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

[kryos]

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???

This is exactly what scares the crap out of me regarding AYW dining. At least in traditional, if you draw a lousy set of tablemates, you can always quietly pull the Matri 'd aside after the first meal and request a change. With AYW, you are sort of at everyone's mercy. What are you gonna do if you are already seated and someone you don't wish to dine with is led to your table? Get up and leave?

 

Blue skies ...

 

--rita

[terrydtx]

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.

Joni

 

Unless HAL changes policy, you will not be able to change to AYWD after the afternoon of departure. The second night on our cruise there was a couple in front of us wanting to eat AYWD at 7pm and the Maitre D informed them they would have to wait until their 8 pm traditional seating time and could not use AYWD. Your ship pass card shows whether you are on traditional or AYWD dining and the computer the Maitre D uses at the podium also shows each passengers dining preference.

[terrydtx]

This is exactly what scares the crap out of me regarding AYW dining. At least in traditional, if you draw a lousy set of tablemates, you can always quietly pull the Matri 'd aside after the first meal and request a change. With AYW, you are sort of at everyone's mercy. What are you gonna do if you are already seated and someone you don't wish to dine with is led to your table? Get up and leave?

 

Blue skies ...

 

--rita

 

The late traditional seating on the Volendam was completely full and 4 tables of traditional diners were in the lower DR, so I would have assumed that moving to another table on our cruise would have been very difficult at best.

[RevNeal]

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!

 

I find myself in a great-deal of agreement. Oh, I love the Lido for Breakfast and Lunch, but have never eaten dinner there because I prefer to have a sit-down dinner. I also enjoy sit-down lunches and breakfasts, but I reduce the "Golden Corral" feel by getting what I want FIRST before sitting down to eat, and then not getting up again until I'm done. :)

[hammybee]

What are you gonna do if you are already seated and someone you don't wish to dine with is led to your table? Get up and leave?

 

Blue skies ...--rita

 

Seems to me that in the bye gone days of cruising, it was far more likely that passengers shared common values. Heck, most of them probably shared the same politics.The more affordable and perhaps more importantly popular, cruising has become for the masses, the greater the liklihood that people from all walks of life and cultures are going to be onboard, any given sailing.

 

Assuming the perception that there is something so offensive about the people that one could not tolerate sharing dinner, why not get up and ask for another table? Why be concerned about offending those you find offensive?

 

Does anyone else see the tremendous trend towards tables for two because passengers do not want to risk being stuck with tablemates from hell-o? Do you think this is part of the drive towards open seating?

 

Until such time that cruise lines give personality tests to passengers and use the results to create the best possible matches, chances are, sooner or later, one is going to be seated with people who have very different values. It's the nature of the beast.

[Jade13]

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

 

Robin,

 

You are a very good writer. This is seriously one of the most entertaining threads I have read in the past year. I hope you stick around.

[Opinions]

Does anyone else see the tremendous trend towards tables for two because passengers do not want to risk being stuck with tablemates from hell-o? Do you think this is part of the drive towards open seating?

 

QUOTE]

 

One of the reasons we like open seating is that we have always been able to get a table for two...We don't dislike traditional but tables for two seem to be in shorter supply there...Rather than risk having certain tablemates for the entire cruise we would take a chance on AYWD on HAL.

[Orlandocruiser]

Acutally, Terry, I'm not sure how full the 8pm fixed was. We were assigned a table for 6 and no one else ever showed up. The table across from us had 2 missing and we moved over to that table and 5 people from the table next to us moved to other tables in the dining room over the course of the cruise. Now perhaps our phantom tablemates just ate in the Lido all cruise and they won't reassign those seats in case they show up the last night. (as if:eek: ). Perhaps those large parties just needed a couple of adjacent big tables.

[Fatfish]

I know I tolerated the table from H-ll one time and I vowed never again....I have no problem going to the Matre D and asking for a new table if necessary....We did a B2b once and on the 2nd leg our table etc was changed and our tablemates where only on the 1st leg...Not only was the table location bad, but the waiter and tablesmates were even worse so I went back to our old waiter and asked him if he had any room for us.....you would have thought that I had given him a $1000 tip; he was so happy, and immediately took us to the Matre D and we got our old table back with some new & wonderful tablemates.

[JayS]

I had anytime dining on Princess. Among my fellow diners were English, Australians and Canadians. Politics and disparament of the USA were never mentioned. This also applied to non Americans encountered outside of dining.

 

The only thing close was a Canadian's advise on the USA copying their health care system. To some it up in a word: DON'T

[kryos]

The food was great, we just didn't like having to wander around with a laden tray and find a table.

That's why most people find a table first, and then dump all their stuff at that table. Then one person in the party is designated to park it at the table while everyone else goes and gets their food. The designated table watcher can go get their food as soon as some of the others have returned.

 

Of course, this only works if you are traveling in groups. The single is kinda SOL in this regard. :(

 

Blue skies ...

 

--rita

[kryos]

One of the reasons we like open seating is that we have always been able to get a table for two...We don't dislike traditional but tables for two seem to be in shorter supply there...Rather than risk having certain tablemates for the entire cruise we would take a chance on AYWD on HAL.

If they can have more tables for two in AYW, there is no reason they can't have the same number in traditional. If I am not mistaken, a lot of those tables for four or six ... the square ones ... can be broken apart, just like the beds.

 

Blue skies ...

 

--rita

[kryos]

Does anyone else see the tremendous trend towards tables for two because passengers do not want to risk being stuck with tablemates from hell-o? Do you think this is part of the drive towards open seating?

I think the drive towards open seating is being fueled by the fact that the price of cruising has come down sufficiently that whole families are now traveling together, and they want to be assured that they can sit with their groups ... and ONLY their groups. The idea of traditional maybe scares them because they may get "stuck" with someone outside of their group being seated with them. In AYW, they can simply tell the Matri 'd that they do not wish to be seated with others, and as long as they are maybe willing to wait a bit longer, that request will be honored.

 

Blue skies ...

 

--rita

[hammybee]

If they can have more tables for two in AYW, there is no reason they can't have the same number in traditional. If I am not mistaken, a lot of those tables for four or six ... the square ones ... can be broken apart, just like the beds.

 

Blue skies ...--rita

 

Have you read some of the comments about poster's perceptions that their table for two was too close to the next table? They are all over these boards, not just this one.

 

Tables for two take up more floor space because passengers/ waiters need access and room for their many trays.

 

The entire concept of mass marketed cruise ship dining is, I think, based upon banquet dining, the clumping of orders for wait staff and kitchen efficiencies. The greater the trend towards isolated dining, as in tables for 2, the greater the likelihood that delays may occur because of inter-table/station dependencies. I don't think potential delays are limited to the two-tops. Now throw in the occasional less experienced server and potential language differences and I am astounded that they are able to do what they do and please, more often than not.

[synet165]

Did you ever hear of requesting a table for two?

 

It's done everywhere.

synet165

[Robin7]

Did you ever hear of requesting a table for two?

 

I don't know if this question is directed at me, but I'm going to answer it anyway. ;) To request a table for two, you MUST call early in the day. And you must eat at one of the four assigned times: 5:15, 5:30, 7:45, or some other late time I can't remember because it was out of the realm of possibility for us. Reservations open at 8am. We were too lazy to arise that early on our vacation in order to make a phone call to obtain a table for two. We were willing to take our chances. We did inquire about a table for two when we checked in at the podium, but we were always told they were unavailable and we should call early in order to secure one. So we were seated with random people.

 

Your mileage may vary, and your priorities may be different. We didn't care enough about a table for two (except the last day when we'd tired of the small talk) to pry our eyes open at what amounted to 'the crack of dawn' when we do that every day at home.

 

Robin

[cruisinjudy]

Robin, your description of AYW dining is very much like our complaints of freestyle on NCL and we only had it for part of the cruise when it first began. We haven't been on NCL since. We just got tired of the same conversations every night as you did.

 

We have never had bad table mates on our set dining time on over thirty cruises. Some table groups have been more interesting than others, but they have never been bad.

 

We choose not to take a table for two as we eat with each other every night at home.

[nchank]

Wife and I are going with anytime dining now. Dear wife has "mild dementia" and sometimes conversation with her can be difficult. This way we can go for tables for 2 or have different people at the table so we would not burden anyone with her illness for the entire cruise.

[sidonia]

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.

 

This may be a very naive question but I need some ideas of what conversational topics are suggested. If small talk about residence, occupation, etc. is dull and politics, religion are frowned upon, what is left? We aren't particularly interested in sports, entertainment or fashion. Detailed reports on our grandkids, or yours, would be good for only the briefest time. On our last cruise on the Zuiderdam, we had a fascinating discussion with a man from South Africa about his family's liklihood of being dispersed across several continents in the near future. Most people don't have such interesting stories. How should one approach total strangers in the cruise atmosphere? By the way, I am a U.S. citizen and my husband in Canadian and we both have strong feelings about the current government :-)

[bepsf]

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

 

1. Lido Buffet

 

2. Room service

 

 

Hahaha - Yes!

 

Robin--

 

Thanks for your well-written and concise review of AYW.

Perhaps you should write an article for the Sunday Travel Section...

;)

[bepsf]

Did you ever hear of requesting a table for two?

 

It's done everywhere.

synet165

 

Have you ever been aboard a ship?

There's only so many Tables-for-Two to go around...

[fann1sh]

This may be a very naive question but I need some ideas of what conversational topics are suggested. If small talk about residence, occupation, etc. is dull and politics, religion are frowned upon, what is left? We aren't particularly interested in sports, entertainment or fashion. Detailed reports on our grandkids, or yours, would be good for only the briefest time. On our last cruise on the Zuiderdam, we had a fascinating discussion with a man from South Africa about his family's liklihood of being dispersed across several continents in the near future. Most people don't have such interesting stories. How should one approach total strangers in the cruise atmosphere? By the way, I am a U.S. citizen and my husband in Canadian and we both have strong feelings about the current government :-)

 

By no means am I claiming to be the queen of dinner conversation (!)...but my favourite opener is "How was your day? What did you do in port/on the ship?"

 

"Tell us about yourselves" always goes over well, too - you see what people are willing to share, and therefore what areas of your own life they might find interesting.

 

BTW - My family is full of "mixed marriages" like yours...Why I list two towns in 2 different countries as "where I'm from". I think most people have strong feelings about government. My earlier remark about being a pleasant guest was about keeping those feelings to yourself if they could offend (and what views couldn't offend someone?) especially when you're asked to share...I'm always bemused by dinner companions who ask me what I think about "X" then tell me why I what I really meant was....:D

 

There are always fools, drunks and bullies everywhere. Fortunately civil and interesting dinner companions have always *far* outnumbered them on HAL! That's why I keep coming back!

[grsnovi]

I suspect that answering the same questions night after night would be a downside... however, I wonder if you sat with one or more couples that you enjoyed, would there be any reason not to all show up together and request to be seated as a group?

[hammybee]

Have you ever been aboard a ship?

There's only so many Tables-for-Two to go around...

 

 

BYOTT?

[Robin7]

If small talk about residence, occupation, etc. is dull and politics, religion are frowned upon, what is left?

 

Except for the political criticisms of my country (because I just don't enjoy talking about politics at dinner, a personal foible), I didn't mind the same questions because of the questions themselves. We just got weary of making the same small talk night after night. When you sit with people in traditional seating, you can move on to other subjects besides the superficial. When you're meeting for the first time, where else are you supposed to start besides "Where are you from?" "How much have you cruised?" "Did you enjoy (insert latest port)?" It was the starting over every single night that was getting old for us. I suppose if you're more social than we are, you might enjoy that part of AYW Dining a great deal.

 

We went to a "Christmas Luau" for my husband's job tonight. We knew two of the couples we were seated with but one pair was new to the company. So what did we ask them? "Where do you live?" "How many kids do you have?" etc. etc. etc. Heh. :D

 

Thanks for your well-written and concise review of AYW.

Thank you, Brian, I enjoyed your writing as well.

 

And thanks to all of you who have complimented me. You make me blush.

 

Robin