Dining Room Drink Service, hit or miss?

[beach410]

I absolutely love my Carnival cruises, but one thing I noticed and seem to read about in many reviews, is the sketchy drink service in the DR. Out of our 4 cruises, the best service we had was on the Fantasy, our drink server came around every night, but wouldnt come back again, we would have to request her and our waitress did a great job getting her back for us. On the other 3, we had to have them hunted down and it took forever to get drinks. I normally drink water or have wine, so this isnt a big thing for me, but the kids have to wait forever for a soda and you dont get your drink until well into the meal. I also noticed a family we sat with didnt get the same attention as we did even though they sat at the same table, they were using coupons and I felt bad for them. Anyone else have this experience?

[flipflops78]

I have always grabbed a drink in the bar before going to the DR. I only do this because it tends to run slow. If I am having soda though often my waiter has it for me waiting.

[dec2007w3boys]

We had great service on the Valor. She would bring 2 diet cokes at a time for me and a beer if my dh was drinking them that evening. Edwin, our great assistant server, would have the milks ready for the boys along with seconds as needed. Crossing my fingers on the next cruise.

[Name game]

I never had a problem with drink service in the DR. I've been on 20 Carnival cruises now.

[Kurbanfan]

We have noticed over the years the bar service in the dining rooms have gone from great to barely there. We also order a drink at the bar and bring to our table before dinner.

[qprrules]

On our last cruise the drink "guy" was always around:cool: Of course it may have been the fact that on the 1st nite we were fogged-in in Galveston and he was one of the servers at the piano bar where we were getting pretty toasted but running out of "smokes" and I gave him $10 for half a pack of cigs:eek: You can't imagine how happy I was when I awoke and we were headed out to sea. Duty-free here I come:D

[KatSt]

We've noticed that the Fantasy and Spirit class ships have better bar service in the DR. We were on the Liberty and Glory and each time had to have the bar person hunted down.

[outerbks]

I agree with the previuos post. On our November Glory cruise, the drink service in the DR was extremely poor. We could hardly get a drink steward and drink before our entree was served. On two evenings we did not see a steward, even though we asked the server repeatedly.:cool:

[Thatmom]

I agree with the previuos post. On our November Glory cruise, the drink service in the DR was extremely poor. We could hardly get a drink steward and drink before our entree was served. On two evenings we did not see a steward, even though we asked the server repeatedly.:cool:

 

We were on the Glory twice and the drink server was pretty bad..Our waiter tried to help us one night and after that we just gave up..I'm going again in 37 days will see how it goes this time!!

Carla

[navybaby1113]

Can we bring a drink into the dining room with us? Like if we have soda or something in our cabin and wanted to consume it during dinner. Or is that just considered tacky?

[Payd]

Can we bring a drink into the dining room with us? Like if we have soda or something in our cabin and wanted to consume it during dinner. Or is that just considered tacky?

 

I don't think it is tacky. Just my opinion though. If you bring wine into the dining room a corkage fee applies (your waiter may choose to charge or not charge the fee).

 

Payd:)

[Payd]

I absolutely love my Carnival cruises, but one thing I noticed and seem to read about in many reviews, is the sketchy drink service in the DR. Out of our 4 cruises, the best service we had was on the Fantasy, our drink server came around every night, but wouldnt come back again, we would have to request her and our waitress did a great job getting her back for us. On the other 3, we had to have them hunted down and it took forever to get drinks. I normally drink water or have wine, so this isnt a big thing for me, but the kids have to wait forever for a soda and you dont get your drink until well into the meal. I also noticed a family we sat with didnt get the same attention as we did even though they sat at the same table, they were using coupons and I felt bad for them. Anyone else have this experience?

 

We have always had really good drink service in the DR. On our last cruise - the Miracle, our bar server stopped to see us every night - we didn't order anything until night 5! Still he was there each and every night with a smile.

 

Payd:)

[BigGreg]

our first cruise on the legend it seemed as everyone went to the dining room for dinner there wasnt an empty table in sight. The first two nights it was rough trying to get a drink, finally on the thrid night upon entering the dining room I saw the drink server and threw him a 20 spot everynight after drinks were waiting for us at the table while people next to us had to continue to hunt. He also stopped by our table numerous times each evening, no one @ the table other then my girlfriend could figure out why he gave us such great service it was pretty funny.

[2 rednecks]

Our drink service in the DR on the miracle was horrible the first night. the DW's drink was way way too strong and he had a real attitude about it then after giving it back fixed so it was drinkable I was done with beer 1 and ready for number 2. he never came back. Day 2 we never saw him, said he be back on day 3 never saw him. Then after seeing him in the karokie-sp bar that night where he was the bartender and that room was packed standing room only and barely any of that he had great service for us there and from then on in the DR. so dinners 4-8 the service was perfect as we walked through the door he looked at me and asked me if i was drinking that night i said yeah and then boom there was a beer ready on the table in 30 sec.

[1gr8cruise]

My drink service was poor on the Glory......very slow....saw her once each night....then of course 2 of the nights I was charged for other's drinks.....had to fight with pursors desk to get the $35 charges removed....

[pe4all]

I guess we've been lucky. No problems on any cruise. After the first nite, our caffeine free diet cokes were waiting for all 4 of us - plus, we use drink coupons. Not only that, but on our last cruise, at the past- guest party, we happened to sit in the section our dinner drink server was in, and he came over and asked what drinks we wanted - not the "off-the-tray" drinks he was carrying, but "made to order" drinks. (love those khalua and cremes!) He got a nice tip for that - that was above and beyond.

[LegalCat]

I have to agree that I have mostly found the DR drink service to be lacking.

 

Only twice did I really feel like there was a lot of service where they actually came back the same evening etc...

 

Mostly we had to ask for someone and then had a long wait, then a long wait for the actual drink after ordering, and then have to ask for them again if we wanted a second drink... I usually have a soda card which Ive always felt is like the kiss of death and make sure they dont see it until they are already taking my order, but usually we are also ordering at least one alcoholic drink as well...

 

On one cruise the guy brought me two cans of coke and a big glass of ice so he wouldnt have to come back, that was nice, lol.

[cathyz]

On our first couple cruises we had no problems, but on the Pride last year, the woman was bad/slow enough that my husband commented on her lack of service on his comment card, and he's usually pretty easy on stuff like that.

[Hotfire]

We sailed on Valor last July. After the first night, the bar staff in the DR knew our drinks by heart and brought them shortly after we sat down to dinner. The problem was... that's where it ended. If you wanted another drink, you were out of luck. We just learned to take a big, honkin' drink to dinner with us and we were set for the entire dinner.

 

Hotfire

[joepeka]

We do not have a ton of cruises under our belts but over the years, we've seen the dining room drink service go downhill. It could be there just are not very many cocktail waiters assigned to the dining rooms, I don't know. It does take a long time to get a drink then a big gap before the waiter returns. Our best waiter was on the HAL cruise we took - after the first night, he had our drinks waiting for us at the table and he never let more than a couple of minutes go by with an empty glass before he was at the table asking if we wanted another. Needless to say, we took good care of him on the last night. :D