A quick tip about ATD (AnyTime Dining)

[kwagmyre]

I have noticed a recent trend of people not being huge fans of Carnival ATD and stating that this is done better on other lines. As most here know, Carnival has 3 basic dinnertime options: early (6 p.m.), late (8:15 p.m.), or ATD.

 

For our first (and only, so far) cruise, we had ATD. What I noticed was that, if we went, at roughly the same time as a "regular" seating, that service was prompt.

 

However, if we went at an "off" time (like, say, 7 p.m.), things were generally out-of-sync.

 

Even though one area (and waitstaff) was specific to ATD, and others to dedicated times, this still seemed to hold true.

 

My opinion, and this is pure anectdotal conjecture, is that, even if waitstaff are assigned, the galley is not, and is more attuned to a set schedule.

 

So, bottom line, I would recommend that if you are ATD but want to minimize a chance of service disruptions, that it is best advised to go around either the early or late service start times.

 

Again, this is opinion, and based on limited experience, but seems to hold true.

 

And, in anticipation of the "then why bother with ATD at all" replies, I can think of two good reasons:

 

1. It's still nice to have flexibility, even if somewhat limited. For instance, you might want to eat early on a sea day, or late on a port/excursion day. Lots of excursions get back too late for lunch/too early for dinner, you will be hungry, and Guy's Burgers will be calling. (Ask me how I know this. :D) So, have a "snack" at 4, then eat again around 8.

 

2. If you are a couple, or 4 people, you might want to sit alone - much harder to do with dedicated dining. Even if you are travelling as a family, with ATD you might want to split up. For instance, I saw several teens on "dates" who had obviously met each other on the ship, and were doing a summer-love kind of a thing, so they were dining separate from their parents.

[mountainbreeze]

Thanks for this info!!! :) We are trying Your Time Dining on our next cruise, and I do appreciate this info

[Another ship trip]

Your points are well taken about the galley. They need to work on turning plates throughout the night that if that is the case though.

NCL has gotten anytime dining down pat and is excellent at ATD. Princess does it on their biggest ships too.

Having to eat at a set time is the main thing (yes, believe it or not) that has kept us from taking as many Carnival cruises, so ATD is a big factor in our choosing Carnival now. I just hate being told to eat at a certain time. I am not at summer camp or school. Anytime dining fits our vacation schedule. If I want to nap until 6:00 then I can and the whole cabin doesn't have to rush to dinner.

 

On a Carnival cruise years ago, I could not get early seating and late is way too late for me so I ended up eating at the buffet all but one night. Not my idea of a good dining experience on a cruise. Even if I had early, I would probably have only gone a few times since I am usually not ready to eat at 5:45 which was the time on that ship.

 

I will let you know how it goes after we get back from the Magic later in July.

[All4fun&fun4all]

Thank you for the input! We will be trying ATD (or YTD or whatever it is called :p) for the first time on our next sailing.

[GTO-Girl]

We LOVE ATD and always try to get it. We are early eaters so we are pretty much going when the dining room opens and we have no trouble at all getting our table for two.

 

Also if we have a great wait staff we always ask for their area each night. Never had a problem with that request either.

 

Happy Sailing!!!

[HB Cruiser]

We have not cruised CCL yet but will be next May. We have done RCCL version of this and they are very good at getting you in even without a reservation. DW and I are very lax when we cruise and don't like to schedule dinner, like to go when we want. Will CCL be the same way?

 

Tim

[spleenstomper]

For us, ATD was a train wreck-- assembly line dining, rushed, chaotic, stressful. Get 'em in and get 'em out. It reminded me of cafeteria dining.

 

My thoughts from the ship:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1659545

[Jimmy Geegitz]

Trying it for the first time on our next cruise, A little concerned. Good input thanks.

[spleenstomper]

To me, there were some important issues to mention:

 

The way NCL does freestyle is great... You make reservations, so they know who is going where and when.

 

ATD on Carnival is set up to fail, IMO. There is no way for them to know who is going where and at what time. And to me, it isn't even like regular restaurant dining where you just show up. At least when you do that, you tend to get a relaxing dining experience once you get your table.

 

Let's face it, you can't do bistro dining on a cruise ship.... It all needs to be coordinated so that each table in a section is roughly on the same course as the other tables for that waiter.

 

Our waiter, who I'm sure is an excellent waiter under good circumstances, kept forgetting things like our wine, bread, butter, etc. In other words, after the first night, we simply stopped asking for these things and we tried to bend to make it a more go with the flow situation.

 

If you are not a flexible person, I would recommend you do traditional seating. ATD is frustrating for the most flexible of people.

[edmusic]

Your post adds some clarity to our recent experience on Holland America with ATD. We finally gave up after 4 nights in the MDR due to the extremely long time it took for dinner. 2 1/2 hours was the norm and this meant long breaks between app/salad/entree/dessert with the dirty plates remaining in front of us for 20 to 30 minutes at a time. The final straw was the 4th night when we were already at 2.5 hours and the dessert menu hadn't even been brought out yet. We left as we wanted to catch the show. The portions were tiny and quality not what we expected. With service terrible and food not all that, we finally ate the last three nights in the Lido buffet and had much better experiences all around.

 

We're 10 days out from our CCL Splendor cruise and I'm expecting a much better experience than our HAL cruise. Will report back if that is not the case.

[Quilting_Cruiser]

We've had YTD a couple of times and haven't experienced any problems. We've been seated promptly and haven't been rushed or had issues getting our food. We've gone at varying times (never at the same time as traditional seating starts) and the service has been same each time. Maybe we've just been lucky. We'll see--we have YTD on our next three cruises. :D

[WOWGirl]

We went on a 5 day cruise with ATD for 16 people in one party. They always had to split us up into two tables. We waited only 1 time with the beeper and it wasnt even on formal night. The wait that night was about 15 minutes long. This was Triumph in December. It was a WONDERFUL experience. We never waited for food, never did the service suffer. I have tried both late and early. According to my personal experience, I wont go back to early or late. ATD was awesome for us.

[WISH84]

We have used ATD whenever possible and have only had one issue. And guess what, it was when we went to eat in an off time like 7pm (going back to the OP's original statement).

[spleenstomper]

So what y'all are saying is that ATD works best when you use it to switch back and forth between early and late seating, am I right?

[katiel53]

We've done ATD on 2 of our last 3 cruises on Dream. The first cruise was a B2B and we found a wait team we really liked so we asked for them nightly. We always had a wait--sometimes up to 45 minutes. We asked the Maitre D what time we should show up so we don't have to wait as long. He told us 6:30. We showed up at 6:30 and waited half an hour. We asked him again. He told us 6:15. Same story. We asked again, he said 6. At this point we were annoyed that the Maitre D had no clue as to what was going on in his restaurant. We went at 6 and still had to wait 45 minutes. I know if we wanted other servers, we probably wouldn't have had to wait as long.

 

The second week of the B2B we had dinner scheduled. No more ATD. There were 4 of us on this B2B.

 

 

The next cruise it was just DH and I. We did ATD again and this time we weren't particular about our wait staff. We arrived about 7:30 and were seated in a two top in the middle of two other 2 tops that were 6 inches away on each side. We felt as though we had interrupted someone's dinner as both couples were on entrees while we were just ordering appetizers. I realize this is not the waiter's fault, it's the way Dream is built.

 

The next night we went at 8 and asked to not be put in the middle again. We were given seats at the end of the 3 two tops. Once again, others in the midst of dinner when we arrived. I asked on the way out if we could get a booth the next night. The hostess said she would see what she could do. I also asked the Maitre D, who was the same person we had previously. He still didn't know anything about his area of the dining room.

 

The next night we got a booth because it was about 8:30 so there were very few people in the dining room. We got no butter dish, no rolls and poor service. Our waiter took our orders and we never saw him again. The next night we tried again and ask for a booth again as it was late. Got the same waiter. We had a butter dish, but no butter. This time he took our order and brought us the apps and entrees, but never showed up to take a dessert order. We gave up on ATD and ate at the buffet.

 

We are going on Dream again in November and have decided no more ATD on that ship.

I do believe if the Maitre D' is ineffective, so is his staff and this one, to us, is nearly worthless.

 

If we went on another ship, we might try it again, but definitely not on Dream.

[Terre]

Since we've been doing Any Time, Your Time, My Time, etc. we really love it. We have found that we go earlier (6:00 ish) there is no waiting as opposed to going around 7:00ish. It works especially great on port days when we may be a little late returning to the ship.

[Quilting_Cruiser]

So what y'all are saying is that ATD works best when you use it to switch back and forth between early and late seating, am I right?

 

 

That's what the OP is saying. My experience has been different.

[Another ship trip]

To me, there were some important issues to mention:

 

The way NCL does freestyle is great... You make reservations, so they know who is going where and when.

 

ATD on Carnival is set up to fail, IMO. There is no way for them to know who is going where and at what time. And to me, it isn't even like regular restaurant dining where you just show up. At least when you do that, you tend to get a relaxing dining experience once you get your table.

 

Let's face it, you can't do bistro dining on a cruise ship.... It all needs to be coordinated so that each table in a section is roughly on the same course as the other tables for that waiter.

 

Our waiter, who I'm sure is an excellent waiter under good circumstances, kept forgetting things like our wine, bread, butter, etc. In other words, after the first night, we simply stopped asking for these things and we tried to bend to make it a more go with the flow situation.

 

If you are not a flexible person, I would recommend you do traditional seating. ATD is frustrating for the most flexible of people.

 

ATD on NCL is NOT by reservation. You just walk up at any time you want to dine. The only time you have to make reservations is for the "pay for" venues. The MDR is just walk-up. We have done this many cruises since they were the first line to introduce ATD.

[spleenstomper]

ATD on NCL is NOT by reservation. You just walk up at any time you want to dine. The only time you have to make reservations is for the "pay for" venues. The MDR is just walk-up. We have done this many cruises since they were the first line to introduce ATD.

 

Thanks for reminding me. On POH, DH and I only did up charge restaurants. We didn't do dining rooms on NCL, so we had to make all reservations.

[welldone60]

Thanks for reminding me. On POH, DH and I only did up charge restaurants. We didn't do dining rooms on NCL, so we had to make all reservations.

 

We last cruised on NCL on the Star about 9 years ago. As I remember there were two up charge dinning venues then, I think one was $15 and the other was $25.

Thinking of doing another NCL cruise. What type and how much are the up charge venues now. Not sure what ship we will be on yet (not the Epic). Most likly out of Florida.

[SMSACE6]

I have noticed a recent trend of people not being huge fans of Carnival ATD and stating that this is done better on other lines. As most here know, Carnival has 3 basic dinnertime options: early (6 p.m.), late (8:15 p.m.), or ATD.

 

For our first (and only, so far) cruise, we had ATD. What I noticed was that, if we went, at roughly the same time as a "regular" seating, that service was prompt.

 

However, if we went at an "off" time (like, say, 7 p.m.), things were generally out-of-sync.

 

Even though one area (and waitstaff) was specific to ATD, and others to dedicated times, this still seemed to hold true.

 

My opinion, and this is pure anectdotal conjecture, is that, even if waitstaff are assigned, the galley is not, and is more attuned to a set schedule.

 

So, bottom line, I would recommend that if you are ATD but want to minimize a chance of service disruptions, that it is best advised to go around either the early or late service start times.

 

Again, this is opinion, and based on limited experience, but seems to hold true.

 

And, in anticipation of the "then why bother with ATD at all" replies, I can think of two good reasons:

 

1. It's still nice to have flexibility, even if somewhat limited. For instance, you might want to eat early on a sea day, or late on a port/excursion day. Lots of excursions get back too late for lunch/too early for dinner, you will be hungry, and Guy's Burgers will be calling. (Ask me how I know this. :D) So, have a "snack" at 4, then eat again around 8.

 

2. If you are a couple, or 4 people, you might want to sit alone - much harder to do with dedicated dining. Even if you are travelling as a family, with ATD you might want to split up. For instance, I saw several teens on "dates" who had obviously met each other on the ship, and were doing a summer-love kind of a thing, so they were dining separate from their parents.

 

Im not sure about your conjecture, but I will say that the one time I had anytime dining which was September 2010, I did always arive between 6pm and 6.30pm, always was seated with the same great wait staff and at the same table or nearby. Service was excellent, though a little slower than I remember with fixed time dining. I was in and out of the dining room within 1.5 hrs, and once close to 2hrs.

 

I had no problem with the wait staff, nor their speed of service, though, as I have said it seemed slower. I was travelling solo,and seated alone, so no reason to slow down the service. For me this is not a bad thing, as I dont like to rush dinner. Since there is appetizer and soup or salad, then entree and sometimes dessert, I hate to rush that kind of dining.

 

Anytime worked for me like a charm that time, but I did always arrive fairly early and my wait staff knew me and my likes after the first dinner. JMHO.

 

but you could have a valid point!

:)

[pinkdiamonddolly]

Trying it for the first time on our next cruise, A little concerned. Good input thanks.

 

I wouldn't be concerned -yet. I think it depends on the ship your on. We always do ATD and it was fabulous on the Fascination, never had any problems with the service or the food. On the Legend it was awful, I don't really think that's a reflection of ATD I think the food and service on that ship were particularly heinous. Even people with scheduled dining were not happy with 3 hour dinners and cold food. Every experience is different, even on the same ships, just go into it with a positive attitude because you never know. :D

[MrFunInTheSun]

I have noticed a recent trend of people not being huge fans of Carnival ATD and stating that this is done better on other lines. As most here know, Carnival has 3 basic dinnertime options: early (6 p.m.), late (8:15 p.m.), or ATD.

 

For our first (and only, so far) cruise, we had ATD. What I noticed was that, if we went, at roughly the same time as a "regular" seating, that service was prompt.

 

However, if we went at an "off" time (like, say, 7 p.m.), things were generally out-of-sync.

 

Even though one area (and waitstaff) was specific to ATD, and others to dedicated times, this still seemed to hold true.

 

My opinion, and this is pure anectdotal conjecture, is that, even if waitstaff are assigned, the galley is not, and is more attuned to a set schedule.

 

So, bottom line, I would recommend that if you are ATD but want to minimize a chance of service disruptions, that it is best advised to go around either the early or late service start times.

 

Again, this is opinion, and based on limited experience, but seems to hold true.

 

And, in anticipation of the "then why bother with ATD at all" replies, I can think of two good reasons:

 

1. It's still nice to have flexibility, even if somewhat limited. For instance, you might want to eat early on a sea day, or late on a port/excursion day. Lots of excursions get back too late for lunch/too early for dinner, you will be hungry, and Guy's Burgers will be calling. (Ask me how I know this. :D) So, have a "snack" at 4, then eat again around 8.

 

2. If you are a couple, or 4 people, you might want to sit alone - much harder to do with dedicated dining. Even if you are travelling as a family, with ATD you might want to split up. For instance, I saw several teens on "dates" who had obviously met each other on the ship, and were doing a summer-love kind of a thing, so they were dining separate from their parents.

 

We've had a variation of experience. I'd say for the most part your assessment is spot on. Our first experience with ATD was on the Freedom in October 2010. We had 5 of us in our group. For the most part nightly we ate early about the same time as the traditional early seating. Our wait staff that first night was great. We ended up requesting this staff the entire week, we sat at the same table each night. Most nights we'd arrive around the same time and they have our table ready for us. (they had to move two tables together making it into a 6 person table).

 

Cruise right after that, about a month apart I cruised again, on the Imagination, (cruised solo) and did ATD, was pleasantly shocked when the asst matri dee from the Freedom was on the Imagination. Learned she was in training on the Freedom. Made for a pleasant experience to see a familiar face each night in the dinning room. There were times I ate at odd times during this cruise and service was slow eating at odd times compared to traditional times.

 

Three cruises after that did a mixture of assigned late dining then anytime dining. During our November 2011 cruise on the Legend we had 6 people with our group, I elected because of those with us it'd be best to have late night assigned dining. We were afraid the wonderful daily experience we had on the Freedom with ATD might not be duplicated on the Legend. We had a couple people in our group that are a bit particular. We also had a first time cruiser with us and had a particular table and location we wanted them all to experience. (We got same table as first time sailing on the Legend Nov 2009)

 

My next two cruises I've scheduled ATD but solely because I'm cruising solo.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk. Please excuse typographical errors.

[kicia]

We've done ATD on 2 of our last 3 cruises on Dream. The first cruise was a B2B and we found a wait team we really liked so we asked for them nightly. We always had a wait--sometimes up to 45 minutes. We asked the Maitre D what time we should show up so we don't have to wait as long. He told us 6:30. We showed up at 6:30 and waited half an hour. We asked him again. He told us 6:15. Same story. We asked again, he said 6. At this point we were annoyed that the Maitre D had no clue as to what was going on in his restaurant. We went at 6 and still had to wait 45 minutes. I know if we wanted other servers, we probably wouldn't have had to wait as long.

 

The second week of the B2B we had dinner scheduled. No more ATD. There were 4 of us on this B2B.

 

 

The next cruise it was just DH and I. We did ATD again and this time we weren't particular about our wait staff. We arrived about 7:30 and were seated in a two top in the middle of two other 2 tops that were 6 inches away on each side. We felt as though we had interrupted someone's dinner as both couples were on entrees while we were just ordering appetizers. I realize this is not the waiter's fault, it's the way Dream is built.

 

The next night we went at 8 and asked to not be put in the middle again. We were given seats at the end of the 3 two tops. Once again, others in the midst of dinner when we arrived. I asked on the way out if we could get a booth the next night. The hostess said she would see what she could do. I also asked the Maitre D, who was the same person we had previously. He still didn't know anything about his area of the dining room.

 

The next night we got a booth because it was about 8:30 so there were very few people in the dining room. We got no butter dish, no rolls and poor service. Our waiter took our orders and we never saw him again. The next night we tried again and ask for a booth again as it was late. Got the same waiter. We had a butter dish, but no butter. This time he took our order and brought us the apps and entrees, but never showed up to take a dessert order. We gave up on ATD and ate at the buffet.

 

We are going on Dream again in November and have decided no more ATD on that ship.

I do believe if the Maitre D' is ineffective, so is his staff and this one, to us, is nearly worthless.

 

If we went on another ship, we might try it again, but definitely not on Dream.

 

Who was the Maitre d' on the Dream?

[maxandmolly]

I wouldn't be concerned -yet. I think it depends on the ship your on. We always do ATD and it was fabulous on the Fascination, never had any problems with the service or the food. On the Legend it was awful, I don't really think that's a reflection of ATD I think the food and service on that ship were particularly heinous. Even people with scheduled dining were not happy with 3 hour dinners and cold food. Every experience is different, even on the same ships, just go into it with a positive attitude because you never know. :D

 

I had a similar experience on Fascination. Varying times, but same wait staff every night, who knew our names by night 2, as well as our preferences. The one time we had to take a pager, we waited about 15-20 minutes. The staff apologized profusely. That night there was a small plate of goodies in our cabin with a "We're Sorry" card.