Although the TravelBlog has written about the subject before in bits and pieces, we (Mr. Makarma) want to take a little more time this week to further discuss a relatively significant change in cruise ship dining.
Cruise ship dining, for years and years, was a fairly regimented affair. Although it's a type of regimentation we still enjoy, it clearly wasn't for everyone. What was it? Fixed dining times; in other words, early and late seating.
You see, cruise ship dining rooms were traditionally designed to accommodate roughly half of the ship's guests at any time. Why would they do that? Well, a couple reasons:
1) Three things here, but all related....if you design a ship's dining room to accommodate all of its guests at the same time, you're going to have less space for other public rooms (remember, your galleys would also need to be larger). You're also going to need more dining staff (or stretch existing staff more, possibly diminishing the service level) Finally, if everyone's eating at once, the rest of the ship (lounges, casinos, shops, etc.) would be empty during meal time. Inefficient, and boring (most people like to be in an environment where there's a certain level of activity); and,
2) Simply said, some people like to eat early; some people like to eat late.
Thus, when you booked a cruise, you also chose early or late dining; primarily for dinner, but sometimes for other meals as well.
In recent years, cruise lines have moved away from this tradition to various extents. Norwegian Cruise Lines, for example, did away with all fixed dining times and added a variety of other dining options (some at extra cost) to their ships. You dine when you want; if a particular dining room is full, you wait, just as you do at a land-based restaurant.
Princess Cruises, in its efforts to please both cruise traditionalists and those who want a little more freedom, has both options onboard its ships - fixed seating in one dining room, and open seating in one or two others.
Holland America, Royal Caribbean and Carnival have more recently implemented programs such as those at Princess - you not only have the choice to eat whenever you want, you have the choice (if available at time of booking) to have traditional fixed dining.
Our assessment of the pros and cons......
Traditional fixed dining
Pros:
- No waiting; you know that, when it's time to eat, your table (and waitstaff) will be there for you.
- Waitstaff learns your preferences. After a day or so, you'll get that iced tea, cream with coffee, etc. without even asking.
Con:
- A fixed dining time limits your meal TIME options.
Open dining
Pro:
- More meal TIME options, meaning a little less regimentation.
Cons:
- Waitstaff typically doesn't have the opportunity to learn your preferences.
- If your restaurant is full at the time you wish to dine, you wait. (Who wants to wait on vacation?)
Our preference? Well, you probably could have guessed it - we like fixed dining. We do appreciate that cruise lines are accommodating their guests by giving them more choices. We, however, are traditionalists - you see, we've been doing this cruise thing for over 30 years now.
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