Carnival New Dining Policy for Late Arrivals

New trial dining policy just might rankle a few tardy folks at first.

The goal is to help alleviate the turmoil that can happen in the dining room when late arrivals simply sashay into the dining room on their own time frame.

Now, Carnival says, these folks, whether by accident or just plain selfish, will be turned away after 30 minutes past their scheduled seating time.

Here are the changes…

For now, rather than the usual two-hour and fifteen-minute spacing between dinner seatings, the time between seatings will be reduced to two hours. If a guest shows up more than 30 minutes past their assigned dinner time, they’ll be turned away and directed to dine elsewhere, usually the Lido buffet. I’d head to Guy’s Burger Joint!

…And the logic behind it

Imagine you’re seated at your dinner table with six of a possible eight new table mates, in a dining room with maybe 1,000 guests. The waitstaff takes your drink order (wine, cocktail etc), then your dinner order. Within minutes your dinner service begins, fine tuned to expedite the experience. Then imagine 45 minutes later, Joe and Schmo walk in and locate their seats at your table.

What was a beautiful dance for your waiter from galley to table is suddenly thrown out of kilter. You’re on your entree while Joe and Schmo are waiting for their appetizer.

The new dining policy is currently in effect aboard the Carnival Glory and Carnival Conquest. With so many good, alternative dining options available, it’s certainly not asking too much to arrive on time for dinner in the dining room.

I’ve worried when I’ve showed up five minutes late. Thirty minutes is more than generous…in my opinion.