RCI to trial Open Dining on Freedom (MERGED)

Open Dining will available as option on Freedom sailings between Oct 7 and Dec 16 [excluding the Thanksgiving cruise on Nov 18].

Guests can dine anytime between 6 and 9.30p.

All guest in the booking must be on this dining option and every one must prepay their gratuities - as of course they will have different wait staff every night.

Open Dining will available as option on Freedom sailings between Oct 7 and Dec 16 [excluding the Thanksgiving cruise on Nov 18].

Guests can dine anytime between 6 and 9.30p.

All guest in the booking must be on this dining option and every one must prepay their gratuities - as of course they will have different wait staff every night.

NO NO NO!!!!! This will not be the same. Hope they not keep it, I like a set time, set table, same wait staff and dinning with the same pax every night. The service is not the same. Try that other line and you will see..

Open Dining will available as option on Freedom sailings between Oct 7 and Dec 16 [excluding the Thanksgiving cruise on Nov 18].

Guests can dine anytime between 6 and 9.30p.

All guest in the booking must be on this dining option and every one must prepay their gratuities - as of course they will have different wait staff every night.

Where did this come from?

Where did this come from?

This is what I would like to know. Can you imagine the noise and confusion in that beautiful dining room? I hope it's not true.

Count me in on those who would like to know the source.

I also hope it´s not true or goes really unsuccessful. Could well be a reason for me to look for other lines. :eek: :eek:

Open Dining will available as option on Freedom sailings between Oct 7 and Dec 16 [excluding the Thanksgiving cruise on Nov 18].

Guests can dine anytime between 6 and 9.30p.

All guest in the booking must be on this dining option and every one must prepay their gratuities - as of course they will have different wait staff every night.

If that's true, I'm very sorry to hear that. One of my biggest gripes with Princess is that there's always a tremendously long waitlist for traditional dining unless you book very early. In our experience even when you have confirmed early/late seating, you need to check it compulsively before your cruise. We were shocked on one trip to find ourselves in "Anytime" dining even though we had booked a year out and were confirmed for late traditional. We certainly weren't the only ones...we saw people in similar circumstances on our last three Princess cruises.

My DH and I are fans of traditional dining. I don't want to spend my cruise waiting for a table when I want to eat dinner...I can do that on land. I like getting to know a waitstaff and a group of people. Being forced to accept "Anytime" dining would probably keep me from reserving a cruise.

I vote a resounding NO for open, anytime dining. We tried it on the Grand Princess and found it to be akin to trying to go out for dinner in a large city on Saturday night with no reservations.

On Princess, you supposedly could make reservations, but they would only make them for larger parties. If there was just the two of you, you had to go to the dining room, stand in line, and it was first come first served.

Sometimes, there would just be the two of you at a table for 8, and once we were finishing our main course when they finally filled the rest of the table. Very confusing and not enjoyable for us. We far prefer fixed times, and tablemates.

Hypo

Source is RCI ! T/As being informed today.

It is purely a trial for a few weeks on one ship - one level of dining room will be set aside for Open Dining and the remaining two levels will be traditional seating.

Open Dining will available as option on Freedom sailings between Oct 7 and Dec 16 [excluding the Thanksgiving cruise on Nov 18].

Guests can dine anytime between 6 and 9.30p.

All guest in the booking must be on this dining option and every one must prepay their gratuities - as of course they will have different wait staff every night.

Source is RCI ! T/As being informed today.

 

It is purely a trial for a few weeks on one ship - one level of dining room will be set aside for Open Dining and the remaining two levels will be traditional seating.

What is it? "All guest in the booking" or "one level of dining room will be set aside for Open Dining and the remaining two levels will be traditional seating."

The information you give is different?!?!?

If they go with open seating, we'll be eating in the Windjammer and specialty restaurants exclusively. We absolutely hate sitting down with a group of strangers. That's one on the reasons we very rarely have breakfast or lunch in the diningroom.

Now, if this means we can be seated at a table for two :D without an excessive wait, we'll manage.

This is the worse news ever. The dummying down of the traditional cruise experience/atmosphere.

What is it? "All guest in the booking" or "one level of dining room will be set aside for Open Dining and the remaining two levels will be traditional seating."

 

The information you give is different?!?!?

:confused: :confused: I don´t see any discrepancy in the two posts???

One of the pleasure of crusing is to have the same wait staff everyday. They get to know you and your tastes. Also I do not want to wait for a table on vacation! I do that at home all the time. Hopefully it will not last! A big YUK to this decision

There are morning for breakfast that we want to be alone & have no trouble getting a table for 2. Same with lunch. Just ask & if they take to to a larger table, state TABLE FOR 2.

We also hear a rumor on Brilliance last April that RCCL may ax formal nights.

If they go with open seating, we'll be eating in the Windjammer and specialty restaurants exclusively. We absolutely hate sitting down with a group of strangers. That's one on the reasons we very rarely have breakfast or lunch in the diningroom.

 

Now, if this means we can be seated at a table for two :D without an excessive wait, we'll manage.

Source is RCI ! T/As being informed today.

 

It is purely a trial for a few weeks on one ship - one level of dining room will be set aside for Open Dining and the remaining two levels will be traditional seating.

Based on this information, then one-third of the people who have already booked their cruise for the week of Oct. 7 (us), will be forced into open seating, any time dining. We are only 13 days away from final payment date for the cruise on Oct. 7, and like many, I have already paid for our cruise in full, ordered wine, etc. Now I face the possibility of being forced into any time dining. Do we take our chances and hope for traditional dining (we are Diamond and should have priority on seating and choice, but we all know that being Diamond is not always a guarantee).

I almost pre-paid our tips for this cruise, but decided not to. According to the info from the OP, only people who prepay their tips will be allowed to use this new option. I wonder what percentage of people prepay their tips. They will likely be the ones placed into this new program.

If you prepaid your tips, do not want this dining option forced upon you, then I would be on the phone to your TA or RCCL later today, letting them know what your wishes are.

I kind of understand RCCL's testing this concept, as other lines do it (Princess and NCL), and many people say they like it. It's just not for us.

A better means to test this concept, would have been for RCCL to announce the planned testing period whenever they next open a ship for new bookings, rather than springing this on us 83 days from sailing.

Just my 2 cents.

Hypo

I certainly hope this does not go over. Open seating-dine anytime is why we do not go one Norwegian any longer. Absolutely hated it.

Traditional dining is one of the reasons we keep choosing RCCL. Thankfully, IF this trial is ligit, at least it will be over by the time we cruise on the Freedom. I seriously hope that this is just an error, but if not, I hope the feedback from the trail convinces RCCL to keep traditional dining as the standard. The Windjammer and the altrnative restaurants already give those passengers who like open dining plenty of opportunities to experience it on their cruise.

I've been on both lines and do not see what the stink is about.

If you want to eat with the same people and have the same wait staff for each evening meal, gather your group up and stake out your table and waiter on the first night of anytime dining. After that, reserve the table for the same group and waiter staff for the rest of the cruise. We have never had any trouble in achieving this arrangement. We even get to select our own table if we are quick enough on the first night.

Lets all who dont want to change e-mail RCI and tell them please dont

change to open seating!

Roy

I like a set time also.

We would so hate to see this type of dining, just not the TRUE cruise experience. We have had to endure ANYTIME Dining on Princess and really do not like it.

So many things about cruising have changed over the years, really would not be happy to add this to the list.

I fired off my E-mail to Crown & Anchor, we will see what they reply, if they reply anything.

Hypo

I think this would be terrible. People need to start to write to RCCL. I would never want this. This also would be a disadvantage to the waitstaff. We always tip extra at the end of the week for good service. If there were different waiters each night, then I doubt we would know who to tip extra. Also, the "test trial" will consist of people who want anytime dining so I feel the results on the survey will not be fair since people who don't want anytime dining will be not be in the "anytime" dining room.

However, If RCCL reserves 1 of the 3 dining rooms for anytime dining I would not be opposed to it. I just would never select this option, but it would be a way to keep "everyone" happy.

What is it? "All guest in the booking" or "one level of dining room will be set aside for Open Dining and the remaining two levels will be traditional seating."

 

The information you give is different?!?!?

No, it is not different.

If there are 4 people in a booking then all 4 must either select Open Dining or traditional dining.

Open dining is one one level of the dining room, traditioinal dining is on the remaining twol evels

It is purely a trial for one ship for a total of 7 sailings. The majority of the dining room space is left to traditional dining.

If cruisers have a choice of Traditional Dining vs. Open Seating, then it's not so bad and it becomes a personal preference. The problem I would have with it, is if it ends up the way it does on Princess. Traditional dining is sometimes waitlisted for BOTH seatings and you are either forced to accept Personal Choice Dining, or have to deal with the waitlist problem once onboard.