Early, late, or flexible dinner seating suggestions?

[toothfairygirl]

Hi All,

 

We have a group of 5 that will be on the Carnival Breeze this December and was wondering what dinner seating would be best if you want to see the shows? I am leaning toward the early seating but how does flexible seating work? Thanks for your help!

[firefly333]

The two singing and dancing shows are shown twice, so early or late has their time to go. The late dinner sees the show before dinner, and then after that it is reshown for early diners.

 

The shows with only one showing at at 10:30 so both can get to it.

 

The comedians and such, I catch on a hit or miss and they usually repeat during the week anyway .. I managed to see the same guy twice and he was repeating his jokes from his show earlier in the cruise... so I left. Jokes not as funny the 2nd time around.

[toothfairygirl]

Thanks Firefly,

 

That was really helpful!! I had no idea what times the shows were in relation to the dinner times. The best time would be 7 or 7:30, but I heard that is when most people want to eat and it can be quite a wait for open dining at that time, so I am thinking the early show might work best?

[jandjtexas]

I've only been on 1 cruise so far and used the My Time Dining. Worked great for us. Never had to be anywhere at a set time, didn't have to wait more than 10 minutes, 1 time, the rest of the time we were seated as soon as we walked in. And never missed the entertainment during dinner, whether it happened as soon as we went in or closer to the end of the meal. Had great service all around and chose it again for my next cruise. I don't see a benefit to a set time dining. :rolleyes:

[toothfairygirl]

I've only been on 1 cruise so far and used the My Time Dining. Worked great for us. Never had to be anywhere at a set time, didn't have to wait more than 10 minutes, 1 time, the rest of the time we were seated as soon as we walked in. And never missed the entertainment during dinner, whether it happened as soon as we went in or closer to the end of the meal. Had great service all around and chose it again for my next cruise. I don't see a benefit to a set time dining. :rolleyes:

 

Gosh, now I am leaning toward open seating! How many were in your group? I get what you are saying about flexibility though. I wonder how long a group of 5 would wait? Were you seated at a table with other passengers?

[firefly333]

Gosh, now I am leaning toward open seating! How many were in your group? I get what you are saying about flexibility though. I wonder how long a group of 5 would wait? Were you seated at a table with other passengers?

 

Anytime dining you can ask to be seated by yourselves .. traditional you just never know who you will be seated with or what size table you will have.

[toothfairygirl]

Anytime dining you can ask to be seated by yourselves .. traditional you just never know who you will be seated with or what size table you will have.

 

can we be asked to be seated with other passengers for open seating? or do people generally like to sit by themselves? Our group would like to mingle with other passengers.

[mrpayroll]

can we be asked to be seated with other passengers for open seating? or do people generally like to sit by themselves? Our group would like to mingle with other passengers.

 

You sure can. Just like at breakfast in the MDR.

[toothfairygirl]

You sure can. Just like at breakfast in the MDR.

 

That's great! Breakfast and lunch are open seating too?

[firefly333]

That's great! Breakfast and lunch are open seating too?

 

Yes.

 

Of course lunch is not served in the MDR on port days, but on sea days it is open seating.

[mizLORInj]

If you choose an assigned time, you can request large table in your reservation and will likely be seated with others.

[toothfairygirl]

Yes.

 

Of course lunch is not served in the MDR on port days, but on sea days it is open seating.

 

That is perfect! There will be lots of opportunity to socialize with other passengers so it might be nice to see the same group and waitstaff for dinner each night!

[bluenoser2]

We were 5 in our party when we were on the Dream last year, and after the first night of yourtime dining, the woman at the front desk just asked us, "would you like the same waiters and table?" and we said yes, because our kids had LOVED the waitstaff we had the first night. After that (we usually dined at the same time each night anyway) there was no question - as soon as they saw us, they said Hello to each of our kids by name, and led us to "our" table. We loved it.

[toothfairygirl]

We were 5 in our party when we were on the Dream last year, and after the first night of yourtime dining, the woman at the front desk just asked us, "would you like the same waiters and table?" and we said yes, because our kids had LOVED the waitstaff we had the first night. After that (we usually dined at the same time each night anyway) there was no question - as soon as they saw us, they said Hello to each of our kids by name, and led us to "our" table. We loved it.

 

That was exactly what I was wondering about anytime dining! If we could do that it would be perfect I think!!

What time did you usually dine? How long did you have to wait?

[toothfairygirl]

If you choose an assigned time, you can request large table in your reservation and will likely be seated with others.

 

How do you do that?

[crusinfamof4]

There are so many activities on board to do, as such, we prefer the anytime dining. That way, we can choose all of our day. Our first cruise, we had early dining and I wasn't a fan of it. This last time, we did anytime and it was perfect. We got to see the early comedy show, then the show in the theater, then back to the R rated comedy show. It was great!

[Roxxy4me]

Oh! I have a MTD question! I have never sailed CCL before, only HAL. On HAL if you chose flexible dining, you could call the day of and make a 'reservatin'. (kind of like Outback's call ahead seating). Does CCL do this also or do you just have to show up?

[sweetlissa]

Oh! I have a MTD question! I have never sailed CCL before, only HAL. On HAL if you chose flexible dining, you could call the day of and make a 'reservatin'. (kind of like Outback's call ahead seating). Does CCL do this also or do you just have to show up?

You just show up

[marshhawk]

You just show up. ATD= Anytime= is your time. When you want to go.:D

My question to you is this-are you a group, ie family, Mommy Daddy three kids, or are you a group of friends that will be off doing their own thing, and then hooking up later in the day, and then deciding every day when you want to eat? I know that the majority rules, but if you are all scattered all day, I would go with a planned set dining time. If you are a family that will spend all the time together, then no I would wing it, but if you are a family with kids that will be in Camp Carnival I would find out what time they do their dinner break and then set the dining time on that. I know you wanted a simple answer, but you have to think the whole thing out. All you said to us was a group of 5. Good luck and sail happy.:)

[toothfairygirl]

You just show up. ATD= Anytime= is your time. When you want to go.:D

 

My question to you is this-are you a group, ie family, Mommy Daddy three kids, or are you a group of friends that will be off doing their own thing, and then hooking up later in the day, and then deciding every day when you want to eat? I know that the majority rules, but if you are all scattered all day, I would go with a planned set dining time. If you are a family that will spend all the time together, then no I would wing it, but if you are a family with kids that will be in Camp Carnival I would find out what time they do their dinner break and then set the dining time on that. I know you wanted a simple answer, but you have to think the whole thing out. All you said to us was a group of 5. Good luck and sail happy.:)

 

We are 5 adults and we are family, but we will be doing our own thing during the day most likely and getting together for dinner and the show. I think you are right, a set dinner will work best and we want to go to a show after dinner so someone here told me that means we need the early seating.

 

Thanks to you and everyone for being so helpful!!!

[bluenoser2]

We usually dined around 5:30 or 6:00 I think - we liked dining early-ish and then still being able to decide between anything we wanted to do in the evening. We found the service to be really quick, so dinner didn't have to take a long time....but it could if we wanted to. Our waiters were so great - they knew just when my oldest DD would leave to go use the washroom (and with a smile, one would refill her glass of water....again) and that our other daughter would ALWAYS order french fries - "I'll have the fettucine" she'd say, and the waiter would reply...."and will we be having french fries with that?"...."yes." And that our son would be happy to help finish any "extra" dessert that found it's way to our table!

[toothfairygirl]

We usually dined around 5:30 or 6:00 I think - we liked dining early-ish and then still being able to decide between anything we wanted to do in the evening. We found the service to be really quick, so dinner didn't have to take a long time....but it could if we wanted to. Our waiters were so great - they knew just when my oldest DD would leave to go use the washroom (and with a smile, one would refill her glass of water....again) and that our other daughter would ALWAYS order french fries - "I'll have the fettucine" she'd say, and the waiter would reply...."and will we be having french fries with that?"...."yes." And that our son would be happy to help finish any "extra" dessert that found it's way to our table!

 

That sounds really nice! I hope our servers are that good!!

[Roxxy4me]

You just show up. ATD= Anytime= is your time. When you want to go.:D

 

I understand that.. But on HAL you could call the day of and say you wanted to eat that night at 7 and they would make a reservation so all you had to do was walk up. You picked what time you wanted to eat each day, but there was the added luxury of being able to call ahead to save the wait.

[critcatny]

We just tried ATD for the 1st time on our cruise last week. We loved it. 6 of 7 dinners we sat right down at a table for 2 which is what we wanted. Other night we had a 10 min wait only b/c we wanted a table for 2. We've had both late and early dinner seatings in the past and for various reasons think we'll stick with ATD in the future.

When you have a group that's apart during the day like you said, it is easiest to know you will all meet at the same table at the same time every evening. But I don't see why you can't set a time to meet outside the DR each night for ATD dining so that it can be adjusted if need be based on what everyone will be doing during the day.(say one port someone will be off the ship later than other days and maybe you could do dinner an hour later that day) With a set dining time, if you miss it, you have to eat elsewhere (buffet, pizza, deli, etc) That is the reason we don't like the early seating any more. Most times you have to be back on the boat like 4:30-5:30pm and for a 5:45 dinner, sometimes it's too much rushing to either get back to the ship earlier or to get ready for dinner.

[tanyaewa]

We chose the Flexible dining time. I think it would be good with long port days in Mexico But now we are 2 families so a table of 8. Will that be tough to sit?

Should we change to later dining or can we expect to get a big table easily?