Are they still seating only 1 family/party per table?

[Cheburashka]

I think there’s nothing wrong with requesting a private table as long as you understand that it’s not guaranteed and ... or to expect any special treatment once you get on the ship that you should be accommodated.

There's nothing wrong with pressing for accommodation. That's the only way changes are going to come to DCL, if enough passengers complain and are firm about wanting something different.

 

[dreamer17555]

There's nothing wrong with pressing for accommodation. That's the only way changes are going to come to DCL, if enough passengers complain and are firm about wanting something different.

Actually there is. Rotational dining and all it entails (meaning not being guaranteed a private table) is a staple of DCL. If that doesn’t suit you perhaps another cruise line would better serve your needs. You can better vote with your wallet than by simply demanding accommodations once on board.

ETA: and I am saying this as a person with a severe allergy and a special needs child. Email or call and put in the request- sure absolutely! But once on board if you find out the answer is no, deal with it.

 

[Cheburashka]

Actually there is. Rotational dining and all it entails (meaning not being guaranteed a private table) is a staple of DCL. If that doesn’t suit you perhaps another cruise line would better serve your needs.

Nope. DCL is the only line for me at this time. Rotational dining is great, and it's totally possible for DCL to provide it with some smaller tables offered.

 

[ljhayes]

I have been on 9 Disney cruises and we have never shared a bread basket with others. They have always brought one out for each party, every single cruise, every single dinner. If you are grabbing the bread that belongs to the other party, that is on you. Our servers have always made it clear that every party gets their own bread basket. What are you all doing?

What has your party size been? As a party of two seated with another party of two, we have only received one bread basket for the table.

 

[lanejudy]

Nope. DCL is the only line for me at this time. Rotational dining is great, and it's totally possible for DCL to provide it with some smaller tables offered.

Sure they can and they do accommodate requests for private tables. But at some point -- particularly post-covid -- there may be more people requesting a smaller private table than what is available; so to expect the request to be granted is presumptuous. If they are unable to grant the request, you have other options for dining if a private table is really that important to you. Otherwise, you should reconsider whether another cruiseline might better meet your needs. Boarding and demanding a request that was never guaranteed speaks way more about your personality than it does about DCL's customer service.

 

[dreamer17555]

Nope. DCL is the only line for me at this time. Rotational dining is great, and it's totally possible for DCL to provide it with some smaller tables offered.

Okay but having a 2 top might still place you with another solo diner. Rare I know but it could happen. Your concern isn’t the size of tables; it is making sure you secure a private one.

Clearly rotational dining does not have the capacity for everyone to have a private table so why should you always be accommodated?

 

[Cheburashka]

Okay but having a 2 top might still place you with another solo diner. Rare I know but it could happen. Your concern isn’t the size of tables; it is making sure you secure a private one.

Clearly rotational dining does not have the capacity for everyone to have a private table so why should you always be accommodated?

I travel as a party of 2 more often than I travel solo, so tables for 2 would be a big improvement for me, as well as others.

You claim there isn't capacity, but over 8 cruises I've always had my private table request for 2 or 1 accommodated, so it's certainly possible to accommodate many requests. I've also read posts by many other double & single cruisers who had requests granted.

First come, first served is the way these requests go and that's certainly fair. I board early & go straight to dining changes to get my request fulfilled if it wasn't granted prior to boarding.

The more tables for 2 they have, the more people can be accommodated. It will be an improvement in the cruise for many people, which should be DCL's goal.

 

[dreamer17555]

I travel as a party of 2 more often than I travel solo, so tables for 2 would be a big improvement for me, as well as others.

You claim there isn't capacity, but over 8 cruises I've always had my private table request for 2 or 1 accommodated, so it's certainly possible to accommodate many requests. I've also read posts by many other double & single cruisers who had requests granted.

First come, first served is the way these requests go and that's certainly fair. I board early & go straight to dining changes to get my request fulfilled.

The more tables for 2 they have, the more people can be accommodated. It will be an improvement in the cruise for many people, which should be DCL's goal.

First off it’s a different world post Covid a lot more people are going to want private tables. So when you’ve been accommodated in the past there’s no indication that you will be accommodated in the future.

Also I’m not sure that first come first serve is the fairest way to do this. There are lots of ways to do this from considering those with allergies first, considering those with special needs first, considering those with platinum cruise status first. And if we’re going in the order of putting in request then it would be who put the request in when booking the cruise first not who runs up and complains once they get on board.

 

[Cheburashka]

Boarding and demanding a request that was never guaranteed speaks way more about your personality than it does about DCL's customer service.

Your need to belittle someone's serious concern says a lot about your personality.

 

[mab2012]

If shared bread baskets is really such a big sticking point, I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that one could just ask for an individual basket for their party.

I am completely confident that a simple request to your server on day 1 would see your party getting its own bread for the duration of the cruise. Problem solved.

 

[Lilsia]

What has your party size been? As a party of two seated with another party of two, we have only received one bread basket for the table.

I have cruised with both of my daughters and I have also gone solo. Every single time I got my own bread basket. They are supposed to give every group their own, as was told to me by a server and that is what we have experienced every single time. We never had to ask for our own, they just automatically put a basket in front of every group. Maybe you have had bad servers but there is no way that we would share with other groups and most definitely would have asked for our own if needed. I can see if they gave more bread the first night and no one ate it, that they didn't want to waste it so only brought out one thinking that no one was going to eat it anyway. IDK But no one has to share if they don't want to. The servers ask you a million times what they can do to make your stay better. It's not that hard to say, "hey, can we have our own bread basket please."

 

[CaptainAmerica]

Actually there is. Rotational dining and all it entails (meaning not being guaranteed a private table) is a staple of DCL.

From an operational perspective, what about rotational dining makes shared tables necessary? I don't really see what one has to do with the other.

 

[ljhayes]

I have cruised with both of my daughters and I have also gone solo. Every single time I got my own bread basket. They are supposed to give every group their own, as was told to me by a server and that is what we have experienced every single time. We never had to ask for our own, they just automatically put a basket in front of every group. Maybe you have had bad servers but there is no way that we would share with other groups and most definitely would have asked for our own if needed. I can see if they gave more bread the first night and no one ate it, that they didn't want to waste it so only brought out one thinking that no one was going to eat it anyway. IDK But no one has to share if they don't want to. The servers ask you a million times what they can do to make your stay better. It's not that hard to say, "hey, can we have our own bread basket please."

I have no problem asking for my own/more bread if I want it, nor do I think this needs to be a concern with a return to shared dining tables. I was just noting that your assertion that it is always automatically done and anyone sharing is doing something wrong was not correct.

 

[Lilsia]

I travel as a party of 2 more often than I travel solo, so tables for 2 would be a big improvement for me, as well as others.

You claim there isn't capacity, but over 8 cruises I've always had my private table request for 2 or 1 accommodated, so it's certainly possible to accommodate many requests. I've also read posts by many other double & single cruisers who had requests granted.

First come, first served is the way these requests go and that's certainly fair. I board early & go straight to dining changes to get my request fulfilled if it wasn't granted prior to boarding.

The more tables for 2 they have, the more people can be accommodated. It will be an improvement in the cruise for many people, which should be DCL's goal.

I completely understand why someone would want their own table. But I think that it is much more difficult for them to transition to individual party tables then some people seem to think. The demographics change on every single cruise so to be "safe" they will need many more 4 and 6 top tables then 2 top tables. You can't compare DCL to other cruise lines because other cruise lines have their guests spread out among many different restaurants, not just the 3. The Norwegian Getaway ship has 28 restaurants. Royal Caribbean Oasis of the Seas has 20 restaurants. DCL is limited on space and even if you can physically "fit" the different size tables, as someone said, the servers still need enough room to be able to walk and safely carry the hot food. I don't want them hovering plates of hot food over my head or my child's head just to have an 6 inch gap between our table and the next. And it's not like they have room to keep playing musical tables and bring out different sizes for different cruises. Not to mention that they will have to have the exact same table configurations for all 3 restaurants since we rotate. You all are so quick to hate on Disney without realizing that it is not that easy to accommodate what you are asking for when the ships are full.

 

[Lilsia]

I have no problem asking for my own/more bread if I want it, nor do I think this needs to be a concern with a return to shared dining tables. I was just noting that your assertion that it is always automatically done and anyone sharing is doing something wrong was not correct.

I understand. It is just strange that a few people kept bringing it up as if they have no option but to share the bread basket. That has not been our experience and I don't think that is the majority of cruiser's experience either. I imagine that it is a server training issue. But others where using the fact of sharing bread as a reason why they wanted their own table, but that point is moot, isn't it.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

I completely understand why someone would want their own table. But I think that it is much more difficult for them to transition to individual party tables then some people seem to think. The demographics change on every single cruise so to be "safe" they will need many more 4 and 6 top tables then 2 top tables. You can't compare DCL to other cruise lines because other cruise lines have their guests spread out among many different restaurants, not just the 3. The Norwegian Getaway ship has 28 restaurants. Royal Caribbean Oasis of the Seas has 20 restaurants. DCL is limited on space and even if you can physically "fit" the different size tables, as someone said, the servers still need enough room to be able to walk and safely carry the hot food. I don't want then hovering plates of hot food over my head or my child's head just to have an 6 inch gap between our table and the next. And it's not like they have room to keep playing musical tables and bring out different sizes for different cruises. Not to mention that they will have to have the exact same table configurations for all 3 restaurants since we rotate. You all are so quick to hate on Disney without realizing that it is not that easy to accommodate what you are asking for when the ships are full.

Two-tops optimize flexibility because they can be 2 or combined to be any other number.

Also, your comparison to other ships is a bit disingenuous. The Oasis of the Seas holds 5,400 passengers and those "restaurants" include things like pizza counters.

 

[Lilsia]

Two-tops optimize flexibility because they can be 2 or combined to be any other number.

I understand that, but to have to configure the dining rooms for every single cruise to accommodate party size is insane. Who is going to do this? The overworked staff? And on cruises that sail 3 and 4 nights, they are rearranging all 3 dining rooms twice a week. So someone has to come up with the how many tables and their size, and then try to fit them into the very different designs of the dining rooms, because it's not like they are all just large rectangle rooms. And then have the cast members move the tables around, scratching up the floors. Like I said, it is not as simple as some of you think. But the other cruise lines have other places for people to go. DCL has ALL of their guests eating in these 3 restaurants and you know that is a huge difference.

 

[SirDuff]

I understand that, but to have to configure the dining rooms for every single cruise to accommodate party size is insane. Who is going to do this? The overworked staff? And on cruises that sail 3 and 4 nights, they are rearranging all 3 dining rooms twice a week. So someone has to come up with the how many tables and their size, and then try to fit them into the very different designs of the dining rooms, because it's not like they are all just large rectangle rooms. And then have the cast members move the tables around, scratching up the floors. Like I said, it is not as simple as some of you think. But the other cruise lines have other places for people to go. DCL has ALL of their guests eating in these 3 restaurants and you know that is a huge difference.

They’d need to rearrange DAILY since parties move around the restaurants. I mean, I assume that they already have to do that, but it would become even more complicated/time consuming.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

So someone has to come up with the how many tables and their size, and then try to fit them into the very different designs of the dining rooms, because it's not like they are all just large rectangle rooms.

That can be done ahead of time on a computer shoreside extremely easily. They could probably automate it even.

I also think you're vastly overestimating passenger diversity from sailing to sailing. It's not like one sailing is going to be 80% seniors who want to dine in groups followed by 75% couples who want private tables followed by 92% families of four. Passenger mix is going to be fairly stable from sailing to sailing.

 

[Lilsia]

That can be done ahead of time on a computer shoreside extremely easily. They could probably automate it even.

I also think you're vastly overestimating passenger diversity from sailing to sailing. It's not like one sailing is going to be 80% seniors who want to dine in groups followed by 75% couples who want private tables followed by 92% families of four. Passenger mix is going to be fairly stable from sailing to sailing.

But it is also an issue of space. The longer, shared tables take up less space, and it is already pretty crowded in the dining rooms. I can't see how they would have the space unless you are thinking of keeping the same layout but just having a couple inch gap between the tables. Have you all even been on the cruises and paid attention to the space?