Dinner Seating

[crazycruiselady]

On the last Princess Cruise I went on, my husband and I chose second seating with a table for 8. We ended up eating alone every night:confused: except for the last two. I can be rather paranoid but I know it wasn't because people didn't like us or want to eat with us since we arrived a little late the first few nights and no one was at our table. Also it happened at other tables. The waiter said this occurs quite a bit because people sign up for a seating and then go to free style dinning instead. After the first two nights we requested to be moved to another table but others had already thought of that and there were no more available spots. There were at least half a dozen tables in the dinning room that were completely empty and the cruise was sold out. It was not how we wanted to spend our dinners. I know we should have done what everyone else did and gone to the other dining room but I thought that was frowned upon.

Now we are going on another Princess cruise and I'm not sure what to do about dining. This has never happened on any other cruise line (we've been on Celebrity, Royal Car. , Holland America, and Carnival ships). We really prefer second seating in the regular dining room but would be very unhappy if this happened again.

Any suggestions?

[Colo Cruiser]

On the last Princess Cruise I went on, my husband and I chose second seating with a table for 8. We ended up eating alone every night:confused: except for the last two. I can be rather paranoid but I know it wasn't because people didn't like us or want to eat with us since we arrived a little late the first few nights and no one was at our table. Also it happened at other tables. The waiter said this occurs quite a bit because people sign up for a seating and then go to free style dinning instead. After the first two nights we requested to be moved to another table but others had already thought of that and there were no more available spots. There were at least half a dozen tables in the dinning room that were completely empty and the cruise was sold out. It was not how we wanted to spend our dinners. I know we should have done what everyone else did and gone to the other dining room but I thought that was frowned upon.

Now we are going on another Princess cruise and I'm not sure what to do about dining. This has never happened on any other cruise line (we've been on Celebrity, Royal Car. , Holland America, and Carnival ships). We really prefer second seating in the regular dining room but would be very unhappy if this happened again.

Any suggestions?

 

 

Sounds like anytime dining at a Traditional time would have been better for you so that you could have been sure to sit with others. ;)

[Pia1913]

Yes, it is frowned upon for people to book Traditional and then go to PC. However, I'd be willing to bet that most of them ended up eating at the buffet and not at PC.

 

Pia

[Solara]

On the last Princess Cruise I went on, my husband and I chose second seating with a table for 8. We ended up eating alone every night:confused: except for the last two. I can be rather paranoid but I know it wasn't because people didn't like us or want to eat with us since we arrived a little late the first few nights and no one was at our table. Also it happened at other tables. The waiter said this occurs quite a bit because people sign up for a seating and then go to free style dinning instead. After the first two nights we requested to be moved to another table but others had already thought of that and there were no more available spots. There were at least half a dozen tables in the dinning room that were completely empty and the cruise was sold out. It was not how we wanted to spend our dinners. I know we should have done what everyone else did and gone to the other dining room but I thought that was frowned upon.

Now we are going on another Princess cruise and I'm not sure what to do about dining. This has never happened on any other cruise line (we've been on Celebrity, Royal Car. , Holland America, and Carnival ships). We really prefer second seating in the regular dining room but would be very unhappy if this happened again.

Any suggestions?

I say give it another chance. In all our Princess cruises what happened to you only happened to us once. Our last 2 Princess cruises we had wonderful tables of 8 that were full every night. We love late traditional seating, if I were you I'd try again.

[rdsqrl]

Last time I had Traditional, for most dinners, the entire table of eight was not present, but it was only twice that there were only two of us (and since the other person was someone I'd just met and wanted to get to know better, if you know what I mean, I was happy enough about that!). I do think that more and more people who've signed up for Traditional are skipping out on it and I deplore that for a variety of reasons, but your situation seems extreme enough that it's unlikely it would happen again. I would say, if no one else shows up on night one, go immediately to the maitre d and get switched right away to another table. But I wouldn't give up on Traditional after just one bad experience, expecially if you like the Traditional thing (getting to know your wait staff, being able to just walk in to "your" table, not having to make small talk with new people every night, etc.). Good luck!

[DeepWaterMariner]

The same thing has happened to us a few times. In those cases it was on Royal Caribbean. When we sail Princess we always take Personal Choice dinning, if it is available, for a few reasons, including protecting ourselves from no shows at traditional seatings. New large ships draw lots of cruisers who don't feel tied to a particular table and there are lots of dinning options pull them away.

[cruiserus]

We've taken many cruises and have never encountered this problem. Hopefully you won't experience it again.

[willysgrandma]

Many people get stuck with late dining when it isn't their choice because early was already filled when they booked. They then change to Anytime Dining when on the ship.

 

WHy don't you just give Anytime Dining a try? You will be seated with others. We love the opportunity of meeting different people at dinner each night and when we've met people we really liked, we ended up arranging to meet at Anytime Dining at a certain time and ate together.

[Pam in CA]

If you really like late Traditional dining, stick with it and don't let people sway you by saying that Anytime dining is the same. It isn't. What you described is unusual. On my last several cruises, there were no tables near us in Traditional dining that were experiencing the problem you had. There were some empty tables on our recent Crown Princess cruise but that was because people had booked the Specialty restaurant and the Maitre D placed people at those tables from Anytime because, according to him, there was a 40-minute wait every night for Anytime dining.

[Lynda90]

On my last few cruises I saw this happen with more than one table. I have been at tables where not everyone showed up every night, but never where no one else showed up. That would not be fun, especially if I am traveling solo. Also, there were lots of empty seats throughout the dining room. Could have been people who went to buffet or specialty dining rooms or room service. Hard to speculate but there were many empty seats around.

[cruiserjanet]

What's sad is Traditional has always been waitlisted on our cruises. We have seen many empty spaces each night that could have been filled up by those who were on the waitlist.

[caribill]

At least on the first night, the dining rooms do a check of the cruise card to make sure you are in the assigned dining room if traditional or anytime.

 

Some anytime rooms check on other nights also, some don't.

 

So if your table for 8 is almost vacant the first night, chances are the missing are not in anytime.

 

I have been on some cruises (late traditional seating) when some tables are empty or almost except for formal nights. My guess is that many of the vacant seats belong to those who have chosen the buffet as their primary dining venue.

 

When booking a cruise, you are asked if you want traditional or anytime, but never asked if you prefer the buffet.