Cruise ships eat · Eating in Cruise ships
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Eating in Cruise ships
Eating in Cruise ships
Nearly always, meals are included in the price of the cruise. This includes poolside snack bars where you can order a burger or other and walk off without paying. (It's not "free", of course; you paid for it when you bought your ticket.) On virtually all cruise ships, you'll find a buffet...usually on one of the upper decks...available during all meal times and usually offering something from early morning to late evening...again, free. On better ships, buffets can seem almost like pure extravagance. Room service is usually available at all times, except after 1:00 AM the night prior to disembarkation on most cruise lines. Sometimes, you may have to pay a gratuity or late night charges when applicable.
At normal meal times, you'll find seated dining with full waiter service available, usually with a multi-course menu featuring variably fancy dishes. At least one dining room will offer seated breakfast and lunch, seldom with a pre-assigned table. It will be open for 2-3 hours around the usual time for any meal. Damp swimwear can damage dining room chairs; don't wear it there, even under a wrap or cover, even if quite dry.
Traditional evening dining service is at pre-set times...usually early/main and late sittings. If you choose either, you'll be seated at the same table at a given time every evening.
Table size can vary from 2 to 8-10 people perhaps more. Round tables for 6-8 seem conducive to easy conversation among all.
Unless you/your group fully occupies a table, you'll meet other guests as table mates...usually an interesting time, with repartee beyond what's possible with a new set of strangers at "open sitting".
It allows your waiters to learn and anticipate important needs and preferences, e.g., kosher, vegetarian, food allergies, drink preferences and timing.
To assure well-timed service, reach your table within 30 minutes of when the dining room opens for your sitting. Large kitchens must serve several hundred (perhaps thousands of) passengers at each sitting, one course at a time, with expectations of freshness and proper temperatures.
Let your travel/cruise agent help make dining arrangements, e.g. timing, table size.
- If your table preferences haven't been met (first indicated on your cabin key card), contact the maitre de on-board for help as soon as possible after embarkation.
Exceptions to your usual time and table may may occur when the ship is in port and many passengers are eating ashore. (The daily newsletter should mention this.) If so, you may share a different table with "strangers", even in a different dining room.
In recent years, to respond to some guests' dislike for scheduled dining, cruise lines have introduced freestyle, choice or open seating options which allow dining at any time during dinner hours. This often is offered in separate dining rooms. Menus will be the same as for scheduled sittings. As you enter, you may have to wait for a table, just as you would without reservations at home. If it's especially busy, you have just a few in your party, and are willing, tell the Maitre de that you "will share". It greatly helps efficient use of tables, and may speed getting you seated.
Most ships also offer specialty restaurants, often with international themes...usually by reservation only. (If you have no reservation, you can try "will share", but don't rely on it; most diners with reservations don't expect to share.) Some of them have surcharges (e.g., $20-30+ per person) for exceptional service and dishes...most well-deserved. If you normally dine at fixed sitting but plan to use a specialty restaurant any evening, tell your regular waiter the evening before.
Recommended dinner dress in dining rooms varies somewhat across cruise lines. For details, each cruise-line will explain its expected dress code on its web-site.
Many "main line" ships declare dining for most evenings as requiring just "country club" or "resort" casual wear...collared shirt and slacks for men, nearly anything but pool wear for women (we jest).
- They'll also often have one or two "formal" nights per week...tux or dark suit and tie for men, evening wear for women.
Some luxury lines may declare every evening as semi-formal...suit and tie for men, evening wear for women.
For any evening, the same dress standards apply in specialty restaurants.
You'll embarrass yourself, your table mates, your waiter and others if you go to your dining room for dinner wearing jeans, shorts, tank-top, or similar casual/pool-wear. You may also be denied seating. If you have no interest in "seated dining" on formal nights (or any evening), you can use the buffet for dinner instead. Food offerings will be somewhat similar to that in dining rooms that night, perhaps lacking items that require complex service. The buffet offers another benefit:
If you must fly, and may too-easily exceed your luggage limits, e.g., must pack for small children and yourself, have a long cruise on a ship with no laundromat...
Consider leaving semi- and formal-wear (and related shoes) at home. You can reduce packing space otherwise needed by perhaps 25-30 percent, and weight similarly.
The Most Frequently Asked Travel Questions about Cruise ships
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Cruise ships Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.