Change in Traditional Dining Times?

[Ombud]

I think 7:15 is great .... 

[Cindy]

1 hour ago, panoramaofthepast said:

Late seating now begins at 7:15. I have switched to late seating! 

 

 

So have I, and I’ve read many posts from people who like the 7:15 time and have switched. From a space management perspective, I think this change will help Princess achieve their goal of filling the Traditional late seating. What remains to be seen is how this will work on the early end, and what, if anything, Princess will do to stop “crossover” dining.

[kleffy8]

So, my TD time has been changed to 4:45 pm on the Caribbean Princess in January. I spoke to Princess this evening. No, they have not changed the time of the shows. No, afternoon tea is still 3:30 to 4:30.. oh wait I can go from tea to dinner! She said it was in response to AT dining lining up as early as 4:30 pm. I responded with, open up the AT dining at 4:30, she thought that was an excellent idea. 

She suggested making reservations for AT dining at a time I want or lining up with the hordes of humanity.

So, many port departures are 5 pm....and if I eat at 4:45 it is a long wait until the 8:30 show... oh wait I can really take my time over dinner, and then I will need a snack before bed since I ate a belated lunch at 4:45...

I'm a bit annoyed that all the emails I get sent from Princess and they couldn't find the consideration to email me about this one?? If it was a price increase I would have been emailed for sure.....

As Elite with Princess... hmmm... maybe look elsewhere for my cruise dollar.

Just sayin'

[D&N LUV 2 TRAVEL]

5 minutes ago, kleffy8 said:

So, my TD time has been changed to 4:45 pm on the Caribbean Princess in January. I spoke to Princess this evening. No, they have not changed the time of the shows. No, afternoon tea is still 3:30 to 4:30.. oh wait I can go from tea to dinner! She said it was in response to AT dining lining up as early as 4:30 pm. I responded with, open up the AT dining at 4:30, she thought that was an excellent idea. 

She suggested making reservations for AT dining at a time I want or lining up with the hordes of humanity.

So, many port departures are 5 pm....and if I eat at 4:45 it is a long wait until the 8:30 show... oh wait I can really take my time over dinner, and then I will need a snack before bed since I ate a belated lunch at 4:45...

I'm a bit annoyed that all the emails I get sent from Princess and they couldn't find the consideration to email me about this one?? If it was a price increase I would have been emailed for sure.....

As Elite with Princess... hmmm... maybe look elsewhere for my cruise dollar.

Just sayin'

 

How true about the lack of communication from Princess on this dining change. I'm not one to look at my cruise personalizer all the time and thankfully for CC I read this thread and was able to change my time to 7:15. I found it hard to believe that the 5pm time was waitlisted. I wonder how Princess is going to deal with those people who show up thinking they have early 6pm TD only to find out it is 5pm.

 

[MaryBethV]

5 hours ago, 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

 

I agree! We've been on two NCL cruises this year and are looking forward to our first Princess cruise this coming February - but I have to say I'm a little apprehensive about the any time dining (ATD) we selected on Princess for our family of four! NCL has ATD down pat (we had a 5-10min wait maybe once each cruise-that's it!) - I think Princess should honestly look at how they run ATD. I also loved that with NCL you can reserve all your dinner times/venues 90 days in advance or just wing it while on the cruise. If you want the "traditional dining" feel - you just reserve the same time/same dining room for the entire cruise! I really don't see why Princess over complicates things with one dining room TD, another ATD, and one both depending on the time. Confusing and the opposite of streamlined. Maybe Princess is hesitant to really change things because they have so many returning passengers, but it is a bit of negative for a first time Princess cruiser to read review after review about how bad they are at ATD. 😞

[RDC1]

52 minutes ago, D&N LUV 2 TRAVEL said:

 

How true about the lack of communication from Princess on this dining change. I'm not one to look at my cruise personalizer all the time and thankfully for CC I read this thread and was able to change my time to 7:15. I found it hard to believe that the 5pm time was waitlisted. I wonder how Princess is going to deal with those people who show up thinking they have early 6pm TD only to find out it is 5pm.

 

Pretty simply they will list the dining times without any fan fare.  Most will accept them, some will request changes, maybe a higher number than does every cruise.  Some might be upset about the change, but it will be handled in the form of those are the dining times here are your options.

[swomom]

 My TA always suggests that I print out my travel summary and take it with me (so I do), and went back to look at exactly what it says:

* 5:30 p.m. dining requested

* Early dining confirmed

 

When I checked my cruise personalizer on Friday, this is what it said:

* 4:45 p.m. dining requested

* 4:45 p.m. confirmed

 

My best guess is that this is completely out of my control....we sail in 2 days, and late traditional is now full.  It appears that we are stuck with 4:45 and this is totally up to the discretion of the maitre'd........should have read my contract a bit more carefully.  But one thing stands out....there is no way that we requested dinner at 4:45, but that's what we are going to get.  And yes, I will mention it in the survey, but that's not going to make any difference.  But Princess' statement that this is a response to the overwhelming number of people who have requested it is a little hard to swallow.  I agree with those people who have said that we should have received this information much, much sooner to give time to make proper changes.  And one more thing, the dining experience on Princess is now more just the "eating experience"...you are still rushed through your meal as fast as possible.

[lstone19]

On every cruise I’ve been on, shows and other evening activities have always been scheduled relative to the traditional seating times. I have no reason to think that will change. And in recent Princess cruises, the personalizer traditional times were just placeholders (8:15pm being the standard late time before this change). I have no reason to think the times being placeholders won’t change and we’ll continue to find traditional dining times different than as advertised on the personalizer.

 

On our last four cruises where we had late traditional dining, all four had 8:15 as the personalizer time but the actual times were 8:00, 8:00, 7:45, and 7:30. All had show times consistent with those dining times as well as the times of things like the Champagne Waterfall and the CC receptions. On the cruise where late traditional was 7:30, other things were moved up 30 minutes as well - tea was 3:00 to 4:00 and the PES cocktail lounge was 4:30 to 6:30 instead of 5:00 to 7:00 as on the other three cruises. I am certain you are not going to see tea ending at 4:30 (meaning seating until 4:30) and then have dinner start a mere 15 minutes later (the tea attendees won’t have all left yet).

 

The ship’s departments do not schedule things in a vacuum. They know what the other departments are doing (there is a daily meeting of the senior officers). All the departments involved have a common boss - I believe the Matire’D, Executive Chef, and Entertainment Director are all direct reports to the Hotel Director. The Entertainment Director knows what the dining hours are and schedules shows to fit that. So my guess is although dining will be somewhat earlier, every thing else will still work.

[capriccio]

To those that have been moved to an early, early dining time and don't want to change to anytime dining make sure you check your initial Patter.  It seems that they were trying these earlier times on the Ruby Princess this summer and for the first time ever I saw postings of what time the doors will close in the traditional MDRs.  If this is their new process I would show up just as the doors close and let them know I intend to do that the entire cruise.  Unfortunately that should work for tables for 2 or for an entire family but could lead to complications with those who signed up to share a table if the entire table doesn't agree to show up 'late'.

 

This is the note that appeared in the Dining section of the initial 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:

• traditional dining: 5 pm (doors close at 5:45)
• anytime dining: 7:30 - 9:30 pm

[caribill]

3 hours ago, D&N LUV 2 TRAVEL said:

 

 I found it hard to believe that the 5pm time was waitlisted.

 

 

It is easy for me to believe as it was waitlisted when it was reserved by people as being 6 PM.  Less than 5% of passengers participate in Cruise Critic, so 95% probably do not know that the dining times as listed in the personalizer (which may or may not be reality once on the ship) have been changed.

[lstone19]

5 hours ago, caribill said:

 

the dining times as listed in the personalizer (which may or may not be reality once on the ship) 

 

It would take a lot of the angst out of this if rather than listing specific times on the personalizer, Princess just referred to them as "earliest", "early", and "late" with a note listing the range of times that might apply depending on the itinerary.

[LEtue]

It would help eliminate some of the confusion if those of on same sailing - were seeing the same options. 

 

There is still no option for me to select a later dining time other than 8:15 PM yet one other person on my sailing in November 2019 has already seen the change to 7:15 PM  

 

[jakey2004]

24 minutes ago, LEtue said:

It would help eliminate some of the confusion if those of on same sailing - were seeing the same options. 

 

There is still no option for me to select a later dining time other than 8:15 PM yet one other person on my sailing in November 2019 has already seen the change to 7:15 PM  

 

For some odd reason....once I cleared my cache and re logged in the other night....my options changed. I may have just done it as they were updating the site....but hey....worth a try 

[susancruzs]

I just received an email from TA, she is a 3 person office but part of a large organization informing everyone to check their reservations with Princess.  I'm on the Royal Friday,  my time is 5:30, which I expected (initially booked as 6 p.m., not a deal breaker)!

 

Please be advised that Princess has changed their dining times. You can review and change your dining times on the Princess Cruise Personalizer. 

Travel agents were not advised of these changes.

[piper28]

22 hours ago, billco said:

3. I am fearful that if I tried to change to 7:15 PM dining, I would lose my confirmation of Table for Two at 5:00 PM or not be able to receive a confirmation of 7:15 PM dining. My understanding is there are a limited number of Tables for Two available in Traditional Dining. If we changed to Anytime Dining, I believe it would be difficult to reserve or obtain a Table for Two each night we would like to dine in the Main Dining Rooms, so we would have to dine in the Buffet or Specialty Dining. We absolutely do not want to dine with others. We also do not prefer dining at 7:15, which we feel would make it difficult to attend the theater shows.

 

You do realize of course that you don't have a confirmed reservation for a table for two?  Princess doesn't do that.  You have a request for a table for two, that they may or may not fill.  (Personally, my experience at least on the small ship is that I've *never* gotten a table for 2 when requesting it.)

 

Personally, my quandry is whether they'll actually use the times they specify when you get on the ship, or change them.  I only use traditional dining on the small ships where I have no choice, but my experience has been that it's always been listed as 6pm and 8:15pm before the cruise, but it's *never* been those times when we got on the ship.  Generally the first dining time (which up to now has been my preference) has been 5:30.  I do tend to eat on the somewhat earlier side, and 5:30 doesn't really bother me.  5pm is too early for me, especially since we're on a cruise that most of the port departure times are at 6pm, and part of what I like to do is watch us sail away.  I've certainly spent many a time standing outside the doors watching us sail while waiting for the line to clear to get into the dining room.  7:15 actually isn't all that bad for me.  It's a tad later than I'd prefer (ideally, I'd probably tend to eat somewhere between 6pm and 6:30pm or so), but I'd rather do 7:15 than 5pm.  The problem is, I'm not sure I trust them to actually do 7:15 when I get on the ship.  If I switch now, and get to the ship and find they've moved 7:15 back to 8pm, I'd be very irritated.  Especially if they couldn't get me back into the early dining at that point.

 

So the real question is basically, fine, you've published these as dining times, but are you actually going to use those times, or is it still a crapshoot on whether the times line up with what they're saying they are?

[arizonaperson]

Princess what are you doing?

 I have 2 upcoming cruises in 2019, no notifications from Princess or TA about dining change. If it wasn’t for going on cruise critic, I probably would not have know so soon what was happening.

I know I booked late traditional for my October cruise,which has been changed on my behalf -now 7:15pm,instead of around 8 pm.

So the choices I now see for traditional dining is 4:45pm, 5 pm, and 7:15pm.

So with 12,000+ views on this thread alone......

Not sure I like the changes,but since I haven’t tried it, I don’t know.

By the way we are booked 2 different ships, 2 completely different itineraries and both have changed since we booked for the dining times,so I think this might be the new way?

Julie

Edited October 23, 2018 by arizonaperson

[RDC1]

30 minutes ago, piper28 said:

 

You do realize of course that you don't have a confirmed reservation for a table for two?  Princess doesn't do that.  You have a request for a table for two, that they may or may not fill.  (Personally, my experience at least on the small ship is that I've *never* gotten a table for 2 when requesting it.)

 

Personally, my quandry is whether they'll actually use the times they specify when you get on the ship, or change them.  I only use traditional dining on the small ships where I have no choice, but my experience has been that it's always been listed as 6pm and 8:15pm before the cruise, but it's *never* been those times when we got on the ship.  Generally the first dining time (which up to now has been my preference) has been 5:30.  I do tend to eat on the somewhat earlier side, and 5:30 doesn't really bother me.  5pm is too early for me, especially since we're on a cruise that most of the port departure times are at 6pm, and part of what I like to do is watch us sail away.  I've certainly spent many a time standing outside the doors watching us sail while waiting for the line to clear to get into the dining room.  7:15 actually isn't all that bad for me.  It's a tad later than I'd prefer (ideally, I'd probably tend to eat somewhere between 6pm and 6:30pm or so), but I'd rather do 7:15 than 5pm.  The problem is, I'm not sure I trust them to actually do 7:15 when I get on the ship.  If I switch now, and get to the ship and find they've moved 7:15 back to 8pm, I'd be very irritated.  Especially if they couldn't get me back into the early dining at that point.

 

So the real question is basically, fine, you've published these as dining times, but are you actually going to use those times, or is it still a crapshoot on whether the times line up with what they're saying they are?

I have not seen a Princess cruise where the actual times have been later than the published times.  Over the past few years they have gradually been moving earlier than the published times.

 

With the magnitude of the change they might creep back a bit, but I would not expect it to be by much.

 

We have never not gotten a table for two in TD when we have requested one.  Usually in a row of two tops that are fairly close together, but we have (in over 20 cruises) always got one when requested.

Edited October 23, 2018 by RDC1

[Wishing on a star]

"The ship’s departments do not schedule things in a vacuum. They know what the other departments are doing (there is a daily meeting of the senior officers). All the departments involved have a common boss - I believe the Matire’D, Executive Chef, and Entertainment Director are all direct reports to the Hotel Director. The Entertainment Director knows what the dining hours are and schedules shows to fit that. So my guess is although dining will be somewhat earlier, every thing else will still work."

 

In a perfect world, yes, that would be true.

However, on some ships, there are reports of not making it to the theater in time to get a seat,  or a halfway decent seat, because of the late seating and the L O N G time to complete the dinner service.   (cutbacks in service staff???)

 

Princess really needs to get their act together.

What seems okay on paper does not always translate directly into reality.

 

The 7:15 late seating would be okay for us...  (better than 8:00). 

No way am I good with not finishing dinner until 10:00 at night.

But if they move the shows up, the problem of completing dinner service and getting to the show  an hour and a half later, is still a logistical problem.

 

I also found it interesting to finally hear somebody else mention that they preferred to dine in a mid-ship MDR, instead to going down to the back.   (makes me feel better!!!)

Now, in order to have TD, midship, one has to dine at a crazy early hour.

 

 

Edited October 23, 2018 by Wishing on a star

[billco]

1 hour ago, piper28 said:

 

You do realize of course that you don't have a confirmed reservation for a table for two?  Princess doesn't do that.  You have a request for a table for two, that they may or may not fill.  (Personally, my experience at least on the small ship is that I've *never* gotten a table for 2 when requesting it.)

 

 

Actually, I do have a confirmed reservation, though I changed it to 7:15. At least I do on the personalizer.

Dining Requested: 7:15 PM 
Dining Confirmed: 7:15 PM

Dining Time:                 7:15 PM         Table Size:   2 Persons 

But, we can complain and share our thoughts all we want. Princess has it covered.

 

Dining options, seating times, menus, locations, and venues may vary. We will do our best to accommodate your requested table size, although we cannot guarantee it.

 

This is another reason why NCL is becoming more attractive to us. With their Freestyle Dining they really do seem to make an effort to accommodate. At least, that has been our experience on our most recent NCL cruises. 

Edited October 23, 2018 by billco

[chamima]

14 hours ago, capriccio said:

To those that have been moved to an early, early dining time and don't want to change to anytime dining make sure you check your initial Patter.  It seems that they were trying these earlier times on the Ruby Princess this summer and for the first time ever I saw postings of what time the doors will close in the traditional MDRs.  If this is their new process I would show up just as the doors close and let them know I intend to do that the entire cruise.  Unfortunately that should work for tables for 2 or for an entire family but could lead to complications with those who signed up to share a table if the entire table doesn't agree to show up 'late'.

 

This is the note that appeared in the Dining section of the initial 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:

• traditional dining: 5 pm (doors close at 5:45)
• anytime dining: 7:30 - 9:30 pm

 

 

They have to close the doors for early traditional to make sure they have time to re-set the tables for late seating.

(Notice there is no "doors close" message for the late seating, although showing up more than a half hour after the time you schedule is pretty rude.

We saw one couple do it every night on a long cruise on the old Royal (small ship) and a felt really badly for their servers, who were working long after everyone else finished.)

[piper28]

Actually, my point was that you don't have a confirmed reservation for the table size.  While the personalizer will show that, it's just a request, as they make clear in the text after it.  From what I understand, they don't actually do table assignments at all until shortly before the cruise, so there's no way for them to guarantee the table for two part.  (Believe me, I wish they'd guarantee me the table for 2.  But every cruise I've done traditional, it shows exactly like that, and never a table for two.)

[Wishing on a star]

Just because it says 'confirmed' does not mean that anything is guaranteed.

I have heard of bumping passengers from their dining to accommodate groups that rate preferential treatment.

 

[Astro Flyer]

6 hours ago, LEtue said:

It would help eliminate some of the confusion if those of on same sailing - were seeing the same options. 

 

There is still no option for me to select a later dining time other than 8:15 PM yet one other person on my sailing in November 2019 has already seen the change to 7:15 PM  

 

 

6 hours ago, jakey2004 said:

For some odd reason....once I cleared my cache and re logged in the other night....my options changed. I may have just done it as they were updating the site....but hey....worth a try 

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

[bemis12]

12 hours ago, caribill said:

 

It is easy for me to believe as it was waitlisted when it was reserved by people as being 6 PM.  Less than 5% of passengers participate in Cruise Critic, so 95% probably do not know that the dining times as listed in the personalizer (which may or may not be reality once on the ship) have been changed.

 

80% of statistics are made up on the spot.

[caribill]

2 hours ago, bemis12 said:

 

80% of statistics are made up on the spot.

 I am 96% sure you are right.