Dining Times vs Show Times

[Sea Green]

Hi all,

 

Im considering a first cruise on Princess. Can anyone confirm that the evening production shows are repeated? I know some lines have only one show and you have to see it BEFORE dinner if you are on late fixed dining, and this would be a deal breaker for me.

 

So if I eat at 08:00-08:30 pm, can I THEN go see the show?

 

Many thanks :)

[paul929207]

The evening shows are normal done twice. The two performances are timed to match up with the two traditional dining times.

[Colo Cruiser]

If you think you will run short on time before the show let your waiter know. You can speed things up a little. ;)

[Moondogy]

I usually do anytime dinning so we don't have to worry about that, along with other reasons.

[skynight]

Hi all,

 

Im considering a first cruise on Princess. Can anyone confirm that the evening production shows are repeated? I know some lines have only one show and you have to see it BEFORE dinner if you are on late fixed dining, and this would be a deal breaker for me.

 

So if I eat at 08:00-08:30 pm, can I THEN go see the show?

 

Many thanks :)

 

First lets address dining times, with each ship being a little different. For traditional fixed seat dining Princess normally has a very early seating at approximately 5:15 or 5:30 then the regular seating at 5:45 or 6:00. Late seating is normally around 7:45 or 8:00 but can be as late as 8:15. In U.S. based cruises late dining is not as much in demand as early times. Anytime Dining is also available, but has a different dynamic and a lot depends on the ship, the itinerary and the passenger demographic.

 

Now the shows. This really depends a lot on the ship and the Cruise Director. On most ships two to four different production shows will be shown (depends on the length of the cruise) with each show being shown twice that evening, normally in the 8:15 and 10:15 time slots. The time slots are shifted early to times like 7:00 (pre-dinner), and 8:30 some evenings. This mostly occurs when there is something like a deck or atrium party scheduled for the 10:00pm time slot. I have also seen evenings when the shows are run three times, but this is not the normal. There are also guest entertainers and their show times are roughly the same. Although some comics have later shows. On ships that have two show lounges, such as the Royal and Regal there can be different shows going on at roughly same times in the different venues. No matter when you dine you can make the shows. Those that dine late will not easily be able to make some of the Cruise Director activities such as theme nights and other CD entertainment going on in the 9:00 /9:30 time frame.

 

In general the 8:00 time frame shows are difficult to get into, and you must arrive way before show time. For later shows there are usually lots of empty seats.

 

Hope this is helpful.

[trabeler]

Are any ships still doing three show times? On the Emerald last November, the production shows and guest entertainers had shows at 7 pm, 8:15 pm, and 10:15 pm each evening. This significantly reduced the overcrowding of the early show when there are only ~8 pm and ~10 pm shows. We were told that this was a trial of a new schedule to help reduce overcrowding and spread out the crowd to allow attending other activities in the 8-9 pm timeframe.

 

We were on the Star a few weeks ago and they only had two shows each evening, but the first show was always standing room only and all seats were typically filled at least 15-20 minutes prior to showtime.

[caribill]

Are any ships still doing three show times? On the Emerald last November, the production shows and guest entertainers had shows at 7 pm, 8:15 pm, and 10:15 pm each evening. This significantly reduced the overcrowding of the early show when there are only ~8 pm and ~10 pm shows. We were told that this was a trial of a new schedule to help reduce overcrowding and spread out the crowd to allow attending other activities in the 8-9 pm timeframe.

 

We were on the Star a few weeks ago and they only had two shows each evening, but the first show was always standing room only and all seats were typically filled at least 15-20 minutes prior to showtime.

 

Going to performing a 30 minute show three times (90 minutes total) from a 45 minute show two times (total 90 minutes) was the Princess excuse for cutting all shows (production and also entertainers) to 30 minutes. The justification was to have more people able to see the shows.

 

If Princess is now just going to do two 30-minute performances an evening, that is a big disappointment.

[Sea Green]

Many thanks to everyone for your replies. I had visions of having to rush to everything early evening and then being bored, but it seems that's not the case :)