How to change dinner time??

[gdjoslin]

The Maitre'd was very busy on our last two cruises. Parties of 4 and 6 had been given different table and seating times, just a big mess in general. It make me wonder why they did not let you choose you table seat when you make your booking. You can pick your seat or a plane, or your cabin. Why don't they pull up a screen and assign your table?

[Cruise Fanatic]

Because they generally do not finalize dining arrangements until the last couple weeks before the cruise. This is when they take into consideration all the group bookings. A group booking may select their dining choice at the time the group is booked, but the final numbers of that group aren't known until approximately 70 days before the cruise. If a sailing has several large groups it can affect the whole set up of the dining room.

[gdjoslin]

That is kinda of my point. Why should my wife and I be put at the end of the line when we book a year out? We get to choose our cabins, or plane seats. On HAL last June we had booked 11 months out and did not get our seating request. Was told we should have book sooner.
On some airlines you can not select a seat until a few weeks out, perhaps this approach would solve the problem.
With the lines I saw on my last two cruises it would appear the current system is not working. Maybe those were just back to back bad experiences, my three cruises before that did not have a problem.

[Berick1234]

NCL has their Freestyle, RCL has their new Anytime Dining (on some ships) and Princess has Personal Choice dining in one of their main restaurants...all allow you to eat when you want...this is probably going to be a standard thruout the cruise industry...does give you a choice....Happy Cruising no matter what time you eat....

Bob E

[MemaSue]

We have always requested early dining..how else could you possibly hungry for midnight buffets and snacks hahah..we really do like to get eating out of the way for the shows and whatever else we may want to do for the evening.