MDR menus

OK BAK1061, I do guess those items count. I remember years ago, I ordered cappuccino every night on Carnival and it was included. Can you imagine my disappointment when they first charged extra for them? I was on one ship where you could order a whole lobster every night for an extra charge of $35. Needless to say, I didn't order it. Sometimes, I do order the cappuccino but that cost is small. Besides, I always have on board credit to use up, so a cappuccino or two I can justify since I am using credit to pay for it. Even if I didn't have credit, if I wanted it, I would order it.

This is the first I heard that some lines are charging extra for certain items in the MDR. I'm having enough trouble trying to cope with deterioration of most dining aspects of service and quality in the MDRs without learning that.

During our second to last voyage on Princess, Royal in September, the Main Dining Room was still tolerable. Not anymore though. Perhaps we did notice the decline coming in our September cruise on the Royal and should have became more concerned that something was amiss in the MDR. Even then, it wasn't that bad, maybe we experienced a fluke on that voyage or cost cutting has since caught up with Princess, so during our January (2015) cruise on the Coral, we discovered that their product in the MDR is undesirable for us. We have never ran into a situation like this before even though the "hand writing was on the wall" that it was bound to come. In my opinion this results from understaffing of both service and kitchen personnel.

It might be slightly better if you want traditional seating, been there done that for years and dislike it for a variety of reasons, one of which is we hate being relegated to eating at either 5:30 PM or 7:45 PM., even if we secure a table for two. We usually try to get there by 6:30 using anytime dining.

Wait times aren't really a problem for us, rather, trying to eat dinner in the MDR on the Coral this time was the lack of service and poor quality meals. For instance, years ago there used to be a sommelier to take your wine order immediately after being seated, this practice gave way to no sommelier--instead head waiters were given extra training in wine selection, then that gave way to what you experience now on Princess, wine only if you are lucky enough to get someone's attention and if so, forget about ordering a bottle to be carried over for the following evening, they will lose it for certain in the maze. After being seated in the MDR, you sit there waiting and watching a harried flurry of activity by the understaffed help, forging a sad and losing battle trying to keep up. My gosh, dressing up in a tux on formal nights and trying to dine in an atmosphere like that is a joke.

We found that in order to continue on with a good voyage, instead of going to the MDR, we made do by booking dinner in one of the excellent specialty restaurants on board whenever we wanted to enjoy dinner, the specialty restaurants are super, make no mistake about that, even paying more it is worth it. Evenings when did not go to a specialty, we simply went up to the Horizon Court buffet, which was pretty good on the Coral, January, and crap on the Royal in September.

As for HAL, it has been way over a year since our last voyage with them, one lasting 32 days (balcony cigar smoking is keeping us away). I understand both lines, plus Seabourn and P & O Australia are of the same business model now. They have been amalgamated into the Holland America Group of Carnival Corp. under the leadership of Stein Kruse, previously the HAL CEO. Reason, to reduce competition between the twain. We are hard core Princess and HAL cruisers, we believe the cruise experience is pretty much the same on both today, food and otherwise, taking a nose dive.

I have a theory that there will be a drift completely away from providing MDR service on the major cruise lines in the future. Instead cruisers will experience more of and larger specialty extra charge venues and expanded no extra charge buffet area service. We only use Princess, HAL and Regent. Regent being an all inclusive voyage, but ironically, the food and service in the specialty restaurants on HAL and Princess are much better than those on Regent's which you can hardly ever get into anyway due no extra charge. However, the MDR on Regent is far superior to those on HAL and Princess.

I also hope that this is not the start of trying to change the MDR experience. Cruise lines seem to be starting to eliminate the lobster dinner especially on short cruises. When lobster shows up on the MDR extra charge menu, I begin to wonder, is the next shoe going to drop. Let's hope not.

What's next ? Meals in divided aluminum trays ? Ahhhhhhhh! Just like mom used to make.......now THAT'S comfort food !

We only go to the specialty restaurants for special occasions like our anniversary.

Don't hold your breath Johngold expecting that the price will go down if the only free options are buffet or fast food counters like burgers, pizzas or tacos. That will not happen. I only go to specialty restaurants when I get it as a perk from our TA or the cruise line. On my next ocean cruise, the cover charges are reduced 50% and our TA is giving us two specialty restaurants visits so we will go more often but not on formal nights when the meal choices are great.

Some cruise lines add extra cost dishes to their daily menu like Lobster so if you want to have it every night, you can. I would never do that. The MDR regular meal choices are fine with me. I am just content that someone else is cooking, cleaning up and doing the dishes. Thanks for replying.

I'll buy a cappuccino or an espresso in the MDR. Does that count ?

I think the specialty restaurants are a good idea, just not in the MDR. Hopefully it is not a preliminary move by the Line to institute charges for the MDR experience.

Yes, MDRs can get very noisy. And you can wait a long time to eat. When we sit at big tables, it can take up to 2 hours. One time on Carnival booking last minute we were assigned 8:15pm dinner time. We were stuck in a corner with 10 others who also booked last minute - all of us from Central Florida. It was after 10:15 when we finally received dessert. I was almost too tired to eat it - notice that I said almost. Luckily we all were moved to early seating the next day. I honestly think that they forgot about us in the corner.

I rarely go for the add-on cost items in MDR unless there are no main courses that I find appealing. Even then, I'd more likely go for the chicken breast option.

There are lines where we have taken a dining package because we were looking for smaller, more intimate dining experiences. Probably the biggest reason we select dining packages is because with a lot of background noise, I have real trouble carrying on a conversation so smaller venues work better for me.