Dinner Times

[cruiser02]

I just rec'd confirmation of my next cruise Dining was MAIN UPPER My TA told me this is the late seating at 8pm in the upper dining room. So basically we are Late dining at the early time? Late - late would be 8:30??

Am I getting this correct?

How do you like this split dining schedule? Is service better? New for me.

Thank you All

[localady]

I too have struggled to figure out the dinner times. As I understand it the 4 times are: Early Upper (5:45pm), Early Lower (6:15pm), Main Upper (8:00) and Main Lower (8:30). I am not sure this is a change we are happy with, as we prefer the 6:15 generally, as 5:45 is too early and by 8:00ish I am eatting my hand. We were lucky on our 1st part of our trip to Alaska, ( which we leave tomorrow!!) as the first part of our B2B we were assigned Early Lower (6:15), the second week they had us for Main Lower(8:30), and I called and begged for at least an 8:00pm dinner. Okay I admit it, I am a creature of habit as is my stomach:eek:

[peaches from georgia]

Yes, Main Upper is 8 pm and Main Lower is 8:30. Our service on the Oosterdam in December under the old system was very slow and unsatisfactory. On the Maasdam just a few weeks ago we had Main Upper at 8 pm and the service was great. We could look down into the lower level during their 8:30 dinner and service looked very good there also.

 

Doesn't matter whether we like it or not according to the dining officers we talked with- the new system is here to stay. It shortens the lines of assistant stewards picking up food orders in the kitchen by approx. half at any one time and speeds up the whole kitchen/service process so it is much more labor efficient.

[ore-ee-gun]

We just returned Sunday from the Amsterdam, and early upper dining is at 5:30, not 5:45, as were were told initially. Either time is way too early. The upside to early dining, however, is that we were plenty hungry and able to enjoy the midnight buffet - especially the Dessert Extravaganza!

[RevNeal]

Doesn't matter whether we like it or not according to the dining officers we talked with- the new system is here to stay.

 

I understand your meaning here -- we will either need to learn and like it, or we can go to a different cruise line.

 

Frankly, the Upper Main dining time of 8 pm sounds like a perfectly nice time to me: it's almost precisely when I usually eat my evening meal at home. If I eat a nice lunch (and I always do on a Cruise ship!) I'm not normally even hungry before 8 pm, anyway, so that would be perfect. I've never eaten in the Upper Level, but I'm willing to give it a try. In terms of location, I would rather be down stairs. If I get Lower Main dining at 8:30 I'll be okay, too. :) Yes, I'm easy to please ... so long as there's food, I'll be there. :D

[Cauvet]

On our cruise on the O last week, they moved up the times to 5:30 upper, 6 p.m, lower, 7:45 upper and 8:15 lower. They said they had 500 people waitlisted for the earlier times. We had 7:45 and found that we didn't have to toodle around as long before dinner (like losing money in the casino!). I still don't see the point as they wind up serving dinner on both levels at the same time. It's not like they are sharing staff. I found the service to be fairly efficient but very impersonal. And since it never gets dark in Alaska, it doesn't feel like you are eating late.

[Krazy Kruizers]

:)

 

For some unknown reason, HAL has for years in Alaska, started the dining times 15 minutes earlier than any other cruises, i.e., Caribbean, Panama Canal, Europe, etc.

 

In May when we were on the Maasdam and the new dining times were just started, we heard some people complaining about the 8:30 dining time, slow service, and not being able to make the 10:30 show. I have not heard if this situation was resolved.

 

:)

[peaches from georgia]

Cauvet, the reason for the split dining times is to provide better service to the pax by making the transfer of food from the kitchen to the dining room to your table faster.

 

Your dining steward takes your order and your asst. dining steward goes to the kitchen with the orders and picks up the food. If only the upper level asst. stewards are picking up appetizers for the Main 8 pm diners on that line soon after 8 pm (the lower level diners are not even in the dining room yet) it is going to be a lot faster getting the appetizers to the dining room for upper level diners with a SHORTER LINE for them to wait on than if ALL the asst. dining stewards from both dining levels were trying to pick up appetizers all at one time. This continues through the meal. When the asst. stewards for lower level are picking up their salads on the salad line, upper level stewards are on a line for entrees; both lines are shorter and faster than if ALL stewards were on the same line picking up food for the same course.

 

While upper and lower diners are eating some of their dinner at the same time (upper level is alone in the dining room the first half hour of their dinner and lower should be finishing a half hour later than upper), the point is that the separate courses are served from different areas of the kitchen and now to each level at different times, making the serving process faster to your steward giving you faster and better service.

[sail7seas]

Peaches.......

 

How did the Goodbye song, Introduction of the Chefs and Parade of the Baked Alaska work out with the new dining hours? Was it still enjoyable for all?

[wineandbeach]

The baked Alaska was an interesting event. We had the 8:30 seating and just as we had salads on our table, the lights went out. We were not expecting this at all. They just happened to be ready to take our table picture at this time. The lighting didn't bother the picture but the looks of shock on our face showed clearly. It was still fun, then we went on with our dinner. It's strange having it in the middle of dinner but I don't know how else they could do it.

[Ellya]

We were assigned the 8:30 seating and I was very concerned we would have problems getting seats for the 10:30 shows on the Zuiderdam. In fact we were out of the dining room by 10:00 every night and had no problem at all getting good seats at the late show. In fact, one night we attended the early show and ate in the Lido and that was the only night we had trouble getting a good seat!

[Cauvet]

That makes sense...

[valeriequeenofthesea]

We just returned from Alaska and were assigned main lower dining. We were afraid dinner at 8:15 for us was going to be too late, but now I'm glad we had that dinner assignment. It allowed us time in the afternoon for our nap with plenty of time to shower and clean up before dinner. We didn't have any problems getting to the shows on time and seating was generally fine for us.