Minnesota Posted March 27, 2005 #1 Share Posted March 27, 2005 :confused: Question?? :confused: I've been on carnival and celebrity before and we have always had a set dinner time. I just booked a cruise for next Saturday (4-2) and my girlfriend picked Personal choice dinning. I've never cruised with Princess so I'm a little worried because I've read that other people have had to wait 20-30 minutes in line. I defiantly don't want this. Should I try to switch? they offered a 630pm and a 830pm? any insight would be helpful. Thank you. ;) Brian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catmand Posted March 27, 2005 #2 Share Posted March 27, 2005 Brian......we have 17 nights on two different Princess ships, we had to wait once for 10 minutes. It just depends on what you want, if you want the flexability of dining between 5 and 10 pm. then you may need to be a little flexable. Most of the waits are for a large party or people that want a table for two...................................try it you might like it. Oh ya, what ship are you sailing? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Minnesota Posted March 27, 2005 Author #3 Share Posted March 27, 2005 10 mins, that's not bad at all. I can wait 10 minutes to be able to enjoy dinner when ever I want. Thank you for the heads up. I will be sailing on the Caribbean princess, I'm pretty pumped because I have only been on 2 other cruises with Carnival and Celebrity. Both had older boats. I’m looking forward to the newer boat. Thanks again for the info. Brian p.s. please disregard my email, I found the thread ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mambopalace Posted March 27, 2005 #4 Share Posted March 27, 2005 I came off the Carribean Princess 2 weeks ago. This ship was sold out - if you had personal choice dining - you waited, and waited for a table. - Probably had a different waiter and table every night. With traditional - same time, same waiter, same table every night. The waiter was outstanding and did more than anyone could expect. Depends on what you want. - I dod know that some people ate sinner as late as 9:45 PM because they could not get in any sooner. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dreamer333 Posted March 27, 2005 #5 Share Posted March 27, 2005 If there is just two of you, there should be no problem getting seated right away! MY DH and I have always done PC dining and the most we ever had to wait was maybe 10 minutes... We just went and had a drink at the bar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Druke I Posted March 27, 2005 #6 Share Posted March 27, 2005 Traditionalist here - we like 1st seating. We are not night people - like to eat early (as at home), take in the 1st show, and off to bed! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IKE Posted March 27, 2005 #7 Share Posted March 27, 2005 We were always Traditonal Seating and were assigned late seating (8:30PM) when We booked Our CP Cruise for 2/26/05. We have heard so many people rave about the new Personal Choice, We decided to switch. So when We boarded the CP, We went and saw the Maitre"D and He told us if You wanted the same time, same table everynight in Personal Choice, you would just let the Dining Room Maitre"d know and He would take care of it for the week. We never waited for a Table for 2 and also met up with 2 nice couples and ate with them on different nights and had no problem getting a table. Maybe We were just lucky. We ate about 8 to 8:30PM every night and enjoyed it very much. Will choose this Personal Choice when We sail again on Princess next year. Loved the flexibility! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ahracer Posted March 27, 2005 #8 Share Posted March 27, 2005 I have never had a problem getting seated right away. The few times I've had to wait it was less then 10 minutes. Scott Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
espmass Posted March 27, 2005 #9 Share Posted March 27, 2005 On my recent cruise with personal choice dining, I was dismayed to experience 20 to 30 minute waits the first two nights. After that we got wise and made reservations. The wait isn't all that bad however as they give you a pager and you can go listen to music or have a drink. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carbon Posted March 27, 2005 #10 Share Posted March 27, 2005 We just booked our first Cruise on Princess (sapphire to Alaska, August 7th). We have done 4 cruises with RCCL. I picked personal choice as I thought the flexibility would be better considering we are in port ill 10pm in Juneau and till midnight in Victoria. Any thoughts?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spongerob Posted March 27, 2005 #11 Share Posted March 27, 2005 Although we prefer traditional dining, I can say that when we tried Anytime, we only had to wait one evening - that was when we met up with others and wanted a table for six during 'prime time'. We normally just asked to be seated with others, and were escorted straight to a table. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
islandbound Posted March 27, 2005 #12 Share Posted March 27, 2005 Minnesota: We just got off the Grand Princess....first time with Personal Choice..in the past we always had 6 pm. Traditional but were waitlisted this time and were placed in Personal Choice. I called the dining room hotline, listed in the cabin phonebook, every day to reserve a 6 pm time for 4 people the next evening. Once I tried for 7 pm but was told that I could only get 6 or 8pm. and that I would have to wait in line for 7 pm when I arrived. Needless to say, we chose 6 pm everynight. We had the same waiter and table on three nights and other tables and waiters on the other nights. Overall, I liked the experience, except for having to remember to call each day for reservations. Have Fun! and Good Luck with whatever you decide! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amapola Posted March 27, 2005 #13 Share Posted March 27, 2005 Just off the Golden today <weep> <sigh>. We had Anytime Dining and loved it, mainly because we wanted to be sure to have a table for two every day, and because we find first seating much too early and late seating too late :rolleyes: . On the first night we walked right in near 7 pm. Next day, which was both a sea day and formal night, we weren't hungry early, forgot to make a reservation, and when we finally went to the DR at 8:30 (imagine!!), we ended up waiting 45 minutes. Didn't mind, because we sat in the atrium and had our own "fashion critic" party :D . Two nights we ate in the Horizon Court, one other night made a reservation and the other 2 nights we waited 10-20 mins. I did find that the quality of service varies a lot depending on the waiters. I agree that you probably get better service with traditional. However, in spite of that I would not trade the flexibility of PC for traditional! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rnjoel Posted March 27, 2005 #14 Share Posted March 27, 2005 Worst case scenario.....you have a 45 minute wait, and have to drink TWO glasses of wine while you wait!!! LOL! Happy Sailings! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
newkim Posted March 27, 2005 #15 Share Posted March 27, 2005 We also got off the CB 2 weeks ago and only needed to wait 10 minutes on the first formal night and we went to dinner at prime time. We always had our own table for 4 without any problems. I do think that the Palm Dining room is less busy than the Coral as it is a bit hard to find. We ate in the Palm every night and most nights by fluke ended up with the same waiters so it was almost like Traditional. We never requested the same waiters it just turned out that there was usually a table in that section. Have a great cruise...I know we did! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wwinfl91 Posted March 27, 2005 #16 Share Posted March 27, 2005 My wife and I first tried PC dining on the Golden in 2003 after we had asked for traditional late dining and ended up with PC. We ended up loving the flexibility that PC dining allowed. We choose it for our next Princess cruise on the Island to Hawaii although we did arrange to dine about half the evenings with other couples we had met on CC. We found that you could get tables for 2 on the nights you just didn't want to go through the normal small talk at a bigger table. On other nights we choose tables for 8 and generally enjoyed the various people we ate dinner with on both cruises. Because you are eating with different people each night, if you want, you don't have to pack as many dinner clothes since no one will have seen what you are wearing on an earlier night. If you find or already have people you want to eat with you can arrange that ahead of time and just all show up at the same time and ask for the table for your party size. Personally I wish other cruise lines would decide to change to this method of dining. But our next two cruises are on RCCL and Celebrity where we will be back into traditional dining. We will be cruising Princess again in 2006 and we will again pick PC dining as our choice for that cruise. Have a great next cruise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2psoki Posted March 28, 2005 #17 Share Posted March 28, 2005 :confused: Question?? :confused: I've been on carnival and celebrity before and we have always had a set dinner time. I just booked a cruise for next Saturday (4-2) and my girlfriend picked Personal choice dinning. I've never cruised with Princess so I'm a little worried because I've read that other people have had to wait 20-30 minutes in line. I defiantly don't want this. Should I try to switch? they offered a 630pm and a 830pm? any insight would be helpful. Thank you. ;) Brian We just returned from a wonderful week on the Grand Princess (3/19-3/26)out of Galveston. We were confused about Personal Choice prior to going on the cruise. We had requested second seating but were waitlisted to PC. The day we arrived on the ship, we immediately went to find a Maitre'.D. We did find the Assistant Maitre'D and he was so helpful. One phone call from him reserved us the same table (in a corner with a window on the water) for the entire week at the time we wanted (8:00PM). We never had to wait. We just walked around the others who did not reserve and went to our table where the Head Waiter (Alvado) and Assistant Waiter (Antonio) greeted us. We had excellent service. We, also, had the same menu as the other Dining Rooms. Now on the flip side of things, we found other cruisers who said waiting was not that terrible. You can change your time to be flexible with YOUR schedule. You may want to eat in one of the other restaurants on board. There are seat outside the Dining Rooms so you can have a leisure drink and conversation while wating. One thing I can say is to just relax and enjoy. Have a great time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psychtobe Posted March 28, 2005 #18 Share Posted March 28, 2005 i just (1 hour ago) booked Princess Sapphire Alaska Aug 28. We are a group of 9 people who want to eat together. We requested traditional dining, late seating. I understood that we can still make alternative reservations in the other restaurants, even if we are assigned traditional seating? And that you can order off the other menus even if in traditional seating? I'll be calling Princess in the AM to get more details, but what are the chances 9 of us could ever sit together if we don't have reserved traditional seating? Can you reserve a table for 10 in the Personal Choice seating? Do you make each night's reservations at the beginning, or only the night before? Arrrghghh! so many questions! Thanks for your help! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ahracer Posted March 28, 2005 #19 Share Posted March 28, 2005 I have always found that out of the two PC dining rooms one may have a wait while the other one doesn't. I don't know why people don't check both of them. Scott Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
threeofus Posted March 29, 2005 #20 Share Posted March 29, 2005 Just got off the Coral and went with the Personal Choice.....If you want a small table you may have to wait. The first formal night we waited about 30 minutes. That was about 7 ish. Those that came later waited 30 minutes just to get a beeper. They weren't even put on the wait list until they got their beeper! They need to work on this The second formal night we got their earlier and were told we would have a one hour wait unless we wanted to join a larger table. We weren't too happy so they came up with plan B---They got us a table in the traditional dining room where a small party had decided to go to an alternate restaurant. You have to be flexible. It's tough because eating later throws off your show plans.... Otherwise we were very happy with the Coral Princess. The food was very good. Ship is beautiful. Staff is great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
agreene Posted March 29, 2005 #21 Share Posted March 29, 2005 I have been on two Princess cruises and have never had to wait with personal choice. It worked out very well for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Shelly97060 Posted March 29, 2005 #22 Share Posted March 29, 2005 I understood that we can still make alternative reservations in the other restaurants, even if we are assigned traditional seating? And that you can order off the other menus even if in traditional seating? If you are in traditional you can't dine in the PC dining rooms ( unless you decide to give up your traditional dining slot). You do get a menu from each of the PC dining rooms along with the traditional menu each evening... so you aren't going to miss any offerings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dreamer333 Posted March 29, 2005 #23 Share Posted March 29, 2005 I think psychtobe was referring to the alternative restaurants. Yes, it is not a problem... you can still make make reservations, however please be sure to inform the dining room so that they are not waiting for you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beachgal Posted March 29, 2005 #24 Share Posted March 29, 2005 I've cruised on Royal Caribbean and Norwegian and prefer the "freestyle dining" on Norwegian. We're looking at possible Princess cruise next year in large part because they have the "personal choice" dining. I'm a little confused, though. Do you still have to dress up at dinner? Does "Personal Choice" just mean you have a choice where and when to eat? If we have to take "dressy" or "formal" clothes, that may change our minds! We personally prefer NOT have to dress up for anything on vacation. Thanks for any input! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cherylandtk Posted March 29, 2005 #25 Share Posted March 29, 2005 I've cruised on Royal Caribbean and Norwegian and prefer the "freestyle dining" on Norwegian. We're looking at possible Princess cruise next year in large part because they have the "personal choice" dining. I'm a little confused, though. Do you still have to dress up at dinner? Does "Personal Choice" just mean you have a choice where and when to eat? Personal choice, on Princess, refers mostly to the time for dining and different/same dining partners. It does not refer to the dress code. Formal nights are still 2 per 7 day trip on Princess. Freestyle cruising, per Norwegian, is a more relaxed overall atmosphere on the ship, including the dining atmosphere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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