45 Minute Dinner option

[tvguy]

Carnival is experimenting with a 45 minute MDR experience on the Carnival Vista. They say currently the average time a passenger spends for dinner in the MDR is 90 minutes. To accomplish a 45 minute meal, you have to sit in a special section of the MDR and order off a more limited menu.
Do you think Disney should consider this?
I ask this because I have seen complaints that Disney MDR takes too long. Our experience on the Magic was Late Seating, and dinner was normally 90 minutes with some staying to linger over coffee and dessert stretching it to two hours.
It is a biggest issue for Disney since they no longer have a buffet option for dinner.
We expect a sit down type restaurant experience, which is about 90 minutes. My first cruise, on a line known for gourmet meals, dinner was a 3 1/2 hour production.

 

[HyperspaceMountainPilot]

I don’t think trying to divide up the dining rooms for express dining would work well, especially with rotational dining, shows, etc.

I DO think having either a full buffet or at least keeping all of the pool stations open until 8 would be a huge win for cruisers who don’t want to commit 2 hours to dinner (without being reduced to a very limited selection) each night.

 

[Kwami]

When did Disney have a buffet option for dinner? Even before the pandemic, Cabanas was table service for dinner. It must have been quite a while ago!

 

[HyperspaceMountainPilot]

When did Disney have a buffet option for dinner? Even before the pandemic, Cabanas was table service for dinner. It must have been quite a while ago!

I just assumed it was a buffet because people talk about bring it back. Table service at cabanas is so wild for a cruise line that caters to young families.

 

[Dug720]

I've said before, I have no issue with them opening Cabanas or Marceline for menu-ordering as a way to train new servers as it used to be (I won't be visiting because they combine my least favorite options on the menus). But leave rotational dining - the cornerstone of DCL - alone.

 

[jwalk03]

Only if they do this in Cabanas. Leave the MDR experience and rotational dining alone!

 

[DCL58]

We sail DCL a lot. Very rarely does our dinner in a MDR last 90 minutes. We just sailed the Treasure and dinner took less than an hour every night.

The only time we have had an issue with really long meals was once on the fantasy when they were training lots of new kitchen staff. They couldn’t seem to get everything together. That was the exception to our other 11 cruises on the fantasy.

 

[ladyofthetramp]

Main dinning-I'd rather not be rushed. But a cabanas opening with limited menu and 45 minutes for dinner would be a nice option, especially for those with littles.

 

[scrappinginontario]

Anyone can request faster service from their server. It’s a bit inconvenient for server and kitchen but possible. One sailing there was a table near us that I’m guessing requested this as they were always done and gone before the entrees for the rest of the tables were being served. No need to change the current offerings for the few who prefer to eat more quickly.

The challenge with adding a Cabanas offering during the dinner period is those crew members are all busy in the main dining rooms. It would require additional staff being hired.

Another option is to eat your main meal in the dining room at lunch and then enjoy the quick service options at dinner.

 

[dreamer17555]

Agree with everyone that in my 16+ DCL sailings since 2020 we have NEVER had a 2 hour dinner (a 90 minute one was the longest at Marvel on the Wish her first few months). We are almost always done in an hour. I regularly make it to whatever 9:30 activity is happening when we have late dining without rushing to get there (we do tell the servers we like a faster meal if possible)

 

[lanejudy]

I don’t think DCL guests are averaging 90 minutes for the MDRs -- that means for all of us who are out in 60 minutes there's a party taking 120 minutes. We always do early dining and in my experience early dining seems to be about 60 minutes, occasionally stretched to 75 but the dining room was pretty empty by then. Based on reports over the years it seems late dining may average a little longer.

 

[PsylockeSmythe]

We always do early dining and in my experience early dining seems to be about 60 minutes, occasionally stretched to 75

This has been our normal experience except for our last 7-day cruise in 2024 on the Wonder. We had first seating, and on that cruise, our table we were finally finished with desert between 7:45 and 8pm each night (6 topper table, 2 parties of 2 and a single cruiser). A few times we finished closer to 7:30pm but that was the exception.

It wasn't due any of being slow eaters, our servers were just slow. We watched other tables with different servers, who entered after us, end up with their main dish before we received our soup/salads most nights. We all commented that it was the slowest service that any of us ever had on a Disney Cruise. On our 3 previous cruises, we were done within 75 minutes or so.

Psy

 

[jimmymc]

Shorter dining times or anytime dining don't work with Disney's rotational restaurants. Between the staff and kitchen space, they have just enough resources to feed everyone at the two standard dining times.

I do think they should bring back cabanas as a table service or buffet alternative for people who can't make their dinner times. At minimum, they need some option for late port days where half the guests aren't back from excursions when the first seating begins.

 

[hardcorestitch]

45 minute dinner? That would be crazy. That’s a choking lawsuit just waiting to happen… even with the limited menu.

 

[juxtapose]

Not something we'd use; our dinner was about an hour-75 minutes last cruise and my kids were young but fine waiting that long.
Between room service and some options at the pool deck I've never felt like we couldn't find something to eat for dinner. We have food allergies and are used to waiting a long time everywhere so we might have a skewed perspective.

 

[tvguy]

When did Disney have a buffet option for dinner? Even before the pandemic, Cabanas was table service for dinner. It must have been quite a while ago!

I think the buffet went away when they changed the name of the buffet on the Magic and Wonder from Topsiders to Cabanas.

 

[tvguy]

We sail DCL a lot. Very rarely does our dinner in a MDR last 90 minutes. We just sailed the Treasure and dinner took less than an hour every night.

The only time we have had an issue with really long meals was once on the fantasy when they were training lots of new kitchen staff. They couldn’t seem to get everything together. That was the exception to our other 11 cruises on the fantasy.

Thanks for this reply. This is what I have experienced with many current cruisers. MDR has shifted to a quicker format, which some think is still too long as cruiser preferences have changed. I can see the need for early dining to be faster so they can set up for late seating. We always have late seating, and on Disney our son, who was 16 at the time, and into magic, used to trade magic tricks with servers after dinner so we were rarely out of their before 10:30 pm. We usually had a number of servers and other guests around our table for the free show.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

It is a biggest issue for Disney since they no longer have a buffet option for dinner.

Well, DCL didn't have a "buffet" option for dinner. They did have the buffet area open for dinner, but it was a sit down table service. Used for training new onboard servers. Dining there was often quicker, with a limited menu of selections available in the other dining venues.

 

[tvguy]

Well, DCL didn't have a "buffet" option for dinner. They did have the buffet area open for dinner, but it was a sit down table service. Used for training new onboard servers. Dining there was often quicker, with a limited menu of selections available in the other dining venues.

It was a buffet in 2003/04. Not sure when it changed to table service.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

It was a buffet in 2003/04. Not sure when it changed to table service.

It was table service in Topsider's on our first DCL cruise in 2008.