Any time/Your time Dining

[IslandSliderGirl]

Has anyone had experience with the Any time/Your time dining option offered by Carnival? Please share your thoughts if you don't mind. Thanks in advance.

[riffatsea]

There are MANY previous discussions on this topic.

We LOVE Your Time Dining and would not do it any other way at this point. You go when you want and can get a table for 2 or join other people if you choose. You can have the same wait staff each night if you like them and so they get to know your likes/dislikes just the same way it works with traditional dining.

We never have to wait for folks who come late for dinner and we can choose our dinner companions instead of just getting "the luck of the draw".:cool::o

[martinchem]

It's ok, I find the service better in the traditional setting, but I do like the idea of going to dinner when we please if we are in a port late or want to catch a sunset.

[cruisinthemed]

We love anytime/your time dining. We don't like to have to be at dinner the same time every night. We have had it our last few cruises and have it for all of our upcoming cruises. It gives us the option to eat when we want, see the shows when we want. It will be great on our upcoming cruises, as we will be having a lot of port days...to places we have never been. If we are hungry when we get back, we will be able to eat right away. If we are tired, we will have time for a nap and still be able to have dinner.

[Fourseventeen]

the search function is your friend. There is TONS of topics about this.

 

My .02 cents....

 

Pros: eat when you want. You can select who you want to eat with.

 

cons: You wont typically get the same wait staff each night. You usually have to wait 10 mins or so to be seated. You dont typically get the "personal" service you would if your wait staff is expecting you.

[rglbjl]

 

cons: You wont typically get the same wait staff each night.

 

If you get waitstaff that you like, you can request them on subsequent nights.

[cruisinthemed]

We had the same waitstaff and table last weekend. I think they were more attentive, since it was a table for just the two of us. Too each their own. You will never know until you try it, and if you don't like it...next time you can do either early or late dining.

[IslandSliderGirl]

Thanks for your replies everyone.

 

Fourseventeen ~ I'm sorta new to the Boards and didn't realize you could search for a topic. Appreciate the tip.

 

Our last three cruises have been on Norwegian due to the 'Freestyle' option for dining. We really like the flexibility to eat when it fits into our schedule. We are traveling Carnival in January with a group of friends and they all wanted to stick with a designated dining time. No big deal since we would have to decide on a time anyway for all to meet. But when it's just hubby and I, we like to 'wing-it' each day and are considering another cruise later next year on Carnival with the Anytime dining option. :D

 

Once again, thanks for the replies.

[salty dingo]

Ever since it became available, we have chosen Anytime Dining. We really like the flexibility of coming to dinner whenever we like. No wait time to speak of, since we usually eat on the late side most nights.

 

We have had good wait staff and have asked for their section - that's a nice feature.

 

The traditional dining is great if you like to eat at the same time every night and you don't foresee changing that. We just like the option to change the time if we want to.

[EmmasNana]

We really like it. Apparently lots of people do like it because when I booked my December cruise a few weeks ago the anytime dining was waitlisted while first and second seating were available. I guess I need to hurry and get to platinum to be sure to get what I want. Hopefully Carnival will expand the area for this seating as more and more people enjoy it.

[hubofhockey]

the search function is your friend. There is TONS of topics about this.

 

 

 

They could get rid of 90% of cruise critic under this theory (especially chair hog, bringing on alcohol, and smokiing threads). Not a bad idea to bring up this one every once in a while as this is pretty new to Carnival. We love it on Princess, especially in Europe where late port times lead to us wanting to dine at different times each night. But on Princess, you get the option to join others or dine alone. We chose anytime for our Med cruise on the Magic for the same reason. There will be four of us. I hope the waits aren't too bad for four people.

[Jeepers385]

We had the same waitstaff and table last weekend. I think they were more attentive, since it was a table for just the two of us. Too each their own. You will never know until you try it, and if you don't like it...next time you can do either early or late dining.

 

One question, do you go to dinner the same time each night to have the same table and waitstaff?

Thanks for your help.

[riffatsea]

Any Time Dining is in one area of the dining room or in one particular dining room. The wait staff are assigned specific tables so that when you are being seated you can ask to sit in a certain person's area. They will put you there if there are seats available. We also had the same wait staff every night.

We were seated at different tables but always in the area assigned to the staff we preferred.

[tctwhite]

We were a party of 6 and used the your time dining. We never had to wait at all. We usually went around the same time each night but there were one or two nights when we got back from port and were too tired or needed to get showers. We got the same server each night and got top notch service.