Oceanview Cafe dinner service being eliminated?

[Arubamoose]

We usually do not do buffet for dinner but I would miss it.

 

Remember when X did a sushi station in the buffet?  DH and I would get some as soon as they opened and go back to the cabin and enjoy our appetizers on the balcony.

 

 

[LMaxwell]

4 hours ago, kwokpot said:

TBH I don't see this happening. I don't know any mainstream cruiseline that doesn't have it's buffet open for dinner, and Celebrity isn't going to be the first to do it. Whatsmore, none of Celebrity's ships have an alternative no fee food venue for dinner other than the MDRs, so I see zero chance of this happening. 

Yes, I was thinking about it more and when we go to OVC for dinner it is not like we are the only ones choosing to do so. While not as busy as lunch time, there are plenty of patrons. 

[LMaxwell]

10 minutes ago, WrittenOnYourHeart said:

Pre-pandemic, on it's Classic and Dream Class ships, Disney had its buffet area open as a sit-down order-from-a-menu dinner on all but the first and last night of a cruise. Very occasionally it would be closed on other nights for a crew recognition dinner or the like. But it was not a buffet.

 

I'm not sure that it has come back since reopening. I only thought of going once - but didn't as it seemed they took my least favorite items from the MDR menus and put them on the Cabanas menu, so I don't know how popular it was. They used it as a training area for new servers before moving them to the MDRs.

 

(No clue what they're doing with the food hall area on the Wish.)

I was on a Disney cruise in early 2022, but it was an older ship. It was only a 4 day cruise, and you are correct, no dinner service in their buffet. Disney's entertainment/theming heavily involved timed dinners and dinner shows; they did not even have anytime dining on the ship we were on; just early and late. 

[twincheryl]

5 hours ago, LMaxwell said:

It's going around on non-cruise affiliated social media sites.  

 

Could you share what those social media sites are?  I'm on several and haven't heard of this yet.

[WrittenOnYourHeart]

Just now, LMaxwell said:

I was on a Disney cruise in early 2022, but it was an older ship. It was only a 4 day cruise, and you are correct, no dinner service in their buffet. Disney's entertainment/theming heavily involved timed dinners and dinner shows; they did not even have anytime dining on the ship we were on; just early and late. 

 

Yes, they do not have anytime dining. It doesn't work with their dining model.

[LMaxwell]

Just now, twincheryl said:

Could you share what those social media sites are?  I'm on several and haven't heard of this yet.

No, sorry. We can't link or mention other forums here; I've gotten timeouts for such in the past. I find that overly restrictive however this place has the largest audience and the most that can verify information real time. 

[Ex-Airbalancer]

2 hours ago, Arubamoose said:

We usually do not do buffet for dinner but I would miss it.

 

Remember when X did a sushi station in the buffet?  DH and I would get some as soon as they opened and go back to the cabin and enjoy our appetizers on the balcony.

 

 

Miss those days , when they had coupons for Happy Hour , we would get a dish and sit up at Sunset Bar 

[Pipo]

That will represent a higher workload for restaurant service staff.
The only exception could be Celebrity Flora, Xpedition, and Xplore.

Edited January 2, 2023 by Pipo

[cgolf1]

This would really suck for us this year. We don't eat late, it screws with my stomach, and for some reason we can't get an any time slot earlier than 8 PM on three nights on our upcoming cruise. Our plan was to eat in oceanview those nights. In all of our cruises we have only eaten outside of the MDR once, specialty on Disney, so this is outside of our comfort zone. Fingers crossed the option is still there.

[irvington]

This seems sort of odd, given that it was open on our (very empty) Greek cruise last summer after things reopened. They did radically decrease the activities and so on so I would think there was where they would cut costs first.

[RichYak]

11 hours ago, cgolf1 said:

This would really suck for us this year. We don't eat late, it screws with my stomach, and for some reason we can't get an any time slot earlier than 8 PM on three nights on our upcoming cruise. Our plan was to eat in oceanview those nights.

I don't understand. Why wouldn't you simply go to the MDR earlier than 8pm instead of oceanview?

[thebutlerdidit]

11 hours ago, cgolf1 said:

This would really suck for us this year. We don't eat late, it screws with my stomach, and for some reason we can't get an any time slot earlier than 8 PM on three nights on our upcoming cruise. Our plan was to eat in oceanview those nights. In all of our cruises we have only eaten outside of the MDR once, specialty on Disney, so this is outside of our comfort zone. Fingers crossed the option is still there.

With any time you don’t need a slot. Walk to the dining room when you want to eat. 

[cgolf1]

9 minutes ago, RichYak said:

I don't understand. Why wouldn't you simply go to the MDR earlier than 8pm instead of oceanview?

We have been reading lately that getting in without a reservation is a longer wait than normal lately. When we go in the cruise planner the earliest open reservation we see is 8 PM. We know some people going on the Constellation in 3 weeks that were able to book last weekend for 6 PM every night. Not sure what is up with the Edge cruise we are on. 

[cgolf1]

2 minutes ago, thebutlerdidit said:

With any time you don’t need a slot. Walk to the dining room when you want to eat. 

We may try that we have just been reading the wait times have been long so we are keeping our options as open as possible. Being gluten free though makes it a little tougher though. 

[RichYak]

2 minutes ago, cgolf1 said:

We have been reading lately that getting in without a reservation is a longer wait than normal lately.

A few minutes wait wouldn't drive me to OVC for dinner. There are 4 MDRs to choose from on Edge. Not all will have a wait time for walk-ups.

[Josie201]

4 minutes ago, cgolf1 said:

We may try that we have just been reading the wait times have been long so we are keeping our options as open as possible. Being gluten free though makes it a little tougher though. 

Please don't be discouraged.  We were on Edge in November.  Same thing on line pre cruise, no reservations before 8:30 or 9:00 every night in all four dining rooms.  On board, we walked up between 6:30 and 7:00 at any one of the four and had no problems.  Actually, on the second night a very nice hostess booked us for the remaining 8 nights in a different dining room each night at 7:00 p.m. table for two, window requested. 

[Glendakayself]

My husband has a problem with all the activity in the main dining room due to a brain injury. He wants the familiarity of a one-course, quick meal like we have at home and is more comfortable seeing his food before deciding, and going to a quiet corner of the ocean view cafe to eat. We only eat meals in the buffet, the Captain’s Club coffee break, or continental room service breakfast. I have noticed more food service in the evening buffet over the past several years except on lobster night on Millennium in Alaska. However, we are happy with only a few choices. The officers and entertainment staff eat dinner in the buffet as well. When the buffet is busy at lunch, I find him a seat and go for our food while he remains seated. 

Edited January 2, 2023 by Glendakayself

[TeeRick]

I see this as an unsubstantiated rumor or speculation by those unknown social media (non-cruise) sources that the OP mentioned.  Closing the Oceanview for dinner would be a very unpopular decision.  I do not believe it will happen.  However the room service charges appear to be real by multiple sources here.

[RichYak]

Just now, TeeRick said:

I see this as an unsubstantiated rumor or speculation by those unknown social media (non-cruise) sources that the OP mentioned.  Closing the Oceanview for dinner would be a very unpopular decision.  I do not believe it will happen.  However the room service charges appear to be real by multiple sources here.

I second all of this.

[jelayne]

11 hours ago, cgolf1 said:

This would really suck for us this year. We don't eat late, it screws with my stomach, and for some reason we can't get an any time slot earlier than 8 PM on three nights on our upcoming cruise. Our plan was to eat in oceanview those nights. In all of our cruises we have only eaten outside of the MDR once, specialty on Disney, so this is outside of our comfort zone. Fingers crossed the option is still there.

While you can make a reservation for Select dining you do not need a reservation.  They do not fill all tables by reservations, there are tables available for those without reservations.

[LMaxwell]

11 hours ago, irvington said:

This seems sort of odd, given that it was open on our (very empty) Greek cruise last summer after things reopened. They did radically decrease the activities and so on so I would think there was where they would cut costs first.

Hopefully they don't have too many bright ideas...

[LMaxwell]

You don't need a reservation for MDR ever. Just walk up. Have never waited more than 5 minutes and I have never made a reservation.  So hopefully you don't feel anxiety over that.  

 

Social media claims this information is from the Equinox, but nothing proven yet. I think it would be a horrible choice. Over the past few years I've grown to really enjoy dinner at buffets on various cruise ships from time to time. It is enjoying our vacation at our pace. Instead of being at a table 6 inches from a stranger, we have all the room we want. Instead of being sat near a chaotic service station or revolving kitchen service door, we pick a quiet spot either with a window, or outside with beautiful seaviews. We get exactly what we want, how much of it we want, at whatever pace works for us. It's a fantastic option and breaks up the routine for us. Over the years on various ships I''ve found options never seen in the MDR's, and I've found options that are appetizers and selected entrees straight off specialty dining menus. I love that there is a bar inside the buffet, drink service is immediate. When you order a cocktail in the dining room...how many people have waited 20+ mins for a drink in MDR? Raise your hands. I expect to see a lot of hands.  In temperate climates I don't mind "dressing up" a bit for dinner, but the reality is I am just dressing for my own comfort. On hot climate cruises (Caribbean/Mexico) I often don't feel like "dressing up", so I've selected the buffet as a casual option I can wear my boat shoes and golf shorts. If Celebrity intends to reduce, restrict, eliminate, or otherwise downgrade or discontinue dinner service in OVC, I am showing up to the MDR exactly as I would to the buffet (have many times and it's not an issue, but just saying). And Guess where I NEVER get upsold on specialty dining and NEVER get the survey speech; in the OVC at dinner time. 

[PTC DAWG]

They aren’t going to permanently close the buffet for dinner..good grief people. 

[LB_NJ]

1 hour ago, thebutlerdidit said:

With any time you don’t need a slot. Walk to the dining room when you want to eat. 

You could wait 30 - 45 minutes without a reservation.

[LMaxwell]

49 minutes ago, PTC DAWG said:

They aren’t going to permanently close the buffet for dinner..good grief people. 

Two days ago it could be said they aren't going to charge for room service. Two weeks ago it could be said that no soda package was going to be $30 a day.  And that would have been reasonable and logical, but here we are now