Anytime dining question

We will be sailing on the Victory in two weeks and we decided to try "anytime dining" this trip. Does anyone have suggestions on the best and worse times to try to get seated. It's just me and my DH on this cruise.

Trying to become seated between 7:30 and 8:30 may result in an extended wait time, as those who arrived early will be towards the end of the meal, whereas those who arrived during the rush will be in the beginning or the middle of their meal. There may be a line during the middle of your available time range, especially on Cruise Elegant evening. Arriving early at the beginning or towards the end of your ATD window will provide you the shortest waiting time, as tables are perishable and based on availability at the time you visit the hostess' podium.

I always choose Your Time Dining and don't worry about when I show up. I just go when I'm ready for dinner. Occasionally, I have had about a 15 min. wait, but usually there's only a few minute wait at most. The exception is on elegant nights. On those nights there always seems to be a lengthy wait. I have noticed that it's worse at the start of the dining time window, but so isn't the line for people with set dining times. One nice thing though, is that you will be given a pager. That gives you the chance to go out on deck to enjoy the air, go have a drink, do some shopping etc. while waiting.

I always choose Your Time Dining and don't worry about when I show up. I just go when I'm ready for dinner. Occasionally, I have had about a 15 min. wait, but usually there's only a few minute wait at most. The exception is on elegant nights. On those nights there always seems to be a lengthy wait. I have noticed that it's worse at the start of the dining time window, but so isn't the line for people with set dining times. One nice thing though, is that you will be given a pager. That gives you the chance to go out on deck to enjoy the air, go have a drink, do some shopping etc. while waiting.

This is pretty much how we've "done" ATD as well, go when we feel like going, have had little to no wait times, though we seem to "average" going between 7-7:30, even then wait times are minimal. Would seem unrealistic with ATD to go and not expect some wait time, but we've not seen it be excessive or long. Even last April on Sunshine on the first elegant night. We checked in around 7:15, handed a pager, told wait would be 20-25 minutes, maybe longer. We said no biggie, headed to the Alchemy bar, ordered drinks, drinks came, pager went off, was less than 10 minutes after getting the pager. ATD works for us!!

We've done ATD on many cruises. Each group of pax will have their own sweet spot for waiting. Overall, around 6:30-7:30 will have longer wait times than other times.

Also depends how many are in your party and if you are willing to share a table.

We usually go around 6:00 and never have to wait for more than a minute or two.

We have used ATD in the past. It usually works best for our vacation mode. We have never had a wait other than standing in line for a few minutes. The waiting seems longest in the middle of the period - 6:30 to 7:30.

If eating on the Lido deck, we would have to stand in line there too.

I could never understand why people would take anytime dining and go at 6pm. The lines are terrible because the dining room will open at 6pm on the dot.and it takes a long time to seat the people-- By 6:15 the dining room is almost full. Going between 6:30- 7:30 will get you a wait as you will have to wait til a table becomes available.