phoneman69 Posted February 12 #1 Share Posted February 12 This will be our first anytime dinning experience. We always do early dinning but was not available at booking. We always tip our waiters and assistant waiters extra on the last night. If we do anytime dinning do you give a tip that night if they deserve it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Butterbean1000 Posted February 12 #2 Share Posted February 12 You can always tip extra. If we have a very good Waite staff, we will ask for them throughout our cruise. We will give extra gratuity at the end of the cruise. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mz-s Posted February 12 #3 Share Posted February 12 Asking for the same team every night is a good way to do ATD. I find that generally they try their best to do that anyways. 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare ninjacat123 Posted February 12 #4 Share Posted February 12 I have never done ATD (in 25 sailings) and I always tip additional at the end of our cruise. Good advice here!👍 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
firefly333 Posted February 12 #5 Share Posted February 12 Carnival does anytime dining very well. Just press a button and table assigned. I liked how they do it. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thesmiths Posted February 12 #6 Share Posted February 12 10 minutes ago, firefly333 said: Carnival does anytime dining very well. Just press a button and table assigned. I liked how they do it. It is that easy! We always ask for the same servers and the last cruise they gave us the same table each night! We eat when they open at 5:30 ish. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phoneman69 Posted February 13 Author #7 Share Posted February 13 2 hours ago, thesmiths said: It is that easy! We always ask for the same servers and the last cruise they gave us the same table each night! We eat when they open at 5:30 ish. We are hoping to go at 5:30ish. Yes would be nice to get same waiter almost like where back in the MDR. Will be interesting to see how it goes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joebucks Posted February 13 #8 Share Posted February 13 I don't want to contribute to another tip thread. However, there is no difference in tipping the staff between fixed, YTD, or eating in the buffet. All of the food staff is included in the gratuity. If you think someone went above and beyond, by all means, give them more. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DukeASUGirl Posted February 13 #9 Share Posted February 13 We generally make a standing dining reservation during Anytime Dining, which then works out to the same table and waitstaff each night. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alias47 Posted February 13 #10 Share Posted February 13 Sidebar: I usually tip the waiter the first night. I may be stuck in my ways, but I do like set dining, for set tablemates in addition to the waitstaff. I've done YTD too, and the flexibility is a pro, that is something to be said for. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phoneman69 Posted February 13 Author #11 Share Posted February 13 8 hours ago, DukeASUGirl said: We generally make a standing dining reservation during Anytime Dining, which then works out to the same table and waitstaff each night. Did not know this was an option. Thank you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
staceyglow Posted February 13 #12 Share Posted February 13 (edited) 1 hour ago, phoneman69 said: Did not know this was an option. Thank you It's not. Unless this person found some sort of exception that I haven't heard about in 20+ YTD cruises, you have to check in every night. Now once you check in and told your table is ready, you can go to the hostess stand and request the same service team. But you can't just walk to "your" table and sit down every night like you do with set time dining. Edited February 13 by staceyglow 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DukeASUGirl Posted February 13 #13 Share Posted February 13 10 minutes ago, staceyglow said: It's not. Unless this person found some sort of exception that I haven't heard about in 20+ YTD cruises, you have to check in every night. Now once you check in and told your table is ready, you can go to the hostess stand and request the same service team. But you can't just walk to "your" table and sit down every night like you do with set time dining. Except that's exactly how it worked for us. Maitre d' allowed us to make a standing reservation for the same team every night. We did in fact check-in at hostess stand, and they would tell us to go to "our" table. That being said, it could in fact have been because of our long list of food allergies, so we place an order for my and my daughter's meals the night before. (Everyone else in the party orders like normal.) Our order tickets are with the server who took it the night before, and the kitchen needs to know where/when the special order will be going. But I didn't ask to make a standing reservation - it was offered to me by the maitre d'. And we did it because it was great for us to know ahead of time. So we essentially had a set seating during the Anytime Dining schedule. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RoperDK Posted February 13 #14 Share Posted February 13 10 hours ago, DukeASUGirl said: We generally make a standing dining reservation during Anytime Dining, which then works out to the same table and waitstaff each night. I could be wrong, but I don't think Carnival does that. You can reserve dining times on Royal in advance. We do this and get the same waitstaff every night. We don't eat in the dining room each night on Carnival and don't try and get the same waitstaff. If we had great service on the nights we go, we usually leave some cash on the table and don't tip at the end. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DukeASUGirl Posted February 13 #15 Share Posted February 13 Just now, RoperDK said: I could be wrong, but I don't think Carnival does that. You can reserve dining times on Royal in advance. We do this and get the same waitstaff every night. We don't eat in the dining room each night on Carnival and don't try and get the same waitstaff. If we had great service on the nights we go, we usually leave some cash on the table and don't tip at the end. I acknowledged in a later post that it may have been a special situation for us because of food allergies, although I didn't realize at the time (actually until now) that they were making accommodations that Carnival doesn't normally offer. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
staceyglow Posted February 13 #16 Share Posted February 13 1 hour ago, DukeASUGirl said: I acknowledged in a later post that it may have been a special situation for us because of food allergies, although I didn't realize at the time (actually until now) that they were making accommodations that Carnival doesn't normally offer. It makes sense that the Maitre'D allowed you to have a set table and time if you needed to pre-order your food for medical reasons. But to let everyone have a standing time and table for YTD would be defeat its entire purpose. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DukeASUGirl Posted February 13 #17 Share Posted February 13 4 minutes ago, staceyglow said: It makes sense that the Maitre'D allowed you to have a set table and time if you needed to pre-order your food for medical reasons. But to let everyone have a standing time and table for YTD would be defeat its entire purpose. Right, and once I realized that they were likely were making an accommodation based on medical reasons, I acknowledged that it may not have been a standard procedure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bollycats Posted February 13 #18 Share Posted February 13 I LOVE the way Carnival does Anytime Dining. When we're 5 minutes from walking out of our cabin door I put in our request. It's always been a 10-20 minute wait (except for one formal night that was 20-30) and by the time we get to the dining room our table is ready. I really wish Princess would do it that way. (we alternate between Princess and Carnival) It's a nightmare on them having to wait in line or hope you can get a reservation earlier in the day. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kdr69 Posted February 13 #19 Share Posted February 13 ABSOLUTELY POSITIVELY uhh whatever you want to do 🙂 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pellaz Posted February 13 #20 Share Posted February 13 22 hours ago, thesmiths said: It is that easy! We always ask for the same servers and the last cruise they gave us the same table each night! We eat when they open at 5:30 ish. Our group of 6-9 people always gets YTD on Carnival and it's worked great...and it's a no-brainer on the Excel-class ships. If we get a really good serving crew, we ask for them on future visits. This can sometimes be a challenge for the staff, but they have gone above and beyond trying to accommodate us...even, in one case, sitting our group in a different section, but served by the same crew. We tip cash rather handsomely on the last night, too. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vylettes Posted February 14 #21 Share Posted February 14 we just did anytime dining on our cruise last month and my husband really enjoyed the waiter we had on the first night (he loves indian food and the waiter was indian and could explain all the food to him and what was in it etc... the guy was super friendly and my husband even got up early in the mornings to say hi to him when he was on breakfast lido duty). So everynite we went to the hostess and asked if she could check us into his section and she did! So I guess it was more like anytime dining with a set section so we got that waiter every nite. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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