Are you tired of the formal restaurant at dinner by the end of the week?

[samtig]

No, never get tired of eating in the dining room. In fact, when I get home, the hardest part is sitting down at the dining table waiting for the food to appear & it never does!!

[critterchick]

I couldn't eat in the dining room every night on a long cruise (7+ nights). The food on RCI is ok, but not so great that it's worth sitting through the process of a 4-course every night for a week or more. Even with great tablemates, I need a break from the din, so we will go to the specialty restaurants and once in awhile go to the Windjammer if we're really not hungry and/or not feeling sociable.

[rman738]

My wife and I love the varied dining experiences aboard a cruise ship. We generally try the "specialty" restaurant one or two nights. If we cruise with friends, as we often do, we will spend one night at the hot tub having ship's pizza or some carry-out from the buffet. One the 3 occasions that we traveled alone, we had great table mates just once. On two separate cruises we ended up sitting with people whose company we did not enjoy. My suggestion is to open to whatever moves you. However, in no way would either my wife or myself let the other dictate and dominate the choice of where and how to dine onboard. My sympathies to the poor man whose wife dictated that they both dine in her restaurant of choice. Marriage is supposed to be about joint decisions. I wonder how the rest of their relationship fares???

[madelinerose]

No. We dine in fine restaurants on a regular basis. We've been on two cruises and have not found either to exude "luxury", "pretentious food" or a "stuffy atmosphere". As a matter of fact, our last cruise on RCI served food that we consider well below par and the atmosphere was 180 degrees away from "stuffy". I also doubt that the "chef" would even recognize "pretentious food".

 

We also dine in the reservations-only/specialty restaurants, especially on the nights where there will be parades and lots of "activities" in the dining room.

 

 

Anyone else get tired of the formal dinning experience every night?

[Jim Gallup]

There are no formal restaurants on cruise ships. A few lines have some upscale dining options that approach or pretend to offer formal dining, but usually cost a bit extra.

Most "Formal" dining rooms on ships are rather like a poor wedding reception dinner, with mass produced food (most of it frozen just a few hours before you ate it), wait staff who really have no idea about any formal dining service, and a clientele who mostly believe that friendliness and good service are the same thing.

 

As Basil Fawlty always said, "Let's just put a trough of baked beans down the center of the room and garnish it with a couple of dead dogs".

[paul929207]

No, we have never tired of dining in the dining room. We have been on cruises up to 21 days long and are booked for 35 days next year, so I hope we will not get bored. :)

 

Paul

[pg.]

We have only been on 7 day cruises, so of course do NOT get tired of someone cooking and serving us, LOL. We don't find the food that fancy either, we eat at nice restaurants at home, and while the food is fine on cruises , it is not haute cusine at all. I does tend to be a tad bland too, we like Thai, Japanese, Vietenese, and French,at home, so of course find cruise ship food tends to be more " middle of the road" versions( have to please a couple of thousand people each night, some of whom find cocktail weiners on toothpicks fancy) LOL ,

 

We eat all breakfasts and most lunches at the buffet though, the Princess buffet and pool side pizza are very good.

Also, with Princess Anytime dining there is no singing dancing waiters, which we hated anyways( making the staff perform the same crap week after week to please tourists is sad, we feel too sorry for the waiters, like dancing bears on chains, smile and sing or you are fired! yuck)

[Brookeh424]

I don't get tired of the meals, but of getting ready to go to dinner. I tihnk last time we ended up at the dinner buffet and doing the MUTS (Princess) because we didn't feel like getting "dressed". Smart Casual is nice though and doesn't require a lot of work.

[PennyAgain]

So, yes I do get tired of the dining room and enjoy the other options. However I always get to the point where what I want for dinner is scrambled eggs, toast and fruit. That's what I think of as 'enough already' night. I've never had a problem getting this light dinner on a full size cruise ship.

 

On some of the small ships I've been on, the light option has been a bowl of rice with steamed vegetables. Oh well. It served.

 

With apologies to those with peanut allergies, I do also get hungry for a peanut butter sandwich. That's when it is time to go home.

[2ladies]

Yes. We cruised a lot on Celebrity and really appreciated the Casual Dining Option. The food is cooked to order in a satellite kitchen, the ambiance is very nice indeed and you can eat at any time by reservation.

[Cruzfan34]

We try to eat in the dining room every night. But on our last cruise for the second formal night, we were just so tired and we just wanted to eat something simple and just relax.

It being it was formal night, we got dressed up, took pictures, then strolled to the deli for a Reuben sandwich. We were the only people in the buffet dining room wearing our formals, but we didn't care. My husband and I found a quiet corner and just sat and ate and talked. It was very nice to get away from the action for a while. After we ate, we kept our formal wear on and went to a show with friends. Sometimes you just need a break. :)

[Cornelius Earthling]

Go to both the formal and buffet:eek: :rolleyes: :) :confused:

[travelgarn]

I've only been on one cruise...but I NEVER got tired of the dining rooms! We actually ate breakfast there every morning also. And tried lunch one day.

 

This is one of the things I'm looking forward to most for our next cruise.

[nikkin]

Funny you should ask this.. I thought it was just us.. but YESSSS.. God yes.. I get tired of it all.. the ritual ., how long it takes, the dinning room , the dressing up.. I really thought it was just us .. glad to know I'm not alone!

[petel]

To each his own.....We really love the DR. It's part of the value.

 

So, NO, we don't get tired of it.

[PhoneGoddess]

No. Never! I prefer to have breakfast, lunch and dinner in the dining room. I can slide a tray around a cafeteria/buffet at work!:eek:

[ger_77]

No, we absolutely love having dinner in the dining room every evening. We don't change our dining arrangements unless we have a particularly late shore excursion (like Egypt), no matter what length of cruise we're on.

 

Smooth Sailing! :) :) :)

[trevette1981]

I get tired of it! I like the being waited on part, but the food is not what I like. And the kicker....I don't like lobster!LOL!

[framboesa]

I'm never tired!It's one of the most special part of the cruise for me...I love everything around it, from the dress code to the food...Well, I love dining in restaurants here at home too ...lol...:D ...I´m a spoiled woman...what can I say?

 

Best regards!!!!

[cruisinbuddy]

On my last cruise my wife absolutely insisted that we eat at the formal dinning room every night during our 7 day cruise. On the first few evenings I was excited about eating in a formal dinning room with food designed by a chef. It seemed like we were eating in luxury. We loved the atmosphere and fancy food.

 

By the forth night I was getting tired of the food, the long dinner, slow service, the stuffy atmosphere and the pretentious food. I begged my wife to eat at the casual buffet for the rest of the cruise, she said no.

 

Anyone else get tired of the formal dinning experience every night?

What makes you think that the food in the regular diningroom wasn't designed by a Chef?

On your original thought, there's no way that I'd eat in the signature restaurant more than once. I find the regular diningroom formal enough.

[SaylorGirl]

We get tired of the food after several days. We occassionally skip dinner and just grab a slice of pizza. You can only eat so much on the ship.