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Anytime dining or traditional?


bigsky2010
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We want early dining in the MDR, it wasn't available for our April 24 cruise on the EOS. We HAD to choose an option so we chose my time dining. And are on the wait list for 6:00 MDR. I've heard tipping maître D might help us get seating at our preferred dining time? Has anyone done this?

 

 

 

 

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  • 1 month later...

I've never had to change my dining time but know some people that have changes theirs on several cruises by simply asking the Maitre d on day 1 if they could make the change. No tip necessary.

 

 

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cruise # 1-traditional dining-found out you can order seconds on lobster

cruise # 2-traditional dining sat with friends we were traveling with

cruise # 3 traditional dining sat with friends we were traveling with

cruise # 4 traditional dining, worst wait staff, table mates dropped like flies

cruise # 5 anytime dining-large roll call, ate often with roll call friends

cruise # 6 anytime dining-traveling with friends, never had a wait (7 p.m.)

cruise # 7 anytime dining-larger group of traveling friends-20 min wait

 

 

1-we love anytime, we do ask to sit with others, we don't have to explain to anyone why we are not coming to dinner, we can nap when we want, eat when we want and not feel rushed after a day on shore.

 

2. traditional if fine, a great way to meet people, learn new things, find out about other ships, excursions, etc. Have I ever stayed in touch with someone I ate with? No. but I have stayed in touch with some of my roll call buddies.

 

We have no problem dining with others at breakfast, lunch or dinner, we just like our own freedom of when we want to eat.

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  • 1 month later...

We just returned from our second cruise. Our first had assigned dining. This one was anytime. The differences (for us) was that our waiters seemed completely uninterested in us and twice we were seated in corners alone, staring at a wall. The food was still DELICIOUS; but our service was not so wonderful. We did see a few lively waiters around; but we never had the pleasure of having them as ours. In contrast, our first cruise (assigned dining) offered excellent waitstaff service and the ablility to feel included in the dining experience. (We sailed on Carnival Triumph)

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  • 2 weeks later...

We are cruising on the Celebrity Equinox next July out of Rome and our group of friends (4 other couples) have all selected the late traditional dining time but my husband and I always like to go with the anytime dining just to keep our options open. Our friends have told us that we should choose the late traditional dining time instead so that we can link to their table and sit with them some nights. They said if we do this, we can still chose to eat "anytime" at the upstairs MDR if space permits.

 

Does anyone know if this is correct? I called Celebrity and was told we "could" still eat in the MDR (upstair) anytime even if we select an assigned dining time but I wanted to verify that with some fellow cruisers before I actually switch our reservation.

 

Thanks all! Jen

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  • 10 months later...

We were on the Carnival Valor last month and were on the flex dining plan. The food was usually pretty good and the service was always very good. Our problem was the wait. One night we waited in line for at least 30 minutes or longer only to be given a pager when we got to the front of the line. We then waited almost 45 minutes before we finally were able to be seated. This happened again a few nights later, although the wait wasn't quite as long as the first time. There were three nights where we did not eat in the dining room, but there was always a long line at the beginning of dinner time. Our previous experience with flex dining on Celebrity Constellation was much better as we never had to wait like we did on Valor. Our next cruise is on RCI Navigator of the Seas, and we are hoping the flex time dining will be more like our first cruise than our second.

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