Open Dining vs Late Sitting QM2 Christmas Caribbean Voyage

[Wagtail adventures]

Hello, I'd love some advice from the collective mind please!  My partner and I are on M501 Dec 21st round trip from NYC to the Caribbean with two friends and we are weighing up whether to stay with open dining which we currently have booked or switch to the 830pm late sitting instead.  Bookings linked already and table of 4 booked with open dining.  If we did stay with open dining, we probably would want to dine around 745pm which I imagine is peak time. 

 

I'd love to know other people's experiences of open or late sitting.  And also some of the nuts and bolts of how it works, like if we stay with open do we need to book it up every night and how?  And what happens if we just turn up?  Is it a separate area of the Britannia dining room?  Is service superior if we have the late sitting?  Very grateful for any insights, experiences, thoughts...!  Thank you so much 

 

Edited to add: we will be enjoying the Commodore's Collection wine package and may have partly used bottles stored for us

Edited August 29 by Wagtail adventures
wine package

[Host Hattie]

There's a poll and some comments about Open Dining in this thread which may help 

 

 

 

[NowVoyager2]

You don't mention where you live but the carib is wonderful that time of year - my partner & I did a similar cruise in 2004/ 2005 on QM2.  We lived in NYC  -  so we left the cold winter for the beaches & QM2.

In reference to late or open seating - we always picked late seating as we preferred to be out on deck for Sailaway's, stay by the pool a little longer while most people went in to dress for the evening.  Some nights we would skip the dining room altogether because the weather was so nice - there's always something to eat onboard.

 

I see most ports departure  is at 6pm.  

 

We like having cocktail hour - 45 - 60 minutes pre dinner - so the late seating was best.  You also are travelling w another couple  - so a 4 top is ideal unless you want to meet others onboard.

 

You can always speak w the Maitre'd onboard & usually they do their best to accommodate you.

[Wagtail adventures]

Thank you Host Hattie and NowVoyager2.  We are from the UK and taking the transatlantic out, but that leg isn't in Britannia.  Interesting point regarding Sailaways - hadn't thought of that.

[starquake]

11 minutes ago, Wagtail adventures said:

Hello, I'd love some advice from the collective mind please!  My partner and I are on M501 Dec 21st round trip from NYC to the Caribbean with two friends and we are weighing up whether to stay with open dining which we currently have booked or switch to the 830pm late sitting instead.  Bookings linked already and table of 4 booked with open dining.  If we did stay with open dining, we probably would want to dine around 745pm which I imagine is peak time. 

 

I'd love to know other people's experiences of open or late sitting.  And also some of the nuts and bolts of how it works, like if we stay with open do we need to book it up every night and how?  And what happens if we just turn up?  Is it a separate area of the Britannia dining room?  Is service superior if we have the late sitting?  Very grateful for any insights, experiences, thoughts...!  Thank you so much 

We were on it 2 years ago as part of the longer Southampton to Southampton sailing of which the NYC to Caribbean is the middle cruise.

 

We went Early with a group of 6 of us, to be honest I'd say it depends on your choices on board, but if you don't go with Early you guarantee needing to do the late theatre shows, which also mean you may miss some of the entertainment in Queens Room.   I would not reccomend open -> a few nights we spoke with Head Waiter (mostly when in port in Carribean) to move to late or open dining for those nights only, for which we were accomodated.

 

On the nights we went later, it was tough to fit in our evening plans as dining (particularly on the formal nights) was quite an affair, we sat down at 6pm and finished 8pm each night (and ran to the theatre near enough!).    Bear in mind we had slow eating children (no issues really) and did partake in every course every night, and some tables did finish faster each night. 

 

My point is you just need to pick your choice for majority of nights, you *can* speak with Head Waiter and arrange to move your dining to open or late if you plan to stay on deck for the Sailaway (which we did do in Carribean as these were spectacular) (or eat in Buffet).   In 19 nights on board, we ate in buffet twice, in Verandah once, and moved our dining on 3 nights.   One thing though, you cannot move your dining on Christmas Day OR New Years Eve on your cruise.   They did NOT offer open dining on those days, you were either Early or Late, and everyone on board complied -> it's one of the quirks of the Christmas sailing.

 

One tip for the sailing though is do look at the menu on Lunchtime as well as evening on Christmas Day as certain meats (Goose in our case) were only on the lunchtime serving so we had Goose for Lunch,then Turkey for evening in our case.

 

 

[Pushpit]

20 minutes ago, Wagtail adventures said:

I'd love to know other people's experiences of open or late sitting.  And also some of the nuts and bolts of how it works, like if we stay with open do we need to book it up every night and how?  And what happens if we just turn up?  Is it a separate area of the Britannia dining room?  Is service superior if we have the late sitting?  Very grateful for any insights, experiences, thoughts...!  Thank you so much 

 

Edited to add: we will be enjoying the Commodore's Collection wine package and may have partly used bottles stored for us

Open dining doesn't have a time fixed. You can, if you want, register a time via myvoyage, but all that does is manage overall workload and makes it more likely you will find a quieter time, it's not actually a table booking service and as far as I can tell the front desk can't see your booking, and won't care about it. The first night can be somewhat offputting, since the Fixed Dining passengers require more assistance on that night and no other night, usually you will get into the swing of it from day 2.

 

I would say 7:45pm is not a peak time since it's too late for the first RCT production and rather early for the second RCT show. But you can just show up at any time that suits, that's the point of Open Dining. Having meals with another couple I think makes it easier if for example one couple decides to to Alternative Dining one night, or particularly wants to have an early or late night, you can just flex around it without having to tell anyone. If, on the other hand, you are creatures of habit, and want to always eat together, same time, same table, same crew, then you best go for Fixed.

 

QM2 Open dining is on deck 3 and fixed on deck 2. However people can and do get switched between decks, and on Open you never get the same table for 2 nights. Table for 4 is easy to handle on either Fixed or Open. Deck 3 has some better window seats in my view.

 

I've never sailed on Christmas Day or New Year's Eve, so I've no experience of that and I can imagine it would be different, but I've used Open Dining quite a bit on QM2 and would personally not go back to Fixed. But the wine package will be easier to handle on Fixed.

[RK-NC]

14 hours ago, Wagtail adventures said:

I'd love to know other people's experiences of open or late sitting.

 

We are on board QM2 now, on early seating and have had some serious problems with service in Britannia. We were told last night that we will have a new waiter team beginning tonight. The team we have had is being moved to deck 3 open dining for "more training" as explained to us by the maitre'd. We do not recommend open dining. We believe the better waiters are assigned to fixed dining.

[Wagtail adventures]

52 minutes ago, RK-NC said:

 

We are on board QM2 now, on early seating and have had some serious problems with service in Britannia. We were told last night that we will have a new waiter team beginning tonight. The team we have had is being moved to deck 3 open dining for "more training" as explained to us by the maitre'd. We do not recommend open dining. We believe the better waiters are assigned to fixed dining.

Really sorry to hear of your experience, and I do hope things improve soon for you.  Thank you very much for taking the time to give your thoughts.

[exlondoner]

56 minutes ago, RK-NC said:

We believe the better waiters are assigned to fixed dining.

Doesn’t your own experience in part contradict this?

[exlondoner]

15 hours ago, Wagtail adventures said:

Hello, I'd love some advice from the collective mind please!  My partner and I are on M501 Dec 21st round trip from NYC to the Caribbean with two friends and we are weighing up whether to stay with open dining which we currently have booked or switch to the 830pm late sitting instead.  Bookings linked already and table of 4 booked with open dining.  If we did stay with open dining, we probably would want to dine around 745pm which I imagine is peak time. 

 

I'd love to know other people's experiences of open or late sitting.  And also some of the nuts and bolts of how it works, like if we stay with open do we need to book it up every night and how?  And what happens if we just turn up?  Is it a separate area of the Britannia dining room?  Is service superior if we have the late sitting?  Very grateful for any insights, experiences, thoughts...!  Thank you so much 

 

Edited to add: we will be enjoying the Commodore's Collection wine package and may have partly used bottles stored for us

I have no direct experience, but, if it were I, I would go for fixed late sitting. There are a number of reasons. One I would not want festive meals to start with queueing for a table, when by going later I could just swan (or totter) in to my prearranged table with staff who had got to know me. Secondly, late sitting gives you time for tea to digest, and even a little nap to recover. Thirdly, my wine would be there ready and waiting for me. Generally more relaxing I should think.

[RK-NC]

13 minutes ago, exlondoner said:

 

15 minutes ago, exlondoner said:

1 hour ago, RK-NC said:

We believe the better waiters are assigned to fixed dining.

Doesn’t your own experience in part contradict this?

 

Our waiters apparently didn't pass muster on deck 2 fixed seating and are being moved back up to deck 3 open dining for "more training"

 

[RK-NC]

24 minutes ago, Wagtail adventures said:

Really sorry to hear of your experience, and I do hope things improve soon for you.  Thank you very much for taking the time to give your thoughts.

 

How very kind of you. This means a lot to us. Trying to keep our chins up. Thank you.

[foodsvcmgr]

I would always choose fixed seating for the continuity of servers and table, particularly when your desired time is so close to the fixed time anyway.

A vastly simpler and better experience IMO.

[starquake]

7 hours ago, RK-NC said:

 

We are on board QM2 now, on early seating and have had some serious problems with service in Britannia. We were told last night that we will have a new waiter team beginning tonight. The team we have had is being moved to deck 3 open dining for "more training" as explained to us by the maitre'd. We do not recommend open dining. We believe the better waiters are assigned to fixed dining.

Yes, but on Christmas cruises, Early dining stretches to deck 3 too (or was on the Christmas cruise we were on), so DO you have some experienced teams there on those cruises.   The junior waiters are usually assisting the more senior to "learn" their craft.   The officers (well some of them) also ate up on deck 3 with their familys (familys of the senior officers are often on board at Christmas)  so I couldn't imagine the teams were inexeperienced on our cruise.   It's worth noting on non-Christmas cruises we've also been allocated deck 3 in same location we had on a Christmas cruise on a February short cruise to Bremen too.   (this was also Early dining).  

 

I wouldn't say worry if you get a fixed table on deck 3 on the Christmas cruise, there were at least 100 of us on last Christmas cruise we were on.

 

I would tend to agree though when we have done open on QM2 that we typically were above the art gallery, and the service was not to what we have experience on fixed.   We prefer fixed but with the "ability" to ask the Maitre'd to move ocasionally for the consistency of the service and getting to know our waiting staff.  Remember on Christmas cruises you are with the staff for 12 nights from New York typically (and 19 or 28 from Southampton) ... so you really do get to know your waiters.   (We actually got to know our Head Waiter and some of his family quite well as his family were also sailing the year we were on).     Remember thats one of the more unique things at Christmas, some of the more senior staff WILL have family onboard too.

[RK-NC]

1 hour ago, starquake said:

Yes, but on Christmas cruises, Early dining stretches to deck 3 too (or was on the Christmas cruise we were on),

 

Our Daily Programme reads:

Britannia Deck 2 First sitting 6:00pm with last call 6:15pm, Second sitting 8:30pm with last call 8:45pm

 

Britannia Deck 3 (for guests on open dining only) Open seating from 6:00pm to 9:00pm

 

Perhaps it changes for Christmas cruises.

 

Tonight, the couple usually beside of us did alternative dining so another couple on open dining were seated there. So I guess it is possible to be seated on deck 2 if you choose open dining.

 

 

[starquake]

34 minutes ago, RK-NC said:

 

Our Daily Programme reads:

Britannia Deck 2 First sitting 6:00pm with last call 6:15pm, Second sitting 8:30pm with last call 8:45pm

 

 

It does state that in the program on Christmas cruises too I recall.  It is not entirely correct.   I can however confirm from experience that half of upstairs at LEAST is fixed dining for early sitting, and the Maitre'D did explain that to us as the fact there is so much demand for Early in particular they like to accomodate that (at Christmas).   People on fixed on evening on Christmas cruises on deck 3 should NOT enter dining via the usual station in middle (where open goes), and instead use the other 2 entrances (the exits!), and they are setup for that on first night to show you to allocated table.   

 

On other nights once you know table you go directly to table as is normal -> this is explained in your dining invite in your room on first night to not use the middle door to allow you to avoid open dining being prioritised.    Out of interest we have also had a fixed early dining upstairs on deck3 on QM2 on a short turnaround to Hamberg in 2022 (4 dayer in February) -> so it can happen on other cruises too, but this is far more unusual from our experience on quite a few other cruises on QM2.   We are usually on deck2 as you have been on fixed (early or late)

 

The real oddity though that is different (on QM2) on Christmas cruises (and New Years) is the fact that there was NO open dining in Brittania allowed at all on the 2 big meals (Christmas Day and New years eve)..   This is to allow a majority of the crew to also celebrate those days by making the kitchens more effecient in service by having entire dining room on same service course at same time (making the timings more effecient)-> and they made all people on open nominate their preferred dining time on the last one we were on.    Of course they may change this this year, I am just reporting on what we experienced on the 22/23 Cruise, as we ended up with not enough leave for this past years Christmas break.  

 

I would reccomend taking Christmas dinner in the main dining room, as it is a special occasion in there and the food is great!

We are actually on again next year (25/26 Christmas), so will report back the 2025 arrangements (unless we transfer to QA) for Christmas.

 

[Pushpit]

While the Open Dining front desk is on Deck 3 and Fixed on Deck 2, you may well be sat on the other deck in both cases. It's all to do with timings and staff numbers. If you're on Open on a Crossing then perhaps one dinner will be downstairs, and if on Fixed you have something like a 15% chance of being located on Deck 3. If you have a large family group, or a preference for a larger table then the chances go up simply because there aren't that many such tables.