Comments on: Carnival tests open seat dining

By: Dave G.

Dave G. — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 19:10:42 +0000

NO NO NO… Say it isn’t so! I agree with most of the other comments. The dining experience is one of the highlights of the cruise. We always look forward to dinner with the same staff members. Taking this away, will result in a more bland experience while on-board. We are sailing at the end of this month on the Carnival Legend, which is one of their “test” ships for this concept. For the first time, I know something that will be on the comment card, before I sail.

By: England Vacations

England Vacations — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 09:07:15 +0000

I have also found that problem, and find it really annoying but I geuss there is always something when you are on any holiday that is a bit irritating. At least it is a nice break away from it all to get on a cruise.

I have only been on one, and truely loved it will be doing it again at some stage. Can anyone recommend a good one to try??

By: Martin Sager

Martin Sager — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 18:25:16 +0000

My wife and I hate assigned seating. We want to eat with whom we want to eat with, at the time we wish to eat. I have been on cruises where I was locked in to a table with people that I did not enjoy being with. It made dinner a meal we did not look forword to eating. I admit it, I do not delight in everyones company.

On the other hand, when we met people we liked being with, it was a pleasure to go to dinner with them. Also, by being able to sit with many people, we always found one or two couples that we ate with for the balance of the cruise.

By: Barb Kline

Barb Kline — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 19:10:05 +0000

I’ve been on 4 cruises so far, 2 with Carnival and 2 with RCCL, and to me
one of the most looked-forward to events was the dining experience. By the
end of each cruise, we knew our waitstaff and they knew us. Some even met
with us after hours up on the Lido deck for ice cream or hot chocolate. Would
I miss this with the open dining option, HECK YES! My husband suffered a
severe head injury 4 years ago and was in brain rehab for 8 months following
his fall from a ladder. I was hesitant to take a cruise after I finally got him
home, but I plunged ahead, and was I ever glad. Where a land based vacation would
have me looking to his needs, the waitstaff on our cruiseship (the Fantasy) virtually
took over for me. Everything from wheeling him to our table to cutting up his
meat for him. Would I change that in lieu of total choice dining? A resounding
NO WAY! Please don’t fix what ain’t broke!

By: Gregory Irizarry

Gregory Irizarry — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 21:30:27 +0000

Mr Cahill just came on board and he is already trying to “Rock The Boat”.We enjoy what Carnival has for our enjoyment, interacting with some of the Staff at least in the dining room.What is the real reason? Perhaps cutting staff and services.Please leave it as is.

By: Syria

Syria — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 11:07:46 +0000

I do not think open dining is a good idea too. I always enjoy getting to know my wait staff.
I say NO to open dining.

By: BIG ED

BIG ED — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 20:44:33 +0000

Carnival if you read this you will see so far all 17 have said NO. Every time John Heald on his blog has brought up this topic his bloggers have said no many times over. The IDEA sounds good but in real life it don’t work. Cruiser hate lines and this only makes the possibilty of more lines. It is just like any chain restaurant if you come at rush time your going to wait. Every port day you will have everybody wanting to eat late. So they walk down to the dinning room and seeing a long line they go up to the Lido. Ooooops! I just spilled the beans that’s the whole idea to get people away from the dinning room up to the cheap Lido buffet.

I went to the grill on day for the MINUTE steak. The cook told me that would be 10 minutes for the minute steak. That they only cook them on order. Well you know what I did just as you wanted me to do I had a cheapo hot dog because it was ready

By: Adam

Adam — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 20:19:28 +0000

Don’t change a thing, leave it as it is! Getting to know the staff is the best part of eating on a Carnival ship! Now that’s not saying the food is bad, but it IS saying the dining room staff is full of AMAZING people who it is a gift to talk to.

By: Pat (InMN253)

Pat (InMN253) — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 19:26:47 +0000

Please don’t stop having assigned seating in the dining room! Like others have said, having the same wait staff and table mates is one of the things that makes cruising fun. My selfish reason is that I’m rather shy, and trying to get to know new people every night would just be stressful.

By: ELizabeth & Arnold Tucker

ELizabeth & Arnold Tucker — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 15:18:53 +0000

I want the ASSIGNED seating. I like having the same waiters and dinner mates every evening.They know what I like to drink and what bread I like usually by the second night. I do no like having different people and wait staff every day we get that during the breakfast and lunch seating and to tell you the truth it lacks something. I actually find myself wishng I had “my” “Blaze” or “Francisc” or “MAssimo” who know me. and fins my self looking for them. I had open seating with “beepers on Proncess it was ok but I was not fond of it. We found ourselves with different people every night which was ok for socializing however insteasd of asking what did you do today the conversation was always where are you from, my name is, snd it got redundant night after night and the wait staff was never the same and often it was not as good. IF IT AIN”T BROKE DON”T FIX IT!
IF YOU HAVE TO DO IT,,,,,,, I think if Carnival wants to do this they should do it for ONE dining room NOT ALL…