Cruise Main Dining Room: What to Do (And What NOT to Do)!!

I was recently helping my friends Graham and Pete who were looking to go on their very first cruise but as I started explaining dining in the main dining room something struck me just how different the main dining rooms are between cruise lines now and how much more complex it's actually become so whether you're a first-time Cruiser thinking of changing Cruise Lines or even trying a different ship within a cruise line the tips that I gave them are definitely going to help you too welcome aboard I'm Gary bembridge and the first point I made to Graham and Pete is there's two things they need to know about the main dining room firstly the main dining room food is included in the fair and while most people use it only for dinner it's usually open for breakfast and at lunchtime too I also recommend that they focus on the main dining room for most of their meals because Pete has food allergies and for people with food allergies this is the best option in my view firstly because the main dining room kitchens have dedicated sections to prepare food for people with allergies or specific needs like kosher food the other is they can meet with the maitre d who will always be there to discuss Pete's requirements and we will also ensure that his food allergies are addressed every time he dines now once they get up to the buffet I told them it becomes a little bit more complicated because food is much more mixed up here even though they might have a gluten-free area and so on it just seems so much more difficult to control I told Pete and Graham that they need to let whichever line they choose know at the time of booking that they have a dietary issue and be really clear about exactly what it is by the way if you're vegetarian you don't really need to let the cruise line know they're very used to that and there's always at least one item on the menu at each of the levels you know start a main course and so on there's more that they're going to need to get from the matrd that I'll touch on a little bit later data but before that there's an even bigger issue to consider Graham Pete are talking about going to Alaska but they haven't locked down on which Cruise Line yet so this threw up four main dining room differences that they need to know about because it could affect the line they choose or certainly what they do once they're on board so first of all the most common option is where a cruise line offers fixed dining and anytime dining for example they were interested in in Cunard Queen Elizabeth because I was just back from that and they were offered a first sitting at 5 45 PM a second sitting at 8 15 pm and then there was open seated dining from 5 45 to 9pm they didn't know what all that meant so here's what I told them fixed dining means they'd go for dinner at the same time every single evening so I explained there's a couple of Pros with that they'd have the same table the same table Companions and the same waiters so they'd get to know them and this will definitely start I mean the waiters would personalize their experience for example Graham loves spicy sauce with his food and it's likely the waiters would always have that ready on the table for him as they'd also sit with the same people they'd get to build friendships which is another big plus now the cons are that those people may actually start to annoy them they may find it very regimented at the same time and frustrating having no flexibility if they went with any time dining I told them they can go at any time when it's open they won't have the same table and they won't have the same waiting staff each night now the pros of flexibility and variety because they'd be sitting with different people and they can Flex with their plan day by day on the downside the waiters won't get to know them so well and they may also of course have to wait for a tail if it's busy now different cruise lines have different approaches so if they weren't on America sitting on my last trip I had to call a number or go to a to book there any time dining option or I have to just simply go and queue most lines now though provide an app where you can book a time or you can join a virtual queue like when I was on piano Britannia and Princess Cruises Majestic princess recently if they didn't want to do any of those they didn't want a book you could just pitch up but I suggested go in it opens or go later because it gets really busy doing the popular sort of 6 30 7 30 slot as I looked at the lines they were thinking about I had to warn them about another main dining room permutation on some Cruise Lines they don't have one main dining room so they'd require them to or give them the option to rotate around multiple main dining rooms I explained for example that on Celebrity Edge which I did earlier this year which they're very interested in that have four main dining rooms Cosmopolitan Tuscan Cyprus and Normandy and they'd have to choose which one they wanted to go to each night however if they went on celebrities silhouette or ships of the solstice class there was only that one main dining so even by ship within a line it can differ the other thing I pointed out is there may be a range of main dining rooms based on what cabin grade they eventually decided they were going to book Cunard are probably best known for this they have four main dining rooms based on Kevin grade Britannia for inside Ocean View and balcony cabins botanic club for the highest balcony cabin grades princess grill for mini suites and queens grill for the bigger suites but it's becoming more common across many other cruise lines to celebrity which I've already been talking about for example they have luminai for their sweets and blue for their Aqua Spa cabins and the main dining room for the others but I also made the point that whatever they decided they had to do one key thing they have to make a friend of the maitre d as well as the maitre d being key for managing Pete's dietary issues they could also make or break their trip they decide where Graham and Pete will be sitting how many people will be on their table and are stressed that although they should request their preferred table fort too when booking it was not guaranteed and it was really up to the maitre d to decide so getting to the maitre d early on as soon after boarding as they possibly can or give them a better chance of having a table for two because they're they're earlier and they can butter them up basically the other point I made to them is if they don't get a table for two and they are sharing with people they mustn't grin and bear it if they're not clicking just go and speak to the maitre d and ask to change there's always chopping and changing on the first night so don't feel bad it happens all the time now Graham loves his food he has a huge appetite whereas Pete probably pecks at his food more like a little bird my point of them is when they get the menu it's going to imply a course-led meal now when they're in a normal restaurant I guess you're an inclination is to sort of have one of every course but my point to them was there's a couple of things to consider when you look at a menu in the main dining room firstly the menu they get will be different to anything they're normally used to in the denim menu they will have a section that changes every single day it might often be linked to a region that they might be selling in so it's kind of dishes of the day so to speak but there'll also be fixed items that are always available like steak chicken or fish now my point to them was not to focus on those fixed items always start by looking at the items that change because they're only there for one day but they always know that they've got those fixed options as their backup also they can skip a course there's no rule that says You must have all of the courses now they don't want to be wasteful but I told them they could order multiple items of every course that they want so they could order perhaps a couple of starters to share or create a surf and turf as a main whatever they want to do you can choose more than one item at each of those levels basically you can also even ask I pointed out to them items to take away not many people know that something they were really worried about was dress codes now people worry about this all the time a lot of lines have dress codes so my point is they need to think about this when they're choosing their Cruise Line because it varies a lot for example on Disney Cruises even on formal nights recently I could wear shorts and a t-shirt if I wanted on Celebrity uh they would be able to wear jeans and a colored shirt but I'm Cunard on formal nights they would have to wear a jacket and tie or tuxedo before they could go to the main dining room on those formal nights so think about dress code and main dining room is really important the next thing I spoke to them about is some of the etiquette tips some of the things that they need to do in the main dining room that are actually really important never ever talk about politics or religion when sharing a table I've been on cruises during which this became a really big problem for example one of the more controversial U.S presidents would always come up in conversation and it would always cause a nightmare sometimes it could even get a bit nasty because people had very differing views about it and it hijacked the whole table and kind of put a dampton on the cruise so please avoid politics and religion also made the point to them of sharing with people and how important it is to not be late or if they're not going to dinner let people know now usually the waiters will wait until everyone who's at an allocated table is there before they start taking orders so if they're late the whole table is going to be late of course my point of them is good table manners are always important now one of the things that I said to them is obviously I'm sensitive about it because of what I do you know I take pictures and videos of the food so always check that the people that you're sharing with are comfortable with that was my point now do you have any other tips around the main dining room that I've missed out and but while you're thinking about that and how all this could affect your choice of Cruise Line why don't you watch this video with what I think are the best lines right now starting with a surprise for many people in the big ship area see you over there

Channel: Tips For Travellers

Views: 371,954

Keywords: cruise tips, tips for travellers, Gary Bembridge tips for travellers, Gary Bembridge, Cruise Tips For Travellers

Id: BPKJ2PAjhxk

Length: 10min 8sec (608 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 19 2022