Private Table in MDR

[Cavs49]

This summer our family will be going on our 4th cruise. One of our few complaints is that dining in the MDRs take so long .... and our kids are always going 100 mph! Have read numerous posts about asking for a private table. For those of you that have had those in the past: How much time would you estimate that you save each night with a private table over one with multiple families? Thanks in advance!

 

[lorimay]

This summer our family will be going on our 4th cruise. One of our few complaints is that dining in the MDRs take so long .... and our kids are always going 100 mph! Have read numerous posts about asking for a private table. For those of you that have had those in the past: How much time would you estimate that you save each night with a private table over one with multiple families? Thanks in advance!

When its just me and hubby, we finish quicker with our private table.
When we have the grandkids its still faster than big tables with families.
They usually bring the kids meals out faster, we do late dining and so our grandkids want to be finished by 9/9:15 for club pick up time.

 

[mickeykimcruisers]

We did private table last month during second dining. It was a struggle to finish kids up by 9:15 for counselor pick up even after telling the servers they will be going, but this could be bc my kids did not order from kids menu. They ordered regular meals.

 

[BarlowFamily]

Though our family of 5 (my family of 3, plus my parents) has been grouped with another family of 5 on both of our cruises, I paid particular attention to the tables of 4 around us on our recent 10 night cruise. Does that sound creepy? Not in a creepy way. We arrived a few minutes early each night, were seated before them, ordered quickly etc. And yet, consistently, the tables of four were eating dessert while we were being served entrees! I couldn't give you an exact time savings, but whoa!

 

[Maggie'sMom]

This summer our family will be going on our 4th cruise. One of our few complaints is that dining in the MDRs take so long .... and our kids are always going 100 mph! Have read numerous posts about asking for a private table. For those of you that have had those in the past: How much time would you estimate that you save each night with a private table over one with multiple families? Thanks in advance!

My experience has been different than others. For us, a private table didn't translate into a faster dinner. The courses were still spaced out and weren't brought any faster with our table for 2 than for our table when we had 6 or 8 people.

 

[cvjw]

On our recent cruise, we had a private table, but our servers had a total of 4 tables. It seemed to me that everyone’s food was brought out at about the same time. We all seemed to finish up with food around the same time. One table was full of heavy drinkers, so they were always still at their table drinking when we finished our dinner and left the MDR.

 

[Cavs49]

Thanks for the replies. We requested a private table for the first time for our upcoming cruise. Was hoping to "save" some time to enjoy the ship. Guess it will just depend on our servers and how many tables they have.

 

[DCLDVC1]

Thanks for the replies. We requested a private table for the first time for our upcoming cruise. Was hoping to "save" some time to enjoy the ship. Guess it will just depend on our servers and how many tables they have.

Let your servers know you'd like to speed things up a little and they should accommodate.

 

[Ralph&Pam]

My experience has been different than others. For us, a private table didn't translate into a faster dinner. The courses were still spaced out and weren't brought any faster with our table for 2 than for our table when we had 6 or 8 people.

That has been our experience as well, compounded by the fact that we are usually waiting on our server to bring the next night’s menu so my DW can pre-order her allergy-safe meal.