Open seating being considered by RCCL???

[hayesktrm]

I read in Budget Magazine that RCCL is considering open seating in their dining rooms. We just took a NCL cruise in late July and tried Freestyle for the first time. I just didn't care for it...and here's why. I just didn't feel we got the level of service we got on other traditional cruiselines with traditional dining. I like having the same waiter who gets to know my likes and dislikes, and who is working extra hard because he wants a good tip. I really don't mind going to dinner at a set time. On NCL, I was going at those times anyway...so it just didn't matter.

 

I like having other dining venues that you can choose from...and dine whenever we like. And, I like having a set time with set waiters in the main dining room.

 

What do you all think and do you think RCCL will change?

[megr1125]

they are testing it on freedom (and maybe another ship) in part of the dining room...they emailed people to see if they want to try it......some will be guinea pigs and report back we hope....i think it starts this week.....

 

i hope they leave it the same......but who knows....

[cb at sea]

I agree--we enjoy having tablemates! Hubby and I are "empty-nester's" and really enjoy having others company! We eat together every single day--it's lovely having others to talk to when on vacation! And we also like having set times to eat--it's no big "hardship"--early evening is spent getting ready for dinner--which is a social thing--not just an "eating' thing!

[Sue L]

As far as I heard here on the boards it is only a trial on Freedom for 4 or so sailings. I hope it is a bust!

[FLACRUISER99]

I Like it. Now if only they would improve to food.

[GMoney]

Here we go again... :rolleyes:

[cot427]

The open seating trial will start October 7 sailing, my sailing. I did not take advantage of it with 12 people in my group. I don't like it anyway, not the same wait staff, same table, or same table mates. Also, you could be waiting for a table. I'll report back after my cruise to tell you all how it looks to be going after the first trial.

[patatz]

I hope it fails. We enjoy being served by the same people they get to know your likes and dislikes. If it where me all dinners would be smart casual or formal.

[Hypo]

I hope it fails. We enjoy being served by the same people they get to know your likes and dislikes. If it where me all dinners would be smart casual or formal.

 

We echo your sentiments. There is nothing wrong with dressing for dinner for one week. It provides a bit of civility to your life and a chance to enjoy your evening with spouse, friends or congenial tablemates, for a couple of hours.

[CoronaCpl]

Not sure how NCL handles this or how RCCL will; but we do know how Princess handles it. Our personal opinion - it is not for us! Having a 'dedicated' waitstaff and the same tablemates each evening is part of the fun for us. Service does decline - as least the 'personal' service you get as compared to traditional dining.

 

On Princess, at least when we sailed a couple years ago, it was a madhouse trying to get a table. People taking their time eating, tables never configured correctly for the size groups showing up wanting to eat together...just to name a couple things that slowed the whole process down. Even if you had a 'reservation' you had to wait to get seated; nevermind being served. I recall the waitstaff rushing to the table, dropping off your food, and then heading out to the next mission. Very rushed and frantic environment.

 

If we wanted to meet new people every night and get 'served' by different folks we'd eat at the WJ.

 

Would be curious to see if RCCL can create a better mouse trap... I'm skeptical though.

[DonnaK]

Add me to the list of those who hope it fails. I like the traditional dining experience, and having an open seating option affects the entire atmosphere aboard the ship which negatively impacts me even if I have chosen traditional seating.

[iheartbda]

Not sure how NCL handles this or how RCCL will; but we do know how Princess handles it. Our personal opinion - it is not for us! Having a 'dedicated' waitstaff and the same tablemates each evening is part of the fun for us. Service does decline - as least the 'personal' service you get as compared to traditional dining.

 

On Princess, at least when we sailed a couple years ago, it was a madhouse trying to get a table. People taking their time eating, tables never configured correctly for the size groups showing up wanting to eat together...just to name a couple things that slowed the whole process down. Even if you had a 'reservation' you had to wait to get seated; nevermind being served. I recall the waitstaff rushing to the table, dropping off your food, and then heading out to the next mission. Very rushed and frantic environment.

 

If we wanted to meet new people every night and get 'served' by different folks we'd eat at the WJ.

 

Would be curious to see if RCCL can create a better mouse trap... I'm skeptical though.

 

Your observations are EXACTLY what we encountered on NCL. Of course you know people are going to post that those things never happened to them and the whole thing was great.:)

[Hypo]

As I said previously, we are staunch traditionalists. We are on the Freedom next week when they start testing this. It will be interesting to see how this impacts the shows and other entertainment venues. I fear that seats will be hard to come by in the main theatre for the show that is after early seating.

 

Hypo

[SherriZ366]

Add me to the list of those who hope it fails. I like the traditional dining experience, and having an open seating option affects the entire atmosphere aboard the ship which negatively impacts me even if I have chosen traditional seating.

Add me too. Will be interesting to read comments of those on the trial FOS sailings. This trial runs from Oct. 7 through Dec. 16(?) with the exception of Thanksgiving week and a charter that I forgot the week for. Those of you who sailing during these weeks and like traditional should submit strong comment cards in favor of this type of dining. Also anyone sailing throught he end of the year on RCCL's other ships that are not part of the experiement should also submit strong comments in favor of traditional.

[2ladies]

Well, we love PC on Princess and HAL is starting this also. As I said on a previous post, it is also a very good idea for those who book late and are presently forced to eat at an inconvenient time.

 

You can either have your own table or share. Having seen how many empty seats there are in the Dining Room, it is obvious that not everyone wishes to eat at a set time.

 

Choice is the name of the game. RCCL has to try and please everyone as much as possible - they are not abandoning traditional dining, just allowing passengers to have a choice.

 

We meet many more people with PC Dining and we enjoy this socialising aspect also.

 

It really doesn't concern us whether the staff knows in advance whether we want iced tea or not. We just order whatever we choose, just as we do in a regular restaurant. In fact, traditional sometimes feels a bit like school dinners:D!! The bell rings and you eat!!:eek: :p.

 

RCCL have to move with the times. We are booked on a Panama Canal cruise and are on the waiting list for early. If we don't get it, we will have to eat in the Windjammer every evening. This is not fair, as we pay the same as those using the DR. My mother is very elderly and cannot eat at the late sitting.

 

So my vote goes to PERSONAL CHOICE DINING for the flexibility it offers.

[rosebud1g]

Hypo get the scoop and report back to us here!

I think it will be a disaster too. How can they

accomodate 3,000+ people at different tables

and times? I like the assigned table with your

"personal" waiter and his assistant. Besides

how would your BAR waiter know where to find

you for the Miami Vice??????????????????

[Tex_Jen]

Well, I have had friends that have sailed on personal choice/anytime/freestyle dining and they were okay with it as long as they were part of a large group/family that like to eat together every night. What was commented most was that service was lacking...not just the personal touch.

 

I hate the NCL commercials since I don't feel regimented about anything except what time my dinner is going to be. If I don't want to do that, I can still go to the Windjammer or order Room Service. I prefer late dining so I guess I'm not in the same shape as those who have specific reasons for needing early seating.

 

We shall see, but I don't want to lose the personalized touch I get with RCI. My waiters in the past have always gone above and beyond when I see them in the morning at the Windjammer or the Dining Room. You can't get that with anytime eating.

 

Jen

[FitzLA]

Why do you people hope it fails? Kind of arrogant of you since there are quite a few people who would like to see it work. They would not be testing it if statistics didn't say that a good number of their customers wanted to see it. It's not like they will do away with your traditional dining. You will still have that option, and only a small portion of the dining room (1/3rd) will be used for open dining. It's about making everyone happy. Not just you.

[emilygrace]

"How can they accommodate 3,000+ people at different tables and times?"

 

I doubt that it would ever be that many people choosing Open Seating on any RCL ship. Since their ships do have the multi-tiered dining rooms, it would be possible to make one or two levels Open Seating (depending on how many people want it) and still have one (or two) levels for Traditional Dining. I think it's good to offer choices, and depending on who I am traveling with I would choose either option. I just didn't like NCL with TOTALLY Freestyle dining. We ended up making reservations for the same time every night, but in different restaurants. Since it was a small group of us, they didn't put us at a table with anyone else. But when DH and I cruise alone, I would definitely prefer Traditional so we can get to know our table mates.

[Merion_Mom]

Well, we love PC on Princess and HAL is starting this also. As I said on a previous post, it is also a very good idea for those who book late and are presently forced to eat at an inconvenient time.

 

You can either have your own table or share. Having seen how many empty seats there are in the Dining Room, it is obvious that not everyone wishes to eat at a set time.

Choice is the name of the game. RCCL has to try and please everyone as much as possible - they are not abandoning traditional dining, just allowing passengers to have a choice.

 

We meet many more people with PC Dining and we enjoy this socialising aspect also.

 

It really doesn't concern us whether the staff knows in advance whether we want iced tea or not. We just order whatever we choose, just as we do in a regular restaurant. In fact, traditional sometimes feels a bit like school dinners:D!! The bell rings and you eat!!:eek: :p.

 

RCCL have to move with the times. We are booked on a Panama Canal cruise and are on the waiting list for early. If we don't get it, we will have to eat in the Windjammer every evening. This is not fair, as we pay the same as those using the DR. My mother is very elderly and cannot eat at the late sitting.

 

So my vote goes to PERSONAL CHOICE DINING for the flexibility it offers.

 

Your wording and *tone* assume that those passengers, whose seats you see empty in the dining room on a particular night, are UNHAPPY about the dining room, and that that is why they are not there.

 

They may be EXTREMELY happy with traditional dining, and just be in the Windjammer that night and HAPPY about it. Or they could be in a specialty restaurant and HAPPY about it. Or they could be eating in their cabin and HAPPY about it. Or they could have skipped dinner entirely because they ate in port or ate a late lunch..............

 

On and on and on.

 

Those empty seats in the dining room do NOT necessarily represent people unhappy with traditional dining.

 

*I* would assume nothing of the sort from seeing those seats.

[coffeebean]

DH and I actually prefer the freestyle dining. We have done several NCL cruises and several RCI cruises so we know what it is like on both lines. We like the different types of restaurants on the freestyle NCL ships. We don't ever wait to be seated. The trick is not to go at the very popular time which is between 7:00pm and 8:30. We dine either earlier or later, depending on what was going on in the day and what was scheduled for the evening. NCL does have two shows in the evening just as the traditional cruise lines do.

 

The ships must be built with Freestyle in mind because there are several different restaurants to choose from. It was a gamble for NCL to invest in the Freestyle concept and it is a winner with us.

 

If RCI decides to do "open seating" on their ships, it is still not the same as what NCL has going on their ships. As I said before, the ships have to be built with Freestyle in mind to be successful and to offer the customers the variety in dining that Freestyle is all about.

[GMoney]

One way or another, RCI is going to adopt some kind of open dining. Princess, HAL and NCL all do it in one way, shape or form. IMO, it's a done deal. These experiments are just to fine tune the model and ease people into the idea.

[hayesktrm]

One of the things that I really loved (corny) about traditional dining is when the wait staff comes and does their singing and dancing and we would cheer for our waiter.

 

On our NCL cruise, we had to wait almost always to get a table. If you can't dine at a certain time because of crowds, then is it really "freestyle?" Also, we only were able to reserve one specialty restaurant the whole week we were on board because apparently we didn't do it fast enough each day. One of the worst things was finding tables in the buffet on NCL (but, it was probably because the buffet was so good).

[Barbiegator]

Your wording and *tone* assume that those passengers, whose seats you see empty in the dining room on a particular night, are UNHAPPY about the dining room, and that that is why they are not there.

 

They may be EXTREMELY happy with traditional dining, and just be in the Windjammer that night and HAPPY about it. Or they could be in a specialty restaurant and HAPPY about it. Or they could be eating in their cabin and HAPPY about it. Or they could have skipped dinner entirely because they ate in port or ate a late lunch..............

 

On and on and on.

 

Those empty seats in the dining room do NOT necessarily represent people unhappy with traditional dining.

 

*I* would assume nothing of the sort from seeing those seats.

 

I couldn't have said it any better!! We like choice.

[hunnypot1]

I would prefer a "blended" restaurant...

Most traditional and some set aside as "freestyle".

Sometimes I am just not ready to eat at their set mealtime. It would be nice to occasionally deviate from schedule while still enjoying the dining room service/food. I would also like a later dinner option (I am a nightowl and wouldn't mind dining at 9pm) so I can relax after a busy day in port.

As for meeting new people while dining freestyle, if you meet some fantastic people arrange to meet again the next night for dinner.