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

[foodsvcmgr]

Understood but not sure why reports of issues and general dissatisfaction would be exclusive to CC participants.

I don’t put much faith in random complaints but there is certainly a pattern here with DMW.

[terrierjohn]

On 10/17/2023 at 10:20 AM, Twolittleboys said:

Thanks everybody. I am a bit surprised by this as on most other cruises I have been on you either had set dining or could just go whenever. I don't think I have ever had to wait more than 5 minutes.

Anyway, I think I will just try my luck without reservations. The "prime times" are mostly gone already as I have booked so late and as I am okay with sharing it sounds like it should be okay.

I don't think they will have gone, I tried booking 3 months ago.for May next year and there wee no sharing tables available after 6:30. So my guess is they were never available to book, but I have no inclination to keep wasting my time by regularly checking to see when they do open up, so I will be joining the non reservation queue. 

[Ugarte]

On 10/27/2023 at 9:11 AM, foodsvcmgr said:

Reading all this, are there truly enough people who have no issue with DMW or conversely not enough demanding a return to the TD option, or does Princess simply not care about the guest experience?

Seems unusual to see a business so wedded to a policy or procedure and not care about customer satisfaction.

My uneducated guess is that Princess, as a business model, has decided to deal, in part, with the inevitable disappointed generated by the unmet expectations of 4000 odd guests due to overcrowding and scarce-by-design resources in two ways: 1. Implement the compulsory use of a dining reservation app that is unreliable and inadequate and designed to thwart the attempts of its guests to the end that the quest can now be blamed for his or her own dissatisfaction and not the Company (you, guest, failed to understand the functionalities and limitations of our app and are therefore to blame for the absence of reservations and not Princess Cruises), and 2. Generate a stream of revenue over and above the base fare by offering onboard products and services design to alleviate the anxiety generated in tactic number 1 (Reserve Dining, The Sanctuary, Specialty and Casual Dining, the dozens of other things that require an additional fee). Both the disease and its cure, so to speak. Dis-satisfaction in a seller's market is the way to maximize profits, not satisfaction.

 

But this is all conjecture, I admit. As I sail shortly on the my first cruise onboard a Princess ship I look forward to the lived experience required to report back candidly and honestly and ruthlessly.

[terrierjohn]

On 10/24/2023 at 12:34 PM, HotRoot said:

Dine my way worked perfect for us on the Caribbean Princess.  We were able to book a table for two every night before we boarded.  Once on board, we changed three nights to an earlier time so we could see the production shows.  We did not know which nights were shows so changed them after we saw the Patters late the previous night.  The first two were at a shared table.  We skipped dessert the first time and our entree the second time because service was so slow.  We were able to get a table for two the third time and finished our meal with time to spare.  

I think that's maybe because Caribbean Princess is one of the original Grand class ships with a deck less passengers than the newer Crown class ships, but presumably the same number of MDR places.

[BamaVol]

3 hours ago, terrierjohn said:

I think that's maybe because Caribbean Princess is one of the original Grand class ships with a deck less passengers than the newer Crown class ships, but presumably the same number of MDR places.

We had no problems with DMW in March on CB. I had reservations for a private table for two at 6 each night despite booking less than 90 days before sailing. We never had to wait more than 5 minutes. 
 

It was a similar experience on Sapphire Princess in September. 
 

We next sail in June on Enchanted Princess. I just finished making 5 PM reservations for a table of 6. Much bigger ship, so we shall see. 

[Tedferg]

We just completed trans Pacific, Vancouver to Sydney, we boarded in Honolulu. Strangely we only had 2800 passengers since they only had guaranteed cabins for weeks before sail day. We had booked 2 top at 6:40 every night. Never a problem coming early or late, thanks to being partially full. Interestingly third MDR Symphony was listed as Anytime No Reservations needed. This supports @Steelers36 comment that all MDR are not available for reservations. 

[leck57]

8 hours ago, Tedferg said:

We just completed trans Pacific, Vancouver to Sydney, we boarded in Honolulu. Strangely we only had 2800 passengers since they only had guaranteed cabins for weeks before sail day. We had booked 2 top at 6:40 every night. Never a problem coming early or late, thanks to being partially full. Interestingly third MDR Symphony was listed as Anytime No Reservations needed. This supports @Steelers36 comment that all MDR are not available for reservations. 

 

Let's hope the practice of keeping one MDR for walk ins keeps going. Recent cruises for me have been that if you don't have a reservation then it's a lucky dip for what you will get.

I fully respect those people that wish to have a reservation every night and want to plan their cruise in that way. I don't, and like to turn up to dinner when I want as I like flexibility, however I appreciate that this may mean waiting on occasions and that is fine. Recently though, I have found that if you turn up and say you don't have a reservation, you get looked at as if you just shot Bambi. 

For my upcoming cruise, for the nights we don't have a Specialty dining reservation I have decided to play the Princess game and have booked a table at 7pm each night. I'm thinking that if we turn up at 6.30pm then we might be able to go in as I assume that our table is sitting there waiting for us anyway. If we turn up after 7pm, probably the same thing, plus after that time the crowds drop off a bit anyway.

The previous system wasn't broken.

[terrierjohn]

16 hours ago, BamaVol said:

We had no problems with DMW in March on CB. I had reservations for a private table for two at 6 each night despite booking less than 90 days before sailing. We never had to wait more than 5 minutes. 
 

It was a similar experience on Sapphire Princess in September. 
 

We next sail in June on Enchanted Princess. I just finished making 5 PM reservations for a table of 6. Much bigger ship, so we shall see. 

If you wanted to dine at 5:00pm on a European cruise, especially from Southampton, then you would have no problem, however if you wanted 7:00 - 8:00pm then you would struggle to make an advanced booking.

Incidentally CB and Sapphire are both older Grand class ships with 600 fewer passengers than the later Crown class.

[Luv2CtheMouse9]

When can you book specialty restaurants? When on the app, it tells me wait until closer to my cruise date.  That is roughly 100 days.

[Steelers36]

3 hours ago, Luv2CtheMouse9 said:

When can you book specialty restaurants? When on the app, it tells me wait until closer to my cruise date.  That is roughly 100 days.

When you have made Final Payment.  If Platinum or Elite or in Reserve Class, then as soon as a deposit is down.

 

In your case, there may be system bug(s) preventing this.  Try the web version and see if that works.  If not, call Princess and select DMW support from the phone tree options.

[jennybenny]

On 11/3/2023 at 6:33 PM, Steelers36 said:

When you have made Final Payment.  If Platinum or Elite or in Reserve Class, then as soon as a deposit is down.

 

In your case, there may be system bug(s) preventing this.  Try the web version and see if that works.  If not, call Princess and select DMW support from the phone tree options.

Thank you, I keep forgetting there is the web version now. Is the ability to make reservations for dining as soon as the deposit is made for Platinum, Elite, or in a Reserve class cabin regardless of how far off the cruise is (next summer) or does it have to be "x" days away. If so, how many days?

 

The web version won't let me in, booking has already been claimed (by me on the app, lol. I'm up for calling Princess, but don't want to call if they need the cruise to be 100 days out or something like that. It would be a long distance call for me currently. 

Thank you,

[jennybenny]

@Steelers36, I contacted Princess... 🙂 Patience is a virtue I clearly don't have (not towards you, but towards trying to book DMW and my difficulties doing that). Figured I'd share my update here. There is currently a problem that the IT department is aware of and since my sailing is next summer they aren't worried about it. No ETA, and keep trying. 🙂  

This is what I got through chat. 

Upon checking, there's a system issue at the moment with the Medallion app. Rest assured that our IT department is already trying to fix this and update the app. Since your sailing date is still next year, would it be possible to check from time to time if you can already book your dining reservations? At the moment, there's no update regarding the timeframe, but hopefully it will be resolved in no time.

[Steelers36]

8 minutes ago, jennybenny said:

@Steelers36, I contacted Princess... 🙂 Patience is a virtue I clearly don't have (not towards you, but towards trying to book DMW and my difficulties doing that). Figured I'd share my update here. There is currently a problem that the IT department is aware of and since my sailing is next summer they aren't worried about it. No ETA, and keep trying. 🙂  

This is what I got through chat. 

Upon checking, there's a system issue at the moment with the Medallion app. Rest assured that our IT department is already trying to fix this and update the app. Since your sailing date is still next year, would it be possible to check from time to time if you can already book your dining reservations? At the moment, there's no update regarding the timeframe, but hopefully it will be resolved in no time.

Thanks for your note, but I just have to shake my head at the BS.  They have had various issues with DMW from the get-go, so I can laugh at the chat statement of an issue "at the moment".  Meanwhile, some quantity of other guests will likely be booking dining while you wait.  Did you try web version?

[Steelers36]

1 hour ago, jennybenny said:

Thank you, I keep forgetting there is the web version now. Is the ability to make reservations for dining as soon as the deposit is made for Platinum, Elite, or in a Reserve class cabin regardless of how far off the cruise is (next summer) or does it have to be "x" days away. If so, how many days?

 

The web version won't let me in, booking has already been claimed (by me on the app, lol. I'm up for calling Princess, but don't want to call if they need the cruise to be 100 days out or something like that. It would be a long distance call for me currently. 

Thank you,

Do not try to claim a booking.  Just login with Name, Birthdate, Booking Nbr.... or your id and pswd.  If you cannot get in, that is a whole other issue than DMW.

[jennybenny]

13 minutes ago, Steelers36 said:

Thanks for your note, but I just have to shake my head at the BS.  They have had various issues with DMW from the get-go, so I can laugh at the chat statement of an issue "at the moment".  Meanwhile, some quantity of other guests will likely be booking dining while you wait.  Did you try web version?

Yeah, I tried both. I too laughed. I will see what happens. My patience will run out eventually 🙂

[jmr3201]

On the Ruby Princess it looks like 3 main dining rooms.  Does anyone know for Dinner do all the dining rooms have the same menu?  I want to book times for dinner on the app and want to try out all the dining rooms, so going to just randomly select a dining room per night, but if different menus then might have to rethink?

 

Also, does anyone know how late/until what time dinner is served each evening in the marketplace buffet?

Edited November 9, 2023 by jmr3201
additional question

[lstone19]

On every Princess ship, all main dining rooms serve the same menu. There is no substantive difference between any of them. Think of them as just different areas of the same restaurant.

[jmr3201]

10 minutes ago, lstone19 said:

On every Princess ship, all main dining rooms serve the same menu. There is no substantive difference between any of them. Think of them as just different areas of the same restaurant.

Thanks, that's what I pretty much thought, but nice to no for sure.

[Steelers36]

7 hours ago, jmr3201 said:

Thanks, that's what I pretty much thought, but nice to no for sure.

You can check the locations by using the deck plans on Princess.com.  That is the only difference, other than decor which is somewhat different in the aft DR versus the mid-ship.  On a couple of ships (Sapphire and Diamond), the two mid-ship DR's were built in two halves, so there is technically five DR's on those ships.  And on the two smallest ships (Island and Coral), there are only two DR's - both mid-ship.  When Sun Class comes out, it is a whole new situation.

[jmr3201]

 

On the Ruby Princess, does anyone know how late/until what time dinner is served each evening in the marketplace buffet?

[lstone19]

1 hour ago, jmr3201 said:

 

On the Ruby Princess, does anyone know how late/until what time dinner is served each evening in the marketplace buffet?

 

When we were on Ruby Princess in August in Alaska, dinner was served there until 10pm. Things like that are typically standardized across the fleet (what's the point of having a brand if you don't have a brand standard). But I've seen later on other cruises (although farther in the past) so it may vary with itinerary or there may have been changes to the standard. It's also dependent on the ship's personnel and it's possible they have discretion to vary the schedule based on load and ship's schedule (the ship itself, being inanimate steel and other materials, makes no decisions on its own - a ship is only as good as its officers and crew).

[memoak]

11 hours ago, lstone19 said:

On every Princess ship, all main dining rooms serve the same menu. There is no substantive difference between any of them. Think of them as just different areas of the same restaurant.

The mid ship dining room on deck 6 has a portion set aside for reserve class dining. So there will be fewer tables available in that dining room

[walkingsoon]

5 hours ago, jmr3201 said:

 

On the Ruby Princess, does anyone know how late/until what time dinner is served each evening in the marketplace buffet?

On the Ruby now, buffet has been open to 10:00 pm for last four nights, for the embarkation, two sea days and a port day.

 

FWIW, I think they're doing a pretty good job. The ship is a hair away from full (I heard 3k passengers) and there have been some lines, but they seem to move well. For a sea day lunch, after running out of two toppers in Da Vinci (the only open MDR) they escorted people a dozen at a time up, aft and down to Botticelli (theoretically closed) to seat them there. I hadn't seen that done before. The head waiters and door personnel deserve recognition for working hard at a tough job.

[jmr3201]

Can anyone verify that you can purchase the Princess Plus package upon boarding the ship?  Do they offer any specials to get you sign up for it?

[Tedferg]

3 hours ago, jmr3201 said:

Can anyone verify that you can purchase the Princess Plus package upon boarding the ship?  Do they offer any specials to get you sign up for it?

Yes you can purchase. No specials.