Legnth of Dinners in MDR

[thestonewolf]

Good Day All;

 

I'm not looking to pick a fight so let's get that one clear ahead of time.:D

 

I am a cruiser(13 of them thru various lines) and recently married and now we cruise together. I have been reading this board for about 6 months now and it seems that the majority of people who describe their dinners in the MDR say that it takes to long. So I'm curious. To me a cruise is about experiences. Dining should be an experience. This isn't lunch where you just want to eat and go. Eating, at least to me is an integrated part of cruising and one I'M very happy to partake in.(My doctor would have other ideas on that). I don't see that 90 minutes or 2 hours is so long for dinner.

 

I'm looking for thoughts and opinions... thanks! BTW.. just to clarify.. I'm in my mid 40's, not a senior, not a junior, just someone who likes to take it all in.:rolleyes:

 

Thanks!!

[CruisinEars]

Hi,

My dh and I are in our early 40's and we have 2 kids, 11 and 8. We just got off the Mariner and had a table for 4 for main seating. I would say on average our meals lasted just over an hour. I thought it was very nicely timed and comfortable. We don't generally like long dinners, but these were great.

[DonnaK]

Agreed - dinner in the MDR should be an experience, and dinners for us are usually around 1 hour and 15 minutes, which is just the right amount of time for all those courses. Also, we like having tablemates and having a "relationship" with our wait team, so there is a nice balance between conversation and actual eating.

[NorbertsNiece]

Have found the pace of the evening meal in the Mdr suits us just fine. DID hear of people who complained but they were sharing a table with someone who would eat 3 helpings of each course and instead of telling their waiter that they wanted to eat at THEIR pace not his put up with lengthy meals. In a smart restaurant on shore you would expect to be at least an hour and a half or 2 to eat 3 / 4 courses. The food should be cooked to order and were it to come any quicker I would suspect its freshness.

[Trainman-2]

We are on the Jewel and out dinners are taking a bit over an hour and a half. Enough time to enjoy ourselves and have good conversations with our table mates.

[dougp26364]

I have found that dinners in the MDR tend to be around 90 minutes to 120 minutes. For most of our sailings it's been in the 90 minute range, which for all the courses they serve, feels comfortable to us (no kids).

 

However, when we took our European cruise, dinners seemed to go on forever and were often 120 minutes or longer. Since we were late seating and port days started early and our tours went on all day, we were absolutely beat and had no desire to be leaving the dinning room around 11:30 at night. We ended up taking most of our dinners at one of the alternate venues. It was the cruise that taught us that eating in the MDR is not mandatory for a great cruise.

 

For our next European cruise, we'll either eat in the MDR for early seating if we make it back to the ship in time, at Portifino's, in the Windjammer buffer, room service or even in the Cafe Promanade if we're not that hungry.

[cb at sea]

I agree--dinner is not just for eating... it's a social occassion, too. That's why we like tablemates! Sitting there for 90+mins. alone can feel like a long time, but with a table full of fun and interesting folks, it really is a big part of our evening! We LOVE long dinners!

[luvscruising2007]

Yes, I agree. Dinner in the MDR on a cruise ship is an experience. We have been seated at tables for 8 or 10 and conversations can get lengthy. We love it. I can rush through dinner at home or in a restaurant. A cruise ship is different.

Our dinners have ranged from 90 minutes to 2 hours. A couple of times we had to end the conversation because we wanted to go to a show.

Anyway it seems to me if someone wants a quick meal they should go to WJ or get a table to themselves.

I love cruising.:D

[mistergq]

On the liberty of the seas, our dinner was less than 90 minutes. The only night it was longer was the last night. Our Head Waiter became our main waiter due to a family emergency. On the last night, he was walking around to all the other tables collecting tips.

 

Most nights, each course came right after one another. There were plenty of nights that the meal was about 60ish minutes.

[amybeth4]

Dinner on the Majesty was a little torturous. It started at 8. We NEVER got out before 9:45. Sometimes well after 10. One night I was to join the Cruise Staff in one of their shows and I had to leave at 9:45 - I don't think dessert had started yet and everyone at the table missed the beginning of the show when they finally showed up.

 

But out of my 8 cruises, I've learned it's the waiter that slows you down or speeds you up, not so much the ship. We definitely saw other people leave well before us. :(

 

To me the perfect amount is 90 minutes if you have somewhere to go after, or two hours if you don't and you really enjoy your tablemates.

[SamFritz]

We had some slow service on our last cruise (Voyager), and were usually among that last out of the dining room for the early seating. Dinner started at 5:30 and it was usually about 7:15 by the time we left. It felt a little too long to me.

[MrsPete]

I'm looking for thoughts and opinions... thanks! BTW.. just to clarify.. I'm in my mid 40's, not a senior, not a junior, just someone who likes to take it all in.:rolleyes:

You and I are about the same age, and I agree that dinner is an experience -- but at about an hour and a half (probably two hours and a half by the time you add in the time necessary to shower /dress, three if you're having a pre-dinner drink with your spouse), it's not necessarily an experience that I want to have every single night.

[Happy ks]

I really enjoy taking our time with dinner....and lunch....and breakfast as well. I don't think meal times together on a vacation is something to be rushed through, you can do that the rest of the year while you're working, going to school, busy running errands and just generally getting on with life.

 

Unless you have an early port excursion planned, what's the hurry to eat breakfast? Lunch on sea days in the dining room can be lovely and not the buffet battle experienced upstairs. We rarely go to the shows any more, so we're happy to linger at dinner.

[julesbeara]

I think your table mates & your waitstaff also help make or break the dining experience in the MDR.

[temple1]

I enjoy taking our time at dinner most nights, but on our last cruise service was really slow. I think the major problem was the large group our service folks had in addition to our table. The Head Waiter ended up giving them a hand most nights. (For once he earned his tip. ;))

[amybeth4]

I think your table mates & your waitstaff also help make or break the dining experience in the MDR.

 

100% true and in 8 cruises I'm thrilled to say I've never had anything but great tablemates including the two under-12 kids I once sat with! But the waitstaff on my last Majesty cruise (b2b so I had two staffs) was the worst.

 

They weren't bad, but they weren't like they were in the old days, not by a longshot. (And by old days I mean 1992-2002, the last stretch of time I actually cruised.) (And on four different lines including RCI.)

[unklez]

We found that telling the wait staff that you or someone in your group needed to go soon worked wonders. That night we were done in 1 hr! Subsequent nights the kids' soups/meals were on the table as soon as we sat down!

[CRUZBUDS]

On one of our cruises we never left the dinning room until they turned the lights up. Dinner started at 8:30 and we rarely left before 10:45. We were always to last to leave, we just had so much fun with our tablemates. Our waiter didn't mind at all and seemed enjoy watching us having so much fun. There was always someone to run ahead of us to open the fire door to let us out.

 

That's what I'm talking about, when I speak of our love of cruising.

[Cuizer2]

Good Day All;

 

I'm not looking to pick a fight so let's get that one clear ahead of time.:D

 

I am a cruiser(13 of them thru various lines) and recently married and now we cruise together. I have been reading this board for about 6 months now and it seems that the majority of people who describe their dinners in the MDR say that it takes to long. So I'm curious. To me a cruise is about experiences. Dining should be an experience. This isn't lunch where you just want to eat and go. Eating, at least to me is an integrated part of cruising and one I'M very happy to partake in.(My doctor would have other ideas on that). I don't see that 90 minutes or 2 hours is so long for dinner.

 

I'm looking for thoughts and opinions... thanks! BTW.. just to clarify.. I'm in my mid 40's, not a senior, not a junior, just someone who likes to take it all in.:rolleyes:

 

Thanks!!

 

Is there a reason you decided to use a very small font, which makes your post harder to read?

[ken_nyc]

I have also found that our dinner in the MDR usually takes an hour and a half no matter what cruiseline we were on and it is the perfect amount of time.

[jenni belle]

I love extended dinners as long as they continue to progress.....sitting at a restaurant for 45 minutes and not getting any type of food or service is frustrating.

 

I think that the 'art of dining' has somewhat been lost with Americans. We are a nation of movers and tend to believe that we don't have time sit and enjoy company and dinner. We eat in our cars, in front of the television and a lot of the time, not even together with our own families at our own tables. Even on vacation we have to go, go, go.....

 

I always welcome the opportunity to sit with friends and enjoy a proper dinner service....(and I'm 29!) ;)

[Longtimecruiser#2]

Good Day All;

 

I'm not looking to pick a fight so let's get that one clear ahead of time.:D

 

I am a cruiser(13 of them thru various lines) and recently married and now we cruise together. I have been reading this board for about 6 months now and it seems that the majority of people who describe their dinners in the MDR say that it takes to long. So I'm curious. To me a cruise is about experiences. Dining should be an experience. This isn't lunch where you just want to eat and go. Eating, at least to me is an integrated part of cruising and one I'M very happy to partake in.(My doctor would have other ideas on that). I don't see that 90 minutes or 2 hours is so long for dinner.

 

I'm looking for thoughts and opinions... thanks! BTW.. just to clarify.. I'm in my mid 40's, not a senior, not a junior, just someone who likes to take it all in.:rolleyes:

 

Thanks!!

I also enjoy a leisurely dinner on the ship. Although, we eat at the main seating dinner is always close to 2 hours. In our everyday life everyone is rushing it's nice to slowdown a little when on vacation.