Seating at mealtime/Tipping ?

[chucknrita]

This might be a stupid question to some of you, but I have to ask: We're waitlisted for first seating; if we don't get it then I really don't think we'll even do the second seating for dinner as it's just too late for us (we eat dinner at home by 6 p.m. every night). Would we be "robbing" the servers of their tips by not showing up for dinner at all? I'm assuming that if we don't show up to eat, then we really aren't required to tip the servers, etc. I'm not trying to be a cheapo here, so please don't blast me about this. I'm looking forward to the sit-down meals, but only if we get first seating. Any comments/suggestions are welcome.

 

[ruvidu]

No, you would not be cheating the servers. There will probably be other people wanting to change to later seating who will end up in your seats.
That said, let me say that we too eat dinner between 6:30 and 7 most nights but love the late seating on board ship. We are on vacation and it is a change. We usually eat lunch at Topsiders around noon and then grab somthing from Plutos around 4 or 5. That holds us over until we eat at 8:00. Late seating just seems to allow you so much more time during the day. Now, you did not say if you had children and I know that would make a difference.
Just our thoughts,
Russ and Vivian

 

[BethA]

The servers each have 18 guests. Hopefully they will be able to change for you. We were supposed to have late seating--our documents said so. Our TA indicated we would prefer early and when we boarded our cards said first seating--we had a party of 14. Hope it works out for you. I'm sure if you tell them you will not be able to eat in the dining room later they will do their best to find you a spot.

 

[chucknrita]

Thank you for your reply. We have two children, DS 16 and DS 3. DS 16 can probably wait until 8:30 p.m. to eat; in fact he could eat all day and still eat dinner plus some! Our DS 3 would be the problem...I don't want him to eat the ship's fast food stuff the whole time we're there, but I really don't think he could wait until 8:30 for dinner. And if we give him a snack to tide him over, he probably won't be hungry at dinner and that wouldn't be good either. Have most people on a waitlist been able to get first seating either before the cruise or when they check in?

 

[Cruise]

Originally posted by ruvidu
No, you would not be cheating the servers. There will probably be other people wanting to change to later seating who will end up in your seats.

Actually, that's not quite true. Everyone on board is assigned a dining time and seat. The cruise line has no idea who will or won't show up for these seatings, but everyone must have a seat on the assumption that they *will* be eating in the dining rooms.

For example, we were two people at Table 4. We could have chosen to either go to dinner or not. Those were our seats every night at 8:30pm whether we were in them or not. It would have been a rude awakening to show up one night and have someone else in our seats!

Therefore, they won't "double assign" the same seats. If someone doesn't go to their assigned dining time, the seats will stay empty and the servers will lose out on those tips if they aren't paid by the person assigned to those seats.

That being said, I don't know if there's a way to possibly let the cruise line know that you *don't* want to be assigned a seat...?

Julie

 

[ruvidu]

I assumed that chucknrita would let someone know they would not be diinning at the late seating thus someone who wanted late would take their place. When you go to sessions upon embarkation you will find many people switching times due to mistakes or they just changed their minds.
I agree that late seating would not be for a 3yo.
Good luck. I am sure DCL will arrange for your early seating.
Russ and Vivian

 

[mmouse37]

Don't give up....many times once onboard they can change your dining time. But if they really can't don't give up on the opportunity to dine in the restaurants. That is a big part of the whole cruise experience.

We have been on DCL 5 times and always choose late seating even though at home we eat 5:30 or 6:00. There are so many things to do that we find late seating better. You can hang by the pool longer and enjoy a less crowded pool experience, you can take a bit longer to get ready, etc.

Your kids and you can order room service at about 4:30 (we always do) to hold us over until dinner.

The dining rooms experiences are very nice and I would hate to think someone would give that up because dinner was later than usual. Remember, this is your vacation.....break away from the routine!!!!

MJ