Dining aboard ship has become such a major attraction that passengers weighing their cruise options are just as likely to ask ``What's for dinner'' as they are to ask ``where does the ship go?''

Cruise ship dining is nothing like it was a decade ago, and it's still evolving as cruise lines scramble to provide more options.

``Dining is a huge part of the cruise experience -- and today it is all about choice,'' said Melissa Baldwin of Cruise Critic, an online cruise magazine.

More lines are offering flexibility, giving passengers the choice of when, where and with whom they dine. Guests have wider choices in cuisine and dining ambience. Dishes rarely seen before on cruises -- Mongolian and Peruvian, for example -- are appearing. Celebrity chefs are creating gourmet menus. More customized meals are available, as are 24-hour venues for passengers who feel hunger pangs at odd hours.

``Dining continues to be one of the most important factors in how much guests enjoy their cruise vacation,'' said Frank Weber, vice president of food and beverages for Royal Caribbean International. ``The difference today is that guests' expectations are much higher than several years ago.''

That difference is what is fueling today's sea change in dining.

``From comment cards we get from guests, we found that dining is one of the three top [attractions],'' said Brad Ball of Silversea Cruises. ``With that information, we [put] multiple dining venues on our new ship.'' The line's Silversea Spirit, entering service in December, will have 10 dining venues, a huge number for a ship that carries only 540 passengers.

Passengers on Royal Caribbean's enormous 5,200-passenger Oasis of the Seas, which will start sailing from Fort Lauderdale in November, will be able to choose from an astonishing 22 dining venues.

Perhaps the biggest change in shipboard dining is the adoption of flexible dining hours -- albeit on a limited basis -- by most mainstream lines.

Traditionally, ships have assigned passengers to one of two seatings, typically at 6 p.m. or 8:30 p.m. on mainstream lines. For a good number of passengers, those seatings were either too early or too late.

Now that is changing.

Following the lead of Norwegian Cruise Line, which introduced ``Freestyle'' dining in 2000, Royal Caribbean and Carnival, the two biggest cruise lines, have just begun to offer a form of flexible dining. Celebrity is introducing Select Dining this month on its Celebrity Equinox and going fleetwide by March. Princess Cruises has had Anytime Dining since 2001, and Holland America offers As You Wish dining along with traditional seating.

``Every line that has pilot-tested flexible dining has gone ahead with it,'' Baldwin said.

However, except for Norwegian, the mainstream lines haven't done away with set dining times and tables in their main dining rooms.

``We did a survey, found that more than half of our passengers love traditional dining,'' said Roberta Jacoby, Carnival Cruise Line's senior vice president of hotel operations. ``So we offer both the 6 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. seatings.'' But guests who want less structure now can choose ``Your Time'' dining, she said, which allows guests to dine any time between 5:45 p.m. and 9:30 p.m.

Guests opting for Royal Caribbean's new ``My Time'' program -- not more than 30 percent of passengers -- can choose a dining time between 5:30 p.m. and 10 p.m. for the length of the cruise or change their reservation daily, said Ken Taylor, food and beverage director. That option also will be available under Celebrity's upcoming program. But it is not an open seating program, Taylor emphasized.

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