I tok a cruise a few years ago and really enjoyed the experience – all except for one thing.
We were on a Carnival Cruise line ship and were required to eat a lengthy dinner each night with a table full of complete strangers, at a specific time (either 5 or 8 pm). Frankly, I did not enjoy the forced conversations and the 2+ hours that the dining experience consumed. I also didn’t like putting on a suit and a tie while on vacation.
Are there any cruise lines that have a more casual and informal type of dining service, where we can eat when we want, and not have to mingle with a middle-aged couple from Dusseldorf while doing so?
Cunard used to provide lots of different options for passenger dining - I would imagine they still do; you’d be assigned a place in a dining room, but you didn’t have to go and could instead eat at one of the buffets or get room service more or less any time you liked.
Holland America does have dining times in the big room, but you can eat whenever you want on the Lido deck, or there are often barbeques or something. You never have to go to the dining room if you don’t want to, plenty of food elsewhere.
I was very pleased with Norwegian’s setup, though you do run the risk of not getting into the restaurant you want, when you want. On our ship, there were a couple of classic cruise ship dining rooms and a number of smaller specialty restaurants with varied menus. You would have to set up reservations at some of the smaller restaurants (and pay a nominal additional fee), some of them get fully booked early in the curise.
I went on a Carnival cruise a few years ago and I don’t remember the formal dining being a required thing. I’m pretty sure I only went a couple of times. There was other food available on the ship…there was a 24-hour pizza buffet that I took advantage of frequently. I gained 20 lbs. on that cruise as I was with a friend who is an alcoholic (drunk…alcoholics go to meetings) and I was trying to keep up with his beer drinking, and I kept hitting the pizza buffet to keep food in my stomach.
We went on a Royal Carribean cruise last year and there were multiple dining options for each meal, plus lots of other food available about anytime. I think we did the ‘formal’ dinner twice.
When we went on the QE2 in 1980 we could reserve tables of various sizes, so you might be able to get away from other people, if not from the 2 hour dinner. We’ve always enjoyed our table mates, which once included the Chief Engineer of the ship.
I agree that the buffets, on P&O anyway, are far inferior to the real dinner.
On the Algoway, you could eat what you wanted with whom you wanted in whatever attire you wanted during the middle watch. Not many amenities, though. Actually, there were no amenities, unless you counted the free vvviiibbbrrraaatttiiinnnggg bbbuuunnnkkk aaabbbooovvveee ttthhheee eeennngggiiinnneee rrroooooommm. The price was right, however, for they paid you rather than you pay them.