How is HAL handling the main dining room these days

[nyold]

4 minutes ago, seacruise9 said:

Hi, 

 

I am booked on the Rotterdam's 10-day Southern Caribbean cruise that departs on Nov. 20, 2022. For dining, my reservation states "Confirmed Main." Is "main" the second (8:00 pm) seating?

 

Thanks,

 

Chuck 

No, it just means that it is either 5:30 or 8 pm. If you want to confirm to double check, you can email hal_ship_services at hollandamerica dot com. I am spelling it out because sometimes the forum rejects posts that have email addresses in them.

 

Just email them saying you want this time slot and confirm the number of guests in your party, whether you want a table by yourselves or mixed with other  guests etc. If you have several staterooms you can also confirm that all of them are linked so that you sit together etc

[cruiser02]

On 6/11/2022 at 1:58 PM, grammi said:

Thank you!

Can you make reservations for Any Time  dining on line ? 

I've reserved for Specialty dining but can't seem to do so for the MDW 

Thanks

[RuthC]

30 minutes ago, seacruise9 said:

I am booked on the Rotterdam's 10-day Southern Caribbean cruise that departs on Nov. 20, 2022. For dining, my reservation states "Confirmed Main." Is "main" the second (8:00 pm) seating?

Yes, 'Main' is late seating for dinner, usually at 8:00 PM. It is a fixed table for both time and guests. 
Early seating is referred to as 'Early'. 

[LJProk]

We did flexible but I scheduled our times pre cruise for each night. We did push one night back the day of. Honestly though last week Noordam was under 60% capacity and there was never a wait at dinner, never saw the MDR full.

[*Miss G*]

1 hour ago, seacruise9 said:

Hi, 

 

I am booked on the Rotterdam's 10-day Southern Caribbean cruise that departs on Nov. 20, 2022. For dining, my reservation states "Confirmed Main." Is "main" the second (8:00 pm) seating?

 

Thanks,

 

Chuck 

 

@RuthC has the correct answer in that Main is the 2nd fixed seating.

[DaveOKC]

We dined in the MDR (Open Seating) in April on the Koningsdam.  We went around 6 PM and only the lower level was open.  We were seated fairly quickly, but the service was slow and it was fairly loud in the area.  I think that the combining of Fixed and Open seating on the same level was the problem.

I could see how this works out for cruises that are only about 50% full, but I was not pleased with it.

 

[Cruise Suzy]

1 hour ago, cruiser02 said:

Can you make reservations for Any Time  dining on line ? 

I've reserved for Specialty dining but can't seem to do so for the MDR 

Thanks

 

Once cruises restarted, we were booked as Any Time dining and were able to make reservations for the MDR. However, in the last 2-3 weeks this option disappeared from all our booked cruises. The previously booked times still show on our itineraries for July and November. Dining hasn't opened yet for our January cruise.