Freestyle vs. Traditional

[Liner]

There are a group of us traveling for our 4th cruise together after meeting on the Cruise Critic! We are traveling on the Sapphire Princess next time and we all have the same question.....How does the Traditional Dining vs. Anytime Dining work? I've been on NCL with their Freestyle Dining and have that one figured out! LOL.

 

Now for the detailed questions...

* Can you order from any menu at the Traditional Dining?

* Are you able to make reservations for dinners all at one time or each day?

* If you start out with Traditional Seating, can you still eat at one of the alternative dining venues without losing your 'Traditional status'?

* What are some of your favorite restaurants on the Sapphire?

 

My husband and I like both the Traditional and Anytime Dining. It's nice to get to know your waiter, but we like the flexibility of eating when we want to.

 

Any opinions are greatly appreciated!!

[mappa2]

1/ you have an assigned dining room and you order anything off the menu.

 

2/ i have done it both ways. as long as you have the same time, you can book for the week.

 

3/this could be a problem. your dining status is stamped on your card

and they check it.

 

4/ i have not been on the sapphire.

[Nancyquilts]

We are just off the Sapphire and had first seating traditional. A number of people in the anytime dining wanted traditional - I think the wait list was something like 400, and tho' there were places available, the maitre d' wouldn't let people come in to fill the spaces.

I think it would be possible to switch from traditional to anytime, but obviously not the other way around. We liked the traditional because every night we received one menu from one of the other restaurants. Perhaps you could order from any, but our waiter only showed us that one menu.

The first night of the 10 day cruise was the only one with Sterling steak house. In the anytime dining you would get the menu from that room along with the traditional menu each night. Nancy

[DMorris]

So if we are booked with late seating we can't do personal choice also? Our TA said we could. Can some clarify please? Thanks

[eaoneil]

On our last Princess cruise this year, we finally got late traditional seating after several years of not being able to get it. We prefer a large table and a regular wait staff. Our table for 8 never had more than 7 and that was 1 night on a 10 day cruise. Two couples traveling together showed up only one night. We ate by ourselves twice, at a table set for 8. Most nights there were 4 of us. It was not the pleasant dinner experiences that we had in the past at traditional sitting. We were not pleased that these other 6 people regularly ate somewhere else, but welcomed whoever showed up. I might add we are polite, intelligent conversalists, non judgmental, dress appropiately and have good table manners. So my beef is that if you like dining whenever, please do not request traditional dining. If your TA puts you in traditional, have that removed and add personal choice. Reserving table space in traditional and eating personal choice every night is akin to leaving your stuff on deck chairs and never sitting there.

[DMorris]

I understand what you are saying, but our table will be a table of 8 which is our total group. So we wouldn't be leaving anyone there sitting alone.

[Irishjayne]

We had 2nd seating Traditional with 6 of us on the Sapphire. 2 seats were empty the whole cruise so we invited a different couple every night from our group of 36 that had choosen PC Dining. Loved the very personal service we received. Next cruise we will opt for 1st seating as getting to the shows and finding a seat was difficult.