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How long was your wait? Anytime dining


amberxob
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We've been on four cruises with Carnival and have done YTD every time. With only a few exceptions it has worked out great for us. We generally like to get to the dining room about 6 or 6:30 as that is when we usually eat at home and we have rarely had to wait. On the other hand, when we've arrived about 7 to 7:30 we've had to wait almost every time. When we have had to wait we just went to the Funshops and browsed until our table was ready.

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Family of 4, cruises twice on Glory once on Breeze, no wait any night. We usually ate early, typically as soon as it opened, so we could catch all the shows etc from 7pm on. But a couple times we ate during more peek hours- 6:30-8 I would say is more peek, we ate a couple times around 7:30 or 8. Still no real wait. Maybe 10 minutes one night.

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Party of two on conquest in 11/13, we never waited longer than 5 minutes but we felt like it took longer for the meal than when we had set time dining. We also didn't feel it was as personalized since we didn't always get the same servers.

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I have 2 cruises that are in the works and I've always done a set dining time but I was just wondering about anytime dining.

 

If anyone can just help me out and post the round about time you've had to wait on cruises and peak hours I should try to avoid.

 

Thank you so much!

 

We have done ATD on all our carnival cruises ... Never really had to wait that long to be honest usually elegant nights can be busier but you need to consider a few things:

 

1) size of party who are ATD ... Will it be a table for two? Three? Four? 10? The bigger the party size can sometimes affect the wait time

 

2) the time you are going to dinner - if it's elegant night you can wait longer if it is 7pm or later you may wait longer

 

3) the port you came from that day - if you came from Mexico for example senior frogs is a popular spot to go to, therefore drunk passengers may be in their cabins resting

 

The only slight failure we had was on our last ship this year where waiting for a table wasn't the issue but actually service inside the dining room .. You ended up 2.5 hours in the dining room for three courses sometimes we wouldn't even have the three and it would still take that long, I don't know if this was because there was a noticeable shortage of staff on board the ship at that time

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With a group of 10 our longest wait was 15 minutes on elegant night & we sat together every time.

 

When it was just two of us our longest wait was about 5 minutes. That was also on elegant night & we requested a window seat every night.

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We always do YTD and we've never waited. Walked up and were seated immediately every time. Now we do tend to eat early (around 6pm) so we can have our evenings open for shows, casino, etc. When we are leaving the MDR, there does tend to be a line so I think we're always beating the main rush.

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We have done it on Glory with 4 people, Freedom with 5 people, and Splendor with 2 people. Only waits were on Elegant nights and never for longer than 10-15 minutes. We went to dinner at various times depending on our activities that day.

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Like the OP, we are trying YTD on our next cruise.

 

A few questions related to wait times and procedures;:confused:

 

Do you get seated like at breakfast/lunch open seating, ie...at a random table with others?

 

If you opt for seating for two, does it take longer, or has CCL modified the dining tables to accommodate for more two top tables?

 

If you prefer to have the same wait staff every night, do you just ask when you arrive each time or can you request it, for every night after the first night?

 

:)

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1. I do not care if I am seated with other people. NO WAIT!

 

2. I usually go to dinner at 6:45 to 7, they are in the process of serving dessert for the first seating, and doing the waiter dances-I don't miss them, I get to get involved.

 

3. On the Elation, table for 6, 20 minute wait, table for 4 about 10, table for 2 less than 5. (traveling with friends we only had dinner together twice)

 

4. On the Legend, no wait for the two of us, no wait if we sat with others, no wait for a table for 8-guess it depends on when we went, but we had excellent service.

 

5-Next three cruises, all set up with ATD, two things that DH just wants to have when I drag him on these cruises, ATD and FTTF. :)

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Do you get seated like at breakfast/lunch open seating, ie...at a random table with others? We were never given the option of sitting with other people at dinner. I guess you could ask, but I don't know what the likelihood you'd find other people who also wanted to be seated with strangers.

 

If you opt for seating for two, does it take longer, or has CCL modified the dining tables to accommodate for more two top tables? We never had a wait for a two-top.

 

If you prefer to have the same wait staff every night, do you just ask when you arrive each time or can you request it, for every night after the first night? You need to ask when you arrive.

 

 

See above in red.

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