Anytime dining Vs Traditional dining

[I-love-cruising]

Dear fellow cruisers,

 

Does anyone know if the menu between the "anytime dining" and "traditional dining" are the same? or does the "traditional dining" offer better menu items?

 

Thank you !

[wineforhealth]

Both are the same

[Pam in CA]

Does anyone know if the menu between the "anytime dining" and "traditional dining" are the same? or does the "traditional dining" offer better menu items?

Exactly the same as is the dress code. Main difference is dinner time and getting to know your waitstaff.

[OCruisers]

No difference in the menus and dress. The great thing about Anytime is you aren't on a set schedule and can have dinner anytime you wish. :)

 

LuLu

~~~~

[satxdiver]

Only difference is that the TD is in two of the MDR rooms and one is dedicated to ATD. They do split one MDR with the first times for TD and then they use it for ATD. Menus as stated is exactly the same as is the dress code.

[iceleven]

If I had to decide between "knowing my waitstaff" or having the freedom of eating when I choose to, well, I'll always take the latter. Seven to 14 days of traveling ( to me) is more about the freedom. It's a lot more important to me to have this freedom than having a waiter "know" what I want on an menu.

[Cruise_me_Crazy]

We loved our waiters and found their service a highlight of our cruise. I had breakky once in the mdr and wasn't served by them. I sulked until at least the 3rd breakky course :D due to missing them!! Ha ha!

 

We are very disorganised travellers. We struggled daily to make the late sitting, and if we had anytime dining would end up missing out & eating in horizons every evening at 9pm onwards!!!:o So for us, loved having a targeted time to meet! We needed the push! Other dining companions hated the restrictions and as such concluded that cruising wasn't for them.

We did find that the 3.30pm chicken burger n chips seemed to tie us over just fine!!!;)

[Cruzman]

If I had to decide between "knowing my waitstaff" or having the freedom of eating when I choose to, well, I'll always take the latter. Seven to 14 days of traveling ( to me) is more about the freedom. It's a lot more important to me to have this freedom than having a waiter "know" what I want on an menu.

 

Can't disagree more! It's kinda like a lover who knows what you like before the event. There are those who prefer to be surprised, however.

[Cruise_me_Crazy]

Cruzman, I agree. The waiters knowing your likes and dislikes helps makes our trip. I loved hearing hubby being called Sir Anthony after day 2 :). Our waiters were delightful, and we looked forward to catching up with them each evening!

[baggal]

You CAN have the best of both worlds. If you find a waiter you like in anytime dining, you can request to be seated in his/her area.

[Cruise_me_Crazy]

Thanks Baggal. That is good to know. :)

[jetstorm]

My family just returned from the Dec. 21st cruise on the Crown. We had anytime dining but made reservations each morning for whatever time our group of six decided fit our schedule for the day. After the first couple of days we found the best waiters ever and requested their table (table 209 in Michalangelo dining room) every night as we entered the dining room. We were always seated right away. In case their table number happens to change, ask for Sandy and Alberto's table. Just be careful or you may end up with much more food than you asked for. By the way, if there are others that don't care for some of the fancier foods, like me, try the spaghetti with meatballs and the meatloaf. You can get the spaghetti any night if you ask. Try it for an appetizer too. We also requested escargot early on the first night of the cruise for those who wanted it and it was prepared for us on the second night. It is on the dinner menu the second formal (lobster) night.

[PrincessLuver]

Dear fellow cruisers,

 

Does anyone know if the menu between the "anytime dining" and "traditional dining" are the same? or does the "traditional dining" offer better menu items?

 

Thank you !

 

The big plus we have found with anytime dinning is that you get to meet so many other wonderful people instead of being seated with the same people at every seating. We tend to take 20+ day cruises so I would not want to subject someone to me for that long everyday.

 

I also think that a big problem that Princess has with anytime dinning is that it allows reservations which defeats the purpose of people who want to dine anytime because often the dinning room tables are reserved by people who have made reservations. Sometimes you will have to wait in line because most of their tables have been reserved. Seems to me they should be referred to traditional dinning. :)

[Stevesan]

]The big plus we have found with anytime dinning is that you get to meet so many other wonderful people[/b] instead of being seated with the same people at every seating. We tend to take 20+ day cruises so I would not want to subject someone to me for that long everyday.

 

I also think that a big problem that Princess has with anytime dinning is that it allows reservations which defeats the purpose of people who want to dine anytime because often the dinning room tables are reserved by people who have made reservations. Sometimes you will have to wait in line because most of their tables have been reserved. Seems to me they should be referred to traditional dinning. :)

 

And you can repeat the same stories and jokes.:p

[MauiLvrs]

... The great thing about Traditional is you are on a set schedule and know exactly when and where dinner is :cool: and never have to wait in line... ;)

 

 

Here is a photo of folks not waiting in line to get a pager to get paged to be seated at 7pm...

20131019_191900 by MauiLvrs, on Flickr

Edited December 30, 2013 by MauiLvrs

[JimmyVWine]

Cruzman, I agree. The waiters knowing your likes and dislikes helps makes our trip.

 

I find the element of familiarity to be highly overrated. The waitress at my local greasy spoon might know me by name and know that I prefer olive oil to butter with my bread. But that does not mean that I will get better service or have a better meal than at the local four star restaurant where I will be served by someone whom I have never met. And the element of familiarity has two sides to it. It can be great if you have a teriffic waitstaff and get to enjoy their company for an entire cruise. But this assumes that every server is top notch. If you draw someone from the bottom half of the pool, then you are stuck with mediocre/poor service for the duration of your cruise, or else you will have to find a way to move to a different table. I have found TD to result in kindness, familiarity and friendship, all of which are good things. But I have never found that these things elevate my enjoyment level as far as the meal is concerned. When I think about the best 50 meals I have ever had, or, more to the point, the top 50 service experiences I have ever had while dining, all of them occurred at places where the servers had never met me before.

[ssantow]

Another advantage of anytime dining is that you are not rushed. First seating is being rushed out to get ready for second and second seating is getting rushed out to clean up and close down dining room.:D

 

In addition you are not rushed getting back from shore tour to get a shower and dressed for dinner if you are on first seating.:)

 

Finally anytime dining can choose which show in the main show room to see. Choose the first if you want dinner after, or the second if you want dinner before the show.;)

 

A final problem with traditional dining is getting stuck with the "table mates from heck" and little or no chance to switch tables.:(

[negc]

Doesn't the very fact that they so frequently use beepers in Anytime Dining give a bit of a lie to the concept that you "can have dinner whenever you wish"?

On other lines it seems that the wait for a table in their version of Anytime Dining when a guest just shows up is usually less than five minutes and no beepers are available or required. And it is still possible to get the same servers each and every evening if that is your wish.

[Potstech]

on a the cruises I have been on I only got the beeper one time. That was on a formal night and 6 of us waited until 6 to try and get a table. Then we only waited about 10 minutes. Not as prevalent as some would think.

[Cruisin' Chick]

A couple of cruises ago, we had anytime dining and decided we didn't care for it at all. After a week, my hubby said he felt like the waitstaff was rushing our tables each time, a couple of times we were placed at a table at which those seated had already ordered (which meant a lot of awkwardness when it came to courses), and as my hubby said after our cruise, "it wasn't special." It was the same as with going to any restaurant back home (aside from the being seated with others, that is).

 

We enjoyed eating on our most recent cruise, having the same waitstaff. I even had a running joke with my waiter about not wanting pepper.

[Cruise_me_Crazy]

We did the late dining & struggled to be out by 10.15pm most evenings. We never felt rushed, and toddled in at 7:45 / 7:50 to be greeted by a slew of waiters each evening.

 

We had other waiters show us their tricks as our waiters called them over at the end of the nightto share their magic!! The white coats pretty much left us alone which was our preference. ;) The food we had was more than enough. We all got additional lobster & muscles, as well deserts. The baked Alaskan was one whole dish between us 6+ Individual deserts as well. Most nights we had additional deserts thrust upon us :D

 

Whilst I have nothing to compare it to, other than 5 star land restaurants,I loved it & would opt for traditional dining - late seating again over anytime dining based on this experience.:)

[Cruise_me_Crazy]

Being herded in like cattle & making polite small talk about my employment, family & travelling experiences every single night to a bunch of fresh faces does not interest me at all! :) I totally get it's personal preference, but we lucked in with our dining companions & our waiter. Perhaps if we had duds for either or both my thoughts would be different!:)

[Raring to go]

As someone mentioned earlier, we were able to call each morning and request a table at a particular time with ATD. We never had to wait, and once we found a table that we liked, we requested that same table each night.

[MauiLvrs]

Cruzman, I agree. The waiters knowing your likes and dislikes helps makes our trip.

 

Us too...

 

An observation from AT dining experience on our last cruise...

 

It seemed that the wait staff was having a very difficult time maintaining any organized flow as all of the tables that they had were at a different stage of the meal.

 

There seem to be a number of complaints on CC about the level of service sometimes being at a lower level in AT compared to traditional. I'll put forward that it is a symptom of AT just as the strange show schedule is.

[Holomoku]

We have been AT for quite a few cruises now, since the last time in TD we had the table for 6 to ourselves most nights.(I even took a shower before dinner??) In AT we just say two to share and usually get a 6 or 8 round, but once in while a 10 oval that really makes conversation hard. We really like meeting so many great people in AT rather than just being there with the same other couple each evening and empty chairs. Our next cruise is 25 days so too long to be lonely each evening. Anyway, AT with 6 or 8 is for us.