Your time dining or traditional?

[sgttami]

I did ATD on Splendor on my September cruise for the first time and I will never do anything but! NEVER waited on line and went at all different times.

 

Looking forward to it once again next week.

 

Just as I don't eat at the same time at home every night I never liked that rushing to dinner for traditional dining and sometimes wasn't even hungry (especially early seating).

 

I don't mind being at a different location with different waiters either.

[travel girl23]

This is obviously a personal choice. We have no interest in anytime dining as we dine early at home so early dining is our choice. Also, we enjoy meeting other people and like sitting with them every night. Also, we like having the same waiters every night. We have seen the lines for anytime dining and just have no interest in it. We will always keep traditional dining. Again, this is a personal choice of ours. JMHO.

[mzlinda]

I've done both and prefer a set dining time. We tried YTD on the Breeze in january. They tried to seat us in the same area with the same server every night but that's not always possible. Out of 5 nights, we sat at 3 different tables and we had 2 different sets of waitstaff. As a result, I found the service to be pretty impersonal. The service was fine - prompt and our food came out right but it was just like eating at a nice restaurant back home where your waiter is very good but you know you'll probably never see him again. We usually went at around 7 and only waited 1 night and only for about 10 minutes, so waiting wasn't an issue but we didn't get the personalized service that we've come to expect from carnival. Also for me personally, it's better if I know I need to be in the dining room at X time. I can plan accordingly. On the 2nd formal night on the breeze, we opted for the lido buffet but without a set dining time, we couldn't seem to get our act together to get there until it was way too late to bother eating.

 

I'd say that if flexibility matters to you, give YTD a try but if you want the same waitstaff over and over, stick with traditional dining.

 

 

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[sapphire_407]

On my last cruise when walking to my table I saw a LONG line of people waiting to be seated and made up my mind then I would never try YTD. Also, I like having just one glass of wine with dinner, my waitperson will take my corked bottle and bring it to me each night. One reason I prefer to stick with the same wait staff.

[bonnie&clydecruzers]

We love YTD. We hate having to eat on a schedule. Sometimes we get back from port hungry so we will go to the MDR early but sometimes we have a super late lunch so then we can go to the MDR really late. The only negative is sometimes there is a wait at the MDR so they will give you a beeper, then it will buzz when your table is ready. Our average wait time was 15 minutes last cruise. But it is worth the wait for us to go the MDR when we are actually hungry.

 

My opinion is it just depends on your lifestyle. If you always eat dinner at 6pm in your daily life, then just get traditional dining. If your normal dinner time is more fluid, then you will enjoy YTD.

[bonnie&clydecruzers]

I would like to mention something I took note of on our cruise last week on the Imagination. Some people mentioned the YTD service being impersonal. Well out of 4 nights we had 3 different wait staff and all 3 head waiters asked for our names when we ordered and proceeded to call us by our names. That is a first for us as on other ships during YTD we were never asked for our names. I liked this extra personal touch.

[Arizonagirl14]

Thanks for your info b&ccruisers. I appreciate all the responses. We too do the same thing and often feel rushed to go to traditional dining, so that is initially why we signed up for the flexible option.

 

We are going into all the ports so I think we are sticking with the YTD. If we don't enjoy it, we will know next time to book the traditional! In just started second guessing myself as the cruise is nearing. No matter what our dining experience is, it will not control how much fun we have on this cruise.

 

 

 

 

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[Arizonagirl14]

I would like to mention something I took note of on our cruise last week on the Imagination. Some people mentioned the YTD service being impersonal. Well out of 4 nights we had 3 different wait staff and all 3 head waiters asked for our names when we ordered and proceeded to call us by our names. That is a first for us as on other ships during YTD we were never asked for our names. I liked this extra personal touch.

 

 

I understand about "getting our act together". We have skipped the main dining room before just because it wasn't our thing on a given night. No matter which seats vs any of us take, it it does work out one night we certainly won't starve in a cruise. There's always some place to eat.

 

 

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[JimAOk1945]

We have always enjoyed the flexibility of YTD. It allows us to "go with the flow" and be spontaneous. We have never had a problem getting a two top.

Edited October 19, 2014 by JimAOk1945

[floridabum]

past 4 cruises we have done YTD and love it. You can sit with others or ask for a table for two. Sometimes we will sit with others and there is times we don't feel like doing the small talk thing and we will ask for a table for two. For us, we have waited 5 minutes max on all the times we have used YTD. We don't always get to see the waiters sing and dance but thats ok, not a big deal for us.

Try it, if you like it you like it and if you don't like it atleast you can say you did it.

[bonnie&clydecruzers]

Thanks for your info b&ccruisers. I appreciate all the responses. We too do the same thing and often feel rushed to go to traditional dining, so that is initially why we signed up for the flexible option.

 

Just a quick suggestion on YTD., If you like to watch the waiters dance ask them the night before what time they dance so you can be in the MDR while they put on the show.

We are going into all the ports so I think we are sticking with the YTD. If we don't enjoy it, we will know next time to book the traditional! In just started second guessing myself as the cruise is nearing. No matter what our dining experience is, it will not control how much fun we have on this cruise.

 

 

 

 

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Good choice. I honestly believe you will love it. It offers alot of flexibility especially on port days. Have a great cruise.

 

Just a quick suggestion on YTD, if you like to watch the waiters dance ask them the night before what time they put on the show so you can be in the MDR during that time.

Edited October 19, 2014 by bonnie&clydecruzers

[cruzinlisa]

I always book your time dining when traveling with DD. I like the flexibility of not having to eat at the same time every night. But that is not my main motivation. We usually do not take our DD with us to the MDR. We either take her to the buffet to eat and then camp, or she eats with Camp Carnival. As a matter of fact, in her last 12 cruise days, DD ate in the dining room once for dinner, twice for breakfast and twice for brunch. We always give her the option of going with her, but she does not want to (she is 3, its boring for her) If we had traditionally dining, we might be seated with a family with small children, which defeats the purpose of dining without our DD. Its not that I mind dining with children, obviously I have a DD and we take her out with us nearly everywhere. But when I am dining with my DD, there is a lot of entertaining her, wiping up spills, cutting up her food, telling her to eat, her wanting my dinner instead of hers, telling her to put the other place settings back, etc. If I were dining with others I would like a chance to have some adult conversation without having to constantly stop.

 

If DH and I travelled alone, I would probably book traditional dining- late. Traditional dining is nice because you get tablemates and you get consistent wait staff. I know that you can technically request the same waiters every night in anytime dining, but we have yet to find any waiters that we actually liked. I feel like if there was someone that knew they would see us every night, they might try harder. Or maybe the waiters in ATD are just not as good. I don't know. I just have always felt like the service was the bare minimum, unlike the cruises I have done with fixed dining times.

[Arizonagirl14]

Thanks for the info a out the waiters' entertainment.

 

 

 

 

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[fmrlkr]

DH and I ahve been doing ATD since it has been offered on Carnival. It gives us the flexability to eat when we want which always varies. Some nights we want to dine with others and tell them we are willing to share. Some nights one of us (DH) is grumpy and we ask to sit alone. There have been time we have met someone on the ship and we have all met and shared a table that night. When we participated in set time dining, we had more bad experiences with tablemates than good ones which is really why we started ATD. Everything everyone else is saying I would agree with so give ATD a try to see if YOU like it.