Would we get better service in the dining room earlier?

[savannah2117]

We are planning on eating our meals in the main dining room on the Getaway. I've heard posts about poor wait staff and slow service. I was thinking perhaps that if we were towards the beginning of being seated at 530pm and asked for the same wait staff, we might have improved service?

 

Also, there will be 5 in our family. Do they have tables for 5 or will be likely be seated with others?

 

One last question, i've also read that the noise level can be loud, is this because of the music and dancing? Can a person have a conversation?

 

We are super excited about our cruise,...unfortunately I've read quite of few negative reviews. I realize food is a personal opinion type of thing, but if we can do a few "planning" things to insure a great trip, i'd like to try.

 

We are really very pleasant, happy and grateful people, i honestly just can't imagine not liking our wait staff or having serious complaints.

[tlreze]

We are planning on eating our meals in the main dining room on the Getaway. I've heard posts about poor wait staff and slow service. I was thinking perhaps that if we were towards the beginning of being seated at 530pm and asked for the same wait staff, we might have improved service?

 

Also, there will be 5 in our family. Do they have tables for 5 or will be likely be seated with others?

 

One last question, i've also read that the noise level can be loud, is this because of the music and dancing? Can a person have a conversation?

 

We are super excited about our cruise,...unfortunately I've read quite of few negative reviews. I realize food is a personal opinion type of thing, but if we can do a few "planning" things to insure a great trip, i'd like to try.

 

We are really very pleasant, happy and grateful people, i honestly just can't imagine not liking our wait staff or having serious complaints.

 

We always eat early and get great service before it is crowded

[Kingofwylietx]

I'm sure you'll have a great time. Remember, this is the internet, it's where people come to complaint. It's pretty rare that you get folks dropping in to say everything was fine. Many come here to vent. Even with all the people here, it's probaby .1% of the cruisers.....so a ship with 2500 pax, that would be 25 from CC. My point is.....just prepare to have a good time.

[LrgPizza]

It sucks that you are heading in expecting bad service based on a handful of posts from strangers on a message board.

[Kingofwylietx]

I completely forgot to answer your other questions.

 

The MDRs are large, open dining areas with lots of people. They get loud/lively due to everyone talking, imagine a large family restaurant. We've never experienced any MDR that was so loud that we couldn't carry on a conversation.

 

You should have your own table. There is no reason for them to seat you with anyone else unless you request it.

 

If you read forums too much (for anything, not just cruising), you'll think the world is coming to an end and that everything is going to heck. It's not. Life is good. Enjoy your cruise. I say this because you seem genuinely concerned. If you carry this hyper-vigilance onto your cruise, you will notice anything that isn't perfect and lessen the enjoyment of your vacation. Put down the iPad and slowly step away from it. :D

[MC40528]

Just off Getaway 3/14-3/21. We didn't have UDP, so we "enjoyed" eating in either Taste or Savor, 5 of 7 Nights. We headed to dinner between 5:30 - 6:15ish depending on what our evening entertainment was, usually closer to 5:45-6:00. We waited at most 2 mins to be seated, and most times was immediately seated. The food and service was just fine, no need to worry. I just think some people have extremely high expectations that are completely unrealistic. The reality is they are serving thousands of people. Sure there are hits and misses with what you order, but it's not like you are going to starve to death. People are just plain silly if they are going to let a meal ruin their vacation. I'm just grateful to have someone else fix and cleanup a meal so I can take a break from my everyday life. Dining usually took 1hr to 1hr15 min. I was amazed watching how hard the staff works to keep the food coming, it's not like they are standing around doing nothing. They were always coming and going, serving food, clearing dishes, and refilling our water glass. My observation was that they try to "group" a few table's orders together, to reduce the number of "food runs" they have to go on, this may cause some delay if the adjoining table eats slower than you do.

 

Didn't notice the noise being a problem. Most land chain restaurants are much noisier from my perspective. There were many empty tables if you dine during 5:30 - 6:30.

 

We were a party of 3 and we were always seated at a table for 4, with one place cleared off. It'll just be your group(no strangers), likely seated at a table for 6.

 

We had the same head waiter 2 of 5 nights. She even remembered us. There was only 1 waiter than was not "overly friendly and outgoing", but that doesn't mean the service was any worse that evening.

 

Just have a reasonable expectation, go the first hour they are open and I'm sure you'll have a great time.

[newmexicoNita]

As some have said, the internet brings out the complainers. How many get on the net just to say they had a great time? Most of us expect to have a good time, so we only post when things go worng.

 

We have been cruising NCL since the beginning of freestyle (or even before) We have cruised other lines as well. In the beginning freestyle did result in some longer waits than most would be happy with, but overall, those days are long gone. Yes, we have waited both early and late a few times, and yes, we have had some below par service, but no more than any cruise line. Normally we have been happy or very happy with our servers.

 

Yes, you can sit alone if you want. Infact we have sometimes asked to sit with another couple just to get to know more people. When we don't ask, we are often seated at a table for 2.

[savannah2117]

thanks for the feedback. We tend to want to eat earlier, anyways.

 

We are really excited about taking this family vacation and like many of you said, we expect to have a great time and just because they don't have a specific request, (may a ceasar salad or something) it's no big deal to us. We chose to invite our 3 kids to come along and that, of course, over doubled the price so we are not planning on spending extra money on speciality dining or a larger cabin. We figure we can splurge in a few years when it is just the two of us.

 

I'm not stressed about poor service because we basically like everybody. :) and have quite a few meals at home that are cereal or peanut butter toast.

This is living it up for us!!

[savannah2117]

MC40528--

thank you for the feedback on the dining rooms. I'm curious why you went to both dining rooms. Is it nice to have the variety? I thought I read somewhere that the food was identical in all three .

 

p.s. how was the coffee? I remember coffee being less than great on both Princess and Carnival.

[Kingofwylietx]

Then you'll have a great time!

[MC40528]

We alternated between Taste and Savor just to mix things up. That being said, the layout is essentially the same. The menus are the same each night. Slight differences in color schemes. We never went to Tropicana, as we didn't want to get dressed up, we were happy with our jeans and capris.

 

I can't comment on the coffee, as we don't drink coffee. Sorry.

[Kingofwylietx]

MC40528--

 

p.s. how was the coffee? I remember coffee being less than great on both Princess and Carnival.

 

 

Here is a thread I started about coffee. It's worth a read, because there were a lot of great responses, tips, and ideas.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=45771056

[luvtheships]

They do not seat you with others

 

 

We have always had excellent service between 5:30 and 5:45 seating.

 

I think it's crazy to go at 8:00 anyway because you miss the evening fun in the ship if you do. Plus we are in the cabin by 11 anyway

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[savannah2117]

i agree, we want to enjoy the evening activities and we tend to go to bed early. Besides, our tummy's are used to eating at 6pm Nebraska time so we will probably be ready for dinner no later than 6pm.

 

We are getting so excited about this vacation. :):)

 

p.s. I'll check out the coffee thread. Can't beat the combination of coffee and an ocean view.:D