Princess "Anytime Dining"

[bburns]

I know I'm slightly off topic, but since I see that Cruisin Fools works for Princess, I wanted to ask a slightly different question about anytime dining.

 

Why do they allow people to make standing reservations (at the beginning of a cruise) for every night for a particular table & time? I'm a long time Princess cruiser and on our most recent cruise in May, the anytime dining was massively messed up. Even if you arrived at 5:30pm (1st possible time), you couldn't get in until 8pm because everything was reserved. I read thru the book in our stateroom and it said you could only make reservations the day of the dining & it had to be done using a special phone number starting at 8am each day. I tried that exactly at 8am on several days. Was on hold for 10-15 min & still couldn't get a table until 8pm. I now understand it was because of all the standing reservations. Why does Princess allow the head waiters to bypass their rule about 1 day at a time using the phone number? Why does anytime have reservations? Why isn't it ANY TIME?

[nho9504]

Why does Princess allow the head waiters to bypass their rule about 1 day at a time using the phone number? Why does anytime have reservations? Why isn't it ANY TIME?

 

Good question that may never get an answer.

 

The Headwaiters get tips for taking care the standing reservations, either on the spot, or expecting and getting it on the last day.

[scubadiver888]

I know I'm slightly off topic, but since I see that Cruisin Fools works for Princess, I wanted to ask a slightly different question about anytime dining.

 

Why do they allow people to make standing reservations (at the beginning of a cruise) for every night for a particular table & time? I'm a long time Princess cruiser and on our most recent cruise in May, the anytime dining was massively messed up. Even if you arrived at 5:30pm (1st possible time), you couldn't get in until 8pm because everything was reserved. I read thru the book in our stateroom and it said you could only make reservations the day of the dining & it had to be done using a special phone number starting at 8am each day. I tried that exactly at 8am on several days. Was on hold for 10-15 min & still couldn't get a table until 8pm. I now understand it was because of all the standing reservations. Why does Princess allow the head waiters to bypass their rule about 1 day at a time using the phone number? Why does anytime have reservations? Why isn't it ANY TIME?

 

I must be really lucky. I've been on two Princess cruises (last one the Crown in December 2007) and chose anytime dining both times. My wife and I like to get an early dinner so we are always there around 5:30pm or 6:00pm. I think only once we had to wait. We were joining a group of people (people I met scuba diving). We needed a large table and no one made reservations. I think we waited 5 minutes. After that we made sure to make reservations and never had to wait again.

 

It is truly perplexing to hear stories like bburn's. I think, even if I did have to wait for dinner it wouldn't matter. I usually strike up a conversation with someone or spot one of the people I was diving with. It's not like they are going to run out of food. ;)

[hotmike98]

I believe the initial idea of anytime dining was that it would be like visiting a land based restaurant (which accepts reservations). Princess will allow you to make a reservation for the same time throughout the week (although they discourage and sometimes will not accept reservationd duing their "peak hours" of 6 to 8 p.m. If you do not have a reservation, like a land based restaurant, they put your name on the list and you wait for an available table meeting your request (table for 3, willing to share, first available, etc.) Sometimes they give you an estimate and a beeper so you can go have a cocktail at a nearby bar.

 

Not evertything worked as originally planned with anytime dining, which originally included separate menus for each venue. I'm guessing that the popularity of the program (and competing offerings of some variation of anytime from other cruise lines) have led to the current set up. I personally don't mind them allowing reservations, and have used this feature myself, although it is rather annoying to have to wait in line to be seated. Remember, antime was set up to accommodate those who couldn't get into first seating (or on some trips found it impossible to make first seating after returning from shore, or just didn't want to wait for late seating (medial issues, kids, etc.), but I understand the frustration of waiting in line at 6:30 when you can see empty tables (probably reserved for 7:0 or 7:30--you wouldn't expect your reserved table to be given away at a land based restaurant just because someone without a reservation showed up before your reserved time). I can only give you educated guesses, and my explanations may not be the reason why Princess allows reservations. Nor can I gaurantee that my explanation, even if it was Princess policy, will satisy you. Just food for thought (pun intended!) Happy sailing!

[Host Caroline]

Because the OP has the information they needed re dining on the R ships and we are sliding fast on this thread, I'm closing it.