New Friends.

[chromered7]

What experience’s have you had as a couple or a foursome on a big table? As a couple we like to join a big table and have had some great times and are still in touch with friend’s from several years ago.

[1025cruise]

Well, on my last cruise I was a couple seated at a large table. Our tablemates never showed. 

 

 

 

[helen haywood]

Are they even doing shared tables right now?  I thought I’d read that only linked bookings were seated together.  If you have Anytime dining and meet people onboard that you’d like to be seated with they will put you together.

[CruiseRQA]

I don't think shared table dining is the same as it used to be.   I think two things have happened. 

 

 First the emphasis on specialty restaurants.   Before they existed your MDR experience was your only choice for dinner.   And so if you were at a table for 6 or 8 there were 6 or 8 people there consistently every night.   Now your tablemates are off to specialty restaurants 2-5 times per week.  

 

Second, people do not seem to be interested as much as they were in a formal dining experience.   People actually opt out of being waited on in the MDR in favor of eating at the Lido buffet.   So even if you are at at table for 4 or 6 or 8 some of your tablemates would rather have dinner in the lido (don't get it myself but check out how many are eating dinner up there)

 

And I'll add in a third:   The MDR experience isn't what it used to be either.   Time was the waiter would come and debone your Dover Sole in the MDR and your desert may have been cooked tableside.   I understand on HAL they charge extra for steak and lobster!

[NutsAboutGolf]

6 minutes ago, CruiseRQA said:

I don't think shared table dining is the same as it used to be.   I think two things have happened. 

 

 First the emphasis on specialty restaurants.   Before they existed your MDR experience was your only choice for dinner.   And so if you were at a table for 6 or 8 there were 6 or 8 people there consistently every night.   Now your tablemates are off to specialty restaurants 2-5 times per week.  

 

Second, people do not seem to be interested as much as they were in a formal dining experience.   People actually opt out of being waited on in the MDR in favor of eating at the Lido buffet.   So even if you are at at table for 4 or 6 or 8 some of your tablemates would rather have dinner in the lido (don't get it myself but check out how many are eating dinner up there)

 

And I'll add in a third:   The MDR experience isn't what it used to be either.   Time was the waiter would come and debone your Dover Sole in the MDR and your desert may have been cooked tableside.   I understand on HAL they charge extra for steak and lobster!

 

I've been on two X cruises since the restart, people love the staff served experience of the buffet; one couple I spoke to said they would never have "wasted" a dinner at buffet if it was self serve.  The other dynamic about the buffet, it's just quick and easy to get whatever food item you want at the portion size you want.  Don't like an item?  You don't have to send it back or worry about being judged for wasting food.  I dine out quite often, I'm pretty desensitized to being waited on.  One last thought, on X, any room class and have their MDR dinner delivered to their stateroom by calling room service during MDR dinner hours.

[esther e]

WOW One of the main reasons I cruise is to dine in the dining room and meet new people.  This is a very important part of the whole experience for me.  I don't care how "fancy" it is, a buffet is a buffet.  I am also (albeit elderly) one of those who likes to dress for dinner -- not sequins, but definitely not casual.  Sigh.............

[gold1953]

1 hour ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

 

I've been on two X cruises since the restart, people love the staff served experience of the buffet; one couple I spoke to said they would never have "wasted" a dinner at buffet if it was self serve.  The other dynamic about the buffet, it's just quick and easy to get whatever food item you want at the portion size you want.  Don't like an item?  You don't have to send it back or worry about being judged for wasting food.  I dine out quite often, I'm pretty desensitized to being waited on.  One last thought, on X, any room class and have their MDR dinner delivered to their stateroom by calling room service during MDR dinner hours.

We have enjoyed quite evenings at the buffet and also have ordered dessert to our cabins. I don't need to be waited on. We have met others at the buffett and become friends

[LGW59]

3 minutes ago, gold1953 said:

We have enjoyed quite evenings at the buffet and also have ordered dessert to our cabins. I don't need to be waited on. We have met others at the buffett and become friends

I don’t need to be waited on either but I do want to be waited on.  Service in the dining rooms is superb and I consider it a special part of my cruise experience.

[Denny01]

I’d ask for a table w others. They may not be tables of 10 but could be large enough to meet some interesting people. 
 

we’ve had 8 or so when we had another couple w us. And what’s  nice is if there are ‘issues’ you can move by just asking the Maitre de. 
 

den

[gold1953]

5 minutes ago, LGW59 said:

I don’t need to be waited on either but I do want to be waited on.  Service in the dining rooms is superb and I consider it a special part of my cruise experience.

So nice to have a product for everyone. We do both . Some evenings we just don't want to sit that long and my husband finds the dining room too noisy with his hearing aides. We would rather sail aqua class  as blue is our favourite

[cangelmd]

It’s funny. We have always said we missed the traditional dining because of the experience of meeting people, but looking back on it, we had generally negative experiences. We’ve done much better meeting people in Blu, Luminae and in the bars. Our last trad dining without kids was in 2001, we got seated at a table for 4, we were there for our 20th wedding anniversary, our table mates were a young military couple (this was a Med cruise) on a belated honeymoon before he was deployed again - it was Uber awkward!

[DCPIV]

We've had some fantastic tables in the past, including when we met some friends that we still have after 15 years. 

 

That said, we've moved away from traditional assigned dining. That's mostly because the typical assigned times aren't to our liking. However, there's been the benefit of not getting that table with that guest (or guests) that you dread seeing again. 

 

We've made acquaintances on board and then made dinner plans with them. We've also been asked to dinner and either accepted or made excuses. On my last cruise, I was solo, and some wonderful folks invited me to join their table. 

 

I do miss those fun tables where we all would enjoy each other's stories about that day and what-not, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't prefer how things are today. 

[dkjretired]

Prior to COVID and our last time at a large table I came to my own conclusion that the fixed dining was dying. More people are doing Select dining and with the advent of all the Specialties we had two nights where our table for 8 was down to 2. Give it a few years it will be gone.

[earlydiner]

 

Several years ago we were on the Coral Princess ocean to ocean PC cruise.  One night at dinner, we were seated at a table for 12.  Before dinner we were doing the regular introductions.  I asked the couple on my left where they were from. They said "Aurora, Illinois".  I told them that I had graduated from Aurora College in 1968.  They had also graduated from Aurora College.  Aurora College at that time was a college of about 1000.  Just when I said that it's a small world, the gentleman on my right said "so did I".  So a great night was had by all.  

 

Needless to say my wife and I love to meet new people and the dinner table is a great place to do that.  On that same  PC cruise we met another couple that live fairly close to us and we still get together for dinner and go to each other's homes.  We were on the Millennium a couple of months ago and met a great couple that also live fairly close to us. We will be on the Silhouette in January and am sure we will meet and enjoy others there as well.

 

Edited November 9, 2021 by earlydiner

[Torfamm]

13 hours ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

 

I've been on two X cruises since the restart, people love the staff served experience of the buffet; one couple I spoke to said they would never have "wasted" a dinner at buffet if it was self serve.  The other dynamic about the buffet, it's just quick and easy to get whatever food item you want at the portion size you want.  Don't like an item?  You don't have to send it back or worry about being judged for wasting food.  I dine out quite often, I'm pretty desensitized to being waited on.  One last thought, on X, any room class and have their MDR dinner delivered to their stateroom by calling room service during MDR dinner hours.

I didn’t realize that it was possible to order Room Service from the MDR dinner menu! How have I never known about that? Has it always been the case?

[sandancer]

8 hours ago, dkjretired said:

Prior to COVID and our last time at a large table I came to my own conclusion that the fixed dining was dying. More people are doing Select dining and with the advent of all the Specialties we had two nights where our table for 8 was down to 2. Give it a few years it will be gone.

This was our experience also. Last time we booked traditional dining we requested a table of 8. Not one single evening was the table filled. Most nights either one other couple or only us. It’s been Select ever since for us. At least that way we can be reasonably sure that we will be seated with others or have a table for 2. Even choosing a table for 2, they are usually close enough together to socialise with your neighbours. 

[chemmo]

1 hour ago, Torfamm said:

I didn’t realize that it was possible to order Room Service from the MDR dinner menu! How have I never known about that? Has it always been the case?

Yes,

 

We have done this a few times. The MDR menu is only available during MDR opening times. Great if you have had a busy shore excursion day.
 

Remember the food generally arrives altogether so if you order ice cream for dessert it will be a puddle when you get to it! If you are in a suite you can request your butler to bring it course by course.

 

We have also on an occasional sea day lunch ordered off the general room service menu and been pleasantly surprised about the food quality. Their fries are the best on the ship!

[gold1953]

We find it is very hit or miss at a large table  8 is our favourite as it is round. The oval for 10 is hard. We have met people who we stay friends with a cruise again and have had the most annoying people ever who like to talk non stop about themselves with great importance."  

[gold1953]

3 minutes ago, chemmo said:

Yes,

 

We have done this a few times. The MDR menu is only available during MDR opening times. Great if you have had a busy shore excursion day.
 

Remember the food generally arrives altogether so if you order ice cream for dessert it will be a puddle when you get to it! If you are in a suite you can request your butler to bring it course by course.

 

We have also on an occasional sea day lunch ordered off the general room service menu and been pleasantly surprised about the food quality. Their fries are the best on the ship!

It really is great!. You can order just a couple of appies and not be concerned about table mates . We choose early dining and can be too late on a port day or just tired and don't want to sit for 2 hours. This works well for us and often in combination with the buffett

[chemmo]

2 minutes ago, gold1953 said:

It really is great!. You can order just a couple of appies and not be concerned about table mates . We choose early dining and can be too late on a port day or just tired and don't want to sit for 2 hours. This works well for us and often in combination with the buffett

We also enjoy occasional visits to the buffet. Sometimes, as you say, you don’t want a long meal or even a big meal…We generally cruise suites and most evenings dine in the speciality restaurants which we do enjoy but there is something equally special some nights in just walking leisurely around the buffet trying a bit of this and a bit of that….

 

On a recent cruise one breakfast we decided to just go to the buffet rather than full breakfast in Luminae or try to decide what we wanted from room service. The F&B manager saw us with our self made bacon sandwiches and was concerned we didn’t know Luminae was open or that our butler would bring us ‘anything’….Quite simply one of the reasons we enjoy Celebrity is the choice of dining…formal when you want formal but leisurely options when you don’t.

[Pinboy]

17 hours ago, LGW59 said:

I don’t need to be waited on either but I do want to be waited on.  Service in the dining rooms is superb and I consider it a special part of my cruise experience.

Absolutely -- We're with ya !!

We learned " years " ago , after our " experience " with Woody and XXX from Lakeland , Fl ( no disrespect to anyone from there ) to request a table for 2 at Anytime dining and make reservations ahead of time for the entire cruise.  Most often we chat with folks nearby -- you know, the regular cruise chit chat. 

While we do go to the Specialty restaurants during the cruise , we always notify our waiter and the Hostess ahead of time that we will not be there , so she doesn't hold the table for us. ( We always were asked if we would like the same waiter--- never said no---- service was always excellent --- and it was a pleasure to tip him/ her extra on the last night ).

LOL ---- If you are ever seated with Woody --- Change tables asap !! 

 

 

[Loracpin2]

5 minutes ago, Pinboy said:

Absolutely -- We're with ya !!

We learned " years " ago , after our " experience " with Woody and XXX from Lakeland , Fl ( no disrespect to anyone from there ) to request a table for 2 at Anytime dining and make reservations ahead of time for the entire cruise.  Most often we chat with folks nearby -- you know, the regular cruise chit chat. 

While we do go to the Specialty restaurants during the cruise , we always notify our waiter and the Hostess ahead of time that we will not be there , so she doesn't hold the table for us. ( We always were asked if we would like the same waiter--- never said no---- service was always excellent --- and it was a pleasure to tip him/ her extra on the last night ).

LOL ---- If you are ever seated with Woody --- Change tables asap !! 

 

 

"We learned " years " ago ,to request a table for 2 at Anytime dining and make reservations ahead of time for the entire cruise.  Most often we chat with folks nearby -- you know, the regular cruise chit chat." 

We do the exact same thing and it works perfectly!!!!  

[FLCruiser97]

We sailed in September and it seemed that the MDR hardly had anyone in there. We mostly ate at the Specialities but in the past if we ate in MDR we would request a table for 2 because we found that with a large table with more than 4 people, you could be in there for 2 hours or more. We did meet some long time friends in the MDR in the past but now we find we are forming friendships with our Cruise Critic friends that we meet in the sail aways.

Edited November 9, 2021 by FLCruiser97

[DenGNNJ]

On 11/8/2021 at 11:42 AM, chromered7 said:

What experience’s have you had as a couple or a foursome on a big table? As a couple we like to join a big table and have had some great times and are still in touch with friend’s from several years ago.

We’ve had mixed experiences.   We hit it off with one couple on the first night, hung out with them for a lot of the cruise, and stayed friends afterwards.  On the other hand, on another cruise we met a couple from our own home town during a chef’s table that were so pretentious and didn’t stop talking about how well-off they were, that we couldn’t wait for dinner to end.