I look at dining in the Main Dining Room on a cruise ship, and the many watch outs, must knows, tips and tricks. It is not straight-forward as many cruisers think
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00:00 Start
00:37 Main Dining Room Basics
01:03 Dietary Needs
02:05 Main Dining Room Options
05:47 Maitre D Importance
06:42 Main Dining Room Menu Must-Knows
08:05 Main Dining Room Dress Codes
08:39 Main Dining Room Etiquette
46 Comments
I would add, never put Arsenal and Man U supporters at the same table.
I've never been on a cruise, but I have been a bartender. Never, ever talk about religion or politics and maybe avoid sports
I travel HAL open dining for all of my seven cruises. We showed up and never had to wait more than 5 minutes. No reservations needed.
Just back from cruise around New Zealand on the Westerdam, quite frankly the food was not good. I understand that they need to freeze the meats etc. but the need sauce to put back the flavour. Went to their Italian restaurant called Canaletto the only thing Italian was the name of the restaurant. The spaghetti was not cooked, yuck. I also understand that it was nearly impossible to get cooks because of Covid. Maybe it would be better to get them to cook curries that they are trained on. They have curries on the lido deck but not in the restaurants. Think I will try Oceania next cruise.
@9:00 Trump sucks.
I like to dine alone and have always been accommodated in the Main dining room. No need to confirm to others “shoulds”. Holland America and NCL have welcomed me
You're spot on. Allergies are a big thing.
I have a food allergy (almonds). I always travel with Royal Caribbean. At the time of booking we made sure to fill out the special guest form. When we got onto our cruise we spoke to the people in the dining room and let our waiter know. Night one I asked if there were any desserts that were safe for me to eat. I was told the gluten free cake. The cake came and it had almonds on the outside of the cake. Had I eaten that I would have ended up in hospital. Your friends need to be extremely careful with their food allergies. The head waiter came over to apologize but that could have been a disaster. We ate elsewhere after that.
My experience sailing with NCL we almost always were seated on our own. No waiting. Just walked right in. We only made reservations at the specialty restaurants which we like a lot. Far more intimate. I much prefer the main dining room to the buffet.
Our cruise left ports generally at 7pm so after only one night dining at 6.30 in the dining room we decided to move to the buffet which gave us the choice to sit outside to view departure.
Quite surprised that Covid wasn’t mentioned. On my recent 20 day cruise, we always asked for and were accommodated with tables away from others. Yes, it means more work for waitstaff but hopefully kept us from contracting the virus until later in the cruise.
Gary help! We are booked on QE2 for a month long trip around Australia& NZ we are needing to know everything about cruising. So far have requested early dining session.
Mindful of the 2 experiences that we have had, first transatlantic on QM2 we booked first session any seating only to be subjected to 4 guests who dominated the meal talking to themselves about American football. We opted to dine in the a la carte self service from then on. The next on QV Mediterranean cruise we did the same option & were blessed with lovely companions.
This trip however is much longer. So exactly how do we change if we really are stuck with people like the first experience.
Also we found out that we could opt not to pay gratuities as set by the ship & ask for envelopes that we then used to tip those crew we wanted to tip. Is this still done?
Also not a good idea to discuss how much you paid for your cruise. I've been on cruises where I paid far less for an outside double cabin, than someone paid for their inside single. They just booked an inside single because they always did, and they didn't realise there was a "no single supplement" offer.
Wouldn't go on one for free
Many years ago my husband and I were on the fixed dining and we were sat with a guy who had disgusting table manners. It was horrendous and we couldn't change.
Avoiding politics in this day and age is impossible … weather brings up climate, that’s a no,no. Talk about education, hysteria is a no, no. Talk about sports, that’s a no, no. Talk about science or medicine, that’s a no no. Etc, etc, etc. everything gas been thrown on the table by conservatives and made political . Fortunately, most conservatives are also nationalists and they just stay home.
Regarding making the maitre d your ally, is it good to tip when you make any initial requests – and how much?
Love your videos – but I've not had good experiences in the main dining room. The room is always packed and it's basically banquet dining. In my opinion is the equivalent of a chow hall/ hospital/ collage dining, where large amounts of food is prepared for large amounts of people. Food is generally sub-par and off temperature. We had better experiences in the speciality dining and the buffet.
Aside Luxury cruises, an option is to Cruise NCL . I personally notice that they have the most amount of table for 2 dining areas ! What also worked for us on other lines, was visiting the Maitre ASAP, requesting the table for 2 and tipping .
Don't care what anyone says, tipping opens doors !
Small ships almost always are open seating in main dining. The small specialty locations offer reserved seating, which makes sense. Cannot imagine dealing with a city-on-water of thousands of people. Yikes!
You are absolutely more needy on a cruise than I am. Your advise is good but not for me
If seated at a table by the window I always found it polite to rotate who sits next to the window one of the cruises I was on the table mates hogged the window every night
On our latest cruise, we only ate in the main dining room. We've just found it to be an overall more positive experience than trying to eat in the buffet or other "quick" options. We had some excellent conversations with the crew working in the main dining room at lunch on a port day when the ship was almost empty of passengers. I have never had any issue getting our seating time changed or getting a table to ourselves when we request it.
Please stop blowing your nose at the table,wether in dining room or buffet, so nasty and gross.
I think a good idea is go with the flow and dont get stressed. Dress code, check before you book and dont fight with it, when you book it is an informal contract but important to those about you. Most of all enjoy whatever happens, you are being cosseted when the most people are suffereing hardships.
I've only done one cruise, we only ate in the main dining room for dinner. I think next time I'll try it out for breakfast or lunch as well.
We are experienced cruisers but we still love your straight forward videos. THANK YOU!!!!
Just booked a 10 day on Caribbean Princess. Wasn't asked my preference on dinner time at all! Is there no scheduled dining there?
I just came off my first cruise on Princess using the Medallion app to book dining times, and noticed an interesting fact. Times could be reserved on the hour, twenty past, and forty past, from 5:00 pm to 8:40 pm. When I booked at the top of the hour, I could count on a lineup at the entrance as the Maitre d' got the guests seated, party by party. After two nights, I shifted all my times to forty minutes past and — no waiting! I walked up and got seated instantly, every time. Everyone else was so locked into the pattern of doing things on the hour, and life got much easier when I broke out of that pattern.
Another great one, Gary! Your subtle mention of your friend's always wanting a particular "spicy sauce" made my wife laugh, turn and say to me, "Mr. Tobasco Man!" Very good tips as usual!
Valuing your opinion, my spouse and I are getting ready for out first cruise ever. Alaska on Princess. Any specific videos you have fir us to review (again)?
Thank you again, Gary for such a great informational vid! I'm sure your friends will be well set for thier cruise. I prefer the anytime dining, only because I don't want to miss out on an activity that may come up during my cruise. Both on Carnival and Cunard, I asked if it would be possible to sit in the same wait section as my first night, if a table for myself (I cruise solo, a lot) wasn't available, I wouldn't mind dining with others. On QM2, out of 7 nights, I had only one dinner where I was moved to a table with others, but still had the same wait staff. Now during breakfast, I just plunked where they put me. I did enjoy others company and we seemed to end up at the same table most days. On Carnival, I've never had an issue getting a solo table in the same wait section, and usually, it's the same table. Sidenote. During breakfast on QM2, our table had these two lovely retired teachers from the Manchester area, A couple, who the husband worked for UK Embassy Security, a single older woman from Leeds, I believe, and myself, the sole Yank at the table. The gentleman asked one morning about my thoughts on Trump, and I watched the two teachers shoot a look of horror to each other. I smiled, said I didn't vote for him, and if he wanted my true thoughts on him I'd be happy to respond if he would be able to tell me in a short one or two sentence response the problem England and Ireland always had… the entire table erupted in laughter… Once he regained composure he said that one or two sentences could never cover that issue… I smiled and said one or two sentences could never cover my feelings on Voldem… I meanTrump… We had the most fabulous time the entire cruise!
Excellent advice, as always.
We hate it if we end up sitting next to moaners. They can ruin a lovely holiday. With cruise companies cutting back to save money that is something to be cautious about 🫢
Things you always want to avoid discussing at dinner… politics, religion, and somebody's mother. It just never ends well.
Excellent vid. Probably anyone with special diet needs should do 'fixed dining', so that they have that constant wait staff tending to their diet needs. We like anytime dining, and tend to dine late–but the drawback is that if we want to supplement our meal with an extra lido dessert, the lido is often closed or near closing time when we are getting done eating. Our most recent cruise, on Carnival MG, is probably the first where it actually made sense to snag a dessert from the lunch buffet and put it in the cabin fridge for later snacking.
… on Princess they will serve an appetizer … dressed up as an entree you just needed to ask …
Another benefit of earlier dining is it allows you to dine leisurely and still comfortably get to the evening entertainment.
I have found out recently things not to do is put a sausages in your pocket at breakfast. Do not take the sausage out of your pocket at lunch time and ask the waiter to heat it up. Do not regurgitate a re-heated sausage at dinner time. If you disagree with me, i'm all ears.
Just returned from my first cruise, on Virgin. Not stressing about weird main dining room rules and "premium" dining restaurants for added $$ was kind of a main appeal of the line.
You are correct. It is a tie between Obama and Biden for worst POTUS
When speaking about dress code (for instance on Cunard, where it’s more traditional) it’s often mentioned that men must wear a suit & tie, but must women wear a dress? Because truly, I’d rather wear a suit myself as a female, than a dress. Frankly, I don’t even own a dress. If a prohibition against even wearing an elegant suit exists for women (keep in mind, I’m speaking of a quite expensive bespoke suit here) then I could never take advantage of the dining that frankly I would most enjoy, and the entire value of the cruise is thereby reduced for me, on the EXACT cruise I would want to take.
Love your videos and every time I know I learn something I didn't know before (and in some cases may have been guilty of). I have been hearing that some cruise lines have started charging people if they order more than one dish of a course (like the steak) when in the main dining room? Is that now true?
There is the possibility of asking for smaller portions of certain dishes if you would like to try a few different things, or if you aren't sure you'd really like something so you can have something you know you'll eat and something you want to try. It never hurts to ask.
Do you tip the Maitre D when you introduce yourself at the start of the cruise?
I don’t know why I watch your videos as I never have been nor plan to go on a cruise 😂
First cruise: found out on the second day that I could order multiple entrees for dinner! Had 3 steaks for dinner (except for lobster night, only had 2) each night! OMG, were they good…and actually ended the cruise 2lb lighter than on embarkation.