Positive changes

[Joe Brig]

With the current situation changes will come, here are some changes that I would't mind:

Dining:
Shorten the length by combining courses, ordering desert upfront, and less chit-chat, not mentioning the survey for example.
Remove the shared tables for smaller groups. Forcing people to be near each other every night is a bad idea.
With more tables needed, they will have to add a 3rd dining time, many will be eager to sign up for the earliest time.
Cafeteria style buffets aren't bad either.

Shows:
They could add a 3rd time with each groups having an empty seat between them.

Pools:
No saving chairs, unattended items and towels will be immediately removed. Not sure how this is virus related but we can come up with something.

Others?

 

[Primeval Princess]

Pools:
No saving chairs, unattended items and towels will be immediately removed. Not sure how this is virus related but we can come up with something.

Lol. It is actually related to virus containment measures, as there will probably be fewer loungers out. So if the usual suspects are trying to hog them all day (without actually using them, of course, just leaving stuff on them to "claim" them all day), then there will be almost no loungers for anyone to actually use. So I wouldn't be surprised if DCL actually starts enforcing their no lounger saving policy.

 

[ArielRae]

I have always wanted them to add an earlier dinnertime. It doesn‘t even have to be a themed or show dinner like the later ones.

I would also love if they offered the evening shows at a matinee time like between 1:00pm-3:00pm on days they offer them in the evenings.

 

[T & R]

I do not know if you could add an earlier main dining time. If they did then the first dining would conflict with the assembly station drills on the first night.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

With the current situation changes will come, here are some changes that I would't mind:

Dining:
Shorten the length by combining courses, ordering desert upfront, and less chit-chat, not mentioning the survey for example.
Remove the shared tables for smaller groups. Forcing people to be near each other every night is a bad idea.
With more tables needed, they will have to add a 3rd dining time, many will be eager to sign up for the earliest time.
Cafeteria style buffets aren't bad either.

Shows:
They could add a 3rd time with each groups having an empty seat between them.

Pools:
No saving chairs, unattended items and towels will be immediately removed. Not sure how this is virus related but we can come up with something.

Others?

When we vacation, we prefer the "let's take time to enjoy the meal" aspect of the dining rooms. And we like talking to our servers, as it's a time to learn about other people/countries.

Just removing the shared table is not going to stop the "being near" each other thing. As it is, now, there's very little space between tables when they are shared. Except for a very few tables in some of the dining rooms, all our table were pretty much within inches of the next one, we might as well have been sharing the table.

While a 3 dining option may work, I don't see "many" rushing to book it. There's always a lot of "there's no time between doing things during the day and the early seating" now.

I do agree that the self serve buffet can survive as a cafeteria style service venue.

3 shows is a good idea, also. But, IMO, an empty seat between groups isn't enough distancing. And how about people being seated directly in front/behind each other in every row? You'd need some one (a CM?) to monitor where people sit to insure the spacing.

The no saving chairs/lounges should be enforced anyway.

 

[ArielRae]

In all our cruises we have had we never had servers stop to chit chat or play games with us in the main dining rooms. They have always been to busy running from table to table getting people their food, drink or having to participate in the show going on. If you stop them they were nice but seemed bothered by the slow down. On recent cruises we have preferred eating at the Cabanas table service dinner. The servers have plenty of time to chat and engage with you. The food is so much better and way hotter since it is cooked once you order it and not waiting for a server to just go pick it up off the line. So much better then the luke warm banquet food we have received in the main dining rooms. The down side is the cabanas menu does not change so on longer cruises It can get repetitive.

Wanted to add:
Lunch in the main dining rooms are really good too. The servers are nice and chit chat then. They don’t have to rush around then and are more willing to stop and have a nice talk with you. The food is good and hotter too.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

In all our cruises we have had we never had servers stop to chit chat or play games with us in the main dining rooms.

Hmmm... we never have had servers that didn't chat with us and (some) play games.

 

[Cruising Engineer]

Hmmm... we never have had servers that didn't chat with us and (some) play games.

Same here. We have learned more magic tricks during dinner than at any time. It should be even better on our next cruise with the family. First time with grand niece and nephews.

 

[BartmanLA]

A lot of the "chit chat" from the servers is predicated on if the party has children at the table, the servers are encouraged to engage the young ones and keep them entertained, it helps them become more comfortable and familiar with them so as the cruise progresses it can actually speed up service since the servers get a knowledge of what the kids might want or even have the kids actually ask for something themselves instead of having to go through the parent thus slowing down service. The idea of a 3rd dining time while might seem good, it's logistically impractical for the kitchens, so much of the food on the daily menus is cooked to finish right at the time of each sitting's service, adding another seating would make a massive amount of preparation and cooking/baking that might cause congestion in the galleys to the point of actually slowing down the service. But I'm sure what ever DCL does it will be with in the similar model as they have now, with some tweaking to allow for better sanitation and hygiene among guests and crew.

 

[FightingIrishman]

With the current situation changes will come, here are some changes that I would't mind:

Dining:
Shorten the length by combining courses, ordering desert upfront, and less chit-chat, not mentioning the survey for example.
Remove the shared tables for smaller groups. Forcing people to be near each other every night is a bad idea.
With more tables needed, they will have to add a 3rd dining time, many will be eager to sign up for the earliest time.
Cafeteria style buffets aren't bad either.

Shows:
They could add a 3rd time with each groups having an empty seat between them.

Pools:
No saving chairs, unattended items and towels will be immediately removed. Not sure how this is virus related but we can come up with something.

Others?

I like some of these ideas for returning to cruises post COVID-19.

Dining: Shortening the dining time by offering one appetizer, one main dish, and one dessert ordered at the beginning would decrease the amount of time people spend in one room together. Having 3 dining times (such as 5, 6:45, and 8:30) would allow greater spacing of tables.

Shows: On sea days a matinee could easily be added, or have three shows every evening to coincide with the dining times. CMs would have to space everyone out.

Pools: They would probably have to cut at least half or more of the chairs out. If they did not allow saving of chairs at any time, I could see this work.

Movie theatre: It seems like they could play the movies more often than they do now.

Kids clubs: I think this is the one area where parents will just have to play Russian roulette. There is no easy way to restrict contact between kids.

 

[SamFaniam]

I like some of these ideas for returning to cruises post COVID-19.

Dining: Shortening the dining time by offering one appetizer, one main dish, and one dessert ordered at the beginning would decrease the amount of time people spend in one room together. Having 3 dining times (such as 5, 6:45, and 8:30) would allow greater spacing of tables.

Shows: On sea days a matinee could easily be added, or have three shows every evening to coincide with the dining times. CMs would have to space everyone out.


Movie theatre: It seems like they could play the movies more often than they do now.

maybe I don’t understand your first point, but it sounds like you would take away dining options. There would only be one appetizer one main dish and one dessert available?

i’m not sure it’s as easy to add the shows as you think. Remember that a lot of the cast members that work in the shows also do other activities on ship, including some of the character stuff. So they might not necessarily be available to do the show. Plus you need all the backstage and technical workers, and I’m guessing they also have responsibilities during the day. For instance the sound guy in the theater probably also is responsible for sound at the family shows during the daytime in the D lounge.

The movie theater already pretty much goes from mid morning till midnight, I’m not sure how many more shows they could add.

 

[brentm77]

When we vacation, we prefer the "let's take time to enjoy the meal" aspect of the dining rooms. And we like talking to our servers, as it's a time to learn about other people/countries.

Us too. It is the time of day when everyone is together (including extend family when applicable). We slow down. Relax. Enjoy each course on its own. It is one of our favorite parts of the day. We usually get the lights flickering on and off as the signal to leave each night. We love it and hope it doesn't change.

 

[yowcruiser]

Initially, if they are to run the ship's at 50% capacity, main dining won't be much of an issue, and they may be able to handle Cabanas as cafeteria style without much of an issue. As capacity increases to 75% and then 100%, the following adjustments may need to be made.

-Something will definitely have to be done with dining. Some suggestions around speeding up service and/adding a 3rd dining time are interesting but I could also see a scenario where Cabanas become a 4th dining room. Either it is offered as a cruise long option and opt-out of MDR for those who like the MDR food, but do not care anymore about the experience and want a faster in and out. Another scenario is that it gets formally added as part of MDR rotation- but this would cause issues with 3 night cruises

-All dining rooms open for breakfast and lunch or at least 2 of the 3 MDRs + Cabanas. One may need to book a time at Cabanas or it becomes capacity constrained

-DCL to spread embarkation a bit more. Right now, if one has a PAT of 12:30 or later, it is pretty much instant embarkation. I could see DCL spreading this more to control the flow in dining rooms on embarkation day OR there is a change to the flow for embarkation lunch (assigned time, assigned location or becomes a decision that has to be made as part of check-in process). Alternatively, no more embarkation buffet and MDR + quick dining only

-New "virtual requests" or "virtual queue" for dining request changes or Palo/Remy bookings. No more 12:30pm meeting/lineup to request those. Phone request still accepted, but a request via the app preferred and time stamped.

 

[Cruising Engineer]

Having been in the locked-down carry-out mode for 2 months, it would be nice to have the Navigator App set up to order dinner selections before mealtime. That would save time at the table and back in the kitchen. After 10 cruises, we pretty much know the menus.

 

[FightingIrishman]

maybe I don’t understand your first point, but it sounds like you would take away dining options. There would only be one appetizer one main dish and one dessert available?

i’m not sure it’s as easy to add the shows as you think. Remember that a lot of the cast members that work in the shows also do other activities on ship, including some of the character stuff. So they might not necessarily be available to do the show. Plus you need all the backstage and technical workers, and I’m guessing they also have responsibilities during the day. For instance the sound guy in the theater probably also is responsible for sound at the family shows during the daytime in the D lounge.

The movie theater already pretty much goes from mid morning till midnight, I’m not sure how many more shows they could add.

My apologies. I meant order three items from the menu at the beginning of the sit-down session. The menu size is not what I was trying to limit but the number of plates served to a table at one meal to quicken service.

On our last Merrytime cruise, live Disney shows were played 3 times a day during sea days. I had never seen that offered before but apparently they can do it.

Movie theatres can run a 90 minute movie every two hours on land. I see long stretches where the movie theater concession is closed because there is no movie set to play for 90 minutes at times. I would eliminate the use of the movie theater for promotional items and play movies instead to spread people out with more showtimes (such as 8 AM, 10:30, 1 PM, 3:30, 6, 8:30, 11)

 

[Primeval Princess]

Hmmm... we never have had servers that didn't chat with us and (some) play games.

We've experienced both. Preoccupied servers, and chatty, game-playing servers. We had more of the former on our first few cruises, and more of the latter on our most recent cruises.

 

[Primeval Princess]

In all our cruises we have had we never had servers stop to chit chat or play games with us in the main dining rooms. They have always been to busy running from table to table getting people their food, drink or having to participate in the show going on. If you stop them they were nice but seemed bothered by the slow down. On recent cruises we have preferred eating at the Cabanas table service dinner. The servers have plenty of time to chat and engage with you. The food is so much better and way hotter since it is cooked once you order it and not waiting for a server to just go pick it up off the line. So much better then the luke warm banquet food we have received in the main dining rooms. The down side is the cabanas menu does not change so on longer cruises It can get repetitive.

Wanted to add:
Lunch in the main dining rooms are really good too. The servers are nice and chit chat then. They don’t have to rush around then and are more willing to stop and have a nice talk with you. The food is good and hotter too.

Great tip! We've never eaten dinner at Cabanas and will have to try that sometime.

 

[SamFaniam]

My apologies. I meant order three items from the menu at the beginning of the sit-down session. The menu size is not what I was trying to limit but the number of plates served to a table at one meal to quicken service.

On our last Merrytime cruise, live Disney shows were played 3 times a day during sea days. I had never seen that offered before but apparently they can do it.

Movie theatres can run a 90 minute movie every two hours on land. I see long stretches where the movie theater concession is closed because there is no movie set to play for 90 minutes at times. I would eliminate the use of the movie theater for promotional items and play movies instead to spread people out with more showtimes (such as 8 AM, 10:30, 1 PM, 3:30, 6, 8:30, 11)

You actually can order your dinner like that if you want to. The servers can speed things up. It may create an issue where you would miss some of the show/activity in some of the MDR’s.

they can’t do three shows today, I’m just not sure they can do it every cruise all the time.

I agree, if you have a short enough movie, you can show it more times. But if you’re showing one of the Marvel/ Star Wars movies, they never run 90 minutes. And I suppose that they would like some time in between showings to go in and make sure the theater is clean.

 

[brianvdb]

Sail at 50-66% of normal capacity initially. This will allow for some distancing at shows, dinners, buffets, and pools.

 

[o&smom]

I like some of these ideas for returning to cruises post COVID-19.

Dining: Shortening the dining time by offering one appetizer, one main dish, and one dessert ordered at the beginning would decrease the amount of time people spend in one room together. Having 3 dining times (such as 5, 6:45, and 8:30) would allow greater spacing of tables.

Shows: On sea days a matinee could easily be added, or have three shows every evening to coincide with the dining times. CMs would have to space everyone out.

Pools: They would probably have to cut at least half or more of the chairs out. If they did not allow saving of chairs at any time, I could see this work.

Movie theatre: It seems like they could play the movies more often than they do now.

Kids clubs: I think this is the one area where parents will just have to play Russian roulette. There is no easy way to restrict contact between kids.

Sorry, but when I am on vacation I want choices and flexibility. I want to try new things and not only be able to order one item.