Whats the best way to deal with Personal Choice Dinning?

[earthdog]

We were on the CP last Sept. and really hated the lack of structure and service we had with the Personal Choice Dinning. We really like the Big Dining Rooms and the same Waiter each night.

 

Last year we tried standing dinner reservations but we ended up in a dark corner of the Dinning Room with a no personallity rookie.

 

We just booked another cruise on the CP for June and all of the structured dinning in full. So what are your suggestions? I'm sure it will be better since my expectations are so low... There are 6 in our party.

 

TIA

[DeltaOne]

You booked traditional? It's not clear from your message.

 

With a group of six, and a preference for traditional dining, you'll be making a mistake if you don't do traditional dining.

[LARGIN]

What ship; The Coral Princess (CP) or the Caribbean Princess (CB) ??

[travellady]

We sailed the Diamond Princess in Feb and enjoyed the Personal Choice/Anytime dining. We made reservations 3 of the 7 nights - Sterling Steakhouse, Pacific Moon, and Vivaldis. Since we didn't want this to be a structured cruise where much of our plans revolved around when we were eating dinner, we decided to play it be ear the other 4 nights. We ate in the buffet those nights and found the food to be excellent. We ate when we were hungry and we weren't constrained to certain activities/entertainment times because of dinner time.

 

I guess it's all depends on what you're looking for in a cruise. Because we are so busy in our everyday lives - it's pretty structured due to jobs and kid's activities, we fully enjoyed the freedom to choose and not have a deadline for dinner. And honestly, the buffet quality was every bit as good as the dining room food. Well, the desserts seemed smaller but nobody stopped us from taking two :-)

[herb]

Is this Personal Choice Dining similar to NCL's Freestyle Dining?? (which we did NOT like at all)

[Babie]

It really depends on your personal preferences. But here's the way we handled PC dining on the Grand in December. Keep in mind there were anywhere between 8 and 18 of us each night.

On our first night, we ate at the Michaleangelo dining room, and really enjoyed our waiter. Generally speaking, with PC dining, you don't get the same waitstaff each night. We wanted it, so we asked. You can reserve the same section, waitstaff etc each night. So we reserved his section each night at 8pm. It worked really well for us.

Some people have expressed concerns that with a group of 6 you might have a problem getting a table. That isn't the case. All you have to do is make a reservation (make it every day, or a standing reservation for the entire cruise). You can choose the same or a different location. It's up to you. If you don't like your waitstaff, request a different section the next night. Not as big a hassle as Traditional would be.

LES!

[senior lady]

we've done personal choice on our last few cruises and loved it. In fact on our Mexican cruise we even were lucky enough to keep the same table and waiters for the whole cruise. We like it cause then your not so rushed for dinner and can choose when ever.

On our last Hawaii cruise on RCCL we had to have early sitting and just found that we always felt rushed.

On our next cruise on the Coral we're going back to PC. Even if you have to wait they give you a little "space ship" thing and just go have a before dinner cocktail and wait for it to vibrate:D

[SaylorGirl]

My DH and I always choose personal choice because we only want a table for 2. However, when I went with my parents and sisters on the Grand I thought they might like the traditional we needed a table for 7 people, Of course traditional was full so the first night I called down and said I wanted a great and funny wait staff and if we liked them we wanted the table for the week. They were as good as I have ever had in traditional, so we kept the table. If they had been awful I would have changed tables the next night, that is the wonderful thing about personal choice it is easy to change.

[Sillyjilly]

Is this Personal Choice Dining similar to NCL's Freestyle Dining?? (which we did NOT like at all)

 

I think PC Dining is waaaaaaaaaaay better than Freestyle. Didn't care for Freestyle, but loved PC.

 

To answer the OP's original question: Try a dining room you like and see if you can get standing reservations there. Some are less busy than others and you'll still have the traditional menu each night. I think that is the best you can do in your situation. Good Luck. :)

[cruzinchris]

This topic has been discussed frequently. Here is a link to one in recent memory: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=141873 .

 

I think you will find many answers, ideas, solutions to your dining questions on this thread.

 

Bon Appetit! and Bon Voyage!

Chris

[smudge's mom]

I think PC Dining is waaaaaaaaaaay better than Freestyle. Didn't care for Freestyle, but loved PC.

 

Specifics, please.

 

I'm not interested in whether the food was better - just the mechanics of the experiences.

[TwoCruisers]

My wife and I just returned from the Dawn Princess and we had Personal Choice dinning for the first time. We met many people on the Cruse Critic roll call boards and had dinner with several of them every night. We all wanted dinned at about 7:30 to 7:45. I had previously read on the boards that you couldn’t get reservations for a group of people at that time. Only for a time around 6:00 or 8:00. We found the staff to be extremely friendly and accommodating. On the third night we found an excellent waiter and we made reservations for one of his tables every night. Some nights we only had five people and other nights as many as ten. The staff accommodated our every wish. Our waiter not only turned out to be excellent, but all of us agreed that he was the single best waiter any one of us had ever had. Not only was he efficient and friendly, but also he got to know us and entertained us with card tricks and other fun stuff. BTW, he and the reservation staff were very generously rewarded with extra tips. On our next cruise we will probably choose Personal Choice again, but we will be prepared for some service a little below what we just encountered. This was just too special to expect on a regular basis.

[catmand]

We were on the CP last Sept. and really hated the lack of structure and service we had with the Personal Choice Dinning. We really like the Big Dining Rooms and the same Waiter each night.

 

Last year we tried standing dinner reservations but we ended up in a dark corner of the Dinning Room with a no personallity rookie.

 

We just booked another cruise on the CP for June and all of the structured dinning in full. So what are your suggestions? I'm sure it will be better since my expectations are so low... There are 6 in our party.

 

TIA

I think one of the problems may be your first paragraph statment about the Big Dining Rooms. The newer Princess ships just don't have them. All that emmpty space that you see with the grand two story traditional rooms is utilized elsewhere on the ships. So even if you were to sit traditional, that aspect of the cruise would be missing. As for the same waitstaff every night, well, people have made reservations for their entire cruise, sitting "Anytime". All of the tables are numbered so I guess you could scope one out, slip the Matier (never can spell that) D' a few bucks and request that table? That may get you out of a dark corner.

We have sailed 17 nights with Princess so far and had to wait 10 minutes or so one time. When on the Princess ships we love the flexability of "Anytime". I think we actually do favor it over traditional BUT (and there is that big but again) we also sail Celebrity and enjoy sitting with new friends or what you referred to as "structured."

To answer your question; "whats the best way to deal with P.C.?" I honestly think the answer is just "go with the flow". Accept it for what it is, just one part of the cruise experience. Set a meeting time and go on an dinner adventure. Enjoy the flexability and don't stress out over it, the wait shouldn't be long if there is any and everyone will be seated together. Good luck, have a great cruise and have fun!

[earthdog]

I agree... Traditional was booked so we are on a waiting list. So I was told we would most likely end up being Personal Choice.

[BJS]

I agree... Traditional was booked so we are on a waiting list. So I was told we would most likely end up being Personal Choice.

Last year we tried standing dinner reservations but we ended up in a dark corner of the Dinning Room with a no personallity rookie.

Don't accept standing reservations at table or location you don't want. Choose the time then find the location and wait staff you want and request a standing reservation there. Possibly you would have not minded the dark corner if you'd had a great waitstaff.

[Italy52]

We opted for PC dining on our Dawn sailing last summer. We chose this particular method because a table for two is sometimes hard to come by in the traditional dining room. My husband travels a lot and out time together is very prescious to us. We were fortunate on our first night to find a good wait staff that we enjoyed very much. After dinner, we went to the Maitre'd and asked if we could have the same table, wait staff, and time for the duration of the cruise. He agreed, and we had a wonderful dining experience throughout our entire trip. We are going on the Sapphire this May and have chosen PC dining again. For us, it is the only way to go.