Two white-tailed eagles circle overhead as the rib pilot kills the power and we idle on shimmering waters, necks craning skywards as the sun bounces off the snow-capped peaks and islands that line the Bodø archipelago in northern Norway. The vivid afternoon sun has cast everything in high definition, making it hard to imagine that just a couple of months ago the peak of midwinter afforded just one hour of sunlight a day. “We have the same amount of sun each year in Bodø as Sydney or Benidorm,” says the pilot as we bid farewell to our avian friends and pick up speed again. “It’s just that here, it’s distributed differently.”
How Dining Works On Cruise Ships In 2024
22.03.2024 - 01:19 / forbes.com
Embarking on a cruise is about much more than the destinations you’ll visit. Among the many onboard attractions, dining is a major part of any cruise vacation.
If you’ve never cruised, you could be forgiven for thinking that you’ll be forced to dress in formal wear and eat with strangers day after day. In fact, such an insistence on formal wear and shared tables is one of the biggest misconceptions about cruising in the modern day.
Modern cruise ships are floating vacation resorts, with multiple dining options to enjoy. Formal dinners do still exist, but so do poolside burgers, lavish salad bars, and midnight room service.
From the elegance of main dining rooms to the convenience of room service, here's a closer look at five main dining concepts you'll encounter on most cruise ships.
The heart of the culinary experience on most cruises remains the main dining room. These elegantly designed spaces focus on traditional dinner service, but are often open for breakfast and lunch too. Aside from the main theater or performance space, the main dining rooms will likely be the biggest single spaces on the ship.
Although main dining menus vary wildly across lines, there typically will be a selection of dishes for between three and five courses.
On many lines, the menu changes daily, with an ‘always available’ section of popular dishes remaining in place for the duration of the cruise. If you're not hungry, remember that you're not required to order something for every course.
Traditionally, guests are given a fixed table and time for dinner, usually one of two sittings. Subject to availability, these can be changed by speaking with the host early in the cruise. This fixed option remains popular with traditional cruisers, as it allows guests to build a rapport with their servers and make new friends.
Some people dislike the fixed time concept, but there is no requirement to attend the main dining room every night, or even at all. All but the smallest cruise ships offer alternate dining options.
In recent years, cruise lines have begun to introduce more flexibility into the main dining room. Norwegian Cruise Line is well-known for its freestyle approach to dining, where guests come to the main dining room whenever they are ready to eat.
The downsides of anytime dining are the occasional need to wait, and the fact you’ll get different serving staff each night.
This more flexible approach that has proved so popular that many competing lines have introduced it or a hybrid approach. For example, British line P&O Cruises now offers the option of a fixed table for the duration of the cruise or an anytime option.
The shift to anytime dining is not the only trend seen in main dining rooms. In recent years, the majority
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