This week I returned from a cruise with my daughter. It was her birthday and I gave her the option to choose a vacation. It was an easy choice for her since she loves cruising and has since she was about 3 years old. She picked a 8 day, because they were the longest. And picked Royal Caribbean over Carnival because she’s been on more of them and prefers them a bit more. I think mainly its for the shows, since she’s a huge musical lover and the shows on Royal ships are typically quite good. It did not disappoint! They did Grease on this cruise and the singing was fantastic, just as good as any Broadway show we’ve seen. So we were pleased as punch!
But alas this blog isn’t about the great shows, but about the sad dinners. Since covid (I think we can rightfully blame it), dining on a cruise ship has changed majorly. For some, who don’t enjoy sitting with new people and chatting over dinner, the change is so very welcome. For us, little social butterflies, its a depressing change and one that will surely effect how and when we cruise in the future.
Two years ago my husband and I hopped on a Norwegian ship from Seattle last minute. The ship was large and the amenities just fine. We even did get to see SIX on that ship, so the show quality was up there too. But we were horribly disappointed the first night to discover that the nice large dinner party size table was reduced to only us. We asked if we could wait for some more people to create a larger table and were flat and told “NO” and that they would seat us on our own.
We love having dinner together, don’t get me wrong. But we see each other every day. And on the cruise, we are spending all day together. We have always absolutely loved the dinner party atmosphere on a cruise ship as our favorite part of cruising. Finding out about new people, where they are from, their culture and what they did that day on port. We’ve met some fascinating people over the years. And my daughter still is pen pals with a returned couple she met on her birthday cruise 8 years ago. Chatting over all kinds of things typically means we close the restaurant out and the servers are practically kicking us out at the end of the dinner service. We wave good bye and the “see you tomorrow!”s are always sincere. Usually by the second or third night, our table mates are always super prompt and we start chatting again like old friends, usually the first full table in the dining room.
On the NCL ship, we did grab a few people right before some meals and enjoyed those. But the atmosphere is dead, missing out on the dinner party feel. For this cruise, I thought for sure Royal Caribbean wouldn’t disappoint us. We got to the ship to confirm with the maitre’d that we would be seated at a large table. Only to get a paper delivered to our room the next day saying it was not possible. I didn’t understand why, and then during the week quickly learned they, too, have stolen away dinner parties! You are only sat with who you came with.
When traveling with a large group, this new rule goes completely un-noticed as you have brought your own dinner party! But traveling just 2 people, and expecting a great fun dinner meeting new people and having that eliminated, the disappointment is palpable.
We met a nice couple at one of the murder mystery games on the ship and they joined up with us at dinner. That first night I ran into someone else that I had done the cabin crawl with and quickly invited them to join us while we were waiting for a table. This was probably our most fun dinner with 7 of us! Its the kind of cruise dinners we’ve been wanting. But without a set dinner time, the others found themselves eating late lunches sometimes and skipping dinner. The other couple didn’t have a cell service turned on and the ship app wasn’t working on her phone, so we didn’t even run into them one more time the entire week!
With 3 floors of main dining rooms on each ship, I wish they would give one to traditional dining and let people enjoy their dinner parties that made cruising so much fun. Until then… I think we’ll be only cruising when we have a good size group. Want to join my next group cruise? Ask me about Alaska in July 2025!
