Opinions on Anytime dining

[ggprincess2004]

DH and I are anytime dining fans. On most ships and cruises, things go fairly smoothly. But, as has been noted in a previous post on this thread, the demographics of the cruise, as well as the route, may impact how anytime dining goes on a particular cruise.

 

The older the crowd, the earlier the preferred time for dining - to generalize. Hence, that would tend to be a longer itinerary and/or a more exotic itinerary.

 

Shortly before 7 p.m. to shortly after 7 p.m. might be the most difficult time to get a table in anytime dining. Many anytime diners are not into the early or late fixed seating dining time options. They like dinner at 7ish. Heavy, demand time on some cruises, but those who were seated at 5:30 to 6 are barely finishing or transitioning to the dessert course at that time.

 

It is possible to call the DINE line and make a reservation for what amounts to an early seating time or later seating time in anytime dining. That assumes you know when you wish to dine that evening. You just might, if there is a particular evening activity or activities that are going guide your decision.

 

Also, anytime dining on the Caribbean Princess is a little more difficult than on the other ships (also the Island Princess now as well) as the dining rooms are the same size as the original Grand Class ships, but there is an additional deck of cabins. The other super-Grand Class ships have additional seating in the anytime dining rooms.

 

Hope that helps.......

[Jetswdo]

My DH and I have generally no problem with just the two of us for any time dining on both Celebrity and Princess. The first time that it was, for lack of a better term, annoying, was on the Coral. We discovered that there are very few tables for 2 in both traditional and any time dining rooms. Many are also in not the greatest locations either. We generally will eat between 6:00- 7:15 ish-

No matter which time we showed up, there was at least a 10 minute wait (not a big deal) but annoying as parties of 4 or more had very little wait for their table. If you eat at 7:30 or later, for a table for 2 it is generally easier because the traditional dining room becomes available, and you can make a dining reservation at either dining room. Anyway, if we were ever to sail on the Coral again, we would do traditional second seating, and on the first day of cruise check to see the location of the table.

[tonyweir]

While you don't get the same waiter or table, it works pretty well. We've never had a long wait (except for the first night).

 

You don't get to build a rapport with your waiter unless you ask for their table every night.

 

On our last Carnival cruise we had a great waiter and team so we asked for his section every night. It was a little longer wait, but well worth it. We noticed the same people in our area every night... They were asking for his section too!

 

The reverse is also true. If you get a team that's not doing it for you, the next night you'll get someone else.

[Steelers0854]

I have a feeling that traditional dining, or at the very least late traditional, will be a thing of the past in the next few years. DW and I very much enjoy the traditional dining but the number of people that show up for late traditional you can probably fit into a small lounge. If half the dining room were full I would be shocked. I don't know how long Princess can sustain with those levels and others either eating in the buffet or in ATD.

 

We are going to move to early traditional as the late conflicts with too many activities. But will always do traditional as long as it's offered. We really enjoy getting to know our wait staff.

[shredie]

I have a feeling that traditional dining, or at the very least late traditional, will be a thing of the past in the next few years. DW and I very much enjoy the traditional dining but the number of people that show up for late traditional you can probably fit into a small lounge. If half the dining room were full I would be shocked. I don't know how long Princess can sustain with those levels and others either eating in the buffet or in ATD.

 

 

It depends on the cruise. The longer ones we have done, there has been a nearly full TD room every night.

[Times Prince]

Just got off a 14 day B2B where we had late traditional for 7 days and Anytime the next 7.

 

The one big thing we noticed was that the waiter team in Traditional had 10 tables to deal with, while the Anytime teams had maybe 4. The result was that Traditional forced everyone to dine at the same rate, often waiting for the next course to be served to the group of at least 5 tables at a time. ( yes we did write this up on the survey ). Service in Anytime was quicker, and more accommodating to the needs of the customers dining, still allowing time for conversation between courses.

 

Our history with many AT cruises is like Pam's - often a wait of 15 minutes or more, especially if we wanted a table for 2. Being diabetic, we often could not wait that long, so it was up to the buffet for us.

 

Speaking of buffet, that was the highlight of dining for us, as Bavarian night was fantastic. So, don't count out the buffet as a place to eat.

[Steelers0854]

It depends on the cruise. The longer ones we have done, there has been a nearly full TD room every night.

 

 

We have found this to be true on both 7 days and 10 days. I would think the majority of the cruises sailed are 10 days or less so I would think that the trends on those cruises would sway the decisions fleet wide. It's too bad too because we do enjoy traditional dining.

[caribill]

U

 

IMHO, Princess does not manage Anytime well in comparison to other lines when I've dined in the equivalent to Anytime.

 

Princess limits the number of people in traditional dining, but not in anytime. And if traditional gets full, the ones that did not make the cut get assigned to anytime.

 

RCCL and Carnival limit the number assigned to their versions of anytime and assign those that do not make the cut to traditional.

 

On a recent Carnival cruise early traditional was full and so was anytime. So over 100 people who wanted anytime were assigned to late traditional at 8:15 PM and were quite unhappy at having to start dinner at that time.

[Tripper10]

Hello all,

 

I'm curious to get people's opinions on Anytime Dining on Princess. Reason I ask is because I'm not a big fan of My Time Dining on RCI. My opinion with RCI is that they don't adequately man their dining rooms in the My Time area and it results in confusion, poor service and a hectic and frantic wait staff. I've seen more than one server in a lather of sweat because they can't keep up. I've been saying for a few years now that RCI needs to poop or get off the pot. Either go all in with My Time (like NCL) or go back to traditional only because this half pregnant thing ain't working.

 

So anyway, I'd like to know what you seasoned Princess cruisers think of Anytime Dining. Does Princess do a good job here? Also, with RCI (one of the few things they do well with My Time) you can request a particular time each night which allows you to tailor your dinner times to the port schedule. Typically you can get the same waiter each night when you do this. Is this possible with Princess?

 

Thanks in advance.

 

We prefer the late seating and not the Anytime dining. Better service and no wait. Just walk in close to 830 with the same waiters who sort of care.

[mrs and mrs]

I would like to ask a genuine question what happens if you have selected atd and one night,you want traditional,what do you do,do you just turn up.

[shredie]

I would like to ask a genuine question what happens if you have selected atd and one night,you want traditional,what do you do,do you just turn up.

 

No. You choose one or the other and stick with it. The cruise answer book says you can switch from one to the other within the first day, but you can't go switching back and forth at will. Traditional diners will be seated at the same table every night, so it wouldn't make much sense to let Anytime people show up and tell them to go sit elsewhere.

[mrs and mrs]

No. You choose one or the other and stick with it. The cruise answer book says you can switch from one to the other within the first day, but you can't go switching back and forth at will. Traditional diners will be seated at the same table every night, so it wouldn't make much sense to let Anytime people show up and tell them to go sit elsewhere.

Cool thanks Shredie,its just that on our last 3 cruises,people have turned up at late trad and been seated,and have told us they had atd and couldnt be bothered waiting.So how are they allowed in.

[labatsman]

Never had a problem anytime with the majority of cruise lines,my wife is Diabetic, so we tend to go early time with ATD ,last time we were on Princess it was kind of new , but still worked out.Only issues we ever had was on RCCL and we had an inexperienced waiter who didn't know what to do when a family did not want us to sit with them. I believe it was an language issue more than anything else. An experienced head waiter saw our problem and immediately sat us at another table.

[shredie]

Cool thanks Shredie,its just that on our last 3 cruises,people have turned up at late trad and been seated,and have told us they had atd and couldnt be bothered waiting.So how are they allowed in.

 

Occasionally, the Maitre D on a ship (and it varies a lot) will bring some ATD diners into the TD room when it is known to him that the table will be empty that night. (Maybe people have told their waiter they had other plans for dinner, or something along those lines.) The ATD people will be escorted in from another dining room by a head waiter. They don't just show up at TD and expect to be seated. This practice does not happen on every ship or every night, but some Maitre Ds do this.

[hansi]

Hello all,

 

I'm curious to get people's opinions on Anytime Dining on Princess. Reason I ask is because I'm not a big fan of My Time Dining on RCI. My opinion with RCI is that they don't adequately man their dining rooms in the My Time area and it results in confusion, poor service and a hectic and frantic wait staff. I've seen more than one server in a lather of sweat because they can't keep up. I've been saying for a few years now that RCI needs to poop or get off the pot. Either go all in with My Time (like NCL) or go back to traditional only because this half pregnant thing ain't working.

 

So anyway, I'd like to know what you seasoned Princess cruisers think of Anytime Dining. Does Princess do a good job here? Also, with RCI (one of the few things they do well with My Time) you can request a particular time each night which allows you to tailor your dinner times to the port schedule. Typically you can get the same waiter each night when you do this. Is this possible with Princess?

 

Thanks in advance.

 

We have over 50 princess cruises under our belts and have done AD on all of them. Apart from a few aoccasions where we have been given a pager, it has been a good experience. We generally eat between 7:30pm and 8pm. Did try TD once but the early one is too early and the late one is too late! The reaon we do it it is for flexibility and if you have TD, you could be stuck with people you don't like for two weeks? Not for us!

[GUT2407]

We like traditional but had ATD last year on a five week cruise, longest wait was first night, mayb twenty before us, but no real wait, other than that most nights straight in, a couple of nights a couple of people to be seated before us, but each taken as soon as the one before them was shown to their table.

 

Never had to wait, never given a beeper, generally ate between 6:30 and 7:30.

[nbsjcruiser]

Just got off a 14 day B2B where we had late traditional for 7 days and Anytime the next 7.

 

The one big thing we noticed was that the waiter team in Traditional had 10 tables to deal with, while the Anytime teams had maybe 4. The result was that Traditional forced everyone to dine at the same rate, often waiting for the next course to be served to the group of at least 5 tables at a time. ( yes we did write this up on the survey ). Service in Anytime was quicker, and more accommodating to the needs of the customers dining, still allowing time for conversation between courses.

 

My impression with Anytime on RCL (which was the reason for my question) is that the waiters in the Anytime MDR have too many tables and as a result have a workload that is too much for them and causes poor service. Hopefully its not the same on Princess. The last time we cruised on Princess there was no Anytime Dining.

[Wishing on a star]

I will chime in here, just from having lurked a lot here, and having done a lot of research.

 

This seems to vary by ship and itinerary. And, it can vary based on different factors.

1. Different ships and the Head Waiters can have slightly different policies and approaches. Many might encourage 'reservations' for ATD. Which really complicates things for ATD diners who do actually show up 'anytime'.

2. Some itineraries, just by nature, will have a different time-table, different demographic, late port intensive days, etc.. So, it could be either an itinerary with an older demographic with a large percentage who want early or traditional, or it could the opposite.

3. It seems that if there are a large number of diners who have signed up for Traditional Dining, they will allocate space away from anytime in order to accommodate this.

4. There do seem to be Traditional Dining passengers who feel that they can walk up and take tables in ATD because 'they want to come in late from port, or see the early show, or just do not want to dine when and where the have been signed up for. Which, again, complicates things for ATD diners.

 

On our next cruise, it is an Alaskan cruise, with an older demographic, with a 50/50 chance that everyone will want to dine early or late, based on port days, and older demographic, etc. I decided that on this cruise, choosing ATD would be a roll of the dice. And have read reports as such. We chose Traditional Late. That way, when we do dine in the MDR, we will have a table and familiar staff waiting for us.

Edited March 27, 2016 by Wishing on a star

[OCruisers]

There do seem to be Traditional Dining passengers who feel that they can walk up and take tables in ATD because 'they want to come in late from port, or see the early show, or just do not want to dine when and where the have been signed up for. Which, again, complicates things for ATD diners.

 

So wish Princess would NOT allow Traditional Diners to do this!

It not fair to those of us who have signed up for Anytime! :mad:

LuLu

[Tripper10]

My impression with Anytime on RCL (which was the reason for my question) is that the waiters in the Anytime MDR have too many tables and as a result have a workload that is too much for them and causes poor service. Hopefully its not the same on Princess. The last time we cruised on Princess there was no Anytime Dining.

 

Unfortunately, I feel that's it's like that's also. Better service with static dining. We generally eat about the same time anyhow around 8ish.

[Cruisin' Chick]

We had AD once, when we didn't clear the waitlist for late traditional We only had a wait a couple of times (for the seven times we bothered for the two-week cruise; the rest of the time we ate dinner at the Horizon) but in all honesty, we didn't care for it at all. One night, after we were leaving, my hubby said he felt AD seemed disorganized and he even felt the waitstaff was rushing us. He agreed me with that one thing we like about traditional dining is that it's an aspect that makes going on a cruise unique compared to other vacations.

 

So I'm hoping that Princess keeps the traditional option available.

 

BTW, whenever we have traditional dining, we have never ever tried to crash anytime dining. If somehow we don't make it to our seating (that's rare), we go to the buffet, no problem.

[exbiologist]

We do anytime dining. I prefer the flexibility and meeting new people. Yes we frequently have to wait a few minutes to be seated because we like to eat around 7, but we are willing to be seated with others, which helps the process a lot. If I wanted tables for 2 only and wanted to eat at 7, I would probably hate it.

[iceleven]

Occasionally, the Maitre D on a ship (and it varies a lot) will bring some ATD diners into the TD room when it is known to him that the table will be empty that night. (Maybe people have told their waiter they had other plans for dinner, or something along those lines.) The ATD people will be escorted in from another dining room by a head waiter. They don't just show up at TD and expect to be seated. This practice does not happen on every ship or every night, but some Maitre Ds do this.

 

Yes, this has happened to us a few times. The Maitre D' knows when a table is not going to be used by a TD guest(s) most any given evening. It's just their way of being efficient and not keeping people waiting.

[greenie082756]

Anytime dining is what we have done with Princess. Like most of the commentators we are satisfied with the way it is ran.

 

Only once have we been given a pager while waiting and that was for about a 20 minute wait. We were not the only ones, so that was okay by us.

 

We usually go to dinner anywhere from 6pm to 7:30 pm depending on what the evening shows will be. We love the flexibility and we do not mind sitting with others. We know that our dinner will take anywhere from 1 1/2 hours to 2 hours to complete.

 

I have timed our meals in restaurants here including waiting without a reservation and it really is faster on the ship to get seated and served.

 

I just went to a restaurant last night. Wait time was 45 minutes. We were seated 65 minutes later. Dinner to be served, about 30 minutes. So its just about the same. :)

[Just_a_cruiser]

I've been quite happy with open dining on princess. I can't say that I've had any problems.