Carnival to try open seating

Word has it that Carnival will try open seating in some of the dining rooms
starting this summer. It will be voluntary so they will still have assigned
times AND open seating.

I don't know the exact ships yet, but the program should start this summer.



--
George Leppla http://www.CruiseMaster.com


May 12, 2008 - 5 nt New Orleans http://www.cruisemaster.com/fantasy.htm
October 26, 2008 Sleazy 5 http://www.cruisemaster.com/sleazy5.htm
Feb. 8, 2009 Solstice Valentine http://www.cruisemaster.com/solstice.htm

I hope they don't try it while we are on the Sleezy.

sue

George Leppla wrote:
Word has it that Carnival will try open seating in some of the dining
rooms starting this summer. It will be voluntary so they will still
have assigned times AND open seating.

I don't know the exact ships yet, but the program should start this summer.

sue mullen wrote:
I hope they don't try it while we are on the Sleezy.

sue

George Leppla wrote:
Word has it that Carnival will try open seating in some of the dining
rooms starting this summer. It will be voluntary so they will still
have assigned times AND open seating.

I don't know the exact ships yet, but the program should start this
summer.

Sue, I respectfully disagree about negative thoughts on open, anytime,
freestyle seating. We got our first taste of Freestyle when cruising
with Bill and Erm. I was indifferent, but Ermalee buttonholed the head
dude and he put us at the same table with the same waiter at the same
time each evening. It was like a formal seating, but at OUR time and
not someone else's. I also find that they seem to be more lenient about
dress at open (for want of a better word) seating, which I appreciate.

Another thing I've come to enjoy is having different tablemates when not
traveling with friends like Erm, Tobie and Barb, Jean and Ed etc. On
this last cruise, we asked for a large table each evening and enjoyed
meeting new folk.


--
Nonny

Nonnymus
Never believe a person who is
Drunk, Horny or Running for Office.

The cow and I like to met new folks but seems most people like to sit
alone(we are senior citisens)
"Nonnymus" wrote in message
...
sue mullen wrote:
I hope they don't try it while we are on the Sleezy.

sue

George Leppla wrote:
Word has it that Carnival will try open seating in some of the dining
rooms starting this summer. It will be voluntary so they will still
have assigned times AND open seating.

I don't know the exact ships yet, but the program should start this
summer.

Sue, I respectfully disagree about negative thoughts on open, anytime,
freestyle seating. We got our first taste of Freestyle when cruising with
Bill and Erm. I was indifferent, but Ermalee buttonholed the head dude
and he put us at the same table with the same waiter at the same time each
evening. It was like a formal seating, but at OUR time and not someone
else's. I also find that they seem to be more lenient about dress at open
(for want of a better word) seating, which I appreciate.

Another thing I've come to enjoy is having different tablemates when not
traveling with friends like Erm, Tobie and Barb, Jean and Ed etc. On this
last cruise, we asked for a large table each evening and enjoyed meeting
new folk.


--
Nonny

Nonnymus
Never believe a person who is
Drunk, Horny or Running for Office.

Nonnymus wrote:
sue mullen wrote:
I hope they don't try it while we are on the Sleezy.

sue

George Leppla wrote:
Word has it that Carnival will try open seating in some of the dining
rooms starting this summer. It will be voluntary so they will still
have assigned times AND open seating.

I don't know the exact ships yet, but the program should start this
summer.

Sue, I respectfully disagree about negative thoughts on open, anytime,
freestyle seating. We got our first taste of Freestyle when cruising
with Bill and Erm. I was indifferent, but Ermalee buttonholed the head
dude and he put us at the same table with the same waiter at the same
time each evening. It was like a formal seating, but at OUR time and
not someone else's. I also find that they seem to be more lenient about
dress at open (for want of a better word) seating, which I appreciate.

Another thing I've come to enjoy is having different tablemates when not
traveling with friends like Erm, Tobie and Barb, Jean and Ed etc. On
this last cruise, we asked for a large table each evening and enjoyed
meeting new folk.

We have never done freestyle, personal choice or whatever the different
lines call it. My major objection is that when we are going out to
dinner at home, it is always what time should we go, where should we go
etc. I like the fixed seating that we have picked when we book our
cruise and then we don't have to have a discussion about time on our
cruise.

Unless we are cruising with friends, we like having the same tablemates
everynight. That allows us to form a good friendship with them. I also
don't like going through the introductions night after night.

When we were on the Emerald Princess in Jan, the dress code was the same
for personal choice as it was for traditional. Overall the dress code on
all ships is more casual then it used to be.

Will you and Mrs Nonny be on either the Sleazy or the Solstice? It would
be great seeing you both again.

sue

"sue mullen" wrote in message
...
I hope they don't try it while we are on the Sleezy.

I understand that they will have it on the Legend by then, but again, it is
optional and I am not going to change the group. We will have standard
late/early seatings as we usually do. Dinner time is one of the times of
the day that the group can come together and visit and adds a lot to the
group experience. We have done groups on NCL and Princess and open seating
just doesn't "work" as well as groups..

If any member of the group wants to change to open seating, it is my
understanding that you can do it while on the ship by telling the Maitre'd.

BTW - I really love open seating... but not with a group. But so far, NCL,
Princess, HAL, Royal Caribbean and now Carnival have some sort of open
seating options or tests in the works. It won't be long before this is a
mainstay on all the mass market cruise lines.


--
George Leppla http://www.CruiseMaster.com


May 12, 2008 - 5 nt New Orleans http://www.cruisemaster.com/fantasy.htm
October 26, 2008 Sleazy 5 http://www.cruisemaster.com/sleazy5.htm
Feb. 8, 2009 Solstice Valentine http://www.cruisemaster.com/solstice.htm

George Leppla wrote:

"sue mullen" wrote in message
...
I hope they don't try it while we are on the Sleezy.

I understand that they will have it on the Legend by then, but again, it
is optional and I am not going to change the group. We will have
standard late/early seatings as we usually do. Dinner time is one of
the times of the day that the group can come together and visit and adds
a lot to the group experience. We have done groups on NCL and Princess
and open seating just doesn't "work" as well as groups..

If any member of the group wants to change to open seating, it is my
understanding that you can do it while on the ship by telling the Maitre'd.

BTW - I really love open seating... but not with a group. But so far,
NCL, Princess, HAL, Royal Caribbean and now Carnival have some sort of
open seating options or tests in the works. It won't be long before
this is a mainstay on all the mass market cruise lines.

Great, I agree that traditional works best with a group!! I also love
your "meet and greets" between the two dinner times.

As I just said to Nonny, when we travel along, we love having the same
table mates everynight. I also like that we don't have to "discuss" what
time we want to go to dinner. I much rather set it up when we book the
cruise.

I just hope that the mainstream cruise lines will continue to offer
tradition dining.

sue

"George Leppla" wrote in message
...

"sue mullen" wrote in message
...
I hope they don't try it while we are on the Sleezy.

I understand that they will have it on the Legend by then, but again, it
is optional and I am not going to change the group. We will have standard
late/early seatings as we usually do. Dinner time is one of the times of
the day that the group can come together and visit and adds a lot to the
group experience. We have done groups on NCL and Princess and open
seating just doesn't "work" as well as groups..

If any member of the group wants to change to open seating, it is my
understanding that you can do it while on the ship by telling the
Maitre'd.

BTW - I really love open seating... but not with a group. But so far,
NCL, Princess, HAL, Royal Caribbean and now Carnival have some sort of
open seating options or tests in the works. It won't be long before this
is a mainstay on all the mass market cruise lines.



There has to be a financially logical reason that they do things... so we
have conflicting patterns.

It would seem that they started having double seatings (early vs. late) so
that they didn't have to build dining rooms large enough to accommodate all
passengers.

But now they seem to go toward the open seating concept... so... what's the
driver? Can they keep the smaller dining rooms and with having wait times
at peak periods (which might mean they sell a few more cocktails) still make
it work? Or are they building larger dining rooms to make it work?

On Crown Princess, there seemed to be a lot of waiters standing around at
times in the PC dining room... so idle waiters can't be cost effective...

What's the logic? Which one saves more money? Can they maybe save that
much more by not producing excess food if they can cook it at a constant
pace instead of all at once.

--Tom

sue mullen wrote:


Will you and Mrs Nonny be on either the Sleazy or the Solstice? It would
be great seeing you both again.

Right now, we're recovering from the Star. We're just starting to think
about future cruises, but haven't made any commitments. First of all,
we need to lose the weight we put on from the Star. grin

--
Nonny

Nonnymus
Never believe a person who is
Drunk, Horny or Running for Office.

George Leppla wrote:

BTW - I really love open seating... but not with a group. But so far,
NCL, Princess, HAL, Royal Caribbean and now Carnival have some sort of
open seating options or tests in the works. It won't be long before
this is a mainstay on all the mass market cruise lines.

George, one of the best times of your cruises, IMHO, is the informal
get-together before dinner in a lounge. It's always a highlight of your
cruises, I feel.



--
Nonny

Nonnymus
Never believe a person who is
Drunk, Horny or Running for Office.