Open Seating Dining

[booklady26]

Do Carnival ships offer open seating, anytime dining, or whatever they may call it, or is it all assigned seating?

 

Forgive me if this has been addressed here, but I'm new to the Canrival board and haven't seen anything on the subject in recent days.

 

We haven't sailed Carnival since 2005 but are thrilled about the Dream doing 2 sailings out of NYC next year. Can't wait until next Tuesday to book it.

[Froufie]

This is being 'experimented' with on upcoming cruises on the Legend where part of the dining room will be 'traditiional' and the other 'anytime'. It has yet to be adopted fleet-wide.

[Cotton]

Hmmm. Seems that could become confusing if half the room is different...?

 

Booklady - It's always been assigned seating in the dining rooms in the evenings - but b'fast and lunch are open - which has suited me just fine. The other option is, of course, Lido buffet dining, which has longer hours and open seating.:)

[booklady26]

Thanks for the input.

 

Princess and HAL have it, and of course NCL, too, so it won't surprise me if Carnival has it too sometime soon. It's always worked worked well for us on other lines.

 

We're pretty flexible with when we dine, but really prefer tables for 2. With anytime dining, we always get one. And we've found that if you like to eat later say after 8:00PM there's usually very little wait, if any.

[zqvol]

It is not there yet, but IMO you can expect it to be adopted fleet wide within 18 months.

[Beyondships]

 

Princess and HAL have it, and of course NCL, too, so it won't surprise me if Carnival has it too sometime soon.

 

 

Royal Caribbean is implenting it as well.

[crusinpsychRN]

On one ship line, can't remember which, the lines were long and waiting was about 35 minutes. I didn't like it.

[Froufie]

Hmmm. Seems that could become confusing if half the room is different...?

Actually not - I believe the upper level will be anytime and lower level traditional!

[Cotton]

Maybe...but remember, all ships don't have the upper/lower dining.:rolleyes:

[Cotton]

It is not there yet, but IMO you can expect it to be adopted fleet wide within 18 months.

 

Within 18 months? Oh wherefore doth thou gain such knowledge?:D :D

[chandom]

Maybe...but remember, all ships don't have the upper/lower dining.:rolleyes:

In that case one dining room would be Any Time and the other the scheduled times.

Plus, Carnival is starting to/has switched to having only two dining times.

[Flip2cruise]

Found on CC news

http://www.cruisecritic.com/news/news.cfm?ID=2601

 

 

Carnival Tests Out Flexible Dining on Legend Cruise travelers on either side of the dining debate will soon have more fodder for discussion: Carnival Cruise Lines will begin a flexible dining trial on Carnival Legend, beginning with the June 29 sailing.

 

Legend passengers will be able to choose traditional main seating, traditional late seating or flexible dining as their dining preferences. If flexible dining is chosen, cruise travelers can dine in the main dining room any time they wish between 5:30 and 9:30 p.m. If traditional dining is chosen, passengers will be assigned a table and tablemates. Carnival cruisers must indicate their preference prior to departure, and that choice will be in effect for the entire cruise.

 

Carnival has not yet announced an end date for the trial nor revealed any plans to introduce flexible dining on other ships.

 

This is the first time Carnival has ever tested out a truly flexible dining system. Under its current Total Choice Dining program, passengers can choose one of four possible seating times for dinner in the main dining room or opt to eat in an alternative venue, such as the Lido Buffet or Supper Club. But they're still assigned tablemates.

 

Carnival is one of the last holdouts for the traditional dining system. Royal Caribbean began flexible dining trials last fall and plans to implement a similar program to Carnival's later this year. NCL, Holland America and Princess already offer some variation of flexible dining.

 

--by Erica Silverstein, Associate Editor

[RatherBFishin]

On one ship line, can't remember which, the lines were long and waiting was about 35 minutes. I didn't like it.

 

I've heard that as well. A good friend of the family who used to take a cruise every year on NCL switched over to HAL because he disliked the Freestyle dining. His specific complaint was that without assigned dining times, you get alot of people who want to eat at exactly the same time. Especially on sailings where there isn't a natural diversity among passengers (he's a Senior and only cruises when the likelyhood of families with kids is super low).

 

His assesment was that the ship needs excess dining capacity to pull it off at all. This is also why I think that NCL's ads for Freestyle dining focus mostly on the "not being told who to eat with", and don't focus on the overcrowding aspect.

[flowerchild]

On both sailings with NCl that I have been on, I have never experienced the waiting others report. I sailed with a party of 10 on a caribbean summer cruise and as a couple on an may Alaskan cruise.

 

On the summer caribbean cruise, the ship was obviously very full. Yet even as a large party, we never waited more than 5 minutes with the exception of once, which we waited 10 minutes. We had spoken to the maitre d and he was able to accomodate us every nite.

 

On the Alaskan cruise, we never waited at all. We ate at all times of the evening, from 6 till 9.

 

I liked Freestyle. It worked well for us as a couple traveling with another couple. We dined together and separately. No having to rush to dinner nor eat when we weren't hungry. It really was quite simple.

[Pitboss32]

They should be implementing Open Dining on the Liberty this next week for cruises starting sometime in Nov. of this year.

[Hollyspop]

We have cruised NCL on four occasions and have never had to wait to b e seated. We love it but also love Carnival and will eat when told too if necessary.:) :) :)

[G'ma]

I've heard that as well. A good friend of the family who used to take a cruise every year on NCL switched over to HAL because he disliked the Freestyle dining. His specific complaint was that without assigned dining times, you get alot of people who want to eat at exactly the same time. Especially on sailings where there isn't a natural diversity among passengers (he's a Senior and only cruises when the likelyhood of families with kids is super low).

 

His assesment was that the ship needs excess dining capacity to pull it off at all. This is also why I think that NCL's ads for Freestyle dining focus mostly on the "not being told who to eat with", and don't focus on the overcrowding aspect.

 

I've read on the NCL board that there is much frustration over the fact that those who are in Balcony and Suite accommodation have priority on dining time selection over others, too. They have some sort of reservation system with the dining and those in the premium cabins can make their "reservation" before others.

 

Interesting. Frankly, I hope Carnival can work out a system that still includes the traditional dining. I like it... I certainly don't want to have to wait in line for dinner in the dining room. Might as well go to the buffet......

[Robert6260]

I ususally travel solo and like having the same table mates all cruise. I hope Carnival doesn't go to anytime dining. Plus it great having the same wait staff all cruise. After a couple of days they know what you like.

[jmcdon7230]

I've read on the NCL board that there is much frustration over the fact that those who are in Balcony and Suite accommodation have priority on dining time selection over others' date=' too. They have some sort of reservation system with the dining and those in the premium cabins can make their "reservation" before others.

[/quote']

 

This applies to the specialty restaurants which are much smaller than the main dining rooms. The main dining rooms rarely, if ever, have waiting times.

[Brneyznfl]

I ususally travel solo and like having the same table mates all cruise. I hope Carnival doesn't go to anytime dining. Plus it great having the same wait staff all cruise. After a couple of days they know what you like.

 

I totally agree. This causes a problem with us solo cruisers. I hope that if Carnival does implement anytime dining, that they will at least keep a dining room for traditional and guarantee that solo cruisers will be given traditional at the time they book their cruise. One thing I've read on the HAL boards, if a person selects traditional dining at booking, they won't know what they've been assigned until they get on the ship. Princess is another cruiseline I'd like to cruise on more often but traditional has a wait time more often than not and it's not guaranteed solo cruisers will get their choice of dining. I hope that Carnival will work this out for the solo cruisers.

[ChrissyBTX]

Princess has both "traditional - early & late dining" and they also have "anytime" dining. I loved it! Took my first Princess cruise a couple months ago. Those that want a set time can book early or late dining and the other dining room was used for anytime dining. We chose anytime. But, even with anytime dining, we could call and make a reservation for a certain time. So, one day we'd eat at 6, the next day at 6:30 or 7:00 or whatever. It was great for days if you had a long port day and wanted to eat later.

 

I believe NCL is still 100% anytime dining??? Haven't sailed on NCL in quite a while. I hope Carnival ends up doing both to make everyone happy. I think it's a great idea.

[LHP]

As long as they always have traditional dining available and as long as it does not slow down the service (no one wants cold food)...then I will be happy.

 

Of course, with a son with Autism, a set time, a set table and a set wait staff is very important. He doesn't eat breakfast or lunch in the formal dining room because it is open seating. Thankfully, all the folks on Lido does not bother him....because they are not sitting at "his table". It is only when he feels forced to interact with strangers that we have a problem.

[flvol77]

It is not there yet, but IMO you can expect it to be adopted fleet wide within 18 months.

 

I heard the same thing. I also heard they were going to add it to additional ships at the first of the year. We want to go on Carnival again but we will not go on another cruise without anytime dining.

[Marie51]

I am booked on the Valor for 9/7 sailing and my TA said there will be flexible dining. I cannot confirm that this is true.

[H2O babe]

When we sailed on the Glory in 2005 we had a fixed dining time. It was difficult, depending on ports schedules, to keep that time. When we sailed the Island Princess in Alaska we really did enjoy anytime dining as we tend to stretch every minute in ports there that we can get. We did not experience any wait times and varied the times we ate each evening. Next summer we will be sailing on the Spirit and have to choose early or late dining. I'm guessing we'll be eating in the buffet area most of those nights. It is great when a ship can have both a traditional dining room and an anytime dining room as Princess did.

 

K.