My New Name for Carnival "Whenever Dining"

[jimw]

The name Carnival gave to dine when you want-I was on a cruise last week and forgot what they named it already--I've been calling Whenever Dining...........It's time for a name that can be easily remembered, so how about U-Pick Dining?

 

btw, my sister also was on the cruise on the Destiny and checked into changing to u-pick and was told there were 70 people on a waiting list.

[JRock59]

We were on the Conquest in November and heard there was a wait list also! I've read that they only keep 10% of the seats for "your time" so I'm thinking it's more popular than Carnival thought it would be and they'll have to up that number. :)

[wdnoble9999]

My understanding is that they set aside the number of tables in a specific area of the MDR for Your Time dining based on the number of persons requesting it prior to the sailing. This makes it a bit of a challenge if a significant number of guests want to change their preferences once aboard the ship. I suppose that this will likely become less of an issue once the option has been in play for awhile and folks are more aware of the alternatives when making their reservations, making it less likely that they'll be requesting a change once the ship sails.

[zellers]

We were on the Grand Princess last year and had the "anytime" dining. We loved it! We never sat with the same people twice, and therefore got to meet a lot of people we ordinarily wouldn't of. It was a nice feeling to recognize more than a couple of people on a ship and say "hello" and have a chat with. Just once in our 14 day cruise the tables were full and we had a wait of 10 minutes. We were given a beeper, so we could walk around and not be stuck standing and waiting.

 

We requested the anytime dining on Carnival Miracle and am looking forward in doing the same as we did on Princess. :)

[dan40]

I don't understand all the HooHaa about Anytime dining. Not that its the only thing I don't understand.:p 99% of cruises, you have to be back on board well before 1st. seating and the shows are scheduled around early and late seating, Not AD. And AD is exactly the same as dining on land. I prefer the cruise dining to be different than what I do a half dozen or more times a month at home. But my real complaint is intermixing AD's and Trads. in the same DR, that's flat wrong. Different DR's or different floors is the only right way to have both.

[Cruzman]

Sailed last month on the Fantasy and one entire dining room is reserved for anytime dining and we heard lots of complaints about long lines at peak times. Since we are platinum, we always choose early traditional; love having the same table mates and wait staff each evening. If we wanted an Olive Garden experience, we would go to ....., yeah, that's right, the Olive Garden!

[LemurCat]

Sailed last month on the Fantasy and one entire dining room is reserved for anytime dining and we heard lots of complaints about long lines at peak times. Since we are platinum, we always choose early traditional; love having the same table mates and wait staff each evening. If we wanted an Olive Garden experience, we would go to ....., yeah, that's right, the Olive Garden!

 

It's almost as if you need to write legal disclosure so people will understand that "Anytime Dining" does not guarantee you a seat when you arrive at the dining room. :p

[navybaby1113]

We do anytime dining when we go to a land restaurant, so we prefer to do the traditional dining on a cruise. It's nice to eat with the same people every night.

[zellers]

But my real complaint is intermixing AD's and Trads. in the same DR, that's flat wrong. Different DR's or different floors is the only right way to have both.

 

Your right about this. Princess did have different dining rooms - one for the anytime dining and one for the traditional dining. All in all it went very smoothly.

 

It's almost as if you need to write legal disclosure so people will understand that "Anytime Dining" does not guarantee you a seat when you arrive at the dining room.

 

And, your right about this one too! Anytime dining does not guarantee you get a table when you "feel" like it. Sometimes you have to wait especially if you just want a specific table, or area. We enjoyed sitting with different people, so our wait was very minimum.

 

Not everyone will like or enjoy anytime dining, but this suits us because we are not always hungry at the same time everyday. :)

[carads]

Not everyone will like or enjoy anytime dining, but this suits us because we are not always hungry at the same time everyday.

 

I agree 100%. Our kids are grown and out of the house and we usually have dinner somewhere between 6 and 8:15 but not at the same time every night. We were on the Glory a couple of weeks ago and had early dining. We made steakhouse reservations at 7pm 2 nights, 2 other nights we weren't really hungry at 6 so we ate at the buffet (which is not our favorite) and we only ate 3 nights at our assigned table/time. We also have early dining on the Valor for February and it will probably be similar. For our Miracle cruise next November we have signed up for your time dining and feel it will work better for us. If not I guess we'll go back to an assigned time on the following cruise but we would at least like to try your time dining before we make that decision.

[Maraprince]

Your right about this. Princess did have different dining rooms - one for the anytime dining and one for the traditional dining. All in all it went very smoothly.

 

 

 

And, your right about this one too! Anytime dining does not guarantee you get a table when you "feel" like it. Sometimes you have to wait especially if you just want a specific table, or area. We enjoyed sitting with different people, so our wait was very minimum.

 

Not everyone will like or enjoy anytime dining, but this suits us because we are not always hungry at the same time everyday. :)

 

 

 

Several big issues with Anytime Dining:

 

-- marketed as completely in the control of the passenger - as soon as they show up, they will be seated immediately -- Not true!

 

-- as already stated, show times are geared for traditional dining times -- so if you want to see the shows, you may encounter the problem stated above if you cannot be accommodated as soon as you arrive or it takes your wait staff longer to serve since they are not familiar with your ordering patterns.

 

-- hard for the kitchen and wait staff to accurate gauge when passengers will show up for dinner causing a backlog on making and delivering food and freeing up tables -- which leads up back to the first issue.

 

-- separate dining rooms and kitchens are needed because of the disparity and unevenness of the amount of food needed and the number of diners showing up at any one time.

Less we forget about the buffet area which is better suited to the "whims" of passengers deciding to eat on the spur of the moment than Anytime Dining could ever hope to accomplish. Plus, there is always room service as a last resort.

 

My pet peeve -- if you select Anytime Dining but want to eat at the same time each night, at the same table, with the same wait staff -- how is this Anytime Dining?

So, instead of being assigned first seating at 6 PM, you go at 6:45 PM, all you are doing is changing the time you arrive at the dining room. If you want to call this Anytime Dining instead of saying "you have a standing reservation at 6:45 PM for table #.... with the same wait staff", go ahead.

 

MARAPRINCE

[jimw]

Destiny last week had the upper level I think of 1 of the 2 dining rooms assigned to u-pick dining.

[zellers]

Several big issues with Anytime Dining:

 

-- marketed as completely in the control of the passenger - as soon as they show up, they will be seated immediately -- Not true!

 

-- as already stated, show times are geared for traditional dining times -- so if you want to see the shows, you may encounter the problem stated above if you cannot be accommodated as soon as you arrive or it takes your wait staff longer to serve since they are not familiar with your ordering patterns.

 

-- hard for the kitchen and wait staff to accurate gauge when passengers will show up for dinner causing a backlog on making and delivering food and freeing up tables -- which leads up back to the first issue.

 

-- separate dining rooms and kitchens are needed because of the disparity and unevenness of the amount of food needed and the number of diners showing up at any one time.

 

Less we forget about the buffet area which is better suited to the "whims" of passengers deciding to eat on the spur of the moment than Anytime Dining could ever hope to accomplish. Plus, there is always room service as a last resort.

 

My pet peeve -- if you select Anytime Dining but want to eat at the same time each night, at the same table, with the same wait staff -- how is this Anytime Dining?

 

So, instead of being assigned first seating at 6 PM, you go at 6:45 PM, all you are doing is changing the time you arrive at the dining room. If you want to call this Anytime Dining instead of saying "you have a standing reservation at 6:45 PM for table #.... with the same wait staff", go ahead.

 

MARAPRINCE

 

 

May I suggest if you are interested in "anytime" dining that you "try it" first before shooting it down ;) If your not interested then stick with the traditional dining. There is no wrong or right here.

 

We did not have a problem with it on the Princess, and we never seen any problems as stated with "backlogs." The staff attended us and the rest of our table just as if we were seated at the traditional dining. We had a great time with the Princess dining, and when this was offered to us on the Miracle, we did not hesitate to say "yes!"

 

We never sat at the same table, or had the same servers, nor did we sit with the same people every night. We like to "mix" and "mingle" or as the saying goes - "Life is like a box of chocolates, You never know what you're gonna get" :D

 

Sometimes we ate early, sometimes we ate late, and sometimes on a "whim" we ate in the buffet. Princess had buffets on both sides of the ship. Late at night one would close, for cleaning while the other stayed open. They had some fantastic midnight food! ;)

 

As for the shows, we got to see everyone of them. It didn't matter whether it was an early show, or a late show. The only one we didn't get to see was because of high seas and they had to cancel the show.

 

Life is too short to be negative. Think positive and you will be much happier! :)

[iceshots]

We did Anytime Dining on the Ecstasy. Early Seating was full, and late seating would have conflicted with our daughter's schedule at Club O2. Called the Carnival rep and got wait listed for Anytime Dining (preferred choice) and Early Dining (Second Choice). Wanted to avoid the late seating.

 

We were seated immediately upon arrival every day except for the last night. That had a 10 minute wait because we arrived around 7pm.

 

Most nights we were eating at the same time as the early seating. In fact, Anytime Dining started 15 or 30 minutes ahead of early seating, so we just walked right by everyone in the line.

 

We had the same waiters once. Sat in different locations in the dining room each time. All in all it was a positive experience.

 

The main advantage is that you worked to your own schedule. If that schedule made you wait a few minutes, you dealt with it. By adjusting your arrival by about 10 or 15 minutes you could avoid that wait. It is your choice.

 

Because we are three, we always had a table for 4 to ourselves. This has happened on other cruises before. Our experience with dining partners has not been the greatest. We are friendly people once things warm up, but we rarely try to instigate the conversation. So again, this option worked out great for us.

[Jabee]

"Pain in the rear for the traditional diners"...

 

I do not fault you for liking Anytime Dining...it is a choice and choices are good.

 

But...

 

My one time with it on the Fantasy, they felt a need to seat the "Anytimers" first and made us over 30 minutes late even getting in the door...it did get better the rest of the week, but we never sat down to eat at 6:15....normally 6:20-6:30.

 

Also...the reset the tables in the MDR, so that the Waiters had more tables than in the past, so more could be assigned to the "Anytimers."

We had the WORST service I have every had and after being late getting in were even later getting out.

 

I was so frustrated that I thought of sailing on NCL again...but then I had to remember I would have a different waiter, different table every night because they are ALL anytime dining...(and breakfast is a real experience.)

 

Guess I will stay with Carnival and my 6:15 dining time...and hope the AD are in the OTHER MDR next time.

[pokergirl34]

"Pain in the rear for the traditional diners"...

 

I do not fault you for liking Anytime Dining...it is a choice and choices are good.

 

But...

 

My one time with it on the Fantasy, they felt a need to seat the "Anytimers" first and made us over 30 minutes late even getting in the door...it did get better the rest of the week, but we never sat down to eat at 6:15....normally 6:20-6:30.

 

Also...the reset the tables in the MDR, so that the Waiters had more tables than in the past, so more could be assigned to the "Anytimers."

We had the WORST service I have every had and after being late getting in were even later getting out.

 

I was so frustrated that I thought of sailing on NCL again...but then I had to remember I would have a different waiter, different table every night because they are ALL anytime dining...(and breakfast is a real experience.)

 

Guess I will stay with Carnival and my 6:15 dining time...and hope the AD are in the OTHER MDR next time.

 

On the Elation, there was a separate line for the Your Time diners to visit the Hostess. We never had a wait, never had to sit with other guests, and always had a window.

 

Still, we prefer the traditional dining experience and will choose that (and Late Seating) for all of our future cruisers. Both of us really enjoyed having the same waitstaff and tablemates. It was so much fun and really enhanced our cruise experience. I would never do Early Seating however...too much rushing around after port. Our kids will have to do without the evening Club activities.

[FightOnRon]

I'm going to try it for the first time on my very first CCL cruise in March. On my four other cruises I didn't have the option and sometimes 6 is too early,,but 8:30 is too late. I like the late shows, not matter which traditional dining times they are for so I figure with anytime I could eat between 7-730,,my optimum dining time on a ship,, and still make the later shows.

 

I eat too much crap from the grills between meals with the 830 dining because for me its too much time between lunch and dinner to not take in a meal in between. I also figure with anytime dining I could cut back a few thousand extra calories.

 

I have a question,,are burgers and hot dogs available all day? I know the pizza deal is 24/7. The burgers and dogs are my downfall.