Room number requested at anytime dining

[pablo222]

 

You're assuming they were.

 

 

I'm not assuming anything -- I read here constantly, how it is

traditional diners sneaking into the anytime dining rooms that

causes lines.

 

No sneaking in this case -- people simply didn't sign up for traditional.

 

Personally, I had signed up for anytime, and 'snuck' into traditional.

Actually, a waitress alerted me to an empty table at her station, and

I cleared it with the head waiter.

 

I hope that was enough ... I probably should have checked cruise critic.

[Potstech]

I am afraid that there will always be MD's and Head Waiters that will make reservations. I don't see it going away.

 

I can see it go away if enough comments are made to Princess. If corporate says no reservations and publishes it then it would stop right away. Look what happened when enough people wrote them about the waste at the all night buffet on the ships with the International Cafe. Changes can be made BUT it takes the effort of many to do so.

[caribill]

On my last cruise, on Emerald, I sat in late-seating traditional.

 

I noticed the area around me was only about 2/3 full.

I happened to walk to the other side of the ship -- I was very

surprised to see that a big section of the dining room was

not even in use. There were 6-8 stations that were not

even set up.

 

As the stations were not set up, certainly there were no passengers

assigned to those tables, who were sneaking into Anytime.

 

 

Or more likely, there was not a high demand for late traditional on your cruise and nobody had been assigned to those tables.

[icat2000]

I'm sailing next Friday on the Diamond Princess and I just got my cabin allocation. I had booked a guaranteed IF inside cabin and have been given OY (Oceanview Obstructed) C106. Pretty happy with that allocation.

Ooops sorry to the OP. I posted this in the wrong thread.

[Grego]

We always book Anytime and use the HC frequently especially on nights when we want to see the 8:15 show. On formal nights we like to make reservations because we don't mind having a 2+ hour meal and then try for the 10:00 show. Last month we had no problem with the reservation process and will probably do this again next week.

[pablo222]

Or more likely, there was not a high demand for late traditional on your cruise and nobody had been assigned to those tables.

 

Yes, exactly. And, those people were in line for anytime.

No sneaking involved.

[JennCandi]

On Norwegian and Carnival they have always taken one of our cards or asked our room number when we show up for anytime dining. They put the number into computer and ask where the other two people in our room are. We let them know they are at the kids club and they do not dine with us. They now know they will have 2 less at dinner every night and note it in the computer.

 

They also now can address us by name.

[AmberCascades]

Confirmation, tip allocation, special dining requests.

The dining requests are printed out. Good for the galley and waitstaff.

 

This sounds most reasonable. We've always been asked on Celebrity (and the one time we went NCL) and we've never waited longer than a couple of minutes for a table. But somehow they "magically" :) know that my husband is celiac and that he pre-ordered his dinner. I guess that's how they magically know.

 

On our one (and probably only, ever) Princess cruise they never asked for cabin numbers and there seemed to be a two hour wait to get into the anytime dining room. We finally gave up and went for our "anytime" dining anytime after 7:30 (when everyone else seemed to be done with all the dining rooms).

 

If asking for cabin numbers speeds things up then I'm all for it.

[earnied]

Found a waiter on the Royal who had an explanation for them asking for our room numbers at anytime dining. This information is being used to track the workload of the waiters in anytime dining. The waiters have minimum and maximum allocations for number of guests served during their shift.

[caribill]

Found a waiter on the Royal who had an explanation for them asking for our room numbers at anytime dining. This information is being used to track the workload of the waiters in anytime dining. The waiters have minimum and maximum allocations for number of guests served during their shift.

 

That makes no sense to me.

 

Cabin numbers are not needed to track the workload of the waiters. Just count the old fashioned way (1,2,3,4,5,6, etc.) as passengers enter the dining room.

 

If it is the waiters asking, they can just count also.

[FritzG]

I have seen several posts here and in other threads that there is a problem with traditional dining guests using anytime dining, resulting in longer wait times for AD. Is this just anecdotal information or is there data out there that proves this is true? This just doesn't make sense to me, for a couple of reasons. 1. We always select TD, but most cruises we are on a wait list to get it, presumably because it is so popular. In fact the cruise we are taking in August is the first time we got immediate confirmation of our seating selection as we booked very early and wanted late seating. 2. The TD dining rooms are always packed - it is rare to see an empty table or sparsly populated tables. Wouldn't this indicate the TD diners are attending TD?

 

In my observations I don't feel TD diners are the problem with AD lines, more likely it is due to activities and time preferences of AD diners causing certain times to be busier than others. Personally I don't like AD, so don't blame me for your long lines! :-)

 

In our experience with 6 cruises over the last 3 years, the first seating TD dining room often had many empty tables and tables with only a few passengers at them. On three of the cruises we changed tables because we sat alone at tables of 6 or 8 for the first few nights because none of the assigned passengers showed up. Night after night there were tables sitting empty, and yet we met people on tours or in the lounges who told us they were still wait listed for td and no one called them or notified them that tables were available.

Edited March 20, 2015 by FritzG

[FritzG]

We like both Traditional and Any Time dining. Sometimes we are unable to get Traditional dining and end up on a waiting list. This is the case for our upcoming Panama Canal cruise. I would be absolutely thrilled if Princess started enforcing the dining venues so that people who book Traditional don't get to use the Anytime dining rooms. Lots of people who want TD can't get it because it's fully booked but some who have taken those spots decide to eat at Anytime dining instead.

 

I doubt that Princess is going to start enforcing their own rules but it would certainly be nice if they did.

 

This is a major pet peeve of mine, however, from a different perspective. We always book first seating td and have often worked our way down the waiting list. But in the last 2 or 3 years the td dining room is often very empty because td diners are going to anytime dining most of the time. Night after night we've seen many empty tables and larger tables with only one or two couples sitting there. On two recent longer cruises we sat alone at a table of 6 or 8 for a couple of nights until we asked to be moved to a table where the passengers were showing up and had empty seats at their table. On a 5 day cruise at a table for 4 the other couple only showed up one night because they preferred ad. It's pretty lonely sitting alone at a large table while all of the tables around you are talking and having fun.

 

Also we have had conversations with people who wanted td but never got off the wait list before sailing, and no one had ever called them once onboard to let them know that tables were available.

[pablo222]

It's pretty lonely sitting alone at a large table while all of the tables around you are talking and having fun.

 

On the other hand, there are lots of posts here by people

who are anxious to get tables-for-two.

[caribill]

We almost always have traditional dining and I find the following:

 

o Some people come every evening to TD

o Some people come only on smart casual evenings

o Some people come only on formal evenings

o Some people come most evenings, but not every evening

 

So, why are there so many empty tables? I do not assume that all those empty seats represent people who cheated and went to AD instead. Certainly the first evening everybody's cruise card is checked at AD and those in TD are redirected.

 

So, some reasons for the empty tables:

o Many people do eat in the buffet every evening even if assigned to TD. I am often surprised how crowded the buffet can be some evenings. (And some eat there only on formal nights in the dining rooms, some only on smart casual nights.)

o Often seats are empty in TD because the people go to specialty restaurants. Usually this is only for a couple of evenings, but some eat there almost every evening.

 

And the tables where nobody shows up the entire cruise?

o First time cruisers are not always aware of the TD vs. AT options. Their TA may simply ask do you like to eat early or late and then assign them to TD without explaining the AT option. A number of these people may not show up in any dining room the entire cruise.

 

And there has been at least one post in the past on Cruise Critic about people that ate in the buffet every evening because they thought there was an extra charge to eat in a dining room.

[Colo Cruiser]

Some on CC say traditional is full, some say its not full, some say the DR is 1/2 empty. Some say traditional diners don't crash AT dining. Man......

So many different answers. Who to believe?

[caribill]

Some on CC say traditional is full, some say its not full, some say the DR is 1/2 empty. Some say traditional diners don't crash AT dining. Man......

So many different answers. Who to believe?

 

Each cruise has a different passenger population with different wants for dining at dinnertime.

 

Probably all of the above can be believed.

[FritzG]

We almost always have traditional dining and I find the following:

 

o Some people come every evening to TD

o Some people come only on smart casual evenings

o Some people come only on formal evenings

o Some people come most evenings, but not every evening

 

So, why are there so many empty tables? I do not assume that all those empty seats represent people who cheated and went to AD instead. Certainly the first evening everybody's cruise card is checked at AD and those in TD are redirected.

 

So, some reasons for the empty tables:

o Many people do eat in the buffet every evening even if assigned to TD. I am often surprised how crowded the buffet can be some evenings. (And some eat there only on formal nights in the dining rooms, some only on smart casual nights.)

o Often seats are empty in TD because the people go to specialty restaurants. Usually this is only for a couple of evenings, but some eat there almost every evening.

 

And the tables where nobody shows up the entire cruise?

o First time cruisers are not always aware of the TD vs. AT options. Their TA may simply ask do you like to eat early or late and then assign them to TD without explaining the AT option. A number of these people may not show up in any dining room the entire cruise.

 

And there has been at least one post in the past on Cruise Critic about people that ate in the buffet every evening because they thought there was an extra charge to eat in a dining room.

 

On our first Hawaiian cruise we were alone for a few nights. Meanwhile, we met two great couples who had 2 empty seats at their table. It took four nights before the maitre d' (who is no longer with Princess) agreed to call the missing passengers to see if they ever intended to come to the dining room. We finally got seated with our new friends on day 5.