Dining times

LeeNY wrote:

On HAL, the show for the late seating guests starts at 10:00 or 10:30,
so there's still plenty of time to enjoy a leisurely day on shore,
relax for a few hours before dinner once back on board, eat a relaxing
meal in the dining room, and still see the show. The shows are only,
like 45 minutes long. So, you're out of the show by 11:00-11:30. Still
plenty early for some gambling, dancing, etc. Carnival ran the shows
before dinner, for the late seating. Didn't like that at all, and as a
result, didn't see many of their shows. For me, the whole point of late
seating is to slow down the pace of my day...having to rush back to the
ship to get ready to see the show is no different than having to rush
back to get ready for dinner.

Lee


Hmmm ... I have only been on two Carnival cruises but on both, there WAS
no show on port days. In fact on all the other cruises I have been on
(and it isn't as many as most of you do) there hasn't been a show on
port days that I can remember. I had assumed that was the norm. Am I
wrong?


--

Ray Contreras
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Fran & Ray wrote:
We enjoy having a designated
table and meeting everyone at our table. On the Hawaii cruise I did not
understand the concept of FREESTYLE dining I guess. If you did not rush to
the various restaurants to book a reservation at boarding they were totally
booked and you were forced to eat in the cafeteria buffet .

So you're saying that the main dining room (not the specialty
restaurants) was fully "reserved" and never had seats available?

Did you ever ask the Maitre D' to make a standing reservation for you
in the main dining room so you could have the same waiter, table and
dining time each night?

Warren

Sue and Kevin Mullen wrote:
D Ball wrote:
Fran,

Just to let you know you aren't alone in your observations, we experienced
the same dining difficulties when we did the NCL Star in Hawaii. It took way
too much work to eat! I know folks have said they haven't had the same
experience with NCL's Freestyle Dining on other ships in other places, but
we're not likely to give NCL a try just to make the comparison. We much
prefer the traditional dining options on all of the other lines.

I am wondering if Freestyle is worse on the Hawaiian cruises then
other itins. Not only are they port intensive, the cost of eating off
the ship is very high in Hawaii. People may be waiting to eat dinner
once they are back on the ship and that adds to the dinner time
congestion.

That may be the case ... On all my many NCL cruises I've enjoyed the
options and have dined early (skipped lunch on a shore excursion), late
(late lunch after a shore excursion) ... and during the rush period ...
it always seems spread out ... only the rush hour say 6:30 -7:30 has
had any problem ...and those were minor ... And having the option of
show then dinner ... or dinner then show is another plus ...
Even on sea days ... my wife hates it when I say ... time to get ready
for dinner when sailing traditional ... as she's gotten so relaxed and
doesn't even want to move ...
nice to be able to put that chore of dining off for an hour ...

Fran & Ray wrote:
Never once were we
asked to sit with other people the nights we did get to the large dining
room

Did you tell the Maitre D' when you arrived that you wished to share a
table? This is how Freestyle works. You share or dine alone based on
what you tell them when you enter the dining room.

Warren

WE did get a seat in one specialty restaurants but only because my husband
is fast and rushed to reserve a spot the minute we got on the ship and even
at that we could not get a time or place we really wanted we had to settle
for second choice.The board at the entrance to each restaurant was always
showing full and we were told we could be put on a waiting list but there
was no guarantee we could get in .

We went to the main dining room for the 1st night and it was a disaster. The
food was good but Service was terrible . We were not asked if we wanted to
join a group and since it was our first time freestyle I did not think to
ask . The waiters were all new and were dropping everything .It was like a
circus I asked for several things and was told it was not available that
night.

Several times that one night I almost wore supper because waiters were
lifting things over our heads and they could not handle doing so . We did
not want to go back to the main dining room again . Because many of the
specialty places were booked we ate in the cafeteria

I just wish the specialty rooms were more available . They are so small they
do not hold alot of people on that ship anyway and because of that you
cannot go where you want when you want

--
Fran


"Warren" wrote in message
oups.com...
Fran & Ray wrote:
We enjoy having a designated
table and meeting everyone at our table. On the Hawaii cruise I did not
understand the concept of FREESTYLE dining I guess. If you did not rush to
the various restaurants to book a reservation at boarding they were
totally
booked and you were forced to eat in the cafeteria buffet .

So you're saying that the main dining room (not the specialty
restaurants) was fully "reserved" and never had seats available?

Did you ever ask the Maitre D' to make a standing reservation for you
in the main dining room so you could have the same waiter, table and
dining time each night?

Warren

Fran & Ray wrote:
If you did not rush to
the various restaurants to book a reservation at boarding they were totally
booked and you were forced to eat in the cafeteria buffet . How does this
give you freedom of choice as to where to eat . At least with a set sitting
you know you will have a seat where you like to eat.

Amen to all that. Traditional for me. On a cruise, I just want to show
up at my dining time, have a seat waiting for me, and be served a
lovely meal. The concept of having to scramble to make a dinner
reservation is an incredible turn off to me.

Lee

In article , Fran & Ray
wrote:

WE did get a seat in one specialty restaurants but only because my husband
is fast and rushed to reserve a spot the minute we got on the ship and even
at that we could not get a time or place we really wanted we had to settle
for second choice.The board at the entrance to each restaurant was always
showing full and we were told we could be put on a waiting list but there
was no guarantee we could get in .

My experience on Dawn was that if you did not reserve the specialty
restaurants on embarkation day you got very lousy times, either 5:30 or
9:30. For the main dining rooms if you arrived at 7:30 you had to wait
a while. No wait if you arrived at 6:00 or 8:30 but then what is the
point of freestyle? In the main dining rooms they rushed the meal to
turn the table. I did find out though if you bypassed the reservation
system for the specialty restaurants and asked for a table they found
one. That is what I did the nights they gave me bad times. All in all I
did not like Freestlye cand ombined with the lousey buffet food I don't
intend to book NCL agian.

--
Charles

We are typical retired people,but we like late seating dinner,and the
later show,then we go for a walk around the ship,and then listen to some
music if they have any,and dance,When we are home we never retire until
1 or 2 in the morning,and we do not sleep late,no later than 8, No
matter what ship we are on,we always manage to enjoy our cruises
surfer e2468


cruise lover

We were on a cruise where befor show time they had bingo,etc,and when
you went to get a seat hardly anyone had left,and the showroom seating
was not very good,only 1 aisle on each side to go in or out,that was on
NCL


cruise lover

"LeeNY" wrote in message
ps.com...

I'm laughing...I could spend a lifetime on the beach. You have to drag
me away, at the end of each day. I've yet to reach my limit. On private
island days, you'll find me on the last possible tender back to the
ship. On other port days, get me to shore as early as possible, and get
me back to the ship with cushion enough, but not too much extra time
before the ship sails.

I guess that living in Florida I sort of forget that other people savoir the
beach time. After 4 or 5 hours I've just about had it.