Requested dinner reservations

[mb777]

Just now, mb777 said:

I should probably explain, by early dining I'm talking about 6:30 which is very difficult to obtain.  We did go to happy hour which is 5-6, then the natural move for us would be heading to dinner at 6:30 after happy hour.  Hope this makes sense.

We're thrilled to eat at 6:30 on board, just found it very difficult to secure that time with our B2 Verandah.

[mb777]

19 minutes ago, ORV said:

For us it's not about being hungry, it's about not wanting to go to bed on a full stomach. We tend to go to bed between 9-10 at home. If we don't get done with dinner until 9 or later then we have to try to stay up for a while, we also tend to be up around 5-6 to get ready for a full day of touring. The eating late European model just doesn't work for us. 

Sounds like we are on the same schedule.  Your post summed it up much better than mine, thank you.

[clo]

40 minutes ago, ORV said:

For us it's not about being hungry, it's about not wanting to go to bed on a full stomach. We tend to go to bed between 9-10 at home. If we don't get done with dinner until 9 or later then we have to try to stay up for a while, we also tend to be up around 5-6 to get ready for a full day of touring. The eating late European model just doesn't work for us. 

So, ORV, you're a very experienced cruiser. How do y'all handle it? I totally get what you're saying.

[ORV]

1 minute ago, clo said:

So, ORV, you're a very experienced cruiser. How do y'all handle it? I totally get what you're saying.

Oddly enough we're usually able to get early slots in the Specialties. I can't ever remember having to take anything later than 8, and that's been rare. On normal nights we either eat in the GDR or the Terrace, and you can eat in those any time after 6:30

[Harters]

The more I've read this thread, the more I become surprised that O doesnt open its dining earlier. I see it like this:-

 

The overwhelmingly number of O's cruisers are American. Many Americans clearly wish to eat at what I would consider a very early time, so opening dining would satisfy demand.

 

And, if that happened, it would free up competition for tables for those of us who want to eat later at, say, 8pm

 

Seems that everyone becomes a winner. I can't see a downside. 

Edited July 2 by Harters

[IWantToLiveOverTheSea]

To open earlier, Oceania might have to juggle some assignments, as some of the crew members who work in the specialties work somewhere else before or after their job there. Of course, then there may be hardly anyone eating after 8, unless a particular cruise has an unusually high number of European guests. 

[pinotlover]

3 hours ago, Harters said:

The more I've read this thread, the more I become surprised that O doesnt open its dining earlier. I see it like this:-

 

The overwhelmingly number of O's cruisers are American. Many Americans clearly wish to eat at what I would consider a very early time, so opening dining would satisfy demand.

 

And, if that happened, it would free up competition for tables for those of us who want to eat later at, say, 8pm

 

Seems that everyone becomes a winner. I can't see a downside. 

Perhaps it’s called work schedules!! If they slice off 1.5 hours to 5:00 on the front side, that means for their work schedule they’ll slice off 1.5 hours on the backside to 7:30. Or were you just expecting the crew to work an additional 1.5 hours.

 

Going to Tuscany in September. Restaurants don’t open until 7:00 or 7:30. 6:30 isn’t late for restaurants to open . People get stuck in personal ruts and don’t want to change even in foreign lands on vacation. Guess this is the reason so many fly in and out the day of Embarkment. Can’t wait until the shore restaurants open at night.

Edited July 2 by pinotlover

[pinotlover]

On many cruises, all aboard isn’t until 5:30-6:00. It’s still broad daylight, but people want to start eating before everyone is even back on ship! 🙄

 

Thursday is an American holiday with fireworks that won’t start until dark which is well after 9:00. We’re invited to an outdoor picnic at 7:00, then to watch the fireworks. It doesn’t start to cool off until 7:00. The entire event seems to be after many here’s bedtime! 🙄.

[Harters]

35 minutes ago, pinotlover said:

Or were you just expecting the crew to work an additional 1.5 hours.

No. As others hope, I would expect O to cater to a majority demand. There is clearly more demand from Americans who want to eat early, than there are Europeans, like me (and others), who want to eat later. Adjust the times so you cater to your customer base and tell folk like me to like it or lump it  I would, in all probability choose to lump it - but then we Europeans are a very small percentage of the customer base, so O probably wouldnt care too much about the loss of our business if  the change was appealing to more potential American customers. 

 

Alternatively, they could do what land based restaurants, which open long hours,  do - just stagger the workforce's hours.

 

This really isnt that difficult to achieve if O had the will to do it. 

Edited July 2 by Harters

[MEFIowa]

15 hours ago, mb777 said:

... Also, we enjoy going to the 9:30 show and that is not possible with a 7:30 or later reservation.  Our specialty meals were taking an average of 2+ hours unfortunately.  About 90 minutes in the dining room....

You can take some easy steps to speed up your evening dinner a bit and make the 9:30 show with a 7:30 or 8:00 pm reservation. When we had 8:30 reservations we'd immediately tell our server "No bread, No desert, and we're ready to order. Just bring the food out when it is ready. We've got to leave by 9:15." We knew the menu. So, we could rather easily get our time under an hour, and no problem under 75 minutes.

[MEFIowa]

12 hours ago, ORV said:

Oddly enough we're usually able to get early slots in the Specialties. I can't ever remember having to take anything later than 8, and that's been rare....

Yes, BUT what CABIN LEVELS are you discussing? The serious issue is G-B. Rarely, if ever, A. And seemingly never for PH and above. Found this out firsthand on Riveria on a B2B going from an A3 (great reservation times) to a B3 (horrible reservation times).

 

And the problem is exacerbated for those wanting tables for 2 (which so many do prefer, as they do in their normal life eating as a couple).

[Techno123]

Many of the river cruises have a fixed evening dining starting at 7pm which is far too early for us and many of the European guests onboard and too late for some of the US guests but as they only had the one sitting, it was what it was, so I'm grateful the ocean ships we choose to sail on don't do this.

Personally, I am delighted that others like to eat early as it means there are tables available at 8pm for us 😁

[MEFIowa]

14 hours ago, iowananny said:

... We really enjoy Oceania but we also like eating later....

Though what is seemingly odd is that for our 40 nights since 12/2021 on Riviera & Sirena, NO one seemingly was willing to "eat later". There was a 9 pm reservation slot (they forced us to accept one when our 45-day window opened and then forced us to an 8:30 time on the day of the reservation). In our experience, there have been a smattering of couples at 8 pm and less than that at 8:30. The nights we had to do the 8:30 times, it was us and 2 other couples.

 

Begs the question, where are these mythical "late eaters"? They weren't in the Caribbean over 20 nights (2021-22) and they weren't in the Med over 20 nights (2023).

[iowananny]

While I think many would love having restaurants open earlier, I fear there could be some consequences. Would Happy Hour need to be earlier because many people are eating earlier?  It would give O the perfect opportunity to cut the time in a port because so many want to get back on the ship to eat early.  Why stick around when everyone wants to get back and eat on the ship.  Should the shows start at 8:00 so the audience could be in bed by 9:00.

 

It would also be a big deterrent not only to Europeans who do like to eat later but also younger people who typically eat later because they have jobs and don't get home from work in time to fix a meal and eat at five.  These are the people who O needs to consider along with the older folks which seem to make up the majority of their passengers.  I think they know they need a diverse customer base.

 

 

 

 

[MEFIowa]

And when one looks around at the type entertainment this is being offered at 9:30 PM, one notes that much of this back in America often has TWO SHOWS. The local comedy club in my area has a 7 PM and a 9:30 PM showing. When I saw Wicked in Chicago back in the 2000s, there was an afternoon showing and an evening showing.

 

But so much of the issue is tied to the 9:30 showing. SO those that want to see it, want to eat early. And those that want a slow meal know that if they eat 8 pm or later, they'll miss the one show.

[iowananny]

 

Begs the question, where are these mythical "late eaters"?

 

Well, I don't think I'm mythical.  My husband and I truly do like to eat after 8:00.  We've had so many nice discussions with the staff when things slowed down later in the evening.  We've never felt rushed and felt we could enjoy an after-dinner drink in peace.  We also like eating with other people.  We eat alone almost every night at home and it's fun to meet new people.  My husband speaks French and especially likes it when he can converse with someone else who speaks the language.  And believe it or not we've shared more than one meal with French speakers.  We've also shared meals with the guest lecturer which is very nice.

 

To be honest I don't know how many nights we've spent on an O ship but I know it's over 40 so we have our experiences too.  They're just different from yours.  

 

 

 

 

[MEFIowa]

4 minutes ago, iowananny said:

Begs the question, where are these mythical "late eaters"?... To be honest I don't know how many nights we've spent on an O ship but I know it's over 40 so we have our experiences too.  They're just different from yours....

So... when, what ship and what cabin level was your last most recent experience?

 

We did A3 and B3 on Riviera (20-night B2B) in Oct-Nov 2023. There were almost NO "late eaters". There was NO serious cohort of diners coming in at 8 or 8:30. And they were forcing 9 pm reservations back to 8:30. So there was NO actual 9 pm reservation time.

 

It was kind of sad in Red Ginger the one night I tracked who showed up from 8:20 PM on (the time we arrived for our 8:30 reservation, the first couple for that time to wait). Just us and 2 other couples! So that is grand total of 6 people who walked in for an 8:30 reservation time. And the place was all but empty by 9:30.

 

I suspect many G-B passengers either didn't accept late specialty times to begin with or cancelled.

[pinotlover]

3 minutes ago, iowananny said:

While I think many would love having restaurants open earlier, I fear there could be some consequences. Would Happy Hour need to be earlier because many people are eating earlier?  It would give O the perfect opportunity to cut the time in a port because so many want to get back on the ship to eat early.  Why stick around when everyone wants to get back and eat on the ship.  Should the shows start at 8:00 so the audience could be in bed by 9:00.

 

It would also be a big deterrent not only to Europeans who do like to eat later but also younger people who typically eat later because they have jobs and don't get home from work in time to fix a meal and eat at five.  These are the people who O needs to consider along with the older folks which seem to make up the majority of their passengers.  I think they know they need a diverse customer base.

 

 

 

 

Bingo!!!

 

The Social Director, and Oceania , are correct. If dining started at 5:00, many cruises would indeed be ghost ships by 7:30. This is much like my aunt’s assisted living facility, but wait! 🙄 That would turn many off.

 

It’s all fairly simple, the time is what we train our bodies for it to be. We got on an airplane and flew to Tokyo. What time was it? Fourteen hours difference between CDT and Tokyo time. We trained our bodies to adjust. We’ll likewise train our bodies to adjust to Italian time and Italian schedules in September. If part of that adjustment is eating later then so be it. If/when I don’t want to adjust to time changes, different cultures with different habits, different foods, etc I’ll set at home. Or, take a cruise on an Merican cruise ship and listen to other likeminded complain.

 

Perhaps the answer is separate, but equal. Oceania sometimes sponsors Swinger cruises. Oceania sets the rules for those paying guests abit differently. Most non Swingers probably don’t book those cruises. Maybe they need to advertise certain Geriatric Cruises. Happy Hour 3-4, Dinner 4:30-6:00. Showtime 7:00. 
 

Then people can choose those cruises, or cruises with the regular established times.

[MEFIowa]

5 minutes ago, pinotlover said:

... Oceania sometimes sponsors Swinger cruises. Oceania sets the rules for those paying guests a bit differently. Most non-Swingers probably don’t book those cruises. Maybe they need to advertise certain Geriatric Cruises. Happy Hour 3-4, Dinner 4:30-6:00. Showtime 7:00....

Would be fascinating to see what change, if any, they make to dining times and entertainment on the Swinger cruises.

 

As for "geriatrics", that "happy hour" might be mainly non-alcoholic, due to medication interactions? I've met very few people age 75 and older who can still drink much alcohol due to their prescriptions.

 

Oddly, I wonder if the swingers get active around 9-10 pm. The "geriatric time" might work for the swingers? I'd suspect, but not know for sure, that one probably doesn't want to swing on a full stomach? So, an after-dinner rest pre-swing might be best? 

[iowananny]

Well, sign us up for the Swinger Cruise before the Geriatric Cruise.  Dinner probably wouldn't even be that important when we're swinging.  But we'll probably just stick with the dull, boring regular cruise.  But I do want my drink package.

[Harters]

19 minutes ago, pinotlover said:

Oceania sometimes sponsors Swinger cruises

Now, I really have to wonder if "swinger" in American English is the same as in British English. If so, then  I guess a younger demographic for those cruises than the O cruises I've been on. But very, erm, progressive thinking on O's part. 

[iowananny]

In the words of Austin Powers, "Yeah, baby".

[ORV]

1 hour ago, MEFIowa said:

Yes, BUT what CABIN LEVELS are you discussing? The serious issue is G-B. Rarely, if ever, A. And seemingly never for PH and above. Found this out firsthand on Riveria on a B2B going from an A3 (great reservation times) to a B3 (horrible reservation times).

 

And the problem is exacerbated for those wanting tables for 2 (which so many do prefer, as they do in their normal life eating as a couple).

I usually book g-b. On occasion I take an upgrade to A, or PH, but only if it's a good deal. I usually start out as low as I can, except for the R ships, which I go to at least an Oceanview.

 

But I'm always willing to share to get an earlier time, or not be rigid on which day I eat where. If I have to I'll eat in Specialties back to back, although we prefer to spread them out through the trip. Obviously your mileage varies. 

[EJL2023]

21 minutes ago, Harters said:

Now, I really have to wonder if "swinger" in American English is the same as in British English. If so, then  I guess a younger demographic for those cruises than the O cruises I've been on. But very, erm, progressive thinking on O's part. 

There was a discussion on the swingers thing on Oceania a while back on this thread. Interesting. lol 

 

 

[Harters]

Thanks for the link, EJL. 

 

If I've read that thread correctly,  the whole ship had been booked for the swingers. That's something of a relief that I'm not likely to be propositioned in Baristas on our next cruise.