"As You Wish" Dining Review Volendam 23 Nov-3 Dec

[Robin7]

My review of "As You Wish Dining" as it happened to us onboard the Volendam, November 23-December 3, 2007:

 

When we arrived on the Volendam, we discovered we had been assigned 8pm fixed seating. It was printed right on our ship card, along with our table number, which I thought was nice. I, because of health issues, just cannot eat that late. So we immediately went to the Queen's Room and chose to change to As You Wish Dining. We were told we could make reservations for 5:15 or 5:30 (or 7:45 or some other time I didn't pay attention to because it was too late) but had to take 'pot luck' (my term, not HAL's) if we wanted to walk in at other than those four times. On all but two days, we went to the dining room at random times between 6pm and 7pm. Two days we made a reservation for 5:15, having waited too late in the day to get the 5:30 time. (Moral: If you want an early time or a table for two, call EARLY.)

 

When you walk into the lower dining room, there are two podiums. The one to the left is for passengers without reservations. The one on the right is for those pax with reservations. After you call to reserve a table, a reservation card is delivered to your stateroom, and you should bring with you. The guys each podium have a computer with a dining room map on it, the tables highlighted in various colors, and they use that to assign tables. After they assign your table, a steward leads you to it. If you do walk in, the computer guy will ask you if you care to share a table with others. We always said yes, so I don't know what happens if you say no.

One night, we arrived at 7pm and were given a pager. (I asked my husband if we were at Outback Steakhouse. Heh.) Our wait, however, was less than five minutes. Every other time, we were lead immediately to a table.

 

At least twice we imposed our own wait as we saw people being seated with whom we had already had the dubious pleasure of dining and didn't want to repeat the experience, so we headed upstairs to the Explorer's Lounge for a couple of minutes until we thought 'the coast was clear.'

I have two complaints about AYW dining. The first being you can never get to know your stewards since they change each night. I suppose that would be alleviated by requesting one of the earlier set times early each day, but we were too lazy. Also, the service was VERY spotty--great at one table, slow the next night.

 

My second complaint is AYW dining causes you to have to have the very same conversation every single night.

 

"Where are you from?" (My personal bugaboo since we're from Utah which always leads to "Are you Mormon?" (yes) which leads to "So you're voting for Mitt, right?" As if being Mormon meant we were surely supporting Mitt Romney! I want to talk about politics at dinner even less than I want to read dress code or smoking threads on this board, and that's saying A LOT! Most people responded to "We prefer to wait to see who comes out of both parties' conventions before we choose a candidate" and a gentle deflection of the subject but some continued to go on and on about Mitt or Hillary or Rudy or Obama. Argh.)

 

and "What do you do?"

 

and "Have you cruised often?"

 

And on and on and on, again and again and again.

 

At least we had the chance to refine our answers over the ten days, because we had dinner with 36 different people! 36! It would have been higher except we chose to go to the Lido BBQ one night (never again) and actually called and requested a table for two the last night (which didn't exactly end up for two) because we were so weary of the same talk over and over again.

 

Over all, we will either be requesting traditional early dining or, if we can't get that, we will be diligent about getting our request for a table for two in early in the day.

 

The bright side of eating with 36 different people is we had several very interesting and some annoying experiences:

 

The first night we arrived at 6pm. We were lead immediately upstairs (which never happened again) and seated with two other couples, very elderly friends traveling together. Our steward could not figure out why we were seated there as it was in the traditional dining area. We didn't know, so we couldn't help him out. We'd taken the red-eye Thanksgiving night and because of various things had kept busy since boarding and hadn't had more than three hours sleep. We were crazy tired. My husband kept falling asleep! Directly after we finished eating, we went to bed, missing the first show. (We never do that!) But ever after when we'd run into those people on the ship, they would exclaim "He's awake!" when they would see my husband. You would not believe how often we saw them! Heh.

 

The second night we had dinner with two couples again. One of the men was very pompous and arrogant and absolutely dominated the conversation. This couple was one of our reasons for our self-imposed wait time on a couple of later nights. The truly ironic thing is the last night we reserved a table for two. We arrived, and the table for two was separated from a table for four by about a foot. Guess who came in and was seated next to us at the table for four???? Yes. That man and his companion. Argh!

 

One night we had dinner with two Canadians, two good-ole-boys from the South, and a couple who were adopting a baby girl from China. One of the other men could not leave that poor couple alone about their pending adoption, asking them every question imaginable, including how much it was going to cost ($35,000!) and how could they afford a cruise??? Some people! Who does that???

 

Another time we had dinner with a true Southern Belle. She was quite a lady. The only problem was she ate SOOOOOOOOOO SLOWLY. It was an hour from the time we FINISHED our main courses until she finished. We (and the other couple) felt obligated to stay, and I wanted dessert! I really didn't want to be rude, but she sure could have sped up a little!

An accountant spent the entire dinner asking the most detailed questions about cruising. That was fairly entertaining. I told her about this site, so I hope she finds it.

 

We were seated numerous times with Canadians, and unfortunately most of them wanted to complain about our government, our president, and the war. At least twice the men (it was always men) wouldn't take either mine or my husband's strong hints to change the subject. Now, I have my own opinions about all three of the above subjects but I also believe in what I call 'Little Brother Syndrome'. I can beat up my little brother, but you had better not lay a hand on him! So I can say whatever I want about my government and its leaders and choices, but when you do, it just ticks me off. I was starting to get VERY annoyed by the end of the cruise by the anti-American sentiment our friends to the north were not hesitant to express to me.

 

And my favorite story:

 

There was a couple across the hall from us that we ran into repeatedly. She was quite elderly (age 88 we discovered), and he was quite a bit younger and wore the world's worst toupee. (Really, it was the worst I've ever seen, and toupees like that are the reason my husband, when he started balding, rejected the idea out of hand.) They were very nice and friendly but loud and clueless. You know the kind I mean? They were another reason we took a walk instead of heading into the dining room immediately. That night was formal night. He showed up in just a collared shirt, no jacket or tie. We witnessed the dining room manager very nicely telling him he had to return to his room for a jacket and tie or eat elsewhere. He was (very loudly) not amused. So when they boarded the elevator, we went into the dining room. We were lead to a table for eight, and then there we sat. And sat. And sat. No one else was seated with us. For ten minutes! Then who should they lead in? You guessed it! Our across-the-hall neighbors! He was now attired in a jacket and tie.

It turned out that she was his MOTHER. She also heartily confused the steward when she refused to order an entree. After ordering soup, she waved him away and said, "That's all for now." "But madam, you don't have an entree." "That's okay." He said okay and left, shaking his head. After looking closely at her, I realized she didn't have any teeth! No wonder she didn't want an entree. So on we went to the standard questions. She kept commenting on the fancy food. That she hadn't had food this fancy anywhere. So I figured her for a first -time cruiser. I asked her if they'd cruised before. Her airy answer with another wave of the hand: "Oh, we've been everywhere. We travel a lot." LOL. So much for my 'profiling' skills.

 

So "As You Wish" was an adventure for us. There was always a little sense of anticipation as we headed to dinner: Who will we be eating with tonight???

 

Robin

[Drew358]

Thank you for sharing your experience.

[jhannah]

All the more reason I'll not opt for AYWD. Thanks so much for sharing your stories with us. I'm continually amazed (but I shouldn't be) at how boorish many people are. You sound like you handled it in an admirable way. I'm not sure I would be so gracious!

[mamaofami]

Thanks, Roz for all those little tidbits. That's exactly the reason I want traditional dining with a table for two. I'm very sociable, but when I eat, I want to know I will be comfortable with my dining partners. And I don't want to do that small talk over and over again every night.

[fann1sh]

On the "Ask a Cruise Question" board, there was a recent thread about LDS cruisers. I warned the OP to expect lots of "Mitt Romney" conversations - sorry to hear I was right, at least for you.

 

Why do people do that?

 

Also sorry to hear some mouthy fellow countrymen felt the need to "share". You'd think they'd have the sense as God gave geese, and be better guests while embarking on a cruise from the United States.

 

I've been slowly coming around to the idea that AYWD might be a good idea. You've spoken eloquently about down side. Thanks for sharing (in a good way :D)!

[mamaofami]

Robin, so sorry I got your name wrong on the above post.

[Riversedge]

Very amusing and well written review. 'As you wish' dining is exactly the reason we no longer cruise on NCL. After that we were sure it would never catch on with cruisers but it seems I was wrong! We're trying HAL for the first time and will stick with whatever ship gives me the same table every single night. I love the rapport we build up with our servers. Of course you can get stuck with bad table companions every single night that way:)

[hammybee]

Oh the people we meet.......I wonder if someone will soon post a thread about their Volendam dining experience and mention the balding guy who fell asleep at their dinner table.:D

 

I thoroughly enjoyed your perspective.

 

I am thinking that the best thing about open seating, from your perspective, is that you were not assigned to a fixed table/ early seating with 1) Someone who wanted the inside scoop on Warren Jeffs

2) pompous/arrogant guy and his partner 3)the slow poke Southern Belle, 4) Canadians who want to discuss politics and 5) the toothless wonder, from across the hall with Toupee Guy.

 

It sounds to me like AYWD was the best possible outcome, all things considered. :)

[RevNeal]

Thank you for your honest, straight forward, interesting, and quite humorous review of the Open Seating schedule of As You Wish Dining! I especially appreciate your outlining how the process works when arriving in the dining room. I also appreciate your sketching a picture of the "waiting game" that didn't make it entirely negative yet also reflected how it worked. I'm particularly pleased that the Open Dining schedule of AYWD worked well for you, and it gives me hope that if I ever go with it everything will turn out ok.

 

I wonder how those who believe AYWD can't possibly have any downsides will receive your report ... and, likewise, how those who can't stand it at all will read it.

[Lee77]

Oh Dear! Is it difficult to get a table for 2? We like to eat around 6pm. On NCL we never had a problem so I am hoping it will be the same on the Zaandam.

[cruz chic]

We were seated numerous times with Canadians, and unfortunately most of them wanted to complain about our government, our president, and the war. At least twice the men (it was always men) wouldn't take either mine or my husband's strong hints to change the subject. Now, I have my own opinions about all three of the above subjects but I also believe in what I call 'Little Brother Syndrome'. I can beat up my little brother, but you had better not lay a hand on him! So I can say whatever I want about my government and its leaders and choices, but when you do, it just ticks me off. I was starting to get VERY annoyed by the end of the cruise by the anti-American sentiment our friends to the north were not hesitant to express to me.

 

I find this interesting that the Canadains were complaining about your government. Being Canadian myself I think we have plenty to complain about in our own government without attacking other countries. Too strange.:D

[RevNeal]

I find this interesting that the Canadains were complaining about your government. Being Canadian myself I think we have plenty to complain about in our own government without attacking other countries. Too strange.:D

 

:) That tends to be my attitude and approach as well. I try to avoid politics as much as I can, and to the extent that it's possible I never bring up religion or theology (other than in answering the age-old question "What do you do?").

[Jemima]

In AYWD the table size is a request. On the Ryndam last month we always reserved with a "sit with others" request. A couple of times we were given a table for two instead. We had no awful tablemates. We had different servers nightly and all were good. I do still prefer traditional.

[boards]

t is beginning to sound like the best place to dine is in the Lido. You pretty well the pick of where you want to side and with whom, at least that has been our experience. We are scheduled to have the main sitting for our next cruise in May with a table for six. The four cruises we taken so far we have enjoyed our table mates and they have enjoyed us to. But reading this thread it is sounding like it is just about our time for a different experience, so maybe the Lido here we come.

[rochelle_s]

Thanks for sharing your wonderful review. I am so glad we have confirmed traditional dining on our cruise in May.

 

My apologies for my fellow Canadians and their criticism of your government. It is true we have enough to worry about with our own government. Maybe we just get too much American televiion here. You can't flip a channel without seeing something political, Anderson Cooper is forever 'keeping them honest' and Lou Dobbs never seems pleased with anything the government does.

 

Were those Canadians never told you don't discuss religion or politics??.....especially with people you hardly know!

 

It sounds though as if you didn't let any of this ruin your cruise. Hopefully on your next cruise you will get the dinner seating you most prefer.

 

Happy Sailing.

[wynkys]

Robin,

Thank you for a comprehensive and entertaining account of your experience with AYWD.

We need more of these types of reviews to give us a taste of both the advantages and disadvantages of this type of dining.

 

Wayne

[Two if by Sea]

To the OP -- one question I still have from your wonderful report on AYWD is why you said you would never dine in the Lido again -- what was wrong with that experience?

 

Thanks so much for the great report! We are currently signed up for AYW, which I think will work out fine for us. The flip side of not being able to sit with great people every night is that you don't have to sit with the same awful people every night either -- and who knows who you'll get.

 

In our case, I'm very much hoping we'll find another family with a child our daughter's age and compatible temperament. The odds of being seated with such a family in the first place are fairly low, I would guess, in traditional dining. But if she FINDS such a person in Club HAL or elsewhere, we can make plans to eat together after that.

 

Or even better -- send the two girls off to the Lido to enjoy themselves, and sit at leisure with the parents in the dining room and have ADULT conversation for a change!

 

[terrydtx]

Robin,

 

Great review on AYWD and we enjoyed meeting you and your DH on the cruise

 

Since we were traveling with a group of 6 we didn’t have to worry about table mates and on the third night we found a serving staff and table we really liked so we booked a reservation at 7:45 every night but got seated earlier at 7:30 when we showed up with our reservation card at the left podium. I think we ran into the same Canadian passengers as I had a conversation with 2 men on the lower promenade deck about our President and government. In fact one of them kept referring to our President as a “war monger butcher” and I had to do all I could to restrain from punching him in the nose. I am usually very opinionated about politics but when on vacation that is the last thing I want to discuss over dinner, a drink or while reading a book on the LP deck chairs. It sounds like your biggest downside to AYWD was the different tablemates every night. Putting the shoe on the other foot, what if the Canadians and the bad toupee guy and his mother were assigned to your table with a traditional seating for the whole 10 nights? At least you could choose to not sit with them again with the AYWD. My wife and I had a conversation with 2 couples in the Crows Nest who were also on AYWD. They were fortunate to have been seated together on the first night of the cruise and hit it off so they told us they showed up at the same time every night 6:30 to sit together in the DR. They usually got a table for 4 or 6 and the revolving tablemates game was not such a problem in this case.

[pipedreams62]

Doe anyone remember when AYW dining went by 2 different names?

 

1. Lido Buffet

 

2. Room service

[RevNeal]

To the OP -- one question I still have from your wonderful report on AYWD is why you said you would never dine in the Lido again -- what was wrong with that experience?

 

Allow me to presume to answer this question. Robin (the OP) didn't say that they wouldn't dine in the Lido again. What Robin wrote was that they would "never again" partake of the Lido BBQ. ("we chose to go to the Lido BBQ one night (never again)" Big difference. I gathered that they didn't care for the pool-side BBQ that HAL offers at least once each cruise at a late-port departure. I can understand this, though for my own reasons; I'm sure Robin has some specific reasons for not liking the Lido pool-side BBQ.

[Robin7]

I gathered that they didn't care for the pool-side BBQ that HAL offers at least once each cruise at a late-port departure. I can understand this, though for my own reasons; I'm sure Robin has some specific reasons for not liking the Lido pool-side BBQ.

 

Thank you, RevNeal. You're correct. We have never eaten in the Lido for dinner. We just prefer the dining room, but we thought we'd try out the BBQ dinner offered one night. It's held out around the pool. We're not big Lido fans for breakfast or lunch, either, but we ate there a fair amount this trip for various reasons. The main reason we're not wild about the Lido is we like to sit down together and have our food at the same time. So much of a buffet is spent trundling back and forth to get your food or drink or stuff you forgot. The food was great, we just didn't like having to wander around with a laden tray and find a table. (That's my complaint about breakfast and lunch as well.) I heard one lady say, "If I wanted to eat at Golden Corral, I'd stay at home." LOL! That's exactly how we feel!

 

Robin

[Fatfish]

Robin...Thanks so much for your wonderful and honest review.....I'm still laughing.....I can still remember some of our own experiences on Rennaisance cruises with AWD...LOL

[Robin7]

It sounds like your biggest downside to AYWD was the different tablemates every night. Putting the shoe on the other foot, what if the Canadians and the bad toupee guy and his mother were assigned to your table with a traditional seating for the whole 10 nights?

 

That's a good point, Terry. :eek:

 

We would choose AYWD again. It was very nice to go to dinner between 6-7pm and not be locked into one particular time. We would even choose to sit with others again, I'm just not sure we'd like to do it every night. I'd be more diligent about making a reservation for a table for two.

 

Our next trip, however, is for 14 nights on board the Volendam (post drydock) from New Zealand to Australia. We will be with four other family members so I assume we'll mostly be seated by ourselves.

 

Robin

[hammybee]

Robin,

 

Great review on AYWD and we enjoyed meeting you and your DH on the cruise

 

Since we were traveling with a group of 6 we didn’t have to worry about table mates and on the third night we found a serving staff and table we really liked so we booked a reservation at 7:45 every night but got seated earlier at 7:30 when we showed up with our reservation card at the left podium. I think we ran into the same Canadian passengers as I had a conversation with 2 men on the lower promenade deck about our President and government. In fact one of them kept referring to our President as a “war monger butcher” and I had to do all I could to restrain from punching him in the nose. I am usually very opinionated about politics but when on vacation that is the last thing I want to discuss over dinner, a drink or while reading a book on the LP deck chairs. It sounds like your biggest downside to AYWD was the different tablemates every night. Putting the shoe on the other foot, what if the Canadians and the bad toupee guy and his mother were assigned to your table with a traditional seating for the whole 10 nights? At least you could choose to not sit with them again with the AYWD. My wife and I had a conversation with 2 couples in the Crows Nest who were also on AYWD. They were fortunate to have been seated together on the first night of the cruise and hit it off so they told us they showed up at the same time every night 6:30 to sit together in the DR. They usually got a table for 4 or 6 and the revolving tablemates game was not such a problem in this case.

 

As much as I appear to be an advocate of open seating, it really does not matter to me. Fixed and open seating have strengths and weaknesses. I am usually easy going enough to make the best of most social situations.

 

The more one travels outside the U.S. the more common it is to meet people who talk politics at dinner or over cocktails. That politics is not a generally accepted topic for dinner conversation in the U.S. does not make it wrong or impolite in different cultures. I think it's sport in many cultures, especially some European cultures. Embracing different cultures, as opposed to imposing my own, is what travel is all about

 

Agreeing with people like this usually takes the wind out of their sails and creates the opportunity to see things from a different perspective and learn what they value or not, about their own culture.

 

For those passengers unable or unwilling to risk be stuck breaking bread with people who share very different values, open seating represents the best possible outcome. It's just dinner and tomorrow is another day. :)

[cage keeper]

Thank you for the great rivew Robin. You helped us make a dission here. We will take our late assigned seating. At least for the first night to see who we will be dining with. On our last cruise, we were not seated with very friendly people.

 

If I had asked you where you were from, and you said Utah, my reply would have been "Utah is the most wonderful state, how lucky you are to live there." Then I would hope for some great facts about Utah.

 

Joni