Anytime dining - new to Carnival

[Canadian Tyler]

We're taking our first cruise on Carnival, and are debating between early and anytime dining.

I've almost always done early on Royal Caribbean, so curious how anytime works.

 

Do you book times in advance, or just show up?

 

Do you/can you have the same waiter all week?

 

Do you/can you sit with others or are you sat with just your party?

 

Also on Royal Caribbean they had an option for the kids club to pick up the kids from the dining room at a certain time after the kids have ate, then the parents stay for the rest of the meal. Is this an option for the traditional dining times?

 

Thanks!

[h3yitsvictoria]

Following!

[crzndeb]

We're taking our first cruise on Carnival, and are debating between early and anytime dining.

I've almost always done early on Royal Caribbean, so curious how anytime works.

 

Do you book times in advance, or just show up?

 

Do you/can you have the same waiter all week?

 

Do you/can you sit with others or are you sat with just your party?

 

Also on Royal Caribbean they had an option for the kids club to pick up the kids from the dining room at a certain time after the kids have ate, then the parents stay for the rest of the meal. Is this an option for the traditional dining times?

 

Thanks!

 

On Carnival, they don't take reservations. So just show up.

 

If you like a wait staff, you can request to be at one of their tables for the entire cruise.

 

You can dine alone, or sit with others. Your choice.

 

I do ATD and always found it was easy to be seated if you eat early. If you want the same wait staff, there possibly might be a wait if they are popular, but not much.

[KCpumkin]

We're taking our first cruise on Carnival, and are debating between early and anytime dining.

I've almost always done early on Royal Caribbean, so curious how anytime works.

 

Do you book times in advance, or just show up?

 

Do you/can you have the same waiter all week?

 

Do you/can you sit with others or are you sat with just your party?

 

Also on Royal Caribbean they had an option for the kids club to pick up the kids from the dining room at a certain time after the kids have ate, then the parents stay for the rest of the meal. Is this an option for the traditional dining times?

 

Thanks!

 

We were on Dream an showed up when we wanted and had the same waiter all week long. If your group shows up together I am sure the hostess will accommodate if everyone is listed as "your own time" seating...

 

It was VERY NICE!

[mitsugirly]

We have done anytime dining twice now and it was great. We don't like to be set to a schedule. We never know when our "hunger" may strike. :D

 

With that being said...we were just on the Pride last month and (at least on that ship) people would start lining up for the ATD way before they opened. There would be a line a good 1/2 hour before the doors opened and it would get pretty long. If you wasn't in the "upper" part of the line and made it in when the doors opened, you would be sitting around waiting at least for 1 or more hours for the "first round" of people that made it in to finish. We were told on several occasions that if you are not there first, then it's best to show up around 7:30pm or later. By that time there was never a line and you could be seated right away.

 

So that was just our experience. There was only 1 time that we had a wait and was "cut off" before they got to us to sit in the 1st round and we were given a beeper just like you would get at any restaurant. :)

[Bobblefrog]

On our first Fantasy cruise we would ask to sit with others and they never did put us with anyone. On the second we didn't bother to try. The tables are often close enough to talk to others if you want.

 

I guess I think of it like a restaurant - some nights you get great servers and sit by the window to watch leaving port, some nights you get seated by and get to watch the captain show up with his latest "kitty" and then make a big blow over the meal not being to his liking...others you get stuck by the wait station and get miserable and nose in the air service. Rather than try to control it we just decided to look at it like it's always an adventure. And miserable is relative :-)

 

Oh and it might have been his daughter - who knows! But certainly it was an odd awkward half an hour of flurry of anticipating his arrival and he was there all of ten minutes before he and his younger female companion left. Then another half hours of whispering and "fear" among the staff. Yuck. Glad it wasn't our drama.

[IPlayWithString]

We did Anytime Dining for first time last cruise (we'd always been early seating before that) and honestly, we're probably never going back because it seems like we got seated quicker, our food was out quicker and we were never in a hurry to finish up and get to a show like we'd always been before. It was kind of nice. :)

[cruise_mojo]

and your friends come by and make faces at you thru the library windows!:eek:

[not_anna]

We did Anytime Dining for first time last cruise (we'd always been early seating before that) and honestly, we're probably never going back because it seems like we got seated quicker, our food was out quicker and we were never in a hurry to finish up and get to a show like we'd always been before. It was kind of nice. :)

What time do you normally eat dinner at? Mitsugirly says she waited around an hour at times, do you eat early or late? Thanks!