Anytime or Traditional?

I searched for a poll on this and couldnt find one so here goes....

Do you prefer Anytime Dining or Traditional Dining?

Early seating - between 6pm & 8pm or Late seating - After 8 pm?

Early traditional, though we skip the dining room altogether a few nights.

Late traditional. It gives you more time in port and you get to know your tablemates better.

We prefer Anytime, especially in the Caribbean.

We love the flexibility of anytime dining. Eat when we want. Eat by ourselves or eat with new friends we have just met.

I do miss the connection you get with your waiter but just don't want to take the chance that we get "stuck" with "those" tablemates. (which is funny 'cause we always had wonderful tablemates before they added anytime).

It's vacation, we like to be flexible.

Late, Traditional. I'm on a cruise, its special. If I wanted the samething I would have stayed home. Everyone different. :rolleyes:

when i am on princess, i perfer traditional dinning,early.

when on ncl,i perfer the anytime dinning,early.

both ways are enjoyable.

island princess 12/08

ncl pearl 2/08

grand princess 11/07

carnival holiday 9/06

grand princess 2/06:)

I have never done anytime but am doing it for the first time to Alaska this May. What is the latest you can be seated for anytime? The same as Traditional 8:15-8:30?

Thanks

I don't like to have to make many decisions on a cruise....so I like knowing exactly when to show up at the dining room!!! Maybe I'm just a touch lazy in that respect. We've only done traditional/late in all eight of our cruises and have always enjoyed it.

Wyn

Early, Traditional. We tried Anytime Dining, but missed 4 shows that cruise so we went back to traditional.

I prefer anytime dining, but having teens they like to eat earlier so they can get off to their activities and they have to eat with us.

I prefer Second seating Traditional. It is a good thing I like Traditional Dining, most of our cruises are on the three little girls (Pacific, Royal and Tahitian) which don't have Anytime Dining.

Early, Traditional. We tried Anytime Dining, but missed 4 shows that cruise so we went back to traditional.

I'm just curious as to why you missed the shows & what does going back to TD do to make it any better?

I have never done anytime but am doing it for the first time to Alaska this May. What is the latest you can be seated for anytime? The same as Traditional 8:15-8:30?

 

Thanks

The anytime dining room is open from 5:50 -10:00PM

Hi there,

Our first 8 cruises were were anytime then we got late fixed we now always go for this,

why,

helps plan our evening

great table mates

chance to get to know waiters etc

yours Shogun

We like antime dining as we don't like to be rushed on a cruise to get ready for tradional. If were busy doing something we don't like to stop to dress for dinner. That's our preferance

We prefer early traditional. We had major issues on the CB this summer, with very long lines for the anytime dining room, difficulty making reservations, and a very strict and unhelpful maitre-d.

I'm just curious as to why you missed the shows & what does going back to TD do to make it any better?

While I don't know the problem the prior poster had, sometimes the show for second seating is at 7pm. if you go to dinner 7 or 7:30, you miss both shows. You just need to plan in advance. Either change the dinner time or miss the show.

Traditional, late seating.

No rush to get back from ports and always a seat with the same waiter/tablemates to greet you each night. :D

I voted for Anytime Dining because when I'm travelling with my daughter (14) that is the easiest for us to work around teen schedules, sailaways and shows.

If I'm travelling with a group then it would most probably be Late Traditional as it would be a miracle to get everyone together for dinner every night otherwise :rolleyes:

Plus we had a wonderful time doing this last May and made such a good impression on the adjoining tables that we ended up having a sing-along every night at our waiters request! He even ended up choosing the songs and photocopying the words for all of us. Great memories! And lots of free limoncello :D

Moira

Great replies with explanations! Thanks everyone.:)

Anytime.

I like the flexibility. We usually go through and plan all the things in the patter that we want to do, and then go to dinner at a different time according to what's going on for the night.

Early traditional, without a doubt!

Absolutely, no question, Late Traditional. I've always gotten lucky with good tablemates in Traditional, but the one cruise doing shared tables in Anytime -- yikes!!! It was a kaleidescope of horror, every night starting from scratch ("hi, my name is X, I live in X, I'm a rocket scientist, oh, you sell aluminum siding--how fascinating. Yes I've cruised Princess before, have you?") with a different set of dining companions with whom one had nothing in common on the surface and, of course, no time over the space of just one dinner to determine any more than that. Never again!

Although I prefer Anytime Dining, my next cruise is a solo so I chose Early Traditional. I think it will be a little more comfortable for a solo cruiser than the other.

I've enjoyed all the interesting people I've met during Anytime, though. Many times we would end up staying after dinner and talking for quite awhile. I have only had 3 annoying dinner mates before - a constantly complaining elderly couple and a woman who kept talking about her wealth and acted like she owned the ship (of course, who knows - maybe she did??!). The good thing was that I didn't have to eat a second meal with any of them again. There are pros and cons to both ways.