From morning till night (and beyond), food is offered to the point of overkill, even aboard the most modest cruise ship.
6am: hot coffee and tea on deck for early risers (or late-to-bed types).
Full breakfast: typically with as many as 60 different items, in the main dining room. For a more casual meal, you can serve yourself buffet-style at an indoor/outdoor deck café (the choice may be more restricted than in the main dining room, yet adequate).
Lunchtime: with service in the dining room, buffet-style at an informal café, or at a separate grill for hot dogs and hamburgers, and a pizzeria, where everything is cooked right in front of you.
4pm: Afternoon tea, in the British tradition, complete with finger sandwiches and cakes. This may be served in one of the main lounges to the accompaniment of live music (it may even be a ‘tea-dance’) or recorded classical music.
Dinner: the main event of the evening, and apart from the casualness of the first and last nights, it is formal in style.
Light Bites: served in public rooms late at night (these have mostly replaced the midnight buffet).
Gala Midnight Buffet: This is usually held on the penultimate evening of a cruise, when the chefs pull out all the stops to create this most famous of all shipboard meals. It features a grand, colourful spread, with much intricate decoration that can take up to 48 hours to prepare.
What Time is Dinner?
Open Seating: This simply means that you can sit at any available table, with whomever you wish, at whatever time you choose (within dining room opening hours). So, just turn up, and you’ll be seated – just like going out to a restaurant ashore (although you’ll need a reservation at any additional speciality restaurant).
However, this is a little bit of an anomaly aboard large resort ships, where the principal entertainment program is typically set at two shows each night. This limits your choice of dining times if you wish to catch a show - examples: Norwegian Cruise Line’s Freestyle Dining, or Princess Cruises’ Personal Choice Dining.
Single Seating: you can choose when you wish to eat (within dining room hours) but have an assigned table for the cruise.
Two Seatings: you are assigned (or choose) one of two seatings, early or late. Typical meal times for two-seating ships are: Breakfast: 6.30am–8.30am; Lunch: 12 noon–1.30pm; Dinner: 6.30pm–8.30pm.
Dinner hours may also vary when the ship is in port to allow for the timing of shore excursions. Ships that operate in the Western, Central or Eastern Mediterranean or South America typically have later meal times for two seatings.
Four Seatings: you choose the time, although once you decide you can’t change it. Only Carnival Cruise Lines and Holland America Line currently operate four seatings – with dinner, for example, at 5.30pm, 6.45pm, 7.30pm or 8.45pm. However, two seatings apply aboard Carnival Legend, Carnival Miracle, Carnival Pride and Carnival Spirit.
Some ships that operate in the Western, Central or Eastern Mediterranean or South America may have later meal times. Dinner hours may also vary when the ship is in port to allow for the timing of shore excursions.
Buffet-Style Dining on Board
Most ships have self-serve buffets for breakfast and luncheon (some also for dinner), one of the effects of discounted fares and dumbing down – and fewer staff are needed. Strangely, passengers don’t seem to mind lining up for self-service food (reminiscent of school lunches and army canteens). But while buffets look fine when they are fresh, they don’t after a few minutes of passengers helping themselves. And, one soon learns, otherwise sweet little old ladies can become ruthlessly competitive at opening time. |
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