princess cruise alaska anytime dinning verses traditional

we are going on Island Princess in September to Alaska. I just can't decide if you should do anytime dinning or traditional. Does anyone have any advice for us. Thanks a bunch

This topic is extensively discussed on the Princess board, here:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=197

we are going on Island Princess in September to Alaska. I just can't decide if you should do anytime dinning or traditional. Does anyone have any advice for us. Thanks a bunch

This is a matter of personal preference.

I like late seating...not rushed and hardly any children.

Check out the tour times for those excursions that you are interested in.

If they tend to return to the ship later in the day -- then you should consider any time dining so that you can go when you want to. With traditional dining you may find yourself being rushed to get ready for dinner.

If it were me, I'd check the port times. If you're someone that likes to be in port as much as possible, and/or you like to be on deck when sailing away from ports, and the departure times conflict with early seating, then I'd do late seating. If it conflicts with both at one time or another, maybe anytime would be best to offer the most flexibility. Remember of course, you don't HAVE to eat in the MDR every night - there are also other options.

I am always a fan of anytime, others just like the regularity of same time, same mates and same servers, in the end only you can decide.

My take is food/service overall is the same, anytime's upside is you get to pick everything, with the two downsides; wait (5-15' ) and different servers.

we are going on Island Princess in September to Alaska. I just can't decide if you should do anytime dinning or traditional. Does anyone have any advice for us. Thanks a bunch

The Island Princess is in 2 ports until 8:30-9:00pm. For that reason alone, I would choose anytime. Of course, you can always do traditional the other nights and go to the buffet those 2 nights as well. Though I would really encourage you to eat at one of the seafood restaurants in one of those ports - there are a couple near the pier in Juneau that are really good.

A matter of personal choice but is what I choose for my family whenever we cruise. We like to not have to rush back to the ship or to cut short a good time on deck to get ready for an early seating and we don't always like eating so late. With the any time dining you go when YOU are ready for dinner. We travel with two kids who may not be hunger when the set dinner time maybe.

The down side is that you do not get to sit at a large table and meet other people at dinner. The flexibility for us outweighs this socializing and there are so many other opportunities to meet people during the rest of the days.

ChipQ http://luv2cruise.blogspot.com

Thank you everyone I think anytime is the way I should go I don't want to miss any port time and feel rushed. I thought we might enjoy getting to know some other passangers over dinner but I think this is still the better option for us. Thanks so much

have a wonderful day everone

Hi Trina4,

Something else to consider is how many At Sea days you have, where you'll have time to 'dress up' for dinner.

The Princess folks were very helpful on this point - you can choose Traditional Dining and eat elsewhere but choosing Anytime Dining and wanting to change back (eat in the main dining rooms) might be very difficult.

~ Hope this helps.

We booked traditional for our Alaska cruise on the Coral. We leave one port at 8; the others are at 4 and 6. So we'll be back on board with plenty of time to get ready for dinner (even for the 8:00 departure - I'm not one to wait until the last minute to board).

We like meeting people and having the same waitstaff every night, and usually eat on the later side. We also cruised before there was such a thing as "anytime", so dining at the same time each night isn't a big deal. We don't need a table for 2 - we're celebrating our 30th anniversary on board, and DH and I have had plenty of private dinners! (Although the anniversary itself might find us dining somewhere at a table for two!)

Hi Trina4,

 

Something else to consider is how many At Sea days you have, where you'll have time to 'dress up' for dinner.

 

The Princess folks were very helpful on this point - you can choose Traditional Dining and eat elsewhere but choosing Anytime Dining and wanting to change back (eat in the main dining rooms) might be very difficult.

 

~ Hope this helps.

Just a clarification - there are "main dining rooms" for Anytime Dining as well as for traditional; they're just not the same room. You don't have to eat at specialty restaurants or the buffets to get Anytime.