Early, late or free style dining

[jujuyou]

I'm not sure what option to pick. We picked the late dinner in the past option and really liked it. However, we haven't tried the other options. Just looking for some input of what others choose and why

[CruiserBruce]

If you like late seating, go for it.

 

It's all personal preference. When do you eat at home?

[Cruisin' Chick]

The one time we couldn't get late traditional (we didn't clear the waitlist), we had anytime and didn't care for it at all. We were so glad to get it back on our next cruise.

[trev71]

I prefer the 6pm dining. I normally eat at home around 530-545pm. so 6pm early dining for me is like eating at 7pm. There is no way i could do early. I guess it depends on your time zone.

[cb at sea]

We like late dining, as we eat later at home. And, we LOVE having table mates. With the "free style" thing, you are likely to eat alone....how boring is that? How boring are the "eat alone" folks? Really! Sorry if I offended anyone, but it's true...enjoy your fellow cruisers! Everyone is there for a good time!

[davekathy]

Early Traditional table for two.

[LocoLoco1]

Jujuyou, We finally settled on this: Open Dining but we arrive at the same time nearly every evening unless a late shore excursion prevents it. We somehow find like-minded fellow passengers who have often joined us for the rest of the cruise because THEY like the idea as well. Locomotiveman

[vacationmommy]

We like the late so we do not feel rushed to eat each meal at a early time we like to sleep in so we eat later in the morning and afternoon

 

Sent from my SM-N910V using Forums mobile app

[LHT28]

open dining for us

we can then eat early or later whenever we feel hungry

We only eat alone when we choose to do so otherwise we share a table with others

 

some lines do open dining better than others ;)

 

We had late dining assigned on our HAL cruise ..never saw the dining room ONCE

 

 

It is a personal choice

[geoherb]

My preference is for late seating. We've had anytime dining a couple of times. The last time was for a short 4-day cruise. We had a bunch of on-board credit and decided to use part of it to try the specialty restaurants. The one time we had anytime dining before that cruise, we ended up going late. Our preference is for a large table with others. But since we went late, we ended up eating by ourselves every night. No one else arriving late was requesting to share a table.

[dioxide45]

We have never done early traditional and prefer free style dining. Though we have also done late traditional. While we eat early at home, we prefer eating later on a cruise so we aren't rushed after getting back from a day in port to get cleaned up and ready to go to the MDR.

[griffy116]

We did early traditional for many years because we had small children in our family going on the cruise with us. The only small child that still cruises with us is now 21 and is carrying a friend. They have their own excursions and plans during the day but will be joining us for dinner so we chose late dining. We know they won't be getting up early and they will be staying in the ports until later than we will. We don't want them to have to rush back to the ship to clean up for dinner. We will have to have a few appetizers in the Diamond lounge or stroll through the WJ and find something small to keep us from chewing someone's arm off because 8:30 dinner sounds late to us. This will be a new experience but we think it will be fun to try something new.

[Nebr.cruiser]

We always used to do early traditional but now love the Anytime dining option, or, if not available, late. It's so much more relaxing not to have to rush and get ready for an early dinner.

 

For Anytime, we normally don't reserve our time, depending on the evening schedule, just show up when we want. We rarely have a wait. Sometimes we eat with others, sometimes we like a table for two, but being able to eat on our schedule is such an improvement.

[Scrapnana]

I eat early at home but prefer late dining onboard. If it is a port day I don't have to rush to make dinner. I can attend sail-aways before dinnertime. On my last cruise I had the closest Cunard has to "anytime dining" and I still showed up every night at about the same time as late sitting in the regular dining room.

[Krazy Kruizers]

At home we have dinner between 5:30 and 6.

Therefore on the ships we like early dining -- fixed .

[Bonnie J.]

WE haven't liked NCL because all they have is 'Free style' dining. We eat around 7 at home but 8:15 is no problem for us. Sometimes I go to the buffet when they open and get cheese chunks and saltines. Then we eat that with a cocktail before dinner. We want the same waiter who knows my husband wants milk each night and meeting other passengers who we see each night. We met our cruise buddies, who live in Flint MI, as tablemates in 2006. We have cruised together every year since then and they have driven from Flint to our house on the NC coast three times. Then we drive to the ship together. We'd never get to know others at Freestyle dining and we have to tell the waiter I want tea, he wants milk every night. etc. Once, on NCL, we had to wait 40 minutes to get a table, twice we said we wanted to share and were given a table for 2 and have been given a beeper. We want to know when we will eat, not wait to be seated!

With an 8:15 dinner we never feel rushed to dress for dinner and have time to take a nap in late afternoon too.

Edited February 17, 2015 by Bonnie J.

[jujuyou]

Thanks for your input

[Slugsta]

We eat quite early at home and first opted for early fixed dining. However, I prefer to take my time getting back from port and getting ready for dinner and prefer not to be in formal wear as people are still arriving back in their casual stuff. Late fixed is fine but anytime suits us very well, we rarely have to wait and have always shared the table with others.

[navybankerteacher]

We usually eat at about 7:00 at home - so early - anytime 5:45 (HAL) to 6:30 (Cunard) works for us. When you are on a ship - particularly one or more time zones away from home - it is easy to tell your stomach the time you want it to be. We always request large table, traditional. -- it's just the two of us most nights at home, so why not change things - and enjoy the opportunity to interact with a group at dinner for a week of two? We have always had at least one really enjoyable couple - usually more - once it was having requesting a change after the first night when we were with three French Canadian couples who were incompatible.

[Beachdude]

We like late dining, as we eat later at home. And, we LOVE having table mates. With the "free style" thing, you are likely to eat alone....how boring is that? How boring are the "eat alone" folks? Really! Sorry if I offended anyone, ..

 

Too late!

 

You just couldn't leave it at "we like to eat later at home". You had to take the low road and assume everyone should be like you. Sheesh.

 

We like the fexibility of later dining.

 

Burt

Edited February 17, 2015 by Beachdude

[Warm Breezes]

Going with 2-6 people then freestyle. We prefer the flexibility to eat when and with whom we want. 7 + people we would choose early. As a diabetic the late dining is too late for my schedule.

[Friend100]

We eat early at home, but in a cruise vacation, we prefer late dining ... it is just that the schedule throughout the early part of the day is more spread out and less rush.

 

We haven't tried MyTime/Anytime/Open Dining so no comment there.

 

Have an NCL cruise planned for next year to do the true freestyle so will see if we like it more or not.

[simplelife]

We like fixed dining. On a cruise, I like to simplify - just show up and be seated - having to make reservations or stand in line is stressful for me. We like having consistent wait staff and tablemates, We have done both late and early - We have found that late is TOO late for us (at home we usually eat between 5:30 and 6:30) So early fixed our choice, If we can't get that, we do late fixed.

[vacation luvver]

We like having consistent wait staff

So many people keep saying that, and it doesn't matter at all to me. When I'm home, and someone suggests going to a restaurant, I never say, "I'll go there only if I can get the same waiter we had last time." If having different waiters at home doesn't bother me, then it certainly doesn't bother me to have different waiters on a cruise.

 

My traveling companion and I prefer anytime dining, because most of the time, all we have is the entree - no salad, soup, or appetizer - and we would not enjoy sitting around and waiting for our dining companions to finish their salads, soups, and appetizers before we were served. We like to have our entrees and then leave. Also, we would not like to sit around and wait and wait for latecomers to arrive. How long do waiters wait for latecomers to arrive before giving up on them and starting to serve the people who showed up on time?

 

I don't mean to imply that latecomers are necessarily rude. There can be very good reasons for people not to show up on time for fixed dining. My traveling companion and I have been on two ship's excursions that ran so late that when we finally got back to the ship, the ship was supposed to have set sail hours earlier, and the dining room was closed.

[Azure Moon]

Freestyle (on NCL ships) is our preference for many reasons:

1. We can choose between two main dining rooms, depending on how we want to dress at that time (shorts acceptable at the less formal one), or the setting we want at that time (traditional or more modern), etc.

2. We can choose what time we want to dine. No need to go to a predetermined time (early or late) if we find we're not hungry then, or we can go earlier if we find we are hungry and can't or don't want to wait for a late dinner time.

3. It's easier to change plans because there isn't any fuss necessary with telling others we won't be at dinner (no staff to notify, tablemates to explain anything to, no holding up their dinner service). We can decide last minute if we would rather go to a specialty restaurant instead of eating in the main dining room.

4. It gives us freedom:

- to take a nap after getting back to the ship, rather than rushing to get ready for early dining time

- or get back to the ship later than we would if we had a (set) early dining time

- or if we stumble upon something of interest going on around the ship, we can stay and watch/see/do that rather than miss it because of a dinner time we may or may not be ready for.

5. Sometimes a late dinner time interferes with activities we want to attend.

6. We can choose with whom we want to dine with:

- By ourselves

- Ask if there are other diners looking for companions or have the staff let others know we are looking for companions

- We can dine with people we've met through roll-call, on excursions, or with people we've met onboard (during trivia, for example).

7. We get to meet more personnel because our servers vary from day to day and venue to venue. So if we have less than the best service one day, it's not likely to repeat the next. And a day of good service could become terrific service the next.

8. Table location can vary. Not stuck with a less than good location for a whole cruise, can have a fantastic location occasionally - or for a whole cruise :).

 

But if we're on a cruise line with the choices of early, late, or anytime/my time/whatever, then anytime/mytime/whatever would be our choice.

 

Edited February 18, 2015 by Azure Moon