Set Dining / Freestyle Dining - who does what?

[Cruisin' Chick]

The lines that have traditional dining are Carnival, Princess (in one of their venues), HAL, Celebrity, RCCI, MSC, Costa, Crystal and Cunard. And we agree with the OP. NCL, after trying them twice, never again. Poor service and waits for a table during the evening. If I wanted to stand in line for a table, I'd stay home and go to a local restaurant. Plus, we like developing a rapport with the same wait staff on a ship. Don't have that with NCL.

 

We have always had late traditional dining on our cruises until our last one in December on Princess. By the time we booked it, traditional had just a waitlist. apparently we hadn't cleared it by sailing day and I didn't want to spend time pleading to get t.d. And I figured maybe my hubby wouldn't care.

 

Wrong. Sometime the first week, my hubby mentioned that he found anytime pretty disorganized (in the way that courses were brought out) compared to traditional. He also mentioned he missed that relationship with the waitstaff and a set of assigned tablemates. That your waitstaff gets to know your preferences. that you don't have to start with the same questions (Is this your first cruise? Where are you from?) every night.

 

And he also thought the waitstaff tended to hurry you in anytime, and he said he never felt that in traditional.

 

To top it off, a few weeks off the ship, out of the blue, my hubby said that he felt there was nothing special about anytime dining, that we could always do that at any restaurant at home. That traditional dining is one of the aspects that makes cruising so unique -- which is exactly what I feel.

 

And it wasn't about waiting (which my hubby hates) -- we only waited once for 20 minutes on a formal night. But then, we always accepted a shared table.

 

And cruiselines such as Princess will have at least two performances for most of their shows (sometimes a repeat on the next day).

 

I have stood in line for traditional dining, smushed in the crowd waiting for the doors of the dining room to open and let the masses in for our seating time - I have done both early and late seating and experienced that. I will still cruise ships that have traditional seating, I'm not letting that stop me, but I wanted to point out that I have waited for traditional dining as well as for freestyle - and I have not waited for freestyle, too. All I really care about is that I'm on a ship and on vacation :D

 

I know others have commented on this, but just in case anyone gets the wrong conception...you do not ever wait for a traditional table. We have learned to avoid getting to the dining room right as it opens on the first day. But that's because each party has to show their cabin cards and get escorted to their table. After that night, the dining room has always opened on time for every cruise we've been on, and we've been able to just walk in and go to our table. We have never been smushed, so maybe it's just been on the cruises you've been on.;)

[paul929207]

We have always had late traditional dining on our cruises until our last one in December on Princess. By the time we booked it' date=' traditional had just a waitlist. apparently we hadn't cleared it by sailing day and I didn't want to spend time pleading to get t.d. And I figured maybe my hubby wouldn't care.

 

Wrong. Sometime the first week, my hubby mentioned that he found anytime pretty disorganized (in the way that courses were brought out) compared to traditional. He also mentioned he missed that relationship with the waitstaff and a set of assigned tablemates. That your waitstaff gets to know your preferences. that you don't have to start with the same questions (Is this your first cruise? Where are you from?) every night.

 

And he also thought the waitstaff tended to hurry you in anytime, and he said he never felt that in traditional.

 

To top it off, a few weeks off the ship, out of the blue, my hubby said that he felt there was nothing special about anytime dining, that we could always do that at any restaurant at home. That traditional dining is one of the aspects that makes cruising so unique -- which is exactly what I feel.

 

And it wasn't about waiting (which my hubby hates) -- we only waited once for 20 minutes on a formal night. But then, we always accepted a shared table.[/color']

 

And cruiselines such as Princess will have at least two performances for most of their shows (sometimes a repeat on the next day).

 

 

 

I know others have commented on this, but just in case anyone gets the wrong conception...you do not ever wait for a traditional table. We have learned to avoid getting to the dining room right as it opens on the first day. But that's because each party has to show their cabin cards and get escorted to their table. After that night, the dining room has always opened on time for every cruise we've been on, and we've been able to just walk in and go to our table. We have never been smushed, so maybe it's just been on the cruises you've been on.;)

I agree. After the first night, the only people who stand in line for TD are those that show up early. By two minutes after the scheduled time, there is no line. You just walk straight in to your table

[Essiesmom]

Cunard has traditional dining in the Britannia dining room, but Britannia Club and the Grills have assigned seating but open dining times. EM

[DonnaK]

I believe that Royal Caribbean, Holland America, and Carnival have only traditional dining, but I haven't sailed on those lines.

 

Actually, Royal Caribbean offers both traditional dining and "My Time Dining" which is their anytime option.