Anytime vs. traditional seating

[bambam775]

In posts on this thread I have seen there are 3 time options. I wasn't given 3 options. We are TD @ 5:30 but even if there is a 6:00, that would be better for us. Is 6:00 an option for TD? And if I understand correctly, we can only miss dinner ONCE without loosing our TD time! That's a problem because we have found that on our port days, we almost never made it back on time for dinner.

[oskidunker]

nmnmnm

[caribill]

In posts on this thread I have seen there are 3 time options. I wasn't given 3 options. We are TD @ 5:30 but even if there is a 6:00, that would be better for us. Is 6:00 an option for TD? And if I understand correctly, we can only miss dinner ONCE without loosing our TD time! That's a problem because we have found that on our port days, we almost never made it back on time for dinner.

 

On most ships there are two seatings in the traditional dining room. Although the times may vary by ship and itinerary, the times are approximately 6 PM and 8:15 PM.

 

On some sailings there is sufficient demand for the early seating and it fills up so they have a new earlier fixed time (usually about 5:30) and have it in one of the anytime dining rooms. That anytime DR will revert to anytime after that new early seating.

 

You do not give up your traditional dining time if you miss it multiple times, only if you officially switch out of it to anytime dining.

 

If you have been assigned to the new earlier TD time, when you board check the Patter to see when and where the matre d' will be for handling change requests. He might be able to switch you to the 6 PM time.

[ActiveTraveler]

For a long time I thought, "6:00 is too early and 8:00 is too late, so it must be anytime dining for me." Not all port stops end at the same time and one thing I look forward to is eating at Sabatini's, Crown Grill, and the buffet. It does not bother me at all to have a different waiter and table mates every night. So it seemed like a no-brainer to select AD for my first cruise.

 

Then I looked at the Sapphire's deck plans and noticed the cabin I prefer is directly over the traditional dining room, which is not connected to midship (where the AD rooms are). So I thought I need to choose between booking E711 (aft Emerald deck) and TD or D509 (midship Dolphin deck) and AD.

 

So I want to know if late TD would prevent me from watching the shows in the Princess Theater because I certainly do not want to eat early!

[rdsqrl]

For a long time I thought, "6:00 is too early and 8:00 is too late, so it must be anytime dining for me." Not all port stops end at the same time and one thing I look forward to is eating at Sabatini's, Crown Grill, and the buffet. It does not bother me at all to have a different waiter and table mates every night. So it seemed like a no-brainer to select AD for my first cruise.

 

Then I looked at the Sapphire's deck plans and noticed the cabin I prefer is directly over the traditional dining room, which is not connected to midship (where the AD rooms are). So I thought I need to choose between booking E711 (aft Emerald deck) and TD or D509 (midship Dolphin deck) and AD.

 

So I want to know if late TD would prevent me from watching the shows in the Princess Theater because I certainly do not want to eat early!

I don't think I understand your premise: there is no association between cabin location and which dining you select. You can be in E711 and still book Anytime; or be in D509 and still book Traditional. The Traditional dining room is accessible from the entire ship, not just those cabins right above it.

That said, the main theatre shows are performed twice, once timed for the first seating and once for the second seating. So that one starts generally about 10/10:15. Occasionally, the show intended for the second seating will actually be timed for before dinner; the Patter will make that clear in the listings.

[ActiveTraveler]

I don't think I understand your premise: there is no association between cabin location and which dining you select. You can be in E711 and still book Anytime; or be in D509 and still book Traditional. The Traditional dining room is accessible from the entire ship, not just those cabins right above it.

 

That said, the main theatre shows are performed twice, once timed for the first seating and once for the second seating. So that one starts generally about 10/10:15. Occasionally, the show intended for the second seating will actually be timed for before dinner; the Patter will make that clear in the listings.

 

Apparently you missed part of my post. I said the anytime dining rooms are inaccessible from the aft elevators -meaning if you go down the aft lift on Emerald deck, you only can go to the traditional dining room. So to go to a different dining room I would have to first walk all the way down to midship elevators and then backtrack a little bit. Does that make sense?

[Iamcruzin]

To each his own, of course, and we've tried both successfully, but

a) The Princess wait staff is almost universally competent, so having different waiters every night is not a problem for us.

b) waiters are not part of our family, nor are they our friends. We want a friendly but professional relationship

c) Having a set time for anytime dining defeats the purpose of AT dining, we think.

d) Having iced tea waiting for me or coffee brought without my requesting it is of no importance. I'm not in that much of a rut...yet, at least.

e) Yes, there are times when we have to wait for a table, a minor and infrequent inconvenience.

f) Increasingly, we find ourselves eating in the Horizon at night or having our main meal in the DR at lunch. The menu or our willingness to dress properly for the MDR govern our choice. The Horizon menu is frequently best for our taste.

So AT or set time is an individual preference, a choice we made some number of cruises ago.

I am 100% with you on letters A-E.

I would also add that the last time I had late traditional seating (2006) the only nights we had a full table was on formal nights. With all the other dining options now the table was only 1/2 full most of the nights. My tablemates never infromed us the night before that they wouldn't be there the next night. Most of the time it was a last minute decision to eat at a different venue so every night we had to wait to order. I have also found that since I am very active on the roll calls I make friends and it is much easier to make dinner plans if you are scheduled for anytime dining. Last year I sailed with CC members from the previous year and a neighbor and his family. Although we never made formal plans to meet for dinner every night, we always seemed to meet up with someone who was eating at the same time we were and we never ate at the same time each night. I don't think I could go back to traditional unless I was traveling with a large group.

[Astro Flyer]

Then I looked at the Sapphire's deck plans and noticed the cabin I prefer is directly over the traditional dining room, which is not connected to midship (where the AD rooms are). So I thought I need to choose between booking E711 (aft Emerald deck) and TD or D509 (midship Dolphin deck) and AD.

 

So I want to know if late TD would prevent me from watching the shows in the Princess Theater because I certainly do not want to eat early!

When you ask about the 2 cabins in relationship to your dining choice, it's not dependent upon your cabin's location.

 

We usually get late TD & find the showroom to be less crowded than early dining.

 

Apparently you missed part of my post. I said the anytime dining rooms are inaccessible from the aft elevators -meaning if you go down the aft lift on Emerald deck, you only can go to the traditional dining room. So to go to a different dining room I would have to first walk all the way down to midship elevators and then backtrack a little bit. Does that make sense?

From any passenger deck on the Sapphire you can take the aft stairway or elevator to the deck 6 International Dining Room. You may also take them to go to Promenade deck 7 to walk forward to the midship stairway/elevator to access the AD locations on decks 5 & 6 without having to backtrack. The reason the dining rooms are not connected is because the galley is between the TD & AD dining rooms.

 

Hope this helps you make a decision because your questions are confusing to me. :confused:

[FawnRiver]

In posts on this thread I have seen there are 3 time options. I wasn't given 3 options. We are TD @ 5:30 but even if there is a 6:00, that would be better for us. Is 6:00 an option for TD? And if I understand correctly, we can only miss dinner ONCE without loosing our TD time! That's a problem because we have found that on our port days, we almost never made it back on time for dinner.

They won't take your dining time away from you for being late, or doing something else. On our last cruise, we recommended Sabatini's to one of our tablemates and they loved it so much they ended up going twice and they still came back to our table when they weren't at Sabatini's. It is courtesy to let your waiter know, otherwise they will put off serving the whole table to see if you're just running late.

[fl.princess]

We were on the Caribbean Princess last month and chose Anytime Dining. We found it extremely hard to get a table for 2 unless you put in a reservation early for 5:30 or 5:45 (or we were told to try after 8:15). Even then, we were never guaranteed a table for 2 and most nights that we put in the request we were not able to get a table for 2. We were able to get the table for 2 twice on a 9 day cruise...even then the tables are so close to another table for 2 that you felt like you were dining with the other table. I'm not sure if they just didn't have that many or that there were so many people requesting it. We felt by the end of the cruise we were definitely tired of the "cruise talk" with new table mates each night. One plus, if you didn't care for your table mates, you never had to eat with them again.

 

Previously, we sailed on the Diamond Princess with AT dining and I don't recall having this problem.

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

We like anytime

[Twinkstarr]

To the Princess gurus, would like your opinion on my situation.

 

I'm on the 9/10 CB Canada/NE cruise, party of 2, who don't want to sit by ourselves. Do you think we would have a long wait at 7:00pm-7:15pm?

 

We are booked in the really early traditional, I would like to get away from my "at home" schedule which is due to kids sports' schedules. So it's not really a problem, I'd just like to be an "adult" for a week. :rolleyes:

[Iamcruzin]

To the Princess gurus, would like your opinion on my situation.

 

I'm on the 9/10 CB Canada/NE cruise, party of 2, who don't want to sit by ourselves. Do you think we would have a long wait at 7:00pm-7:15pm?

 

We are booked in the really early traditional, I would like to get away from my "at home" schedule which is due to kids sports' schedules. So it's not really a problem, I'd just like to be an "adult" for a week. :rolleyes:

From my personal experience I have never had to wait more than 5 minutes between 7-7:30 as long as I was willing to eat at with others. Usually by midweek we are dining with the new friends we met through CC and are able to fill a table so we get seated right away.

[pakarinen]

Crown Princess page shows TD times as 5:30, 6, and 8:15 in re: an earlier post on available times. Didn't check all ships.

[Gordoncruickshank]

We have only had traditional seating once - with RCCL - and the only time we had a full table was on the first night. One couple moved to sit with friends, one couple didn't reappear (for th whole cruise). Which left 4 of us at a table for 8. We did become great friends but it would have been a nightmare if we didn't get on.

 

We prefer anytime - we can suit ourselves when we eat, and if you have a wait, you get another drink!!

 

Gordon

[Twinkstarr]

Thanks for the info, Iamcruzin and Gordoncruickshank.

 

Considering what I have read about the post-summer Canada/NE, it sounds like we'd be better off doing the later shows, so a bit later dinner would work.

[PumpkinPatches]

Do all the Michelangelo , Botticelli and Da Vinci restuarants have the same menu each night?

[NRG]

Hi,

We have switched to traditional for the first time in years. Our booking comfirmation has us at 6:00/confirmed. We did request a table for 2 and that is not on our confirmation. Does that mean we need to go to the dining room when we board to be sure we have this? We like people but we prefer to dine just the two of us.

Laura E.

 

We do this every time but we like the late seating. We have never had a problem getting the table for 2 although it is not listed on the confirmation. I suggest you either call Princess or your TA(depends on who you booked with) at final payment to make sure they have your request listed. Also, here's what I do....your table number will be on your cruise card. I go to the traditional dining room but NOT to wait on the long line to see the maitre'd, I go into the room and find my table to make sure it is a 2. If not then you can choose to wait on line or you can wait until dinner and see who shows up and work it from there.

[bracket_mom]

We just returned from a week on the Diamond Princess and we did anytime dining. That's the way to go for me. I liked having flexibility for my dinner time. We arrived at one of the four dining rooms between 5:45-6:30 each night and never had to wait for a table. We had a table for two on all but one night when we shared with another couple. When we left the dining room between 7-7:30 p.m. we only saw people waiting for a table a couple of nights.

[caribill]

Do all the Michelangelo , Botticelli and Da Vinci restuarants have the same menu each night?

 

Same menu and same dress code

[texanslovetotravel]

We love late TD and have always made a show. We just don't feel so rushed and the wait staff seem more relaxed knowing we are their last customers. That said, last cruise, we met some great CC friends on board and all having different dining times, all switched to Anytime dining so we could eat together. That worked out well too.

[Cruisin' Chick]

If we do get stuck with anytime again, I'll be standing in line to meet with the maitre'd to get switched to traditional.