Marina main dining room question

[kstrittm]

All, thanks so much for your kind responses to my previous request for information as a new Oceania guest.  Many of my questions were answered.  I'm still a bit confused about the main dining room, however.  Some posters said they do not take reservations, and it is totally open seating.  In my mind, I'm picturing chaos at the typical 6:00 - 6:30 dining times.  Is the line horrifically long?  Does anybody have advice other than to eat dinner at 8:30 or 5:00?

 

Thanks in advance...

[Cape Hernlopen]

Dear "K":

On our last trip on Marina (February 2020) we never had to wait more than 5 mins. for a table for two in the 7:00 pm time frame in the MDR.  We almost always were given a window location.  No chaos whatsoever!  We have two cruises booked on Marina for 2024 after the refurbishment.

Joel Barry

[thebsinmiss]

One of the advantages of the smaller ship are there are so many dining options.  The specialty restaurants can be counted on taking a good number of passengers every night. For arguments sake say :

Polo Grill  50 people (bet it sits more) x 2 seatings = 100 passengers

Toscana  50 x 2 seatings = 100 passengers

Jacques 50 x 2 (?) = 100

Red Ginger 50 x 2 = 100

Terrace Cafe (open seating)   - no idea but bet they can get several hundred through on a busy night

Waves Grill ( with new Pizza option)  = 100 ?

Grand Dining room  - has to seat 200 plus easy. Assume average of 2 sittings 

Does not even consider room service orders, passengers that eat in port and passengers that just don't feel like diner after a full day of hiking .

 

Book your reservations at the specialty restaurants as soon as the system lets you and go with the flow on the other nights.  We've NEVER gone hungry on Oceania

 

[ORV]

Just a couple of points to your post. 5:00 is not an option. Usual opening time is 6:30. Our recent cruise had almost half of the ship as new to Oceania. The GDR usually had a line at 6:30 but it went quickly. The Terrace was also busy most nights, Specialties not so much until later in the cruise when people realized they could get extra nights.

 

So it's not chaos, and the line is not terrifically long. Keep in mind these are not large ships, at max only about 1250 passengers.  

[Snaefell3]

2 hours ago, kstrittm said:

In my mind, I'm picturing chaos at the typical 6:00 - 6:30 dining times.  Is the line horrifically long?

I've never eaten in the GDR the first night (I've always snagged an extra specialty visit earlier that day at the Dining Reservations Desk)

 

By Day #2, all except the slow learners are ready for the dialog:

O: Room number?

G: 12345

O: Thank you  ::nods to escort::

 

The line moves at about 10 tables/minute, and is long gone in 10 minutes.

[kstrittm]

45 minutes ago, ORV said:

Just a couple of points to your post. 5:00 is not an option. Usual opening time is 6:30. Our recent cruise had almost half of the ship as new to Oceania. The GDR usually had a line at 6:30 but it went quickly. The Terrace was also busy most nights, Specialties not so much until later in the cruise when people realized they could get extra nights.

 

So it's not chaos, and the line is not terrifically long. Keep in mind these are not large ships, at max only about 1250 passengers.  

Do you happen to know what the dinner hours are on Marina?  Thanks!

[pinotlover]

48 minutes ago, Snaefell3 said:

I've never eaten in the GDR the first night (I've always snagged an extra specialty visit earlier that day at the Dining Reservations Desk)

 

By Day #2, all except the slow learners are ready for the dialog:

O: Room number?

G: 12345

O: Thank you  ::nods to escort::

 

The line moves at about 10 tables/minute, and is long gone in 10 minutes.

True.

 

We typically wait until around 7:00 to go to the GDR or Terrace. This gives ample time for all those with walkers, scooters, and/or other mobility issues to get easily seated and for us not to be in the way. Even at 7:00, on most nights in either venue, we can still get a two top when desired. Might be more difficult in the TC , but we rarely eat dinner there. We most typically tell the hostess sharing and are seated immediately in the GDR. Often, even with the sharing request, we still dine alone because of a lack of others accepting to do so. 

 

We don’t have to dine alone, we don’t have to have a special specific table, and we don’t have to have any specific waiter if on duty. If any of those qualifiers do apply, one may want to arrive a bit earlier.

[pmatawan]

On Riviera now. Don't worry about seating in main dining room. Often it is only 50-75% filled. At opening time, there may be a line, but the waiters line up and escort you to your table very efficiently.  As others have said, the wait time is minimal.

[Harters]

Our usual dining time at home, or when we make restaurant reservations, is 7.30 - 8.00. And that's the time we've gone to the GDR on both our cruises (Marina & Nautica). Never been a queue.

 

6.30  would be much too early for us, so pleased to be avoiding what seems to be a busy time for many travellers. It was actually one of the reasons we stopped cruising with P & O, decades back when they operated fixed sittings. Our last cruise with them had us allocated to the early sitting and that was the final straw. 

[Snaefell3]

5 hours ago, Harters said:

Our last cruise with them had us allocated to the early sitting and that was the final straw.

...and the Maître d' wouldn't change you to late seating?!?

[MEFIowa]

It would be fascinating to compare how many are eating each night in the TC versus the GDR. We've spent 40 nights on O since 12/2021 (both Riviera for 30 and Sirena for 10) and have NEVER once eaten in the GDR. We prefer the TC.

 

One might argue that often the TC is too full. Certainly the grilling station is! If you want to get a good seat in the TC, your perfect one, wherever that might be, you might get there at 6:20 pm. We love to eat under the stars!

[Harters]

31 minutes ago, Snaefell3 said:

and the Maître d' wouldn't change you to late seating?!?

Correct. Not even with the "usual incentive" expressing our gratitude if he was able to do so. 

 

He added us to a list of folk wanting to change but said it would be dependent on others freeing up seats by wanting a swap to early sitting (which he didnt expect to happen). 

[MarkWiltonM]

We like to eat early and on all three classes of ships we usually arrive at the Grand Dining Room a little earlier than 6:30. On evenings that they expect to be especially busy they will sometimes open the dining room 10 to 20 minutes early. Usually, there is a short line waiting for the dining room to open but the wait is quite short, usually 5 minutes or less. On some ships we have noticed that if you come at 6:30 or 6:45 there can be a significantly longer line on some nights but I think that moves fairly quickly as well. Now, once seated, the service can be efficient or slow. This depends on the servers. If we sit in a section and find the service lacking, we don't allow the host(s) to seat us in those servers' sections again. We don't like to complain about any servers in particular, so we just say we don't want to sit in that area and leave it at that. (There are always at least a few careless, inefficient, and/or unenthusiastic servers in the main dining rooms.) Once we hit on a service team that is (1) efficient, (2) friendly, (3) has good communication skills, and (4) can discuss the menu with some indication that they know (and even care about) what they're talking about, we then ask to be seated in that team's section for the duration of the cruise. 

Edited February 29 by MarkWiltonM

[Snaefell3]

56 minutes ago, Harters said:

Correct. Not even with the "usual incentive" expressing our gratitude if he was able to do so. 

 

He added us to a list of folk wanting to change but said it would be dependent on others freeing up seats by wanting a swap to early sitting (which he didnt expect to happen). 

Ouch!  That sounds like a ship design/ship demographic mismatch.

 

Yeah, I'd have taken my custom elsewhere, too.

[kstrittm]

3 hours ago, MEFIowa said:

It would be fascinating to compare how many are eating each night in the TC versus the GDR. We've spent 40 nights on O since 12/2021 (both Riviera for 30 and Sirena for 10) and have NEVER once eaten in the GDR. We prefer the TC.

 

One might argue that often the TC is too full. Certainly the grilling station is! If you want to get a good seat in the TC, your perfect one, wherever that might be, you might get there at 6:20 pm. We love to eat under the stars!

What does TC stand for?

[EJL2023]

18 minutes ago, kstrittm said:

What does TC stand for?

Terrace Cafe. 

[Redtravel]

Usually more people eat in the GDR on the first few nights.  You may find a line. It moves quickly.  Why doesn’t it continue?  It may take some guests a few nights to discoverer the Terrace Grill at night.  I usually hate ship buffets.  Oceania buffet is unlike most cruise lines.  It is very good. Not only do they serve everything on the GDR menu, they have freshly made sushi and grilled to order items. Grill can cook lamb chops, steak, chicken, salmon, lobster tail, shrimp, etc.  it is excellent.  Tables are set with white linen clothes.  On nice evenings, you can sit outside.  We recently were on Vista. waves at night has table service with delicious Italian items.  
pizza is excellent.  We ordered pizza and had it delivered to our table inside.  Supposedly other ships will open waves at night.  
Try all the dining venues.  You won’t be disappointed. 

 

 

 

[Vallesan]

3 hours ago, Redtravel said:

Usually more people eat in the GDR on the first few nights.  You may find a line. It moves quickly.  Why doesn’t it continue?  It may take some guests a few nights to discoverer the Terrace Grill at night.  I usually hate ship buffets.  Oceania buffet is unlike most cruise lines.  It is very good. Not only do they serve everything on the GDR menu, they have freshly made sushi and grilled to order items. Grill can cook lamb chops, steak, chicken, salmon, lobster tail, shrimp, etc.  it is excellent.  Tables are set with white linen clothes.  On nice evenings, you can sit outside.  We recently were on Vista. waves at night has table service with delicious Italian items.  
pizza is excellent.  We ordered pizza and had it delivered to our table inside.  Supposedly other ships will open waves at night.  
Try all the dining venues.  You won’t be disappointed. 

 

 

 

We have never eaten at the TC in the evening but you make it sound really enticing. Can you have waiter service from the buffet?

[tigerfan75]

1 minute ago, Vallesan said:

We have never eaten at the TC in the evening but you make it sound really enticing. Can you have waiter service from the buffet?

No waiter service for food items from the buffet.  However, if one has difficulty carrying their plates of food due to mobility issues or the motion of the ship, a Waiter will come to help you with the items to return to your table.  Beverages are served by Waiters.  Sommeliers handle the wine and spirits.

[Vallesan]

1 minute ago, tigerfan75 said:

No waiter service for food items from the buffet.  However, if one has difficulty carrying their plates of food due to mobility issues or the motion of the ship, a Waiter will come to help you with the items to return to your table.  Beverages are served by Waiters.  Sommeliers handle the wine and spirits.

Thank you. Yes mobility plus motion don’t help with carrying plates! Waiters help at lunch time so we will give it a try one evening.

[Harters]

2 hours ago, Vallesan said:

we will give it a try one evening.

Worth a try, particularly on a nice evening when you can sit outside. Or, when  they have a "special" night that appeals - as our cruise last year when the buffet was mainly Spanish (or Spain orientated) dishes. Other than that, I prefer the GDR for dinner. 

[Vallesan]

Yes. We did an Indian ‘special’ evening at the Colonnade on the Encore last September and it was very nice.

 

The only ‘specials’ I’ve seen on Oceania have been seafood which my OH doesn’t eat, or ‘American’ something or other which doesn’t appeal to us either.

 

Maybe I’ve just not taken enough notice!

Edited March 1 by Vallesan

[Harters]

Nautica was on a Barcelona round trip to the Canaries, so all ports were in Spain. They ran the "Taste of Spain" (or whatever it was called)  on two consecutive nights. It was actually very decent - lots of tapa-like food which worked well for a buffet. 

[EJL2023]

I enjoy the TC in the evening also, but definitely not all the time. One thing I see mentioned on here some is that the TC has everything that is also on the GDR menu. I have not noticed this to be the case, it may have a few items also available in the GDR, I would agree. But I don’t believe it is accurate to say that it has everything, at least not in my experiences.  

[MEFIowa]

9 hours ago, Redtravel said:

... We recently were on Vista. waves at night has table service with delicious Italian items.  
pizza is excellent.  We ordered pizza and had it delivered to our table inside.  Supposedly other ships will open waves at night....

Riviera has a dedicated pizza station at night at Waves. Tried it once on our 20-night B2B in November. It was fine. Better than the lunch pizza, but I don't cruise to consider mundane pizza anything special. We eat that most every Friday night like tens of millions of Americans.