Why did Celebrity do away Farewell Napkin Waving

[shipshape sam]

Actually, that would be really great. Let me see. Would I rather risk it mid cruise or on an airplane at 10k feet.

That's not why I don't like it. The real reason is that the MDR tends to take way too long as it is and anything that extends it is not for me.

 

I used to make sure I got my coffee before they headed off on the parade. :)

 

On one of our two Carnival cruises, they divided the MDR into Red, White and Blue sections and had a running competition during the week. Talk about a nightly waste of time.

 

You are right, dining in MDR used to take/does take a fair amount of time, but then it was also a social occasion vs just eating. We will miss the concept of having table mates for a full week/two weeks. We are also now part of the problem as we too eat at speciality restaurants because it is the food we used to get in the MDR.

[bananawindnj]

We sailed Eclipse February 15 and cruise Director Sue Denning had the dining room going wild with napkin waving to thank the dining room and galley teams

 

Ditto, on the March 15, Eclipse. To my dismay :-(

 

 

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[A Sixth?]

I used to make sure I got my coffee before they headed off on the parade. :)

 

On one of our two Carnival cruises, they divided the MDR into Red, White and Blue sections and had a running competition during the week. Talk about a nightly waste of time.

 

You are right, dining in MDR used to take/does take a fair amount of time, but then it was also a social occasion vs just eating. We will miss the concept of having table mates for a full week/two weeks. We are also now part of the problem as we too eat at speciality restaurants because it is the food we used to get in the MDR.

 

The word "dining" comes from my planet, and means have a relaxing and non-constipating meal... (it does lose a bit in the translation:p)

 

Where I come from, the longer dinner takes, the better it probably is.

 

 

Napkin waving is fun!

 

Edited April 19, 2015 by A Sixth?

[SuzanneA]

Napkin parade was alive and well on the Summit last week.

[varoo]

We sailed Eclipse February 15 and cruise Director Sue Denning had the dining room going wild with napkin waving to thank the dining room and galley teams

Well maybe they show appreciation differently where she lives, but most of us would not appreciate being thanked for doing a good job by having people wave their dirty napkins in the air.

 

Can't you see it now - going in for your annual review, being told what a great job you have done, and then being rewarded by having a bunch of people wave their dirty napkins at you. ;)

 

 

But once a year would be bad enough. No way would I want to put up with needing to endure that weekly.

 

Edited April 19, 2015 by varoo

[Jane2357]

We just got off Eclipse on 15 Mar. Plenty of napkin waving in MDR for last formal night

 

Yes, we were on the Eclipse b2b Mar.1st and 15th and we waved those napkins and hooted our wait staff like we were greeting the Pope!!!! It's just plain fun!

 

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I'm with you! FUN!!!! Tacky or not. There are a lot of things that I think are tacky - tattoos (don't have any), cotton candy (don't eat it) but that doesn't mean they aren't fun. The napkin waving is me letting go and saying with enthusiasm - "thank you, this was a blast." If you don't care for it - just don't participate. :p

Edited April 19, 2015 by Jane2357

[DiamondSuiteCruiser]

I liked the parade, but we never waved our napkins, I would clap and cheer, but twirling the napkins was so unsanitary, I never understood why people would do that after eating.:confused::eek:

Edited April 20, 2015 by DiamondSuiteCruiser

[Tiggertastic]

They did it on all 3 of our cruises last year so when did it stop?

[Christine Frances]

They did it on all 3 of our cruises last year so when did it stop?

 

We never had it on our 28 day Asia cruise on the Millie (Jan/14) or the TA in Oct on Equinox! Phew

[chamima]

I think the problem might be that it's only in Traditional Fixed-seating dining.

It can't be done in Select because everyone is finishing their meal at a different time.

Same reason it's not done in Blu (and we miss it! :( )

[7leagueboots]

While there are many things I would like to see Celebrity bring back. I actually am glad they did away with it.

 

Agreed!

[Christine Frances]

I think the problem might be that it's only in Traditional Fixed-seating dining.

It can't be done in Select because everyone is finishing their meal at a different time.

Same reason it's not done in Blu (and we miss it! :( )

 

We always have early seating.

[drfun48]

I liked the parade, but we never waved our napkins, I would clap and cheer, but twirling the napkins was so unsanitary, I never understood why people would do that after eating.:confused::eek:

 

Doesn't clapping shed dead skin from the hands and launch it into the air ?And cheering ,think about the oral microbes being expelled.

I'm fearful that both do permanent irreversible damage to the ear drums.

It's a downright dangerous world in which we live.

 

 

I suggest that Celebrity provide us with a virgin second set of twirling napkins to keep us healthy and safe. Better yet,

I may never cruise again in favor of staying in my bubble.

[donaldsc]

I have never cruised Celebrity (will be doing so in few weeks) so let me get this straight. At the end of dinner, all the people in the dining room are supposed to get up and parade around the room with the waitstaff and cooks waving their dirty used napkins in the air. Do I have it right? Sounds incredibly stupid to me.

 

How about pretending that we are Greek instead. We all get up and throw our dirty dishes against the bulkhead although the Greeks do use clean dishes. Now that would be fun.

 

DON

[Lois R]

I have never cruised Celebrity (will be doing so in few weeks) so let me get this straight. At the end of dinner, all the people in the dining room are supposed to get up and parade around the room with the waitstaff and cooks waving their dirty used napkins in the air. Do I have it right? Sounds incredibly stupid to me.

 

How about pretending that we are Greek instead. We all get up and throw our dirty dishes against the bulkhead although the Greeks do use clean dishes. Now that would be fun.

 

DON

 

Nope, you don't have it correctly.....it was the wait staff that went

around the dining room, not the passengers. The passengers stay

at their tables.

[ClaudiaB]

Don, no on the last formal night the kitchen staff and food dept. and all the waiters come down the staircase and parade through the tables in the dining room, and it used to be with Baked Alaska in their hands. Guests would sit at their tables and twirl napkins in the air. Guests stay seated (or some would stand and hoot and holler I guess??!) but they don't parade around. (thank goodness)

I thought it was the cheesiest thing ever, never did it. We don't eat in the MDR anymore so not sure if it's still on, but sounds like it isn't.

[Northern Aurora]

I have never cruised Celebrity (will be doing so in few weeks) so let me get this straight. At the end of dinner, all the people in the dining room are supposed to get up and parade around the room with the waitstaff and cooks waving their dirty used napkins in the air. Do I have it right? Sounds incredibly stupid to me.

 

How about pretending that we are Greek instead. We all get up and throw our dirty dishes against the bulkhead although the Greeks do use clean dishes. Now that would be fun.

 

DON

 

Don: The napkin waving is/was on the last formal night only. Celebrity is not the only line that has done this and I remember reading somewhere that this tradition originated on the ocean liners in the early 1900s.

 

We now book Aqua only, and thank goodness this tradition isn't done in Blu. It was funny the first few times, but after twenty plus cruises the novelty wore off some time ago.

[bruce925]

It's because of reminding one of the food fight in Animal House that we should have the napkin extravaganza,great movie,classic scene. Maybe we should start a food fight in replacement of the waving. Nothing wrong with being a little silly once in a while.

It's ironic that the increasingly large number of cruisers who refuse to dress up on formal nights object to a bit of fun.

I think it's more a function of increasing fuddy-duddiness as the cruise population on Celebrity becomes the "Depends" generation of cruisers.

To let a napkin swirl for two minutes on one night of a cruise draw such ire is in itself enough to make me laugh out loud, and for that I thank you ,you old sticks in the mud.

 

Perhaps many have been on enough cruises and have gotten sick to the point where we tried to figure out why. We travel with a very large group. Over half of us routinely get sick, cruise "crud", you know if you have cruised you caught this, too, yet we don't "think" twirling napkins could be harmful in any way....even though many have wiped their boogers into them, wiped away food, spat out non-edible pieces of food, etc, into these napkins. Why not, as someone else suggested, do the celebrating BEFORE food is being served. Often some tables serving is later than others, time after time again I have seen people doing their little napkin twirling while others close by are still eating.

 

No surprise so many get sick. Sometimes they say "oh its just norovirus" and they try to decontaminate the entire ship. Try checking the dining room. If the CDC ever saw this they would condemn the practice.

 

But it goes hand in hand with the cruise lines all ignoring the proven facts that second hand smoke kills people. Hey, I like having fun cruising and with my group, but people need to wise up as should the cruise lines.

[WpgCruise]

This thread is from last April

 

We haven't seen the napkin waving for at least 18 months, truth to be told closer to two years.

 

I don't think you need worry about cruise crud from this source.

[lysolqn]

Count me in with those who don't miss the baked-Alaska-napkin-waiving-hoot-and-holler-meet-the-chefs-next-to-the-last-night event.

[ReneeFLL]

I call BS as a health reason for it being discontinued. All they have to do is us clean napkins. So are people here saying they would use napkins from passengers that were already used? That is pretty stupid imo.

 

I remember seeing it a few times, but I don 't miss it. I always thought it just added unnecessary work to the already overworked staff. It was also just time consuming.

[keithm]

One thing I really used to enjoy at the end of the cruise was the parade of chefs, the clapping, the napkin waving, the dancing with the waiters and a general good feeling for the end of a great cruise.

 

Last year, we noticed there was nothing going on in the MDR. We had new virgin cruisers with us and I know they would have loved this and given it a special ending to their holiday. So why did they stop this, surely not from listening to a few moaners? After all from the noise everyone used to make and the way everyone joined in, it seems the majority loved it.

Personally, I always felt it was a corny gesture. Some of the staff got into it, others, not so much. It was really evident on our Feb. Regal Princess cruise. I much prefer handing the staff an envelope with some $$ & a good handshake for a job well done on our last night!

[keithm]

I have never cruised Celebrity (will be doing so in few weeks) so let me get this straight. At the end of dinner, all the people in the dining room are supposed to get up and parade around the room with the waitstaff and cooks waving their dirty used napkins in the air. Do I have it right? Sounds incredibly stupid to me.

 

How about pretending that we are Greek instead. We all get up and throw our dirty dishes against the bulkhead although the Greeks do use clean dishes. Now that would be fun.

 

DON

No, Don, the pax stay seated. I'd had to see a Conga line of over 800 pax sashaying about the dining room. The waving of dirty napkins doesn't sound too appealing to us. We usually clapped, but that was it, well, except for additional gratuities in envelopes, which is at the discretion of each pax.

[keithm]

Count me in with those who don't miss the baked-Alaska-napkin-waiving-hoot-and-holler-meet-the-chefs-next-to-the-last-night event.

If you've never had "Baked Alaska" done individually, then you've missed a really great dessert. The ones served on ships are really lame.

[Karynanne]

If you've never had "Baked Alaska" done individually, then you've missed a really great dessert. The ones served on ships are really lame.

 

 

The Baked Alaska in Luminae is delicious. Beautifully done.

 

 

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