Change in Traditional Dining Times?

[skoeper]

Ok, I have a really stupid question.    Midship dining room?   Can someone explain what that means?   This is our first Princess cruise. Every other cruise we've been on has the MDR at the back of the ship.    So what does the midship dining room mean?

 

 

[LEtue]

2 hours ago, Astro Flyer said:

 

LEtue...maybe this might change what you’re viewing to see the new times like others of us on the same cruise?

 

I was hopeful!  But boo, it didn't work.

 

My choices are 5:30 (confirmed), 6 PM (still wait listed as #1) and 8:15......

[jagoffee]

Many people in the past have complained about being forced into Anytime dining and/or Late Traditional dining, so I believe Princess is telling the truth.  Generally what was being done in the past was not working for a significant number of passengers. I do not know the percentages of dissatisfaction with the past practice, but based on Forums comments it was very significant. IMO this is clearly not a case of “don’t fixed it if it is not broken”.  The current system is broken and people are asking for a changes.

 

Converting to 100% Anytime is obviously not going to be popular with the Traditional dining crowd, so that is not a good option.

 

Perhaps this new approach will be better for a larger group of people or perhaps it will not.  I am more of an Anytime dining kind of guy, but I could certainly live with a 7:15/7:30 time for Traditional.  Many of us find the early Traditional too early and the Late Traditional  times too late.  I would be willing to bet that The highest percentage people prefer to start dining between 6:30 PM and 7:30 PM. 6 PM at the earliest. 

 

So Princess is trying to improve the process.  They may be trying to find an earlier Late Traditional time, so that is fully utilized.  If it is too early for some people they can always do a later Anytime dining which I believe is always available. (More tables after the Early fixed is finished in the second location)

 

if the Early Tradition Dining is not filled, Princess can open up more Anytime dining earlier.

 

 

 

 

 

[Grammyluvs]

I just changed my dining time in traditional to anytime dining and it came up Club Class confirmed. We are in a mini suite but I don’t think it has been designated Club Class. Are all the anytime diners now Club Class?

[Diver2014]

1 hour ago, skoeper said:

Ok, I have a really stupid question.    Midship dining room?   Can someone explain what that means?   This is our first Princess cruise. Every other cruise we've been on has the MDR at the back of the ship.    So what does the midship dining room mean?

 

 

 

Not a stupid question. For instance, we are going on the Crown Princess next month and again next May.  There are 3 MDR's: Michelangelo on Deck 5 mid ship, DaVinci on deck 6 mid ship and Botticelli on deck 6 at the back (stern).  You didn't indicate which Princess ship you'll be on so I can't say how many dining rooms - each category of ship is different.

[Gracie115]

How many dining rooms on the Regal Princess? Where is Club Class on it?

[metairiegal]

1 hour ago, caribill said:

 I am 96% sure you are right.

You just cracked me up!

[V_icki_e]

My TA advised that dining times aren't changing on Aus/NZ cruises, regardless of whether we are on the smaller ships likes Sea/Sun or the bigger Majestic.  Will wait and see.  So far nothing has changed on any of my upcoming bookings...   

[skoeper]

1 hour ago, Diver2014 said:

 

Not a stupid question. For instance, we are going on the Crown Princess next month and again next May.  There are 3 MDR's: Michelangelo on Deck 5 mid ship, DaVinci on deck 6 mid ship and Botticelli on deck 6 at the back (stern).  You didn't indicate which Princess ship you'll be on so I can't say how many dining rooms - each category of ship is different.

 

Thank you!   I didn't realize there was more than one MDR.  We are sailing on the Royal.    So whichever MDR they assign us to is the one we eat at every night?    And do we have the same table and the same waiters every night?

 

[RDC1]

1 hour ago, Gracie115 said:

How many dining rooms on the Regal Princess? Where is Club Class on it?

Same as grand class.  3 dining rooms. 1 in the stern, 2 mid ship. If they have not moved it since I was on last CC is mid ship on deck 6 in the dining room that is early TD late anytime.

[shof515]

1 hour ago, Gracie115 said:

How many dining rooms on the Regal Princess?

there is 3.

 

[RDC1]

2 hours ago, Grammyluvs said:

I just changed my dining time in traditional to anytime dining and it came up Club Class confirmed. We are in a mini suite but I don’t think it has been designated Club Class. Are all the anytime diners now Club Class?

No, only those in the appropriately classified cabins.

[Diver2014]

44 minutes ago, skoeper said:

 

Thank you!   I didn't realize there was more than one MDR.  We are sailing on the Royal.    So whichever MDR they assign us to is the one we eat at every night?    And do we have the same table and the same waiters every night?

 

 

If you choose traditional dining, you go to the same dining room and have the same table and waiters every night.  If you choose anytime dining, it's a free for all.....you show up at the anytime dining rooms and get put anywhere they have room for you. I prefer traditional dining myself.  Your assigned dining room for traditional dining is usually on a card in your stateroom when you get on the ship.  You can always check with the maitre'd after boarding if you want to change to something other than what you're assigned.

 

[skoeper]

25 minutes ago, Diver2014 said:

 

If you choose traditional dining, you go to the same dining room and have the same table and waiters every night.  If you choose anytime dining, it's a free for all.....you show up at the anytime dining rooms and get put anywhere they have room for you. I prefer traditional dining myself.  Your assigned dining room for traditional dining is usually on a card in your stateroom when you get on the ship.  You can always check with the maitre'd after boarding if you want to change to something other than what you're assigned.

 

Very helpful, thank you!

 

[capriccio]

1 hour ago, Diver2014 said:

 

Your assigned dining room for traditional dining is usually on a card in your stateroom when you get on the ship.  You can always check with the maitre'd after boarding if you want to change to something other than what you're assigned.

 

Your dining room room particulars are on the bottom left corner of your ship's card:

• Dining Room:  It will say Anytime or name one of the traditional dining rooms
• Time:  It will say Anytime or give the early or late dining time for the appropriate MDR      
  • Table:  Table Number assigned for anytime dining

[caribill]

3 hours ago, capriccio said:

Your dining room room particulars are on the bottom left corner of your ship's card:

• Dining Room:  It will say Anytime or name one of the traditional dining rooms
• Time:  It will say Anytime or give the early or late dining time for the appropriate MDR      
  • Table:  Table Number assigned for anytime dining

I assume you mean table number assigned for traditional dining.

[Seadog & Sea Hag]

On 10/23/2018 at 6:36 AM, billco said:

Part of my frustration with Princess may stem from our positive experience with NCL Freestyle Dining from our recent Transatlantic cruise on the Norwegian Jade. On NCL, dining reservations open up 90 days prior to the cruise. I copied the following from the confirmation e-mail I received on June 29. Alizar and Pacific are the main dining rooms. La Cucina is one of the specialty restaurants. There were a few times that we waited in a short line to get to the reservation desk to be seated. 

 

MAIN DINING ALIZAR PARTY OF 2 09/29/2018 06:00 pm

MAIN DINING ALIZAR PARTY OF 2 09/30/2018 06:00 pm

MAIN DINING PACIFIC PARTY OF 2 10/01/2018 06:30 pm

MAIN DINING ALIZAR PARTY OF 2 10/02/2018 06:00 pm

MAIN DINING PACIFIC PARTY OF 2 10/04/2018 07:30 pm

LA CUCINA PARTY OF 2 - à la carte 10/05/2018 06:00 pm

MAIN DINING ALIZAR PARTY OF 2 10/06/2018 06:00 pm

MAIN DINING ALIZAR PARTY OF 2 10/07/2018 07:00 pm

MAIN DINING PACIFIC PARTY OF 2 10/08/2018 06:30 pm

MAIN DINING ALIZAR PARTY OF 2 10/09/2018 07:00 pm

LA CUCINA PARTY OF 2 - à la carte 10/11/2018 06:00 pm

MAIN DINING PACIFIC PARTY OF 2 10/13/2018 06:30 pm

MAIN DINING ALIZAR PARTY OF 2 10/14/2018 06:00 pm

And here is the problem. There should be Zero bookings in the ATD rooms 

[eurodl]

Thank goodness for these forums.  I wasn't aware of the change in dining time either.  I was able to change it today to a later time.  We were originally confirmed for 6:00 pm and were changed to 5:30.  I was able to change it to 7:45.  I'm a little surprised that there weren't any options between 5:30 and 7:45....

[L454S]

I guess the IT department hasn't gotten all the changes made yet. We are booked on a 29 day T/A Pacific Princess. and as others have said, the new early TD time is 5 PM. We changed it to 7:15 confirmed(thanks to this thread).

 

Friends are on the initial 12 day Med portion of the sailing and we told them as we are sharing a table. On their personalizer, late seating is showing 7:45. We called Princess and the agent tried talking with her mgrs. and the final word was "we don't know why, just talk with the Maitre D' ". Just left it at 7:45 for now, cruise is a ways out.

[LEtue]

45 minutes ago, L454S said:

I guess the IT department hasn't gotten all the changes made yet. We are booked on a 29 day T/A Pacific Princess. and as others have said, the new early TD time is 5 PM. We changed it to 7:15 confirmed(thanks to this thread).

 

Friends are on the initial 12 day Med portion of the sailing and we told them as we are sharing a table. On their personalizer, late seating is showing 7:45. We called Princess and the agent tried talking with her mgrs. and the final word was "we don't know why, just talk with the Maitre D' ". Just left it at 7:45 for now, cruise is a ways out.

 

Interesting.  I am sailing not long after you - in November 2019 and seeing different times than others on my sailing too.  This makes me think that I should make the change to 8:15 and assume it will be changed to 7:15 to match everyone else.  Will watch for a few more days and might make a call too......

[capriccio]

6 hours ago, caribill said:

I assume you mean table number assigned for traditional dining.

You assume correctly! 

[L454S]

1 hour ago, LEtue said:

 

Interesting.  I am sailing not long after you - in November 2019 and seeing different times than others on my sailing too.  This makes me think that I should make the change to 8:15 and assume it will be changed to 7:15 to match everyone else.  Will watch for a few more days and might make a call too......

 

Yeah, this is the Nov. 23 sailing(12 day Greece) combined with the Dec.5 T/A(17 day). 

[MsSoCalCruiser]

On October 17, 2018 at 11:33 AM, spyro1952 said:

Not sure Princess can make big changes like this with great success.  Look at Share - not a great success.  Look how long it’s going to take to get the medallion fleet wide - not a great success.  My opinion is that NCL has a different dining product all together.  They have a limited amount of “free” dining slots and those reservations are now booked on line far in advance.  The rest of the passengers are forced to eat at pay restaurants.  I do think it is to get more people into a later sitting or ATD.  I will be happy with an earlier late sitting if I’m traveling solo.  Traveling with my friend, although we always book separate cabins, gets harder as she wants to eat before 6 pm.  I just can’t eat at 4:45 or 5 pm and dinner time is one thing I am adamant about.  My biggest complaint about ATD is the service.  I’ve always found it “less than” in comparison to service in the TD rooms.  I’ll see what happens in 2 wks when I’m on the Crown solo.  

I  just completed a cruise on the NCL Bliss.  We went to the buffet one night, the MDR once for lunch and also for dinner and had specialty dining three times. When we went to the MDR we did not have reservations. The MDR did not have a limited amount of "free" dining slots.  We walked up to the podium and we were seated immediately. The food in the MDR was very good.   The food in the specialty dining restaurants was fabulous! I will post a photo of my neighbors prime rib in the MDR. 

I have several cruises booked on Princess.   We are now booked for dining at 4:45 PM and waitlisted for 5 PM. I wish they would change it to at least 5:30 PM but it is what it is.  I thought about changing them all to ATD but I bet the wait times will be crazy long now.

Edited October 24, 2018 by MsSoCalCruiser

[antsp]

With the changes to traditional dining times, does anyone know the first cruise this will effect 

[arizonaperson]

On 10/21/2018 at 5:17 PM, satxdiver said:

We have gone back to TD for the last several years because we like the fixed time, table and waiters.  I have noticed though that a lot of tables are empty each night some never had anyone there while others had pax that come and go over the cruise.  They are eating their dinner meal somewhere else and that place may well be ATD.  I wonder how many do have TD and use ATD at their convenience.  

 

We moved our 6 PM (actually 5:30 or 5:45) to 7:45 after learning about the new times.  I wonder if the 7:45 will slip like the earlier ones to 7:30?  

 I also think cruisers reserve a traditional time slot ,show up on the first night or formal nights only,and then decide that they want to utilize the buffet or the specialty dining and never come back to the traditional table and never tell anybody. So there’s all kinds of different ways why the traditional tables are empty . Some people just change their mind once they get on board for whatever reason and they take up the traditional table space  not thinking that makes any difference. 

Julie