Has Princess got it very wrong?

Princess is a top cruise line but I believe it made a wrong decision when it brought forward early dining to 5.30 pm. In my part of the world that’s late afternoon or just about time for happy hour to begin.

 

Yesterday, a Customer Services Representative advised that the decision was made for "operational" reasons. When asked to elaborate on “operational reasons” the response was early diners sometimes leave the dining room late which inconveniences the late sitting diners. That’s easily fixed, the staff can politely move them on.

 

Parts of the pleasure of cruising are:

 

 

 

• port excursions
  
• sailing away from foreign ports
  
• a leisurely lifestyle
  

 

All these options will be curtailed as a result of this rescheduling.

 

Do the majority of passengers who selected the early dining option for forthcoming cruises really want to sit down to dinner at 5.30 pm? (On our New Zealand cruise in November there is no anytime dining which would alleviate this problem).

 

 

If you consider that this change, made for “operational reasons”, will inconvenience you or lessen your cruising experience then I suggest you contact Princess or leave a message on this thread

 

 

Armchair Cruiser

While 5:30pm is early for me, there's demand for the earlier time. Also, there continues to be high demand for Traditional dining with long waitlists well in advance of the cruise. It's not unusual to book over six months before and not get Traditional dining. The new time, i.e., 5:30pm, was created to accommodate those who want early traditional dining. Even with this addition, there are still long waitlists for Traditional.

 

Is this " operational"? I dunno. I'd call it supply and demand. And, FYI, Princess didn't "bring forward" this new dining time. They added an additional, new dining time due to demand.

While 5:30pm is early for me, there's demand for the earlier time. Also, there continues to be high demand for Traditional dining with long waitlists well in advance of the cruise. It's not unusual to book over six months before and not get Traditional dining. The new time, i.e., 5:30pm, was created to accommodate those who want early traditional dining. Even with this addition, there are still long waitlists for Traditional.

 

Is this " operational"? I dunno. I'd call it supply and demand.

 

I agree Pam! I have family that loves to eat early, about 5:30pm at home, and they like the earlier seating. In the past, I've always found the earlier seating to book first and be wait-listed for it (not sure if this will happen with moving the time up now). Maybe that will cause more to go to late seating. I'm the odd ball in the family that prefers the late seating though. :D

Yep, supply and demand. Just another option for those that want traditional. Not a mistake on Princess' part as they just gave one more option to folks. Those that want a more flexible time can do anytime which I do 75% of my cruises.

I don't think it was a mistake to add an additional early traditional dining time because obviously there are enough people that want it. However, I don't think Princess has done a good job implementing it. When I was on the Emerald last December they had it in one of the anytime dining rooms, which in turn inconvenienced people trying to do anytime dining as there were extremely long waits even when the dining room first opened. I'm hoping this problem is fixed before my next cruise because the anytime dining flexibility is one of the things we like about Princess.

Is this " operational"? I dunno. I'd call it supply and demand. And, FYI, Princess didn't "bring forward" this new dining time. They added an additional, new dining time due to demand.

 

We are sailing on Sea Princess from Sydney to NZ in Nov too & it's our understanding that there isn't an "extra" early sitting there is only ONE early sitting at 5.30pm. When we booked we were given 6pm but it is now on our personaliser as 5.30pm. There is no 6pm option & no anytime dining.

If there's only one early sitting why can't it be at 6pm? We have a port intensive cruise - 7 ports on 7 consecutive days & 6pm dining would give us that extra leeway to get back onboard & dressed for dinner.

We always select early dining because we have time to get to the Shows and find a seat. The Late Dining seems to make us Rush and sometimes the Theatres are full. Our dinner time at home is always 5:30-6:00, so we are used to eating at that time. We have done both - Early and Late Dining on our Cruises and we really prefer the Early Dining. Everone to each their own, I guess.

We are always amazed at how passengers with early sitting (and a reserved table) will queue up 15 or 20 minutes before the dining room opens its doors. But the OP needs to understand that in the US plenty of folks like to eat early. When we started crusing back in the early 70s, the late seating were always full and the early seatings empty. Now, on many ships it is just the opposite. Personally we do not care when they have early seating since we always do Late Sittings or Personal Choice. To us, cocktail time is about 7 so we certainly cannot imagine eating dinner in the late afternoon :)

 

Hank

We are always amazed at how passengers with early sitting (and a reserved table) will queue up 15 or 20 minutes before the dining room opens its doors. Hank

 

It's difficult to alter one's routine for "Early Bird" dining :D

We are sailing on Sea Princess from Sydney to NZ in Nov too & it's our understanding that there isn't an "extra" early sitting there is only ONE early sitting at 5.30pm. When we booked we were given 6pm but it is now on our personaliser as 5.30pm. There is no 6pm option & no anytime dining.

If there's only one early sitting why can't it be at 6pm? We have a port intensive cruise - 7 ports on 7 consecutive days & 6pm dining would give us that extra leeway to get back onboard & dressed for dinner.

The Sea Princess has been "different" ever since it was re-transferred back to Princess from P&O. Policies on ships such as the Sea Princess that are marketed to Australians for Australian cruises are determined by Princess Australia. I don't know of any Princess ship marketed primarily in the US that don't have Anytime dining (other than the Ocean and Pacific) or have only a super early Traditional dining time of 5:30pm and no 6:00pm. So, if a response is given that doesn't apply, mea culpa.

We are sailing on Sea Princess from Sydney to NZ in Nov too & it's our understanding that there isn't an "extra" early sitting there is only ONE early sitting at 5.30pm. When we booked we were given 6pm but it is now on our personaliser as 5.30pm. There is no 6pm option & no anytime dining.

If there's only one early sitting why can't it be at 6pm? We have a port intensive cruise - 7 ports on 7 consecutive days & 6pm dining would give us that extra leeway to get back onboard & dressed for dinner.

 

 

We are also totally astounded by the sudden change to 5.30pm dining. Apart from the issues listed above, in one port, Napier, we arrive at midday and sail at 7pm. How many early diners are there going to be attending on this day?? I also wonder if Princess are aware of daylight saving, where it doesn't get dark until approx 9pm. Lastly, we are now unable to rely on booking the ships shore tours.....because we may not make it back in time to shower and dress ready for dinner.

This half hour difference will have a huge impact.

Jen and Bob

We are also cruising from Australia in December (Dawn Princess) around NZ. My mother selected early dining, and was told by the TA that it was 6.30pm. The Princess Cruise Personaliser says 5.30pm. I was surprised and disappointed at this, and called Princess, who told me dining would be at 6pm. But given the differences in responses to questions I have had from various staff in the Princess call centre, I am now doubting this. I can only hope that it is not 5.30pm as our cruise has several port days where the ship only sails at 7...furthermore, some excursions only end at 5.30! So I don't understand how we're meant to get back to the ship AND get changed to "smart casual" attire for dinner.

 

More annoying, though, is that there is no Anytime Dining Option, so if we miss dinner we'll have to go to the buffet.

 

NB We don't want to change the time to late dining as we like to use the evening for dancing and other activities as much as possible!

The information provided by the Customer Services Representative, responding to my email to the CEO of Princess, was 5.30 early dining across all ships, (changing our 6pm reservation made on 23 March 2011 to this earlier time slot), and that late dining was wait listed.

 

Having read Pam's comments I checked the dining options on the Princess site - there is a 5.30, 6.00 and 8.15 dining option for the Main Dining Rooms.

 

Somebody has their wires crossed. Maybe someone from Princess will come onto this site and clarify just what is going on.

The information provided by the Customer Services Representative, responding to my email to the CEO of Princess, was 5.30 early dining across all ships, (changing our 6pm reservation made on 23 March 2011 to this earlier time slot), and that late dining was wait listed.

 

Having read Pam's comments I checked the dining options on the Princess site - there is a 5.30, 6.00 and 8.15 dining option for the Main Dining Rooms.

 

Somebody has their wires crossed. Maybe someone from Princess will come onto this site and clarify just what is going on.

 

I could be wrong. But I thought there were shortages of early dining times at 6 pm and that Princess created an additional 5:30 pm early seating for traditional diners in the anytime dining rooms.

Hi All

 

5.30pm for afternoon tea would be fine for diner is just silly,

 

however many others will be happy, just not sure why, now 10.00pm

 

seating would be fine, then a midnight show, or movie , then

 

disco at 2 or 3 with bed for 4 and breakfast at 7.00am and we startt again.

 

yours Shogun

While 5:30pm is early for me, there's demand for the earlier time. Also, there continues to be high demand for Traditional dining with long waitlists well in advance of the cruise. It's not unusual to book over six months before and not get Traditional dining. The new time, i.e., 5:30pm, was created to accommodate those who want early traditional dining. Even with this addition, there are still long waitlists for Traditional.

 

Is this " operational"? I dunno. I'd call it supply and demand. And, FYI, Princess didn't "bring forward" this new dining time. They added an additional, new dining time due to demand.

 

We booked way in advance of our upcoming cruise. We got traditional confirmed 6:00. I read in another post awhile back they were sending some traditional dinners to one of the anytime dining rooms. If true hope it is the 5:30 folks. We wanted to try the traditional dining room experence. It's been years for us. Does anyone know if they are splitting the traditional diners up?

Thanks, Laura E.

I could be wrong. But I thought there were shortages of early dining times at 6 pm and that Princess created an additional 5:30 pm early seating for traditional diners in the anytime dining rooms.

On Princess ships based in Australia - Sun, Dawn & Sea Princess there is NO anytime dining. Our options are 5.30pm or 8.15 traditional dining only. This thread is about the early dinig time of 5.30pm in the height of summer in a port intensive itinerary.

I could be wrong. But I thought there were shortages of early dining times at 6 pm and that Princess created an additional 5:30 pm early seating for traditional diners in the anytime dining rooms.

 

I believe this is correct and we were able to get confirmed for 6pm dining on our cruise in February.

We were also confirmed for 6:00 on our Feb. Ruby cruise out of Florida.

We had the 5:30 time this summer on CB, and while we would have preferred 6:00 (it was on the ship, but full when we booked), 5:30 was ok. Our dining companions were very nice Canadians and we had a terrific time.

Ohiodoglover

IMO, the addition of a 5:30PM traditional dining option suits the preferences of some, as quite a few Americans are accustomed to having dinner in the 5:30-6PM timeframe at home, and prefer to continue having their dinner in the same time period onboard.

 

From what I am reading by the Aussies, it's outside their dining habits to have dinner that early. Perhaps, in time, Princess will alter the times for ships based in Australia to better fit those habits if there are enough complaints made to Princess' upper management.

 

I understand Princess does read CC posts, but the better way to encourage change would be to address your dissatisfaction to Princess management via letters directly to them. IMO

5:30 dinner is fine. We will just adjust Happy Hour to commence at 4:30.

I just returned from a 11 day Emerald Baltic cruise and had a 530 seating. No problem with us and it also appeared with the folks that sat around us. Many times we arrived around 6 and our table was still available.

The early 5:30 traditional dining is in addition to the regularly scheduled sittings. This was instituted because there was a significant demand for it. Many people had been complaining that after the first regular scheduled TD sitting that by the time they got to the Princess Theatre for the early show all the seats were gone.

 

Generally on most ships of the line part of the Anytime DR is set aside for the TD early 5:30 sitting. On some vessels (eg Sapphire and Diamond)where they have four smaller AT DRs and subject to the demand for it, no AT dining takes place in the allocated DR til 8pm.

 

This policy decision on the part of the line allows Princess the flexibility to meet the demands of its clientel while maximizing the space available for the two types of dining.

 

As you have indicated on Australia based vessels such as the Dawn etc, cultural preferences were taken into consideration. As such it was the option of Princess Cruises Australia to retain only the TD timings in the dining rooms.

 

Should the cruising masses of Australia feel differently about their needs, then their preferences should be made known to the line's head office in "Oz".

 

The 5:30 timings cut into our Platinum/Elite happy hour in Skywalkers (may be elsewhere on Oz based vessels) which goes from 5-7pm, so we choose AT.

 

If it's a cultural thing that premised the decision for TD on Oz based ships and cultural preferences have changed, then advise the cruise line. If enough do so you may somewhere down the line see positive results to your efforts.

 

Ciao for now!!!

Hi All

 

5.30pm for afternoon tea would be fine for diner is just silly,

 

however many others will be happy, just not sure why, now 10.00pm

 

seating would be fine, then a midnight show, or movie , then

 

disco at 2 or 3 with bed for 4 and breakfast at 7.00am and we startt again.

 

yours Shogun

 

Shogun you have posted a pretty aggressive schedule, and disappointed that you pull the plug from 04 -07 I mean the pools are open, there must be something you can do with those 180 minutes

 

Regards

 

Pete

we requested early dining when we booked our Med cruise and the TA suggested we take late instead...but I have checked the itin over and over again...and I am pretty sure that on a port intensive Med tour when the sailaway is 6pm..that the all aboard will be 5pm..5:30 the latest...

 

and I have also checked exactly how many days we will be in port that might interfere with our meal...something like 4 or 5 days out of a 12 day cruise......

 

I can live with rushing to the MDR or eating in the buffet on those days....

 

also, from experience on Med cruises......I know that times are adjusted for dining depending on the port...

for example if it is 7am to 7pm in a popular port such as Rome, Florence or Istanbul....they will have a 6pm all aboard...and possible a 6:30 early dining.....or they will not have any early diners at all.....but those diners will not starve...they will demand to be fed in the MDR somehow....which of course will throw off the late seating anyway. also, if they have a 10pm all aboard, like it was on our overnite in Venice..which was mid cruise...they will have open seating.

 

Good management of a ship in this case...calls for dining time adjusted when needed.