Club Orange Nieuw Statendam

[farawaygal]

We are currently on the Canada Greenland Iceland cruise. Guests pay extra for priority dining via Club Orange so why are there diners in line today at 4:30 pm for Club Orange for dining that does not begin until 5:15?  This does not seem like a priority dining experience.

 

[*Miss G*]

That’s weird.  Maybe they’re super hungry.  😂  We always ask when the best time to dine is so we can avoid the rush.  Never once had to wait.

[CruiserBruce]

In line at 4:30? That sounds crazy. Did you ask them?

[NCTribeFan]

It's not priority dining, though, is it?  It's open seating in a separate dining room.  Maybe a lot of folks want to eat early, for whatever reason.

[esther e]

Maybe they're from Florida with early bird coupons?  LOL

[Hlitner]

36 minutes ago, farawaygal said:

We are currently on the Canada Greenland Iceland cruise. Guests pay extra for priority dining via Club Orange so why are there diners in line today at 4:30 pm for Club Orange for dining that does not begin until 5:15?  This does not seem like a priority dining experience.

 

ROFL!  This is a phenonium we have often seen with early diners (on multiple cruise lines).  It does not matter if they have an assigned table, an assigned dining time, or even a 2 top.  These folks simply love to spend half their day in queues to be the first for anything, be it first in the MDR, first at the wine tasting, first into the shows, etc.  At 4:30 on a nice day, DW and I will still be out in our deck chairs enjoying the weather and fresh outdoors.   We salute those who love to spend lots of their spare time in lines, but we practice active queue avoidance.

 

I should add we have little reason to need any kind of "priority" dining since we generally do not think about eating dinner until at least 7:30 when many of those who were in the 4:30 lines are already in their cabin getting ready for bed :).   We have met HAL passengers who complain that the early fixed dining is too darn late.  They would prefer to eat dinner at 4 (I guess they are from Florida and used to "early birds.:)

 

Hank

 

 

[VMax1700]

43 minutes ago, farawaygal said:

We are currently on the Canada Greenland Iceland cruise. Guests pay extra for priority dining via Club Orange so why are there diners in line today at 4:30 pm for Club Orange for dining that does not begin until 5:15?  This does not seem like a priority dining experience.

 

Helloooo!

You are on the ship.

Why ask here?

Ask them?

duh!

[Florida_gal_50]

2 hours ago, NCTribeFan said:

It's not priority dining, though, is it?  It's open seating in a separate dining room.  Maybe a lot of folks want to eat early, for whatever reason.

I agree.  That said in my experience they do seat people quicker from Neptune suites.  They get the window seats in my experience.

[Florida_gal_50]

1 hour ago, Hlitner said:

ROFL!  This is a phenonium we have often seen with early diners (on multiple cruise lines).  It does not matter if they have an assigned table, an assigned dining time, or even a 2 top.  These folks simply love to spend half their day in queues to be the first for anything, be it first in the MDR, first at the wine tasting, first into the shows, etc.  At 4:30 on a nice day, DW and I will still be out in our deck chairs enjoying the weather and fresh outdoors.   We salute those who love to spend lots of their spare time in lines, but we practice active queue avoidance.

 

I should add we have little reason to need any kind of "priority" dining since we generally do not think about eating dinner until at least 7:30 when many of those who were in the 4:30 lines are already in their cabin getting ready for bed :).   We have met HAL passengers who complain that the early fixed dining is too darn late.  They would prefer to eat dinner at 4 (I guess they are from Florida and used to "early birds.:)

 

Hank

 

 

Yes we know you just love to hate on the early birds.  I get up at 4am on weekdays and generally I eat early on the weekends.  I’m usually in bed by 9 pm sometimes even on the weekend.  I don’t have the luxury of sleeping until noon any day.  Usually sleeping in for me is 6 am.  I have no desire to eat at 7:30 nor do I need to hate on those that do.  I think 4:30 is way to early to eat dinner on a ship but as long as it doesn’t put me out I’m good.  I’d just be afraid of missing some lovely scenery.

[Hlitner]

1 hour ago, Florida_gal_50 said:

Yes we know you just love to hate on the early birds.  I get up at 4am on weekdays and generally I eat early on the weekends.  I’m usually in bed by 9 pm sometimes even on the weekend.  I don’t have the luxury of sleeping until noon any day.  Usually sleeping in for me is 6 am.  I have no desire to eat at 7:30 nor do I need to hate on those that do.  I think 4:30 is way to early to eat dinner on a ship but as long as it doesn’t put me out I’m good.  I’d just be afraid of missing some lovely scenery.

And do you get in line at 4:30 for dinner?

[mfanderso]

I am on Nieuw Statendam now. Club Orange opens at 5:00 pm and does fill up quickly. We have found if we wait until 6:30 or 7:00 there is no wait. They do fill up in the mornings for breakfast and open up Rudi’s to supplement it. 

[Florida_gal_50]

17 hours ago, Hlitner said:

And do you get in line at 4:30 for dinner?

Nope.  I don’t enjoy standing in line like some people seem to.  My usual dinner on a ship is 6 or 6:30.

[Florida_gal_50]

1 hour ago, mfanderso said:

I am on Nieuw Statendam now. Club Orange opens at 5:00 pm and does fill up quickly. We have found if we wait until 6:30 or 7:00 there is no wait. They do fill up in the mornings for breakfast and open up Rudi’s to supplement it. 

That’s interesting about Rudi’s.  I’ve found club orange to be busy in the mornings.  Sometimes I’ve had to wait 15 or 20 min.  I tend to go for breakfast around 8 ish.  I rarely go at night because I do get a fair few freebies at specialty restaurants plus I enjoy them.  When I have gone it hasn’t been that busy at night.  I would assume the clientele on this cruise would probably skew older so it’s not surprising about the crush of early diners.

[zelker]

22 hours ago, Florida_gal_50 said:

That said in my experience they do seat people quicker from Neptune suites.  They get the window seats in my experience.

Not sure which ship you experienced that on but I can tell you that we were on NS on the 18 day cruise that ended in Boston on August 3rd, in a Neptune, and we did NOT get seated any quicker NOR did we get priority seating near the glass.  It was first-come first-served and they did not hold tables for anyone.

[Florida_gal_50]

1 hour ago, zelker said:

Not sure which ship you experienced that on but I can tell you that we were on NS on the 18 day cruise that ended in Boston on August 3rd, in a Neptune, and we did NOT get seated any quicker NOR did we get priority seating near the glass.  It was first-come first-served and they did not hold tables for anyone.

That’s good to know.  All my club orange experience was on the koningsdam, 4 weeks in all.  While I don’t know if everyone in the window seats were in a Neptune, the few I knew were always at the windows and always sat first.  One person I know was in a Neptune said they never had to wait although I’m pretty sure that person always went later than I did.  Different shops, different ways of handling things I guess.  I can tell you in those 4 weeks I was never sat at a window even though they were open.

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

It is well worth it.