Princess "Anytime Dining"

[easyed]

We are interested in learning how "Anytime Dining" works in practice in the Main Dining Room on the former R ships (Tahitian Princess, Royal Princess, Pacific Princess). Is it difficult to be seated between the fixed early & late dining times?

 

Thank you very much.

[LHT28]

Do they have fixed dining as well??

You might get a better answer on the Princess forum.

[kitty9]

Princess has two dining rooms, one for traditional dining and one for anytime dining. You have to pick one or the other, and you cannot go between both. At the anytime dining room, you go and have dinner anytime between the appointed hours. If you go at the most popular times, you could have a wait.

[jkudzu]

Oops

[CruisinFools]

When you book a Princess Cruise, you can choose between Traditional (Early - 6pm or Late - 8pm) seating with a reserved table, same table-mates and wait staff or Anytime dining. There are 2 dining rooms, one for Traditional diners and one for Anytime diners. If you choose Traditional, you CAN go to the Anytime dining room. For example, let's say you choose Traditional Early dining and one night, you just don't feel like eating at 6. You can ALWAYS go to the Anytime dining room between the hours of 5:30pm and 10pm. Altho' not required, it would be courteous to inform the maitre d' of the Traditional dining room of your change of plans. If you choose Anytime dining, you cannot go to the Traditional dining room, as all the tables are previously reserved.

[hotmike98]

I don't know where cruisinfools gets their information, but it is incorrect. When you board, your cruise card includes on its face your dining assignment.

 

If you have first seating traditional, the card will say so. In general, the anytime dining rooms are set up so that you must be seated by staff (in traditional dining, after the first night, you can just go to your assigned table), and they are supposed to check your cruise card, and they are supposed to turn you away if you are assigned to traditional. You can ask to be switched to anytime (I have never heard of anyone being turned down) but if you do so, the change is permanent for the rest of the cruise. If you manage to slip through, so be it. But why tell people they can do whatever they want, when the result could very well be that someone would be told they cannot enter the anytime dining venues, and by that time the doors at the traditional dining room are closed, and they would be sentenced to the buffet? It's just not very nice to give people bad information. Just because someone may have 'gotten away' with it doesn't mean that it' going to work for others.

[LHT28]

Princess has two dining rooms, one for traditional dining and one for anytime dining. You have to pick one or the other, and you cannot go between both. At the anytime dining room, you go and have dinner anytime between the appointed hours. If you go at the most popular times, you could have a wait.

On the R ships there is only 1 main dining room

[ggprincess2004]

To be clear, anytime dining is not available on the former R ships - just fixed seating early or late. In addition, for informal dining there is the buffet, the pizzeria, the grill - for food 24/7 (almost). With only one formal dining room, the R ships do not accomodate formal anytime dining.

[Cruise buddie]

HotMike is correct you cannot swap and change on a daily basis as your cruise card states your preference. If you are formal dinning your only other choice is the buffet.

If you are on anytime and want to eat at a specific time without having to wait you can call the restaurant in the morning and pre book a table. When you get to the restaurant you enter by a different door and the table is waiting for you.

We never know what time we might want to eat so have always gone along when hungry .The only time we waited more than a few minutes was after the captains cocktail party but hey we'd had a few drinks so we didnt mind !

We like anytime because it gives us the opportunity of meeting so many nice people.

[Nan59]

I didn't realize that you had to pick anytime dining for the week. We sail on the Golden on the 21st and prefer early traditional for which we are waitlisted. If we can't have early traditional, we will want anytime. Will it be a problem to switch to anytime dining if they have assigned us to late traditional? Sorry this is our first Princess cruise and didn't understand this until now.

[nomars_girl]

I didn't realize that you had to pick anytime dining for the week. We sail on the Golden on the 21st and prefer early traditional for which we are waitlisted. If we can't have early traditional, we will want anytime. Will it be a problem to switch to anytime dining if they have assigned us to late traditional? Sorry this is our first Princess cruise and didn't understand this until now.

 

It is very easy to be switched (permanently) from Traditional to Anytime. Much harder to go the other way since traditional is always waitlisted.

[skf]

To Nan59...If you are given dining times you do not want, you can ask the Maitre-d to change it for you. He will if he can. Remember that there may be a long line at his desk the first night.

Steve

[Pam in CA]

We are interested in learning how "Anytime Dining" works in practice in the Main Dining Room on the former R ships (Tahitian Princess, Royal Princess, Pacific Princess). Is it difficult to be seated between the fixed early & late dining times?

I'm not sure why people are responding to this very specific question with answers that would apply to other Princess ships, not the "R" ships. That's not only misleading but confusing since most of these responses have absolutely nothing to do with the former "R" ships. Kind of like asking what the housing market is like in Milwaukee and getting answers about the housing market in Los Angeles. The "R" ships are unique and very different from the other Princess ships.

 

There is no Anytime dining on the "R" ships as there is only one dining room. If you are assigned early or late dining, that is your dining time; no moving between dining times since all of the tables are already assigned.

 

That said, there is a "Bistro" that is open every evening that is a limited menu 'restaurant' set up in part of the Panorama buffet. We went there and found the food delicious. And, you can always go to the buffet.

[Pam in CA]

I didn't realize that you had to pick anytime dining for the week. We sail on the Golden on the 21st and prefer early traditional for which we are waitlisted. If we can't have early traditional, we will want anytime. Will it be a problem to switch to anytime dining if they have assigned us to late traditional? Sorry this is our first Princess cruise and didn't understand this until now.

If you are on a non-"R" Princess ship with more than one dining room and are assigned to either early or late Traditional dining, you can switch but it's a one-way switch. You cannot switch back as you will have lost your seat(s) in the traditional dining room. There are sometimes people who do switch but that is not common and isn't fair to those who have waited for Traditional dining and weren't able to get it. It's also not fair to those who may have to wait for a table in an Anytime dining room because you have a perfectly good seating in Traditional but are trying to use Anytime, i.e., "double dipping." That's as rude as the people I've seen get two loungers: one in the shade and one in the sun, and they go back and forth while others have to walk around looking for an empty lounger.

[abcten]

We enjoy anytime dining very much. We wouldn't think of using traditional times anymore.

[Pam in CA]

We enjoy anytime dining very much. We wouldn't think of using traditional times anymore.

If you were on a former "R" class ship, you wouldn't have a choice. :) Which is what the OP was asking about; they're not asking about ships with an Anytime dining option.

[san diego sue]

We were on the Royal In May. We had traditional dining. the Horizon court buffet at night became a bistro. There was a full menu but different one than the dining room. When we were late in ports (Europe), then the Horizon Court had a very special buffet set up ,themed by the country we had just visited. We had early seating so did this buffet when we got back late.

Food was very good on this ship no matter where you ate.

San Diego Sue:D

[hotmike98]

Please quote a published Princess document to back up your fairy tale that those assigned to Traditional dining can go to anytime dining whenever they want. The issue isn't who your employer is, it's the actual policy, not your interpretation of it.

[hotmike98]

From "Princess Answer Book" page 16, footnote at the bottom:

 

"Once on board, and subject to availability, you may switch from Traditional Dining to Anytime dining with 24 hours' notice to the Maitre D'....Anytime Dining not available on Pacific Princess, Royal Princess or Tahitian Princess."

 

Thus all of CruisinFools information is incorrect. First of all, as others have pointed out, there is NO anytime dining on the Pacific Princess, Royal Princess or Tahitian Princess (the OP's orignal question). I am not trying to pick a fight here, but if CruisinFools really works for Princess, she should know that.

 

Secondly, the scenario raised by CruisinFools, "...you just don't feel like eating at 6. You can ALWAYS go to the [non-existent] Anytime dining room between the hours of 5:30 and 10:00. Although not required, it would be courteous to inform the Maitre D..." is also contrary to Princess' published policy that REQUIRES that a request to change to Anytime Dining be made to the Maitre D' 24 hours in advance.

 

The published policy does not state anywhere that you can switch back and forth. Clearly the implication of said written policy is that if you give the required 24 hour advance request to change to Anytime Dining, that will be your dining assignment for the rest of the cruise.

[CruisinFools]

You're right Mike. I will inform the corporate office.

[scubadiver888]

We are interested in learning how "Anytime Dining" works in practice in the Main Dining Room on the former R ships (Tahitian Princess, Royal Princess, Pacific Princess). Is it difficult to be seated between the fixed early & late dining times?

 

Thank you very much.

As Pam in CA has pointed out, there is no anytime dining on the former R ships. When you go to book your cruise you'll come to the section for what type of dining you want. It will explain the difference between anytime and traditional dining but you will only have the option for early or late traditional dining.

 

Something I didn't think about was switching from early to late or vice versa. Thank you Pam for point out that switch is not possible either.

 

Darrell

[Pam in CA]

From "Princess Answer Book" page 16, footnote at the bottom:

 

"Once on board, and subject to availability, you may switch from Traditional Dining to Anytime dining with 24 hours' notice to the Maitre D'....Anytime Dining not available on Pacific Princess, Royal Princess or Tahitian Princess."

 

Thus all of CruisinFools information is incorrect. First of all, as others have pointed out, there is NO anytime dining on the Pacific Princess, Royal Princess or Tahitian Princess (the OP's orignal question). I am not trying to pick a fight here, but if CruisinFools really works for Princess, she should know that.

 

Secondly, the scenario raised by CruisinFools, "...you just don't feel like eating at 6. You can ALWAYS go to the [non-existent] Anytime dining room between the hours of 5:30 and 10:00. Although not required, it would be courteous to inform the Maitre D..." is also contrary to Princess' published policy that REQUIRES that a request to change to Anytime Dining be made to the Maitre D' 24 hours in advance.

 

The published policy does not state anywhere that you can switch back and forth. Clearly the implication of said written policy is that if you give the required 24 hour advance request to change to Anytime Dining, that will be your dining assignment for the rest of the cruise.

This is correct. I would suggest, CruisinFools, that you re-read Princess' policies or let us know your manager's name so we can educate them on what they should already know. Both you and your manager are giving out incorrect information which should be corrected.

[vivienne]

We sailed on the Grand Princess last July and were booked for Anytime Dining. We found this great being able to choose what time you dined. When you arrived you could choose to sit on a table for two or say you would share which we like to do. However, we did find it annoying sometimes to be on a table with people who were on fixed dining but because they had got back late from a tour decided to use the Anytime Dining Restaurant when we felt they should have used the buffet restaurant. This meant they had the best of both worlds and unfair to people on Anytime Dining who might have had to wait to dine because they were using seats they shouldn't have done. Maybe on some ships the dining staff are stricter but certainly on this one last year no-one seemed to bother.

[jlc0773]

CORRECT ! No personal choice dining on the former Rennaissance ships, that is Royal, Tahitian and Pacific. That is the answer to the original question.

[Pam in CA]

We sailed on the Grand Princess last July and were booked for Anytime Dining. We found this great being able to choose what time you dined. When you arrived you could choose to sit on a table for two or say you would share which we like to do. However, we did find it annoying sometimes to be on a table with people who were on fixed dining but because they had got back late from a tour decided to use the Anytime Dining Restaurant when we felt they should have used the buffet restaurant. This meant they had the best of both worlds and unfair to people on Anytime Dining who might have had to wait to dine because they were using seats they shouldn't have done. Maybe on some ships the dining staff are stricter but certainly on this one last year no-one seemed to bother.

I strongly suggest that posters ignore the Subject of this thread as the OP is really asking about dining on the former Rennaissance ships, the "R" ships, the Pacific, Tahitian and Royal Princess. Talking or posting about Anytime dining on these ships is irrelevant as there is no Anytime dining on these ships.