Table for 2 and Dining Seating TImes

[Native Floridian 26]

We're avid cruisers but we have only sailed HAL once.  We're going on the Nieuw Statendam Transatlantic in April.  We enjoy a table for 2 in the main dining room.  How difficult is it to get a table for 2 at dinner, and also breakfast and lunch.

 

Also, what time are the early and late on the Transatlantics?  Our last 2 cruises have been on MSC and they tend to be later, especially in Europe.

 

[CruiserBruce]

Lunch is not served in the MDR. Breakfast only on sea days and the last day of the cruise. 

 

What do you have requested on your reservation? That will usually be honored in fixed seating. Not always,  but usually. 

 

Fixed seating can vary by ship a little. Early will start somewhere between 5 and 5:30. Late is usually 8.

[Banditswife]

3 minutes ago, CruiserBruce said:

Lunch is not served in the MDR. Breakfast only on sea days and the last day of the cruise. 

Is this true, I may have forgotten, but I thought breakfast was served in MDR every day.  I get HAL & Carnival's policies mixed up sometimes.

[jimdee3636]

I can't answer all your questions, but we've sailed on HAL over a dozen times and have always requested---and gotten---a table for two at the "main" (late) seating, which in our experience has always been at 8:00PM. I have often heard, though, that the early MDR seating tends to be more in demand. As @CruiserBruce said, your reservation normally indicates your requested dining time. If it doesn't, have your travel agent contact HAL to amend the reservation (or contact them yourself if you don't have an agent).

[Native Floridian 26]

Thanks, everyone for the info.  I guess with the alternate dining venues, it makes sense the dining room doesn't do lunch.

 

I actually forgot that we had requested Your Time DIning, so time is not an issue.  We were just on MSC and we didn't have that option with the experience we booked.

 

[Cruising-along]

1 hour ago, Native Floridian 26 said:

 

I actually forgot that we had requested Your Time DIning, so time is not an issue

We just spent 28 days on the Nieuw Statendam and had anytime dining.  We found that if we went early (close to 5 pm) and probably late (but we didn't try that) it was easy to get a table for 2.  Not if we went 6:30-7'ish. 

We didn't try reserving the same table for several nights as we have in the past, because we dined in specialty restaurants more on that cruise.  

[Native Floridian 26]

1 hour ago, Cruising-along said:

We just spent 28 days on the Nieuw Statendam and had anytime dining.  We found that if we went early (close to 5 pm) and probably late (but we didn't try that) it was easy to get a table for 2.  Not if we went 6:30-7'ish. 

We didn't try reserving the same table for several nights as we have in the past, because we dined in specialty restaurants more on that cruise.  

Thanks.  We'll try reserving if that's an option.  We like to go around 7:30-8:00.

 

[Cruising-along]

20 minutes ago, Native Floridian 26 said:

Thanks.  We'll try reserving if that's an option.  We like to go around 7:30-8:00.

 

Good luck!  The times you can reserve are very limited and can depend on the cruise.  One time we lucked out and most others wanted to eat very early so we had no problem getting the same table every night at 7:00.  But that was unusual.  All you can do is try!

[Hlitner]

Our experience with HAL is that a majority of passengers prefer to dine early (some would probably have dinner at 4pm if it was available).  Since we seldom dine before 7:30 (and often not until near 😎) we it easy to get just about anything we want at that time be it a table for 2 or share a larger table.  Another nice thing about dining later is that there is no pressure on the staff to move folks along, so everything seems more relaxed/laid back.

 

Hank

[lindaler]

There is breakfast every day in the dinning room, just half an hour earlier on port days. Lunch in the dinning room happens on sea days. 

 

[Torquer]

21 minutes ago, lindaler said:

There is breakfast every day in the dinning room, just half an hour earlier on port days. Lunch in the dinning room happens on sea days. 

 

Lindaler is correct, and the information posted by CruiseBruce is not, at least in our experience.  In addition on some cruises, but definitely not all, lunch is served in the dining room on embarkation day.  Furthermore, breakfast is also served every day in the Pinnacle Grill or Club Orange (depending on the ship) for suite guests, and for those who pay for Club Orange but only in the Club Orange restaurant and not in the Pinnacle Grill for those ships that don't have a CO restaurant.

[SweetsugarNL]

Prepare to wait a hour on dressy night.

we got a table at 8:40.

[IPB4IGO]

On our 14-day cruise on the Koningsdam last month, we usually wandered down to the MDR around 6:30 and request a "table for two, no sharing". Sometimes we were seated immediately but most times we were given a buzzer and told the wait would be 10-20 minutes. In fact, the wait was never as long as 10 minutes, and there were pleasant, quiet tables for 2-4 outside the MDR for waiting.