Back after a while

[Niagarawine]

haven't been on Princess for a few years, generally sail with Celebrity but I am thinking of coming back to Princess, Which ship would you recommend? Also we like anytime dining,is it a good idea. we are looking at Europe,thanks

[reedprincess]

haven't been on Princess for a few years, generally sail with Celebrity but I am thinking of coming back to Princess, Which ship would you recommend? Also we like anytime dining,is it a good idea. we are looking at Europe,thanks

Whichever ship sails the itinerary you're interested in. There's no bad ships. Regal and Royal are the newest ships in the fleet, along with being the largest. Spacious ship, lots of venues for music and lounges, great dining options, best buffet set-up and options in our opinion (and yes, we've sailed Celebrity many times in Solstice class ships), less expensive drinks, specialty dining, erc than Celebrity and so on.

Overall though -- we pick the ship based on itinerary, especially in port intensive locales like Europe/Med cruises.

Enjoy!

[Lucky TGO]

You can try The Royal or Regal Princess. I like both of them. I personally don't like Any Time Dining but that's just my choice.

Tony

[rdsqrl]

This seems like a very odd question. If you're looking to sail in Europe, wouldn't the actual itinerary be of more interest than the ship?

 

Besides which, it's an impossible question to answer I like the Pacific; there's a poster here who has raptures over the Royal and Regal twins, and other posters who don't care for either option because they're too small or too big. How do we know what you like?

 

As for Anytime Dining, blech. Tried it twice; disliked it both times. It was like that movie Groundhog Day: I was having the same conversations every night ("My name is X. I'm from Y. Yes, I'm sailing alone. No, I'm not particularly brave to do so. Yes, I've been on Princess before. No, I don't want to meet your grandson/nephew/weird single guy on your trivial team.") The conversation seldom if ever moved beyond the superficialities because you don't get to know anyone; dinner became more of a chore than a looked-forward-to pleasure.

[OCruisers]

We've been very happy with European cruises on Princess and have totally enjoyed having Anytime Dining. :D

[Colo Cruiser]

What part of Europe are you looking at?

[skynight]

Anytime Dining, we enjoy it more than traditional, gives more flexibility for evening activities. It works well on the Royal and I assume also on the Regal. Also works pretty good on the Grand Class ships. Of course a lot depends on the times you wish to dine and the passenger demographic of the ship. In general it's very easy to get a table if you dine late, more crowds for early dining.

If you are in a Club Class mini suite or full suite you will get Club Class Dining, which is ATD in a special area of a DR. Search Princess Club Class Dining for more details.

[floridalover5623]

I look at traditional dining as being stuck with the same old people for the entire cruise and always have to eat at the same time. (unless you sneak into the AT dining room on occasion or go to the buffet).

AT dining provides the most flexible dining time to allow you to get to all the shows when you want to go & not have to wait for those at the table to order their second dessert & coffee. :D

[Niagarawine]

Hi we are looking at British Isles and I kind of like Majestic Princess , new ship. Either would be great. I have been on Caribbean Princess. Our son is booked on Caribbean Princess for this itinerary. I see there are lots of changes since we last sailed on this line. Really like the changes I have read about.

[Essiesmom]

Well, if you fancy Majestic, you better hurry. She is only sailing the Med., and last cruise is May 14 as she heads for Asia and her life in china. EM

[eandj]

If you are looking to eat at a large table, then as mentioned, anytime dining means small talk, often same old same old everynight. Might very well be different wait staff too.

 

We prefer traditional and generally tables for two. We like the attention by the same staff every night and still after all these years, enjoy each other's company and DO talk to each other. Too we find having the opportunity to visit with the servers and learn about their lives and country very interesting.

 

Princess has a policy onboard that allows traditional diners to head to the anytime dining room if they want, when they want. (UNLIKE X) This causes longer waits during peak hours some nights for those that actually signed up for anytime. If we know our day's schedule isn't going to fit our assigned dining time, we use the buffet. But we have been told by our servers to go to the anytime dining room whenever we can't make it. This is the biggest complaint here about Princess dining schedules.

[dbeckett]

We like ATD more than TX as you don't have to wait for all the table to be present for the wait staff to take orders. It also means if you're not having a course, say salad, you don't have to wait for all the salad eaters to finish before the next course is brought. We have been lucky with apart from twice always getting the same table and staff.