Traditional Dining - Does 8 Mean 8?

[Hate 2 W8t]

I have selected the traditional dining choice on the Sun for the 8 pm seating. On one of our days, we have a late excursion that is supposed to return us at 8 pm. The ship leaves at 8:30, so I doubt we would be later than the scheduled return time. If we walk into the dining room at 8:15, will we be turned away? Will they give our table away? :confused:

[Nliedel]

Just let your waiter know the night before that if you are not there to start without you. Many wait people are instructed to not take orders until the entire table has arrived. Which could make your tablemates grumpy. As a general rule 8 does indeed mean 8.

[SPI_Rick]

Yes, 8 means 8....but no they won't give your table away. There will just be 2 empty chairs at the table. If you show up at 8:15 you will still be seated....but your table mates may already be finished with their appetizers when you get there.

 

As Nliedel mentioned, if you know there is a good chance you will be late (or a no show) for dinner, let the wait staff or your table mates know the day before so they don't delay their dinner waiting on you to show up. For the same reason you should also let them know if you schedule a meal at one of the alternate dining venues.

[cactusrose]

I've found that they usually open the doors at 8:00 so many are not even seated until 8:15. Just let your waiter know that you may be a few minutes late that evening. Believe me, they are happy to accommodate anyone who is courteous and lets them know.

[BJS]

I have selected the traditional dining choice on the Sun for the 8 pm seating. On one of our days, we have a late excursion that is supposed to return us at 8 pm. The ship leaves at 8:30, so I doubt we would be later than the scheduled return time. If we walk into the dining room at 8:15, will we be turned away? Will they give our table away? :confused:

Don't worry about arriving late for your dinner seating. The ship deals with this all of the time. We have been on cruises where there has even been an adjustment for the seating times to accomodate shore excursions. If we know we will be late we always tell our wait staff.

[rkacruiser]

The advice to let your table mates and wait staff know that you may be late arriving is sound. But, try not to arrive really late. During my Star Princess cruise, a group assigned to a large table, that was served by my wait staff, regularly arrived late--once almost 35 minutes after the seating had begun. This puts undue stress on the wait staff and is not fair to them. Because Alex and Richard were as professional as they are, my table's service did not suffer because of this inconsiderate group. For a more inexperienced wait staff, however, there could have been a "spill-over" effect on us.

[catdancers]

On our last cruise, two couples often arrived 20-30 minutes late each night. The waiters waited on them to start which meant we had to wait and missed various shows and cut down on our dancing time. It was irritating and we wish the two couples would have been more courteous.

[Islandbuoy]

Just plan on eating on the lido deck that nite--avoid rushing , and does'nt hold up your table mates!

[mii]

On our last cruise, two couples often arrived 20-30 minutes late each night. The waiters waited on them to start which meant we had to wait and missed various shows and cut down on our dancing time. It was irritating and we wish the two couples would have been more courteous.

 

The exact same thing has happened to us in the past. Very aggravating. What my DH and I at the very first night we tell our tablemates and wait staff that if we are not there at the designated time to just go ahead and start without us. We may have decided to go to the buffet, eat at the speciality restaurant, or late from an excursion. It is the polite thing to do and it is only fair to th our tablemates and especially our wait staff.

 

marilyn

[Pam in CA]

I'm sure your "lateness" is going to be a one-time thing due to a late-arriving tour so you're not being inconsiderate. As the others have said, let your waitstaff and tablemates know ahead of time so they can start ordering.

 

Often, if the ship is in port during the evening and ship excursions are going to arrive after the start of the normal dinner seatings, the seating times will be adjusted by 15 to 30 minutes. This is not at all unusual. Something else to consider is that ship excursion times are pretty conservative which means that the latest you'll arrive back at the ship is 8PM.

 

If you are taking an independent tour and plan to arrive back at 8PM, don't. The ship starts preparing to leave at least a half hour before actual departure and everyone is supposed to be onboard by then. If there's any kind of delay in your tour, you'll hold everything up or even possibly miss the ship. Not something you'd want to do. They will wait for a Princess tour but not independent tours. Just a forewarning.

[Hate 2 W8t]

Many thanks for the advice. If there is anything I try to be, it is courteous. Something the world seems to be lacking in recently. :(

 

Pam - My excursion is through Princess. Thanks for the info about the return times. I had been wondering but had not yet asked. It's good to know that the time listed is targeted to be the "long" end of the range. I dislike feeling rushed, and am very consciuos about being late. :D

[Tandy22]

We also had the experience of 1 couple arriving for dinner 20+ min. late. On 3rd night we all stood up and applauded when they came in. Had to repeat this the 4th night. They were on time the next 6 nights.

[Cruisin' Chick]

"On our last cruise, two couples often arrived 20-30 minutes late each night. The waiters waited on them to start which meant we had to wait and missed various shows and cut down on our dancing time. It was irritating and we wish the two couples would have been more courteous."

Maybe the thing to do with late arriving types is on the second occasion take the waiter aside and suggest these people are late and we're hungry so maybe we can start our dinner. Then if these people finally show up, and are ticked off, just tell them you needed to start because you wanted to go to the show, pick up kids (we have that excuse as the kids zone closes at 10), whatever. But I would guess, they probably won't even be pissed, maybe not even notice that others have started their dinner without them.