Dining questions for recent Noordam cruisers

[luv2travel06]

If you have recently sailed on the Noordam, what were the early/late fixed dining times. I was told that the late dining time is 8:30pm, which seems very late, later than we have ever experienced on our dozen or so HAL cruises.

 

We have never done As You Wish (or whatever it's called) dining. My sister is joining us for her first ever cruise, and we hoped she could experience the traditional fixed dining, but 5:30 is too early, and if 8:30 is correct, that is too late for us.

 

On our March Princess cruise, we were unable to make reservations for fixed dining until we convinced a dining room manager to accommodate us at the same table at each evening, sometime between 7:00-7:30. He offered 7:20, which worked perfectly for us.

 

Any additional information/suggestions for arranging a suitable dining time would be appreciated.

 

[RuthC]

Although I haven't been on the Noordam in several years, I have been on late fixed dining on many other ships in that time. I know that late fixed was never at 8:30, except for a brief period many years ago (as in 20, or so, years), when it went to four fixed seatings. 
Since that short experiment HAL has gone to a mix of fixed and open seating, at earlier and earlier hours. Last I knew, late seating was at 7:30 pretty much across the fleet, while early seating moved, in increments, from 6:00 PM to 5:30 (I think sometimes even earlier). 

[CruiserBruce]

Agree with @RuthC. Late seating will be no later than 8pm, possibly 7:30.

 

If you want more control over your eating time, why not book open seating? Then you can go whenever it suits you.

[amyr]

We recently got home from the transPacific on Noordam from Sydney to Vancouver.  The fixed dining was up on Deck 3 as usual, and the open dining was down on Deck 2.  We just wandered in whenever it suited us, and there was no problem at all, but there was sometimes a line-up before the doors opened at 5:00.  We noticed by the second or third day that when the dining room opened, many people walked past the lines straight to fixed tables they had set up for themselves early in the cruise, effectively having their own 'fixed' dining in the 'open seating' dining room.  

 

I suspect you could do the same, just arrive whenever it suits you the first night and have whoever's running the show reserve that table for you for the rest of the cruise, just like you did on your Princess cruise.

[SilvertoGold]

Noordam was placing Open diners on both levels on the recent 39 day cruise.  (There were also fixed diners on the lower level) First on lower then overflow on upper level. 5 pm and 8 pm were the times for set dining. Managers were outstandingly flexible. This set-up may change for 7 day Alaska cruises and others.

[CruiserBruce]

30 minutes ago, SilvertoGold said:

Noordam was placing Open diners on both levels on the recent 39 day cruise.  (There were also fixed diners on the lower level) First on lower then overflow on upper level. 5 pm and 8 pm were the times for set dining. Managers were outstandingly flexible. This set-up may change for 7 day Alaska cruises and others.

This can vary by the demographics of each cruise. Just got off 14 days on Zaandam. It was the latest eating crowd I have ever seen on a cruise. At 5:30, the two dining rooms combined might have been a total of 25% full.

[pmjnh]

We were just on the Noordam for the 39 day. Early fixed dining was 5:30 but listed in the navigator as 5:00. We were told we can arrive as early as 5 if we wished. It was obvious that as you wish diners were placed in the upper DR often.