Suggestions for Dining Solo

[JetSet2B]

I'm going on my 4th solo cruise. For the first cruise (Carnival), I ordered dinner in my room every night and was too scared to venture out but on the final night of the cruise, I went. It was a table full of lovely people and I felt bad for not showing up.

 

For the second cruise (RCCL), I went the first night and there was a young couple who came and sat down without saying a word. It was awkward until others came (another solo female and an elderly couple). The young couple never came back after that.

 

For my third cruise (RCCL), it was me and a nice couple but they were late so I ended up sitting at the table for a long while by myself.

 

So, how do I break the bad cruise dining mojo? Should I request a large group? Should I just go back to ordering room service? I guess you never know what you're going to get. :confused:

[Splinter]

Request to be put at a large table. Go the first night. If you have problems with your table mates that night, go to the MD and ask them to move you to a different table. I have met some lovely people who I still correspond with on cruises over the years.

[lady_mac]

I tried my time dining and it worked out very well. A few times I met

 

lovely people who had room at their tables and I was able to dine with

 

them.

 

On my last cruise, one of the ladies on the roll call made arrangements to

 

link our reservations and it worked out well. We even dined at Portofino's

 

as a group. I really enjoyed it.

[Lois R]

Hi, many times I meet people on my roll call. That is my first suggestion.

See who else is on the cruise. I have linked my booking with other

folks and that has turned out fun:)

If that is not an option? I do request a large table and have been

pleased with my tablemates. If it ends up we don't get along well? I

go to the Maitr'd and request a change.

[cocod08]

Rather than sit alone in your room with room service do my time dining and sit solo you at least have the wait staff to interact with and also people who may be dining at tables near you. This is what I did on this past solo cruise and it was nice. You can chat with people with out the pressure of actually having to share a table with them

[LandlockedCruiser01]

I solved my solo dining problem the quick and dirty way: assigned seating. This way, I knew I'd have someone to sit with at dinner, to talk to and compare notes with, or in the worst case, to at least give me an appearance of that. It worked out great: I had some good conversations with my tablemates every night at dinner, and if they were close to me in age, hung out with them at other times during the cruise. Perhaps you can do assigned seating on the Pride too.

 

Breakfast and lunch are open seating, but that's easier to deal with. There doesn't seem to be as much stigma against eating alone at those meals vs. at dinner. I always ended up sharing a table or sitting very close to an adjacent 2-top, where it's easy to carry a conversation.

[JetSet2B]

Thanks for all the tips everyone! I've never done MTD. I'm going to check and see how much that is. I may just request a larger table.

[Lois R]

Thanks for all the tips everyone! I've never done MTD. I'm going to check and see how much that is. I may just request a larger table.

 

Huh? My Time dining does not cost extra....you just go eat at whatever

time you want.

[Faith77]

In recent years I've done the anytime dining on both HAL and Princess. I do the dining room in the evenings about half the time on my cruises and I don't do formal nights anymore. I've had really good luck with HAL on two cruises--I arrived at the dining room between 7-8pm and sat with friendly folks. On Princess dinner was more a mixed bag.

 

I always arrive at the dining room with my Kindle and sometimes I've dined with other folks and sometimes I've been on my own. And sometimes there is some entertainment thing I want to catch or I'm full from the afternoon tea and I just want a salad for dinner so I hit the buffet. Lots of choices. I'm still learning how to be comfortable dining on my own in an elegant setting. Good luck to you on future cruises. Faith

[marcmarc2]

I'm a very social solo, so I always do assigned seating and request a large table. I didn't have a good batting average with tablemates, but with each cruise, I get better at making it better, as you seem to be doing.

 

I know some of these have already been covered, but here's my two cents:

 

- Request a large table when you book the cruise. I usually request to sit with other solos, but that has yet to happen, so even though I ask, I don't put a lot of weight on it.

 

- Be open to sitting with many different types of people, ages, groups and family constructs.

 

- Interacting on the roll call is important, as well as trying to meet up with at least some roll call people on board.

 

- Get some practice chatting with strangers/making new friends by going to open seating for breakfast or lunch. I've always been seated at a large table with others either already at the table or arriving just after me. There's usually at least one other chatty person close by.

 

- Check to see if any specialty restaurants on board have a counter where you can watch the chefs cook or interact with other people or staff at the counter. It's something different, and more practice.

 

- The first night is always the hardest, but it's best to go. You won't know if your table mates are good or bad unless you go. (Shroedinger's Tablemates!) You learned your lesson the one time you went on the last night and found them great - bet you won't let that happen again.

 

- If it ends up being not so great, as someone already mentioned, after dinner, get thee to the maitre 'd for a table change. However, I usually wait until the next morning. By then, the people you don't like may have already moved to another table and you will have new people to meet. It also gives you time to perhaps talk to someone you've already met and ask if there's room at their table.

 

Going solo -- it's a dance one gets better at with practice.

[mrobstad]

I agree w everything you've said, marcum arc...that's been my experience, too. I going solo on the RCCL Serenade in one of its studios, and I'm a little nervous. They make no attempt to seat solos together, and I've been at tables where no one shows up! I hate doing dinner alone!

[marcmarc2]

I've sort of had that happen - the second night onboard Voyager OTS, I got to my 8-top first and waited and waited and waited for someone else to show. The neighboring 8-top had only a family of four (mom, dad, two teen sons), and they invited me to sit with them, so I did. The other solo and couple at my table finally arrived, and we all sat at one table, it worked out quite well. So my suggestion is, if one gets left alone, look around and ask the waiter if you can squeeze into another table in his/her section.

[crusinpsychRN]

I tried Your Time on my last cruise and it was hit and miss--every night. To my surprise people started lining up at 5:20pm for Your Time. If I found myself in line with people around me who were obviously not wanting to sit with others, I went to the end of the line!

 

Once I ended up sitting with others and it was a bit awkward. Two Russian women, one who spoke no English and then a family of 5 adults. We started talking the one of the family was from my roll call we'd been looking for!

 

Another night I saw a roll call member in line with his wife and 16 y/o daughter and they asked me to join them.

 

Twice I saw alone and had good conversations with those nearby.

 

Next cruise it's back to assigned. I know late usually has more solos but I'm going early so I have time to do things later in the evening.

 

I always take a book! You never know.

[MrFunInTheSun]

As others have said it can be hit or miss. I've just returned from a cruise and ate most nights with folks I had met on my roll call. I did go to specialty restaurant twice and had a nice table to myself which was nice. A third night we all ate at another specialty restaurant together. On past cruises I've walked in and sat with others and other times had a table to myself. Both cases they were still enjoyable meals.

 

One thing I learned from this past cruise is I think we take food for granted that are not in the dining rooms. For instance on RCCL in the Windjammer you can get the same food each night that is served in the dining room and not have the whole two hour process to eat. A couple nights during the cruise with the group I met up with we simply just avoided the dining room and had such a great night. One night I ate in the Windjammer and not sure what they did but we met up not long after. And then the other night we ate at Johnny Rockets. We had a blast those evenings and didn't miss out on other fun stuff going on around the ship that we would had missed if we were still sitting in the dining room. On Carnival you can get just as good a food from the Buffet.

 

My upcoming cruise I plan to go to Chops one night, maybe Rita's another and then just go to the Windjammer the other nights and avoid the dining room all together.

 

Though that could all change, but that's what I'm thinking of doing at the moment.

[mrobstad]

I love dining in the speciality restaurants, which is fairly easy to do on the Epic, but I'm guessing it will not be so easy on RCCL Serenade as a solo.

[MrFunInTheSun]

I love dining in the speciality restaurants, which is fairly easy to do on the Epic, but I'm guessing it will not be so easy on RCCL Serenade as a solo.

 

Why wouldn't it be easy on Serenade? I didn't have any issues eating solo on the Allure at Giovani's and 150 Central Park. I did tell the server though I was on the fast track though and didn't want to take 2.5-3 hours to eat. :-)

 

I'm planning on going to Chops solo on the Brilliance. :-)

 

 

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[maureencruiser]

 

My upcoming cruise I plan to go to Chops one night, maybe Rita's another and then just go to the Windjammer the other nights and avoid the dining room all together.

 

I didn't know the Brilliance had a Rita's. Do the Fiesta! :)

 

 

I'm planning on going to Chops solo on the Brilliance. :-)

 

Did you feel out of place at all in Chops? I'm thinking of going the first night (it might be cheaper then) and don't want people eyeballing me. :o

[MrFunInTheSun]

I didn't know the Brilliance had a Rita's. Do the Fiesta! :)

 

 

 

Did you feel out of place at all in Chops? I'm thinking of going the first night (it might be cheaper then) and don't want people eyeballing me. :o

 

From what I understand Rita's is on Brilliance as part of the last upgrade. Since I was soooooo busy on Allure and missed it I figure I'll get to it on Brilliance. :D:D

 

Chops I went with all my new friends but when I did 150 Central Park and Giovanni's I didn't feel out of place at all. Looking at Chops had I been there alone I wouldn't have felt weird there either. It did help though when I told them I was on the fast track for eating. Waiters were all very nice and the food was excellent. Can't wait to go to Chops on Brilliance.

 

Maureen if you see someone that looks like Andy or I another site, please look us up. :D:D

[zoncom]

Two options. Get active on rollcall here, find any solos and ask to link reservations for dinner. Or, when you book ask for a singles table to be set up. Singles on rollcall can join your table.Better odds with second choice.

[JetSet2B]

Thanks again for the suggestions. I'll admit in the past, I was shy about going to the meet and greet (don't know why?!?!) but I may try this time. LoisR, I thought MTD was an extra fee--never did it before so I didn't realize it was free. I will probably keep my 6pm dining time and request a large table. Let me get over to the roll call thread and see if there are any other solos. . .

[MrFunInTheSun]

Thanks again for the suggestions. I'll admit in the past, I was shy about going to the meet and greet (don't know why?!?!) but I may try this time. LoisR, I thought MTD was an extra fee--never did it before so I didn't realize it was free. I will probably keep my 6pm dining time and request a large table. Let me get over to the roll call thread and see if there are any other solos. . .

 

Be sure not to limit yourself just to other solo cruisers. During the cruise I just got off of I had some great meals a couple couples and other various members from my roll call. Now that too was a first for me. Prior cruises I'd not been involved with roll calls like that cruise. It was a great experience. Some nights I ate twice, it was so much fun. Two nights I ate at a speciality Resturant solo earlier and then met up with the group after 8 in the MDR.

 

 

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