Early dining time range?

[barriechris]

We have early dining which I believe starts at 6pm.  Is there a timerange you can show up to eat for early dining?  Reason I ask is one of the ports doesn't leave until 6:30pm and didn't want to necessarily rush to be back on board early to be ready for dinner at 6pm.

[hapytobehr]

IF the ship leaves the port at 6:30, you ,most likely have to be back on board by 5:30. 

 

As far as the dining time, from what i remember, you have a 15 minute window.  I have, however, seen people walk in 30 minutes late and have not be turned away.  I would imagine it depends on the matre'd.

 

Also, I think early dining time is 5:30/5:45 now.

Edited January 10, 2023 by hapytobehr

[Sailin_Pirate]

Please don't treat early time as your time. Your cruise info says when you need to show up.

 

You should have signed up for anytime or just eat buffet that night. 

 

 

[Schoifmom]

This is a fair question for an inexperienced cruiser.  Don't forget that you will likely be seated with others who will be forced to wait for you to show up before their dinner starts.  Also, service in the dining room is well-orchestrated and persons showing up late can disrupt the machine, and everyone else's dinner.  I do believe that there is a posted 15 minute allowance for being late and then they ask that you dine on the Lido.  If this is unacceptable, you should try to get your dining time changed to YTD.

[sunonfire]

On the Pride in April they opened the doors at 5.30 for the 6.00 seating. It just helped to stagger the guests. Some people came early and others arrived at 6.00. This prevented the long line of guests outside of the dining room.

[jsglow]

Welcome to Cruise Critic OP! As stated above, if the ship actually departs port at 6:30 your 'back on board' will be by 6:00 at the very latest. Even then, you'd be squarely in 'dock runner' status at that time.  Essentially everyone will be back earlier than that.

 

As for Fixed Dining protocol, one is expected to arrive 'on time'.  That means within a few minutes of the set time though it certainly does take 5-10 minutes to get everyone situated. So yes, if Fixed Dining was set at 6 and you showed up at 6:30 you might get legitimately turned away.  Even if you were allowed in, your table mates would consider it quite rude and an imposition on them.  They might not say anything the first time if they saw your Blue Card but they would sure be thinking it.

 

Bottom line; now you know. 6 means 6. Enjoy your cruise!

Edited January 10, 2023 by jsglow

[barriechris]

2 hours ago, Sailin_Pirate said:

Please don't treat early time as your time. Your cruise info says when you need to show up.

 

You should have signed up for anytime or just eat buffet that night. 

 

 

Which is why I was asking the question as I wouldn’t want to hold people up.  Figured it was a legitimate question with how the seating happens.  

[barriechris]

1 hour ago, Schoifmom said:

This is a fair question for an inexperienced cruiser.  Don't forget that you will likely be seated with others who will be forced to wait for you to show up before their dinner starts.  Also, service in the dining room is well-orchestrated and persons showing up late can disrupt the machine, and everyone else's dinner.  I do believe that there is a posted 15 minute allowance for being late and then they ask that you dine on the Lido.  If this is unacceptable, you should try to get your dining time changed to YTD.

Thank you for the help 

[jsglow]

3 minutes ago, barriechris said:

Thank you for the help 

Have a fantastic time. Is this your first cruise?

[barriechris]

Just now, jsglow said:

Have a fantastic time. Is this your first cruise?

No last one was 7 years ago but we did anytime dining so wasn’t sure what the rules were.  Thanks again!

[Luckysll]

44 minutes ago, barriechris said:

No last one was 7 years ago but we did anytime dining so wasn’t sure what the rules were.  Thanks again!

Also, if you are seated with others, and you know in advance you won’t be at dinner the next night (you have specialty restaurant reservations, for example), please let the servers know so the other diners aren’t waiting for you.  

[satxdiver]

When CCL posts that the ship leaves at 6:30 PM that means it actually sails away.  The ship cannot do that until the guests are back onboard, the gang planks pulled, doors shut and lines dropped.  So plan on being back on board by the advertised back on board time which will be around 45 minutes prior to sail away.  Therefore a 6:30 departure time translates into being back onboard at 5:45 or earlier.  The ship only waits for their tours to return and generally not for late arrivals so be warned.  Best sport is standing on the balconies/railings to watch the "pier runners" who are trying to reboard at the last possible minute.  Great sport to watch them and do catcalls from the ship.  

[Jeafl]

On our last cruise we had late seating, and the group that was at our table for early seating showed up 30-45 minutes late every night (according to our servers).  This put a lot of stress on the servers to get them out of there in time for us to show up on time.  We had to wait a couple of times so they could clear and reset our table which was not fun.  I would recommend getting Your time dining if you don't think you can make it on time every night.

Edited January 11, 2023 by Jeafl

[simplelife]

Satxdiver is correct. "Back on Board" time is earlier than sailaway. You should have time to enjoy yoru port day, reboard by the announced time,  and freshen up for early dinner.