Typical HAL dining policy?

[SeaBunny]

This is just a question, not a criticism, so please don't flame me.

 

Is HAL usually rigid about what you can get to eat in the dining room? The one time DH asked if chocolate ice cream was available, he was told that if it wasn't on the menu, it wasn't available.

 

This just seemed so out of character with the rest of our HAL experience.And, was totally unlike any of the other lines we've been on (RCL, Princess, Carnival) where the dining staff seemed to handle all types of requests that weren't on the menu (not always our requests, by the way).

 

Like I said, this is just an inquiry. DH makes the same request on every cruise and his ice cream fix starts appearing automatically. That this was not possible on HAL was no biggie at all. But I did wonder if it was just our waiter or regular policy.

[kryos]

To be honest, I'm shocked. Chocolate ice cream is not such an unusual item that I can't see it being available pretty much anytime. I would imagine the problem was with your waiter and not with any type of rigid policy.

 

Next time you sail on HAL and your husband makes that request, if the waiter turns him down, I would mention it to the area dining captain when he makes his rounds of the tables in his charge. He may very well be able to get it for you. Perhaps the waiter just didn't want to go to the trouble ... and the dining captain can thus "encourage" him to do so.

 

Now if you request something really unusual ... something that would be a lot of trouble to get for you ... such as a special type of meat not on the menu that evening ... then yes, I think it would be rough for the dining stewards to accommodate you ... simply because the kitchen is set up to produce a lot of fixed meals and wouldn't be equipped to prepare something special that was not on the menu. But chocolate ice cream? Surely that's not much trouble at all.

 

Blue skies ...

 

--rita

[jhannah]

Absolutely mention it to the staff captain if you are denied again. I've never heard of anyone having trouble getting any item not on the menu ... as long as it's available on the ship and accessible (not frozen and unable to be prepared.)

[roberts2005]

Many years ago we were traveling with friends on the Statendam. The area dining captain was always around our table at the end of dinner. One night we told him we would love a banana split. The next night at desert time a giant banana split was brought to the table.

[airlink diva]

Like the others stated, talk to the dining room captain. On the Westerdam, one of my tablemates could only eat white rolls, no wheat, rye or anyother type. When she told the waiter about this, he went to check on this. The dining room captain came by, and my tablemate told him of her request. The next night and for the remaining of the cruise, she had a basket of white rolls every night. The dining room captain stopped by each night to make sure that she was happy.

[MBeamTX]

I wonder if the dining steward would have to go up to the Lido to get a flavor of ice cream that is not on that night's dining room menu? I don't know if that's the case, but if it is, it could be a real inconvenience given the way HAL has the dining room service set up on some of the Vista ships now. There is relatively little time to turn over the dining room for the second seating now that people can arrive during a "window" of time instead of a set time. (And I'm not sure I like the new schedule much, at least not when early seating means arriving between 5:30 and 6 pm. We had confirmed the 6:15 pm seating before they changed Noordam to the leisure dining schedule. But I digress...)

 

In any event, ice cream is readily available in the Lido from mid-day to midnight, at least on the Lido ships, so it's an easy urge to satisfy.

 

Happy cruising,

Susan