Dining room advice on Majestic to Alaska

[madre2]

Hi all!  We will be doing an Alaskan cruise on the Majestic this summer to celebrate our 40 th anniversary.  We will be requesting a table for two each night, but really are hoping to enjoy our dining experience in the dining rooms with tables for two, not right on top of each other.   Does anyone have any advice on which of the 3 main dining rooms would be best as far as being able to see the glaciers in hubbard and Glacier National park while we eat, and which dining room would be less crowded and less noisy?  Also, while doing the Hubbard Glacier and Glacier National park, do we really want to be in the dining room?    We dont want to miss the highlights just to eat!    😂. Thinking of making reservations about 6-6:30 each night.  But again, any advice on that would be appreciated.  Thank you!

[Cruise Raider]

You will not be at the Glaciers at dinner time.  
I happen to the like dining rooms that are midship on decks 5 or deck 6.  Mostly all of the tables for 2 are on a bench seat, so you will most likely have neighbors on both sides of you.  Getting a solo table for 2 by the window is extremely limited, although there are a few.  
Dining for 2 for either 6:00 PM or 6:20 PM are your best bet for getting to the 7:30 PM show in the theater .. depending on how many courses you order.  We rarely stay for dessert so, we pick the 6:20 option.  But, they are currently filling the ships so, we might even suggest the earlier option if we want to get a seat at the shows.  

 

 

[SCX22]

Probably best to go to the buffets on scenic cruising days.  The buffet seating area on Royal Class ships have long swaths of floor to ceiling windows for viewing the scenery.  The dining rooms on Royal Class ships only have small windows that are akin to windows in an ocean view stateroom.  Scenery will be be on both port and starboard sides on the ship in Glacier Bay.  The captain usually swings the boat around in Hubbard Glacier so both port and starboard side balconies have viewing time of the glacier.

[cruisequeen4ever]

Hubbard Glacier will likely be on Formal Night, so keep that in mind when making your reservation. DH and I found ourselves running in and out of our stateroom while getting ready to see it. We wish we had made a later res.

[jeromep]

Last time we visited Glacier Bay we had left the face of the glacier by mid-afternoon and were headed back to the entry to Glacier Bay to offload the park rangers.  By the time we were having dinner we were out of the bay.  I don't think you need to be worried about getting a window seat at dinner that day.  I have no clue on the timing near Hubbard.

 

Most 2 tops are bench seat with a chair opposite and you will be close to your neighbor.  Very few 2 tops with chairs in the middle of the dining room or near windows.  You might be able to make a standing reservation for every night with a particular table location selection, but you'll have to arrange that with the maitre'd on embarkation day.  I'm not sure that you can get that specific with your reservation through the app.

[MsSoCalCruiser]

We sat at a two top that wasn’t near any other tables on the Discovery BUT you could not see out any windows, and it was in a high traffic area. Everyone walks by looking at your food.  We sat there for 14 days (minus 1 night at CG) 

[MsSoCalCruiser]

Here is a photo I took while eating at the Buffet.  
 

[madre2]

Thanks everyone for the advice.  Did you have a preference in dining rooms?  We know the menus are the same, but would like to know if decor or layout is better in one over another 

[SCX22]

One of the dining rooms will be designated for Reserve Collection and Suite guests only.  

 

The only variations between the dining rooms is the color palette.  Since it's open dining now, it's hard to predict noise levels at any given time because the seating is always shuffled around.  With assigned dining in the past, you'd be able to ask for a table reassignment if the surrounding were too loud for your liking. 

 

I'd be more worried about the lines to be seated above all.  Try to pick the dining room which can seat you the quickest.  Even with a reservation, it's not guaranteed that you be seated right away.

[MsSoCalCruiser]

15 minutes ago, SCX22 said:

One of the dining rooms will be designated for Reserve Collection and Suite guests only.  

 

The only variations between the dining rooms is the color palette.  Since it's open dining now, it's hard to predict noise levels at any given time because the seating is always shuffled around.  With assigned dining in the past, you'd be able to ask for a table reassignment if the surrounding were too loud for your liking. 

 

I'd be more worried about the lines to be seated above all.  Try to pick the dining room which can seat you the quickest.  Even with a reservation, it's not guaranteed that you be seated right away.

A section of a dining room will be designated for Reserve Collection and suite guests, not an entire dining room.

Edited March 4, 2023 by MsSoCalCruiser

[SCX22]

13 minutes ago, MsSoCalCruiser said:

A section of a dining room will be designated for Reserve Collection and suite guests, not an entire dining room.

On the Regal and Royal this past January, they dedicated one of the midship dining rooms to Club Class (Reserve Collection now) and Suite guests only.  Guests in the aforementioned categories were complaining about having to wait too long to be seated so they assigned a dining room only for them.  I'm guessing it's because guest capacity is up and dining room hosts were letting the proletariats occupy too many tables, thus, making the bourgeoisies wait.

Edited March 4, 2023 by SCX22

[MsSoCalCruiser]

40 minutes ago, SCX22 said:

On the Regal and Royal this past January, they dedicated one of the midship dining rooms to Club Class (Reserve Collection now) and Suite guests only.  Guests in the aforementioned categories were complaining about having to wait too long to be seated so they assigned a dining room only for them.  I'm guessing it's because guest capacity is up and dining room hosts were letting the proletariats occupy too many tables, thus, making the bourgeoisies wait.

Thank you. This is the first time I’ve heard of this happening.  Good news.