Decisions decisions; what dining options?

When you book, you usually select your dining room options. There are normally two dining times, and there are advantages to each. Early seating is at 6:00PM. and late seating at 8:00PM. You are usually assigned to a specific dining table, and return to that same table every evening, usually with the opportunity to meet other cruisers at your table. Some ships offer an alternate dining room option, where you do not have to adhere to a schedule, but simply show up and wait for a table to become open. Other dining options, depending on the ship, include a buffet-style area and specialty dining areas (Italian, steakhouse, 50's style diner, and so on), usually for a slight additional cost. While we feel 8:00PM dining is a bit late, there are a couple of disadvantages to 6:00PM dining. Most people like 6:00PM dining, so the dining room tends to be at capacity, but the main disadvantage is the 5:00PM to 6:00PM window is the predomonant time the ship leaves port, so you often miss out on the departure activities.

If you dine in the main dining room, there are typically 3 courses; an appetizer, the main course, and desert. This has changed over the years, as on our first cruise, the dining room served 5 courses. However, you won't go away hungry. One cruising joke is that (due to the food) you walk on as a passenger, but are rolled-off as cargo. Usually there are four or more choices for each course, and if none of them appeal to you, you can usually get a Ceasar salad or steak at any meal. The dining staff tries really hard to meet your needs, sometimes to excess. For instance, one evening my wife could not decide upon one of two desserts; so the waiter brought her both. Fact is, the staff really wants to please you. Once I wanted a bucket of Ice in my stateroom for the first evening only, but I was brought brought Ice every night for the whole cruise. They really do try hard.

As the sun sets around 6:00PM or so, you can miss out on the beautiful sunsets over the ocean if you are in the dining room. One time, we decided to eat at the buffet-style resturant, just to watch the sunset. On this particular ship, this facility was near the bow of the ship, and we not only saw a beautiful sunset, after dark, we saw a thunderstorm in the distance, complete with light-show.