Dining Room question

[pianoplayerla]

I've searched and do see an answer for this, so here goes. 

My DH has suddenly wanted to know "why" they always ask for your cabin number when you check in for dinner and if you go to the dining room for breakfast/brunch. 

I told him it is probably to be sure you are at the correct dining room, etc. 

Anyone have any other answers for his inquisitive mind?  It doesn't matter to me why they ask. Just trying to find out for him. 

[Sean_B]

16 minutes ago, pianoplayerla said:

I've searched and do see an answer for this, so here goes. 

 

oops, lol.

 

I don't have an answer for you, but I would imagine it has something to do with location and dining time (early/late/your time)?

[havanadaydreaming]

to better manage mdr and identify trends.  

 

how many times a week does interior, OV, balcony, suite cabins utilize MDR? how often specialty dining? if none of the above assume buffet/free self serve options utilized.  

 

I'm an odd bird that did mdr nightly first few cruises exclusively.  now I like the atmosphere of specialty restaurants a couple times per cruise and like to stay underdressed a couple times and hit buffet/pizza. we only hit MDR 1-3x per week now. 

 

 

[StolidCruiser]

23 minutes ago, pianoplayerla said:

I've searched and do see an answer for this, so here goes. 

My DH has suddenly wanted to know "why" they always ask for your cabin number when you check in for dinner and if you go to the dining room for breakfast/brunch. 

I told him it is probably to be sure you are at the correct dining room, etc. 

Anyone have any other answers for his inquisitive mind?  It doesn't matter to me why they ask. Just trying to find out for him. 

 

So they know who has served you for allocation of the DSC.

[Elaine5715]

41 minutes ago, pianoplayerla said:

I've searched and do see an answer for this, so here goes. 

My DH has suddenly wanted to know "why" they always ask for your cabin number when you check in for dinner and if you go to the dining room for breakfast/brunch. 

I told him it is probably to be sure you are at the correct dining room, etc. 

Anyone have any other answers for his inquisitive mind?  It doesn't matter to me why they ask. Just trying to find out for him. 

 

17 minutes ago, StolidCruiser said:

 

So they know who has served you for allocation of the DSC.

Correct.  It is to assign the percentage of the daily grats.

[sanmarcosman]

21 minutes ago, havanadaydreaming said:

how many times a week does interior, OV, balcony, suite cabins utilize MDR?

 

I doubt this is important for data collection purposes. What, if any , correlation is there between inside vs. outside cabin and number of times guests go to the MDR? Their dining in the MDR is included in both fares.

[Butterbean1000]

31 minutes ago, havanadaydreaming said:

to better manage mdr and identify trends.  

 

how many times a week does interior, OV, balcony, suite cabins utilize MDR? how often specialty dining? if none of the above assume buffet/free self serve options utilized.  

 

I don't know the reason, but I highly doubt this is it.

 

 

 

[lasekeye]

I too don’t have a definitive answer, but I’m inclined to think the allocation of tips is a part, but I’m thinking they keep track of who sits where (who was the dining staff, how fast was the table put back into circulation, if there were any complaints/compliments it would be easier to keep track of the staff in question.)

Cabin # is also used to confirm if a special celebration is recorded at the time of booking ( I never mentioned my Moms birthday to the ship staff, but our PVP knew, and a cake was delivered to our MDR table by singing waiters).  This follows true for any diet restrictions that were noted.

[riffatsea]

It has to do with knowing who is serving you for allocation of tips.

[pianoplayerla]

Thank you all for your input. Makes perfect sense to me. 😊

[TomCruise48]

If you have Your Time Dining or go to the dining room for breakfast, brunch, or lunch, if you pay close attention the hostess will print out a small piece of paper and give it to the junior hostess who leads you to your table.  This paper has the names of your party as well as the table number and is given to the wait staff.  This allows the wait staff to address you by name if they so choose.  They usually ask your name as well, but the paper is a reminder for them. 

[RWolver672]

Apparently  they only ask your cabin number if you have ATD.  We always have early dining and have never been asked our cabin number.  But then, we are assigned a specific table and wait staff.

[ishap]

1 hour ago, RWolver672 said:

Apparently  they only ask your cabin number if you have ATD.  We always have early dining and have never been asked our cabin number.  But then, we are assigned a specific table and wait staff.

 

I was going to post this same thing...you only get asked the very first night when they show you to your table.  After that, once they open the doors, everyone just goes to their table as you have the same table and wait staff for each night.  This is the one reason I always choose early dining.  First, for early dining you know the wait staff is fresh and not tired for already doing a seating.  Second, I enjoy the personalized service I get from the staff as they know my party and typically can aniticipate our needs.  I also feel you get better service because of this.

 

That being said, I do believe they ask for your cabin number when you go to brunch.

[JaniceB]

Maybe it is also to check your status with the line and give you better tables/wait staff.

[maryred]

For open seating they ask you cabin number for 2 reasons. 1 is to print out a cheat sheet with your names and any special occasions or likes dislikes noted by the wait staff. The second being so they know which service staff waited on you. When you have set time dining it is known whom is on your waitstaff and they have their own "crib" notes for each table.

The cheat sheet which I have seen many times might include info on allergies, special occasions to be celebrated that day, or notes on dietary restrictions or special menu requests. If these are not communicated during the booking process and included in the special notes section of your confirmation, you can at anytime the dining room is open talk to the maitre'D or host(ess) staff to have them included. Knowing my DH I regularly tell them on embarkation day to serve him a scoop of whatever sherbert they have that night between the starters and main course (my little secret w/ the serving staff). 

The second is to track which service team should receive a portion of that days auto-gratuities for that meal's dining. When you don't attend a meal in the MDR or at a specialty restaurant it is assumed you are eating at a self service venue and allot that meal's portion of the auto-grats to the buffett service group's tip pool.

[beshears]

Good question.  Yes, we have the late seating in the MDR, and they always ask to see our card.  I'm thinking it could be so they could "direct" us faster to where our table would be located as well.  Yes, we had brunch one day in the dining room, and they did ask what our table # was then.  They were just as nice to us then, then at the dinner time, even though they were different waiters waiting on us.

[2Shoes2Go]

It also gives them a count of guests served between hours in YTD. Many times the Maitred has told us the numbers, indicating how busy they’ve been, and percentage of guests that have dined there.

[SCUBA-IE DOO]

Is it difficult to change your assigned dining time? We only had the option of the late seating and we are early birds. How do you go about requesting a change? It is not an option on my Carnival account at this time. TIA!

[2Shoes2Go]

You can see the Maitred when you first board. “ Dining Inquiries “ times will be posted in the Fun Times or on the app. Usually short wait, at hostess desk, in front of dining room. You make your request and he/she will try to accommodate you. 

[Hunter69]

We get asked here in Australia also; But we don't have Tips/Gratius in our cruises... It would be for wait staff to get your names & if there are any food Allergies... Our cruise fares have everything included in them. the staff are paid at a much higher rate cause of this...