Worried about the non-Club Class experience

[caribill]

We don't book trips a year ahead - more like 4-5 months. Both times we have booked cruises, TD was no longer an option, presumably because they had reached their capacity for that with other passengers. I'm ok with that, and we enjoyed ATD last time, but making a reservation for our group on a day-by-day basis would be beneficial for sure.

 

a) Make sure your reservations are linked by your TA (or Princess if you book directly). That way if you do sign up for traditional dining, you will all be assigned to the same table.

 

b) If you do not get Traditional due to it being full when you first sign up, ask to be put on a wait list. More often than not, you will clear the wait list before the cruise.

 

c) If when you embark you are assigned to anytime, meet with the Maitre d' at the time and place listed in the embarkation day Patter. It is very possible that he can arrange for that table you want in traditional.

[Itchy&Scratchy]

We don't book trips a year ahead - more like 4-5 months. Both times we have booked cruises, TD was no longer an option, presumably because they had reached their capacity for that with other passengers. I'm ok with that, and we enjoyed ATD last time, but making a reservation for our group on a day-by-day basis would be beneficial for sure.

that's so strange. We've been on Regal and Caribbean, and they didn't take reservations for ATD at all.

We had a large group on Regal, and if we showed up at a certain time, there was no waiting. If we showed up a bit later, there was a 30-45 minute wait for a large table. On Caribbean there were only 3 of us, and we never said no to sharing a table, so we were always seated immediately.

[peety3]

Seeing all about making reservations for ATD, etc., makes me sad. My only recent experience with ATD (on the Ruby) was very negative due to the ability to make reservations?! We didn't go to the MDR until the second night of our cruise and therefore was very surprised to find out they would not be able to serve us in the ATD at all that night due to reservations!!! Sent us upstairs to wait over 45 minutes to get into a portion of the other dining room.

Are you sour because you had to go up/down a floor? On most ships, one MDR is available for ATD from 5:30 to about 7:30, and around 7:30 (+/- 30 minutes depending on the menu that night), they'll begin taking ATD into a second MDR. Those are, inevitably, on different floors, but that's just how it works.

[IECalCruiser]

Typically you can only make reservations within around 30 minutes after the DR opens or after 7:30. If you want to eat around 6:30 or 7:00 you will probably need to line up with everyone else. That is one benefit of CC dining. You can walk in at any time and be seated. We are giving it a try on a short cruise in November.

 

 

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[Ron the Rev]

There's an old saying you only get what you pay for. So for those who pay for CC usually have a separate entrance, on the larger ships, to their part of the dining room, which is controlled by a host and can truly have ATD. On the Pacific Princess there is just the one entrance where all passengers form a line. We were informed that as we were paid up members of CC we could "line jump". OH dear that didn't go down well, with us at the time being way back in the line. Then to crown it all when we got to the gap in the rope barrier entrance to CC we saw that our usual table and one adjacent to it had been taken by other passengers from the normal dining area, thinking I expect they would buck the system. I expect a lesson learned by head waiter and MD.

[joeyancho]

Club class gets purple napkins - non-club class gets white napkins

That is an outrage! Another cutback. What's next?