Anytime Dining on Prinsendam

[Aruba]

Does anyone have any RECENT reviews of AYW Dining on the Prinsendam -- both food and service? I have been reading some awful reviews on the roll-call board for the July 08 Celtic Kingdoms cruise.
Not sure, but that cruise may have been one of the first to sail after the changeover to AYW dining so there may have been kinks HAL needs to work out. If anyone has sailed more recently on the Prinsendam and can report on their AYW experience, I'd appreciate it.

[jjeffjb]

The ship prior to being aquired by HAL had an additional dining space one deck above. HAL ships are not designed for AYW dining. Hence, the many issues.

[MightyQuinn]

Does anyone have any RECENT reviews of AYW Dining on the Prinsendam -- both food and service? I have been reading some awful reviews on the roll-call board for the July 08 Celtic Kingdoms cruise. Not sure, but that cruise may have been one of the first to sail after the changeover to AYW dining so there may have been kinks HAL needs to work out. If anyone has sailed more recently on the Prinsendam and can report on their AYW experience, I'd appreciate it.
Aruba – I can’t give you feedback more recent than the Celtic Kingdoms sailing, but we were aboard the Prinsendam for 26 days during the transition to AYWD (started May 23/08) & our experience was markedly different.

Since AYWD was new to everyone, we were braced for chaos, poor service & lukewarm food but thankfully experienced none of that! There WAS some initial confusion - on the part of both staff & passengers - and some issues with congestion at the entrance to the Aft DR during peak times as well as some disruption in the Forward DR when folks traipsed thru enroute to the Aft DR. This did not affect the quality of food, the timing of courses, the attentiveness of staff or the overall dining experience. In fact, the DR felt like a busy restaurant with people coming & going. After a brief period, there was some tweaking of Fixed & Open seating arrangements between both DRs in an effort to smooth out some of the initial problems. For us, the DR was up to the usual HAL standard & didn't suffer under AYWD. We were, however, disappointed with the food served in the Pinnacle.

If you read all the reports about dining on the Prinsendam post-AYWD, I think you'll find many that are more positive than reported by some on the Celtics Kingdom sailing. Hope yours goes well!

[luvn2cruzzz]

Aruba-we sailed on the Prinsendam in August and found AYW dining to be a good experience. There were a few things that were not up to par that were confusing to us. The first day on board we made a reservation for dinner that night and could only choose from a few times (5:30, 7:45 and 8:00) but could show up at any time. After that night we decided not to make a reservation and just to show up when we felt like eating and we just loved that freedom. However, whenever we showed up at the dining room, it always seemed somewhat chaotic as if they were not quite sure how to do this. It remained as such for the two weeks we were on board. The dining room is split in two with one section having traditional dining in the middle and AYW along the perimeter. The dining room across the hall was reserved for traditional dining. That section is also a passageway to the Ocean Bar and other areas of that deck. Would not want to be seated in that section. We found the dining stewards to be efficient and cordial but not particularly friendly. Obviously we could not develop a rapport with them since we were seated at different tables each night. Our food always arrived hot and was usually tasty but some nights our dirty plates sat in front of us much too long. In spite of all my negative comments, we loved AYW dining and have chosen it for our next cruise. Having the opportunity to meet new people each evening or to have dinner with people we met that day really sold it for us.