Really slooooow dining!

[Gwendy]

2 hours ago, MissP22 said:

Choosing a dining time has more to do with what activities you want to do that particular night rather than what you do at home. It's impossible to schedule the main show plus a trivia game and them listen to some music in one of the lounges if you begin the night with dinner at 7 PM.

The wonderful thing about cruising is there is a right time for everyone.  What suits one doesn’t suit all.

[Lady Arwen]

11 hours ago, karatemom2 said:

We try to schedule our MDR reservations for 6 to 6:30 now, but there was a time when we were traveling as a family with kids that we regularly headed to the MDR between 5 to 5:30. It left us free to enjoy evening fun on the ship and for them to have time in the clubs if they wanted to participate in any of the planned activities. So definitely not just a senior thing. More just a personal preference I think. 

Got it!  When you have kids with you it’s a whole new ball game.  Children cannot wait to have dinner and certainly not after 6:00!  My DH and I are seniors, but when we started cruising we just really enjoyed late suppers.  We aren’t showroom or trivia people.  We prefer a nice lounge with music and some cocktails.  We can’t visit the casino on Princess ships because of the smoke, but on Celebrity we close the casino down every night.  Of course, just our preference, too.

[Cruise Raider]

37 minutes ago, Lady Arwen said:

Got it!  When you have kids with you it’s a whole new ball game.  Children cannot wait to have dinner and certainly not after 6:00!  My DH and I are seniors, but when we started cruising we just really enjoyed late suppers.  We aren’t showroom or trivia people.  We prefer a nice lounge with music and some cocktails.  We can’t visit the casino on Princess ships because of the smoke, but on Celebrity we close the casino down every night.  Of course, just our preference, too.

You sound a lot like us.  When we first started cruising, we’d pop into dinner about 15 minutes before they closed for the evening.  Now, we usually don’t even go into the MDR past 6 PM, if even.  And live music is just the best!  
And in every survey we get from Princess, we mention there should be no smoking inside, period!  We, along with so many of our friends have to avoid the casino simply because of all the smoke.  The Royal Princess has a true, albeit very small, nonsmoking section in a completely separate room.  I actually wish they would switch that up and make the majority of the casino nonsmoking and that little section could be assigned to those that smoke. 

[Lady Arwen]

39 minutes ago, Cruise Raider said:

You sound a lot like us.  When we first started cruising, we’d pop into dinner about 15 minutes before they closed for the evening.  Now, we usually don’t even go into the MDR past 6 PM, if even.  And live music is just the best!  
And in every survey we get from Princess, we mention there should be no smoking inside, period!  We, along with so many of our friends have to avoid the casino simply because of all the smoke.  The Royal Princess has a true, albeit very small, nonsmoking section in a completely separate room.  I actually wish they would switch that up and make the majority of the casino nonsmoking and that little section could be assigned to those that smoke. 

Agree with you 100%!  I didn’t know that Royal had a real non smoking section.  We haven’t been on her in years and we assumed all the Royal class ships were the same.  Thanks for pointing that out.

[Cruise Raider]

20 minutes ago, Lady Arwen said:

Agree with you 100%!  I didn’t know that Royal had a real non smoking section.  We haven’t been on her in years and we assumed all the Royal class ships were the same.  Thanks for pointing that out.

It’s hlaf of the Take 5 that you can find on the Discovery.  I think they call it the Double Down Bar. They’ve even taken out Churchills and have replaced it with an arcade.  It is down in Australia right now so, I think I read there is no smoking allowed in the casino anyway.  We should be so lucky.  

[cruisinsince75]

10 hours ago, Gwendy said:

The wonderful thing about cruising is there is a right time for everyone.  What suits one doesn’t suit all.

So true!  Our travel mates have very different schedules from us.  They are early risers and we are not, they are early to bed, and we stay up late.  They like to eat dinner 5:00-5:30 and we like to dine around 7:30.  On our upcoming Regal cruise we have booked a table in the CG a couple of nights for 6:30, which we agreed was a good compromise.  The other nights we will be on our own.      

[MTAK]

On 1/27/2024 at 6:51 PM, DennisNV said:

We still had a wonderful vacation, but were disappointed that the dining venues we love were so frustratingly slow!! All the food we had on the cruise in all venues was very good otherwise. 

 

Anyone else experience this sort of thing?

Yes. We were on Discovery January 13-20 and MDR service was very slow. We had a table for 2 at 5:40 in Ketchikan. The first night was 1h 50 minutes which caused us to miss the first show, but we assumed this was the 'first night chaos'. The next nights were at least 1h 30 minutes. One night we tried ordering dessert with the other courses thinking it would help speed things up, only to have the waiter return with menus after the main course asking us about ordering dessert (this must have thrown off his routine). The last night in the MDR we were out in just over 60 minutes but we skipped dessert to ensure we'd have time to grab drinks and get decent seats for the show.

 

We used a credit at the Gastropub one evening and the service was very slow there also, to the point that pax were verbally complaining. I would have been very unhappy if we paid for that.  We had good service at Gigi's for lunch on the last day.

 

Other than occasionally refilling water glasses, drink service while dining was non-existent. We each bring a starter cocktail or glass of wine, but no one ever offered to refresh them. My wife ordered coffee with desert one night and it did not show up until well after we were finished eating.

 

They seemed to be understaffed and frustrated. We agree the food on this cruise was very good though, which helped make up for the slow service. We are new to Princess and liked everything else about the cruise.

[MissP22]

1 hour ago, MTAK said:

Yes. We were on Discovery January 13-20 and MDR service was very slow. We had a table for 2 at 5:40 in Ketchikan. The first night was 1h 50 minutes which caused us to miss the first show, but we assumed this was the 'first night chaos'. The next nights were at least 1h 30 minutes. One night we tried ordering dessert with the other courses thinking it would help speed things up, only to have the waiter return with menus after the main course asking us about ordering dessert (this must have thrown off his routine). The last night in the MDR we were out in just over 60 minutes but we skipped dessert to ensure we'd have time to grab drinks and get decent seats for the show.

 

We used a credit at the Gastropub one evening and the service was very slow there also, to the point that pax were verbally complaining. I would have been very unhappy if we paid for that.  We had good service at Gigi's for lunch on the last day.

 

Other than occasionally refilling water glasses, drink service while dining was non-existent. We each bring a starter cocktail or glass of wine, but no one ever offered to refresh them. My wife ordered coffee with desert one night and it did not show up until well after we were finished eating.

 

They seemed to be understaffed and frustrated. We agree the food on this cruise was very good though, which helped make up for the slow service. We are new to Princess and liked everything else about the cruise.

Just a thought, but if you were consistently late for the show, why not arrive a little earlier so you can get a decent seat. 

[MTAK]

3 minutes ago, MissP22 said:

Just a thought, but if you were consistently late for the show, why not arrive a little earlier so you can get a decent seat. 

We had a reservation each night in the MDR at 5:40 but I suppose we could have tried showing up to dine earlier. Not sure how they handle that.

[d9704011]

7 minutes ago, MTAK said:

We had a reservation each night in the MDR at 5:40 but I suppose we could have tried showing up to dine earlier. Not sure how they handle that.

They're most likely going to show you to a table.

[Gwendy]

56 minutes ago, MTAK said:

We had a reservation each night in the MDR at 5:40 but I suppose we could have tried showing up to dine earlier. Not sure how they handle that.

That’s like a late lunch.

[Micahs Grandad]

On 1/27/2024 at 11:02 PM, AZjohn said:

Yep.

And I would describe as stupid rather than silly.

Maybe one day the “traditional” fake acting while some passengers wave their used napkins around will end forever.🤣

 

Cheers

Given what is in a dirty napkin rather an unsanitary practice

[OzKiwiJJ]

On 1/30/2024 at 1:50 AM, Cruise Raider said:

It’s hlaf of the Take 5 that you can find on the Discovery.  I think they call it the Double Down Bar. They’ve even taken out Churchills and have replaced it with an arcade.  It is down in Australia right now so, I think I read there is no smoking allowed in the casino anyway.  We should be so lucky.  

No smoking allowed anywhere inside the ship in Australia, not even Churchills. There only outdoor smoking areas.

[MissP22]

14 hours ago, MTAK said:

We had a reservation each night in the MDR at 5:40 but I suppose we could have tried showing up to dine earlier. Not sure how they handle that.

Even though you would be slightly earlier they still would have seated you. 

From what I've seen the times are only approximate, especially the earlier ones.

[Cruise Raider]

4 hours ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

No smoking allowed anywhere inside the ship in Australia, not even Churchills. There only outdoor smoking areas.

And, I bet people still gamble, right?  
It’s my wish that this will catch on in US sailings.  

[Steelers36]

16 hours ago, MTAK said:

We had a reservation each night in the MDR at 5:40 but I suppose we could have tried showing up to dine earlier. Not sure how they handle that.

Any table reserved for 5:40pm is going to be sitting waiting for the guests.  No way anyone will be seated there at 5pm opening and be done in time to free up the table.  You could show up anytime prior to 5:40pm.

[Steelers36]

On 1/28/2024 at 1:29 PM, MLBFan24 said:

Waiter was SLOOOOW. He liked to bring out dishes at the same time for EVERYONE in his area. Meaning my family of 3 was also waiting for other tables to finish their appetizers.

That would not stand with me.  No way.  As soon as I saw what was happening, I would ask the waiter to not do that to our table.  A word with the section Head Waiter should resolve if necessary.  That is just being lazy on waiter's part and it is fairly rare I think.  Sounds like his head was back in the old TD situation.  Glad you only had it for one night.

[Stosh68]

Ate at Sabatini’s last night on Discovery.   Sat down at 5:20, finished dessert at 6:45 with plenty of time to get great seats at the theater for the 7:30 show.  
 

Never have had a problem with overly longer dinner service.   If there’s something we want to do, we tell the waiter how long we have and they’ve always expedited service. 
 

There's even a setting on the new app for what length of dinner service you prefer.  

Edited February 5 by Stosh68

[MissP22]

1 hour ago, Stosh68 said:

Ate at Sabatini’s last night on Discovery.   Sat down at 5:20, finished dessert at 6:45 with plenty of time to get great seats at the theater for the 7:30 show.  
 

Never have had a problem with overly longer dinner service.   If there’s something we want to do, we tell the waiter how long we have and they’ve always expedited service. 
 

There's even a setting on the new app for what length of dinner service you prefer.  

 

You must be really fast eaters.

BTW- did they let you order more than one of their appetizers without charging you extra?