Two hour dinner

[Wanderlusty]

Masterbaker: We were on the Sun earlier this summer and weren't even aware of how long dinner took. Must admit, though, that we ate all of our dinners in the alternative restaurants except for the formal night. And, except for that night, DH and I always dined alone. We were always seated promptly and the service was excellent. I don't recall waiting at all long for the courses to come. In the Seven Seas for the formal night, we ate with four other people. Again, service was perfect--not at all slow. We didn't feel rushed to leave, and no one did. We all lingered over coffee and dessert. Our only rush was that we all wanted to go to the Windjammer Lounge and hear Bobby Hamilton on the piano.

 

NCL Star - 5/8/05

RCI Monarch of the Seas - 1/17/05

NCL Sun - 4/27/04

 

Isn't Bobby great? We thoroughly enjoyed listening to him sing and play (and host "Name That Tune" trivia games) on our Panama Canal cruise on the Sun this spring. I loved his sassy mouth, too--I like a cruise-ship employee who good-naturedly ribs the passengers instead of fawning over them.

[tug]

we're planning to have a nice "grown up" dinner at Le Bistro in a few days (oh wow!)

 

does anyone know if the Crown has Kids Club hours in the evening of our day at sea?

anyone? :)

[Happy ks]

My one (so far) Freestyle cruise was great. We enjoyed being able to be seated at a table for two since our kids did not cruise with us that time. I remember thinking there were quite a few more tables for two than on any other ship we have sailed. We especially liked it for breakfast, I'm a little grumpy in the morning and not ready for companionship until after coffee.

 

When we aren't on a cruise, we always feel the pressure to hurry and get out, to make room for others.

[tug]

we're planning to have a nice "grown up" dinner at Le Bistro in a few days (oh wow!)

 

does anyone know if the Crown has Kids Club hours in the evening of our day at sea?

we're leaving in the morning. can anyone help me with an answer please? :)

[darlong]

UTE Fan...

 

Can you post the name of your wonderful waiter on the SUN? In about 8 hours we will board and it isn't my kids that are the fussy ones...my father in law is one of those "if I did not ask for it don't put it on my plate" people. Not his fault...one of those medical conditions...and it is very much like dealing with a cranky 6 year old at times. As long as nothing touches anything else on the plate...and no green veggie shows up, he is peachy. : ) he is also a 1st time cruiser so a great waiter who can size up the situation would make my life easier.

 

Thanks, you have helped meplan this cruise with all of your input!

[ute_fan]

darlong --

 

Wish we were going again. Have a great time for me, and try to find a bear for my daughter. She is going to try and collect pictures of other peoples' bears for her scrapbook, and do a page of the "bear she didn't see".

 

Our waiter(s) that were so good were named Louie (senior waiter) and Gusti (junior waiter). They are in the mid-ship dining room (I never can keep the restaurant names straight). Louie is a male waiter from the Phillipines (I think), and Gusti (whose full name is Ni Gusti, or something like that) is a female from Indonesia. Gusti was actually the one who related best with our kids. We just don't do much "gourmet" type eating, and she was invaluable at helping them know what the food was, and making recommendations as to what was good that night. We had them probably 4 out of the 7 nights, and really enjoyed the experience.

 

I would suggest getting to the dining room right around opening time, and request them, particularly if I remember that you have a larger group. If you do get the opportunity to see them, tell them "Laurie" and her Mom say "hi". We had 4 of us. My husband, myself, my 20 year old son, and my 18 year old daughter. Everybody but me had a coke card, and they were great about just collecting the cards and getting the sodas by the end of the trip. They also did a good job keeping the drinks refilled.

[jfhscott]

My wife an I did the Sun's Western Caribbean cruise a couple of years ago, and, at leasdt then, it seemed that the servers kind of paced you for a two hour dinner. This is a bit slower than we like, but the staff was quite able, with minimal encouragement, to get us out faster. Telling them something like, wewould like to be out by 7:15 should do the trick. Lets face it, much of the meal is mass produced, so if you wanted it all in 15 minutes, and could eat it that fast, they could probably pull that off, too.

 

Incidentally, we very much enjoyed freestyle dining and don't ever want to go back to set meal times and running the risk of being assigned to a table with complete strangers for a week.