps HAL could reorg as a 501c3 organization. Do you think the IRS would view cruise ship passengers who want more and don't want to pay for it as a chairity?

 

There are so many options for cruises. If HAL no longer meets one's requirements, why not pay more and get more, elsewhere?

[quote name='DedeM']

1. Who gets the tip at the end of the sailing, whoever you get as servers that night? I bet the servers don't love this too much. They're unlikely to receive extra. (sorry to bring up the dreaded "T" word)

2. If we show up for dinner around 7:00 will that mean a long wait? (southern carribbean Westerdam 3/28 sailing)

I don't understand why Princess lines had such a hard time with long waits with open seating. Why wouldn't all the cruiselines have problems?

Thanks :)[/quote]

1) Tips are pooled and allocated according to a plan approved by the employees. This protects them from those passengers who did not bother to tip. No doubt some like it and some do not, no different than any compensation system, anywhere. Wait staff are routinely rotated into and out of fixed versus open seating.

2) Showing for dinner at 7:00 and being seated right away dependent on how many other passengers on your cruise also want to dine at 7:00. There is no way to predict this.

I do not think Princess has any more issues with seating diners than any other cruise line. It all depends on the variable of when the majority choose to dine on any given cruise.

I recently noticed that Crystal will soon be offering open seating too. It's eveidence that enough passengers prefer to choose when to dine and with whom.

Hi,

We loved Freestyle on NCL and have had good experiences with Anytime Dining until our Alaska cruise last summer when the waits were an hour and a half or more.

Does that happen on HAL?

Thanks,

 

1.5 hours???? Oh my stars.

 

I guess anything is possible if most folk decide to hit the dining room at the same time. Perhaps a reason this does not appear to happen on HAL is that dinner dining in the LIDO is a solid alternative. We experienced a wait time in the LIDO in Alaska and turned around and walked right into Open Seating.

U sum cheap guy.....this was absolutely delicious.

 

Luv,

-Clarise

Just bumping this back up to see if anyone can answer my questions regarding anytime dining on HAL -

 

Is there a separate dining room for anytime diners?

 

Can you usually get a table for four fairly easily?

 

Thanks!

 

The lower dining room is reserved for Open Seating.

 

Your chances of gettting a 4 top within Open Seating are probably better than getting one within the Fixed Seating dining room. It all dependes on how many other passengers want, what you want, when you want it. No way to predict this.

 

Open seating gets the advantage because they are able, in some cases, to turn a table, three times in an evening as opposed to twice with Fixed Seating.

Rich... The Smooth Jazz cruise in 1/10 is way sold out so much so that the organizers have chartered the Nordam for two BTB cruises in 1/11.

 

Email is bouncing. So here's the link:

 

http://www.thesmoothjazzcruise.com/2011/Home/tabid/1341/Default.aspx?gclid=CO7KhbPs-ZsCFRINDQodeRqb-A

The consultant is not correct. The Group Administration department at HAL is not required to advise you if a group a large group is booked on that departure.

 

Cruise lines do not disclose the identity /size of onboard groups.

 

Most large groups have an internet presence which is the source of most of the groups being tracked by Richwm.

Hello there,

Just stopping by to let you know I appreciate your taking the time to share your cruise with us.

Just noticed this is no longer a sticky.

 

I suspect this intent is to let this one die a natural death and then do the same with the other AYWD sticky.

 

Makes sense, given AYWD will be two years old, in May.

Does anybody know what "The Mikes Owners Group" is? :confused:

They seem to be onboard The Rotterdam in august and i find out that they have there own shore excursionreservation for that trip.

 

burny

 

My best guess is Mike owns a travel agency and is escorting a small group cruise of prior clients.

 

It's very common for groups of any size to arrange their own shore excursions. Where did you see this?

Frankly it was disappointing.

The servers were disinterested at best.

The first formal night the server knocked over a glass of water all over Janet.

It was like he didn't know what to do. He barely got napkins to wipe up the spill. He didn't offer to take care of anything.

 

We tried AYWD for the first time, in over 20 cruises where we've always had fixed dining, and it was disappointing. This was on the HAL Zuiderdam this past week. The service was VERY slow. Out of 10 nights, we only ate in the dining room 2 evenings. Both were slow service.

 

We will be going back to fixed dining from now on..

 

SDCruiser

 

The dine as you wish is a joke on the Ryndam. We were on a Thanksgiving cruise and they have a way to go to actaully get it right. If you did not want their standard seating times, you were given a pager and told to wait. This lasted for up to an hour for us and one poor couple wanting a table for 2 had been ther waiting 15 minutes when we got there and were still waiting when we got our table for 8. Maybe HA need to take a look at how NCL does their seating since we have NEVER had more than a 15 minute wait on their ships.

 

All wait staff are rotated between fixed and open seating. That one experiences less than stellar service in one of the venues does not condemn the venue.

 

No dining venue on land or sea can provide instant seating if more people show up than there is space available. Hour waits on NCL are notorious. They are notorious because most people seem to prefer to dine 6:30-7:30.

 

Dining experiences vary sailing to sailing, cruise line to cruise line. Sailing during peak holiday and interim school break times, when every berth is apt to be full, is not the best cruise experience, unless you are darn lucky.

I am still thinking I would like to try the any time dining.....seems it would fit my flexible style and also allow me to meet more people as a single travelor. I haven't been able to find out for sure if that is even an option on the Grand Voyages......some say yes and some say no.

 

There has not been Open Seating on a Grand Voyage, yet. This could change, especially in response to passenger requests for it.

I always bring my bagpipes so I can entertain my felow pax on deck

 

Let me know when you plan to cruise. There is nothing like a weeping bagpipe.

 

Regarding Anytime Dining on the Noordam: don't let anyone here tell you that this program is lousy or doesn't work. Trust me they could not be more wrong as it applies to this ship. We NEVER waited for a table and I never saw anyone walking around with a pager or beeper thingie.

 

I am also a fan of open seating and do the " walk in " thing. We did not incur a wait or see a pager.

 

I also know that if I had arrived an hour earlier or sailed another week, I might have had a very different experience.

 

Getting what you want, when you want it, is a function of how many others onboard want what you want, when you want it, regardless of fixed or open seating.

 

Service levels, regardless of fixed or open seating vary by server team and what's going on behind the scenes and perhaps more importantly, your expectations. Dinner takes to long for some. Dinner seems rushed for some. And some find most things just about right. With 2000 passengers all they can do is shoot for " just about right" most of the time, for most of the passengers.

Having just returned from a Princess cruise I found out that even with the anytime dining I was told about 3 times that no tables for two were available and I had to sit with other people. Actually though, I enjoyed it for a change of pace.

 

It always depends on how many others want what you want, when you want it. Experiences vary cruise to cruise.

 

Dining on mass marketed ships is dependent upon the majority opting to share dining tables. There is not sufficient space to accommodate a majority of two-tops.

 

A sailing with lots of relatively small groups and extended families often means it will be easy to snag a table for two. If the majority are couples, it might be a problem. You never know.

 

Those passengers who pay more to sail in Deluxe Suites usually get what they want, regardless of what other passengers want/when. Others who prefer to not leave it to chance, can also opt for a luxury cruise line where dining space ratios enable more two tops.

Just booked the Westerdam last week for April '09 and we are confirmed for 4 for late seating. I was a little worried thinking we were booking so late and wouldn't be able to get fixed seating. We were actually confirmed for the early but we changed it to late a couple of days ago. I hope that "confirmed" really means CONFIRMED!!! Looking forward to this cruise, never sailed Hal before.

~Jo~

 

With more than 1 million passengers a year, sailing more than 500 intineraries, experiences will vary.

I think AYW tends to work better on port intensive cruises than longer voyages, as you were on. The latter tends to attract a more seasoned cruiser and dinner is often the highlight of endless at sea days.

 

Crews are rotated into and out of Open Seating on all ships so that the wait staff has an equal opportunity to serve in both dining rooms. This probably does not happen on longer voyages.

 

I am fasinated by the onboard management's portrayal of the crew's feelings about open versus fixed seating and tipping above and beyond the hotel surcharge.

 

Other dynamics at play here are that potentially more dinners are served in the Open Seating area by fewer wait staff because it's possible to turn some tables 3 times. More importantly, the hard working HAL crew is among the most poorly compensated in terms of hotel service charges.

Celebrity,Cunard, Disney, Oceania and Princess all charge more.

 

HAL's compensation is the same as NCL, RCL and Carnival.

 

Given the poor exchange rates of the USD, the crew is making less than they used to and potentially even less than that, given tipping above and beyond, may be one of those things that passengers skimp on, rather than forgoe the cruise until they can afford it.

 

On one occasion a Spanish group (Spaniards eat late!) did not sit down until 9.45pm. /quote]

 

It's interesting how early seating tends to fill first on cruises sailing with mostly U.S. passengers from U.S. ports and the opposite happens when Europeans sail from European ports. We have sailed with groups from Italy, Malta and Greece and they all prefer to dine late in the evening.

 

Anyway, glad you enjoyed your cruise and dining experience.

I understand the reason for the frowny-face in Innlady's post, but I just want to caution people not to overreact. Yes, it's a big list, but a lot of the groups listed on it are small. As richwmn says, a group of 50 doctors on board for a medical seminar shouldn't bother anyone else in any way.

 

I agree with you O2B@C.

 

A group of 50 anything is about .025 of all passengers. Chances are, even if they all wore pineapples on their head, one might not encounter them.

 

There are groups on every ship, every cruise line, every sail. There are even groups within charter cruises. Most groups are formed to take advantage of group pricing under the umbrella of a sponsor. Most don't expect or get special treatment.

 

I am aware of a group with 500 passengers that was undetectable by non group passengers.

We were seated with a family who spoke no English, not a good situation :( /quote]

 

Back when, we spent a week dining with a family who only spoke Spanish and we did not. Bummer for them.:o

Why would you be concerned about this?

 

Why not? :confused:

Hal booking agent says group has reserved all early dining 12/14/08on Veendam. I'm guessing it would not be party group if they eat early. Any idea on who it could be? There is no roll call so far, so maybe it's a big group.

Thanks for any help.

 

50-50, it's a nursing home of nursing home consortium.

Does anyone have any info on the MOAA group on the 11-7-08 sailing of the Noordam? Thanks in advance.

Rick

 

Is this the Military Officers Association of America?

 

If so, they seem to hold group space on many cruises on all the different cruise lines. I doubt it's a big group. If concerned, why not give them a call and ask about the size of the group.

Thank you for articulating. I appreciate " feeling stuck" when we don't get what we want, when we want it. I also appreciate that we can get that ole "stuck" feeling in fixed seating too, when we are assigned to an earlier or later time than we wanted. And I am not even going to go into the stuck business about tablemates from hell-o.:o

 

Kim prefers to dine at an exclusive table for her party of 9. This is potentially ackward in either venue. None of us know what the dining dynamics are going to be on any cruise because we don't know or particularily care what the other 2000 passengers want/do. Maybe this can best be accomplished in fixed seating- maybe not. Given the children's ages, dining late may not be the best ooutcome for them, further reducing their options.

 

I guess my internal alarm went off that a seed was being planted that open seating is somehow inferior to fixed seating. When it's a closed group like Kim's, what matters most I think, is their ability to dine together, preferably at a time that works best for them.

 

And while I am probably one of the most prolific posters, in terms of AYWD, :rolleyes: I probably prefer fixed seating on a cruise with a lot of @ sea days. I need the discipline of having to be somewhere at a fixed time, else I might never get a move on.