Time I need to be at MDR for dinner.

[notentirelynormal]

I'll give you the other end of the spectrum and why some on this thread have pointed out about being late. We cruised with a bunch of family and friends. One of the guys brought his, umm, girlfriend with him. The dingbat was so impressed with herself it was laughable. Actually one in our group made fun of her in front of her and she still didn't get it. Let me point out that she brought three tubes of lipstick to the table each night, lined them up in front of her plate, to apply a different color for each phase of dinner.

 

Every single night she would come to dinner late. I don't mean 5 or 10 minutes I mean 30 to 40 minutes. Didn't bother to find out the dress code either. It didn't matter she was going to dress to the 9s including white gloves to the elbow. She made such a spectacle of herself that even the dining room staff was laughing at her. The Princess has arrived that would tell us. That could get the reprimanded but they couldn't hold it back. So, dinner is at 8:30. She gets there at 9:15 and DEMANDS dinner. So they brought it to her all at once to "catch her up". LOL. Hysterical.

 

Now - this same girl might have been in a few porn movies (we didn't learn this until one of the guys in our group told us). She thought it was perfectly fine to hand out naked pictures of herself to everyone as a "tip". Apparently the taxi driver was stumped. The MD staff, well, they couldn't stop laughing as they were telling us the story. They said "what does she expect us to do with it? Put in up in our cabin?" :eek: So, I don't want to make this into a tipping thread but just so you know they would prefer cash over passenger's naked pictures.

Edited September 21, 2015 by notentirelynormal

[spookwife]

Now, I am confused.

 

How can they close the doors 10 or 15 minutes after serving begins since the "Your Time" diners will still be coming in?

 

QTPie :confused:

 

those not on set dining have different doors to enter through( if not a different floor entirely)

[elycelynne]

Not necessarily for the OP because of their promptness, but for anyone else who either knows ahead of time that they won't be at fixed dinner or learns that they'll be running too late and not coming to their usual table for dinner (whether opting for the Lido of whatever else is available): Please call the dining room and let them know that you won't be there -- Just in case it's one of those instances where the server waits until everyone is seated.

Edited September 21, 2015 by elycelynne

[GUT2407]

Now, I am confused.

 

How can they close the doors 10 or 15 minutes after serving begins since the "Your Time" diners will still be coming in?

 

QTPie :confused:

 

They will be either in a different restaurant or a separate part of the MDR (often on another level).

[lisiamc]

..but just so you know they would prefer cash over passenger's naked pictures.

 

:D:eek::D Well, I HAD wondered about that! Hahahaha! This concept probably deserves its own thread. Thank you for cheering up my Tuesday morning.

Edited September 22, 2015 by lisiamc

[maywell]

I'll give you the other end of the spectrum and why some on this thread have pointed out about being late. We cruised with a bunch of family and friends. One of the guys brought his, umm, girlfriend with him. The dingbat was so impressed with herself it was laughable. Actually one in our group made fun of her in front of her and she still didn't get it. Let me point out that she brought three tubes of lipstick to the table each night, lined them up in front of her plate, to apply a different color for each phase of dinner.

 

Every single night she would come to dinner late. I don't mean 5 or 10 minutes I mean 30 to 40 minutes. Didn't bother to find out the dress code either. It didn't matter she was going to dress to the 9s including white gloves to the elbow. She made such a spectacle of herself that even the dining room staff was laughing at her. The Princess has arrived that would tell us. That could get the reprimanded but they couldn't hold it back. So, dinner is at 8:30. She gets there at 9:15 and DEMANDS dinner. So they brought it to her all at once to "catch her up". LOL. Hysterical.

 

Now - this same girl might have been in a few porn movies (we didn't learn this until one of the guys in our group told us). She thought it was perfectly fine to hand out naked pictures of herself to everyone as a "tip". Apparently the taxi driver was stumped. The MD staff, well, they couldn't stop laughing as they were telling us the story. They said "what does she expect us to do with it? Put in up in our cabin?" :eek: So, I don't want to make this into a tipping thread but just so you know they would prefer cash over passenger's naked pictures.

 

I hope the guy had the common sense to drop the dingbat afterwards and, yeah; who the heck gives out naked pics of themselves as if it was gratuities?!?! How someone suppose to exchange that into currency, when people don't know you from a hole in the wall, out anywhere?!?! Especially when they seen better....[emoji53] [emoji58] [emoji52]

 

Sent from my SGH-T399 using Tapatalk

[montana200024]

I am going to be mean and nasty. If you are dining at a table with other folks, they expect you to show-up on time. Your waiter will generally not provide service to your table until everyone arrives. So if you come late, you are just being rude and disrespectful of the others at your table. If you have a table for 2, then you can arrive a little late...although that is not being polite to your waiters. But at some point (and it varies depending on the Maitre'd ) they will simply stop anyone from arriving for a set sitting (this is not a problem with open dining as long as you arrive within the set time frames). We have been on cruises where they would stop arrivals after 20 minutes...and have been on other ships where they might let it go a bit later. But since you are dining at Early Sitting, and they need to clear out the MDR before the late seating, you will have less leeway. So if you do not want to comply with the rules then you can dine in other venues (like the Lido buffet or alternative restaurants (with a reservation)) or perhaps order room service.

 

I should add that one reason DW and I prefer late dining is that there is never a real rush. Since there is no later dining group the waiters are under less pressure. When we do open sittings we seldom go to the MDR before 8 pm for the same reason.

 

And we will share a true story from another cruise line when we had a fixed late sitting (8pm) at a table of 8. It was a 14 day cruise and the first night 6 of us were at our table on time, and the last couple arrived about 8:30. The 2nd night the same 6 of us were on time and the other couple again arrived around 8:30. One of our tablemates politely told them that they were supposed to be at the table around 8 and they just laughed and said they like more time to enjoy their cocktail hour. The third night that couple arrived about 8:30....but they had that large table to themselves. The rest of us spoke to the Maitre 'd who was very understanding and put us at another table. So that couple enjoyed the rest of their cruise by themselves with 6 empty chairs at their table (the Maitre d would not move them to another table).

 

Hank

 

Great story Hank, i love it...but on the other hand...late dining is most certainly not rushed, but these waiters and waitresses do need a break too..they have a job to do, and then , and only when they are finished they are off for some much needed rest...so if you do what you say and take your time...remember , that is there rest time cut off by the time you are there..........thought for the day

 

enjoy

[BillOh]

Most cruise lines want you there at the indicated time - which in your case would be 6. If you arrive late you will certainly still be served but you may also be holding up service for your table mates (if you are sharing a table) or causing your wait staff to have to do extra service to catch you up with others being served.

 

It really is just a matter of courtesy to others who may be at your table or to the wait staff who have a fixed time frame to serve several courses that are prepared and served in order. Keep in mind there are hundreds of passengers being served in a specific time frame - it's not like a land based restaurant serving individuals who arrive at different times, reservations or not. There is also a late seating that will follow, so service time is critical to provide you a relaxed meal, clean up, and reset for the next seating.

 

This is a fair statement, but you can help out your wait staff. We had a show run late so we were 10 minutes late. We already knew what we wanted on the menu. The rest of the table were receiving their appetizers, we told the waiter to not worry about our appetizer and just bring us the entre. That seemed to work out ok

[notentirelynormal]

I hope the guy had the common sense to drop the dingbat afterwards and, yeah; who the heck gives out naked pics of themselves as if it was gratuities?!?! How someone suppose to exchange that into currency, when people don't know you from a hole in the wall, out anywhere?!?! Especially when they seen better....[emoji53] [emoji58] [emoji52]

 

Sent from my SGH-T399 using Tapatalk

 

She was a piece of work. Yes, they broke up shortly afterwards. I'm guessing the vacation was over so so was the fun. Not the brightest bulb in the package but certainly very entertaining in her naive and umm, interesting line of work. Anything else I can say would be not a very acceptable comment :D but I'll just say she entertained various members of our group in two ways. For the record, people would know her. Her name is up there in the adult entertainment industry or at least it was at the time of sailing. Fortunately for most of us we didn't see the picture, just heard about it from the dining staff.

[Jimnbigd]

Royal Caribbean has let us come 30 minutes late, after asking our waiter. We had 8pm dining. On the last night of the cruise there was only one theater show starting at 7:15. I knew there was no way to make an 8pm dining time and still see all of the show. We asked are waiter and he said "No problem." (Yep, he was Jamaican).

[kelkel2]

I am traveling on Carnival with 6 pm dining .... What time do you need to be at dining room? If you are late do you not get to eat or how's that work?

 

If you have the 6 pm dining you need to be there at 6pm. Now, obviously if you get there at 6:04 they will usually allow you to still be seated. But honestly, the later you arrive the harder it becomes on your waiters and it becomes rude to your dining mates.

Set time dinging works like a well oiled machine with everything being timed. When someone arrives overly late, you are inconveniencing the wait staff who then have to stop what they are doing to accommodate you. It throws off their whole service plan. Typically they like to take their whole section's orders and bring out all the apps at the same time then pass them all out. Same with the mains, desserts are more staggered.

 

I would suggest if you think arriving at 6pm may be difficult (it is for my husband and I) you see if maybe the your time dining has any time slots open. That way you can come any time you please and not come off as being rude :) It has worked well for us.

[Krazy Kruizers]

We now request tables for 2 for fixed dining.

We got tired of arriving on time and then our table mates would arrive 15 - 20 minutes later. Our wait staff would not even give us menus until they arrived. We just sat there. Therefore they wouldn't take our orders as they wanted to serve the entire table at the same time.

[donaldsc]

Royal Caribbean has let us come 30 minutes late, after asking our waiter. We had 8pm dining. On the last night of the cruise there was only one theater show starting at 7:15. I knew there was no way to make an 8pm dining time and still see all of the show. We asked are waiter and he said "No problem." (Yep, he was Jamaican).

 

Of course he said "no problem", However, what do you think that he was really thinking. Maybe "if I tell these people that if they come in late, they will not give me an extra tips. So I will tell them what they want to hear even though it messes up my serving schedule". By the way, were there other people at the table or were you at a table for 2?

 

DON

[donaldsc]

We now request tables for 2 for fixed dining.

We got tired of arriving on time and then our table mates would arrive 15 - 20 minutes later. Our wait staff would not even give us menus until they arrived. We just sat there. Therefore they wouldn't take our orders as they wanted to serve the entire table at the same time.

 

Did you ask the staff politely if they could give you your menus and take your orders? Did you make any comments to the table mates. Did you change tables and tell your former table mates why you did it if they saw you on the ship and asked?

 

DON

Edited September 24, 2015 by donaldsc

[cb at sea]

You need to be there at the time you either reserve, or are told, if you have traditional seating.

[swedish weave]

Did you ask the staff politely if they could give you your menus and take your orders? Did you make any comments to the table mates. Did you change tables and tell your former table mates why you did it if they saw you on the ship and asked?

 

DON

 

Are these questions important to the subject of this thread ????

[Hlitner]

Great story Hank, i love it...but on the other hand...late dining is most certainly not rushed, but these waiters and waitresses do need a break too..they have a job to do, and then , and only when they are finished they are off for some much needed rest...so if you do what you say and take your time...remember , that is there rest time cut off by the time you are there..........thought for the day

 

enjoy

 

We hear ya! So many moons ago we learned (from a friendly waiter) that nearly all cruise lines follow a basic rule in their MDR. None of the staff can leave until after the last passenger. So as long as there is a single table of passengers in the MDR, the entire staff must keep working (we have also heard of some exceptions to this rule). DW and I have been blessed to have had some fantastic tables on our cruises, and we are always happy when our table has so much fun they do not want to leave the MDR. But we also have our own "Golden Rule" which is not to be the last table out of the MDR (we are sometimes the 2nd to last). We have even had waiters tell our tables that there is no hurry because many other tables were still in the MDR.

 

As to 2 tops (we like these sometimes) we find them a little lonely. By using the magic of Anytime/Select Dining we find that its usually possible to form a fun table on any long cruise. After a few dinners folks will tend to gravitate to those they like and often this results in amazing tables. We have actually had some folks come up to our tables, after they hear all the laughter, and ask if we have room for two more. On a recent 28 day HAL cruise it took 3 days of musical chairs/tables until our 8-top ended up with 3 compatible couples. A nearby 2 top saw how much fun we were having, and after a few more days asked if they could join our little group. And alas, we had a real fun group who continued to have a great time for the last 3 weeks. While DW and I are happy to be at our own 2 top (we do this in Aqua Class on Celebrity) our most memorable cruises have been where we became part of a great fun table.

 

Hak

[Jimnbigd]

Of course he said "no problem", However, what do you think that he was really thinking. Maybe "if I tell these people that if they come in late, they will not give me an extra tips. So I will tell them what they want to hear even though it messes up my serving schedule". By the way, were there other people at the table or were you at a table for 2?

Others, but all with us. The waiter said they knew about the show and that the last night people came late. All other nights we were on time. And we would have given extra tips regardless of what he said. Good points though. I agree that as a rule fixed-time diners should be on time, especially when others are at the same table. Also, if you decide to go to the buffet instead of the MDR, stop in the MDR and let your waiter or the head waiter / maitre'd at the front know.

 

One question: Why would RCI schedule a show that runs until 8:15 when fixed dining 2nd seating starts at 8pm?

Edited September 25, 2015 by Jimnbigd