Dining room.....wonder what that will be like???

[Kelownabccan]

Thinking of booking a 7 day Alaska return out of Vancouver......"if and when the ports in Canada and Alaska" will allow thousands of passengers to get on and off....wow.....remember the "good old days"..... anyways was thinking about dinner reservations.......we usually do "open seating"......but will they have way more tables for two....distanced apart???.......we usually do not mind sitting at a table for 4 or 6 but in the current situation...."probably not"  .with all the distance between tables....wow....how would they get all the people in on only two dinner sittings......have not seen much about how the dining rooms will work out????

[CruiserBruce]

If you look around, there have been a few discussions...policies already recommended by CDC and other sources...tables will be more spaced...things like that. No self service at Lido...which had been discontinued for the most part prior to Covid anyway.

 

Otherwise, its all speculation at this time.

 

 

[KirkNC]

I believe this is one of many things HAL is trying to figure out.

[Tennessee Titan]

Maybe no more of those 10 up shared tables😁....

[Kelownabccan]

2 hours ago, Tennessee Titan said:

Maybe no more of those 10 up shared tables😁....

Wouldn't that be a blast....with all of us wearing masks.....lol.....just kidding...we all should be wearing masks now......almost mandatory here in BC now....and limited travel around the province and between provinces....things do not look great

[rkacruiser]

I prefer not to consider what the dining experience might be like.  It's not likely to be appealing to me for some time, I am sorry to say.  

[Mary229]

I think by time Alaska starts sailing we will have a completely different set of circumstances, at least for North America and Western Europe .   I think it will be strictly a vaccination requirement.    I hope the cruise lines do decide to maintain some of the new protocols but anything that reduces capacity I can’t imagine remaining.  Less people in the dining room could be viewed as a net financial positive for the lines if by that measure they can upsell more specialty dining packages.   
 

the only caveat to my scenario is the lines ability to procure vaccines for their crew.  

[ScottC4746]

Perhaps upscaled no fee room service perhaps.

 

[AtlantaCruiser72]

Expect that there will be NO physical menus initially. Passengers will most likely be expected to use their mobile device to scan a QR code to view the menu. Several European cruise lines are already doing this as are 95% of restaurants near me offering dine-in service. 
 

Also expect that seating will be restricted by your party size and tables will be removed to provide proper physical distancing. Dining hours may be extended and reservations may be mandatory.

 

Example of what the new “menu” might look like:

[kazu]

5 hours ago, AtlantaCruiser72 said:

Several European cruise lines are already doing this as are 95% of restaurants near me offering dine-in service. 

 

Interesting.  Here, our menus were initially paper used once and thrown out/recycled.  (I suspect this was until the new ones were ready). Now the menus are plasticized so they can be disinfected after use.  I haven’t seen a scannable menu here.  

[KirkNC]

I think dining will be a real struggle especially during the earlier part of the restart.  One thing I have heard is they will encourage room service dining.  That’s great if you have a suite but not so much for many.  I wonder if they will assign times and places to control dining.  Your week might be 2 room service, 2 Lido, 2 dining room (at a specific time) and one specialty restaurant.  Toward the end of 2021 this should ease up as the impact of vaccines begin.

 

[Crazy For Cats]

8 hours ago, AtlantaCruiser72 said:

Expect that there will be NO physical menus initially. Passengers will most likely be expected to use their mobile device to scan a QR code to view the menu. Several European cruise lines are already doing this as are 95% of restaurants near me offering dine-in service. 
 

Also expect that seating will be restricted by your party size and tables will be removed to provide proper physical distancing. Dining hours may be extended and reservations may be mandatory.

 

Example of what the new “menu” might look like:

I’d rather expect the menus to be listed in the Navigator app.  They have already been available there on some not so recent cruises. Those without a smart phone could be at a disadvantage.

[kazu]

26 minutes ago, Crazy For Cats said:

I’d rather expect the menus to be listed in the Navigator app.  They have already been available there on some not so recent cruises. Those without a smart phone could be at a disadvantage.

 

That makes more sense.  My smart phone is in my safe until I get into port.  I use my Ipad on board so have easy access to navigator.

[KirkNC]

34 minutes ago, Crazy For Cats said:

I’d rather expect the menus to be listed in the Navigator app.  They have already been available there on some not so recent cruises. Those without a smart phone could be at a disadvantage.

They will need to do a better job then in the past updating the information.  Often in the past the menu on the app is several days old.

[KirkNC]

35 minutes ago, Crazy For Cats said:

I’d rather expect the menus to be listed in the Navigator app.  They have already been available there on some not so recent cruises. Those without a smart phone could be at a disadvantage.

Hopefully they can still eat 😎😳

[rafinmd]

I think everyone cruising for the next year or two will need to pack a sense of adventure.  Those going with specific expectations will almost certainly be disappointed.  Early cruisers will be pioneers and pioneers are also discoverers.

 

Roy

[ScottC4746]

9 hours ago, AtlantaCruiser72 said:

Expect that there will be NO physical menus initially. Passengers will most likely be expected to use their mobile device to scan a QR code to view the menu. Several European cruise lines are already doing this as are 95% of restaurants near me offering dine-in service. 
 

Also expect that seating will be restricted by your party size and tables will be removed to provide proper physical distancing. Dining hours may be extended and reservations may be mandatory.

 

Example of what the new “menu” might look like:

I hope not.  I refuse to use those due to privacy issues.

[CruiserBruce]

3 hours ago, ScottC4746 said:

I hope not.  I refuse to use those due to privacy issues.

What privacy issue do you have? Its essentially the same as looking at a menu on line. In this case it will be on the ship's intranet.

[Crazy For Cats]

25 minutes ago, CruiserBruce said:

What privacy issue do you have? Its essentially the same as looking at a menu on line. In this case it will be on the ship's intranet.

I had the same question.  I found the following article: https://threatpost.com/qr-codes-sneaky-security-threat/159757/

[canadianbear]

16 minutes ago, Crazy For Cats said:

I had the same question.  I found the following article: https://threatpost.com/qr-codes-sneaky-security-threat/159757/

Yikes...I had no idea.  I’ve only been to a restaurant once during the pandemic that had the code but didn’t use it.  

[Aquahound]

23 hours ago, Kelownabccan said:

Thinking of booking a 7 day Alaska return out of Vancouver......"if and when the ports in Canada and Alaska" will allow thousands of passengers to get on and off....wow.....remember the "good old days"..... anyways was thinking about dinner reservations.......we usually do "open seating"......but will they have way more tables for two....distanced apart???.......we usually do not mind sitting at a table for 4 or 6 but in the current situation...."probably not"  .with all the distance between tables....wow....how would they get all the people in on only two dinner sittings......have not seen much about how the dining rooms will work out????

 

I can see the lido buffet area being converted in to a second dining room for regular service.  

[kazu]

50 minutes ago, Crazy For Cats said:

I had the same question.  I found the following article: https://threatpost.com/qr-codes-sneaky-security-threat/159757/

Thanks.  I’m not keen on scanning codes at all.

 

I’ll save stuff to PDF for airline bookings, etc.  That really paid off as I saw some passengers that scanned only couldn’t get their ticket numbers later when their AC flights were cancelled.  You need your ticket number for their vouchers or refund if you are lucky enough to get a refund (few and far between).

 

There have been a number of complaints as AC won’t do anything if you don’t have your ticket number.  Fortunately since I have my PDF, I do and was successful.

 

Each to their own but I prefer my Ipad over my phone and use it to the max 😉 

[ScottC4746]

1 hour ago, CruiserBruce said:

What privacy issue do you have? Its essentially the same as looking at a menu on line. In this case it will be on the ship's intranet.

https://www.dummies.com/business/marketing/social-media-marketing/security-risks-that-come-with-use-of-qr-codes/

[CruiserBruce]

So, I read the two links on QR codes. I understand the concepts involved, but it also reminds me of many other things we do today. A lot of "coulds" and "mights" that come with virtually all the internet stuff we do today. Most importantly if you take the precautions we do daily, you should be fine.

 

And...in this case, as mentioned above, the QR code in this case is tied to the ship's intranet, not the Internet. 

[Crazy For Cats]

1 hour ago, CruiserBruce said:

So, I read the two links on QR codes. I understand the concepts involved, but it also reminds me of many other things we do today. A lot of "coulds" and "mights" that come with virtually all the internet stuff we do today. Most importantly if you take the precautions we do daily, you should be fine.

 

And...in this case, as mentioned above, the QR code in this case is tied to the ship's intranet, not the Internet. 

My phone scans QR code’s via an app.  It then pulls up the web page.  This would not work on the ships intranet.  If you purchase internet service then it would work but probably very slowly.