Specialty Dinner Pace

[GeezerCouple]

2 hours ago, clo said:

Please define "old." I'm 77.

 

Uh oh... is this going to become the "My age is bigger than your age" thread!?

🤣

 

GC

[clo]

1 hour ago, GeezerCouple said:

 

Uh oh... is this going to become the "My age is bigger than your age" thread!?

🤣

 

GC

I'm trying to deal with it so looking forward to meeting other "old" cruisers. 🙂

[PelicanLvr]

The specialities open at 6:30 and are dead-zones by 9.  That was last November on Nautica to the Canary Islands.

 

Tables were hardly being turned-over.  There was no time for a 2nd use...as we learned.

 

We could only get 8:30 2-top reservations and the place was emptying-out as we sat down.  We were so rushed and still felt like the staff just wanted us to leave.  Polo grill meal (3 courses) in less than an hour.  They just threw the food at us!

 

Spoke to the restaurant manager about this problem.  We ended up eating in the Grand Dining Room most nights. Alex (the host) took great care of us.

 

If O makes you take a reservation after 8pm you should have the same experience as the "early eaters".  

 

Also, if O wants to attract a "younger-crowd" you can't make them sit down for dinner at 6:30.  The younger-crowd was certainly not on our sailing.

 

Just about the only negative issue we had....but a big-one for us.  Nice dining is important to us.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mb777]

Just finished a 10 day Western Europe on the Nautica.  Had 3 specialty dining meals (2-Toscana, 1-Polo) and would have been over the moon to receive the entree 35 minutes into the meal.  All 3 meals took approximately 2.5 hours which for us is way too long for any meal.  One was 6:30 2-top, one a 6:30 shared and one a 7:00 shared.

If you want to see the 9:30 show, having a 7:00 reservation left us running out of the restaurant to catch the show.

The lack of any earlier seating and the length of the meal service was really the only negative thing about the whole trip.

[MEFIowa]

40 minutes ago, PelicanLvr said:

The specialities open at 6:30 and are dead-zones by 9.  That was last November on Nautica to the Canary Islands. Tables were hardly being turned-over.  There was no time for a 2nd use...as we learned. We could only get 8:30 2-top reservations and the place was emptying-out as we sat down.  We were so rushed and still felt like the staff just wanted us to leave.  Polo grill meal (3 courses) in less than an hour.  They just threw the food at us!... If O makes you take a reservation after 8pm you should have the same experience as the "early eaters"....

What you experienced is what we experienced on Riviera 11/2023 in the Med. O changed our one 9 pm reservation (which we didn't want at the time we were forced to accept it, B3 cabin) to 8:30. I saw why. We and 2 other couples arrived at 8:30. There was no 9 pm time.

 

While Americans and Canadians did dominate, we had a very large contingent of Chinese, too. Ship was full at over 1230+ passengers.

[pinotlover]

26 minutes ago, mb777 said:

Just finished a 10 day Western Europe on the Nautica.  Had 3 specialty dining meals (2-Toscana, 1-Polo) and would have been over the moon to receive the entree 35 minutes into the meal.  All 3 meals took approximately 2.5 hours which for us is way too long for any meal.  One was 6:30 2-top, one a 6:30 shared and one a 7:00 shared.

If you want to see the 9:30 show, having a 7:00 reservation left us running out of the restaurant to catch the show.

The lack of any earlier seating and the length of the meal service was really the only negative thing about the whole trip.

I must say, I only experienced this once, and that was on the Sirena in 22. Using various excuses, the ship was overloading the 6:30 time slot and filling the Specialties. They had neither the waitstaff nor kitchen to handle the mass packing. Complete Cluster. People with 7:30-8:00 were left standing at the door until near 9:00. All those people demanding 6:30s thought they had a deal until they saw the results. Only saw it once, and hopefully never again.

 

The strange part was Specialty Reservations Desk was essentially handing out 6:30s to all comers while knowing the system had to already be mostly full! 🤬