hey you with anytime dining-do you really care?

One of the joys of getting on a cruise ship, to me, is meeting interesting people. They don't have to be rocket scientists, the ability to speak English is enough-they are interesting because I don't know them before the cruise, I may become fast friends with them, or hate them, but to have one meal with someone is not going to make or break my cruise. I usually travel with my DH, and heck, lets face it, while I love him to death, we eat together every darn night on land, so while its soooo romantic:rolleyes: (yeah right) to dine together on the ship-why wouldn't we want to sit with others.

I know a lot of you are going to say, we "want to be alone" but are there people out there who actually like to sit with new people? Meet new people? at their table?

Those are the ones I want to hear from!

Oh, most interesting people I have shared a meal with? A couple who knew each other as children before WWII, both survived concentration camps, met up as adults and got married. What a story! They were the nicest people!

We LOVE meeting new people when we cruise!

We just don't want to meet them at the dinner table!

We love meeting new people on board but there is no way we will ever cruise with set dining times.

We vacation ,cruise or not, to enjoy the luxury of doing what we want when we want.

It is hard to know how the day will go on board . We may be enjoying a snack on our balcony

or perhaps eating at the buffet so as to make a show. Port days are even harder to

plan for.

That doesn't mean necessarily eating alone as a couple. We have traveled with others and have

also met interesting people who we made plans to eat with. Greatly enjoyable and it was our choice to do so.

BTW , I keep hearing how you never know when or how many are going to show up

each night when you are at an assigned table . I can't imagine picking fixed dining times.

We LOVE meeting new people when we cruise!

We just don't want to meet them at the dinner table!

This is exactly the way we feel.......

I know a lot of you are going to say, we "want to be alone" but are there people out there who actually like to sit with new people? Meet new people? at their table?

 

Those are the ones I want to hear from!

i think i'm one of the people you want to hear from, although i have selected anytime dining every time it's been offered.

sure, i like to meet to meet new people, but not only at the dining table. i think this really depends upon each person's / group's dynamics.

we choose anytime dining - because it, in theory, works for us... whether it's a group of 2, 6 or 11 - we don't want to be stuck to a certain dining time. we want to be able to do our excursions, spend some time in the casino, take a nap, or do whatever else WE want to, and then eat dinner when WE want to, not at a set time. i'm used to setting my own schedule - not being told when i'm allowed to eat.

that said, i've done traditional dining before... we go to the dining room breakfast / lunch / brunch and sit at the big tables... fact of the matter is i've never met anyone i've made 'fast friends' with at the table... and rarely see them outside of that table...

BY CONTRAST, like i said, i love meeting new people, and i personally think that like minded people are bound to be drawn together by the nature of cruises - people who like to gamble will meet up in the casino / casino bar, people that like to drink and sing together will meet each other in the piano bar, people who like hot tubs will meet in the hot tubs, you get what i'm saying? and in a lot of cases, they end up flocking together regardless... for example - comedy club, then shut down the piano bar, then move to the club, then move to the lido bar open the latest, then late night pizza (that's often my schedule :D)

everyone's not as social as each other, but personally, i tend to strike up quick 'cruise friend friendships' with the people i tend to see all over the ship - i've never had that kind of relationship with people i happen to be eating with by some random metric of table pairings...

so for our group dynamics, anytime works for US... and in some cases - it's almost the same... tables for 2 are so close, i tend to strike up conversation with the people around us regardless - that is, if they're open to it (which they're not always) - that, i guess is part of what i don't understand (which i think is part of your point) - how can you be sitting 8" from someone, and not be social at all... that's the awkward part i guess lol.

anyhow hope that makes some sense. i guess i'm just saying it's not that those that choose anytime dining are inherently anti-social, but instead don't exactly rely on set dining assignments to meet 6-8 people randomly assigned at a table in a dining room. *I* meet people all over the ship regardless, in a more natural or organic way than just because they happen to be sitting at my table. in most cases, i think they're more 'like minded' or 'compatible' for that reason. :)

We love having dinner with others on the ship. :)

LuLu

We LOVE meeting new people when we cruise!

We just don't want to meet them at the dinner table!

that's pretty much what i was saying, too... although it took me several more paragraphs to try to make that simple point lol :D

The wife and I discussed going with anytime dining this time around, but both came to the conclusion that it isn't worth it to us. We'd be gaining the convenience of eating whenever we want, but giving up the opportunity to meet several table mates, really get to know our wait staff, and have our wait staff get to know our dining preferences. Some of our best cruising memories are from the folks we met at our 8-top on our honeymoon cruise.

We have always had set dining times. We have enjoyed it. Met new people and enjoyed conversation, but we didn't spend time together any other time. We haven't had a bad experience so far.

We've met a great group of people on our trips and consider our 'vacation' friends our best friends. We now visit each other's homes and plan vacations together!

We always say we like our vacation friends better than our 'real life' friends :D

But we've had some major duds at dinner before too. You never know who you're going to click with.

We did early seating before there was anytime dining. I liked meeting new people for the most part. I really liked getting to know the waiters. I didn't like it when the woman next to me used my bread plate to park her purse. I didn't like watching people with no manners talk with their mouths full. I didn't like eating with drunks. When anytime dining came about, DH wanted to try it. We did and we liked it. We found that we could still ask for and get the same wait team every night. When cruising with our kids and grandkids, we could still all eat together. We don't particularly care for the tables for two very close together because it is awkward. Do they want to be alone? Do we talk to each other? We can still sit at a large table of strangers if we choose to sit with others. It just works out for us to have anytime.

i also sometimes wonder, in the 'any time' vs 'fixed time' debate - what those who adamantly prefer and defend 'fixed time' do during the rest of their day...

if it's spent solely with your significant other, etc. - excursion, sitting together on balcony, dinner, then a show and to bed - then yes i can see how having a group of others to meet would be beneficial...

in my typical day - it'd be more like breakfast/lunch, some activities, some casino, some bar, excursion (which often we invite our cruise friends to join, and they do!), some activities, some bar, some casino - then dinner - probably NOT show (though others who came to dinner of our group may) - then piano bar - then comedy show - then piano bar - then club - then lido pool bar - then late night pizza - then perhaps cabin party...

i meet a whole bunch of people because i'm always out there. to be frank, dinner is my DOWN TIME, i don't personally need to meet people at dinner, i meet them everywhere else.

for people with a more sedate type of schedule each day, again i can see the benefit - but for me personally, does not make any sense. when it happens, great! but like i said even in those instances of sharing tables or being social with those around us - i do not tend to see them around the ship. i see everybody else i've met, everywhere else :)

just trying to offer some perspective. :D

We have never asked for a table for two, but we were given one anyway on our last two cruises. But the cruise before that, we were at a 10-top. The table was full for the elegant nights, but other nights it was only one other couple and us. And that was fine. We made friends with them, did many activities together and still keep in touch.

DH and I haven't tried Your Time dining yet, but we do like to meet new people at dinner. In fact, last December we ended up at a table of 8 and had the best time sharing stories about our day with each other even though we didn't hang out as a group any other time. We ended up all being Facebook friends and love to stay in contact, which DH and I have never done with anyone else that we've met on a cruise.

That being said, we choose fixed time for two main reasons: 1) DH is severely allergic to strawberries, so having the same waitstaff every night really makes that so much easier for us since they know from the first night to make sure his plates aren't garnished with the strawberries (especially desserts). 2) DH and I are opposites- he is quite the extrovert and spends his entire day meeting new people and talking to them, whereas I'm very much an introvert (not to be confused with shy- I'm definitely not shy :D) and like to spend my day chilling out on deck with a book. Meeting new people every day is relaxing for him but- in all honesty- is stressful for me. Having a fixed seating is easier for us since I really do like getting to know new people over time, and DH gets to make friends too. :p We're thinking about doing YTD on our 2015 cruise, though; I look forward to trying it one day.

This is exactly the way we feel.......

AND that's exactly how we fell, have a table for 2 and always ask for a certain table on each ship.

We like anytime dining and we enjoy meeting new people every night. Sometimes it clicks, other times it doesn't. We met a great couple that we got along very well with at dinner and met up with them at other activities. One night, though, we were seated with a single man who had a MAJOR CRUSH on the waitress. He spent the entire meal talking about her, how great she was...and his eyes NEVER left finding her. It was AWKWARD!!!! :eek:

On our very first cruise on Majesty of the Seas in 1999 we were seated with a couple where the husband had the worst breath! He always found his way to my husband (then boyfriend) and would talk very closely to him. It was hysterical. Well to me anyway ;)

The wife and I discussed going with anytime dining this time around, but both came to the conclusion that it isn't worth it to us. We'd be gaining the convenience of eating whenever we want, but giving up the opportunity to meet several table mates, really get to know our wait staff, and have our wait staff get to know our dining preferences. Some of our best cruising memories are from the folks we met at our 8-top on our honeymoon cruise.

You can request your wait staff with anytime dining. So you actually have more control. Also, for us, meeting new wait staff is a part of meeting new people too.

We use anytime dining and will sit with others. We want flexibility with dining times not our own table.

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Don't like anytime dining much, we are locked into the early sitting on cruises. However we do like sitting with other people at dinner, it's part of the whole experience.

The one time we had no choice it was anytime or late sitting, we did do anytime. The poster above is correct you can and we did request a specific wait staff each night. After two nights the first staff was excellent, the second the only bad staff I think we ever had. I got the card from head waiter and each night showed it to the reservation table and we waited for a table with them.

We LOVE meeting new people when we cruise!

We just don't want to meet them at the dinner table!

This is us; plus, with kids, we figure we are doing you a huge favor;)

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This is us; plus, with kids, we figure we are doing you a huge favor;)

 

 

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Ah, now that does add a different dynamic to this decision. Hadn't thought about that before.

We love Anytime dining and always take that option if possible. We don't mind sitting with others, but I have noticed that more and more we enjoy a table for two. The meal seems to go faster and sometimes it's just more relaxing to not have to make conversation with strangers, especially after a very busy day.

We've had some very interesting and enjoyable table mates and never anyone really bad, but I think the more we cruise the less that is important to us. We love the flexibility of Anytime--no rush, get ready when we want, eat when it works for us according to what we want to do that night, etc.

We only make reservations for Anytime if we know we have to have a specific time in order to get ready for an activity or entertainment. Having the same waiters or table just isn't a big deal to us.

I like meeting new people at meals on the ship; DH doesn't so much. We try to do it both ways. Mix it up a bit.

One of the joys of getting on a cruise ship, to me, is meeting interesting people. They don't have to be rocket scientists, the ability to speak English is enough-they are interesting because I don't know them before the cruise, I may become fast friends with them, or hate them, but to have one meal with someone is not going to make or break my cruise. I usually travel with my DH, and heck, lets face it, while I love him to death, we eat together every darn night on land, so while its soooo romantic:rolleyes: (yeah right) to dine together on the ship-why wouldn't we want to sit with others.

 

I know a lot of you are going to say, we "want to be alone" but are there people out there who actually like to sit with new people? Meet new people? at their table?

 

Those are the ones I want to hear from!

 

Oh, most interesting people I have shared a meal with? A couple who knew each other as children before WWII, both survived concentration camps, met up as adults and got married. What a story! They were the nicest people!

We love to meet new people. We get AD and ask for a table for 6.

Last year we were on the Grand Princess for 49 days around South America. There must have been 10 or 15 couples who went to dinner about the same time as us (7:30) and asked for a table for 4 or more. In various combinations, we ate dinner with each of them over the 7 weeks and got to know them without sitting with the same people every night.