As You Wish Dining - What and How

[NHCruisr]

Hi Two If by Sea. I am sailing in less than two weeks on The Westerdam. I have serious food allergies and have had good experiences in the past with HAL working with the dining staff. I'm a bit concerned because I have requested traditional dining and am still waitlisted. I plan on visiting the Maitre D soon after I board if I find I've been placed in Open Seating. At the least, I expect to be placed at the same table with the same waitstaff each evening. There is too much at stake with my allergies to have a mixed communication.

 

I've been in Personal Choice dining on Princess and found it worked out quite well. They put me in the same area each night with the same waitstaff. It was easier for the Assistant Maitre D to find me each evening too.

[world~citizen]

We have sailed with Princess too and couldn't get traditional dining.

 

The problem that I have with the anytime style is that you don't establish a relationship with the waiter so they get no feeling for what you are looking for to be able to make appropriate suggestions. Also, I felt the service was much less personal and polished. How do you tip in a situation like that?

 

When we went to one dining room we were ABRUPTLY sent to another room as there was no room for us in that one. WOW. And for that we paid thousands of dollars.

 

So they use beepers on HAL. Jeeze.

 

Well, we booked the Eurodam but can only get As You Wish Dining...which ironically is not what we wish for, and not what we asked for.

 

In their thank-you email to us, HAL boasts "imagine a place where wishes are granted before they are spoken". - I guess we will have to - imagine it that is.

 

[AAL]

We were a party of three and dined alone when we wanted and shared with another party of two-three when we wanted.

 

When you wanted to dine alone as a party of three, what did you say when you requested your table? (I hope my question makes sense.)

[mancunian]

When you get through say you wish to book a table for three for 7.45 pm. They will ask you your cabin number and confirm your you name from their screen. If the third person is not in your cabin they will then ask you for the third person's cabin and confirm their name to you. If you start the conversation with the size of table and time you want it will save time. Otherwise they give you the sizes of tables and will recite all the times to you.

[AAL]

When you get through say you wish to book a table for three for 7.45 pm.

 

When you call, how do they know whether your group wants to dine alone at a small table, or whether you want to be seated at a larger table with other passengers? That's the part of this process that I don't understand.

[RuthC]

When you call, how do they know whether your group wants to dine alone at a small table, or whether you want to be seated at a larger table with other passengers? That's the part of this process that I don't understand.

You tell them. If you don't mention it they will probably ask, but why take a chance---be very clear in what you want.

[Homosassa]

We were on the March 16, 2008 sailing of the Westerdam. We were fortunate to be placed in the traditional early sitting.

 

The master Chief Dinner is no more (thank god!!). There is one night where the menu items from that dinner is available as selections.

 

Dutch Night was also not designated as such; however, the menu items were also available one night (love that nasi goreng!!!).

[terrydtx]

We were on the March 16, 2008 sailing of the Westerdam. We were fortunate to be placed in the traditional early sitting.

 

The master Chief Dinner is no more (thank god!!). There is one night where the menu items from that dinner is available as selections.

 

Dutch Night was also not designated as such; however, the menu items were also available one night (love that nasi goreng!!!).

 

What do you mean no more Master Chef dinner???:eek: We had it on the Volendam last November with AYWD:D I will never again sail with HAL if that is the case, it has always been the highlight of every HAL cruise:p :p Dutch night was no big deal, the food was so bad made me never want to visit Holland if that was a true sampling of Dutch cuisine!!

[Homosassa]

As I said, the menu items from the Master Chef Dinner is available one night as menu selections. What is gone is the slow down in service due to the dancing and singing. It is also nice that the limited selection of some of the courses has now been expended to a regular range of items to choose from. The mushroom laden menu as originally presented caused my husband problems as he has a mushroom allergy.

[marle7]

As I said, the menu items from the Master Chef Dinner is available one night as menu selections. What is gone is the slow down in service due to the dancing and singing. It is also nice that the limited selection of some of the courses has now been expended to a regular range of items to choose from. The mushroom laden menu as originally presented caused my husband problems as he has a mushroom allergy.

 

So do I! I have met so few people with this allergy. A mushroom laden menu would not be very good for me.:(

[hammybee]

From Poster Jemima: While subjective, as are all experiences, this contains some points worth noting:

 

Why did I find HAL's open dining better than Princess's? Based on Diamond Princess 11/06 and Ryndam 11/07:

- Easier to make daily reservation on HAL. I made one or two of the reservations late morning or early afternoon and had no problems getting a reservation.

- HAL allows only same day reservations. That reduces the number of no-show reservations, leaving space available for the daily reservations. It is easy to get a same day reservation on HAL.

-The reception desk was better done on HAL. Better organized, moved more quickly.

- HAL seemed to know we were vegetarian or a had a speical order. On Princess we observed a nearby table mention their unfinished bottle of wine when seated and finally receiving it when the meal was nearly over. I watched and did not see this happen on HAL.

- On HAL everyone at a table was seated within a few minutes. On Princess we were seated with people well into their meal and new arrivals half way through ours.

- HAL service was just as good as their traditional dining service. Either Princess's open dining service is so-so or their over-all service is so-so.

- Without a reservation, there were lots of people waiting on Princess. We observed very little waiting on HAL.

 

We have open dining on the Veendam in June. In my review I'll compare our two HAL open dining experiences. I'm curious to see how it works in Alaska where there are more late afternoon/early evening excursions.

[boccismom]

What do you mean no more Master Chef dinner???:eek: We had it on the Volendam last November with AYWD:D I will never again sail with HAL if that is the case, it has always been the highlight of every HAL cruise:p :p Dutch night was no big deal, the food was so bad made me never want to visit Holland if that was a true sampling of Dutch cuisine!!

 

We are just off the Zaandam and they did have the Master Chef dinner, complete with the twirling napkins and dancing chefs. No worries.

[Southwoods]

When we made our trip plans in March through a travel agency, this dining option was never offered. Our trip is in November. The open dining option is interesting, but I like the formal schedule. However, for those that plan late afternoon excursions, a more relaxed option would definitely be more convenient. I have not planned our excursions for the next cruise yet, and so I might change our dining options. :rolleyes:

[terrydtx]

When we made our trip plans in March through a travel agency, this dining option was never offered.

 

Sounds to me that you may need a new TA, the AYWD has been in place in some ships for several months and was announced by HAL I think last June.

[Roz]

I wrote a review of my March 8-15, 2008 cruise on the Oosterdam. You can read the entire review over on the Ship Reviews section of Cruise Critic. It's titled "Solo Cruising on the Oosterdam". I've excerpted the parts that pertain to solo dining below:

 

"Since I usually cruise solo, having a set table with the same dining companions each evening is very important to me. I was so relieved when I found out I got my request for Fixed Dining, as opposed to the newly instituted "As You Wish" Dining option. I wasn't interested in eating by myself at dinner, or having to try to round up dinner mates each evening. Worse yet was the thought of walking into the dining room and asking to be seated with others, only to be turned down by tables as an unacceptable addition.

 

Unfortunately, fixed dining wasn't a very pleasant experience for me on this particular cruise. The first night only I and another lady showed up at our table for seven. At the end of the meal, one of the assistant dining room managers came over and told us the other five passengers wouldn't be joining us for the rest of the week. He offered to move us to another table of two in the same situation. After our meal, we went over to the new table so that we could introduce ourselves. The reception we got was rather cold. The next evening the four of us were joined by another couple, so a table of six was cobbled together. Quite frankly, the general attitude at the table was condescending. I had nothing in common with these people and almost left dinner in tears.

 

I gave serious consideration to just eating by myself in the Lido each evening, or asking to be switched to "As You Like It" Dining (I changed the name to give it a more Shakespearean flair). I had spoken to a few people that day who, although they were cruising with their spouse or a friend or family member, had asked to be seated with others in the Anytime Dining Room. They had only good things to say about their experience, so I thought about giving it a try. However, I made the decision to tough it out at my table one more night.

 

The next night was formal night, and one of the ship's officers and his wife joined us for dinner. They were an extremely pleasant couple and helped to improve the general mood at the table. At the end of dinner, they asked if they could join us again for the next formal night. I was so relieved that there would be at least one more night without a lot of tension at dinner. The next two nights we didn't have a full table as each of the couples (separately) opted for the alternative Pinnacle Grill. Not having a good dinner table really detracted from the cruise experience for me."

 

Roz

[Two if by Sea]

Worse yet was the thought of walking into the dining room and asking to be seated with others, only to be turned down by tables as an unacceptable addition.

 

I just can't understand why people would do that.

[mancunian]

I am horrified Roz, that some people would do that, but possibly less likely to happen on open sitting.

 

Why did the original people at the two tables not turn up initially. Did the Head Waiter tell you. Had they changed their minds and gone for open once they got on board.

 

I honestly think you may well like open sitting, particularly after your bad experience this year. It was this sort of experience last year on Marco Polo, where we never once met the people supposed to be on our table as they had intended all along to eat at the buffet. We changed our late sitting on Rotterdam to open and actually loved it. We met lots of couples and singles this way, but on three occasions were able to go with people we had met during the day - best of both worlds. Try it and see what you think next time.

 

I know singles on here have said that they want traditional to get to know people, but the trouble is it just doesn't always work out, and if you make friends on board through excursions or activities short of going to the buffet you are then unable to sit with them at dinner which may well be more important to you than couples.

[Sail With Me]

We just returned from the Veendam yesterday and had As you Wish dining and it was wonderful. Each morning at 8 am I made our dinner reservations and we had the option of eating with others or just a table for 2. We enjoyed dining at 7 pm and getting out of the dining room in plenty of time to make the 9 pm show.

 

Karen

[hammybee]

I

 

 

Unfortunately, fixed dining wasn't a very pleasant experience for me on this particular cruise. Roz

 

I am sorry to hear of your lousy luck with tablemates. I have yet to sail solo and my only fear is being stuck with tablemates from hell-o and not having anyone to laugh about it with, afterwards.

 

Thank your lucky stars you were joined by an officer of the ship.

[Roz]

Mancunian,

 

I don't know why the other people at the first table never showed up. There were quite a few empty or near empty tables in the fixed dining room. I suspect passengers "jumped ship" (not literally :D ) and switched to anytime dining. I can't believe that many people chose to eat in the Lido.

 

Contrary to what we've been told, I believe you can switch from fixed to anytime. I thought it was ironic that so many people on this board want fixed dining and can't get it, but there were empty fixed dining tables.

 

I still think this whole thing needs to sort itself out. Another thing I observed in talking with other passenger is how uninformed their TAs were, and this is turn led to passengers who didn't understand the difference between the 2 dining concepts. If you think about, the distinction between the 2 is going to make more sense if one has cruised before. Otherwise it may be quite confusing.

 

Yes, people do reject singles. I've had it happen in the Lido and at Half Moon Cay where all I wanted was to sit on the edge of a picnic table for 15 minutes in order to eat a hot dog and some potato salad. I've had good luck in the DR for open breakfast and lunch where they just seat you at big tables as you come in.

 

My sister's one and only solo cruise was on Norwegian. Not dining room friendly at all to solos. She was "rejected" by tables.

 

Roz

[Southwoods]

Actually, it was a fairly popular on-line agency. I was going to book on-line, but then we had a few questions so called the number and spoke to an agent, instead.

 

In truth, if he had explained the two dining preferences, I think we would have chosen the traditional dining anyway. I know it can be awkward to be thrown at a table with a bunch of strangers. Our last cruise brought us staring at 6 other faces for the first two dinners, but slowly people started talking. We had originally requested a table for 4, but I guess you don't always get what you want. But that was a different line than HOL.

 

Smiles to all of you...

[hammybee]

 

Another thing I observed in talking with other passenger is how uninformed their TAs were, and this is turn led to passengers who didn't understand the difference between the 2 dining concepts. If you think about, the distinction between the 2 is going to make more sense if one has cruised before. Otherwise it may be quite confusing. Roz

 

This is a pet peeve of mine....people in the business of selling cruise vacations who have no clue about what they are selling. So many of those selling cruises are part time, work from home, have never cruised before and are lucky if they can read a deck plan.

 

There are many top notch travel agents out there and many more who just "clerk it".

[CruisinGert]

Just returned from my first HAL cruise ... not too impressed, I'm sorry to say. The food, for the most part, was exceptionally lousy -- especially in the main Dining Room. We ate twice in the Main Dining Room. We liked being seated at large tables & meeting our fellow cruisers, and that part was fine. The food in the Pinnacle Grill was very good -- DYNAMITE dessert! HAL is working out the kinks, apparently (or they should be) on the AYWD. The Lido Cafe had too-limited hours ... dinner was usually 5:30-8pm, exactly! If you were in line, too bad! One night the Lido was closed entirely & the option was to dine on the pool-deck. Yuck -- not enough seating, smells of chlorine. One night half the Lido was open only for the officers & crew ... so the side open to the passengers was jam-packed. The buffet food was rarely hot -- or even warm. We discovered early that if you choose AYWD & want to eat in the Main Dining Room, either go early or make a reservation (which rather contradicts the whole idea, to our way of thinking). But this is no different from other cruises we have found ... not everyone can eat at the same time! So, go early, make a reservation or expect to wait. If that's not something you can live with, go with the reserved dining option.

[Two if by Sea]

Just returned from my first HAL cruise ... not too impressed, I'm sorry to say.

 

Which ship and itinerary?

[Southwoods]

I second that request, Two if by Sea! Please share the ship to which you found the food below standard. This is where manual tipping seems better than the automated one that is retroactive on the ship account. Please share which ship this was...