Change in Traditional Dining Times?

[caribill]

On 10/16/2018 at 3:03 PM, spyro1952 said:

But the choices for TD when you booked were usually 5:30, 6, or 8:15 and then depending on the ship it would vary between 15 to 30 minutes.   I just switched my time to 7:15 because I don’t want to get on the ship and end up eating at 5 pm.  That’s just too early for me.  I don’t mind eating later because I don’t go to shows or anything.  

I also see where two cruises I am on have had the late seating changed from 8:15 to 7:15 PM with the other choices being 4:45 PM and 5 PM.

Obviously the web site has changed the standard times from what for years had been 5:30, 6 and 8:15 PM to be 4:45, 5 and 7:15. However I would not expect the actual on board dining times to match these new standard times anymore than they matched the old standard times.

[caribill]

On 10/16/2018 at 6:28 PM, knittertwitter said:

I recently sailed on the Golden Princess, and opted for Traditional Dining at 8:15 pm.  However, once on board I discovered the late sitting was at 7:45 pm instead.  I'm not sure why the website listed 8:15 if that's not an actual option.

 

The listed times are standard for every cruise on every ship. The actual times will vary and are really not known far in advance of the actual sailing date. Your actual dining time may be what is listed, may be earlier, or may be later.

[caribill]

15 hours ago, Hlitner said:

  But the answer to the problem is quite simple and already exists.  Just book Open Sitting and dine when you please :).   Ohhhh I  understand.  There are some who still prefer traditional dining but only when it exactly fits their personal needs/wants etc.  Whine on!

 

Yes, the solution is quite simple but does not exist. Post actual, not theoretical, dining times in the Personalizer.

Let people select the traditional dining time they want from the list and then actually have it at that time once on board.

[caribill]

13 hours ago, Ombud said:

Sorry, Hank, but ATD doesn't work well for those with a food allergy.  Its really problematic to repeat it to every waiter.

It does work well with ATD, especially if you use the same ATD room each evening. Work with a headwaiter who can bring the next day's menu to you each evening so you can select which items you want the next evening that can be prepared according to your dietary restrictions. This information will be stored by cabin number, so the next evening  just inform your waitstaff that you have pre-ordered and what your cabin number is. Of course you should inform your waitstaff of the restrictions so you are not accidentally served something inappropriate.

[caribill]

10 hours ago, HleeCruiser said:

We are on the Regal Princess in Jan 2019 and confirmed our late traditional dining time as 8:15.  Checked the Personalizer and it has been changed to 7:15 P.M.!!  Not happy about that!

 

Don;t assume that because they changed the times in the personalizer that the new standard times are any more accurate than in the past.

[caribill]

With proper planning, you can now go directly from the afternoon tea (3:30-4:30) directly to dinner at 4:45.

[floridalover5623]

5 hours ago, Host CJSKIDS said:

I went to check my next cruise and the website is down.  I couldn't get in and got the message "we are having technical difficulties".  Perhaps they are overloaded with people changing their dining times?!!

Looks as though the DR might be empty for the the early birds. 

[Woobstr112G]

We always enjoy eating later in the evening.  1915 is way too early for us.  If this is the case when we board the Star on November 4th, we will definitely look into either dinning en suite, specialty dining, or the World Fresh market Place/Horizon Court for the entire voyage.....

Bob

[Cindy]

On 10/16/2018 at 6:06 PM, jennybenny said:

I am glad someone posted the changed dining times.  I never look at that!!  We always get the second early seating, but 5 PM is a bit earlier than I'd like to eat. I want to change to 7:15, but would hate to eat at 8!  I can deal with 15 minutes later, but not 45 minutes to an hour.  Do I make the change now?  Do I wait a month?  Do I wait until I'm on the ship and then maybe get stuck with ATD?  Ahhhh!!  The torture!  😞

 

I’m tempted to switch from anytime to late traditional for my Alaska cruise next August, but I’m going to wait for the dust to settle. I’d like to see what the real dining times are in a month or two.

Edited October 18, 2018 by Cindy

[Host CJSKIDS]

3 hours ago, floridalover5623 said:

Looks as though the DR might be empty for the the early birds. 

Very true for those who are early birds! 7:30 is normal for us which I guess is considered the early bird in Miami!  No control as that’s about when my husband gets home from work  

i actually like 7:15 new dining time. 

Edited October 18, 2018 by Host CJSKIDS

[StartrainDD]

We are on the Crown next month over Thanksgiving.  We booked this cruise very early and had confirmed 6:00 dining.  5:00 is just too early - we are still in port in many places.  7:15 (if it is really 7:15) could work, but any later would be just too late.  With dietary needs we are very reluctant to go to "Anytime" dining and the lido just doesn't work for us at all.

What makes me mad is to make a change like this after final payment.  There are lots of other options in the same time frame we would have considered.

[Cindy]

8 minutes ago, Host CJSKIDS said:

Very true for those who are early birds! 7:30 is normal for us which I guess is considered the early bird in Miami!  No control as that’s about when my husband gets home from work  

i actually like 7:15 new dining time. 

 

I like it too! My concern is whether or not the seating will actually end up at 7:15. I can do 7:15 or 7:30, but 8:00 or later is too late for me. On a cruise last fall (Regal) we had a group confirmed for 6:00, but when we boarded that time slot didn’t exist...it was 5:30 only, so we switched to anytime.

 

[capriccio]

On our round trip Seattle cruise to Alaska that began on June 30th, this was the dining schedule posted in the first day Patter:

Michaelangelo - deck 5 midship (anytime dining): 4:30 - 8:30 pm

Botticelli - deck 6 aft (traditional): 5:30 (1st seating; door will close at 6 pm); 8 pm (second seating)

DaVinci - deck 6 midship:

• breakfast port days: 7 - 9 am
• breakfast sea days: 7:30 - 9:30 am
• lunch sea days (including Ketchican with 1 pm sailing): noon - 1:30 pm
• afternoon tea: 3 - 4 pm
• traditional dining: 5 pm (doors close at 5:45)
• anytime dining: 7:30 - 9:30 pm

Edited October 18, 2018 by capriccio

[4cats4me]

Another stupid decision from corporate

You’ve got to be kidding. 4:45? 5:00 pm?

Nope.  Won’t work.  Its almost as if this is an attempt to do away with traditional.  

 Although we only ate in the anytime dining room once on our Mediterranean cruise,  we went in at 7:15, which struck me as odd, since the second seating of any time dining had always been at 7:45 PM.  What I mean by second seating, is the one anytime dining room that they use for traditional  or the first seating. 

 I even commented to my husband that I was really happy with the 715 time . 

 We ate at the buffet for the remainder of the cruise and we noticed how crowded the buffet was every night and we thought that that was odd.  Now I’m starting to wonder if a lot of traditional diners were mad and went to the buffet instead,  especially due to the fact that we were in Europe and we were all off the ship until around 6 PM. 

 

[LEtue]

3 hours ago, Woobstr112G said:

We always enjoy eating later in the evening.  1915 is way too early for us.  If this is the case when we board the Star on November 4th, we will definitely look into either dinning en suite, specialty dining, or the World Fresh market Place/Horizon Court for the entire voyage.....

Bob

Thanks Bob.  On the Crown last month we were moved from 6 PM to 5:30 PM and almost missed dinner the first night.  Many other diners were late so it s too bad that Princess doesn't communicate changes better.  

I just checked our cruise on the Sky and the same times were still there.  Just in case I switched to 8:15 in hopes that it will be somewhere between 7:15 - 7:45 later.  I found the 5:30 PM too rushed and most of our port departures are 6 PM or later.  I don't want to be in the dining room during sail away ever again.

[hllwdcruiser]

4 hours ago, Woobstr112G said:

We always enjoy eating later in the evening.  1915 is way too early for us.  If this is the case when we board the Star on November 4th, we will definitely look into either dinning en suite, specialty dining, or the World Fresh market Place/Horizon Court for the entire voyage.....

Bob

 

You wouldn't consider ATD as an option? Although we chose Traditional for our upcomimg cruise we've always done ATD on Princess. We went in at around 20:00 and there was never a wait. Up until the last two cruises on the Regal they allowed us to sit at the same table with the same staff (as long as we came in at the same time) which really ended up being like Traditional anyway. Kind of defeated the purpose of ATD though...

 

[skennedy25]

8 hours ago, caribill said:

It does work well with ATD, especially if you use the same ATD room each evening. Work with a headwaiter who can bring the next day's menu to you each evening so you can select which items you want the next evening that can be prepared according to your dietary restrictions. This information will be stored by cabin number, so the next evening  just inform your waitstaff that you have pre-ordered and what your cabin number is. Of course you should inform your waitstaff of the restrictions so you are not accidentally served something inappropriate.

 

 

ATD works great with allergies.  After the 1st night, or during the 1st night, just goto the HW or maitre de and ask to have that table as your permanent table.  Tell them it works better for your allergies.  Out of 17 princess cruises, we have always done this and have always kept the same waiter throughout.  HW brings the menu, takes my sons order, plus it gives us a chance to see what is for the next day to we can plan our eating  during the day if there is any good food.

[LEtue]

16 hours ago, Astro Flyer said:

You’ve got to be kidding Princess! 😡

All four of our future cruises had our TD times changed from 6:00 to 5:00 with the other options being 4:45 and 7:15.  And with nearly all of the sailing times from ports being at 6:00 or later that is ridiculous.  So either return early to get ready for dinner or miss eating in the dining room & going to the buffet...cost cutting.

Currently we rarely attend the nightly PES event between 5:00 & 7:00 due to early TD.  With these new times no one with early dining will attend...another cost cutting change.  Even if adjusting this & other activities to earlier times that does not work with sailing times from ports.

Based on the information reedprincess posted about Princess stating they’re responding to passengers demand & trends then Princess must be confusing those things with HAL passengers. 🙄

I didn't see the change on the Nov 3 2019 Sky Princess.  Was it showing 7 PM for late dining in your personalizer? 

I moved to the 8:15 (late dining) in anticipation of early dining being changed to a 5 PM time and being wait listed for a later time.  

On our Med cruise last month on the Crown we were moved from 6 to 5:30 and we were rushed.  Watched sail away from the dining room on a few nights too.....

 

 

[xDisconnections]

9 hours ago, caribill said:

I also see where two cruises I am on have had the late seating changed from 8:15 to 7:15 PM with the other choices being 4:45 PM and 5 PM.

Obviously the web site has changed the standard times from what for years had been 5:30, 6 and 8:15 PM to be 4:45, 5 and 7:15. However I would not expect the actual on board dining times to match these new standard times anymore than they matched the old standard times.

 

The variances are what complicates this. Our dining time was swapped to 4:45pm for our cruise in two weeks so while I’m hoping for a variance, I’m sure there are those who recently changed to the new 7:15 time who don’t want a variance at 8:00pm.

If there was greater transparency and the times onboard matched the cruise personalizer, some wouldn’t be as concerned about this change.

[hllwdcruiser]

3 hours ago, Host CJSKIDS said:

Very true for those who are early birds! 7:30 is normal for us which I guess is considered the early bird in Miami!  No control as that’s about when my husband gets home from work  

i actually like 7:15 new dining time. 

 

So very true about Miami and most of SoFL! And I agree - 7:15 seems like a perfect time.

We spend our summers up in the Adirondack Mountains in upstate NY. The folks up here eat "supper" at 5 o'clock every night. I've even seen some eat as early as 4:30. So many grew up on the farm and are used to eating breakfast at 7, lunch at 12 and supper at 5. The restaurants all close at 7:30 or 8. We pretty much stay on SoFL time when we are up here and are out grilling dinner while our neighbors are getting ready for bed!. We love it though. Vive La Difference!

Oh, and many of our friends and neighbors up here take cruise vacations - they'll love the new early dining times. 

[susancruzs]

I checked mine for the Royal next week, it had said 6 p.m. dining confirmed but now it shows as 5:30 p.m., which is fine.

On my Emerald So. Amer. cruise in March, it was 5:30 and one couple kept coming late, various times and the head waiter asked them if they would prefer ATD.  They finally did any time but told me they prefer 6 p.m. and were trying to make a point.  It was inconsiderate to the wait staff, the rest of us at the table.

 

 

[Astro Flyer]

57 minutes ago, LEtue said:

I didn't see the change on the Nov 3 2019 Sky Princess.  Was it showing 7 PM for late dining in your personalizer? 

I moved to the 8:15 (late dining) in anticipation of early dining being changed to a 5 PM time and being wait listed for a later time.  

On our Med cruise last month on the Crown we were moved from 6 to 5:30 and we were rushed.  Watched sail away from the dining room on a few nights too.....

All of my future cruises changed to the early times including on your Sky’s cruise that I’m also sailing.

I clicked on my 5:00 assigned time to see the drop down list of available times: 5:00; 4:45: 7:15.

[abbydancer2003]

6 hours ago, Woobstr112G said:

We always enjoy eating later in the evening.  1915 is way too early for us.  If this is the case when we board the Star on November 4th, we will definitely look into either dinning en suite, specialty dining, or the World Fresh market Place/Horizon Court for the entire voyage.....

Bob

 

Aren't you in CC dining?  If so, you can show up whenever you want.  And since the CC dining is in an Anytime room, you can show up until the official end of Anytime, which as far as I can guess, might move from 9:30 to 8:30 or 9:00

And I don't know if they told you, but on our Alaska cruise in April, but we ate with your BIL and SIL  and most nights we were the last in the entire room.

[LEtue]

27 minutes ago, Astro Flyer said:

All of my future cruises changed to the early times including on your Sky’s cruise that I’m also sailing.

I clicked on my 5:00 assigned time to see the drop down list of available times: 5:00; 4:45: 7:15.

Okay, I am watching my booking.  Right now I only see 5:30, 6 (my original time and wait list #1)and 8:15.  

I moved to the 8:15 seating so we'll see where I end up.  Thanks for the confirmation!

 

 

[floridalover5623]

2 hours ago, susancruzs said:

I checked mine for the Royal next week, it had said 6 p.m. dining confirmed but now it shows as 5:30 p.m., which is fine.

On my Emerald So. Amer. cruise in March, it was 5:30 and one couple kept coming late, various times and the head waiter asked them if they would prefer ATD.  They finally did any time but told me they prefer 6 p.m. and were trying to make a point.  It was inconsiderate to the wait staff, the rest of us at the table.

 

 

Why did you wait for them in the first place? Just pretend they went somewhere else to eat & enjoy your food without them,