Dine My Way & all new Dining questions since cruising restart!!

[windsor26]

My saga re speciality dining continues    My TA advised me that I had a specialty dining voucher with my booking (which I did not know about) - after I had managed to book it on the app.   I noticed I have been charged directly to my bank account via debit card.   Tried the Live Chat line to request that as I had a voucher would they refund the debit taken  NO!   This is in the too hard basket.   The voucher can only be used once on board (WISH they would tell us these things)  sooooo I was told I have to cancel the booking made and hopefully eventually get my money refunded....

I went into the app (where I had originally booked the steakhouse) to find that there is no booking for that date at all (despite being charged)   So I e mailed Princess on two of their addresses asking for the situation to be investigated and my monies refunded But as usual if we get an acknowledgement it just advises they will answer in the next 4 weeks   sooooo still waiting and the cruise in in February Hope they get it sorted before we sail

[jsn55]

On 12/29/2022 at 9:46 PM, windsor26 said:

My saga re speciality dining continues    My TA advised me that I had a specialty dining voucher with my booking (which I did not know about) - after I had managed to book it on the app.   I noticed I have been charged directly to my bank account via debit card.   Tried the Live Chat line to request that as I had a voucher would they refund the debit taken  NO!   This is in the too hard basket.   The voucher can only be used once on board (WISH they would tell us these things)  sooooo I was told I have to cancel the booking made and hopefully eventually get my money refunded....

I went into the app (where I had originally booked the steakhouse) to find that there is no booking for that date at all (despite being charged)   So I e mailed Princess on two of their addresses asking for the situation to be investigated and my monies refunded But as usual if we get an acknowledgement it just advises they will answer in the next 4 weeks   sooooo still waiting and the cruise in in February Hope they get it sorted before we sail

I wouldn't count on it.  We've had issues with shore excursions, dining reservations and the infamous 'app'.  I'm still not sure where we'll be dining on NYE.  Princess seems barely able to function with many of life's details.  My favorite so far was our steward coming in to clean the room despite my request for no service ... he had shown me how to set the privacy button.  But he came in anyway, despite the privacy button he had set himself and my instructions.  So we had to rip the beds apart to get rid of the duvet again and my extra hand towels disappeared.  We set a time for him to come in a couple of days later and he didn't show ... said our 'privacy button' was on.   

[Arizona Wildcat]

The app is a disaster.  Service in MDR averaging 1 1/2 hours to get main course served!  Reservation in advance?  Was not possible.  First two nights took 1-2 HOURS to be seated.

Need to have adequate staff in place or stop selling cabins 

[that]

Happy New Year

 

[Thrak]

Hint for anybody having trouble booking dining for a B2B2B. As usual, only the first segment was listed in the "profile" section of the app but, when trying to book dining, only the days included in the first segment showed up. Same thing with the online version. I could book dining for the first segment but not for the second and third segments. Also as usual, the "link booking" returned a message that no booking was found. Frustrating.

 

Logged out of the app and then, instead of logging in with my user name and password as I normally do, I logged in using the booking number of the second segment. While the "profile" section still only lists the starting date of the first segment, all days for all segments now show for dining. Simple fix for an annoying and frustrating glitch in the app. We are now booked for the same time every night for all 32 days of the cruise in the dining room we prefer. (Of course we all know Princess can manage to screw it all up before we actually cruise this fall...)

[jsn55]

5 hours ago, Thrak said:

Hint for anybody having trouble booking dining for a B2B2B. As usual, only the first segment was listed in the "profile" section of the app but, when trying to book dining, only the days included in the first segment showed up. Same thing with the online version. I could book dining for the first segment but not for the second and third segments. Also as usual, the "link booking" returned a message that no booking was found. Frustrating.

 

Logged out of the app and then, instead of logging in with my user name and password as I normally do, I logged in using the booking number of the second segment. While the "profile" section still only lists the starting date of the first segment, all days for all segments now show for dining. Simple fix for an annoying and frustrating glitch in the app. We are now booked for the same time every night for all 32 days of the cruise in the dining room we prefer. (Of course we all know Princess can manage to screw it all up before we actually cruise this fall...)

Makes so much sense when you describe it ... but I never would have thought of it.  We've only made 4 MDR reservations on a 14-night Royal cruise and Princess has screwed up 2 of them.   Usually we hit the buffet, but this one is such a mess we avoid it whenever we can.  By the time you've wandered around past the empty displays looking for some bread or a salad, your food is cold.  Fortunately, we enjoy 'dinner' in the late afternoon at home, and at 5pm you can dine anywhere!

[Thrak]

19 hours ago, jsn55 said:

Makes so much sense when you describe it ... but I never would have thought of it.  We've only made 4 MDR reservations on a 14-night Royal cruise and Princess has screwed up 2 of them.   Usually we hit the buffet, but this one is such a mess we avoid it whenever we can.  By the time you've wandered around past the empty displays looking for some bread or a salad, your food is cold.  Fortunately, we enjoy 'dinner' in the late afternoon at home, and at 5pm you can dine anywhere!

 

When we cruised in May it was our first cruise since the restart and also our first on a Royal class ship (Royal Princess). The buffet was quite large but most of the food areas were totally empty. The selection and quality were not good. On that cruise we were sailing with friends who wanted to eat fairly early so I booked the 4 of us for 5:40 PM dining every night and it worked out well. We found that we were fine with 5:40 PM as it avoided the rush of people (we were in the aft dining room where there is very little room for people to queue.

 

Since that worked well for us I have booked us in that time slot for our fall B2B2B. Since the cruises aren't until this fall and the ship (Grand Princess) has been sailing the area already (Australia/New Zealand) I am hoping that staffing will be sufficient to open all dining rooms. I booked us in Michelangelo as it's very convenient to Vines. I had booked us in that dining room in May on Royal but Princess closed the dining room and moved us. Of course we only found out about the change after boarding. We had the same switch happen on our most recent cruise in December on Ruby Princess but I knew about it a few days before we boarded.

[candycaramel]

How do you decide which main dining room to choose? I am on the Enchanted Princess and there are 3 main dining rooms (same menu).

I just randomly picked one that had a time I liked available but I was wondering if there are any additional descriptions besides the ones on the deck plans in the app? All 3 of the MDR descriptions are the same in the app.

 

 

Edited January 10, 2023 by candycaramel

[jsn55]

We dined in all three MDRs on Royal and enjoyed them immensely.  All 3 were elegantly decorated and created a very pleasant ambiance for dinner.  Staffers are great and food is sublime.  We don't do a 'big dinner' every night; I think that keeps the MDRs special.  

[G&T Cruisers]

We just sailed on the Island Princess for the 14 day Caribbean adventure we had reserved a table for 2 in the Provence Dining room. We had friends in Club Class who were not really all that thrilled with it and came over to our dining room and we switched to a table for 4 our severs and the dining room manager were amazing and made the changes without any problems.

 

[strobellayjam]

23 hours ago, candycaramel said:

How do you decide which main dining room to choose? I am on the Enchanted Princess and there are 3 main dining rooms (same menu).

I just randomly picked one that had a time I liked available but I was wondering if there are any additional descriptions besides the ones on the deck plans in the app? All 3 of the MDR descriptions are the same in the app.

 

 

As you said, all 3 dining rooms offer the same MDR menu, with the exception of Capri which hosts the Club Class guests and they a bonus entree or two,  so it’s purely based on preference of location (and decor, perhaps?). The Santorini and Capri dining rooms are located midship on Decks 5 and 6 respectively so can be viewed as more convenient to get to and more central to the hub of activities in the Piazza. The Amalfi dining room is on Deck 6 aft, tucked away in its own area. I’ve heard others say Amalfi can be a less busy as it’s in the aft but can’t confirm from personal experience as we ate in Capri. 

[bluetardis]

Are there new 2023 menus available yet?

[krazy4kruisin]

Regarding the DMW or anytime dining, if you do not specify a specific dining time on the app before the cruise, Do you just show up when you are ready to eat in the MDR?  We do like to eat early then hit a show. There will be 6 adults.

[julie3fan]

15 minutes ago, krazy4kruisin said:

Regarding the DMW or anytime dining, if you do not specify a specific dining time on the app before the cruise, Do you just show up when you are ready to eat in the MDR?  We do like to eat early then hit a show. There will be 6 adults.

 

Yes, and if you go early enough there shouldn't be any wait.

[Meekos7]

With the Premier package does the app allow you to book the 2 specialty dinners before you board on the app or do you have to wait until you board.?I don't want to be charged for something I already paid for in the package.

[Thrak]

3 hours ago, Meekos7 said:

With the Premier package does the app allow you to book the 2 specialty dinners before you board on the app or do you have to wait until you board.?I don't want to be charged for something I already paid for in the package.

 

It "should" allow you to book in advance without charge. I did so on our last cruise where we had comped specialty dining. Go ahead and try making the reservation. It "should" show a charge and a credit with a result of zero. If it doesn't do that then simply cancel the booking and you will be out nothing.

Edited January 21, 2023 by Thrak

[mellon1]

Does anyone know if you have Club Class if you can still go in at anytime and avoid having to make reservations or did they change that?  

[memoak]

21 minutes ago, mellon1 said:

Does anyone know if you have Club Class if you can still go in at anytime and avoid having to make reservations or did they change that?  

Yes In fact you cannot make reservations in club class. I have never waited more than 2 minutes to be seated 

[mellon1]

31 minutes ago, memoak said:

Yes In fact you cannot make reservations in club class. I have never waited more than 2 minutes to be seated 

Thanks!

[Walace]

On 1/21/2023 at 9:20 PM, Thrak said:

 

It "should" allow you to book in advance without charge. I did so on our last cruise where we had comped specialty dining. Go ahead and try making the reservation. It "should" show a charge and a credit with a result of zero. If it doesn't do that then simply cancel the booking and you will be out nothing.

I have just booked a cruise with Princess Premier and have only paid the deposit so far. I am Platinum status in the Captain’s Circle so can book dining reservations already, however when I go on the app to book and try to use a ‘credit’ it only gives a paid for option for speciality dining. I’m unsure if the ‘credit’ only becomes available when I pay the full balance. At what stage were you able to booked the speciality dining - before or after you paid the balance in full?

 

Also, does anyone know what happens if I do get charged for the speciality dining when it should be included in the Premier package? I’m happy to be credited with OBC as I’d likely use it across a two week cruise - I’d rather do this than risk not being able to get into our chosen speciality restaurants.

[Thrak]

Try making the booking anyway. When I used a credit it showed that it charged me and also showed an immediate adjustment and a total of $0.00.  Give it a try. If it works the way it did for me you are set. If it doesn't work that way you can cancel and nothing is lost. I hesitated to do it but decided to give it a try and it worked out fine for me. It's definitely worth a try.

[shirleywbob]

Does anyone know when we will be able to make specialty dining reservations prior to the cruise? The app says to check back closer to the cruise. We are 8 days from the cruise. I would expect it to have opened by now.

[Steelers36]

19 minutes ago, shirleywbob said:

Does anyone know when we will be able to make specialty dining reservations prior to the cruise? The app says to check back closer to the cruise. We are 8 days from the cruise. I would expect it to have opened by now.

Yes, it should have.  Here is the theory of the system from Princess:

 

If you are Platinum or Elite, you should have immediate access to book dining as soon as you have a booking with a deposit down and the booking is showing in the Princess App.  

 

If you are not yet at those levels in Captain's Circle, then dining opens after you make Final Payment.  Note this does not necessarily mean the FP Date - it means when the guest makes FP, which could be sooner of course.

[shirleywbob]

1 minute ago, Steelers36 said:

Yes, it should have.  Here is the theory of the system from Princess:

 

If you are Platinum or Elite, you should have immediate access to book dining as soon as you have a booking with a deposit down and the booking is showing in the Princess App.  

 

If you are not yet at those levels in Captain's Circle, then dining opens after you make Final Payment.  Note this does not necessarily mean the FP Date - it means when the guest makes FP, which could be sooner of course.

Final payment was made in November. My friend is also having the same issue and I think she is Platinum level. 

[PacnGoNow]

1 hour ago, shirleywbob said:

Final payment was made in November. My friend is also having the same issue and I think she is Platinum level. 

Sounds like a glitch to me on the App.

 

You should have been able to book a long time ago.

 

Try on the website version of the App.

Go to your cruise personalizer,  click on the cruise you have, move down

you’ll see a small blue hyperlink “Try our website version of the App”.

 

I would use my name and booking number to log in.  Do not link anything or reregister.  
 

You should see Dine My Way (DMW)

Try that.  If you still can’t…call Princess and have them do it for you.