Waitlist

[Hapinowagain2]

On my confirmation for the Coral Princess on Dec. 10, it says Waitlist #159. Does this mean there are this many more people ahead of me that wanted the traditional dining? Will I be forced to eat at Personal Choice?

[srphnx]

Yes, that is what that means, and just so you know PC isn't a bad thing, many have found they like it just fine.

[Maureenxx]

You will move up the list and may even reach the top and be confirmed by December. Some people cancel or change their reservation. Just keep checking your reservation. Good luck. We have a December reservation for Hawaii and started out about #53 or so for traditional dining. Last week we got confirmed.

[jrobinso]

We sail on Sunday. We started out as #194 on the waitlist for early seating and we are now number #3. We're are still hoping that by the time we board they will have found room for us.

[CruiseFever]

I did.

 

We made it to #85 before our Golden cruise, our first experiencing Personal Choice dining and we liked it so much I couldn't imagine not having it be a part of our cruise experoience. In fact, I booked a cruise on RCCL's Voyager of the Seas and cancelled it when I got to thinking what life would be like without it.

 

On that cruise I thought I'd "lost out" and had to "settle" for Personal Choice. Wow, how wrong I was.

 

As noted above, you still have a chance of "making it" into traditional dining but if you don't it is conceivable that you could have as good or better (as we did) of a dining experience in Personal Choice.

 

What I like is that we can choose to dine at the same time, in the same dining room, at the same table, with the same wait staff and the same other passengers if we want to. (Sounds a lot like traditional doesn't it) On that Golden cruise we hit it off with our waiter, liked our table and the time we went so we did just that; made a standing reservation for the same table and same waiter every night. The third night though, we were running behind and decided to cancel our reservation for the night and go later. To our surprise, I mean to our REAL surprise, the service, food and waiter were just as good and the other passengers we dined with were far better tablemates. I thought, "ok one win does not a cruise worth of dining make" and had intended to go right back to our regular table the next night.

 

Well one thing let to another and the next day ashore we hooked back up with some of those people we'd had dinner with the night before. They were going to one of the show that we had not planned on going to that night and planned to have dinner at another time than when our standing reservation was. We enjoyed their company so that we cancelled our standing reservation once again to join our new friends.

 

And on it went when it finally dawned on me that I really liked this Personal Choice thing and I really liked the fact that we did not frame our whole evening around dinner. That one static time had been controlling a good part of our cruise experience and now we'd been freed...or so it seemed.

 

Surely you will not get the cameraderie of seeing the same people at the tables surrounding you in the dining room each night or the waiter that knows you like iced tea and has it waiting for you when you arrive. I used to be really into that and couldn't imagine life without it.

 

But yet I don't consider it having been taken away from me, rather I consider that I've experienced another option and it works for us.

[sue d. miller]

Very well said, Chris!! :)

[Hapinowagain2]

Well, I'm convinced. We changed to PC dining. Makes a lot of sense. We will not have to be checking the time worrying if we will make it back for dinner. We can be flexible. Thanks everyone. :)

[JimandLouise]

Hi,

 

We're actually confirmed for Traditional dining on our Sapphire Cruise later this year and intend to switch to personal choice, but our TA here in Australia can only book us the traditional dining options (apparently!) and I can't seem to change it on the Cruise Personaliser either.

 

Does anyone have any suggestions on how we can change pre-cruise or is it just as easy to wait until we're onboard. Do they have a limit on passengers who are allowed to sign up for Personal Choice - do they have a waitlist for it?

 

Thanks.

[dbeckett]

On Princess's website it says that they can change a confirmed Traditional diner to PC within 24 hours. Here in Canada, it is a case of call and you'll be changed to PC. Unfortunately there are some things that they won't let you change yourself and want your TAs input.

[JimandLouise]

I feel pretty bad if people are waiting for a traditional dining spot on some cruises and we've got a spot that we don't want....

[meyerhaus]

Just call 1-800-PRINCESS. They can fix ALMOST everything...except the big important sticky situations. Then they say, "We're sorry; only your TA can handle that." ;)

[Roadpossum]

We just returned today from an Alaska cruise on the Sapphire Princess. We were waitlisted for Tradidional Dining as well, but ended up with Personal Choice. We're all so happy we didn't get Traditional...!!! We loved the different themes, and the food was great. Each of the dining rooms was beautifully decorated and distinctly different from the others. We went to lunch and wine tasting in the Traditional (International) Dining Room, and it is just like any of the other dining rooms on any other cruise ship... Kind of vanilla...

 

As far as the Diamond or Sapphire (with the four themed dining rooms), I would highly recommend the PC dining. Each night we got the full menu from the Main Dining Room each night, plus a limited themed menu. The best of both worlds.

 

We were a group of 11, and we only made reservations for 3 nights when we first got onboard. The other nights we played by ear, and called for a reservation the same day. We ate in each of the themed rooms at least once, and everyone enjoyed all of the meals.

[West Coast]

Does anyone have any suggestions on how we can change pre-cruise or is it just as easy to wait until we're onboard. Do they have a limit on passengers who are allowed to sign up for Personal Choice - do they have a waitlist for it?

One of the things the phone reps at Princess do very well is change the Personalizer from showing 'non-converting twins' to Queen and also taking changes to dining preferences. Give them a call at 1-800-PRINCESS (sorry, I tried without success to find a 1+ number).

 

Good luck!

[JimandLouise]

Thanks for your help - I'm pretty sure I can't dial a US toll free number from Australia, but I'll give it a go later - is this a 24 x 7 number does anyone know, please?

 

Thanks.

[West Coast]

Thanks for your help - I'm pretty sure I can't dial a US toll free number from Australia, but I'll give it a go later - is this a 24 x 7 number does anyone know, please?

The Princess call centre is open, I think, 7am to 7pm, Los Angeles time.

 

If you can't dial a US 1-800 number, maybe try calling P&O in Australia on 13 24 69 and asking if they can give you a direct dial number to the USA.

 

Good luck!

[1cruiselvr]

Actually I just spoke with Princess about a booking and they said they are open until 10pm Pacific Time.

Happy Sailing!