Dinner Seating

[jck720]

Taking our first cruise in April over spring break on the Star Princess with my wife and children 14 and 16. I initially signed up for open seating, but now am wondering if a specific seating time would be better. Any thoughts?

[catmand]

I guess you will get everyones opinion here..........which should confuse you even more..:D

One of the things we love about Princess is the flexibility of dining. I would strongly suggest this, especially with the kids........are they (or you) going to want to sit down at the same time every night? There are so many options on the ships, take advantage of them!

I just did an 11 night cruise on Dawn and didn't eat at the same place or time once during the entire cruise.......by the way, you can always meet up at the same time every night if that really suits you better.

[celbercrz333]

There are pros and cons to both ways. We had assigned seating and times both times we cruised - Celebrity Zenith and Carnival Fascination. What is good about assigned seating is that you get to know about 4 or 6 other people and you can have some new friends, even if just for the cruise. I got up early one morning and decided to go up and get some coffee for me and my husband while he took a shower. I bumped into my table mate who was celebrating her 50th birthday. I am not that much younger than her. We had fun chatting for a while. We also made friends in our golf group since we went to Bermuda and sometimes saw them on the ship. With Carnival Fascination we decided not to take any long pants which meant we did all of our eating in the informal dining room. This was ok since it was just a 3 nighter small cruise. We didn't get to meet our table mates who probably wondered why we never showed up in the formal dining room. With open seating you will meet more people. You might even bump into them on the ship during your cruise after you've eaten together. You could find that some people have habits of doing things always at the same time and perhaps you will see the same people at the same time in the dining room. So, it's all up to you. Open seating does allow you to do things on your own schedule.

--Jo

[98Charlie]

Some of the cruise lines are using a program called "Table Where" to set the seating assignments for cruises.

 

It allows the staff (usually the Maitre d' or Assistant Maitre d') to pull up all of the requests, and assign seating by time preference, age category, family status (families, couples, singles), country of origin (for language purposes), and when you booked your cruise (earlier bookings get dining time preference).

 

I don't know if Princess uses the system or not.

 

I would suggest that if you have an interest in the traditional seating to request that. You can always go to the Maitre d' and give up your Traditional seating for Anytime. However, going from Anytime to Traditional means that there has to be seating available to make the change.

 

Charlie

[motherchic]

Lots of strong opinions on this one!

I know my in-laws love open seating. And the availability to dine when they want to. They cruise with a group of 6 ( friends)We always like assigned dining. For us, we cruise with the two of us and we love getting to really know our dining companions, beyond, "hi I'm ------ and we are fro ------" Also nice to know your waiter etc....

We have made some lasting friendships thru our dining partners. But we also have never cruised with our children, perhaps if we did we would be more apt to have more of our conversation with them.

You are going to have such a good time, whichever you choose !!

[chasetf]

Taking our first cruise in April over spring break on the Star Princess with my wife and children 14 and 16. I initially signed up for open seating, but now am wondering if a specific seating time would be better. Any thoughts?

Questions to ask yourselves..... can all four wait until after 8:30 to eat. How about eating early (6 ish). Would you like to have waiters get to know you. After the first or second night they (good ones) will know who takes regular and who takes decaf. Who needs cream. Who has wine with dinner, who likes ice tea, and who wants a diet coke during dinner. You can also get to know a little about their country, home and family.

 

If you have open seating you can be flexible and eat a different time. We like late traditional because we like to be up top having a drink during sailaway instead of dressing for dinner. If we get hungry there is always the buffet to tide us over.

 

Late also gets us out in time for the late shows so we never miss the entertainment. Eating at say 7:30 would usually be too late for the early show and to early for the late show. But if you plan on doing other things before the show, then it works.