YOUR WAY DINING- Noordam

[hammybee]

Then, it is NOT "As You Wish"!!!

 

"As you Wish" is meaningless marketing hype. It's really you get what you pay for.:)

[whyme]

Well I don't think all the tables were reserved, else you would not have been seated.:)

 

Regardless if HAL accepted reservations or not, it sounds like there were a lot of folk on your cruise who preferred to dine early. I think they would have shown up to dine at their preferred time, regarless of reservation or not and thus you would have had to wait, no matter what.

 

What I do find curious is that at least on your cruise, the reservation timeframes sort of mimic the fixed seatings. This is not how it once worked nor is waiting for a table a given. It bears watching.

 

That your waits on Oceania did not exceed 15 minutes seems reasonable to me, given the premium you paid and the size of the ship.

 

First the cost of the Oceania cruise had nothing to do with getting a table in the main dining room on their ships.It had to do that they did not hold any empty tables for close to 2 hours because of late reservations.

Second HAL did have tables available ,but you had to wait til someone finish eating before they would seat you.. And then you could watch the 8 or 10 tables that are empty around you ,stay empty for an hour til 8 and 8;15 reservations to fill them. because those tables were saved walk ups could not be seated immediately.. It has nothing to do with the cost of the cruise, but of the effecientcy that the cruise line uses it's facilities

[Two if by Sea]

more HAL passengers seem to prefer dining earlier than late and often exceed in number, the chairs available to seat them, regardless of seating, traditional or open. No matter what, some will be disappointed.

 

Maybe they should add some REALLY EARLY seatings -- say, 4:00PM and 4:30PM -- to accommodate everyone who wants to eat early.

[bUU]

"As you Wish" is meaningless marketing hype. It's really you get what you pay for.:)

Indeed, so is "Holland America" -- we're not going to Holland, y'know. :D

 

I think folks need to come to grips with what "As You Wish" means: It's like buying a BMW: You can have it blue, green or black, "as you wish"; you cannot have it purple polka-dotted (unless you paint it yourself). You have choices, and you can choose among those choices, "as you wish". "As you wish" is not the same as "any way you wish, without limitations or qualifications", which I believe is how some people are insisting on interpreting the phrase.

[kryos]

because those tables were saved walk ups could not be seated immediately.. It has nothing to do with the cost of the cruise, but of the effecientcy that the cruise line uses it's facilities

Which is precisely why there should be no such thing as a "reservation" in AYW Dining. It should be strictly first come, first served. Period. As for everyone desiring to eat at an early time, fine ... if you insist on early dining, and there are lots of others with the same idea as you, then guess what? You're gonna have to wait, and you should accept that. But to see a bunch of tables just sitting idle, because they are reserved for later dining times, and there is not enough time before that reserved dining time to put someone else there in the meantime ... that is poor planning, in my opinion. If there is a queue at the dining room door, it should only be because EVERY table is occupied.

 

Blue skies ...

 

--rita

[kryos]

Maybe they should add some REALLY EARLY seatings -- say, 4:00PM and 4:30PM -- to accommodate everyone who wants to eat early.

All kidding aside, on HAL that very well might prove a successful idea.

 

Believe me, I live with my 94-year-old father, and these seniors love to eat very early. That's why the Early Bird specials are so popular at area diners. They are generally over by 4:30/5:00 p.m. and the place is packed with seniors while they are going on.

 

Blue skies ...

 

--rita

[hammybee]

First the cost of the Oceania cruise had nothing to do with getting a table in the main dining room on their ships.It had to do that they did not hold any empty tables for close to 2 hours because of late reservations.

Second HAL did have tables available ,but you had to wait til someone finish eating before they would seat you.. And then you could watch the 8 or 10 tables that are empty around you ,stay empty for an hour til 8 and 8;15 reservations to fill them. because those tables were saved walk ups could not be seated immediately.. It has nothing to do with the cost of the cruise, but of the effecientcy that the cruise line uses it's facilities

 

Perhaps I misunderstood you. Are you saying that you waited 30 minutes at 7:00 P.M., while there were empty tables available?

 

And just curious, did you prefer a two top or were you willing to share?

[hammybee]

First the cost of the Oceania cruise had nothing to do with getting a table in the main dining room on their ships.

 

I think the cost has a lot to do with it. On Oceania you are competing with only a third of the passengers that were on your HAL cruise.

 

The more passengers on a ship, the more compromizes are going to be necessary, especially when a lot of them prefer to dine early.

[dragonmerlin]

We were also on the same cruise as CTBOB (Hi Bob!) and had some issues with the dinning situation. We would go to dinner at about seven and had to wait 10 to 30 minutes for a table. We were a party of three and were happy to sit at any size table. One night we were talking to a couple behind us and said we would be happy to sit at a larger table with them. All the larger tables were reserved and we ended up at a smaller table anyway. On the third night we were at a table for four and ended up loving the waiters. We made reservations for that table everynight at 8:00 and found out that they did hold that table for us the rest of the vacation.

It ended up being like traditional dinning, which we preffered. On the nights we had to wait we had a drink or took pictures. We had a great time on the Noordam.

[hammybee]

This is from Poster Sparkle's Noordam cruise:

 

We had the As You Wish Dining. I "Wish" it was set up a little better. Once I figure out that the reservations line opened at 8:00 a.m. I usually made a reservation for 5:30 or 5:45 - they were they only times they offered. I might as well have selected the Fixed Seating, but I thought it would be too early. We didn't want to go later because we didn't want to have to wait. I have to admit, though, when we did go later and wait it wasn't for more than 10 or 15 minutes. I don't think any cruise lines are really set up to handle this type of dining option. So many people want tables for 2 or tables for very large parties, and the dining rooms just aren't set up for this. The service was usually pretty good.

__________________

On this cruise, based upon what this poster said, it was all walk-in, after the first two early reservation times and this poster preferred dining a little later and so, waited 10-15 minutes, for the early diners to finish their dinners.

 

It seems to me that the so called open seating, gives more people the opportunity to dine at or closer to their preferred time than fixed seating does, because too often the demand for early fixed seating, exceeds the number of chairs available.

[Carpe Diem Cruiser]

On our Noordam cruise just before Christmas, my husband and I had opted in advance for the AYW dining. We did not make reservations...just showed up each day at about 5:30 or 6 pm and requested a table for two. In every case, we were shown to our table immediately. Maybe being early diners is a good thing in this case.