Fix Anytime Dining

[wineglass]

We have cruised more than a dozen times and have always chosen Traditional early dining. On the majority of those cruises, we were seated in one of the anytime dinning rooms by the ship's staff. So we were not going were we did not belong, but to where we had been assigned. There were occasions where we returned from the shore too late to meet our scheduled dinning time. In those incidences, we chose to eat in the buffet. In anytime dinning they fit you in where they can, which often results in a wait, just like in a restaurant anywhere on land. Dropping the option to make a reservation increases the chance you will have to wait. Don't know why they did that, you should ask Princess. I know we tried anytime once, many years ago because the ship had dinning rooms with ethnic-based menus, i.e.: Oriental, Italian, etc. and we were required to call for a reservation each night unless we made arrangements the prior night to return to the same restaurant. I actually liked that arrangement, but they dropped it at least 10 years ago.

[diane.in.ny]

Very interesting replies to my post.

 

I have to admit I don't remember seeing the TD room as empty as others have experienced. But if that is more the case than not, perhaps a solution would be to split the TD room and make half TD and half ATD.

[Coral]

Very interesting replies to my post.

 

I have to admit I don't remember seeing the TD room as empty as others have experienced. But if that is more the case than not, perhaps a solution would be to split the TD room and make half TD and half ATD.

 

I haven't either on my cruises - I prefer TD. It is usually packed full.

[moki'smommy]

So, guess we are the exception to the rule since DW and I love Select Dining. But we have often felt sorry for those doing Select who want to dine at prime times (between 6 and 7:30). For those of us who prefer to dine after 8, and enjoy sharing large tables...there is seldom much of a line or wait.

 

Hank

 

I'm not sure what line you are on....Princess has Traditional Dining and Anytime Dining. I don't know who has "Select Dining."

[Kinkacruiser]

We have come back too late to make our assigned seating time. We ate in the buffet, or on Lido deck. On some ships you can also go to Alfredo"s.

 

If you aren't singed up for anytime dining then don't "crash" it.

 

I agree. Who wants to fuss with ATD after a long day? The buffet is a perfect alternative for us. I also hope Princess will start to check cruise cards and advise all passengers upon embarkation that this procedure will be in place.

[shredie]

Very interesting replies to my post.

 

I have to admit I don't remember seeing the TD room as empty as others have experienced. But if that is more the case than not, perhaps a solution would be to split the TD room and make half TD and half ATD.

 

This is already done with early TD. One dining room is TD until about 7 when it becomes ATD. One dining room is all TD, and one is all ATD. I'm not sure how you could see if the TD room was empty or not since you seem to be crashing ATD. One thing is sure: your TD table is empty. You don't seem to be aware of how things are done on Princess.

Edited September 25, 2016 by shredie

[Cruisin' Chick]

As someone who prefers late traditional dining (we absolutely hated the one time we didn't clear the waitlist and half the time of our 2-week cruise just went to the buffet), we always respect the system and wish other traditional diners did too (and that would mean notices in the Patters and in the pre-cruise emails and those at the door checking cards). If for some reason we miss our seating, we go to the Horizon Court and eat. Not a problem for us at all.

 

But don't forget that many in that line with you may not be traditional diners "crashing" the anytime DRs -- it could be that you selected a popular time to go eat.

[shredie]

 

But don't forget that many in that line with you may not be traditional diners "crashing" the anytime DRs -- it could be that you selected a popular time to go eat.

 

Exactly! We traditional diners don't appreciate getting the blame for the ATD problems, and it doesn't help when the one (or two) TDs who do crash come on here and brag about it.

[Bruin Steve]

I am glad that some of you here who take traditional dining don't abuse the Anytime rooms. But, if you really think that only a small few traditional diners do, then I am afraid you are terribly naive. So many times I have been seated with tablemates who have flat out and unabashedly admitted to having Traditional dining but either missed their seating or didn't want to wait for their seating...

 

But, it does bring us back to the solution: ENFORCE the assignments. It won't affect you that respect the assignments. And it WILL fix a lot of the problems the rest of us see. Yes, there may still be SOME waiting...say if too many people show up at 7:30, for example...but even that will be far more manageable.

Again, ask why the same issues DON'T exist on Celebrity? Because, unlike Princess, they check IDs at the door and enforce the assignments.

[toberman]

 

But, it does bring us back to the solution: ENFORCE the assignments. It won't affect you that respect the assignments. And it WILL fix a lot of the problems the rest of us see.

 

WHAT??? Princess actually Enforcing their own rules? I'll be a happy dog when that starts to happen.

[pablo222]

It's very easy to control, require a cabin card which states your dining assignment and refuse to allow those that are traditional into anytime.

 

You will thus ensure that far fewer people will sign up

for traditional, making your problem even worse.

 

Regardless, this was a 3-night cruise, and on short cruises,

people don't sign up for traditional, so there will be problems

with anytime.

 

I have read about this issue with short cruises here, many times.

It is consistent with my experience.

[Pudgesmom]

There isn't anywhere that can seat every person at the same time. You have to realize that if enough people show up to eat by 6:00, they're not going to be able to seat anyone else until the first people who showed up are done at around 7:30. That's not Princess' fault, that's math. Just like at a land-based restaurant.

 

First part of this is not true. If the ship has enough seats for all of the passengers, everyone can eat whenever they wish and not wait. We travel on Windstsr which has an open dining policy. Usually there is no wait for a table, sometimes a few couples just waiting to be seated. Several other lines have this as well, including most if not all of the upscale lines.

[diane.in.ny]

I'm not sure how you could see if the TD room was empty or not since you seem to be crashing ATD. One thing is sure: your TD table is empty. You don't seem to be aware of how things are done on Princess.

 

Your comment is blatantly uncalled for. I never said we crash ATD except on the very rare occasion.

 

And does no one understand what that means?

 

On our last cruise in October 2015, we were at our assigned table 100% of the time. The cruise before that, in May 2015, we did arrive back late one night. But too tired to worry about changing clothes for dinner, we managed the buffet.

 

We do NOT make it a policy to 'crash' ATD. I never said we did and can't believe the number of people making nasty comments as if every cruise we sign up for TD and go to ATD. Are we guilty of doing it once or twice in many, many years of cruising? Probably. On a regular basis? NEVER!!!!

 

Please, DO NOT lump us with those that are guilty of doing it all the time. We love TD with the same table mates and same waiter every night. To us, that is a special way to end the day.

Edited September 25, 2016 by diane.in.ny

[Coral]

Princess could make their dining rooms larger.......!

 

I haven't been on Royal/Regal to know if this issue is resolved on those 2 ships.

Edited September 25, 2016 by Coral

[likeadisguise]

First part of this is not true. If the ship has enough seats for all of the passengers, everyone can eat whenever they wish and not wait. We travel on Windstsr which has an open dining policy. Usually there is no wait for a table, sometimes a few couples just waiting to be seated. Several other lines have this as well, including most if not all of the upscale lines.

It's true on Princess ships, which is what we're talking about, isn't it? I didn't say it wasn't possible to achieve, I said it doesn't currently exist.

[GRAYTech]

... I'm not sure how you could see if the TD room was empty or not since you seem to be crashing ATD. One thing is sure: your TD table is empty. You don't seem to be aware of how things are done on Princess.

 

Princess encourages diners to eat at the specialty restaurants which leaves TD dining tables empty. We normally do a specialty restaurant a couple of times during a 7 day. I think Princess would say that's how it is supposed to be done on their ships. Are all tables in the TD room attributable people crashing ATD ? Obviously not. FWIW the 2nd seating is normally packed on the nights we eat there with a handful of empty tables. Not hundreds of people.

 

We have never done ATD dinning and doubt we will. I can't imagine why anyone would sign up for TD and then every night go to "crash" ATD. It just doesn't make sense, at least not to me.

[cruzsnooze]

Your comment is blatantly uncalled for. I never said we crash ATD except on the very rare occasion.

 

 

We do NOT make it a policy to 'crash' ATD. I never said we did and can't believe the number of people making nasty comments as if every cruise we sign up for TD and go to ATD. Are we guilty of doing it once or twice in many, many years of cruising? Probably. On a regular basis? NEVER!!!!

 

Please, DO NOT lump us with those that are guilty of doing it all the time. We love TD with the same table mates and same waiter every night. To us, that is a special way to end the day.

 

So if you only do it once in a while and 1000 others only do it once in a while it's alright? You are 100% wrong to ever do it. If you only steal someone's place in line once in while it's ok as long it's not on a regular basis ? Wow, just Wow!

[Hlitner]

First part of this is not true. If the ship has enough seats for all of the passengers, everyone can eat whenever they wish and not wait. We travel on Windstsr which has an open dining policy. Usually there is no wait for a table, sometimes a few couples just waiting to be seated. Several other lines have this as well, including most if not all of the upscale lines.

 

We think you are comparing Apples to Oranges. Small ship cruising (we love small ships) can more easily accommodate most passengers when they want to eat. There is a big difference if feeding 300 versus 3000+ ! Mass market cruise lines generally design their MDRs to handle slightly fewer then half the passengers (at one time). Sure, we could pay $1000 per passenger day (which is more then 10 times what our last Princess cruise cost) and choose a vessel with true single seat dining (we have taken a few of those cruises). And there are even some luxury cruise lines (Crystal comes to mind) that cannot handle everyone at once.

 

The problem on the mass market lines is that fewer and fewer passengers want to dine late (8pm or later). If 75% of the passengers all try to dine at 6:30...there will be a long wait for some. Or think about the Lido at lunch. If you go to lunch between noon and 1pm...you will likely have to deal with lines and have problems finding a table. But have lunch at 1:30...and you will be able to walk right in...no lines, and relatively easy to find a table. Over the years we have refined our on-board habits with a goal of "queue avoidance." We have even been on Princess cruises where folks will line up 20 min early for their "fixed seating" dinner...even though they could simply come when the MDR opened and go to their reserved table. Go figure.

 

Hank

Edited September 25, 2016 by Hlitner

[Kartgv]

After reading so many negative comments about Anytime Dining, I'd like to report on our experience. I can understand problems on a 3 night cruise - it usually takes that long for routines to be established to everyone's satisfaction. We're just home from 29 nights on the Caribbean Princess, with Anytime Dining. The first night we went to the Island Dining Room (all "anytime") at around 6:45. We preferred a table for 2 as we were tired, but when told there would be a 30 minute wait, we agreed to share. We were immediately seated at a table for 8, where it turned out 2 of the other guests lived only a couple of blocks from us. The second night we went to the same dining room at 7:00, no waiting, table for 6. Third night - wanted a table for 2 after an exhausting tour, ate around 8:00, no waiting. Next night - there was a 20 minute wait for a table for 2, so the host suggested we try the Coral Dining Room, one deck up. We got there, found no wait and had a great table for 2 (part of a row of 3, all pretty close together, near the windows). We had nice conversations with couples on both sides of us, but didn't feel compelled to talk to them constantly - we could just as comfortably talk just to each other.

 

From that night on, we requested one of those same tables, showing up without reservations at around 7:15, and never once had to wait at all. Our servers got to know us, just as they would in traditional dining, so we had great service. By the last week of the cruise, the same 3 couples sat at those tables every night, so we asked for a table for 6 in the same area to finish out the cruise. We had the best of both worlds (eating at the time we preferred, with the same wait staff) with no problems at all. I'm sure that the problems people are reporting here do exist, but that doesn't mean that ATD is always a bad experience on Princess.

 

Edit: In reading this after posting, it occurred to me that we might have had a good experience because of our timing. The Coral Dining Room is supposed to be Traditional Dining until 7:30pm, then open for Anytime Dining. By arriving at 7:00 - 7:15, we found that most traditional tables had already cleared and they were seating ATD early.

Edited September 25, 2016 by Kartgv

[Potstech]

We have always sat 2nd seating traditional. Assigned table, get to know the wait staff, if you tell them they even have your wine/cocktail choice on the table when you first sit down. To me anyway, it seems like a lot of fuss over something ATD folks can control.

 

- Use traditional dining if you don't ever want to wait

- Eat at the buffet, there are gems there often overlooked

- Make a reservation at a specialty venue, Crown Grill is my favorite

- Go early or late to ATD to avoid the rush of both ATD's and the "hundreds" of deadbeat TD's

- Go at prime time and expect to wait 15+ min, then sit have a drink and enjoy yourself!

 

 

Work with the system, not against it - go with the flow. You understand what's happening, you should be able to find a way to get what you want.

 

So you seem to put the onus on the Anytime Diners. That is so wrong as it can be. You must be unaware thar Traditional Dinng is limited and bot available to all. Why are you not telling the TD to eat in the buffet or spend more money on their meals in the Specialty venues. Many times the wait can be at alldifferent times. If the AT dining room was run properly no one would be upset with a 15 minute wait as now it is often 30-40 minutes. If the system is not working the way advertised how can a person work with it. You apparently do not understand the system because of your posting.

[GRAYTech]

So you seem to put the onus on the Anytime Diners. That is so wrong as it can be. You must be unaware thar Traditional Dinng is limited and bot available to all. Why are you not telling the TD to eat in the buffet or spend more money on their meals in the Specialty venues. Many times the wait can be at all different times. If the AT dining room was run properly no one would be upset with a 15 minute wait as now it is often 30-40 minutes. If the system is not working the way advertised how can a person work with it. You apparently do not understand the system because of your posting.

 

 

I confess I'm ignorant and with that I will enjoy my ignorant bliss.

 

You seem like you would be upset by one TD person eating at ADT. They serve thousands, do you honestly think the impact of a handful of diners (which is what I believe is happening - OK a hundred per night) pushes back the schedule 20 minutes for everyone?

 

As you pointed out in my quoted post I was wrong, you should leave your cabin 30 minutes early not 15.

 

Just curious, did you choose ATD on your last cruise or were you forced into it?

[B-May]

I was on that 3-niter and it was a nitemare! First off, there were no excursions as it went from Vancouver to Los Angeles. And we always shared a table with others. After 1.5 hours of dining one evening I had to leave at 9 to make an event, even before the dessert menus came out. We had 2 tablemates (who completely ignored the rest of the table) who were trying every item on the menu and the waiter was insistent that the rest of us who had finished our mains were not allowed to see a dessert menu until they finished which I am sure was at least another half hour. The next night one person was eating their dessert while the rest of us were having our main so there is no set rules.

 

On these 1-2-3-4 niters I think that Princess should abandon TD and just stick with ATD. This would free up all the dining rooms to seat people starting at 5 pm and line-ups shouldn't occur.

 

I don't like ATD and prefer TD but with ships insisting on 530 starts and 830 late seatings it doesn't work when most evening events are 9ish onwards. If anything, it would be great if they maybe staggered the times to 530/630/830 so those getting back from shore excursions have time to "clean up" before dinner and not be so rushed.

[pablo222]

FWIW the 2nd seating is normally packed on the nights we eat there with a handful of empty tables.

 

When I was on Emerald, sailing from Houston, 2nd seating traditional

was only about 2/3 full.

 

There was a large section of the dining room that was was not even

set up.

 

I would assume that many of the people who might have filled

those tables were instead in the anytime dining room.

[dtb55]

We have cruised more than a dozen times and have always chosen Traditional early dining. On the majority of those cruises, we were seated in one of the anytime dinning rooms by the ship's staff. So we were not going were we did not belong, but to where we had been assigned.

 

 

Ditto on my last cruise. We selected early TD and were given a table in AT. I assumed TD was overbooked.

 

 

 

Denise

[Bruin Steve]

Reading all of this, it occurred to me to look at all of this from a different angle. To me, this really doesn't change the issue that so many traditional diners overcrowd the anytime rooms and Princess does nothing about it...but...

The issue of the sizing of dining rooms does require some further exploration.

 

I know that Princess does drastically undersize it's entertainment venues. Ships that carry well over 3,000 passengers have main showrooms that seat only 900. This causes a need to show up far too early to get seats and in many getting turned away from show or, at best, needing to stand in the back of the theater. I once compared Princess ships to Celebrity ships and found Celebrity's showrooms had capacities nearing fifty percent of ships' double capacity while Princess' were less than 30%...

 

So, maybe it's time to look at Dining Room capacity.

 

In the cruise world of a couple of decades ago, there were no specialty restaurants and everyone had traditional dining, early seating or late... So, very clearly, every ship needed to have a dining room or rooms that fit exactly one-half of the ship's capacity since EVERY passenger needed to be assigned a seat at one of the two seatings. So, if your ship had berths for 3,850 passengers, you needed to have 1925 seats in your dining room.

 

Jump to today. Let's take the Ruby Princess for example--since that's what I'm cruising on next. The Ruby, depending on which source you use, can carry up to 3,850 passengers with every third and fourth berth filled. In the old days, they would have needed 1,925 seats in the dining rooms. So, how many do they have? Botticelli holds 584...Michelangelo and DaVinci each hold 514... For a total of 1,612 seats...so, they are actually 313 seats short...That's 626 people they'd have no place for if everyone had traditional dining.

 

Okay, what is Princess thinking? They are either gambling that those 626 will dine in specialty restaurants or in the buffet every night. However, that really isn't enough. Because, someone with a traditional assignment eating in the buffet or specialty restaurant does NOT free up a seat in the MDR.

 

Getting back to the numbers, those 1,612 seats represent 3,224 diners if in two seatings. let's say you've distributed half of your seats to traditional and half to anytime. That means that you have irrevocably assigned 1,612 seats to traditional diners...Those seats aren't freed up if those passengers dine elsewhere. Let's also assume you are sailing at FULL capacity...That leaves 2,238 passengers assigned to anytime's 806 seats. If none of them opted for the buffet or a specialty restaurant, you would still have a problem...fitting 2,238 people in 806 seats requires 2.78 seatings per night...But that's assuming all of the passengers cooperate and about a third of them show up at 5:30, another third at 7:00 and the remaining third at 8:30 and you rush them all through dinner in an uncruiselike hour and a half each minus time to reset the tables...And we all know that is not going to happen. Anytime diners (and only anytime diners) opting for the buffet or specialty restaurants helps ease this problem a little...but assigned traditional diners showing up at anytime exasperates it.

 

So, yes, the problem is two-fold...

Princess really needs to enforce its assignments...AND...

Princess needs more capacity in its dining rooms.

 

Too many people (whatever the source) and not enough seats is a recipe for crowds, waits, rushed dinners and unhappy cruisers...

 

I would probably take a traditional assignment except I don't want to eat at 5:30 (too dangled early) or wait until 8:30 (too dangled late). I'll take the risk of waiting a little if other anytime diners showing up at the same time I do, but, other than that, the system, the enforcement and the capacity need to be fair...