Dining - fixed or open

We like open dining. On a long cruise, we tend to eat dinner at 7 or so and the maître 'd gives us the same table every night. Works well for us.

If you are on fixed early dining, do you miss the various "sail away" parties on deck, or can you come in for dinner a bit later?

 

DD

You might miss some of the sail a ways.

there is usually a 15 minute window for arrival for fixed dining.

We have found that on most of our HAL cruises, a large majority of passengers dine by 7. Since we prefer to eat later, (after 8) we seldom have any wait for Open Seating (we like to share large tables). In fact, on some HAL cruises if we go to dinner about 8:15 we might eat alone because nobody else is eating that late. The waiters are more relaxed after 8 because they do not have any pressure to get folks finished so they have room for the later diners. So our dinners tend to be a more leisure type experience because we are happy to take our time, socialize, relax, and enjoy. While some cruisers seem to prefer a fast food experience (even in the MDR) we prefer dining...for at least 1 1/2 hours.

Hank

After probably 15 cruises, we are booked on a February cruise and find that fixed dining is already booked (8 months away!). So, we are faced with open dining. Are we going to find that on this 18-day cruise we will need to stand in lines waiting for a table? Also, we have enjoyed having the same table as our stewards rapidly learn our preferences and the thought of needing to have a different steward daily is not something we are looking forward to.

We booked our recent Bermuda cruise six or seven months out, requested a table for two for fixed early dining, and were put on a waitlist for that. Our cruise docs at time of travel had us confirmed for open dining. So on the first day, we went to the dining room to try to make reservations for open dining only to find out that we had in fact been assigned a table at the early fixed seating. We had a four-top with just the two of us. It was nice to have that extra room. Great stewards too.

Fixed, Late Seating for us and a table for Two unless travelling with Families and Friends! :)

After probably 15 cruises, we are booked on a February cruise and find that fixed dining is already booked (8 months away!). So, we are faced with open dining. Are we going to find that on this 18-day cruise we will need to stand in lines waiting for a table? Also, we have enjoyed having the same table as our stewards rapidly learn our preferences and the thought of needing to have a different steward daily is not something we are looking forward to.

We like open seating. You can go when ever you want to and are not tied down to a particular time. Also, if you have fixed dining and decide not to go you should let the dining room know. Who needs that headache? The larger the table you are willing to sit at, the less the wait in our experience.