How convenient is Anytime Dining?

[edgee]

We have not been on HAL for 4 years. Are considering one of the Signature class ships. We prefer to eat early, but not as early as first traditional dining seating. When we were last on HAL we were frustrated to find that reservations for Anytime dining could only be made a day or two in advance and that only available times tended to be before 6:30 or very late. Is it now possible to book with a wider choice of times (eg. 7:00 or 7:30) or, if not, is there usually a more than minimal wait for Anytime diners who show up for dinner without a reservation? Would appreciate any advice on this.

[scdreamer]

On our last HAL cruise, we had Anytime Dining and arrived to have dinner about ten or fifteen minutes before the fixed late seating time. There was a 45 minute wait our first evening - so we switched to fixed seating and were taken right in. Luckily for us, we had great table-mates for the entire cruise, and were happy ending up with the set dining time.

[doublebzz]

HAL initially had some problems with the their roll out of anytime dining but, for us over the past year, it has worked fine, particularly it if you don't mind sharing a table. We generally dine between 7 and 7:30 and have been seated immediately during our last two 14 day cruises on Eurodam and Nieuw Amsterdam.

[flatcircle]

We always book Anytime Dining. Since DH and I are fine with sharing a table, we rarely need to wait. The only time that we made reservations was last Christmas when we were traveling with a group of 10.

Enjoy your cruise!

[SeaBands]

6:30 or 7 pm.For this months cruise We have a Neptune cabin so I hope the concierge has some pull for it.

Edited November 5, 2013 by SeaBands

[sapper1]

We tried anytime dining for the first time during the second portion of our last cruise. We just turned up at 7:30 and were seated promptly with a table for two never a problem if that was what we requested.

 

It was nice to be able to dine in the Pinnacle, Canaletto or the Lido if we chose to do so, without advising table mates or waiters. We just did what suited us. We have decided to continue with anytime dining on future cruises.

[Lady Chew]

We've done MTD on all of our HAL cruises, except for our Grand Voyage on Amsterdam, which didn't offer it. We've never made a reservation, and the longest we've ever had to wait was maybe 10 minutes, when we had a group of 6. With a group of 4 we've never had to wait, just the two of us we never wait. We have frequently gone right by people waiting for tables for two, since we are willing to eat with others or by ourselves, whichever is available first.

We prefer to eat in the 7/7:30 range.

We've also done MTD on Royal C's ships, no reservations & no waiting.

[KirkNC]

I don't think we have ever waited more than 5-10 minutes for anytime dining and usually are seated right away. We do go early, 6-6:30 usually. We have never made reservations as that seems to defeat part of our reason we like open seating, we get to sit with different cruisers each night.

[Typhoon1]

It's the best. You don't have to be at the MDR between any set hours, and if you were late, sometimes the doors were closed.

 

This gives you flexibility to show up and be seated at your leisure. Be warned, if you arrive at a peak time, you may be waiting for a table.