Personal Choice Dining Question

[ron46936]

With Personal Choice Dining do you have a choice between either signing up for traditional (early or late seating, same table and waiters each night) style dining or open seating dining? Are the choices limited by availability? That is do more people want traditional than the spaces available? Or vice versa.

[srphnx]

ron16936,
Yes you select dining when you book, that is if selection is available at the time of booking. As of my last two bookings traditional seems to fill up first, early being the most popular.
As has been said by me and others, you can always "traditionalize" PC dining by asking the maitre'd to seat you at the same table with the same waiters at the same time, it ends up being traditional in everything but name.

<FONT color=red>Alaska</FONT>
Diamond Princess 05/04
Mercury 06/02
Rhapsody o.t. Seas 05/98
Legend o.t. Seas 09/95
<FONT color=red>Mexican Riviera</FONT>
Diamond Princess 04/04
Sea Princess 01/02
Vision o.t. Seas 04/02
Star Princess 12/02<FONT color=red>
West Coast-Baja Mexico</FONT>
Ecstacy 09/01
Vision o.t. Seas 10/02
<FONT color=red>Eastern Carribean</FONT>
Century 12/97
<FONT color=red>Western Carribean</FONT>
Century 9/96

[ron46936]

That's what I thought. Also is dressing on formal night expected whether traditional or PC with eating in the Lido an option for those that do not wish to dress up?

[srphnx]

Ron,

That is a matter of some debate on the boards but the general concensous is that formal night is formal night everywhere except the Horizon court and room service.

There is no offical requirement that you get in a tux or dark suit but it is strongly encouraged as a matter of courtesy to fellow pax and to the staff who go to extra troubles.

I have (gasp) worn a light jacket to dinner but never gone in less formal than that to the dining room. FYI, during dinner hours you can order anything on the menu from room service, just don't leave anything you want out, i.e. butter with bread, lemon with tea.

Most people tip in cash for room service, the more work the larger the gratuity.

<FONT color=red>Alaska</FONT>
Diamond Princess 05/04
Mercury 06/02
Rhapsody o.t. Seas 05/98
Legend o.t. Seas 09/95
<FONT color=red>Mexican Riviera</FONT>
Diamond Princess 04/04
Sea Princess 01/02
Vision o.t. Seas 04/02
Star Princess 12/02<FONT color=red>
West Coast-Baja Mexico</FONT>
Ecstacy 09/01
Vision o.t. Seas 10/02
<FONT color=red>Eastern Carribean</FONT>
Century 12/97
<FONT color=red>Western Carribean</FONT>
Century 9/96

[mpk]

How long is the wait for Personal Choice? Does it ever get "unbearable" (like 45 min and up)?

[yostr]

Just came back from the Grand Princess on 4/11. We were a party of 7 and did personal choice dining. I was pleasantly surprised with this type of dining since I have read many differences in opinions on this. The first nite out my friend and I made an 8 oclock reservation for our party in the Michelango dining room. We arrived at 8 oclock and our table was ready. As we left the dining room after dinner we made another reservation for the next nite for the same time. When we arrived for dinner Monday evening our table was ready. We were very happy with the service we had received that nite so we made another reservation with the same waitress and busboy for the following 5 nites and we ended up with a standing reservation and never had to wait at all for the table to be ready. It was nice that our waitress and busboy had become familiar us and before even asking they knew my friends daughter liked hot chocolate after dinner and the hot chocolate was there even before she asked. I would go with personal choice dining again.

[ron46936]

Do you have to make a reservation? How long is the wait if you just show up at 7:00.

[srphnx]

Reservations are a good idea, at 7 you could wait as little as 5 minutes as long as 45 depending on what the other pax were thinking that night.

<FONT color=red>Alaska</FONT>
Diamond Princess 05/04
Mercury 06/02
Rhapsody o.t. Seas 05/98
Legend o.t. Seas 09/95
<FONT color=red>Mexican Riviera</FONT>
Diamond Princess 04/04
Sea Princess 01/02
Vision o.t. Seas 04/02
Star Princess 12/02<FONT color=red>
West Coast-Baja Mexico</FONT>
Ecstacy 09/01
Vision o.t. Seas 10/02
<FONT color=red>Eastern Carribean</FONT>
Century 12/97
<FONT color=red>Western Carribean</FONT>
Century 9/96

[Jane110]

We're going to opt for personal choice dining and because of the ports, will probably dine at a different hour each night.

Can we call from our cabin and make the resy so we're not waiting for 45 minutes at the restaurant?

Also, on nights where we might just "show up" and have to wait, is there a bar to wait in and have a cocktail while we wait?

Jane

[Sunmail]

Yes to all of these. You can call and make your reservation and there is a bar right outside the door to the dining room. I suppose the bar location will depend on the ship but on the Grand, Golden, and Star there is one. You will definitely see people dressed casually these days on formal night in the dining room. There are usually a couple of them that stick out. I have found that most people aren't going 'all out' with the formal attire as much. Like no full length beaded gowns but lots of full length dresses. There are lots of pants with sparkly tops, too.

Star Princess, Mediterranean, May 2004
http://escati.linkopp.net/cgi-bin/countdown.cgi?trgb=000000&srgb=00ff00&prgb=111111&cdt=2004;5;16;13;0;00&timezone=GMT+0100

Star Princess, Mexican Riviera, December 2002
RCL Vision of the Sea, Hawaii, May 2001
Golden Princess, Eastern Caribbean, November 2001
Grand Princess, Transatlantic/Mediterranean, May 2000
NCL Majesty, Bahamas, February 2000
Carnival Tropicale, Western Caribbean, April 1999
Carnival Sensation, Eastern Caribbean, February 1998
Carnival Fantasy, Bahamas, November 1992
Carnival Holiday, Western Caribbean, February 1992