Tablecloths in MDR.

[GranysT]

I've only been on 1 cruise since  no tablecloths.  I did notice they had a small dish on the table, that they placed the water pitcher in. It was quite heavy, so wouldn't slide around the table, and it caught all the dripping.  But I must say, this was on Magic, and the noise level in the dining room, was absolutely awful. So bad, we couldn't talk to our tablemates, as we couldn't even hear each other. I hated it. Our worst dining experience ever. I don't know if the tablecloths kept the noise level down, previously, or what the problem was. I sure hope it won't happen again, on our Oct cruise on Conquest.

[manmachine]

Carnival had to remove the tablecloths.  

 

Everyone was complaining about how dated they looked, how much effort it took to keep them on the tables, and the environmental impact.  Those who who have read these boards for years remember how awful it was constantly hearing from cruisers how the tablecloths had to go, and Carnival resisting, resisting, resisting because they wanted to ‘preserve the cruise experience,’ whatever that means.

 

I, for one, bid them a fond ‘Adieu!’

[scpirate]

13 hours ago, ray98 said:

LOL.....now a tablecloth has 'value'.  

 

 

Carnival is matching the new norms in society.  Table cloths are no longer commonplace.

Your society not mine.

[realtorgranny]

I guess I am old school, I miss not having a tablecloth in the MDR. That subject has been beat to death and it doesn’t appear it will change. Goes right along with not dressing up for dinner. Join the masses or don’t cruise on Carnival, I choose to cruise. 

[jimbo5544]

1 hour ago, coevan said:

 

 

Table cloths are becoming a thing of the past in fine dining. Sometimes you will see table cloths to hide the cheap tables, like the red and white plastic used in cheesy Italian restaurants. I have eaten at some very upscale restaurants and the tables are gorgeous.

 

1 hour ago, coevan said:

 

Many fine restaurants do not use tablecloths, Del Frisco's is one of the top the come to mind.  It has never been an issue with me, obviously it is with others.  Cutback, change, enhancement, the fact is they are gone and probably never coming back....time to move on.

Edited September 4, 2019 by jimbo5544

[jimbo5544]

33 minutes ago, scpirate said:

Your society not mine.

lots of options out there if a table cloth defines it for you.

[coevan]

I find it hard to believe there are 56 posts about table tablecloths 🙄 

[gatour]

9 hours ago, VentureMan_2000 said:

I like doing the simple math...

Retail price (Sam's) for a 54"x96" tablecloth:     $  7.00

Retail price (Sam's) for a 90" round tablecloth:  $17.50

I'm assuming Carnival can probably purchase these for half the retail price, since they will purchase in bulk.

MDR seats approximately 1,300... so estimating an average tabletop size of 4 people between the 8, 6, 4, and 2 tops, there would be 325 tables that need tablecloths.  So, assume you need 4 clothes daily... morning, lunch, and 2 dinners.  Lets triple that number to 12 as you always needs extras and half the clothes will be in the wash at any given time.

 

Assuming 40 8-top round table clothes ($350),  the rest rectangle clothes -- maybe 240 ($840).  

 

Total cost of tablecloths: $1,190.  Assuming you could get 4 weeks use out of those tablecloths, That's $15,470 a year.

Carnival makes $211 profit per passenger per day.  So, assuming 3000 passengers, that's $633,000 a day... or $231,045,000 per year.  I acknowledge that there will be a small cost to wash these daily.

 

I don't see how $15k+ for tablecloths noticeably hurts the bottom line .  I see Carnival lose more with the daily price modifications they make... I've already reduced my booked cruises by $850 since I booked in March due to price reductions.

From my perspective, tablecloths were not reduced to save money... they were reduced for many of the other reasons folks here have mentioned -- including more casual dining. 

Some of your assumptions are wrong.

 

I worked in the hospitably industry.  Back in the 80's, I worked in a fine dining restaurant.  I guess you would know consider it as trendsetter as it didn't have tablecloths, but did use cloth napkins.  Part of my job would be to launder the the red colored napkins.  Labor and supply cost does come into the equation no matter how small you may think they are.  In actuality we didn't replace the cloth napkins every month (we would turn every one of them twice a day at a minimum).  After six or so months, I would have to  buy red dye and run them through the washer.  Making sure I ran a few cycles aftewards to clean out the dye before running kitchen "rags" through the washer.

 

There was a labor cost and supplies cost.

 

I also worked in restaurants where there were white tablecloths.  These were supplied by a linen service.  Lets just say we were strongly encouraged to keep them "crumbed", so we didn't have to put a fresh tablecloth at every table turn.

 

In the hospitality industry, pennies adds up to dimes and dimes add up to dollars.

 

While the elimination of tablecloths in the dining room wasn't solely driven by costs, I am sure it was one factor that was considered and factored into the final decision.

 

 

[dchip]

I have a question. We have done quite a few cruises on Princess and HAL. Their tables are just thick cardboard  like material  They can then change tables from 4 tops to 6-8-10 tops. What are Carnival’s made of? I don’t have a problem with no table cloths, I’m just trying to picture the table. Photos anyone?? Taking our first Carnival cruise in June. 

 

Cheers, Denise 

[simplelife]

13 hours ago, Cushing985 said:

 

Honestly, the way most of us dress for dinner makes tablecloths look out of place.

Oh yes, I agree. People want to take an "anything goes" approach to the dress code, but want their tables dressed up. We're a far more casual society today - Very few restaurants, unless very upscale, use tablecloths any more.

(To the person who  complained of spills in their lap - -- That's  what your napkin is for. )

Edited September 4, 2019 by simplelife

[VentureMan_2000]

2 hours ago, gatour said:

Some of your assumptions are wrong.

 

I worked in the hospitably industry.  Back in the 80's... Part of my job would be to launder the the red colored napkins.  Labor and supply cost does come into the equation no matter how small you may think they are.  In actuality we didn't replace the cloth napkins every month (we would turn every one of them twice a day at a minimum).  After six or so months, I would have to  buy red dye and run them through the washer.  Making sure I ran a few cycles aftewards to clean out the dye before running kitchen "rags" through the washer.

 

There was a labor cost and supplies cost.

 

I also worked in restaurants where there were white tablecloths.  These were supplied by a linen service.  

 

I thought I took this into consideration in my scenario...  Three times the number of tablecloths vs. the number of tables and number of table turnover per day...  actually replacing them every 4 weeks, even if not needed... (as opposed to waiting 6 months and then trying to re-dye them to somehow look decent -- I'm guessing for another 6 months ? )  Your scenario was nearly 40 years ago.  The cruise lines have high end machine that are used to launder the needs of 5,000 people and know how to use these machines, which is very cost efficient.  Not a big deal for them to launder 500 tablecloths a day.

Your establishment required the employees of the restaurant to do the laundering.  Laundering for one or two hundred customers... not being able to gain volume wholesale discounts for the linens... not willing to change them out every 4 weeks... yes. that would cost a lot.

And using a linen service is not cheap either -- they not only clean the linens... they purchased them as well, so you are paying thru the nose for convenience.

Just saying... I think my numbers and calculations are a fairly sound approximation of the costs involved vs. the net profit margins, for this discussion. 

Edited September 4, 2019 by VentureMan_2000

[beshears]

I cruise a few months ago on Carnival, and to tell the truth, I don't remember if the table cloths in the MDR were on the table every night or not.  I do know at least a couple times (could have been formal nights) they were on.  The reason I say this, when I'm trying to reach or find a place for my purse, my hand would hit part of the table cloth that was hanging down, but there was no problem with that either.  To ME, when the table clothes are on the table, I like to "dress up" to go along with this setting too. 🙂

[Organized Chaos]

4 hours ago, manmachine said:

Carnival had to remove the tablecloths.  

 

Everyone was complaining about how dated they looked, how much effort it took to keep them on the tables, and the environmental impact.  Those who who have read these boards for years remember how awful it was constantly hearing from cruisers how the tablecloths had to go, and Carnival resisting, resisting, resisting because they wanted to ‘preserve the cruise experience,’ whatever that means.

 

I, for one, bid them a fond ‘Adieu!’

 

I started out in the (now long gone) Carnival Funville forums about 5 years ago, then joined CC when Funville closed. By that time, the tablecloths were gone. I’ve never seen anyone say they wanted to see them go away when they had them. I’ve only ever seen people complain they got rid of them. So when they had them, people wanted them gone, and when they got rid of them, people wanted them back. Interesting. You don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone. 

[Stick93]

5 hours ago, Organized Chaos said:

 

I started out in the (now long gone) Carnival Funville forums about 5 years ago, then joined CC when Funville closed. By that time, the tablecloths were gone. I’ve never seen anyone say they wanted to see them go away when they had them. I’ve only ever seen people complain they got rid of them. So when they had them, people wanted them gone, and when they got rid of them, people wanted them back. Interesting. You don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone. 

Maybe someone could reference one of these table clothes should be gone forms so we can be reminded.

 

What else was should we be following that they are removing - we all want to make sure we are in the know! 

[sparks1093]

9 hours ago, coevan said:

I find it hard to believe there are 56 posts about table tablecloths 🙄 

Oh it's much more than that as I've read numerous posts on the topic and all of them had dozens of responses. 😉

[sparks1093]

8 hours ago, dchip said:

I have a question. We have done quite a few cruises on Princess and HAL. Their tables are just thick cardboard  like material  They can then change tables from 4 tops to 6-8-10 tops. What are Carnival’s made of? I don’t have a problem with no table cloths, I’m just trying to picture the table. Photos anyone?? Taking our first Carnival cruise in June. 

 

Cheers, Denise 

Nice wooden tables with a high gloss has been my experience. And to be fair table clothes are not completely gone, they are used on elegant nights (which also helps to set elegant night apart from the others). 

[LMaxwell]

20 hours ago, jimbo5544 said:

As it is for EVERY cruise line.  

Yes

[LMaxwell]

13 hours ago, ray98 said:

It is only a cost savings if everything else stays static.  Any additions at the same time are a cost and may actually have more financial outlay than the internal cost of laundering the table cloths they already own.

 

Everyone wants to talk about 'cut backs' but then ignore expenditures.

 

Since you seem to know, tell us 

[jimbo5544]

4 minutes ago, LMaxwell said:

Yes

Agreeing on even a small point is meaningful......we were agreeing, right?

[jsglow]

This was old news like 5 years ago.  Somehow I'm still drawn in reading the comments.  🤪

[jimbo5544]

11 minutes ago, jsglow said:

This was old news like 5 years ago.  Somehow I'm still drawn in reading the comments.  🤪

Just another part of what makes CC fun... somehow I think this one is still going....

[LMaxwell]

23 minutes ago, jimbo5544 said:

Agreeing on even a small point is meaningful......we were agreeing, right?

Yes, you agreed with me.  The cruise lines are first and foremost about money.  We are just numbers in a database. 

[jimbo5544]

17 minutes ago, LMaxwell said:

Yes, you agreed with me.  The cruise lines are first and foremost about money.  We are just numbers in a database. 

Without the last statement yes, I had hoped for a non jaundiced view. IS it possible it is not just back or white but shades of gray?

[LMaxwell]

4 minutes ago, jimbo5544 said:

Without the last statement yes, I had hoped for a non jaundiced view. IS it possible it is not just back or white but shades of gray?

Having done database management...we are all just numbers in a database.  There is, I suppose, some small percentage of repeat guests that have formed relationships over the years with some long term staff, but that's the exception and not the rule.  The numbers are probably statistically insignificant.  That is as grey as it is going to get.  If you get a VIFP offer it's because of your spending history and position in that database, not because you have known a Cruise Director for years. 

[jimbo5544]

5 minutes ago, LMaxwell said:

Having done database management...we are all just numbers in a database.  There is, I suppose, some small percentage of repeat guests that have formed relationships over the years with some long term staff, but that's the exception and not the rule.  The numbers are probably statistically insignificant.  That is as grey as it is going to get.  If you get a VIFP offer it's because of your spending history and position in that database, not because you have known a Cruise Director for years. 

I was thinking more of the experience as opposed to the deal you or I get.  Of course it comes down to the bottom line, but the trip to get there is the differentiator.

Edited September 4, 2019 by jimbo5544