Legend June 29 - Open Seating for Dinner

[Stuster]

Can anyone report on the new, experimental open seating for dinner on the Legend? Ship should be back in port today after the first week of trial for this option (June 29 sailing).

 

We leave in one week and are thinking about switching from traditional assigned dining time but want to know how well it worked. Thanks in advance.

 

sle

[sixy-six]

Would like to know how this worked out too.

[Chuggiebug]

Me too, I am very interested. I am a traditional diner and am afraid they will any time throughout the fleet

[maxamuus]

Add me to the "Me too List"

[LeanneS]

I want to know too especially since we don't have an assigned time yet.

 

Thanks!

[crusinpsychRN]

Must have been at least one CC'er on board?

[zqvol]

Patience, they've only been back a few hours.

[cjkumbaya]

Please hurry if you can - we are having a hard time waiting.:o

[maxamuus]

Still on the edge of my seat...

[rockwood84]

I was on this sailing, but did the traditional (late) dining, so I can't give you a first-hand report. I also did not talk to anyone who did the open seating.

 

I can tell you the following:

- the first floor was traditional dining, the second (upper) floor was open seating, and may have also had some traditional seating tables as well

- I didn't see any lines, but I was on the first floor, so I couldn't have seen it very well if there were lines

- The wait staff songs and dances continued as normal, at the normal times

- I didn't hear anyone complaining. Now, I didn't poll everyone on the ship, but you would think that sort of thing would be repeated if it were a big problem.

- Our food was a little slow coming out. That may have been our wait staff, it may have been the kitchen, and it may have been due to the open seating being new. I have no idea. It wasn't so slow that we complained, but it seemed a little slow.

- The line to get in the dining room was VERY LONG the first night. However, I have never been on a Spirit-class ship, so this may be normal. I don't know.

 

That's about all I can tell you. I'm going to try to do a review, but I'm tired, so it won't be tonight.

[snc421]

The line to get in the dining room was VERY LONG the first night. However, I have never been on a Spirit-class ship, so this may be normal. I don't know.

 

On the 5/4 Legend, there was a line every night, but we usually were near the door by 8:10 every night for our 8:15 seating. They did not open the door to let us in until straight up 8:15.... We could have waited another 5 minutes or so and there probably would not have been a line.

 

The line was much more significant (slower) the first night, as we all were led to our tables by an employee.

[Stuster]

I was on this sailing, but did the traditional (late) dining, so I can't give you a first-hand report. I also did not talk to anyone who did the open seating.

 

...That's about all I can tell you. I'm going to try to do a review, but I'm tired, so it won't be tonight.

 

Rockwoods--can you tell us if you would have been allowed to go to the open seating one night as a walk-up to wait for a table? We have regular assigned seating on Legend leaving next Sunday and wondered if we could do open seating a night or two because apparently in addition to reservations, people can just go to the dining room and wait for a table.

 

Anyone else who was on Legend for the June 29th sailing, please chime in as well....

Thanks.

sle

[KatSt]

- The line to get in the dining room was VERY LONG the first night. However, I have never been on a Spirit-class ship, so this may be normal. I don't know.

 

All the Spirit class ships have long lines waiting to get into the dining room. It's nice that there is a lounge near the dining room to sit while waiting for dinner. I'm not sure why people feel they have to line up. Your table will be there when you get in.

[flvol77]

I would love to hear how open seating went. We choose the Mariner of the Seas instead of the Legend last week and well, lets just say we missed open seating (we are use to Princess) and would have loved to try it on Carnival and been the "guinea pigs." We enjoyed our cruise, but I will have to say we liked our Carnival April cruise better and Princess and Carnival will be our two main options in the future.

[poptart]

looking forward to hearing from someone who tried it :D :D :D

 

can't imagine that ALL of last weeks cruisers had to unpack do laundry and head back to work. :eek:

 

I hate it when life gets in the way of cruising info

[NowVoyager908]

I'm also anxious to hear how it went. I'm booked on the Miracle for next summer and to be honest, I'm having second thoughts. After enjoying freestyle dining on my last two cruises, I am not looking forward to going back to traditional. We were originally supposed to be a larger group on the Miracle and in the past, always had a table to ourselves. Somehow traditional seemed more palatable with a group. But circumstances have changed and now it may only be two of us. So, I'm hoping things went relatively well on this sailing and Carnival considers expanding the dining options fleetwide. :D

[marym933]

I guess we can assume, due to the lack of responses on this thread, that the new any time dining is really no big deal. Do any of you 6/29/08 Legend passengers think differently???

[Stuster]

I guess we can assume, due to the lack of responses on this thread, that the new any time dining is really no big deal. Do any of you 6/29/08 Legend passengers think differently???

 

MaryM--Big deal is probably overstating it. But I'd say our group is a slightly concerned that the galley won't know how to cope with large, irregular flows of people. So depending on when we eat, things could be slow and someone seemed to indicate such here already.

 

Hoping they have that ironed out by the time we sail on Sunday, and hoping they'll allow those of us who have regular assigned dining times to perhaps walk-in and wait for a table to give us further flexibility/options perhaps a night or two.

 

So still hoping to hear from someone who experienced it to fill the rest of us in on how the open dining experiment has gone so far--judging from the number of views, it appears there is interest in this topic on the CC boards.

If no one posts before we sail I'll try to post something when we get back.

 

sle

[cuyahoga11]

MaryM--Big deal is probably overstating it. But I'd say our group is a slightly concerned that the galley won't know how to cope with large, irregular flows of people. So depending on when we eat, things could be slow and someone seemed to indicate such here already.

 

Hoping they have that ironed out by the time we sail on Sunday, and hoping they'll allow those of us who have regular assigned dining times to perhaps walk-in and wait for a table to give us further flexibility/options perhaps a night or two.

 

So still hoping to hear from someone who experienced it to fill the rest of us in on how the open dining experiment has gone so far--judging from the number of views, it appears there is interest in this topic on the CC boards.

If no one posts before we sail I'll try to post something when we get back.

 

sle

 

I was told if you chose traditional you could not use open dining but everyone knows how they enforce their rules, so who knows.

[marym933]

MaryM--Big deal is probably overstating it. But I'd say our group is a slightly concerned that the galley won't know how to cope with large, irregular flows of people. So depending on when we eat, things could be slow and someone seemed to indicate such here already.

 

Hoping they have that ironed out by the time we sail on Sunday, and hoping they'll allow those of us who have regular assigned dining times to perhaps walk-in and wait for a table to give us further flexibility/options perhaps a night or two.

 

So still hoping to hear from someone who experienced it to fill the rest of us in on how the open dining experiment has gone so far--judging from the number of views, it appears there is interest in this topic on the CC boards.

If no one posts before we sail I'll try to post something when we get back.

 

sle

 

I, and others, would really appreciate a post when you return. I agree with the last poster, I have heard you must stick to whichever option you pick for the entire cruise. I really don't know how they would enforce that unless they tag your S&S card and swipe it when you show up for the flex dining. I am particularly interested in the opportunity to get a table for 2. We did this on the Miracle and loved it. Those tables are usually along the railing on the upper floor. One poster stated that they thought the lower floor was for traditional and the upper floor for flex. I am wondering if tables for 2 will be on the lower floor. Any info you can post would be greatly appreciated!! Have a wonderful Legend cruise!!

[JeffHatfield]

We were on the 6/29 sailing of the Legend. I told the maitre d that I hoped the Anytime failed. There was only a small section that had the anytime dining alloted (less than 1/4 of the upper level according to our waiter). Actually we I never noticed anybody coming in during our dinner (late seating and we were right beside the section alloted to anytime). Hopefully it fails, IMHO.

[zqvol]

We were on the 6/29 sailing of the Legend. I told the maitre d that I hoped the Anytime failed. There was only a small section that had the anytime dining alloted (less than 1/4 of the upper level according to our waiter). Actually we I never noticed anybody coming in during our dinner (late seating and we were right beside the section alloted to anytime). Hopefully it fails, IMHO.

 

Why? How does it hurt if that is what others want to do?

[loveshack]

We were on the 6/29 sailing of the Legend. I told the maitre d that I hoped the Anytime failed. There was only a small section that had the anytime dining alloted (less than 1/4 of the upper level according to our waiter). Actually we I never noticed anybody coming in during our dinner (late seating and we were right beside the section alloted to anytime). Hopefully it fails, IMHO.

 

 

I agree - why do you hope it fails? You still have your traditional dining if you want it. It doesn't affect Others can have the flexability of anytime - which is what many people like. Some people like traditional and some people like anytime. :)

[poptart]

We were on the 6/29 sailing of the Legend. I told the maitre d that I hoped the Anytime failed. There was only a small section that had the anytime dining alloted (less than 1/4 of the upper level according to our waiter). Actually we I never noticed anybody coming in during our dinner (late seating and we were right beside the section alloted to anytime). Hopefully it fails, IMHO.

 

 

ahhhhhhhhh! Evidently it's so new that not too many folks knew about it or were brave enough to give it a go.

 

Interesting. I'll keep watching for any new reviews on it.

[Kurbanfan]

We were on the 6/29 sailing of the Legend. I told the maitre d that I hoped the Anytime failed. There was only a small section that had the anytime dining alloted (less than 1/4 of the upper level according to our waiter). Actually we I never noticed anybody coming in during our dinner (late seating and we were right beside the section alloted to anytime). Hopefully it fails, IMHO.

 

Wow so much for choices:rolleyes:

You probably didn't notice because it was a success...........