Extremely slow MDR service-Freedom

[jimw]

We were on Freedom last week. The main dining room service was incredibly slow. Is this normal now? The first night I thought we might make the 7:30 pm comedy show--not even close--I think we met at the dining room at 6:30PM. Next night- we went earlier to dinner-about 6 and could not make the 8:30 comedy show. Some of the group were so pissed they did not return to the MDR. We spent nearly 3 hours doing dinner on multiple evenings. Waaay too slow. Next cruise I will make it clear we don't want to sit in the dining room for the evening...........................We shall see what, if anything; happens. We were Your Time diners and Platinum.

[Cruizinman]

Seems to be the normal these days, Welcome home and Platinum.

 

I loved the Freedom other than the MDR myself.

[nascargalinfla]

2-2.5 hours is normal as far as my cruises go, when on anytime that is. When on scheduled it has always been finished in time for the late show.

[ameliaw]

jim, sheri and I only made it to dinner the first two nights. we then opted for the buffet. I agree-way too long of a wait.

[YubaSutter]

The only time I've experienced a 2+ hour meal on a cruise ship, it's been in the steakhouse.

[coachj]

I was on the Freedom last week in the back of the main dining room and every meal was completed by 7:30ish. No problems at my table.

[MIZZ_K]

I was on The Freedom december 9-14 and had ATD I ate in th MDR 3 times and I never had a 2 1/2 hour dinner.

[kingoftheicedragons]

We haven't experienced any of the problems others seemed to have on any of our cruises with super long dinners. I would say dinner takes no longer than 2 hours. There have been times when we'll sit and talk with our table mates well after our meal, and at times we've been concerned with holding up the wait staff from getting the table turned over for the late seating, but that is our choice.

 

That being said, I did notice when we were on the Freedom a few years ago that service did seem slower than it had been on previous cruises. However, after a couple of nights, we learned that there was one large table to young, obnoxious cruisers that were being extremely demanding of the wait staff which was affecting their ability to give the best service to other tables.

[vols_159]

No way I'd be happy with a 2 hr dinner.. Never not even at home..

 

Ncl is about 45 to 50 minutes

[Tantra1]

So far on all of our cruises but one the dinner was served in a timely manner. All have been 7 day cruises. Strangely the one time it was extremely slow (on the Dream) was when we were seated at a table for 2. Even our desserts were the last served in the dining room. After a few days I finally spoke to the waiter and things improved. It happens once in a while.

 

Cheers!

[runner15km]

I was on the Freedom and had 6pm set time and only the 1st evening was the service slow.

 

I may be in the minority on this but my spouse and I like to converse, have a glass of wine and take our time at dinner. We still are able to attend the main show and late comedy show.

 

There is also the buffet if speed is a factor.

Edited December 19, 2013 by runner15km

[sjn911]

So far on all of our cruises but one the dinner was served in a timely manner. All have been 7 day cruises. Strangely the one time it was extremely slow (on the Dream) was when we were seated at a table for 2. Even our desserts were the last served in the dining room. After a few days I finally spoke to the waiter and things improved. It happens once in a while.

 

Cheers!

 

I agree...the problem is folks get so that they want vacations perfect in this respect because it is often a long earned event and still..life happens..I was not in a good enough frame of mind to get calm and do just what you did...on my poorer everything cruise in the Spirit over and Easter; and it was my fault for not getting it to a better place..took me a while to admit it to myself..and longer here...LOL.

 

This is what one needs to do. And I do think it can be more hit or miss the smaller the group..for me sometimes one..and with ATD. Oddly, when I was with a group of ATD's that was always better..they get to the people well when willing to mix it up and help out..Carnival is a more a group family and fun experience; than an individual service specialist that way.

 

Cheers back..Happy Holidays...

Edited December 19, 2013 by sjn911

[PCHENG]

Never had anything but prompt and speedy service when cruising with Carnival, even during elegant night. Maybe you just had a bad server, or maybe the server saw my 3 year old daughter and instantly realized that she needs to serve us quick or the baby may act up and start crying:D

[jandjtexas]

On my solo cruise I was in and out in under an hour each night. Loved the service!

[sjn911]

Never had anything but prompt and speedy service when cruising with Carnival, even during elegant night. Maybe you just had a bad server, or maybe the server saw my 3 year old daughter and instantly realized that she needs to serve us quick or the baby may act up and start crying:D

 

On my solo cruise I was in and out in under an hour each night. Loved the service!

 

J and J...( my folks were J and J and had the JJ Ranch...LOL...) Eating alone it was that good? That is good to hear...and recent?

 

I am glad this is both of your experiences.

[jandjtexas]

J and J...( my folks were J and J and had the JJ Ranch...LOL...) Eating alone it was that good? That is good to hear...and recent?

 

I am glad this is both of your experiences.

 

Mine was this past Halloween. I went to MDR 3 of the 4 nights and had the same great, fast service each time. Eating alone was fine for me, I like to people watch and also read my Nook. Although the service was so fast I didn't have much time to read! ( the J and J comes from our quad racing team, J and J Racing, for my son and nephew, both J's :) )

[PA Dutchman]

If you are on the 6:0O in the MDR, for the last 15 years, it takes around 1 and a half hrs. Some times we got out at 7:15 but the average is 1 and a half hr. Don't matter what ship. Some nights you are first to be served and some nights you are last.

[TwinPrincessMermaids]

OP, I wouldn't attempt early dining on the Dream then. The only way we had a prayer of seeing COmedy would be if we took our deserts to go. Which we did sometimes. We LOVE MDR, and its a highly of our trip. I'm not going on CCL again, and definitely not until they go back to 2 personal servers, not 3 chaotic and disorganized ones.

[steve819]

We were on the same Freedom cruise as the OP. Our experience was entirely different. We had early seating (6:00PM) in the Chic dining room upper level. Our wait team was one of the best that we have ever had in 17 Carnival cruises. They were observant, attentive and very efficient. The 3 team members operated like a well oiled machine. They addressed us by name, and anticipated our every need with hesitation. Bread plates never went empty, water glasses never went below half full, and after dinner coffee was brought automatically. We always expect to spend at least 1 1/2 hours for dinner, although this time we were done in about a hour most nights.

It all depends on your team waiters.

Steve

[Vanessa L]

We were on Freedom last week. The main dining room service was incredibly slow. Is this normal now? The first night I thought we might make the 7:30 pm comedy show--not even close--I think we met at the dining room at 6:30PM. Next night- we went earlier to dinner-about 6 and could not make the 8:30 comedy show. Some of the group were so pissed they did not return to the MDR. We spent nearly 3 hours doing dinner on multiple evenings. Waaay too slow. Next cruise I will make it clear we don't want to sit in the dining room for the evening...........................We shall see what, if anything; happens. We were Your Time diners and Platinum.

 

This is precisely why we did ATD one time only. Between having to wait 30-45 minutes to even get in the dining room, then insanely slow service. No thank you, we'll stay on scheduled dining and know exactly what time we'll be seated and the fact that we will always be out for the shows (if we want to go, but it's the principal of the thing, I want the choice). Exactly why I refuse to sail NCL and will never choose it again on any ship.

[jimw]

Thanks everyone. What a variety of experience--even in the same dining room at the same time. To be fair, we didn't ask for faster service. I will next time though! The comic we saw the last night was good--and so was the Ruben I had at the deli that night!!

[jimw]

jim, sheri and I only made it to dinner the first two nights. we then opted for the buffet. I agree-way too long of a wait.

 

My feeling is that we should NOT have to choose dining venues based on fast/slow! We mostly enjoy the MDR food. But, none of our group of 7 was willing to spend 3 hours there! I think they also need to open Tandoor, Fish and Chips, and Mongolian Wok in the evening in order to have an alternative to the MDR and buffet...........At least the Deli is open and has great sammiches. When they install Guys burgers and the Mexican place in May--there will be some decent options I hope!

[Midwestgal]

2011 Freedom cruise service was the worst....looks as its the same today.

Just off Liberty and MDR service was awesome.

[Florissouri]

We were on Freedom last week. The main dining room service was incredibly slow. Is this normal now? The first night I thought we might make the 7:30 pm comedy show--not even close--I think we met at the dining room at 6:30PM. Next night- we went earlier to dinner-about 6 and could not make the 8:30 comedy show. Some of the group were so pissed they did not return to the MDR. We spent nearly 3 hours doing dinner on multiple evenings. Waaay too slow. Next cruise I will make it clear we don't want to sit in the dining room for the evening...........................We shall see what, if anything; happens. We were Your Time diners and Platinum.

 

I was on your cruise and the 5 day sailing before that. I've spent half my life in restaurant management and I thought service was very slow as well...on both cruises. On the 1st cruise we sat at Melvin's table and he and his team were excruciatingly slow. I think the kitchen got caught with their pants down by running out of lobster, but I noticed Melvin doing piddling and diddling things when he should have been attending to his diners. It made me appreciate the buffet a lot more.

[bugeater2]

This is precisely why we did ATD one time only. Between having to wait 30-45 minutes to even get in the dining room, then insanely slow service. No thank you, we'll stay on scheduled dining and know exactly what time we'll be seated and the fact that we will always be out for the shows (if we want to go, but it's the principal of the thing, I want the choice). Exactly why I refuse to sail NCL and will never choose it again on any ship.

 

Let me get this straight. You won't sail on NCL because Carnival sucks at Anytime Dining.

 

That makes about as much sense as a handle on a snowball:cool: