Rare fb0075 Posted January 22, 2012 #1 Share Posted January 22, 2012 if you have used your reservations--can you walk up at dinnertime for seating on other nights? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare LHT28 Posted January 22, 2012 #2 Share Posted January 22, 2012 You can ask in the morning for reservations that night if available I have seen others post they went at dinnertime and asked Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mura Posted January 22, 2012 #3 Share Posted January 22, 2012 It all depends on how busy they are when you get there. I am guessing that it's easier to get a table under those circumstances if you come later rather than earlier. On our Marina cruise in October, the first couple of nights we saw lots of empty tables in Jacques and Red Ginger. Later in the cruise the restaurants were packed. If they have room, they'll seat you. Mura Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimandStan Posted January 22, 2012 #4 Share Posted January 22, 2012 I am guessing that it's easier to get a table under those circumstances if you come later rather than earlier. Yes and no, Mura. In general we do find that (pardon us) the "older passengers" like to eat earlier, which would seem to prove your point. However, we have also been on Caribbean Itineraries where the very last seating in the restaurants was the most sought after. People just hated to leave the beach or the pooldeck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mura Posted January 22, 2012 #5 Share Posted January 22, 2012 You know, Jim, as I wrote that sentence I was wondering myself just how true it is. Yes, even though we are amongst the oldsters now, we still like to eat later -- although no longer at 8:30, now it's more like 7:45-8:00 on a cruise. I'm not sure there IS a logic. I guess I was thinking that perhaps you might luck out later at night if some people finish faster or want to get to the show ... but if there are going to be vacant tables I suppose they can happen at any time during the dinner hour. Too bad we can't have crystal balls at the ready! Mura Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wripro Posted January 22, 2012 #6 Share Posted January 22, 2012 We're talking Oceania entertainment here. Why would anyone rush through a lovely dinner at Red Ginger or Jacques or Polo or Toscana to get to one of their shows? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mura Posted January 22, 2012 #7 Share Posted January 22, 2012 We're talking Oceania entertainment here. Why would anyone rush through a lovely dinner at Red Ginger or Jacques or Polo or Toscana to get to one of their shows? I certainly would not but I have heard of a few people who would ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bphman Posted January 22, 2012 #8 Share Posted January 22, 2012 On a 10 day cruise, we ate in Jacques twice, Toscana twice and Red Ginger and Polo once. We were sent to Toscana the first night because the wait for GDR was over 45 minutes. For Jacques I went to the restaurant as soon as they opened and they has a spot in a sharing table. My big criticism of ALL of the restaurants was that, if you don't tell them to slow things down, they'll be hovering over you with the next course as you are finishing the previous one. You need to set the pace when you sit down unless you enjoy the Aplebee's experience. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimandStan Posted January 22, 2012 #9 Share Posted January 22, 2012 On a 10 day cruise, we ate in Jacques twice, Toscana twice and Red Ginger and Polo once. We were sent to Toscana the first night because the wait for GDR was over 45 minutes. For Jacques I went to the restaurant as soon as they opened and they has a spot in a sharing table. My big criticism of ALL of the restaurants was that, if you don't tell them to slow things down, they'll be hovering over you with the next course as you are finishing the previous one. You need to set the pace when you sit down unless you enjoy the Aplebee's experience. The split seems to be about 50/50 between people who think that the service is too brisk and those who are horrified by the thought of a two hour dinner. We've met some otherwise very normal people who will only eat at the buffet because they refuse to give that amount of time over to a meal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hondorner Posted January 22, 2012 #10 Share Posted January 22, 2012 We're talking Oceania entertainment here. Why would anyone rush through a lovely dinner at Red Ginger or Jacques or Polo or Toscana to get to one of their shows? We dine at 6:30 most of the time mostly because we don't want to hurry, but we definitely want to make the show. The shows start at 9:45 -- that gives us a confortable 3 hours for dinner. Even then, it's a late dinner for us because at home we rarely eat later than 6 PM. Aboard, the service is the same, the food is the same regardless of the hour -- I've never understood the fascination with dining later. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CANDYAPPLE Posted January 23, 2012 #11 Share Posted January 23, 2012 On our recent Regatta dining experience in the Polo, we felt we were being rushed just a little. I mentioned this to the head waiter, and he was most concerned. He slowed things down a bit, stating that "most" guests at 7:30 P.M. dinnertime are looking to get to the entertainment at 9:30 P.M. or sooner (2 hours). We explained that we were not going to the "show" such as it was. The next two times we were in the Polo, he was assuring us that it was up to us to let them know when we were ready to have our next course. The dinners lasted three hours, which for a cocktail and a bottle of wine, is just about right for us. Cheers CANDYAPPLE Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jancruz Posted January 23, 2012 #12 Share Posted January 23, 2012 Stu and I also eat between 7 and 7 :30pm and like a long leisurely dinner..we rarely go to shows and dinner with good friends is our entertainment for the evening..the reason we dont like cruises where you have 2 seatings (tho there are not many left) is we dont like the times..6 too early and 8:30 too late.. Jancruz1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mura Posted January 23, 2012 #13 Share Posted January 23, 2012 Right on, Jan. That was always our objection to assigned seating for dinners on cruise ships. These days we usually aim for dinner at 7pm at home. I would prefer 7:30 but Howard wants his meal nicely digested before we go to bed (usually between 11-12). But on cruises we've always selected later times -- not 8:30, however! And we like the flexibility of the GDR (in terms of when we show up for dinner). So okay, dining in the specialty DRs means that you have to live with the time available. And if it's 6:30, I can survive ... but I'd really rather it be later. We haven't found serving to be rushed, although on occasion it has been a bit TOO leisurely. On those occasions we figure they forgot about us. I'm not necessarily talking about Oceania in this connection. QE on our first cruise with them (out of two) -- we had assigned seating but not assigned times. We were three couples. But if one couple came to dinner at 7, one at 7:15 and one at 7:30, we all ended up with our main course together. And if we wanted to go to the show and one of the couples came in late -- fuhgeddaboudit. On NCL's GEM nearly two years ago, service in the regular dining room was really laggardly. But when we had breakfast and lunch in the "private" dining room, service was really spot on. Mura Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andromeda93 Posted January 23, 2012 #14 Share Posted January 23, 2012 On our Oct Marina cruise, (same cruise as Mura), we were able to get one additional specialty reservation on day 1, by checking in at the host desk at one of the specialty restaurants in the early afternoon. This is only offered on day 1, though. We did get one extra specialty reservation later in the cruise too, by using the main reservations desk in the lobby right when it opened in the a.m. (go a few minutes ahead of when the desk opens, as I found a line when I arrived). We weren't picky about times, either - as Mura says, by the middle of the cruise the specialty restaurants were basically full all the time. We also tried going to a couple of the SRs in the evening to ask the hosts about last-minute cancellations, but never had any luck. The concierge on deck 9 was never able to do anything about restaurant reservations for us either. I'm not sure whether butlers in higher class cabins can exert any influence. Of course, if your cabin class is high enough, you will have at least 2 SR reservations in each venue anyway! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mura Posted January 23, 2012 #15 Share Posted January 23, 2012 My feeling is that the butlers can wield a LOT of influence. The day we boarded our butler told us (we were in a Vista but that isn't likely to happen again any time soon) that we were eligible to eat in one of the specialty restaurants each night and he made reservations accordingly. That WAS the first or second day. We ended up changing most of those because he assumed we wanted to eat alone, which we did not ... But we certainly had no trouble getting all those reservations through our butler. I sincerely doubt we could have gotten them on our own, despite the high cabin category. Mura Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silkman Posted January 23, 2012 #16 Share Posted January 23, 2012 I hate to disagree with Jim and Stan because I always find their posts so informative and witty....but ..... We don't enjoy spending a lot of time "dining" and do not consider ourselves "abnormal". We take a day long excursion in almost every port and would not like spending two or 3 hours sitting at dinner. We often dine in our room and get served from one of the specialty restaurants course by course. To us this is enjoyable and relaxing. Even on the nights where we dine at the specialty restarants(we never eat at the MDR) we rarely spend more than 11/2 hours. So ..I guess it's each to his own. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silkman Posted January 23, 2012 #17 Share Posted January 23, 2012 And yes, I'd rather eat at the buffet(which i understand is great on the Marina) than spend 2 hours dining Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare LHT28 Posted January 23, 2012 #18 Share Posted January 23, 2012 We do not mind some longer dinners as we enjoy the social interaction with the other guests there are some nights we would just go to the buffet It depends on the days activities Some people enjoy fast food others do not, it is good to have options ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wripro Posted January 23, 2012 #19 Share Posted January 23, 2012 I'm with Jancruz and JimandStan on this one. To me dinner is my evening's entertainment. I find much more amusement from the duck and watermelon salad in Red Ginger than from a fourth rate singer belting out songs from Abba or South Pacific. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TERRIER1 Posted January 23, 2012 #20 Share Posted January 23, 2012 We love the long leisurely dinners especially after a hectic day in port. We go to happy from 5 to 6 if we are back on ship and linger there and then back to the room to shower. By the time we dine it's late and that's fine with us. We don't do buffet so this is the evening entertainment since we always miss the show. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bphman Posted January 24, 2012 #21 Share Posted January 24, 2012 To us, the selling point of Oceania is the dining experience. That is our evening's entertainment. Even Carnival didn't rush us as much as our first dinner in the Marina GDR. Once we set the pace with our waiter, everything was fine. But, we had to do that each night. I would be more inclined to rush through dinner if there were a reason but there was nothing to do after dinner. No ned to run to the show lounge. Sounds as if we'll be looking to join Terrier1 for dinner next cruise. I guess another dog lover as well? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bbwex Posted January 25, 2012 #22 Share Posted January 25, 2012 You can make reservations for any of the specialty restaurants first thing in the morning for dinners that evening. On a 14-day cruise, we ate in one of the specialty restaurants 7 nights with no real problem. It is a bit easier in the morning as you will be given a specific time, and then you can plan your day. If you wait until the evening, many of the open slots would have been filled that morning, and you would have little control over your dining time until the last minute. If I recall correctly, there was a time that DW got a couple of reservations on the same morning for two different evenings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bphman Posted January 26, 2012 #23 Share Posted January 26, 2012 The problem with Marina is that they couldn't handle the number of passengers on board in all of the restaurants for our 10 night cruise. This should not be a problem on the longer voyages. The reservation desk was only trying to accommodate passengers who didn't make their reservations on line which I would strongly recommend. Seeing the Maitre 'd as soon as they opened that worked for us and was the secret going around. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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