Cannot request dining rotation anymore?

[princesskayla]

Indeed, this happened to us, but prior to sailing. And our dining rotation on our 5 night is such that the middle night restaurant is only visited once. I called DCL to see if the rotations will change and they said that they aren't. So basically, every person will miss a restaurant's menu. Which is weird. So we're going to Palo on that night and there's a restaurant now that we won't even visit. I requested a specific rotation so that we're NOT missing Animators, but lots of people will completely miss that menu (which stinks because those pasta purses are awesome). I'm hoping we can get the dining rotation we asked for for that reason. We'll see.

This has happened to our 5 night cruise on the Magic as well. I am NOT going to be a happy person if I miss a dining room menu. Especially AP. I don't want to miss the show in the dining room. I want to know how it different than the Wonder and the Dream. Plus I have never dined in L and C and I want to try those menus. I have already had the Pirate Menu and See You Real Soon Menu many times....

That's a possibility. We'll see what happens next week. As long as I get my pasta purses from Animator's, I'll be a happy camper. If we end up being assigned to Animator's on a night that we won't have them, I'll just request them when we're in another dining room on a normal rotation night.

Please let us know how the dining rotation was handled. Thank you.

 

[TheDisneyDoll]

I didn't realize this was even a thing. My family cruises far more than I do though. I have planned a night a palo's on our cruise in January on the Wonder. We have Earlier dining seating so i made the Palo reservation later so we can enjoy both or at least see what will be offered. I have to be honest though my favorite part of cruising is the food, I would be disappointed knowing we would miss out on one of the restaurants.

 

[runskyhy]

I've never made a rotation request but someone in my travel party did for our cruise last week (through our TA). We were told DCL couldn't guarantee it would happen but we did get our requested rotation.

 

[bonnysammy]

Yes, I was told we could request it. I wasn't told it was guaranteed.

 

[lillygator]

so what is the best one?

 

[DisneyNurse19]

We like Lumiere's, mainly because we get all dressed up.

We also ask for Lumiere's for the same reason.

 

[haynay]

They let me request...said it isn't a guarantee.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

so what is the best one?

IMO, there is no "best" rotation. Everyone onboard will have the same menus during the cruise.

"Best" for you might mean you want to be in one of the more "formal" dining rooms on formal night. Or Pirate night in Animator's. Although, we've done formal nights (as well as Pirate nights) in all of the various MDRs on the different ships. I find no difference having formal night in AP vs Lumiere's vs Enchanted Garden, etc. Same for Pirate night.

 

[bonnysammy]

We chose one that had the formal night in a more formal setting. My husband wanted that as he thought our daughter would appreciate it.

 

[mom4fun]

This whole topic has really made me think, why doesn't DCL do a mdr for those that want to dress up on formal night and for those that don't want a formal night, give them an informal dining room to request. That way everyone would be happy.

 

[Quellman]

I agree with you.

I mean...I *get* wanting to be fancy in the fancier-looking dining rooms, but, what, only a third of the guests onboard will actually be in that dining room on formal night, right? So 2/3 of the guests will have the experience of being fancy (should they choose to be fancy) on the formal nights.

I haven't yet had a formal night on DCL, but we have on Royal. And on Royal you're in the same dining room every night. When it's casual, it feels casual. When it's formal night, it feels more formal! The clothes make the room.

Gosh, we saw a Homecoming couple at Red Robin the other night; by them wearing their nice clothes, it made it seem nicer for them! They didn't have to go to some french restaurant to dress up; they dressed up and made things more formal by doing so.

If you take pictures with the objective of capturing nice pictures in the dining room, and shutters at least comes by, a the fancy french restaurant in the background will be nicer than the mcdonalds drive thu. The external environment is just part of the overall equation.

But yeah,the way that Disney doesn't enforce a dress code really means more and more of the formal nights are up to the guests and their attire and attitude than the actual location.

 

[anricat]

So we just got back yesterday. The rotations were changed. My request for "rotation 1" was still honored, but because the rotations were different than we were originally told (because of the change in pirate night) it wasn't exactly what I wanted.

However, we ended up changing it on the ship. Honestly, I didn't really care much by that point. The only reason we ended up changing it is because we met up with some people the first day that had a girl the same age as my daughter. They had main dining and had actually requested second seating. They said that they really didn't care either way, but when I told them that a lot of people are on wait lists to get main dining, they said that they were doing to change it to open up a slot. Since our daughters were getting on so well, I went with them to see if we could share a table. Turns out they switched it up for us. We switched to their rotation at late dining and all sat together. It was fantastic and the change was very very easy.

So if you don't get what you want, and it's really important to you, it's likely you can change it on board. Hope that helps!

 

[PrincessShmoo]

So we just got back yesterday. The rotations were changed. My request for "rotation 1" was still honored, but because the rotations were different than we were originally told (because of the change in pirate night) it wasn't exactly what I wanted.

However, we ended up changing it on the ship. Honestly, I didn't really care much by that point. The only reason we ended up changing it is because we met up with some people the first day that had a girl the same age as my daughter. They had main dining and had actually requested second seating. They said that they really didn't care either way, but when I told them that a lot of people are on wait lists to get main dining, they said that they were doing to change it to open up a slot. Since our daughters were getting on so well, I went with them to see if we could share a table. Turns out they switched it up for us. We switched to their rotation at late dining and all sat together. It was fantastic and the change was very very easy.

So if you don't get what you want, and it's really important to you, it's likely you can change it on board. Hope that helps!

What was the rotation? On what itinerary?

 

[closetmickey]

Any information on the Fantasy as far as servers would be greatlying appreciated?

Anson Fernandez!!!!! Our hands down favorite after 7 cruises...

 

[anricat]

What was the rotation? On what itinerary?

5-night Caribbean on the Magic (Miami, At Sea, Grand Cayman, At Sea, CC). We were originally told that the rotations were:
1. LACLA
2. ACLAC
3. CLACL

And that pirate night would be the fourth night (the second sea day). About a month prior to the voyage, they changed pirate night to night three (GC night). I called DCL twice to see if the rotations would change and was told both times that it hadn't. I pointed out that everyone on night three would miss a menu. No no they assured me they would remain the same. Not so!

The rotation on my KTTW card was LAACL (rotation 1). We ended up changing to ACCLA (rotation 2). Again, not because we preferred it but because we wanted to sit with another family with that rotation. I assume rotation number three was CLLAC.

We (several different people sailing that were on our meetup group ahead of time) were also told ahead of time that Halloween would be on the second sea day. It was the first sea day. Second sea day was semi-formal. That was also the day they did the Nightmare Before Christmas and it was in the afternoon (and there was only one showing).

 

[PrincessShmoo]

5-night Caribbean on the Magic (Miami, At Sea, Grand Cayman, At Sea, CC). We were originally told that the rotations were:
1. LACLA
2. ACLAC
3. CLACL

And that pirate night would be the fourth night (the second sea day). About a month prior to the voyage, they changed pirate night to night three (GC night). I called DCL twice to see if the rotations would change and was told both times that it hadn't. I pointed out that everyone on night three would miss a menu. No no they assured me they would remain the same. Not so!

The rotation on my KTTW card was LAACL (rotation 1). We ended up changing to ACCLA (rotation 2). Again, not because we preferred it but because we wanted to sit with another family with that rotation. I assume rotation number three was CLLAC.

We (several different people sailing that were on our meetup group ahead of time) were also told ahead of time that Halloween would be on the second sea day. It was the first sea day. Second sea day was semi-formal. That was also the day they did the Nightmare Before Christmas and it was in the afternoon (and there was only one showing).

Thanks for the info.

 

[Flossbolna]

5-night Caribbean on the Magic (Miami, At Sea, Grand Cayman, At Sea, CC). We were originally told that the rotations were:
1. LACLA
2. ACLAC
3. CLACL

And that pirate night would be the fourth night (the second sea day). About a month prior to the voyage, they changed pirate night to night three (GC night). I called DCL twice to see if the rotations would change and was told both times that it hadn't. I pointed out that everyone on night three would miss a menu. No no they assured me they would remain the same. Not so!

The rotation on my KTTW card was LAACL (rotation 1). We ended up changing to ACCLA (rotation 2). Again, not because we preferred it but because we wanted to sit with another family with that rotation. I assume rotation number three was CLLAC.

We (several different people sailing that were on our meetup group ahead of time) were also told ahead of time that Halloween would be on the second sea day. It was the first sea day. Second sea day was semi-formal. That was also the day they did the Nightmare Before Christmas and it was in the afternoon (and there was only one showing).

Interesting, this is the same rotation we had in 2013 during the first season of the 5-night-cruises out of Miami. We also had Pirates Night on night 3.