4/13/24: Princess Rolls Out Fleetwide Dining Revolution

[FLAlaska]

36 minutes ago, LACruiser88 said:

I just requested that my post be deleted, thanks!

No need. They were merged. Thanks for posting the official release 

[muffydawg]

Wonderful news!

[kywildcatfanone]

For the anytime, can you now wear shorts?  Might consider it if one of the dining rooms is casual dress.

[Potstech]

Now comes the discussion on which dining room will be for what group?  Then all the posts about those that do not like the assigned dining room for their choice. Oh what fun we will have with this.

Edited April 13 by Potstech

[taxmantoo]

Wonderful news ... THANK YOU !

[antsp]

Is this the same as the new room service the introduced with Princess plus

[Dani24]

Curious where the Reserve/Suite dining will be among these three rooms? Or will they adjust based on the popularity of any particular option?

 

Which also leads me to wonder if there are caps on any of these choices. Will you need to preselect if you want traditional, reservations, or walk-in? And if the demand for one of those options on a given cruise is more than what that particular dining room will handle, do you get forced into another category?

[insidecabin]

When princess 3 dining room ships had 

1 very early(5:30) fixed followed by anytime

1 2xfixed dining

1 anytime.

 

This used to work very well, there were enough doing the very early and 2 fixed  to keep the anytime demand down and the peak overflow for anytime could refill the early dining as people moved on.

 

 

 

[Arizona Wildcat]

17 minutes ago, Dani24 said:

Curious where the Reserve/Suite dining will be among these three rooms? Or will they adjust based on the popularity of any particular option?

 

Which also leads me to wonder if there are caps on any of these choices. Will you need to preselect if you want traditional, reservations, or walk-in? And if the demand for one of those options on a given cruise is more than what that particular dining room will handle, do you get forced into another category?

Can answer part if your questions as had this "experience " last year.

If you want traditional you obviously need to book.  If you want to reserve you make your booking one night at a time with availability for reserving limited.  Again if anytime- no reservations. 

Will be interesting to see how dining rooms are assigned.  Will find that out in June.

On our cruise there was more demand for fixed seating than seats for the early seating.  They moved some of those people to the reservation dining room.

I note making reservations was chaotic, but smoothed out by day 3 (16 day cruise).  There was lots of seating available after 8pm.

Port days had lots of no shows for fixed dining and walk upstairs for anytime.

Edited April 13 by Arizona Wildcat

[Honolulu Blue]

4 hours ago, Host CJSKIDS said:

My PVP also posted this and it starts fleet wide will launch feel wide on voyages departing September 1, 2024 and beyond. 

Noted. Thanks for the update. My next Princess cruise is in August, so if the flick the switch all at once, I won't be affected by this.

[julie3fan]

47 minutes ago, Potstech said:

Now comes the discussion on which dining room will be for what group?  Then all the posts about those that do not like the assigned dining room for their choice. Oh what fun we will have with this.

 

I find any and all of the dining rooms to be pretty much equal to each other.  I'll just be happy to have TD back!

[suekel]

6 hours ago, Jose Zalfadilla said:

Perhaps a cheaper way to get some of the benefits associated with Club Class (or whatever it's called now)?  Other than special menu of 2 or 3 additional entrees, one may walk in anytime, perhaps have the same wait staff, shared or private table? I don't know, it's worth trying.

This has nothing to do with club class. One DR has traditional dining,  one has reservations that change and one has walk in... take your chances that there is no line

[suekel]

48 minutes ago, Dani24 said:

Curious where the Reserve/Suite dining will be among these three rooms? Or will they adjust based on the popularity of any particular option?

 

Which also leads me to wonder if there are caps on any of these choices. Will you need to preselect if you want traditional, reservations, or walk-in? And if the demand for one of those options on a given cruise is more than what that particular dining room will handle, do you get forced into another category?

Reserve/Suite should not be affected by this in any way.  Of course there will be caps on traditional.  2 seatings, set number of tables. 

[JimmyVWine]

1 hour ago, Potstech said:

Now comes the discussion on which dining room will be for what group?  Then all the posts about those that do not like the assigned dining room for their choice. Oh what fun we will have with this.

And don’t forget about the new, obligatory acronyms. 
TD=Traditional Dining

ATR= Anytime Reservations

ATW=Anytime Walk-Ins. 

[c-boy]

1 hour ago, kywildcatfanone said:

For the anytime, can you now wear shorts?  Might consider it if one of the dining rooms is casual dress.

 with p u seat cushions 😆

[alwalaska]

I wonder what will happen on ships with only 2 dining rooms, like the Coral Princess?

[UpcountryTravelers]

So...just what is the difference between traditional and reserved?  Just the times available? I predict confusion by eliminating anytime, which has been our preferred for years.

 

 

[Rudy888]

12 minutes ago, UpcountryTravelers said:

So...just what is the difference between traditional and reserved?  Just the times available? I predict confusion by eliminating anytime, which has been our preferred for years.

 

 

The difference is with traditional you have the same table , same waiter. And if you share the same tablemates, 

Reserved, same time. But maybe different table and waiter. 

 

Edited April 13 by Rudy888

[Dani24]

2 hours ago, suekel said:

Reserve/Suite should not be affected by this in any way.  Of course there will be caps on traditional.  2 seatings, set number of tables. 

We're in a suite on our next cruise, so definitely taking advantage of the Reserve dining. On our prior suite cruise we had a section of a dining room with regular anytime diners in the other part. Just curious if they'll pair the Reserve section with traditional, reservation or walk-ins. I don't know that I care where they place us, just curious about the logistics of it all. 🙂

[julie3fan]

11 minutes ago, UpcountryTravelers said:

So...just what is the difference between traditional and reserved?  Just the times available? I predict confusion by eliminating anytime, which has been our preferred for years.

 

 

 

Traditional is either early or late, same table, waitstaff and other diners if sharing a table.  Reserved is you pick 6:15 the first night, 7:30 the second, 6 the third, etc.  Anytime is walk up without a reservation and get seated when a table is available.  They aren't eliminating Anytime.

[RNRcruisers]

Yay! I’m so excited to have traditional dining back!

[voljeep]

5 minutes ago, RNRcruisers said:

Yay! I’m so excited to have traditional dining back!

as an option - perfect ...

 

but for the rest of us ... also perfect

[Stosh68]

One post says starting September 1st, another says September 14th.   As I have a sailing that leaves September 1st, it affects me since I've already made my reservations.   Why are we merging posts that contain different information.  Figure out which is correct and remove the incorrect information.

[Arizona Wildcat]

25 minutes ago, Stosh68 said:

One post says starting September 1st, another says September 14th.   As I have a sailing that leaves September 1st, it affects me since I've already made my reservations.   Why are we merging posts that contain different information.  Figure out which is correct and remove the incorrect information.

Stosh - Princess told be that the new program goes into effect 14 September.  There is a post on FB that says 1 September.  That post was NOT from Princess, but a CVP.  The Princess website says make your reservations.  Formal press release said September 14th.  A bit confusing.

Right now I would "guess" the 14th is correct.  Pretty easy to check by waiting a couple days and  check if your reservations are still there.

Good thing is your cruise is over 4 months away. 

Edited April 13 by Arizona Wildcat

[lorri111]

We have a booking for late Sept with reserved MDR, they are not showing yet as cancelled.

Edited April 14 by lorri111