First Timer on Princess -- Go With Personal Choice Dining?

[Scotch]

DH and I have only cruised once before, on Royal Caribbean's Radiance of the Seas. Now we're thinking of taking a cruise in August to celebrate our wedding anniversary, and we're lookijng at the Caribbean Princess. Because we'll have our baby with us (16 months old), we're not sure what we ought to do with re dining. If we go with traditional seating, we would definitely do an early seating, which we've been told would be either 5:45 or 6:15 pm. But should we select Personal Choice dining instead? I assume I have to chose that or else we can't eat in those two PC dining rooms? Is the food and service comparable to the traditional seating dining room? Do you have to make advance reservations?

 

By the way, even if we go with traditional seating, we're fully prepared to take our son out if he starts fussing so as to not disturb other diners. And we have already decided to skip the formal nights since dressing up seems too much of a hassle when we've got a baby around. Are the formal nights only for the traditional seating dining rooms or do they include the PC dining rooms?

[CruiseFever]

IMHO you're best off right now getting into Traditional dining if you can. You can always change it to Anytime Dining later. That will buy you time to research and make an informed decision.

 

Anytime Dining has become our preferred method of dining but I look at it as much more than that. It's allowed us the flexibility in our entire cruise experience which has resulted in a much better vacation.

 

Here's an example:

 

On our last Caribbean Princess cruise we met a couple of really nice families standing in line waiting to get on the ship. We all really "clicked" and ended up seeing them and doing stuff with them off and on all week. Activities during the day were lots of fun but at the end of the afternoon on the first day at sea we were all on deck, kids at the pool, adults wasted....er....relaxed! on deck. The subject of dinner came up and we thought it would be cool to all have dinner together.

 

If we had all selected Tradtional Dining the commonly asked question in these situations is "So what seating (early or late) are you?" Often in similar circumstances we'd find that some were in our seating and some were in the other seating and we'd plan as best we could to meet up with them after dinner. Often that was no more than a noble effort as we might be at a show while somebody else was eating dinner. We didn't want to go to the late show after all the seatings were over because the kids had no interest in it (in your case they might be asleep) and/or the adult content that seems to sneak in on the later shows is not appropriate.

 

Now go back to the afternoon and everybody has Anytime Dining. The choice is simple and experience much improved. Now its a matter of when do we want to eat, and where do we want to do it. We can plan a time that works with some event we want to attend and its way easier to coordinate. That's where the flexibility of the whole Personal Choice cruising comes into play and stretches beyond Anytime Dining. In that case it turned out that on of the families had some interpersonal issues that were not a lot of fun so they were easy to ditch too.

 

Before, on other cruise lines, when the only option was Traditional Dining, we framed our evening around the static dining time because it was either that, a buffet, grill item or room service.

 

Often, especially on Formal Nights, we'd leave the pool area or get back from shore in time to start getting ready for the Early Seating Traditional dining we had been assigned and/or asked for.

 

I think you're in for a great cruise and an even better, richer experience if you fully embrace the whole Personal Choice Cruising concept.

 

Formal nights? That's everybody.

[spongerob]

Since you will likely be eating early, it might be best to choose the early seating in the traditional dining room so that you can have a table to yourselves or be seated with others that have young children. I think it would work out better for you having the same waiters each evening. Just be sure to let your waiters know that you won't be doing the formal nights.

[khfadpi]

We did Personal Choice on the CB and just got back from the Zuiderdam where we had a main seating time. Personal Choice wins hands down for us. We never know what we are going to be doing or feeling like. We ate in the buffet 4 out of 7 nights on the Z, not because we didn't like the dining room but because we wanted to eat when we wanted to eat. :cool:

[cherylandtk]

One other benefit to PC dining is that if your youngster is not ready at the assigned time of Traditional early seating, you can just go whenever he/she is. Babies just do not know they are supposed to adhere to the 15 minute seating window of the traditional rooms, and having the flexibility to adjust at the last minute makes for a more relaxed time for Mom and Dad.

 

The food and menus in the Traditional and PC/Anytime rooms are the same.

 

The dress code of the evening is for the entire ship, not only the Traditional dining room. It is also for the PC/Anytime rooms. However, you will see many people dressed casually at the buffet as well as more and more people changing out of formal attire after dining. Most people (~75-90% ?) will be in formal clothes for the entire evening.

[Scotch]

Thanks so much for the replies. I'm really bummed now that we can't get on this cruise because Princess's cap on kids has been reached. One the one hand I am glad to hear Princess has a max for # of kids; on the other hand I wish we were the last ones allowed on as opposed to not being able to book at all. :( I guess we'll have to try Carnival instead, since that is the other line with an itinerary and price range that fits our dates. Bummer.