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

[SBCruiser1]

Just now, t&atravel said:

When is your cruise?  If it’s after Sept 14th all dining reservations are going to be canceled anyway.  Rebooking starts in June.  I couldn’t see where you mentioned a date.  If your cruise is before then you shouldn’t be having problems, however when Princess starts messing with the app things don’t always go smoothly.

Cruise starts on the 22nd of May to Alaska. Everyting seemed to be going somewhat smoothly in the App, and then it just totally seemed to take a nose dive. And unfortunatly all customer support could do was pretty much say "Sorry, nothing we can do to help". And its frustrating that there is no email address that you can contact to maintain any kind of history about conversations with them. It just all either live chat, or over the phone.

 

Maybe it is that theyre messing with the App for everything after September and its breaking the current system.

[Kay S]

34 minutes ago, SBCruiser1 said:

 

 

Maybe it is that theyre messing with the App for everything after September and its breaking the current system.

Or that it never worked right in the first place.

[adamtoonarmy]

Anyone had their existing MDR reservations cancelled yet? Mine are all still there and unchanged for our Nov 16 sailing

Edited April 23 by adamtoonarmy

[MacMadame]

5 hours ago, adamtoonarmy said:

Anyone had their existing MDR reservations cancelled yet? Mine are all still there and unchanged for our Nov 16 sailing

I just checked mine an hour ago and they are still there.

[lorri111]

4 minutes ago, MacMadame said:

I just checked mine an hour ago and they are still there.

Mine too

[Steelers36]

On 3/28/2024 at 9:23 PM, IrieBajan54 said:

I'm a solo going on Enchanted. Plan to show up nightly around 6:40p for a shared table. Do I just show up at any of the 3 MDRs and is it likely I won't have to wait long?

Hi.  I am catching up on this thread after several weeks and it looks like your question was bypassed. 

 

The immediate answer would have been that you will find out on board which DR is the best to head to as a walk-up.  If not published in the Patter, the DR Hosts will suggest where to go for the shortest wait.

 

The newest answer is that Princess is formally dividing up the three DR's into purpose-usage locales.  One DR will be for TD (two "set" times per evening); One DR will be for advance reservations for random available times; and one DR will be for walk-ups.  This scheme should accommodate the main desires of guests who generally approach evening dining in one of these three ways.  It will also allow the DRO (Director Restaurant Operations) to make adjustments and utilize space if one DR is under-used and there is more demand for one of the other options.  I don't know when your voyage is, but I suspect this new scheme has been going on informally on at least some of the ships. 

[Steelers36]

On 4/19/2024 at 11:14 PM, Kay S said:

Discovery, Majestic and Regal.

Must be who you spoke with.  Had no issue on Regal in the past and have read reports of success on the other ships.  It will all change for the good soon enough.

[Steelers36]

On 4/20/2024 at 8:45 PM, BamaVol said:

Same here.  We were never fans of all aspects of traditional dining. We like having a reservation, and the same waitstaff is nice.  But table sharing has been less than ideal in the past.

TD is not just table sharing.  Sure, that is the "tradition" of traditional, but lots of TD folks dine at private tables for their party size.  We have done TD all through the DMW period (not that many voyages, but both our friends and us have had NP with this on a variety of ships.  To me, TD simply means I get the same table and wait staff for the entire voyage.

[Steelers36]

On 4/21/2024 at 12:44 PM, doghog said:

I agree. I have a feeling that some will complain about the MDR they are assigned to according to their dining preference. 

No doubt.  Personally, I would prefer to not be in the aft DR, but will go wherever I need to in order to have same wait staff and table every day.

[Steelers36]

On 4/21/2024 at 10:44 PM, Kay S said:

Someone will always be unhappy, but the three dining rooms on most of the ships are similar enough that decor, etc. should not be a valid problem.  The trek back to deck 6 for the aft dining rooms could put people off, but I's hoping those will be the TD dining rooms.

 

On 4/22/2024 at 12:56 PM, BamaVol said:

The aft MDRs are my favorites.  I’ve found them less crowded and chaotic at opening time because they are slightly less accessible.  I’m hoping they are reserved DMW.  But it’s very possible they will not be.

 

On 4/22/2024 at 1:49 PM, julie3fan said:

From my past experience, the aft DR had both early and late TD, and one of the midship DRs had early TD, then switched to anytime later on.  I'd suppose the aft DR will be assigned for the TD room.

 

My bet would be PCL will setup the aft DR's for TD.  The capacity is generally less, IIRC, and they will anticipate slightly less than 1/3 demand.  They will also be able to accommodate any extra TD-style requests in one of the mid-ship DR's as they have been doing - for the most part - since the intro of DMW.  Princess promised from the outset that guests could still have a TD experience, but the DMW software could never possibly deliver on that on its own without human intervention on the ships. 

 

Princess and/or DRO's may have the option to change the planned use of a particular DR if demand swells for one type of dining arrangement over another.  We shall have to wait and see how it all unfolds. 

[Steelers36]

19 hours ago, terrierjohn said:

I hope that a large enough number of passengers continue to make MDR reservations or choose fixed dining, and that the walk up MDR does not become the MDR of choice leading to long queues or lots of pagers.

If this were the case on any particular voyage, DR Mgmt can shift some of the walk-up line to the other DR (up or down at mid-ship).

[Steelers36]

18 hours ago, SBCruiser1 said:

Yes, i have them in my cruise companions. So i see them in the list to add it. I was able to for the first 3 days delete my existing reservations (just my guest and I) and rebook with my parents. But then suddenly on the 4th day it started throwing up the error codes and exceptions. And now i cant book anything else at all. Solo, with my guest, with them, anything.

thankfully i didnt delete all of the prior reservations or i would haven anything for the last 4 days of the cruise.

 

18 hours ago, SBCruiser1 said:

Yeah, I think that is just what i am going to have to do. It is just frustrating as that was supposed to be the whole point of the app and booking, so that everything was good to go and you could relax on your cruise instead of having to try and fix issues.

 

Just seems like Princess has really dropped the ball recently when it comes to the "new" services. You tell them its broken, and they just point you back to the thing you told them was broken.

I believe part of your problem was misusing DMW.  You had a 2-top booked under your own booking.  Your parents had a 2-top booked under their booking.  Now you are trying to book for 4 people Private (a 4-top) on your booking, but the other two already have existing booking.

 

IMO, you should have cleaned out at least the parent bookings and then worked on a party-of-4 booking.  Your personal 2-top booking would stay until you accepted a new booking for 4.  I am also not positive DMW will remove/replace your 2-top booking when confirming the group 4-top booking.  (Since it is not replacing like-for-like).  It wasn't clear to me the exact steps you used.

 

I also don't know how far out your voyage is to when you began to make reservations.  It is possible that inventory of 4-tops is gone at your desired time. 

 

If you call into Princess and listen to the phone tree options, there is (or was) one for DMW inquiries.  I have also read reports where that team has made res for guests having issues with the App.  That said, they won't be able to book you if there isn't the desired availability.

 

If all else fails, the advice to get with a DR Host for DR Mgr as soon as possible after boarding should result in success for you and parents dining together.

 

ETA:  Post #2650 by @t&atravel is an excellent point.  Once the pre-existing reservations are cleaned out for future voyages beyond Sep 14, it will be a clean slate to get back in there and book fresh.  Mark your calendar!

 

ETA 2:  I just read your post #2651 above and this:  

"Cruise starts on the 22nd of May to Alaska. Everyting seemed to be going somewhat smoothly in the App, and then it just totally seemed to take a nose dive. And unfortunately all customer support could do was pretty much say "Sorry, nothing we can do to help".".  IDK when you began to make DMW res, but I can certainly believe at this point that desired times and table type could be gone from the provided inventory.  I am sure you will be taken care of on board if you act promptly and ask nicely.

Edited April 24 by Steelers36

[SBCruiser1]

9 minutes ago, Steelers36 said:

 

I believe part of your problem was misusing DMW.  You had a 2-top booked under your own booking.  Your parents had a 2-top booked under their booking.  Now you are trying to book for 4 people Private (a 4-top) on your booking, but the other two already have existing booking.

 

IMO, you should have cleaned out at least the parent bookings and then worked on a party-of-4 booking.  Your personal 2-top booking would stay until you accepted a new booking for 4.  I am also not positive DMW will remove/replace your 2-top booking when confirming the group 4-top booking.  (Since it is not replacing like-for-like).  It wasn't clear to me the exact steps you used.

 

I also don't know how far out your voyage is to when you began to make reservations.  It is possible that inventory of 4-tops is gone at your desired time. 

 

If you call into Princess and listen to the phone tree options, there is (or was) one for DMW inquiries.  I have also read reports where that team has made res for guests having issues with the App.  That said, they won't be able to book you if there isn't the desired availability.

 

If all else fails, the advice to get with a DR Host for DR Mgr as soon as possible after boarding should result in success for you and parents dining together.

 

ETA:  Post #2650 by @t&atravel is an excellent point.  Once the pre-existing reservations are cleaned out for future voyages beyond Sep 14, it will be a clean slate to get back in there and book fresh.  Mark your calendar!

 

ETA 2:  I just read your post #2651 above and this:  

"Cruise starts on the 22nd of May to Alaska. Everyting seemed to be going somewhat smoothly in the App, and then it just totally seemed to take a nose dive. And unfortunately all customer support could do was pretty much say "Sorry, nothing we can do to help".".  IDK when you began to make DMW res, but I can certainly believe at this point that desired times and table type could be gone from the provided inventory.  I am sure you will be taken care of on board if you act promptly and ask nicely.

Parents never had a reservation booked under their names. As from the moment they started using the App it didnt work for them. So they reached out to customer service, and had the travel agent reach out as well. All customer service said was "Sorry, we cant help with dining reservations, you have to use the app".

I had mine booked, and i canceled my reservations before trying to replace it with one that had the combination of us. It showed plenty of available times, and the available times updated when I changed it from a 2 top to a 4 top. But it just error coded every time i tried to book.

If they dont have availability they should state they dont have availability.

If they know their app is malfunctioning, which they even admitted to and said "oh sorry, the iphone app is glitching, here use the web browser" which didnt work as well. Then they should have the CS representatives own up to that and fix it, instead of just pushing people towards a system that is inherently broken.

All of these reservations were trying to be made back in early February, and it has been broken, and had the same run around with CS since.

[Steelers36]

3 minutes ago, SBCruiser1 said:

Parents never had a reservation booked under their names. As from the moment they started using the App it didn't work for them. So they reached out to customer service, and had the travel agent reach out as well. All customer service said was "Sorry, we cant help with dining reservations, you have to use the app".

I had mine booked, and i canceled my reservations before trying to replace it with one that had the combination of us. It showed plenty of available times, and the available times updated when I changed it from a 2 top to a 4 top. But it just error coded every time i tried to book.

If they don't have availability they should state they don't have availability.

If they know their app is malfunctioning, which they even admitted to and said "oh sorry, the i-phone app is glitching, here use the web browser" which didn't work as well. Then they should have the CS representatives own up to that and fix it, instead of just pushing people towards a system that is inherently broken.

All of these reservations were trying to be made back in early February, and it has been broken, and had the same run around with CS since.

Thanks for more info.  I understand your situation better now.

 

Parents booking note:  I am aware of situation where DMW will not work if there is an issue with the booking.  It could be your parents booking had or has some corrupt data.  Just a guess, but seen it happen before newest App released.

 

It does appear you were suffering from some App issue and not simple availability since the App found something, but never confirmed it for four of you.  The issue I mentioned above also affects trying to book the same guests as part of a party by another person.  I had this very issue for a period of time with a previous voyage.  It was the previous App version of course, but DMW may not have change all that much when the new App was released (the "new" App was more about design changes AFAIK and not guts or coding issues).

 

If you were actually speaking with DMW team who can alter and make DR reservations, then they were possibly running into the same issues as you were.  No one probably knew to investigate potential data issues or why your parents could not make a res.  I presume they were paid in full at least for most of the time you were working on this.

 

Again, hard to know exactly what was going on and what the available inventory was, but I do agree that DMW will only show available times and will indicate if what you are looking for is not available.  Not saving/booking what you have selected is another issue and likely a bug.

[BamaVol]

1 hour ago, Steelers36 said:

TD is not just table sharing.  Sure, that is the "tradition" of traditional, but lots of TD folks dine at private tables for their party size.  We have done TD all through the DMW period (not that many voyages, but both our friends and us have had NP with this on a variety of ships.  To me, TD simply means I get the same table and wait staff for the entire voyage.

I get it.  But we were newbs.   Incompatible tablemates sent us headlong into NCL Freestyle dining, which we found we preferred 1,000%. 

[Steelers36]

33 minutes ago, BamaVol said:

I get it.  But we were newbs.   Incompatible tablemates sent us headlong into NCL Freestyle dining, which we found we preferred 1,000%. 

With you 100% - no interest in table sharing.  We dine alone or with our friends if sailing together.

[Kay S]

3 hours ago, Steelers36 said:

With you 100% - no interest in table sharing.  We dine alone or with our friends if sailing together.

It should be emphasized that TD is NOT mandatory table sharing.  I think that's a common misperception that scares people off.  We look forward to sharing, but that's just us.  More than once we have ended up at tables for two in TD and have asked to be moved.  There are tables for two available in TD dining rooms. 

[memoak]

Just now, Kay S said:

It should be emphasized that TD is NOT mandatory table sharing.  I think that's a common misperception that scares people off.  We look forward to sharing, but that's just us.  More than once we have ended up at tables for two in TD and have asked to be moved.  There are tables for two available in TD dining rooms. 

That may be the case now but when we started cruising in the 1990’s there was no option. Everything was TD and there were no 2 tops for dinner. You chose the size of table and early or late sitting. If I remember right the choice was 6 or 8 tables 

[Kay S]

5 hours ago, memoak said:

That may be the case now but when we started cruising in the 1990’s there was no option. Everything was TD and there were no 2 tops for dinner. You chose the size of table and early or late sitting. If I remember right the choice was 6 or 8 tables 

That was then.  Part of the problem is that people think it's still the same.  No one has to share a table nowadays in traditional dining.

[WNCtourist]

Our last Princess cruise in 2019, we requested early dining, table for 2, well in advance. Instead we were directed to a table for 8, which we declined, then to a table for 6 and told that was all that was available. Less said about the tablemates, the better!

[Steelers36]

50 minutes ago, WNCtourist said:

Our last Princess cruise in 2019, we requested early dining, table for 2, well in advance. Instead we were directed to a table for 8, which we declined, then to a table for 6 and told that was all that was available. Less said about the tablemates, the better!

Sorry that happened to you.  I hope you are not discouraged from trying Princess again.  I have always had positive experiences with out table and time requests on board.  A little give-and-take on both sides helps.  We are always at a private table.  One and one with sharing in the early days of original ATD on Princess.

[Scotmay]

We like to share and meet different people most nights for dinner. I have pre booked our dining table for 8 for our cruise which starts on 10th September. If we don’t wish to share a table the odd night, then it looks as if it is easy to cancel and just go to a walk in dining room instead. Just wondering if I am reading this properly.  In general we really enjoy our cruises with Princess, but it really shouldn’t be this difficult to get an evening meal, should it?  

[kywildcatfanone]

So I'm late to this discussion, but from another thread it appears Princess is allowing people to wear shorts in the DR. Is that every DR, or only certain ones?  Are they designated per ship?

 

Does everyone have to do reservations now, or can you walk up whenever you are ready and request your table size?

[HotRoot]

37 minutes ago, kywildcatfanone said:

So I'm late to this discussion, but from another thread it appears Princess is allowing people to wear shorts in the DR. Is that every DR, or only certain ones?  Are they designated per ship?

 

Does everyone have to do reservations now, or can you walk up whenever you are ready and request your table size?

Shorts are NOT in the included dress code.  That said, some ships (probably all) do allow you to wear shorts.  But you might end up on a ship that follows the dress code and then you could be denied entry if you are wearing shorts.

 

You can always just walk up.  You might have to wait for your requested table size.  I have seen people turned away because the table size they want will not be available that night in that dining room.    

[doghog]

1 hour ago, kywildcatfanone said:

So I'm late to this discussion, but from another thread it appears Princess is allowing people to wear shorts in the DR. Is that every DR, or only certain ones?  Are they designated per ship?

 

Does everyone have to do reservations now, or can you walk up whenever you are ready and request your table size?

On our Enchanted cruise (27 March - 6 April)  we ate in the Amalfi MDR every evening and shorts were worn by others every night. Can't imagine the other two MDRs were any different. 

 

We did DMW and had reservations for 6:PM every evening. Same two top that we selected.