As You Wish Dining - What and How

[Queen of DaNile]

Just off the Volendam Oz-NZ, 14 days and open seating was grand! As Napi's Mom said, we enjoyed meeting different people every night. And by the end of the cruise, we started seeing (& sitting) with some of the same folks because of our prefered dining times. Try it - you'll like it!

[caltnl]

I guess that I have missed the wine question. We often have a bottle of wine and do not finish it. with fixed seating the wine steward new us and brought the brought the bottle to our table. What happens with open seating?

[Old As Dirt Mom]

I guess that I have missed the wine question. We often have a bottle of wine and do not finish it. with fixed seating the wine steward new us and brought the brought the bottle to our table. What happens with open seating?

 

The same. You simply ask your wine steward to bring you the bottle you didn't finish. They will have saved it for you under your name and cabin number.

[markandstacie00]

I have only had fixed dinner times before on X and Carnival, and I liked it. I like getting to know those at my table and waiter but I am willing to try something new.

 

Which cruiselines still do have traditional set dinner times? I know Carnival does....can anyone help?

[Boytjie]

I have only had fixed dinner times before on X and Carnival, and I liked it. I like getting to know those at my table and waiter but I am willing to try something new.

 

Which cruiselines still do have traditional set dinner times? I know Carnival does....can anyone help?

 

Cunard.

[tobymurph]

Hello

Thanks for the info.on dining. We're new to cruising - our first one coming up on the Amsterdam in April. A few questions....

1 - If we do the fixed dining, are we able to have our own table for three or are we required to sit with others?

2- From the photo of the dining room on the website,it looks like the upper level dining room has nicer views then the lower dining room (seated near windows) Is that true? What is this dining room called?

3 - Is this dining room included in the price or is it extra?

4 - Do guests order off the menu or is the menu preset? (my husband has egg/poultry allergies)

 

Thanks!

tobymurph

[Thoth]

Hello

Thanks for the info.on dining. We're new to cruising - our first one coming up on the Amsterdam in April. A few questions....

1 - If we do the fixed dining, are we able to have our own table for three or are we required to sit with others?

2- From the photo of the dining room on the website,it looks like the upper level dining room has nicer views then the lower dining room (seated near windows) Is that true? What is this dining room called?

3 - Is this dining room included in the price or is it extra?

4 - Do guests order off the menu or is the menu preset? (my husband has egg/poultry allergies)

 

Thanks!

tobymurph

 

my take

1: you likely will have to share a table, but you might get lucky.

2: never been on Amsterdam, but I hadn't noticed much difference between upper and lower levels on other ships.

3:yes, the main dining room is included at no extra cost.

4: yes on both counts: it is a fixed menu but with choices.

we are given a menu each evening with a list . There may be 4 appetizer choices, 3 salad choices, maybe 6 entree choices, and then a list of deserts. So one selects one appetizer, one salad, one entree and one desert.

[kcteach12]

Will be on the Zaandam in July to Alaska. We have requested open seating because we like being by ourselves. Do we call every day to reserve or do we just walk in? We like to eat between 6:00- 7:00. Also, if we call can we reserve the same table every time?

[Roz]

I was able to walk in each day between 6-8 pm and get seated; never made a reservation.

 

Roz

[Twickenham]

Hello

Thanks for the info.on dining. We're new to cruising - our first one coming up on the Amsterdam in April. A few questions....

1 - If we do the fixed dining, are we able to have our own table for three or are we required to sit with others?

 

The 3 of us have done both open and fixed seating, and never had to share a table.

[StanleyWho]

we are first timers and have printed Exdocs yesterday, it reads "Confirmed Dining: Main Upper Dining" is this open or fixed? When we booked originally nobody asked what we would like and when doing the online booking there was no where to nominate the dining. we like the idea of open dining.

[pms4104]

we are first timers and have printed Exdocs yesterday, it reads "Confirmed Dining: Main Upper Dining" is this open or fixed? When we booked originally nobody asked what we would like and when doing the online booking there was no where to nominate the dining. we like the idea of open dining.

You have been assigned fixed/traditional dining, second seating, upper level of the main dining room.

 

If you prefer open dining, you may change it now thru HAL or your travel agent, if you used one, or once you get onboard the ship.

[3rdGenCunarder]

We booked our HAL cruise to Bermuda more than a year ago. We requested traditional/fixed dining, early seating. Now that we got our express docs, we find that my DH and I are on fixed/main, and our friend is on open seating. We were booked by the same TA and the reservations should be linked. (We've cruised together plenty of times on Cunard, and never got split up, so this mistake was quite a surprise)

 

Our TA contacted HAL and now we're waitlisted for early. If we had just booked last month, OK, early fixed was full. But come on, we booked early, why didn't we get what we WISHED for? Very disappointing!

 

We survived a freestyle NCL in the early days of freestyle on a cruise that wasn't full. Our friend had the dining experience from hell 2 years ago with freestyle NCL, and is very worried about what might happen with HAL's open seating. I know, I know, HAL is not NCL, so I am hopeful that things will work out well. However, as a poster wrote on this thread a year ago, it isn't dine when you WISH, it's dine when you CAN. I do not want to stand around clutching a buzzer while I wait for my table.

 

I have read through most of the posts in this thread, and I have a few questions, mostly to get an update on the situation.

 

We like having the same table and wait staff each night. Good waiters get to know your preferences, and it makes for a pleasant experience. So, is it possible to request a specific table or waiter when you make a reservation? One poster suggested strolling around the dining room, checking out the tables and then requesting one that you like. Does that work?

 

Is it still true that you can only reserve the very early and very late times, like 5:15, 5:45, 8:30?

 

What are the chances of getting seated at 6-ish, either with others or by ourselves?

 

Do people in the Superior Suites get access to the middle dining reservations? Posts on this seem unclear. (We are not in a Suite, but are thinking about Alaska, and might book a suite to get the perks.)

 

If they seat you with other people, do they plunk you down with people who are in mid-meal, or do they try to keep everyone at a table on the same time frame?

 

What about breakfast and lunch? Are those meals open seating in the dining room? We did a Princess cruise a few years ago, and the open seating at breakfast was a nightmare. Total chaos! We had breakfast in the Lido every day after that first one. Ditto QM2. I am not a morning person, and cannot stand the bustling and fumbling of the open seating breakfast. (I guess now is the point where I should admit that I want what I had on QE2--the Caronia Restaurant cabins were a fabulous value for money. Not as expensive as the grills, but you still had one seating at all meals and you had YOUR table and YOUR water at all meals. Short of winning the lottery and going in the Grills on the current Cunard ships, I will probably never have that experience again)

 

Thanks for all the information you all have provided!!!

[LuckyLoon]

Hi 3rdGenCunarder,

 

Sorry to hear about your early fixed mixup. We did early fixed previous to this last trip. I booked the Panama Canal trip too late to get early fixed so I got As you wish dining. I was concerned about not having the same wait staff too. We loved the as you wish. Wait staff were all friendly and always efficient and timely. We like sitting with others and we always sat with 3 to 4 other people, except once. Always had good conversation with a variety of people.

 

We usually went to happy hour then to dinner at 5:15 when the bulk of the early diners showed up. And no, they won't seat you with people who are part way through their meal. That is why we ate at a two person table once when we showed up at 6:30 and there wasn't any table with people who hadn't started to be served.

 

We only made a reservation once but we never waited more than a few minutes for a table. I think you'll like it. Just ask for the type of table you want when you reserve or show up. They are very accommodating.

Enjoy.

[3rdGenCunarder]

Thanks, Debbie. Our friend had such a horrible experience with the NCL freestyle that she was upset when we learned of the mistake. When we did a Princess cruise, we did early/traditional dinner and every night when we left our dining room, we could see that the open seating dining room had a long line. That worried me.

 

It's good to know that the service doesn't get sloppy when the waiters don't have regular "customers." Maybe it works better on HAL because the ships are small. On the 3500-passenger behemoths, the waiters figure they'll never see you again, so who cares?!?

[flahagan]

Just returned from the Noordam, sailing 04/04/2010m and it was a FULL ship. We had open seating - there were 3 of us - and we ate at various times. Usually we got to the MDR between 6:15 and 7:00, and we walked right up to the podium and were seated immediately, every time. There was always a line for reservations for open seating, but for us without reservations, no wait. We told them we'd take any seating arrangement and I'm sure that helped.
Twice we got a table for 4, so we were alone. The rest of the time it was a table for 6 or 8 and we really enjoyed meeting new people each night. The servers always treated us as if we were special, and the meals never took more than an hour. Service was terrific.

I would definitely choose open seating in the future, as it allowed us to be flexible and not be tied into eating at a specific time.

[Roz]

Flahagan,

That was my experience on the Noordam last November. I had no waits - just walked up to the podium, and if I was willing to sit with others, was seated immediately. To me, the reservation thing is somewhat stressful, and defeats the whole concept of flex dining.

Roz

[jolivia]

Today I was told by my TA I have open dining for my upcoming cruise in July. At first, being I was used to early seating, I was not happy. I thought about it for awhile, and was very happy because I will be on a port intense cruise and running back or trying to gather the teens to eat at a certain time will be a hassle, I feel better after thinking about the change, it's all good[IMG]http://boards.cruisecritic.com/images/icons/icon7.gif[/IMG]

[boards]

JUst returned from the Zaandam (Hawaii) and had opening seating for the very first time after 5 cruises. They had someone setup to do bookings on the Lido deck and we booked our time there most often. You could book three days at a time if you wanted to or just do it daily. Several times we rebooked as we were leaving the dining room. It worked out perfectly. The time we booked was 7:45 pm and they always put us the same area and had the same staff nearly every time. You could also ask for seating for two, four or six.

[Cruising-along]

[quote name='boards']JUst returned from the Zaandam (Hawaii) and had opening seating for the very first time after 5 cruises. They had someone setup to do bookings on the Lido deck and we booked our time there most often. You could book three days at a time if you wanted to or just do it daily. Several times we rebooked as we were leaving the dining room. It worked out perfectly. The time we booked was 7:45 pm and they always put us the same area and had the same staff nearly every time. You could also ask for seating for two, four or six.[/quote]

We had the same experience Borden (great cruise, wasn't it?) We had no problem, we booked the same table/waitstaff 3 days at a time and had fabulous dining stewards (Jaya and Buddi) all through the 15-day cruise. In our case we preferred an earlier time, so our dining times ranged from 5:15-6:00.

[oilbert]

thank you . this type of information should help keep this thread civil and informative.iihave very firm opinions on dining but shut up sice i didn't think this was the appropriate thread again thank you walt

[BNguy]

Just returned from a 7 day New England/Canada cruise on the Maasdam, a full review upcoming BUT, in case it hasn't been covered before, beware if you have "as you wish" dining times in the main dining room. On the night of the crew show in the dining room (on this cruise the last night) you can't walk up and get a table "when you wish", instead there are only two fixed times which in my opinion (which I am entitled to) are either too early or too late. So be forewarned, on that particular night you can not eat when you want in the main dining room, there is still the canaletto or the Lido (which is where we ended up going). Now if you sense I'm not happy about this, you are right. I'm sure there are plenty of you out there that "enjoy" the crew show in the main dining room, to me it's like sailing on Carnival (which I will never do again), and that is not to my liking.

I do enjoy the crew show in the show lounge just not in the dining room.

Just thought you all should know about this policy.

BNguy

[Cruising-along]

[quote name='BNguy']Just returned from a 7 day New England/Canada cruise on the Maasdam, a full review upcoming BUT, in case it hasn't been covered before, beware if you have "as you wish" dining times in the main dining room. On the night of the crew show in the dining room (on this cruise the last night) you can't walk up and get a table "when you wish", instead there are only two fixed times which in my opinion (which I am entitled to) are either too early or too late. So be forewarned, on that particular night you can not eat when you want in the main dining room, there is still the canaletto or the Lido (which is where we ended up going). Now if you sense I'm not happy about this, you are right. I'm sure there are plenty of you out there that "enjoy" the crew show in the main dining room, to me it's like sailing on Carnival (which I will never do again), and that is not to my liking.

I do enjoy the crew show in the show lounge just not in the dining room.

Just thought you all should know about this policy.

BNguy[/quote]

I guess you've missed all the posts here about this (Master Chef's Dinner)

You have a lot of company, there are plenty who agree with you. :cool:

[mamadot]

Have the same opinion of the Master Chef's dinner! We have decided that is one night we will be in the Lido or other restaurants. It is a zoo and not even fun. In years past it was more organized and not so hectic! Forget it!!!

[redhead1944]

We leave on the Eurodam in August for a Baltic cruise and we love the open seating...we usually eat around 7'ish and dont mind...in fact enjoy meeting other people...we've done it for HAL cruises w/o a hitch. I usually make the reservations on the 3 day plan...we are not "waiter intensive" as every member of the wait staff has always been more than accommodating no matter where we sat. We use the Lido as a last resort...it's all a matter of choice and I dont mind the Master Chef dinner - it's just a tradition + we have not encountered the 2 set times for that dinner mentioned before. If you havent tried the Pinnacle - it's a great restaurant for the price...I love the cruise and the ports and the people...and the food is just fine & I am picky....lotsa choices....we are very laid back and only sail w/ Holland & dont have a huge number of cruises under our belt...hope your experience will be as good as ours....:cool: