Carnival Tests Flexible Dining Option

Carnival Cruise Lines began testing an open seating dining program on the Carnival Legend that, if successful, could roll out to the rest of the fleet in the next year.

Part of the main dining room on the Legend is currently set aside for passengers who want to dine whenever they walk in, and not during a specific time slot and at a specific table.

Carnival discussed the Legend's new program during the recent inaugural of its newest ship, the Carnival Splendor. The line said that most of the main dining room still offers the traditional dining system of two seating times at specific tables.

Carnival plans to implement the test program on the Carnival Liberty next.

In the last year, many cruise lines flirted with some form of flexible dining, a concept started by Norwegian Cruise Line with Freestyle Dining -- on NCL ships, there is no assigned seating at all.
Last October, Royal Caribbean began running a test similar to Carnival's on the Freedom of the Seas, with part of its main dining room dedicated to flexible diners every night.

And last summer, Holland America Line launched As You Wish seating, allowing passengers to choose between traditional dining arrangements and an open service. It began on the Noordam and is now being rolled out to the rest of the line's fleet.