Misunderstandings by new people concerning the various dining options.

[w&k]

DH and I prefer to be relaxed and casual (shorts) on most evenings, and usually have our dinner in the 'buffet' (whatever it's termed on various lines).

 

Getting dressed, rushing to meet a set time that was either too early or too late, and then spending two hours waiting... and waiting... and waiting in the dining room isn't our idea of a relaxing evening.

 

Open seating, by whatever name, was a large step forward in getting dinner at and in a more reasonable timeframe when we wished to get dressed up.

 

We were both looking forward to the Lido Restaurant, as the postings here indicate that the wonderful appetizers usually found in the dining room are available. However, we are both quite disappointed that the dining dress code of the evening applies to the Lido Restaurant as well.

 

Oh well... Can't have everything. But maybe a couple shrimp cocktails will help with that ;)

 

Wendy

[RevNeal]

Not when you quote out of context...

 

That portion of the website I pasted states that AYWD includes the Main Dining Room, the Pinnacle and other delightful ways to dine.

 

It addresses it perfectly.

 

DBA,

 

When HAL's website definition of "As You Wish Dining" includes the following ...

 

Your choice of traditional pre-set seating and dining times or a flexible open schedule

 

... this means that the "traditional pre-set seating" and "flexible open schedule" in the MDR are BOTH part of "As You Wish Dining." Yet, for some reason, HAL's marketing doesn't agree.

 

Which is it?

[Chelly]

On boarding day, for open seating, how do you reserve your table for first evening? Do you have to wait until 5:15 when dining room opens? Do you make a phone call? Or is dining room open all day for reservations?

[Oceanwench]

So why does their brochures state Dine "As You Wish" or choose a traditional preset seating in the main Dining Room"?...It seems as HAL doesn't always address it perfectly.

 

When that brochure came out - with that wording - I thought it put this argument to rest.

 

I guess not! :rolleyes:

 

From the brochure, it appears HAL considers anything not "traditional preset seating" is "as you wish."

[ironin]

Here ya go:

 

As You Wish® dining on all cruises

From a festive five-course affair to a quick, casual dinner for two, our As You Wish® dining lets you choose the venues and style that suit you.

The elegant main Dining Room

 

• Luxurious Dining Room, graced with fine art and antiques
  
• Sophisticated Rosenthal china and crisp white table linens
  
• Five-course menus with offerings from classic preparations regionally inspired cuisine to vegetarian options
  
• Your choice of traditional pre-set seating and dining times or a flexible open schedule
  

 

 

The Pinnacle Grill experience

 

• Intimate dining featuring Sterling Silver Beef® and fresh seafood
  
• Luxurious appointments including Bvlgari® china, Riedel® stemware and Frette® linens
  
• Extensive wine list featuring many selections rated “Excellent” by Wine Spectator
  
• Featuring "An Evening at Le Cirque in the Pinnacle Grill"
  

 

 

Other delightful ways to dine

 

• Fresh, cooked-to-order specialties in the Lido Restaurant for breakfast and lunch
  
• Made-to-order dinner entrees and tableside waiter service in the Lido Restaurant for dinner
  
• Complimentary 24-hour in-room dining
  
• The Terrace Grill on deck
  
• Late-night snack; Chocolate Dessert Extravaganza
  
• Explorations Café featuring pastries and espresso drinks
  
• Daily Afternoon Tea service, elevated to Royal Dutch High Tea once per cruise
  

 

 

A master staff and crew

 

• Enhanced menu design under the direction of Master Chef Rudi Sodamin
  
• Executive chefs inducted into the prestigious Confrerie de la Chaine des Rotisseurs, an international food and wine society
  

 

 

Signature touches

 

• Ice cream bar featuring complimentary treats
  
• Hot hors d’oeuvres during cocktail hour.
  

 

 

Special dietary needs, such as vegetarian, diabetic or gluten-free meals, are easily accommodated with advance requests. Kosher meals and a Health Conscious Dining option are also available. To arrange special meals, please contact the Ship Services Department at 800-541-1576 at least 90 days prior to departure. As You Wish® dining is currently available on each of our ships on all cruises.

 

 

Highlighted the section some people seem to have overlooked.

 

Follow this link to see where this appears on the HAL website. Hope this helps.

[Oceanwench]

What makes the website information any more "correct" than the brochure HAL sent out?

 

The brochure distinctly stated that "As You Wish" dining was an *alternative* to fixed seating.

 

Truly, I don't care what anyone calls it -- I am able to understand, through context clues -- what a poster is describing. I'm not the AYWD Police, so I find it's easier to read it and move on. :)

[ironin]

What makes the website information any more "correct" than the brochure HAL sent out?

 

The brochure distinctly stated that "As You Wish" dining was an *alternative* to fixed seating.

 

Truly, I don't care what anyone calls it -- I am able to understand, through context clues -- what a poster is describing. I'm not the AYWD Police, so I find it's easier to read it and move on. :)

 

Did I say it did? Maybe I misunderstood their posts, but it seemed to me that some people overlooked that part. So I highlighted the section and linked to where it came from. I don't care what people call it. (FWIW, I refer to the options as "fixed" or "flexible" dining. Works for me. YMMV) As for reading and moving on - sounds like a good idea but neither of us did that did we? ;)

[Oceanwench]

Actually, I do read it and move on -- when I read a thread in which a poster refers to AYWD as synonymous with open seating.

 

I know a lot of people jump on the poster immediately to correct him/her. :rolleyes:

 

However, this thread is about the concept of AYWD - and possible interpretations of the concept. So I felt like adding my .02 ;)

[RevNeal]

What makes the website information any more "correct" than the brochure HAL sent out?

 

The brochure distinctly stated that "As You Wish" dining was an *alternative* to fixed seating.

 

Truly, I don't care what anyone calls it -- I am able to understand, through context clues -- what a poster is describing. I'm not the AYWD Police, so I find it's easier to read it and move on. :)

 

I agree. And that's my point.

 

1) Which is right? We tend to lend authority to the Website since it's always up there, while brochures come and go and have been seen to have severe errors in them before (as when a few of them seemed to claim, based upon their page-layout if not the direct wording, that the SS category had access to the Neptune lounge!). Of course, we've discovered errors on the website, too, and have pointed them out to HAL and seen them fixed. So ... which is it? Which is right?

 

2) Does it really matter? Nope. Not really. It is what it is. The problem with claiming that Fixed, Tradition Dining Time is not "As You Wish Dining" is that it makes it sound like it's not what people want, or not "As You Wish" but, rather, a second-class of service. If the entire Dining Scheme is "As You Wish" then Traditional claims its place as being one of the forms of Dining arrangement that fulfills passengers "wishes."

 

Frankly, I think both arguments are full of hooey. It is what it is. It might be easier for HAL to just drop the whole terminology scheme. It's just a marketing ploy anyway, issued to respond to NCL's TV adds which portrayed HAL pre-As You Wish Dining arrangement as being regimented or boring (or both).

 

Oh ... and what are the "AYWD Police"? Do you mean those who want people to use "correct" terminology? Or, do you mean those who like to beat on those who want people to use "correct" terminology? :D

[Oceanwench]

Oh ... and what are the "AYWD Police"? Do you mean those who want people to use "correct" terminology? Or, do you mean those who like to beat on those who want people to use "correct" terminology? :D

 

Neither.

I mean those who swoop in and attack a poster for using what they see as an incorrect interpretation of the term.

 

It's typically done in a less-than-kind manner.

[RevNeal]

Neither.

I mean those who swoop in and attack a poster for using what they see as an incorrect interpretation of the term.

 

It's typically done in a less-than-kind manner.

 

Ah, I see. And I definitely agree: attacking a poster never serves a purpose (I say this, having been attacked plenty of times ... just not on this subject -- not yet, though I suspect it's coming). But does "correcting" a poster's terminology constitute an "attack?" I've seen some people post a short note indicating that the terminology used was in error, but I've not seen them "attack" someone, calling them names, telling them they're going to go to hell or are stupid or whatever for using the wrong nomenclature.

 

Oh, and I have seen those who have posted such correction notices vilified, name-called, and their screen names monkeyed with in belittling ways in order to make fun of them. It's not pretty.

[sapper1]

Golly gee whiz----I don't care what HAL or anyone else calls it----as long as they feed me and I don't have to cook it or clean up, I am a supremely happy camper.:D

[JYGresham]

JYGresham--Did the agent have you listed for a set dining time on your reservation? If not, then it was the TA's fault, not HAL. If it was on the documents-then you should have shown them on board and they would have accomodated you. Either way, it could have been resolved easily......[/quote]

 

This is NOT always true. We had booked a cruise a year in advance while on a HAL cruise and specificed traditional dining. Our cruise documents clearly specified that we were booked for early upper (traditional dining). After we embarked on the booked cruise we were told that due to a large group onboard we could not have traditional dining and against our stated wishes we assigned to open dining. In this instance HAL's AYWD was clearly anything other than what we wished. We spoke with head maitre'd to no avail.

This mirrors our situation last year on the Prinsendam. Not only that but our request for a "table for two" in the open seating area (which had to be reconfirmed daily)was elbow to elbow with a table for six, making an unavoidable table for 8!

[Opinions]

But does "correcting" a poster's terminology constitute an "attack?"

 

How does one correct a poster's terminology when in some instances HAL is saying the same as the poster...In my opinion repeatedly telling some one they are wrong soon becomes an "attack"...In my opinion it is how HAL uses the terminology that should be questioned and not those who use the term as they understand it...And yes I agree no one should be attacked on either side of the discussion.

[RetiredMustang]

I think the confusion goes back to when HAL first started the concept. I'll try again to explain, and to be more clear this time (sorry for the confusion, Ruth -- I went back and read my earlier post on this thread, and have to admit it was not clear what I was trying to say).

 

I believe HAL now intends to have the AYWD (trademark) term refer to pretty much any way to eat on board, whether in the main dining room, Lido, specialty restaurants, room service, and possibly even the food in the Neptune Lounge for deluxe suite passengers.

 

That, however, is not how the term started, at least as a great many HAL cruisers then understood it (see the early posts on the sticky). The term was introduced to counter the NCL TV ad campaign that touted their flexible-time dining. So, at first, the term AYWD referred to eating IN THE MDR, but at the time you preferred instead of one of the set times. That is, you could choose to have a fixed dinner dining time in the MDR, or you could chose to have a flexible dinner dining time in the MDR. The term initially did not include the Lido, Pinnacle, etc. So, many people, me included, came to equate the term ONLY with "open seating dinner in the MDR."

 

HAL marketers are trying hard, it seems, to make it an all-inclusive term for any dining venue on board. Good luck with that, but I think there will continue to be some confusion for some time.

 

I don't obsess about it, and generally do understand from the context what posters are saying. Actually, I have begun lately not to use the term "AYWD" at all -- we ask for "fixed dining", others like "open dining", or we/they sometimes go to the Lido, the Pinnacle or Canaletto for dinner.

 

Or is it supper? What's the correct term? :D

 

Dave

[RevNeal]

Golly gee whiz----I don't care what HAL or anyone else calls it----as long as they feed me and I don't have to cook it or clean up, I am a supremely happy camper.:D

 

LOL!

Amen, sister!

In the final equation, that's probably the most important thing that can be said. I'd like to eat at fixed seatings, too ... but, keeping in mind that I'm not cooking it or cleaning up afterwards is WONDERFUL.

[RevNeal]

In my opinion it is how HAL uses the terminology that should be questioned and not those who use the term as they understand it...And yes I agree no one should be attacked on either side of the discussion.

 

I certainly agree with that!

[3rdGenCunarder]

I think the confusion goes back to when HAL first started the concept. I'll try again to explain, and to be more clear this time (sorry for the confusion, Ruth -- I went back and read my earlier post on this thread, and have to admit it was not clear what I was trying to say).

 

I believe HAL now intends to have the AYWD (trademark) term refer to pretty much any way to eat on board, whether in the main dining room, Lido, specialty restaurants, room service, and possibly even the food in the Neptune Lounge for deluxe suite passengers.

 

That, however, is not how the term started, at least as a great many HAL cruisers then understood it (see the early posts on the sticky). The term was introduced to counter the NCL TV ad campaign that touted their flexible-time dining. So, at first, the term AYWD referred to eating IN THE MDR, but at the time you preferred instead of one of the set times. That is, you could choose to have a fixed dinner dining time in the MDR, or you could chose to have a flexible dinner dining time in the MDR. The term initially did not include the Lido, Pinnacle, etc. So, many people, me included, came to equate the term ONLY with "open seating dinner in the MDR."

 

HAL marketers are trying hard, it seems, to make it an all-inclusive term for any dining venue on board. Good luck with that, but I think there will continue to be some confusion for some time.

 

I don't obsess about it, and generally do understand from the context what posters are saying. Actually, I have begun lately not to use the term "AYWD" at all -- we ask for "fixed dining", others like "open dining", or we/they sometimes go to the Lido, the Pinnacle or Canaletto for dinner.

 

Or is it supper? What's the correct term? :D

 

Dave

 

Gaaaah! Don't start a whole new thread here!!!! :eek:

 

I don't care what HAL calls it, either (I like Sapper's answer!). But I wish they would come up with a consistent story for the sake of new passengers.

 

"As You Wish" sounds a lot like "Anytime Dining," which is another line's term for open dining (Princess, maybe?), so it's no wonder newbies are confused.

 

and I remember those silly regimented people in the NCL ads. The funny thing about As You Wish, Anytime, or Freestyle is that you can't really eat ANY time. If you want the MDR, you're still limited to the times when they are open. (Does any cruise line serve a full dinner at 11 PM???)

[RevNeal]

Actually, I have begun lately not to use the term "AYWD" at all -- we ask for "fixed dining", others like "open dining", or we/they sometimes go to the Lido, the Pinnacle or Canaletto for dinner.

 

Or is it supper? What's the correct term? :D

 

Either one ... don't call me late to it. :D

[mncmom]

catl331 - What is 'AK'? Alaska? What's the dining time for Alaska?