Dining room no-show questions

[L2ConD]

I’m not trying to start a flame war at all, but I have a question about not showing up for dinner.

 

Just a bit of background – I’m traveling with two teenagers who will be anchored in the teen club the whole time it’s open. They have no desire to spend 2 hours eating in the dining room when there are teen club activities going on, and I don’t blame them. (They’ve been on Disney cruises before.)

 

Also, we were assigned the second seating, which is wayyyyyy too late for me to eat. I will try and change it once we are onboard, but it may be unchangeable.

 

So – my question is this: if I don’t show up to any of the late-seating meals, does that throw a monkey wrench in the works? I’m not so egotistical as to think that my presence is that desirable :p, but does the seating guru need to know in advance so he can maybe juggle someone else into my slot?

 

What if I only want to eat in a dining room 3 days out of the seven?

 

Am I making a mountain out of a molehill? :D

 

 

LOL. TIA for any info!

[dta87]

It should not be any problem skipping dining if you want to. the courteous thing to do would be to inform your head server/server that you will not be attending dinner and they will not delay the service for your tablemates.

 

If you do plan on missing dinner the entire cruise I would go to Rockin Bar D when you board (the place to request dining changes) and inform them so they can possibly seat another family at that table.

 

Now tipping becomes the issue: if you miss a meal (or all of them) do you still tip your HS/S/AS? My take is yes since even if you do not use their service at dinner they still provide a service at the lunch/dinner CC buffets which is part of your "daily tip".

[tamirpr]

I think they would appreciate you letting someone know. We were seated with a couple on our last cruise at a table for four, which is fine, but they only showed up three of the seven nights. We never knew which nights to wait to order and which nights not to. We weren't angry at them, but it was a tad annoying. Maybe you could switch to a table for two so if you decided not to show up, it wouldn't affect anyone else?

[Host Mick]

Regarding the tip. You should still tip. Even though you aren't eating in the dining room, you are still eating somewhere. The dining room servers rotate out to the buffet where they don't get tipped (read as paid) on a schedule so they are counting on your tip in the dining room as pay for the week that they will spend in the buffet.

[L2ConD]

No question that the tip should still be included! Having been a waitress for more summers than I care to admit, I will definitely and happily tip.

 

Thanks for your post.

 

Nancy

[L2ConD]

Tami,

 

See, that's why I ask the dumb questions! You make a very good point about your tablemates waiting in vain for a person to show up before they prder.

 

Thanks, I'll make sure and tell the head server.

 

Nancy

[L2ConD]

DTA87,

 

Thanks, those are excellent points! I'll head for the Rockin' D and let them know. And I do plan on tipping as though I had had dinner there.

 

Thanks!

 

Nancy

[tamirpr]

Tami,

 

See, that's why I ask the dumb questions! You make a very good point about your tablemates waiting in vain for a person to show up before they prder.

 

Thanks, I'll make sure and tell the head server.

 

Nancy

 

 

No dumb questions. I think it all boils down to, if you're the type of person to even ASK if it's a problem, then you aren't the type of person to try to stick it to anybody and be rude. I appreciate you even thinking about it beforehand.:) But even after giving my example, the reason I couldn't get mad at our tablemates is because they were paying for their cruise just like I was. You have the choice to eat or not eat whenever, wherever (and as much ;)) as you'd like. So please do whatever it is that YOU want to do to make your cruise a happy one for YOU, but I also know that you will be considerate of others, which is all anybody can ask.

[Muushka]

On our last 7 nighter, we asked our DR server if he wanted to know when we would not be there and he said no, which surprised me. So when we planned on not going to dinner, we would always tell someone at our table so that they would not wait for us.

[L2ConD]

Thanks, Muushka! I think the biggest concern is to be considerate of one's fellow cruisers, so I'll be sure and let them know. But first & foremost, Ill hope for a switch to the early dining option!

 

Thanks,

Nancy

[Muushka]

I hope you get your early dining! Happy Cruise!

[phunchak]

What if you cancel on dinner and just get room service instead. I always tip the room service but are you expected to tip for the missed dinner service as well??

[AlexandNessa]

If we knew ahead of time that we would not be eating dinner in the DR the following night, we just told our servers so they knew not to look for us the next night (e.g., we were at Palo or just wanted junk food in Diversions, etc).

On our last cruise, we decided to skip dinner the last night because DH wasn't hungry (he was still way too full from Palo brunch). This led to a full-fledged panic on my part ... I did not want our servers thinking that we were skipping out on the tip. So I kept scrambling over to Parrot Cay which was our assigned DR for the night to see if I could get anyone's attention. I did this maybe 4x before I saw our server, and told her that we were skipping dinner that night but would see her in the morning with their envelopes.

From now on, I think I will tell our servers that they can count on us for breakfast the last morning so they won't think we're going to stiff them. Either that, or DH is not allowed to stuff his face so much on Palo brunch on the last day of the cruise .....

[Muushka]

What if you cancel on dinner and just get room service instead. I always tip the room service but are you expected to tip for the missed dinner service as well??

 

Yup. We just did a 5 night cruise and ate in the DR 1 night and still gave the full tip.

[helenb]

I had a similar problem on my last Disney cruise. We booked last minute, about 3 weeks before sailing, and of course all early dining was gone. However, I was traveling without my DH with 2 small kids and knew there was no way they'd be able to stay up for a late seating dinner (the late seating began at their normal bedtime). And I certainly didn't want to eat by myself. I was frantically trying to look into dining alternatives.

 

I made sure we were early at the port and one of the first people to board the ship. As soon as we were onboard, I raced to the Rockin D Bar and was first in line for dining change request. I told the person there honestly that if we could not be switched to early seating, that we were never going to attend dinner at all, because my children were too young to eat that late. Of course, that would have been a shame, not eating in the themed restaurants, but it was the way it had to be.

 

Fortunately, they were able to switch us, but I was able to inform them of our dining plans, should they not have been able to switch us.