Private dining room on Allure?

[DiamondDiva23]

I thought I saw a room on Deck 5 or 7 when I was on the Allure in June. We were going down the stairs quickly but I thought I glimpsed some people in a private dining room. It might've had a name above the door too. Anyone know what this is?

[DonnaK]

We booked early traditional dining, and were assigned to a small dining room on deck 4. The entrance is off to the side of the main dining room, and the room is very long and narrow. If you look on the deck plan for Allure, this area is labeled "Private Dining", but it was more utilize as an overflow dining room.

 

Although our table was along the windows, we hated not being in the main dining room. Service was very poor in this area (the worst we had on any RCI ship - slow, awkward, and the assistant waiter was very lazy and didn't work well with the waiter), and I suspect that it might be a training area for new waiters (or a place where they banish subpar waiters). Several people asked to be reassigned to the MDR, and even switched to late seating or to MTD to be able to move out of this dining area. Some people were very loud and vocal about how being assigned to this area was not acceptable, and one couple stormed out of the dining room.

 

We spoke to the Head Waiter, but really, all that did was make things very awkward, as the waiter became very nervous and stressed around us for the remainder of the cruise (she was very afraid that we were going to give her a bad rating).

 

They swapped out the assistant waiter, but the second one wasn't much better. They also did extra things like have a cheese platter or crudité platter on the table when we arrived, and gave us complementary specialty coffees at dessert-time. The Head Waiter's explanation was that the waiters had to walk twice as far to get to the galley, and that their prep stations was not as close to their tables, as it is in the MDR.

 

In retrospect, we should have insisted to be moved, especially since we eat in the MDR every night. But, we ended up feeling sorry for the waiter - we could see that she was struggling. So, we decided to enjoy our window table, and go with the flow.

 

However, we will never accept a dining assignment in one of these side rooms again.

Edited July 16, 2014 by DonnaK

[setsail]

http://www.royalcaribbean.com/findacruise/ships/ship/decks/deck/home.do?shipCode=AL

[steveru621]

Many ships have a private dining area for corporate and group functions.