Dining Preferences

[brwneyedgirl86]

My fiance and I will be cruising on the Serenade of the Seas in September to Hawaii for our honeymoon and we want to request a private table in the dining room. It's no offense to other people, but its our honeymoon, we don't want to worry about making small talk with strangers we've hardly met.

 

My question: we have the later dinner and how difficult is it to get our own table during that time? Can we request it with our cruise agent or do we have to wait until we get on the ship?

 

Thanks!

[Sheffie]

You should request this as soon as possible, don't wait till onboard.

 

As an aside, eating with others is not such a bad thing! We enjoy our own time together, and then we enjoy eating with others. You may find that you will meet some life-long friends this way.

 

What a wonderful honeymoon!

[pcur]

DH and I have had tables for 2 for YEARS on our cruises. We just like each other's company at dinner.

 

Yes, have your TA request a table for two, AND fax the dining coordinator with this request, also.

 

Then, when you get on the ship the first day, go to the dining room and check your table. The table number is printed on your SeaPass card you'll receive when you check in.

 

If it's not a table for two (and, they usually don't get it right for some reason), then ask when and where the maitre d' is taking dining change requests. Sometimes it's in the dining room, and sometimes in a conference room or a lounge. It's usually around 1 PM.

 

Go and ask for the change.

 

They will be able to accomodate you. They "made" a table for two for us on one cruise. They can tuck them away all over the dining room. Last cruise they just put us at a table for four that didn't have the other two places taken.

 

Congrats, too, on your upcoming wedding!

[crusinmama06]

I have read alot of honeymooners post the same question, so I am guessing there willl be 100 other couples on board (at least) making the same request.

 

So request it before you get on board. Then as soon as you board, go put a formal request in again.

 

We ate with a group of honeymooners on our honeymoon cruise, it was fun for us. The server joked around with us. We had a great time. But I understand your desire to be alone.

[brwneyedgirl86]

Thanks for the advice. I'll call our cruise planner tonight.

 

Seriously, September can not come soon enough!!

[beachchick]

pcur: I don't think it's a matter of them "getting it right"; it's a matter of exactly what crusinmama06 mentioned. If there are 25 tables for 2 (I have no idea, that's just for this example) and 200 honeymooning/anniversary/just-prefer-it couples (and believe me, there can literally be hundreds of honeymooning couples--one cruise we were on, they mentioned that it was something like 150 couples), then there is NO way that RCI can grant that many "table for 2" requests. They do what they can, and it is possible to request a change once onboard if you aren't assigned one. Sometimes those changes can be acommodated and sometimes not.

 

It is definitely best to make a request ASAP and have it listed on your reservation. Faxing an additional request as well is a good idea. Just always keep in mind that it is a request, not a reservation. RCI will not guarantee any specific seating for anyone (except I suspect RS guests and probably C&A Diamond+).

 

We also far prefer a table for 2 and always request that (or a table just for our family if we are cruising with others). We sat at a large table once, and once was enough.

 

brwneyedgirl86: I want to make sure you understand that I hope you are able to get the table you want. I do think you need to be aware of how RCI works with the dining room seating requests, just in case you have to ask for a change of table or if for some reason they can't acommodate you onboard. I hope you have a lovely and romantic honeymoon that is everything you want it to be--including that table for 2.

 

beachchick

[pcur]

What I meant was in the 10 years we've requested a table for two with our initial reservations, RCCL has assigned us a table for two very few times, while Celebrity has done it both times we cruised with them.

 

MY TA explained it to me once. Celebrity actually has a category of table for 2 people, while RCCL has "small", and this usually means 4 people. She has to make a special request on our reservation for a "small table, 2 people".

 

When we get on the ship, the special requests, advance notice, faxes to the dining coordinator, etc. are not usually successful with RCCL. To us, that's not getting it right.

 

I didn't want to discourage the OP with all of this initially, because we always end up with the table for 2, so I wanted to emphasize more the way to make sure she gets her desired dining seating once on the ship.