How many seats are in each main dining room?

[Modern_Viking]

I am curious to know how many seats are in each HAL dining room (total of upper plus lower deck for each ship or forward plus aft for Prinsendam). Does anyone have that information?

 

I found a HAL press release for the Vista class, listing dining room seating at 1,050 for each of the four ships. I don't have anything for the Eurodam (of which I am most interested) or other dam ships currently in the fleet.

 

I am especially curious to know if the ratio for main dining room seats to the total number of passengers.

 

I noticed that the E-dam is listed as 15 feet shorter than the Vistas, and with the new restaurants being added, I am curious to know if the main dining room will be smaller (i.e. will the ship have been built for As You Wish Dining -- making 100% fixed dining difficult or impossible to achieve).

 

Thanks!

[hammybee]

I am not sure anyone can answer this question. When HAL sails with every berth occupied, as they do over the holidays and some winter school breaks, there are occasional reports of some clever:rolleyes: seating arrangements, such as on benches or squeezing another chair or two, at each table.

 

A frequent poster, with more than 30 years of onboard experience, once explained that the VISTA ships cannot seat half the passengers at each seating, in the main dining rooms on VISTA Class ships. They are dependent upon X% dining in the LIDO, PG or in cabin. Not sure why he/she would say this, if it was not true.

 

I am not sure of what the deal is on the Eurodam. It's speculation on my part, but I am curious if the plan might be to accommodate fixed and open seating in the same dining room, at the same time, as I have read they do, on a few of the Princess ships. We'll see, won't we.

[mamaofami]

My guess is that is exactly what does happen. On any given night there are a percentage of people who eat in the Lido, The Pinnacle Grill, and have room service, and after years of noting this, HAl knows what those percentages are. Remember that the Eurodam will also have two other dining options as well. I have never heard of anyone going hungry or not being able to be served on a cruise.

[Jsipes]

I'm sure that HAL has also figured out that waitlisting everyone for late dining also increases the use of the Lido....that may be the reason even with a one year advance reservation in a suite a couple still cannot be lucky enough to get assigned to early dining. I also think Medallion Holders may be given special consideration...though there's no "official policy" on that issue. As for me, if I owned a cruiseline or was the CEO you can be assured I would definately give precedence to someone wha had given me 200 days business.......:)

[hammybee]

I also think Medallion Holders may be given special consideration...though there's no "official policy" on that issue. As for me, if I owned a cruiseline or was the CEO you can be assured I would definately give precedence to someone wha had given me 200 days business.......:)

 

I had not considered that this too may be an additional factor of why it seems so many are being waitlisted more than a year away from their cruise. None of us know what HAL's plans are to reward cruisers with serious accumulated time.

[cruz chic]

I also think Medallion Holders may be given special consideration...though there's no "official policy" on that issue. As for me, if I owned a cruiseline or was the CEO you can be assured I would definately give precedence to someone wha had given me 200 days business.......:)

 

I don't have 200 days but I have 100+ and I'd like to see that happen. I know it hasn't happened to me yet....maybe in the future. :)

[Jemima]

Open dining tables are are sometimes used three times in one evening.

[jtl513]

A frequent poster, with more than 30 years of onboard experience, once explained that the VISTA ships cannot seat half the passengers at each seating, in the main dining rooms on VISTA Class ships.

But back before AYWD, everybody was given a dining room table assignment, weren't they? How could that be done if there weren't enough for half the passengers (counting upper and lower of course)? :confused: So anticipation of the Eurodam, having not enough space for 200 more pax, was probably a major reason why AYWD was started.

[jtl513]

I just went and looked at some dining room seating charts that I have for the Zuiderdam. They are marked "Max cap 462" on the Upper and "Max cap 596" on the lower. That's 938 seats for a "full" guest capacity of 1848 people. So there's actually a few extra seats, except when they're overbooked with 200 extra kids on school break weeks. I guess they must have had to do some serious squeezing-in of chairs then! (Before AYWD)

[dakrewser]

My guess is that is exactly what does happen. On any given night there are a percentage of people who eat in the Lido, The Pinnacle Grill, and have room service, and after years of noting this, HAl knows what those percentages are. Remember that the Eurodam will also have two other dining options as well. I have never heard of anyone going hungry or not being able to be served on a cruise.

 

But (in the days before AYWD) - everyone had an assigned seat in the dining room. And I don't remember ever seeing two folks with the same seat!

 

There was always room in the DR to seat everyone, half at early seating and half at late seating. My guess is that there were actually more seats than half the "normal" capacity (i.e., 2 to a cabin)...

[kryos]

A frequent poster, with more than 30 years of onboard experience, once explained that the VISTA ships cannot seat half the passengers at each seating, in the main dining rooms on VISTA Class ships. They are dependent upon X% dining in the LIDO, PG or in cabin. Not sure why he/she would say this, if it was not true.

Yeah, but the interesting thing there would be that regardless of where people actually dined on any given night, they would all have to have a seating assignment in the main dining room somewhere ... be it early or late. So regardless, how can they assign someone a spot they don't have? There must be some way arranged to allow for every passenger to have an assigned spot. Now of course, if the ship were traveling totally full that particular sailing, every third and fourth berth occupied, then I would imagine some tables for 8 would be squeezing in ten; some tables for four seating five, etc.

 

Blue skies ...

 

--rita

[jeda]

My parents will reach 300 days each on the cruise to Hawaii we will take VERY shortly ;) They have never usually had a problem getting the table or dining time they requested. They have a very aggressive TA too, so that may help also.

After saying that, though I will say that the last cruise that we took together, they had in writing, confirmation of their table number and dining time and the time was fine but the table was not the one they had confirmed. Not a big deal to us, the food is great whatever table you eat at!

We will see what happens on this upcoming cruise, first one with AYWD in place as again we are confirmed early traditional with a confirmed table number that my Mom chose.

To me doesn't really matter but my Mom loves to be by a window..

 

Jess

[kryos]

But (in the days before AYWD) - everyone had an assigned seat in the dining room. And I don't remember ever seeing two folks with the same seat!

I'm wondering if there are extra tables and chairs in some storeroom deep in the bowels of the ship that they bring up when the ship is exceptionally full. Then, true, everyone would have a seat, but the waiters would have to be really dexterious in squeezing in around tables that were much more closely packed in than normal, all the while carrying trays laden high with plates and whatnot.

 

Blue skies ...

 

--rita

[kryos]

I just went and looked at some dining room seating charts that I have for the Zuiderdam. They are marked "Max cap 462" on the Upper and "Max cap 596" on the lower. That's 938 seats for a "full" guest capacity of 1848 people. So there's actually a few extra seats, except when they're overbooked with 200 extra kids on school break weeks. I guess they must have had to do some serious squeezing-in of chairs then! (Before AYWD)

Maybe this explains why many cruise lines are going to some form of a flexible dining option. In the case where capacity is fully booked, they just assign a lot more folks to flexible dining and then hope they eat at off times ... and if the lines are long enough, they very well likely would.

 

Blue skies ...

 

--rita

[jtl513]

... squeezing in around tables that were much more closely packed in than normal,

But in actual practice, many of those extra chairs were unoccupied and pushed in, while the owners ate elsewhere.

 

I wonder how many place settings there are on board ... 120% or thereabouts of "normal" capacity so that not everything had to be washed between sittings? (Before AYWD)

[sail7seas]

In the days when there were King's and Queen's Rooms on "S" and "R" class ships, there were times when those rooms would be set up for assigned dining. Of course, those King's Rooms became Pinnacle on the "S" ships.

 

Also, I have seen what they call 'floaters'. On occassion, some guests would go from one table to another night after night. Perhaps they were very late bookers and knew that would be the case. By floater I mean that each night they would come to the dining room and the Maitre d' would see which table had empty seats as those people had chosen to eat elsewhere. Each night there are a certain number who go to Lido, Pinnacle or do Room Service. These floaters would occupy those empty seats.

[mamaofami]

We were floaters on one cruise, but because we wanted a two top and there were none available. So every night we would appear at the dining room at our assigned time and they would lead us to a two top where the people were eating elsewhere. It was OK, but we prefer to have the same wait staff every evening.

[hammybee]

But back before AYWD, everybody was given a dining room table assignment, weren't they? How could that be done if there weren't enough for half the passengers (counting upper and lower of course)? :confused: So anticipation of the Eurodam, having not enough space for 200 more pax, was probably a major reason why AYWD was started.

 

I have no idea about the Eurodam but do not think this was the sole reason for AYWD. Think about it. Why then implement AYWD across the board? Princess still has 2-3 of their smallest ships that are exclusively traditional seating.

[jtl513]

I have no idea about the Eurodam but do not think this was the sole reason for AYWD.

Nor do I. I think it was a way out of the problem of not having enough room in the Eurodam dining room that they first tested on the Noordam, and were happy enough with the results to decide to spread it fleet wide. JMHO! :D

[Modern_Viking]

Well, I do think that much of the reason that HAL implemented AYWD is that it is appealing to newer, younger passengers that might represent a new, larger market than their more recent customer base.

 

I'm just curious to know if they have gotten to the point of building their ships to be ready made for the concept of AYWD. It does seem like they are doing something smart that will leave fewer unused seats in the dining room, but it might take a while for them to figure out how to keep both repeat and new passengers happy.

 

Personally, I like the fixed dining and hope it will still be available when I can cruise. But I also know I don't like the same thing everyone else does. It can be tough being different.

[Jsipes]

I don't think they are exactly the same on each ship class, or ships within a class, but there seems to be ample seating...

[jtl513]

I don't think they are exactly the same on each ship class, or ships within a class, but there seems to be ample seating...

I can tell you that all of the S-class have the same seating plan, as do all of the Vista class. There is some variation from cruise to cruise, as, for example, a table for six might be split into a four and a two. On one ship we had a 2-top that was about 6 inches away from another 2-top ... and the seating plans show them as one four.

[Jsipes]

Well, I do think that much of the reason that HAL implemented AYWD is that it is appealing to newer, younger passengers that might represent a new, larger market than their more recent customer base.

 

I'm just curious to know if they have gotten to the point of building their ships to be ready made for the concept of AYWD. It does seem like they are doing something smart that will leave fewer unused seats in the dining room, but it might take a while for them to figure out how to keep both repeat and new passengers happy.

 

Personally, I like the fixed dining and hope it will still be available when I can cruise. But I also know I don't like the same thing everyone else does. It can be tough being different.

 

I agree with you, we are in transition to AYWD for everyone...but it will be a hassle for the crew to escort, and have different clirnts every single night....and the "bonus tip" for table stewards and wine stewards will fade away......

[donaldsc]

Why do you care? Are you afraid that there will be no seat for you?

 

DON

[jtl513]

Why do you care? Are you afraid that there will be no seat for you?

 

DON

The OP said "I am curious to know ...". That's a good enough reason to start a thread on this forum! :D