What do you do - first night in dining room

[slyster]

Whenever we arrive to our cruise on embarkation day, I always check out our seating assignment in the dining room.  There is always a huge line for traditional dining just as they are opening the dining room.  I assume this is for folks to be escorted to their seats.

 

On our recent cruise, on Enchantment, we bypassed everyone in line and walked directly to our table.  Just before we entered the dining room, a few folks towards the front of the line got mad at us for “cutting” the line.  I told them I already know where we are sitting so no need to wait.  One guys says, “doesn’t matter, you should get in line”.  I kept on walking and walked the very short distance to our seats in our dining room.

 

I’m wondering what the opinion is on this.  If you know where you are sitting, you just go to seat or do you just wait at the back of line?

 

My usual alternative is I wait 10 min after the dining room opens up and then go in.  My brother came knocking on our door at 5:30 and said, “come on”.  Our cabins are a min or so from the centrum but the line was backed all the way up to the centrum.  

 

Thoughts and opinions.

[Merion_Mom]

That guy was wrong.  (I was going to say "an idiot", but decided to to soften it a bit.)  You are right.  If you have already determined where your table is, there is no need to wait for an escort.  And the line is only for those waiting to be escorted. 

 

🙂 

[davekathy]

We always know where our table is (MTD or TD) but still wait to be escorted the first evening. 

[time4u2go]

If I know where the table is (which is every time), I walk past the line and go right in.

[Merion_Mom]

5 minutes ago, davekathy said:

We always know where our table is (MTD or TD) but still wait to be escorted the first evening. 

 

Why?  You are literally taking resources (crew and time) away from people who actually need help.

[davekathy]

2 minutes ago, Merion_Mom said:

 

Why?  You are literally taking resources (crew and time) away from people who actually need help.

I'm (we) not taking anything away from others. 

[slyster]

14 minutes ago, davekathy said:

We always know where our table is (MTD or TD) but still wait to be escorted the first evening. 

Do you feel everyone should do this even if they know where they are sitting or do you think it’s okay if someone decides to bypass everyone and go directly to your assigned seat?  Just curious.

[davekathy]

1 minute ago, slyster said:

Do you feel everyone should do this even if they know where they are sitting or do you think it’s okay if someone decides to bypass everyone and go directly to your assigned seat?  Just curious.

It's no biggie and I don't care either way what you or others are doing. If it's been happening on our cruises I've never noticed and obviously hasn't effected us. It's only for one evening.  

[GJustice]

We generally wait in line the first night and wait to be walked to the table even if we did go "find" it earlier in the day. After first night, we just walk in, WITH the flow of traffic, NOT just pushing around people. USUALLY, there are the "fast" line and the slow line.

[PhoenixCruiser]

This is one of the reasons that the first night in the MDR takes so long. We make reservations in a specialty restaurant. 

[reallyitsmema]

5 minutes ago, PhoenixCruiser said:

This is one of the reasons that the first night in the MDR takes so long. We make reservations in a specialty restaurant. 

 

We haven't done traditional dining since the inception of my time dining but have switched to it for our upcoming cruise due to the 6:45 start of MTD.  Do they still put your table number on your sea pass account as they did years ago?  We are also doing specialty dining the first night so don't want our table given away if we don't show up the first night.

 

[davekathy]

5 minutes ago, reallyitsmema said:

 

We haven't done traditional dining since the inception of my time dining but have switched to it for our upcoming cruise due to the 6:45 start of MTD.  Do they still put your table number on your sea pass account as they did years ago?  We are also doing specialty dining the first night so don't want our table given away if we don't show up the first night.

 

We also switched back to TD due to the late start time for MTD. Our table number was on our SeaPass cards. We checked out our table as soon as we boarded. We didn't care for the location and had our table switched to a better location. We had the same table for both legs.  March, Explorer. 

Edited September 5, 2022 by davekathy

[PhoenixCruiser]

4 minutes ago, reallyitsmema said:

 

We haven't done traditional dining since the inception of my time dining but have switched to it for our upcoming cruise due to the 6:45 start of MTD.  Do they still put your table number on your sea pass account as they did years ago?  We are also doing specialty dining the first night so don't want our table given away if we don't show up the first night.

 

Yes, your table number is still on your Seapass and on the app.

[Ashland]

We go to the WJ for dinner every night now as we're no longer interested in the dining room....No worries there and usually book MTD only because we have to make that option when booking our cruise. However even so we always get a call from the dining room asking where we've been about half way through our cruise.

 

We varied from MTD to TD on our last two cruises only because we thought the MTD was too late (just in case we decided to go) but once onboard we changed our mind and switched back...They still call looking for us it seems no matter what we book.

 

[BND]

The "line" is for those who have no idea where their table is. I will say on our first leg of our EN b2b cruise in April, my DH had already scouted out our table as we always do so we don't have to take up the staff's time.  When we went in, it had been moved.  For some weird reason our table number had been moved from an 8 top to two four tops next to each other.  Others at our table said they had seen the same table # at the same place that DH had.  Our group of 8 was all there almost every night yet the group that had our original table had 3-5 at most.  All we could figure is they had asked to be moved even though we were never asked and they took our original table.  Regardless we had a great time at our two 4 top tables.  We always check where our table is.  The line is for those who have no clue where their table is.  I will say table assignments are not what they used to be.  The second leg of our b2b and our subsequent assignment in July was horrible.  They used to at least seat you with people who had something in common with you.

Edited September 5, 2022 by BND

[BND]

1 hour ago, davekathy said:

I'm (we) not taking anything away from others. 

If you know where your table is why wait to be "escorted"?  Seriously, you can just go to your table as we do.

[BirdTravels]

2 hours ago, slyster said:

Do you feel everyone should do this even if they know where they are sitting or do you think it’s okay if someone decides to bypass everyone and go directly to your assigned seat?  Just curious.

Yes. No need to make the line longer if you have a table assignment. 

[Ashland]

2 hours ago, BND said:

The "line" is for those who have no idea where their table is. I will say on our first leg of our EN b2b cruise in April, my DH had already scouted out our table as we always do so we don't have to take up the staff's time.  When we went in, it had been moved.  For some weird reason our table number had been moved from an 8 top to two four tops next to each other.  Others at our table said they had seen the same table # at the same place that DH had.  Our group of 8 was all there almost every night yet the group that had our original table had 3-5 at most.  All we could figure is they had asked to be moved even though we were never asked and they took our original table.  Regardless we had a great time at our two 4 top tables.  We always check where our table is.  The line is for those who have no clue where their table is.  I will say table assignments are not what they used to be.  The second leg of our b2b and our subsequent assignment in July was horrible.  They used to at least seat you with people who had something in common with you.

Curious...how do they know who has something in common with you ?

[bonsai3s]

First evening...

We go to a bar, have a drink, wait for the queue to disappear, get a second drink to bring with us...no problems.

 

* This is exactly what we did last night, our first night on the Voyager...no escort needed, walked straight to our table. (The Tavern Bar is just past the elevators and near the MDR, Deck 4, so we can see the queue.

[superduper123]

8 hours ago, PhoenixCruiser said:

Yes, your table number is still on your Seapass and on the app.

Where on the app can I find this? 

[molly361]

Always go straight to the table 

[superduper123]

Interesting topic.

 

We sailed Serenade this past New Years and had MTD reservations for the same time every evening. This was our first time using MTD. We were NOT seated at the same table every night. As a matter of fact, one of the evenings, we were in a different section with different wait staff. Other than that one exception, we did have the same staff, but it was three different tables. I guess I thought that's how MTD worked. So yes, we waited in line every night. ( I thought we were supposed to.) 

 

Similar experience on Celebrity in June. Three different tables, but all within the same section and wait staff. 

 

This is not how it normally works? We are on EN in three days, and would love to walk directly to our table and avoid the line. 

 

[not-enough-cruising]

17 minutes ago, superduper123 said:

Interesting topic.

 

We sailed Serenade this past New Years and had MTD reservations for the same time every evening. This was our first time using MTD. We were NOT seated at the same table every night. As a matter of fact, one of the evenings, we were in a different section with different wait staff. Other than that one exception, we did have the same staff, but it was three different tables. I guess I thought that's how MTD worked. So yes, we waited in line every night. ( I thought we were supposed to.) 

 

Similar experience on Celebrity in June. Three different tables, but all within the same section and wait staff. 

 

This is not how it normally works? We are on EN in three days, and would love to walk directly to our table and avoid the line. 

 

If you have MTD, then you do not have an assigned table, and you must wait in the line.  The topic above regarding walking directly to your assigned table applies to traditional dining only.

[poocher]

We had the same table each night on Harmony.  By night 3, they were just waving us in.

[superduper123]

4 minutes ago, not-enough-cruising said:

If you have MTD, then you do not have an assigned table, and you must wait in the line.  The topic above regarding walking directly to your assigned table applies to traditional dining only.

Thank you for clarification. 🙂