Anytime Dining and your waiter

[jessegirl88]

Hi, will be going on the Caribbean Princess and choose the anytime dining...Hopefuly, that wasn't a mistake?? I usually choose the set time, but it seems like we usually are rushing, so we choose the anytime this cruise.

 

My question is, with anytime dining do you always get the same waiter or is it different anytime? If its different everytime, can you request or make reservations with that particular waiter for the duration of your cruise?

Reason why I may request the same waiter is because, they get to know what the kids like and usually have it there as soon as we walk in. Its just more personable too!

 

Also, what is the dress attire for anytime dining? Shorts etc. or capris and blouse?

 

Thanks for answering my questions.:)

[paul929207]

With AD, you do not get the same waiter each evening. Some ships allow reservations for the same table each evening. Talk to the Maitre 'd the first night.

 

The dress code for AD is the same as for TD. No shorts.

[Stevesan]

The Maitre d' determines the rules for AT reservations. Most accept reservations, but sometime only before and after the rush, generally before 6:00 and after 8:00. Before 6:00 may work best with kids.

 

The Princess dress code:

 

Princess makes it easy to know what to pack and what to wear when you’re dining onboard our spectacular ships. There are two designations for dress codes: Smart Casual and Formal.

Smart Casual

Passenger attire should be in keeping with what they would wear to a nice restaurant at home.

• Skirts/dresses, slacks, and sweaters for ladies
  
• Pants and open-neck shirts for men
  

Inappropriate dinner wear such as pool or beach attire, shorts, ball caps and casual jeans (with fraying and/or holes) are not permitted in the dining rooms. Shoes must be worn.

Formal

When formal nights are held, please observe the dress code in the Traditional Dining and Anytime Dining venues for the enjoyment of all our guests.

• Evening gown, cocktail dress, or elegant pant suit for women
  
• Tuxedo, dark suit or dinner jacket and slacks for men
  

http://www.princess.com/learn/faq_answer/pre_cruise/bring.jsp

[pamelajs]

My question is, with anytime dining do you always get the same waiter or is it different anytime? If its different everytime, can you request or make reservations with that particular waiter for the duration of your cruise?

Reason why I may request the same waiter is because, they get to know what the kids like and usually have it there as soon as we walk in. Its just more personable too!

 

Also, what is the dress attire for anytime dining? Shorts etc. or capris and blouse?

Thanks for answering my questions.:)

The one and only time we have cruised on Princess we tried anytime dining... And absolutely loved it. Will probably never do TD again.

The first night we had a wonderful waitress and ended up requesting her each and every night

Also I wore nice capris in the DR

[MSN-Travelers]

Hi, will be going on the Caribbean Princess and choose the anytime dining...Hopefuly, that wasn't a mistake?? I usually choose the set time, but it seems like we usually are rushing, so we choose the anytime this cruise.

 

My question is, with anytime dining do you always get the same waiter or is it different anytime? If its different everytime, can you request or make reservations with that particular waiter for the duration of your cruise?

Reason why I may request the same waiter is because, they get to know what the kids like and usually have it there as soon as we walk in. Its just more personable too!

 

Also, what is the dress attire for anytime dining? Shorts etc. or capris and blouse?

 

Thanks for answering my questions.:)

 

Anytime dining works well for us because we really don't care if we are seated immediately or have a short wait.

 

An anytime dining room is like any popular restaurant you have at home. Immediate seating is often the rule if you are flexible and are willing to be seated with others. A wait should be expected if you go during peak dining hours and want to have a table to yourself and also request being seated in an area served by specific waitstaff.

 

The rules for reservations seem to vary from ship-to-ship but the trend seems to be "no reservations accepted between 6 & 8".

 

Upon arrival, you will be asked: 1) room number and how many in your party and 2) are you willing to share a table with others or want a table to yourself.

 

Your ship has two "anytime dining" rooms stacked one on top of the other. If one has a wait, the other often has immediate seating.

 

As a side note, we choose Princess because they have the anytime dining option. We believe "making reservations" defeats the intent behind the concept. We do understand why some people want to make reservations and have the same wait staff. That has been beat to death in other threads.

We just finished a two week cruise on Coral. We often ate between 6 & 8. We did note that tables often sat empty from 7:15 on because they were being held for people who had made a reservation for 8. This, in turn, affected the availability of tables for people dining between 7 & 8. Again, waiting to be seated doesn't both us but it did make for some real cranky old folks that didn't understand why they had to wait when there were empty tables in plain view.

 

If you try to re-create the TD experience in the AD rooms, you will likely come away with an unhappy taste in your mouth for the AD concept.

 

As others have pointed out, the menu and dress code for the AD rooms is the same as the TD room.

 

Enjoy!

[Colo Cruiser]

The dress is the same for Anytime/Traditional.

[Pam in CA]

My question is, with anytime dining do you always get the same waiter or is it different anytime? If its different everytime, can you request or make reservations with that particular waiter for the duration of your cruise? -- It's usually different every time although some Maitre D's allow you to make a reservation with the same waitstaff at the same time (which begs the question about why choose Anytime.)

 

Reason why I may request the same waiter is because, they get to know what the kids like and usually have it there as soon as we walk in. Its just more personable too!

 

Also, what is the dress attire for anytime dining? Shorts etc. or capris and blouse? -- Shorts are never allowed in any dining room or restaurant other than the buffet in the evening. That includes children with the exception of babies or toddlers.

As has been said, the dress code is the same for all of the dining rooms, whether Anytime or Traditional (fixed.)

 

A suggestion is that with kids, you might want to get to the dining room early, i.e., before 6pm so as to avoid a wait. If you dine later, there could be a wait. It's kind of like going to a local restaurant where there are often lines/waits after 6:30pm. If you're willing to share a table with others (although they may not want to eat with children), you'll be seated faster. If you want a table just for the four of you, there could be a longer wait.

[DonnaK]

Just a note, on our Caribbean Princess cruise in Aug 2008, the maitre-d did not accept reservations for a particular table or waiter, nor a standing reservation for the length of the cruise. A limited number of reservations could be made beginning at 11pm, ONLY for the following night. The phone was not answered in a timely fashion, and the limit was reached before we ever got through. We ended up getting to the dining room as it opened, and then claiming the table/waiter. Since the dining room was empty upon opening, we were granted our choice. It wasn't a big deal to us to get there early because we were waitlisted for early traditional and never got it, so we were forced into Anytime. There were extremely long waiting times (45 minutes or more) after approx 6pm for parties larger than 2.

[janina]

I love anytime dinning on a carribean cruise. No time schedules. We have seen the maitre D turn people away at the door that were dressed in shorts.

[Treven]

I've always done anytime dining and wouldn't change; :) I want to eat when I want to eat. I also eat early; I'm in line about 5:20ish, and have always asked for a table for two, and have been seated right away. Of course if I were trying to eat later, I might have a wait. Being diabetic, generally I'll eat again, a snack or something (2 or 3 slices of pizza or suchi), about 8 or so.

 

Personally I don't care whether I'll get a table with the same waiter or someone different.

[Tina G]

Anytime dining is WHY there is an autotip! You will probably have a different waiter every night, and the autotip will take care of them all. Other than this, anytime dining is the same as traditional seating, except that you will sit with different people every night. It's a great way to meet people!;)

[Stevesan]

Just a note, on our Caribbean Princess cruise in Aug 2008, the maitre-d did not accept reservations for a particular table or waiter, nor a standing reservation for the length of the cruise. A limited number of reservations could be made beginning at 11pm, ONLY for the following night. The phone was not answered in a timely fashion, and the limit was reached before we ever got through. We ended up getting to the dining room as it opened, and then claiming the table/waiter. Since the dining room was empty upon opening, we were granted our choice. It wasn't a big deal to us to get there early because we were waitlisted for early traditional and never got it, so we were forced into Anytime. There were extremely long waiting times (45 minutes or more) after approx 6pm for parties larger than 2.

 

EXCELLENT. It's a rare Maitre d' who understands the concept of Anytime Dining. Kudos to him. I hope you praised him on a comment card.

[paul929207]

I love anytime dinning on a carribean cruise. No time schedules. We have seen the maitre D turn people away at the door that were dressed in shorts.

Yeah!!!!!

[DonnaK]

EXCELLENT. It's a rare Maitre d' who understands the concept of Anytime Dining. Kudos to him. I hope you praised him on a comment card.

 

 

Actually, we were furious with him because we wanted traditional dining, and were over 600 on the waiting list even though we booked over 9 months in advance. All those who want tradtional should be accomodated, even if they have to adjust the allotment of tables for any given cruise. Alternatively, they should allow those who couldn't get traditional to make a reservation for the same table/wait team at the tradtiional dining time in the anytime room.

 

This was a geriatric-heavy, Canada/NE itinerary, with a disproportionate amount of people who wanted early traditional. A good, praise-worthy maitre-d should be able to adapt to changing demographics and different situations that pop up along the way. His way of dealing with it was to ignore the situation, and to stop the reservation process. it created a totally unacceptable situation in the waiting area outside the dining room

 

This is an issue on every cruise, that there are long wait lists for early traditional and those who don't want Anytime are forced into it.

 

I would be more inclined to give kudos and praise to a maitre-d who checked cards and did not let tradtional diners eat in the anything dining room at their whim. This is unfair to those of us who want traditional dining and couldn't get it, and it is unfair to those who are actually assigned anytime dining and have to wait on long lines to eat (like I said, by 6:15, the waiting time on our sailing for parties great than two was around 45 minutes each night, and 80+ year old people crying in the waiting area outside the dining room. That's insane.)

[Putterdude]

As DW has MS and mobility issues, we have found that getting her down to the TD dining venue on Grand class ships a bit difficult with only the two elevators. So we have always spoke to the Maitre d' who has kindly made arrangements with the head waiter in one of the TD venues for a specific table at a specific time. We have found this to be wonderful as we have the same wait staff but are tablemates change each evening.:)

[caribill]

All those who want tradtional should be accomodated, even if they have to adjust the allotment of tables for any given cruise.

 

We were recently on a Royal Caribbean cruise with a three level dining room. Two of the levels were traditional. The third level was part traditional and part anytime. It would seem on that ship everybody gets what they want in dining preferance.

[DonnaK]

We were recently on a Royal Caribbean cruise with a three level dining room. Two of the levels were traditional. The third level was part traditional and part anytime. It would seem on that ship everybody gets what they want in dining preferance.

 

Yes, that's one reason that although we love Princess and dont hesitate to sail with them, Royal Caribbean remains our #1 preferred cruiseline.

[ITMan]

Hi there,

 

We have only sailed once before but with RCI. We had their version of anytime dining.

 

There seems to be some confusion here about having a planned dining time (AKA a reservation) on Anytime and Traditional Dining which is a fixed sitting, they are not the same!

 

We reserved every night, usually late, after the second sitting, but sometimes between sittings. We wanted a known time, not necessarily the same every night (Depended on the schedule for the day, shows etc...) but the TD times didnt fit. We usually went to book either the evening before or during the afternoon if the Maitre was about, or at the start of eveing servings.

 

Why would a Maitre D' not want to be able to plan by allowing people to reserve a table? It would make management considerably easier. If you want to just turn up on AD so be it, you might have a short wait, like any turn up dining location, but you will get a seat.

[Asil65]

I have always done AT dining and on my upcoming cruise we are doing TD. Since we always do the automatic tip is this enough? Do we need to give our servers something extra? What do most people do? Seems like since you have had the same servers for the entire trip that it would be nice to give something extra.

[paul929207]

Autotip is sufficient unless you feel someone's service has gone beyond and you want to give him/her extra.

[Asil65]

Thanks Paul!

[Cruisin' Chick]

Actually, we were furious with him because we wanted traditional dining, and were over 600 on the waiting list even though we booked over 9 months in advance. All those who want tradtional should be accomodated, even if they have to adjust the allotment of tables for any given cruise. Alternatively, they should allow those who couldn't get traditional to make a reservation for the same table/wait team at the tradtiional dining time in the anytime room.

 

This was a geriatric-heavy, Canada/NE itinerary, with a disproportionate amount of people who wanted early traditional. A good, praise-worthy maitre-d should be able to adapt to changing demographics and different situations that pop up along the way. His way of dealing with it was to ignore the situation, and to stop the reservation process. it created a totally unacceptable situation in the waiting area outside the dining room

 

This is an issue on every cruise, that there are long wait lists for early traditional and those who don't want Anytime are forced into it.

 

I would be more inclined to give kudos and praise to a maitre-d who checked cards and did not let tradtional diners eat in the anything dining room at their whim. This is unfair to those of us who want traditional dining and couldn't get it, and it is unfair to those who are actually assigned anytime dining and have to wait on long lines to eat (like I said, by 6:15, the waiting time on our sailing for parties great than two was around 45 minutes each night, and 80+ year old people crying in the waiting area outside the dining room. That's insane.)

 

We were recently on a Royal Caribbean cruise with a three level dining room. Two of the levels were traditional. The third level was part traditional and part anytime. It would seem on that ship everybody gets what they want in dining preferance.

 

It seems that if Princess really wants to have Personal Choice Dining, and that many passengers are on a waitlist for traditional dining, then there should be accommodations made for increasing the dining room space on a cruise by cruise basis to make sure everyone gets their choice. Else, don't call it Personal Choice Dining. Cordon off part of an AD dining room.

 

Personally, on vacation, I don't want to reserve my dining room table. And I don't want to wait for a table, either (last night we waited 40 minutes for a table at a restaurant near us). I do like being able to just walk in to the MDR and go right to my table and have our waitstaff there, knowing our preferences. It sure makes going on a cruise way different from eating out at a restaurant here. Just don't want to have to go on a RC cruise to do that.

[Colo Cruiser]

We went with anytime from the beginning, missed the interaction with the set waitstaff and went back to trad.

I think making a res in anytime defeats the purpose. IMO ;)

[Putterdude]

We went with anytime from the beginning, missed the interaction with the set waitstaff and went back to trad.

I think making a res in anytime defeats the purpose. IMO ;)

 

 

In the normal course of events we would do TD as well but it just doesn't work for us on the Grand class of ships. Under the circumstance I described it gives us the best of both worlds.

[Putterdude]

I have always done AT dining and on my upcoming cruise we are doing TD. Since we always do the automatic tip is this enough? Do we need to give our servers something extra? What do most people do? Seems like since you have had the same servers for the entire trip that it would be nice to give something extra.

 

Yes, the auto-tip is technically enough but we always give the wait staff and our cabin steward something extra...usually $20 each but more on a longer cruise. IMO that when you figure what you would leave a housekeeper in a hotel and wait staff in a restaurant the auto-tip is not enough for good service.