Anytime dining disadvantages????

[Grayish]

One of the disadvantages, at least on the Victory, is that the ATD section is the "worst". There are curtains with no windows behind them, whereas the deck below has windows and the other dining room (aft) has even more windows! We joked on our cruise that we were being punished for picking ATD. The flexibility is great though. Also, my family isn't keen to the idea of eating with strangers. We never had any service problems, and had the same wait staff a few times.

[amedawn]

My wife and I have the "Your Time" dining option for our Ecstasy 11/27 cruise. When you have this option, are you seated at one dining room versus the other, or are both the Wind Song and Wind Star divided into scheduled and unscheduled sections?

 

If you would like to see the dancing waiter show, what time should you arrive at the dining room? I guess if we find it annoying then we could also choose to miss it after that night - since we know what time it occurs.

 

 

Was on the Ecstasy earlier this month...I believe the show was around 8ish? Not for certain though. Your time dining is in the Windstar dining room. There were 5 of us in our party, and we only had to wait 2 nights for less than 5-8 minutes each time and only had to wait because we asked to be seated with the same waitstaff every night. Andari is awesome! She's the best!! You'll love it! Oh and we had all kinds of different bread choices...not just the regular rolls. :)

[Name Of The Game]

We tried Anytime Dining on the Legend and weren't thrilled with it. We got to the dining room around 6:00 every night anyway because there were things we wanted to do later. When we asked to be seated with others they would have us start a large table and then make us wait and wait until the table was full before taking the order. The waiters were less friendly as well. There were no waiters we would have asked to sit in their section again. Because of all this we ended up eating at the buffet for dinner three times. And now we're back to traditional dining for our upcoming cruise.

[drafterdw]

since the staff split the tips now the only chance of getting a better tip is to really do a good job and get extra which techincally they are suppose to put in the pot and split. As far as eating at the same time any way - we did almost every night....but t was ur choice and a couple nights we didn't go at the same time...would only do your time....

[mamasue]

We love YTD!

We don't really like eating with strangers and making pointless small talk... also we often have a nap in the afternoon.... and go to eat whenever we're awake and showered!

The only time we had to wait for a table was on a formal night..... 20 minutes with a buzzer.... no big deal!

I'd pick YTD anytime!:)

[DryCreek]

Was on the Ecstasy earlier this month...I believe the show was around 8ish? Not for certain though. Your time dining is in the Windstar dining room. There were 5 of us in our party, and we only had to wait 2 nights for less than 5-8 minutes each time and only had to wait because we asked to be seated with the same waitstaff every night. Andari is awesome! She's the best!! You'll love it! Oh and we had all kinds of different bread choices...not just the regular rolls. :)

 

Thanks for your reply!

Wind Star looks good, it is forward, and that is where we are (3 decks below). Hopefully they'll have a cozy 2-top near a window available.

 

So, you recommend sitting in the section served by Andari? I will take that under advisement then!

Are the two dining rooms very different, I would assume not, but who knows - this is our first "cruise".

 

Can you see the waiter dance from where you are seated as Your Choice dining?

[I Luv Crusin]

We tried YTD for the first time on the Fantasy. The dining room was the Celebration mid-ship on the starboard side. There were many tables for 4 and 2. For parties of 6 they would put a 4 and 2 top together. We liked our waitstaff well enough to request them every night. They may have not been GREAT but good enough. NO real complaints. I didn't find that the tables were too close together, a complaint I've heard before on these boards. In fact we had breakfast one morning and was seated on the fixed time seating side. The tables for 2 were much more awkward on that side.

 

We never had to wait but honestly we always ate between 5:45 and 6:30pm. By eating around 6pm we saw the sunset and when the staff did their dance saw that too! Contrary to what is said some of the waitstaff did not seem thrilled to sing or dance.

 

I would do YTD again.

[grrl2grrl]

On our cruises we have a family rule: We don't care what you do on your vacation as long as you are at the table for dinner.

 

With that said, we like the late seating.

We usually have a table to ourselves (no disaster table-mate stories).

We like our waiters to know what we like, and we like tipping extra for better service.

[lillian marie]

Love anytime dining-can not think of a negative. We don't want to develop long time friendships with folks we'll see at the most 7-14 days and never again, we have real friends at home. The service has been great and we've never had to wait for a table

[amedawn]

Thanks for your reply!

Wind Star looks good, it is forward, and that is where we are (3 decks below). Hopefully they'll have a cozy 2-top near a window available.

 

So, you recommend sitting in the section served by Andari? I will take that under advisement then!

Are the two dining rooms very different, I would assume not, but who knows - this is our first "cruise".

 

Can you see the waiter dance from where you are seated as Your Choice dining?

 

 

Andari was great! She is super attentive and she really did a great job. The waiters will be up and down all the aisles so you will be able to see very well when they start the dances. Also...during the evening they close the curtains in the dining room so a window seat may or may not be beneficial...but all you have to do is ask and I'm sure they will accommodate you the best they can!