All Dining times are waitlisted

[rmmm]

I was interested in the June 25 Maasdam Canada/NE cruise (Boston/Montreal) and for the past couple of weeks it has been showing up on the HAL website as well as on an online travel agent I checked as completely closed. I checked today and there are staterooms available. When I paged down to the dining times it says that all dining times are waitlisted. When I click on the seatings a message comes up stating that they are only taking requests, that they will not be providing dining times until you are onboard the ship. I have two questions, The first question concerns dining time. Is getting a particular seating a deal breaker for you? Would you wait for another cruise if you couldn't get the seating you want? Last year we took a Canada/NE cruise (Boston roundtrip) and we got the late seating for dinner and didn't enjoy it. We ate on the Lido each night after the first night because we were still in the dining room at 10:30 waiting for coffee. Question 2 is this- would you grab the cruise because you really wanted it and hope for your first choice in seating? Thanks. Rosemary

[Aussie Gal]

I would always choose the itinerary above the dining times though we do like late seating and now with the new dining times, the 8pm seating. As we would not be happy at all with 6pm seating we always book our cruises well in advance for us to get a) the cabin we want and b) the dining times.

 

You have to weigh up what you really want. If I chose this itinerary I would make the best of what we received in the way of times for dining and would enjoy my dinner and the table companions no matter what time it ended up. I would definitely hate to eat in the Lido every night as you did. To me that would ruin my cruise.

 

Jennie

[SueOverend]

We wouldn't cruise unless we could get late seating for dinner. Having to be ready at 5.30 would be hopeless for us and I don't know what we would then do after dinner. Personally, we would rather have more time ashore and on deck. Also the late afternoon slot in our cabin is very special to us - we usually spend about 4 hours until dinner, snoozing, sitting on the balcony and getting ready for dinner. We don't have a lot of interest in the entertainment on board and unfortunately my husband does not enjoy the casino, so we prefer to maximise our time this way instead.

 

My experience on cruising so far has shown that it is more difficult to get into the late seating - we have been waitlisted twice (and got in), so I think you will probably be OK with taking the risk. However, if it will ruin your cruise, don't take the risk.

 

Good luck with whatever you decide - you will have a fab time.

[sail7seas]

We would not go on a cruise if we were not sure of late seating. Everyone has to decide for themselves which facets of anything are the most important to them. You seem to be on the fence about how important it is to you so maybe it either would be okay. We are on the two cruises prior to yours and booked them many, many months ago.

 

[Time2sail]

We made our final payment yesterday and were allowed to choose our dining time at this point. Our table size will not be confirmed until we are on board but they did not think our request would be a problem. Because of our port times and the time change (four hours) on our usual dinner hour, we wanted early, upper dining slot. Our cruise is not until the last of May:)

[bepsf]

Although I much prefer a late seating, I've never been aboard a ship (in my limited experience) that did not have open tables for all seatings - folks will dine in the Pinnacle or at the Lido so there will always be open seats.

On my first cruise, we were confirmed for early seating as late was completely booked - and an announcement was made that requests to change from early to late would not be entertained - yet we had no problems waltzing to a vacant table for late seating on the second night and reserving it for the rest of the week.

If the Maitre'd can't/won't help you once you are aboard your ship - well, lets just say that I'm not above a little polite impromptu anarchy when it comes to commandeering a place to sit for dinner...

;)

[dakrewser]

lets just say that I'm not above a little polite impromptu anarchy ;)

 

I can see it now, Brian alongside Robespierre: "Excuse me your highness, would it be alright if we chopped off your head just now?" :rolleyes: