Dear Princess Management, I Hope You Read This

[MsSoCalCruiser]

10 minutes ago, NownZen said:

I am curious what was so horrible. We would show up, never waited more than a couple of minutes and had dinner. Having the same waiters every night is of no importance to us as it is to some people.

We were on a cruise with traditional dining and had a waitress who was a nuisance and we could not get her to calm down. She new we had had discussions with the MaitreD about her so she was nervous around us. One evening after interrupting us yet again, she spun around a hit a waiter carrying a tray of dinners. I looked across at my wife and the had had a full plate of spaghetti and sauce dropped directly on her head and is was running down her front.  The look on the waitress's face was that she thought she might have to swim home.  I am old and stupid but not so much that I would laugh at my wife's situation. I think my tongue is still healing from biting it.

That’s not cool but I think I still would have laughed. I probably would have laughed if that happened to me.  I might be upset about my clothes though depending on which dress I was wearing.

[Steelers36]

37 minutes ago, NownZen said:

Was that why they would put us in traditional dining and wait list us for the anytime dining?

I think you have that backwards - but there would always have been exceptions. 

 

25 minutes ago, Mike45LC said:

For me, they put us in Anytime and wait listed us for Second TD.  The wait list did not clear and we were stuck in Anytime.  That first Anytime experience cost me a lot of money because it was so horrible that I thereafter upgraded to Club Class  -- no waiting, same servers every night!

Yes, in general, the old Cruise Personalizer way of choosing Early or Late TD, or Anytime, meant that in most cases, the TD would get full and folks would have to WL and then be in AT dining.

 

Even if the trend has shifted, reducing TD from nearly 50% of the space/time down to 1/3 doesn't seem unjustified

[Steelers36]

29 minutes ago, PrincessLuver said:

 

We second that.  We have had no problems with the Dine My Way and it seems a much better use of your limited staff then having traditional dinning where a table of for 8 is only used by two because the rest of the table randomly shows throughout the cruise.  No more wasted wait staff.  Bravo!!!

Ok, but there can be just as many no-shows under DMW.  It's up to DR mgmt to observe and fill those chairs.

[latebloomer56]

We like early TD  this will be our first cruise with DMW. Will see how it goes, I'm on a cruise so I know I will never go hungry 😁.

[JimmyVWine]

8 minutes ago, Steelers36 said:

Technically you could say that, but in practice, the tables were filled as the TD'ers left.

True.  And our "no wait" strategy was to always go to the Transitional MDR at 7:05 to beat the people who took the posted time literally.  But we were on a ship once where the M'd was turning people away at 7:00, telling them to come back at 7:15.  But then, this same M'd started seating people between 7:05 and 7:10, so go figure.  Even still, we are now talking about shaving 15 minutes off of the process.  Not enough to solve the problem. 

[Mike45LC]

11 minutes ago, NownZen said:

I am curious what was so horrible. We would show up, never waited more than a couple of minutes and had dinner. Having the same waiters every night is of no importance to us as it is to some people.

We were on the Royal Princess in Winter 2019.  We were used to Traditional Second Seating.  The promise of Anytime was that you just show up when you wanted to eat.  That was not the case. 

 

I'll ignore the first night, because it often is a bit of chaos. 

 

At 7:05 p.m. on second night (formal), the line to get a pager was incredibly long -- not to be seated, but to be put on the Host's list!  Reservations were ignored. 

 

3rd night, again a long line.  Once the pager was issued, they sent us up to Alfredo's to wait in seats there -- perhaps to induce us to eat at Alfredo's instead?  4th night, only short line for the pager, and then only 25 minute wait to be seated! 

 

Bottom line, the average wait time for Anytime Dining was at least 30 minutes.  As opposed to what we were used to, namely, walking up to our assigned table at the scheduled dinner time.  

 

And the wait staff was NOT up to par.  Our first night with Denish from India, he did not bring baked potato toppings, horse radish (for the prime rib), ranch dressing and other items even after he was reminded.  And we got stuck with him twice -- better than being stuck with him the entire cruise in Traditional Dining.  (Twice  in Traditional, our wait staff was so bad we asked to change tables to another server.)  

 

But I never had to bite my tongue for marital harmony!  I hope you are fulling healed!

[JimmyVWine]

4 minutes ago, Mike45LC said:

(Twice  in Traditional, our wait staff was so bad we asked to change tables to another server.)

Many people seem to forget this part of the equation of TD! 

[Ombud]

Do you think PCL noted ages of those who requested ATD vs TD prior to change?

[JimmyVWine]

Just now, Ombud said:

Do you think PCL noted ages of those who requested ATD vs TD prior to change?

100%.  They don't ask for your date of birth simply to send you a Birthday Card of a ship with balloons and confetti coming out of its smokestack!  Everything you do and every choice you make is mapped over to your age, gender and geographic location in their data banks. 

[NownZen]

17 minutes ago, Mike45LC said:

We were on the Royal Princess in Winter 2019.  We were used to Traditional Second Seating.  The promise of Anytime was that you just show up when you wanted to eat.  That was not the case. 

 

I'll ignore the first night, because it often is a bit of chaos. 

 

At 7:05 p.m. on second night (formal), the line to get a pager was incredibly long -- not to be seated, but to be put on the Host's list!  Reservations were ignored. 

 

3rd night, again a long line.  Once the pager was issued, they sent us up to Alfredo's to wait in seats there -- perhaps to induce us to eat at Alfredo's instead?  4th night, only short line for the pager, and then only 25 minute wait to be seated! 

 

Bottom line, the average wait time for Anytime Dining was at least 30 minutes.  As opposed to what we were used to, namely, walking up to our assigned table at the scheduled dinner time.  

 

And the wait staff was NOT up to par.  Our first night with Denish from India, he did not bring baked potato toppings, horse radish (for the prime rib), ranch dressing and other items even after he was reminded.  And we got stuck with him twice -- better than being stuck with him the entire cruise in Traditional Dining.  (Twice  in Traditional, our wait staff was so bad we asked to change tables to another server.)  

 

But I never had to bite my tongue for marital harmony!  I hope you are fulling healed!

I agree that that is an unpleasant experience. We do not go on the new ships so we have never seen the pagers. The spaghetti incident was on the Royal, just the small one that they got rid of after we were on it. Come to think of it, they got rid of the Pacific Princess  and Ocean Princess very soon after we were on them. I do not think it was something we did.

[NownZen]

12 minutes ago, JimmyVWine said:

100%.  They don't ask for your date of birth simply to send you a Birthday Card of a ship with balloons and confetti coming out of its smokestack!  Everything you do and every choice you make is mapped over to your age, gender and geographic location in their data banks. 

That is why the onboard tracking info is useful for them. You would hope it would help plan to reduce congestion but it could just as well be to see how much more people would accept.

[Elizabeth K.]

I always loved trad dining. But my last two cruises--one right before the shut down and one recently on the Discovery-- we opted for the anytime and mostly did specialty except for 1 or 2 nights. There were just 2 of us.  Both times on the nights we did go into the anytime dining room, it's a terrible dining experience. Its like chaos in there. Wait staff running everywhere, and not even introducing themselves. Literally the waiter comes to the table and says nothing, and waits for us to say what we want, while looking around the room and not at us. Maybe we are just unlucky, but it was like hurry up and get in and get out.

[sloopsailor]

1 hour ago, Steelers36 said:

Ok, but there can be just as many no-shows under DMW.  It's up to DR mgmt to observe and fill those chairs.

 

No-shows don't matter. The next person in line will take the table the no-show would have gotten. Exactly the way it works in nearly every restaurant on land - a system that has worked for generations, and that you have benefitted from. 

Edited September 30, 2022 by sloopsailor

[BabySarge]

1.  JimmyVWine:  I do know about connecting with others on roll calls, however, on this cruise we wanted a table for two so did not seek out anyone on the roll call and try to organize a shared table.  However, we have another much longer cruise booked for the beginning of 2023 that we have connected with others on our roll call and have attempted to book a shared table with them utilizing the Dine My Way app.  We have all experienced difficulty in making that happen (error messages, no such booking number, would save two of the reservations but not the third, etc).  Complicated by the fact that whilst I am on this cruise, I cannot access anything in the Medallion App to include the Dine My Way portion for that upcoming cruise unless I am off the ship.

 

2. sonomaphil and others:  I have absolutely no issue whatsoever with those that as you say " like Dine My Way and despise traditional dining" and believe you should be able to have that choice.  Just as I also believe that myself and those that do like traditional dining should also have the choice to be able to choose that.  It is called Dine My Way and the way I/we and others would like to do it is at the same time, same table, same waiters, and same dining room each night of the cruise.  

 

3.  Everyone:  I just want the same choice for my preferred style of dining that you have.

[sloopsailor]

4 minutes ago, BabySarge said:

1.  JimmyVWine:  I do know about connecting with others on roll calls, however, on this cruise we wanted a table for two so did not seek out anyone on the roll call and try to organize a shared table.  However, we have another much longer cruise booked for the beginning of 2023 that we have connected with others on our roll call and have attempted to book a shared table with them utilizing the Dine My Way app.  We have all experienced difficulty in making that happen (error messages, no such booking number, would save two of the reservations but not the third, etc).  Complicated by the fact that whilst I am on this cruise, I cannot access anything in the Medallion App to include the Dine My Way portion for that upcoming cruise unless I am off the ship.

 

2. sonomaphil and others:  I have absolutely no issue whatsoever with those that as you say " like Dine My Way and despise traditional dining" and believe you should be able to have that choice.  Just as I also believe that myself and those that do like traditional dining should also have the choice to be able to choose that.  It is called Dine My Way and the way I/we and others would like to do it is at the same time, same table, same waiters, and same dining room each night of the cruise.  

 

3.  Everyone:  I just want the same choice for my preferred style of dining that you have.

 

Unfortunately for you, life goes on and things change. What you are complaining about is probably the same thing people who smoke complained about when smoking bans were first implemented, both on land on on sea. Best to accept that you are now the minority and adjust, just like the few smokers remaining have had to adjust to limited places they could smoke. 

 

For years those of us who would have preferred the Any Time Dining dining model had to endure being seated at the same table, at the same time, with the same people on almost all cruise lines. Somehow we survived. Now, it's your turn to endure a system you aren't in favor of. And you too will survive - if you let yourself. 

 

 

[sonomaphil]

18 minutes ago, BabySarge said:

2. sonomaphil and others:  I have absolutely no issue whatsoever with those that as you say " like Dine My Way and despise traditional dining" and believe you should be able to have that choice.  Just as I also believe that myself and those that do like traditional dining should also have the choice to be able to choose that.  It is called Dine My Way and the way I/we and others would like to do it is at the same time, same table, same waiters, and same dining room each night of the cruise.  

 

 

Traditionally diners were a big part of the problem with the Anytime system.  Many, many times I heard Traditional diners practically bragging that if they missed their time or just didn't feel like eating then they'd just go to the Anytime room. That's not how it works.  

 

[Kay S]

2 hours ago, JimmyVWine said:

I amazes me how people's experiences can differ so greatly. 

Really?  I don't presume that my experience is the only one and the rest of the world is just like me.

2 hours ago, MsSoCalCruiser said:

That’s not cool but I think I still would have laughed. I probably would have laughed if that happened to me.  I might be upset about my clothes though depending on which dress I was wearing.

I may have been on that cruise!  A poor inexperienced server kept dropping whole trays of food and spilling stuff on people.  I felt most sorry for the waiter who was assigned to training her.

[Kay S]

13 minutes ago, sonomaphil said:

Traditionally diners were a big part of the problem with the Anytime system.  Many, many times I heard Traditional diners practically bragging that if they missed their time or just didn't feel like eating then they'd just go to the Anytime room. That's not how it works.  

 

That was a problem, true.  But since there is no Anytime Dining anymore, I guess people will just have to show up on time for their reservation.  Aren't some people just prone to being tardy?

[Kay S]

29 minutes ago, sloopsailor said:

 

Unfortunately for you, life goes on and things change. What you are complaining about is probably the same thing people who smoke complained about when smoking bans were first implemented, both on land on on sea. Best to accept that you are now the minority and adjust, just like the few smokers remaining have had to adjust to limited places they could smoke. 

 

For years those of us who would have preferred the Any Time Dining dining model had to endure being seated at the same table, at the same time, with the same people on almost all cruise lines. Somehow we survived. Now, it's your turn to endure a system you aren't in favor of. And you too will survive - if you let yourself. 

 

 

Odd.  Requesting TD is the same as smoking in public?

 

I'm curious about why some people are so hostile to those who want TD.  Why the anger?  Revenge?  "It's your turn to endure a system you aren't in favor of."   I just don't get it.  Oh, BTW, no one has to "endure" anything.  They can take their business elsewhere.

[SiliconCruiser]

6 hours ago, BabySarge said:

There is absolutely no accommodation made for those of us that would like a more traditional dining experience and it has turned into an absolute crap shoot as to whether or not you can get the same waiters or area of the dining room two nights in a row. 
 

 

We have only had TD once, years ago on our first Princess cruise.  Even with Anytime Dining we often ended up with the same table and same wait staff.  The same thing happened in July with DMW, we eventually ended up with the same table and wait staff including one night when we arrived an hour later than normal.  There was a greeter that just diverted us to that table regardless of where the host/hostesses had told to seat us.

[sloopsailor]

48 minutes ago, Kay S said:

Odd.  Requesting TD is the same as smoking in public?

 

I'm curious about why some people are so hostile to those who want TD.  Why the anger?  Revenge?  "It's your turn to endure a system you aren't in favor of."   I just don't get it.  Oh, BTW, no one has to "endure" anything.  They can take their business elsewhere.

 

Not hostile at all. Just describing reality. Things are changing. Either you adjust or stay annoyed during every cruise. Your choice. 

 

And to quote you: "Oh, BTW, no one has to "endure" anything.  They can take their business elsewhere." That is very true. Perhaps you should take your own advice? 

 

One other comment: in days past, a few decades ago, traditional dining was the ONLY option. I remember cruises that had only the main dining room for a proper sit down dinner. There were no specialty restaurants and only basic buffet options, and maybe a hamburger, fries, hot dogs place. We had zero choice but to endure being at the same table with strangers for days on end if we wanted to take a cruise. 

Edited September 30, 2022 by sloopsailor

[mom says]

32 minutes ago, Kay S said:

Odd.  Requesting TD is the same as smoking in public?

 

I'm curious about why some people are so hostile to those who want TD.  Why the anger?  Revenge?  "It's your turn to endure a system you aren't in favor of."   I just don't get it.  Oh, BTW, no one has to "endure" anything.  They can take their business elsewhere.

Yes, it is very similar to the situation smokers found themselves in. They, and you, have become a small minority. There is no hostility in saying that.  It is a simple fact, even though you seem to struggle with that concept. Or the concept of adapting to changing conditions.  TD is dying out on many, if not most cruiselines. You can certainly take your business elsewhere,  but you may find your choices shrinking by the year.

[Outerdog]

[Kay S]

3 minutes ago, sloopsailor said:

 

 

 

And to quote you: "Oh, BTW, no one has to "endure" anything.  They can take their business elsewhere." That is very true. Perhaps you should take your own advice? 

That's the plan.  I'm still curious why you seem to be angry at the OP here who just asked for TD.  And "it's your turn to endure" does sound pretty mean.  

[sloopsailor]

1 minute ago, Kay S said:

That's the plan.  I'm still curious why you seem to be angry at the OP here who just asked for TD.  And "it's your turn to endure" does sound pretty mean.  

 

Please don't project your anger on me. I am not angry. I am only pointing out facts. Why are you so confrontational about the truth?