Is this the new trend?

[allie3490]

12 hours ago, J0Y0US said:

 

Adapting? 

 

I have been on multiple cruises since covid and this is squarely a Royal "problem". NCL and Disney did not have this same issue.

 

Possibly Royal should go to ordering in the app for those who want to if wait staff is that short.

So continue on with NCL and disney. JFC

[allie3490]

12 hours ago, shof515 said:

how easy is it to find your table? do they have a map?

A map 🤣

[OCSC Mike]

7 minutes ago, allie3490 said:

So continue on with NCL and disney. JFC

 

Was thinking the same thing when I read this last night... maybe b/c I was born in raised in the Philly 'burbs. 🤣

[island lady]

12 hours ago, taglovestocruise said:

One of the first things we do after boarding is to visit the MDR and find our table.  Easy to make a switch if we don't like the location or table size. After that you just walk in and seat yourself every night.  First stop is to make any Specialty reservations.

 

Exactly what we do ^ 🤗

 

Kind of a fun hunt just after muster when we board.  Though many times the dining room host is already there, and seems to enjoy showing me the table.  

 

Then when dinner time comes...we love being able to just waltz right in at 5:30 straight to our table.  Don't need or require an escort.  😉 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 19, 2022 by island lady

[ONECRUISER]

25 minutes ago, allie3490 said:

A map 🤣

When I make a PreCruise table request with Royal 2-3 wks before Sailing about 2/3 time they send me Email with Table Number and Map of Location in Dining Room. 

[CoolChange37]

10 hours ago, mek said:

Do they scan your card when you are in the Windjammer?

No.    Just in the main dining.   I was being a smart aleck.    It is probably for the gratuity distribution, but can be aggravating.   

[CoolChange37]

10 hours ago, shof515 said:

from my understanding on sailing on other cruise lines. at the mdr they scan your card so they know how to assign your daily gratuity to the correct wait staff, scanning at the shows shows if you have a reservation or not

I believe this to be true and thought the prepaid gratuities were distributed across the board between wait staff, bar staff, bus staff and cabin stewards.  I know for a fact that there are people that only use the buffets or free "grab and go" places so they don't have to pay the gratuities, so not sure how this is fair.  I used to take the gratuity off and pay directly myself, but feel the extra I give those that personally take care of me could use it and find it makes a big difference in service.   And the reservation thing for the shows?   Not a fan.   Especially when you used to be able to have dinner and then catch a show, but now the shows are once a week and if you miss it, you miss it.   What happened to two showings?    There are 5,000 people on board.   I have mixed feelings about all this.   Cruising has now become like booking a land tour.   You have to plan everyday precisely if you want to be sure you don't miss those things you really want to see.  And being an MDR or specialty dining person, we usually wind up missing dessert to get to the show and then finding a seat, with a reservation.  Never have been able to get to the comedy shows or the "all time favorites" like Quest or the Newlywed game, due to the venue they are using for them. Not enough space.  There are certainly alot of opinions that could be made, this is mine.   Appreciate them, but don't want to be bombarded with negative comments from everywhere.   I guess there is no easy way to do things these days.   Smaller ships seem "not so bad" now.    

[RobInMN]

1 hour ago, cruiseguy1016 said:

 

Weird story but true. My wife and I sailed on Adventure in 2019 with 3 other couples. I always go to the MDR after boarding to find our table. I can't remember our table number, but I think it was 212. On the starboard side of the ship, I found tables 200 -211 and 213 - 220. Table 212 was not in the area. I asked a crew member where 212 was. It was on the port side with the tables numbered in the 300s!

Sort of similar last November on Freedom. MTD, they were escorting us to table #x (don't remember the number), but it was no where to be found. After a few minutes, I realized that they put the same number on 2 tables. I pointed that out to the host, and he went back to the host stand to verify, and came back with the manager or something. Still not 100% sure they actually understood that a number was duplicated, but we got dinner.

[ONECRUISER]

59 minutes ago, CoolChange37 said:

I believe this to be true and thought the prepaid gratuities were distributed across the board between wait staff, bar staff, bus staff and cabin stewards.  I know for a fact that there are people that only use the buffets or free "grab and go" places so they don't have to pay the gratuities, so not sure how this is fair.  I used to take the gratuity off and pay directly myself, but feel the extra I give those that personally take care of me could use it and find it makes a big difference in service.   And the reservation thing for the shows?   Not a fan.   Especially when you used to be able to have dinner and then catch a show, but now the shows are once a week and if you miss it, you miss it.   What happened to two showings?    There are 5,000 people on board.   I have mixed feelings about all this.   Cruising has now become like booking a land tour.   You have to plan everyday precisely if you want to be sure you don't miss those things you really want to see.  And being an MDR or specialty dining person, we usually wind up missing dessert to get to the show and then finding a seat, with a reservation.  Never have been able to get to the comedy shows or the "all time favorites" like Quest or the Newlywed game, due to the venue they are using for them. Not enough space.  There are certainly alot of opinions that could be made, this is mine.   Appreciate them, but don't want to be bombarded with negative comments from everywhere.   I guess there is no easy way to do things these days.   Smaller ships seem "not so bad" now.    

Agree, like my Smaller Ships and havent been on a Ship larger then Radiance Class in 20yrs. Though some this not new, first time I experienced Royal limiting people at Shows was 22+ yrs ago when they issued a Ticket limiting you to one of the Ice Show's and which one...

[Tlbecker1]

5 hours ago, ONECRUISER said:

Agree, like my Smaller Ships and havent been on a Ship larger then Radiance Class in 20yrs. Though some this not new, first time I experienced Royal limiting people at Shows was 22+ yrs ago when they issued a Ticket limiting you to one of the Ice Show's and which one...

Keep enjoying the small ships.  We are on the Brilliance for a B2B and can’t wait to get back on the Quantum or Oasis class ships.  There is so much more to do on the larger ships and we like that things are cleaner and better maintained.  The older ships seem to have so many maintenance issues.

[OCSC Mike]

That's why it's great that RC has lots of different ships. Different strokes...

 

I don't care to sail without a promenade but I'm looking forward to being on Indy in July after having done nothing but Oasis class (and Radiance in Alaska which was for Alaska, not the ship) for quite a few years.

[hazeleyes46]

Another post that shows people need to just chill and relax, it is vacation. People seem to go away so much that they forget that it is vacation and not everyday life. You have vacation to be relaxed and not let everything worry you like you do every other day of the year 🙂

[island lady]

23 minutes ago, OCSC Mike said:

That's why it's great that RC has lots of different ships. Different strokes...

 

I don't care to sail without a promenade but I'm looking forward to being on Indy in July after having done nothing but Oasis class (and Radiance in Alaska which was for Alaska, not the ship) for quite a few years.

 

I probably misunderstand what you said, but there IS a promenade on Indy.  She is twin sister to Freedom and Liberty.   

[OCSC Mike]

27 minutes ago, island lady said:

I probably misunderstand what you said, but there IS a promenade on Indy.  She is twin sister to Freedom and Liberty.   

 

Yeah, that was poorly written. I was trying (and failing) to say that I'm looking forward to something smaller than Oasis class (with a promenade) b/c it's been a while.

 

We were on Freedom once and it was one of our best cruises. Freedom class to me is just a larger version of Voyager class, so it wasn't that. Amongst other things, that week happened to have the emptiest DL ever. It was so quiet at night we became very friendly with a server who was so not busy that she wound up sitting down with us and chatting most nights. She also went out of her way to try to create unique fruity drinks for my wife who mostly doesn't drink. She disappeared somewhere and came back with all types of juices and fruit purees that wouldn't normally be present in the DL with its limited list of available drinks. Another night my wife had a stomach ache after dinner (nothing major) so I went to the DL to get her some ginger ale or sprite or something and our friend was genuinely concerned, gave me several cans, and asked if there was anything else she could do.

 

We're simple and easy to please but those above & beyond customer service experiences do add something special.

[nelblu]

5 hours ago, CoolChange37 said:

No.    Just in the main dining.   I was being a smart aleck.    It is probably for the gratuity distribution, but can be aggravating.   

It seems that they stopped the scanning in the WJ.  They did on the January Allure and not on the Easter Anthem sail.  Never had my card scanned in the MDR.

[Oceansaway17]

19 hours ago, MLP12 said:

Just back from sailing on Harmony.   When I went to the dining room the first night, I stood at the entrance waiting to be seated.  No one ever did greet me or escort me to my table.  This was throughout the entire cruise.  The first night people had to walk around searching for their table.  I have been on 23 cruises and this is the first time ever that I was not greeted and shown to my table. I had traditional seating.   Is this the new trend?  Also, when did they do away with the dessert menu?  You are asked to order dessert at the same time you order your main course and the starter and the appetizers are delivered at the same time instead of separate courses.  I am beginning to miss the decorum of cruising in the past.  

I understand your point of view.

most  MDR do escort the first night. Perhaps they were short staffed that day.

 

in regards to dessert, I have for last 6 years just waited a little while and then walked to WJ to select my own dessert so I can see what it looks like and try some others too.

 

For the most part,I only do MDR once then just specialty or WJ.

 

I no longer enjoy MDR like I did 15 or so years ago as I now just want to eat and read and leave.

[Oceansaway17]

1 hour ago, hazeleyes46 said:

Another post that shows people need to just chill and relax, it is vacation. People seem to go away so much that they forget that it is vacation and not everyday life. You have vacation to be relaxed and not let everything worry you like you do every other day of the year 🙂

Yea I love watching type A folks trying to survive cruising and those with energetic kids are a hoot.

Some  folks take “getting your money’s worth” too serious.

Ships like air planes are great for people watching.

[lenquixote66]

20 hours ago, MLP12 said:

Just back from sailing on Harmony.   When I went to the dining room the first night, I stood at the entrance waiting to be seated.  No one ever did greet me or escort me to my table.  This was throughout the entire cruise.  The first night people had to walk around searching for their table.  I have been on 23 cruises and this is the first time ever that I was not greeted and shown to my table. I had traditional seating.   Is this the new trend?  Also, when did they do away with the dessert menu?  You are asked to order dessert at the same time you order your main course and the starter and the appetizers are delivered at the same time instead of separate courses.  I am beginning to miss the decorum of cruising in the past.  

Don’t you have to check in so they know who you are ? If they do not I would think that you would find out why.

[nelblu]

3 minutes ago, lenquixote66 said:

Don’t you have to check in so they know who you are ? If they do not I would think that you would find out why.

I find it odd that not even a Maitre D around.

[lenquixote66]

3 minutes ago, nelblu said:

I find it odd that not even a Maitre D around.

Exactly ,I agree 100 %

[hazeleyes46]

8 minutes ago, Oceansaway17 said:

Yea I love watching type A folks trying to survive cruising and those with energetic kids are a hoot.

Some  folks take “getting your money’s worth” too serious.

Ships like air planes are great for people watching.

Yes people watching is awesome on a cruise lol

[Monk86]

Imagine having to walk to your own table...the sheer shame of it.

 

Also, I find asking the waiters to order when it suits works wonders....the power of communication

 

[taglovestocruise]

17 minutes ago, lenquixote66 said:

Don’t you have to check in so they know who you are ? If they do not I would think that you would find out why.

We always find our table location just after booking, easy to make a change if we don't like the location or table size. Have never done anything other than just walk in and seat ourselves, same time  same table same waitstaff every night. 

Edited May 19, 2022 by taglovestocruise

[nelblu]

13 minutes ago, hazeleyes46 said:

Yes people watching is awesome on a cruise lol

Especially by the pool area and the solarium.😁

[lenquixote66]

5 minutes ago, taglovestocruise said:

We always find our table location just after booking, easy to make a change if we don't like the location or table size. Have never done anything other than just walk in and seat ourselves, same time  same table same waitstaff every night. 

We have done that also,however,you cannot just walk in and be seated ,am I not correct ?