Late Embarkation - will MDR be open for lunch?

Hello all,

On our upcoming cruise on the Emerald, boarding does not start until 12:30, and our recommended time to board is 2:00pm - 3:00pm. :o

We are planning on boarding as soon as we can, but will the MDR even be open for lunch for such a late embarkation? It's so nice to start your holiday with a sit-down, white-tablecloth meal!

Thanks!

Dianna

Dining Room open....12 to 1:30 on embarkation day. In fact that is the time on sea days too.

(one cruise it was open to 2 pm but saw it only once)

Hello all,

On our upcoming cruise on the Emerald, boarding does not start until 12:30, and our recommended time to board is 2:00pm - 3:00pm. :o

We are planning on boarding as soon as we can, but will the MDR even be open for lunch for such a late embarkation? It's so nice to start your holiday with a sit-down, white-tablecloth meal!

 

 

Thanks!

Dianna

We were sent similar guidelines for our recent trip on the Star. We flew into Vancouver that morning, cleared customs, and arrived at the port around 10am via Sky Train. We were in the International café enjoying our Lattes at 11am and seated in MDR at 12:15 for lunch.

Your experience may differ if the ship is late or disembarkation delayed.

We were sent similar guidelines for our recent trip on the Star. We flew into Vancouver that morning, cleared customs, and arrived at the port around 10am via Sky Train. We were in the International café enjoying our Lattes at 11am and seated in MDR at 12:15 for lunch.

Your experience may differ if the ship is late or disembarkation delayed.

Wow! I hope we have the same luck as you!

OP,

The MDR will not be open past 1:30. The staff needs time to prepare the MDR for dinner.

The time you were given is a recommendation, not a mandate for boarding.

Hello all,

On our upcoming cruise on the Emerald, boarding does not start until 12:30, and our recommended time to board is 2:00pm - 3:00pm. :o

We are planning on boarding as soon as we can, but will the MDR even be open for lunch for such a late embarkation? It's so nice to start your holiday with a sit-down, white-tablecloth meal!

 

 

Thanks!

Dianna

It's not typical to have a boarding starting so late. They usually begin before noon.

It’s a suggestion unless there are CG/maritime inspections, or issues from noro from the prior cruise. Princess had been trying to start boarding around 11:00am.

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As above, in August boarding began somewhere around noon. We were boarded by 11:30. We basically dropped our luggage in our room and went to lunch.

Regardless of your suggested boarding time, the MDR will close at 1:30. After that, your options will be the International Cafe or the pool deck outlets and buffet. Room service is technically available, but good luck getting thru to them.

As stated, on embarkation day lunch is served from 12-1:30 in MDR. BEWARE, If you ask a crew member which MDR is serving lunch do not be surprised if they tell you MDR is not open and direct you to the buffet. Check the patter for dining times and MDR info

With Emerald the only ship in port, turning up late isn't the necessity to avoid long queues that a 3+ ship day brings at Canada Place! I'd still ditch the onboard sitdown lunch for an extra few hours in Vancouver myself though - the menu never changes, and while it's of course nicer than the buffet you have to give up three hours of sightseeing time to board early enough to get in before the doors close.

Drop your bags early, sure, so you're not encumbered by suitcases (longshoremen should be ready to take them by as early as 9:30am on a single ship day), but then go see the sights and have a much better lunch in town before heading back to the pier for ~2:30pm.

Dining Room open....12 to 1:30 on embarkation day. In fact that is the time on sea days too.

(one cruise it was open to 2 pm but saw it only once)

On my two Alaska cruises this summer, some sea day/Glacier viewing day/late port arrival days the MDR lunch was 11:30-1:00, some 12:00-1:30. So always check the back page of the Patter, as more than a few turned up either too early or too late each day. (Was also 11:30-1 on Royal Princess on the day with afternoon arrival in Grand Turk)

As for embarkation day, it is extremely rare for them not to shut the MDR doors promptly at 1:30 no matter how slow boarding is going. Sometimes I think that Princess wishes to confine embarkation day lunch to B2Bers and those with only the very highest priority boarding. But barring a huge group function it will still be offered, so turn up early with that goal in mind.

With Emerald the only ship in port, turning up late isn't the necessity to avoid long queues that a 3+ ship day brings at Canada Place! I'd still ditch the onboard sitdown lunch for an extra few hours in Vancouver myself though - the menu never changes, and while it's of course nicer than the buffet you have to give up three hours of sightseeing time to board early enough to get in before the doors close.

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Luckily (or not?) I live in Vancouver, so I've done all the sightseeing here already! Good idea though, for those coming in from out of town.

BEWARE, If you ask a crew member which MDR is serving lunch do not be surprised if they tell you MDR is not open and direct you to the buffet.

Why do they do this? Our first Princess cruise was last spring, and every staff member tried to herd us into the buffet. I only knew it was open from reading about it here on Cruise Critic. I guess it's more work for them?

Why do they do this? Our first Princess cruise was last spring, and every staff member tried to herd us into the buffet. I only knew it was open from reading about it here on Cruise Critic. I guess it's more work for them?

This is the most baffling question with regards to Princess for me. Every time I board and ask about dining room open for lunch, they tell me that there is not one open. This is from the employees greeting you in proximity to the boarding point. I had to argue with the Princess employee on our most recent cruise on CB. We just headed to Deck 6 midship, which is usually the dining room open. My guess is that they have limited staff to work the open dining room as some crew are allowed some time off to get off the ship in port for a couple of hours? Does anyone really know the answer to this mystery and why Princess consistently has employees denying that the dining room is open?????

This is the most baffling question with regards to Princess for me. Every time I board and ask about dining room open for lunch, they tell me that there is not one open. This is from the employees greeting you in proximity to the boarding point. I had to argue with the Princess employee on our most recent cruise on CB. We just headed to Deck 6 midship, which is usually the dining room open. My guess is that they have limited staff to work the open dining room as some crew are allowed some time off to get off the ship in port for a couple of hours? Does anyone really know the answer to this mystery and why Princess consistently has employees denying that the dining room is open?????

This. Also can you imagine if they had the crowd that typically hits the buffet come to the DR?

They also have to deal with BVE's (Bon Voyage Experience) groups that number 50.

Travel Agents in groups.

Back to back passengers that nowadays numbers in the hundreds.

The DR may hold many people but on turnaround day there are many staff that have double duty doing other jobs so yes staffing is short.

Why do they do this? Our first Princess cruise was last spring, and every staff member tried to herd us into the buffet. I only knew it was open from reading about it here on Cruise Critic. I guess it's more work for them?

It is hard to believe, but many staff members do not know that there is a dining room open for lunch from noon to 1:30.

A couple of years ago I was speaking with an experienced Princess Cruise Director and when I mentioned the embarkation day MDR lunch, he never had known it existed, and this was time he had heard about it.

Luckily (or not?) I live in Vancouver, so I've done all the sightseeing here already! Good idea though, for those coming in from out of town.

In that case you can do what we do - book a nice spa treatment in town! After a 3 hour boarding experience here, we said 'never again' to boarding at a 'sensible' 11am (so we had time to get to the sit-down lunch - which we did not manage to get on that day despite the three hours of waiting around).

Now we have a nice lie in, walk to the pier to drop our bags ~10am, go for a lovely 90min couples massage downtown 10:30am (for less than half the price of an onboard massage, plus of course going to your regular masseuse means a better massage too), enjoy a lesiurely lunch at a fave local resto, and board after 2pm. Our total time in queues has dropped to almost zero, which alone is WELL worth the cost of forgoing the 'free' sit-down lunch onboard to us (and the massage savings pay for a superb lunch anywhere we like as well as ensuring we start the cruise reeeelllaaaaaxxxxxeeeddddd...)