Dining post covid (MDR seating)

[WackyWayne]

We have some questions about dinner in the MDR and we were wondering how HAL does things now, since it has been a few years away and the world has changed. 

 

We are a party of 2 and our TA said open seating was the only available choice on our Rotterdam sailing.  We were kind of looking forward to a nice shared table, like the good old days.  Our cruises since COVID (on other cruise lines) have been almost exclusively 2-tops, sometimes with timed reservations made at home, sometimes with a virtual queue via the app.

 

1. Is open seating busy time still manager with pagers?  or is it via the HAL app now?
2. My experience with open seating years ago was you had to go when they opened the doors or go fairly late to avoid a full queue of pagers.  
3. I believe I saw that HAL is NOT currently doing advance timed reservations for open seating, correct?
4. With open seating, will we get a choice of a 2-top or sharing each night?
5. For fixed seating, is HAL doing anything different post-COVID?  like more 2-tops or social distancing?

[crystalspin]

Following.

[Mary229]

Go to the dining room at embarkation or one of the reservation stations that will be set up on the ship for embarkation day.  Request your desired arrangement then.  If you want fixed late dining I am sure whatever your requested table will be available.  Early dining fixed seems to fill up fast.

 

you can even make reservations that day for the duration if you wish.  I have never used the app for reservations in the MDR and I am not sure of the status.
 

as to walk up service on two of my shorter cruises this year we did use walk up, open seating and never had an issue with getting an immediate table. We usually walk up around 6:30.  One warning about walk up service for those of us who like a table for two the open dining table for two is often a table for 4 with 2 inches of separation. 

[JeffElizabeth]

We were curious too. We always loved the big eight person tables, and will be on a Hawaii cruise in October. Would hate to be confined to a 2 person setup. 

On Princess in September,  we were traveling as two couples and were always seated at a four top. 

[*Miss G*]

There were shared tables on our cruise last week.  No social distancing.

[CruiserBruce]

There have been shared tables on all 3 of our cruises this year.

 

We had reserved open seating on all 3 of our cruises this year, all early in Open Seating, although on one cruise they transferred us and our requested open seating time into the fixed seating side. It worked for us.