A couple of Club Orange questions

[CruisinNana]

1.  I assume Club Orange on a Pinnacle class ship is your time dining.  With that assumption, do you need to make a reservation or are you allowed to make a reservation for the time you plan to arrive at dinner?

2.  For a change of scenery, are you also allowed to eat in the main dining room for dinner?  If yes, can you have the extra Club Orange entree? 

[CruiserBruce]

Club Orange is any time dinning. Can't answer your second question. 

[Nodakboiler]

No, CO extra entree only available in CO

[Senior Sea Dog]

I had the CO on the Koningsdam We at most of our Meals in CO but went to Specialty Dining and main dining several times both at Breakfast and Dinner

SSD

[vicd1969]

Currently on board the Rotterdam with Club Orange. The CO restaurant is any time dining but they do ask that you do a reservation 24 hours before if you have a large group that wishes to sit together.

 

Some other initial impressions of having a Club Orange pass after day 1:

1. priority line for embarking makes it feel like you are checking in at the business class line in the airport. Very smooth process

2. We didn’t experience the dreaded “first night delays” of getting our food. Staff was amazing. Place was not crowded at 545 pm but that  may be due to a larger proportion of European passengers preferring a later dining time.

3. I went to guest services and didn’t realize there was a small roped off line for CO holders. It didn’t affect me much since i only had one person ahead of me but after i finished my time with the guest service rep there were like 5-6 people in the regular line and zero in the Club Orange line.

4. There can still be mixups - they placed the wrong room cards between two cabins in our group - one on port side and one on starboard side.

 

 

[CruisinNana]

Thanks for informative responses!

[tcudarling93]

15 hours ago, vicd1969 said:

Currently on board the Rotterdam with Club Orange. The CO restaurant is any time dining but they do ask that you do a reservation 24 hours before if you have a large group that wishes to sit together.

 

Some other initial impressions of having a Club Orange pass after day 1:

1. priority line for embarking makes it feel like you are checking in at the business class line in the airport. Very smooth process

2. We didn’t experience the dreaded “first night delays” of getting our food. Staff was amazing. Place was not crowded at 545 pm but that  may be due to a larger proportion of European passengers preferring a later dining time.

3. I went to guest services and didn’t realize there was a small roped off line for CO holders. It didn’t affect me much since i only had one person ahead of me but after i finished my time with the guest service rep there were like 5-6 people in the regular line and zero in the Club Orange line.

4. There can still be mixups - they placed the wrong room cards between two cabins in our group - one on port side and one on starboard side.

 

 

Vicid1969- we will be sailingon the Rotterdam in September also as Club Orange.  Based on the dinner menus for the week which night do you suggest doing a Specialty restaurant instead of CO? We don’t want to miss a great night in CO!

[sailingdutchy]

10 hours ago, tcudarling93 said:

Vicid1969- we will be sailingon the Rotterdam in September also as Club Orange.  Based on the dinner menus for the week which night do you suggest doing a Specialty restaurant instead of CO? We don’t want to miss a great night in CO!

 

The evening meals in the CO were always very nice in our experience , the food is hot and almost always nicely plated because of the lack of sommeliers in the dining room , in CO it is almost never is a problem to get your glass filled or bottle brought to your table .  

We went quite often to the specialty restaurants for Chefs Dinners in the Pinnacle or the Canaletto and also the Gala dinner  plus we really enjoy the Tamarind . But we never skipped a breakfast in CO except for one day when we had to tour quite early . For that reason alone we found CO on the Pinnacle Class ships worthwhile .

Edited June 21, 2022 by sailingdutchy

[vicd1969]

On 6/20/2022 at 7:38 PM, tcudarling93 said:

Vicid1969- we will be sailingon the Rotterdam in September also as Club Orange.  Based on the dinner menus for the week which night do you suggest doing a Specialty restaurant instead of CO? We don’t want to miss a great night in CO!

It depends on your itinerary - i can only answer for the Norse Legends one that goes to Geiranger. After 3 nights of dining - i can say however that the service at CO is superior to Pinnacle Grill because the wait staff knows you better and it’s more of a family atmosphere. So i would suggest not skipping the “dressy” night dinners at CO. 

 

Also the navigator app shows the current dinner menu (almost one day in advance if you are in the US while cruise is in Europe). What is not shown in the app is the extra main course that is made fresh in the CO room, and not in the main kitchen.
 

 

 

[vicd1969]

Forgot to add - Don’t know why exactly, but breakfast and dinner at CO have never been crowded so far, while the breakfast buffet in the lido has been a total zoo whenever i go up there to refill my water bottles . I can only speculate on the reasons for the lack of crowds but i hope for my own selfish purposes that not too many people catch on to this CO concept - just enough to allow it to be viable for HAL 😉

Edited June 21, 2022 by vicd1969

[Florida_gal_50]

38 minutes ago, vicd1969 said:

Forgot to add - Don’t know why exactly, but breakfast and dinner at CO have never been crowded so far, while the breakfast buffet in the lido has been a total zoo whenever i go up there to refill my water bottles . I can only speculate on the reasons for the lack of crowds but i hope for my own selfish purposes that not too many people catch on to this CO concept - just enough to allow it to be viable for HAL 😉

People just love a cafeteria for some reason.  It has zero appeal to me, especially if you are behind someone that can’t make a decision.  I suspect it’s more of a speed thing.  People want to eat and get out in a hurry.

[albingirl]

32 minutes ago, Florida_gal_50 said:

People just love a cafeteria for some reason.  It has zero appeal to me, especially if you are behind someone that can’t make a decision.  I suspect it’s more of a speed thing.  People want to eat and get out in a hurry.

I think they don't want to dress up at all, too.  Can go in grunge. Seriously, tank tops and flip flops...what's better than that.

[Florida_gal_50]

4 minutes ago, albingirl said:

I think they don't want to dress up at all, too.  Can go in grunge. Seriously, tank tops and flip flops...what's better than that.

I think you can do that as well in the mdr and club orange.  I mean if it’s good enough for gala night 😛😉😀.

[Lindancer]

On 6/20/2022 at 11:08 PM, sailingdutchy said:

 

The evening meals in the CO were always very nice in our experience , the food is hot and almost always nicely plated because of the lack of sommeliers in the dining room , in CO it is almost never is a problem to get your glass filled or bottle brought to your table .  

We went quite often to the specialty restaurants for Chefs Dinners in the Pinnacle or the Canaletto and also the Gala dinner  plus we really enjoy the Tamarind . But we never skipped a breakfast in CO except for one day when we had to tour quite early . For that reason alone we found CO on the Pinnacle Class ships worthwhile .

Yes we had Club Orange on the Eurodam last summer and they did not have a special dining room - just a special area in the MDR.  Drink service was so awful (the first night I ordered a Ketel One martini and you should see the ridiculous concoctions they brought me, twice).  We learned to stop at the Pinnacle Bar and take our own drink into the dining room!