late seating entree time?

[professorandmom]

Kasar posted a great trip report from her Bush - Wonder trip.
One question after reading it - their table received their entrees about 10 pm both evenings. I hadn't expected the actual eating to be so late.
Has this happened to anyone else?
Thanks for you help?
Barbara

 

[kasar]

Barbara: I honestly think that we were so late because of the Bush factor. Our servers kept saying that everything was different this trip. I'm not sure why. Maybe they didn't have time to prepare between the seatings or maybe all the security delayed things. I heard that the secret service watched all their meals being prepared and plated! But it was too late for our kids. We rebooked for next year and made sure to get the early meal time. One family that I spoke to was able to change their seating time to early but they were first on line at Wavebands on debarkation day and they were the only ones able to switch. If you have night owls or are coming from the West Coast you might be ok with late seating.

 

[mcnuss]

We were usually done by 10 pm! Don't worry about it.

 

[professorandmom]

Thanks for the reassurance!
Once again, thanks for the great trip report!
Barbara

 

[taswira]

Their goal for late seating is to have you out of there by 10 p.m., for their sake and yours, since there are deck parties and other activities that begin at 10. This was the case with 3 of my 4 DCL cruises this year. But on my Nov. cruise, we <I>never</I> received our entree before 9:30 and only finished by 10 on the last night - when DCL's VP of Operations and the Captain were at the table behind us. But if you have a <I>good</I> serving team, which is usually the case, you will be out by 10.

And kasar - YES - Your trip report was FANTASTIC!!! Thank you!

 

[alexandrew]

We had late seating the past 2 cruises...we were usually done by 9:45, including coffee and dessert

 

[JoanneTK]

We had late dinner seating on the Magic in November and our servers were wonderful! We were always out well before 10. We always had our dinners quickly. I don't know how they did it because I noticed other tables just getting their dinners when we were finishing ours. We also took the recommendations of our server each night and he was always right. Our servers by the way were Adrian from England and Svet from Bulgaria.

 

[taswira]

It is an unfortunate fact that <I>some</I> serving teams are better than others. Another thing influencing how long it takes to finish dinner is the rate at which your tablemates eat. The servers <I>try</I> to bring everyone's course in sync (appetizer, salad, main course, dessert). Most of the time, they will not bring anyone's entree until everyone at the table is ready, especially with late dining where it seems to be <I>mostly</I> adults and teens . . but there are sometimes exceptions. My most recent experience was simply a disorganized serving team. They were constantly behind, and even "forgot" the meals of two of my tablemates. But that was the first sub-par serving team I have had in 4 DCL cruises this year.

 

[Mickeylover]

Late seating on the Wonder December 15th. Average table departure time, 10:00PM (and as late as 10:20) We (and our tablemates) discovered that earlier arrival--before 8:30PM--seemed to get us served a little faster. This was a little later than I prefer. I will move to early seating next time I sail.