Dinner seating question - Family not sitting togather About This Page:

[JiminyJim]

We booked our Cruise for late July, and got the early seating for dinner. My brother booked his about a week and a half later and was told the early seating was "wait listed". Now they did cross referance the his seating with ours, so we could be seated togather, but told us there was no garentee that we would all be able to sit at the same table.

Does this sound right, I mean I know we want the early seating, but with two families not being able to sit togather, they are going to have unhappy people.

I understand that there are seating limitations due to space, and not everyone gets the early seating, but it seems to me that if one family has the early seating, and another family then books a cruise because they want to be togather, that something should be worked out.

I guess my question is how likely is it that the "wait List" gets cleared?

Thanks for listening.

P.S. I know we can all take the late seating and be togather but with a 6 and 3 year old that just won't work, they will be in bed before 8:30.

[Dave Marx]

As with everything, it depends. Certainly, the cruise line will try to make you happy - but they have a ship full of guests to please. If, for example, your brother's family has older children, would it be appropriate for the cruise line to bump a younger family into the late seating for your benefit?

Early seating always fills before the late seating, for the very reason that you prefer it. We don't know what your brother's position on the early seating wait list is - with reservation dates separated by ten days, I don't think they'll be very far down the list.

Still, I wouldn't simply accept the wait list position. On the day you board, a representative of each family should jointly visit the food and beverage meeting, listed in the Personal Navigator, and discuss your options with the dining room staff representatives.

[JannaC]

I could not get early seating at booking. I wanted that seating because I take insulin and wanted to have time to get my blood-glucose levels back to some semblance of normal before I went to bed. There was a place to go once I got onboard (I asked at checkin) to request another seating. Truthfully, it wasn't easy - even though I had a medical reason for wanting the eary seating. They finally relented. Maybe I should have slipped the CM a "tip?"

Jan

[MrsM]

When we did the 4 day cruise in 2001 we booked in September for a December cruise and were wait listed for the early dinner seating. When we boarded we were able to change to the early seating with no problem. It was just DH & I, though, and I would imagine it's easier to move a party of 2 than a larger party.

[tinksmom]

I'm sorry I don't know the answer to your question. I just wanted to say I think we're on the same cruise -- 7-day Eastern departing July 24.