Does Club Class dining impact the rest of the dining room?

Hi,

Have never used Club Class dining but do enjoy traditional and anytime. No reason for us to upgrade. However am a bit concerned that the dining experience may not be the same since the addition of Club Class. This does not seem to be case but thought I would ask.

Does service get affected?

Could you be seated right next to Club Class and therefore "feel" and see the difference?

Thanks in advance for sharing experiences.

Hi,

Have never used Club Class dining but do enjoy traditional and anytime. No reason for us to upgrade. However am a bit concerned that the dining experience may not be the same since the addition of Club Class. This does not seem to be case but thought I would ask.

Does service get affected?

Could you be seated right next to Club Class and therefore "feel" and see the difference?

Thanks in advance for sharing experiences.

With reference to Royal Class & Grand Class ships:

Does not effect traditional. I did not notice any difference in Anytime. Early anytime on these ships is on deck 5 mid ship. Club Class is a section in the deck 6 mid ship DR. The other portion of the deck 6 mid ship DR is used for early seating traditional and switches to anytime starting at 7:30 when there is less demand for tables.

Menus are the same, except Club Class gets an additional dish and more attentive service.

With reference to Royal Class & Grand Class ships:

Does not effect traditional. I did not notice any difference in Anytime. Early anytime on these ships is on deck 5 mid ship. Club Class is a section in the deck 6 mid ship DR. The other portion of the deck 6 mid ship DR is used for early seating traditional and switches to anytime starting at 7:30 when there is less demand for tables.

Menus are the same, except Club Class gets an additional dish and more attentive service.

I'm glad they keep the club class segregated to the deck 6 DR on the Royal rather than splinting it between decks 5 and 6.

The DR on 5 was busy enough without slowing down service by reserving half the DR.

There are empty tables in the CC area. This can potentially slow seating of other passengers.

No, just off Royal anyway, and CC has no impact really on regular dining area. The only difference is you will see several tables not being used and instead of white tablecloths and napkins CC uses grey tablecloths and napkins(with CC imprinted on them). And CC dining has a different color flower on its tables! Grin. We 2 sat at a table for 4 most nights and were right next to a table of 10 at a regular dining area. The only impact is if there is a line for people waiting for their reservation to open at ATD and you walk right in without waiting.

Pooh

On our last cruise (a B2B) we were right next to the entrance door for CC. Couldn't see much difference in the way the CC waiters behaved compared to our waiters. We got very good, friendly service.

The most entertaining part of where we were sitting was watching at least one couple every night (different people ;) ) attempting to enter through the CC doors. I would have thought that after a couple of nights on the ship everyone would know where the MDR doors were. :confused:

On Island it had a huge impact. Lower dining room is used 50% by fixed seating and about 20% was used by Club Class. So actual Anytime got less than half the dining room. Even if you had a reservation you lined up 45 minutes before the doors opened because you couldn't get to the appropriate line. Folks coming off elevators just crowded in. And in our area once the first batch was finished eating they switched to Club Class, so another 10 tables lost for later diners. Before 7 never saw the Club Class area more than 20% full, either.

Problem is they keep the seats open just in case Club Class or Suites want to eat in their preferred seat, so lots of tables sit empty for most of the evening. One guy in line in front of us had fixed seating but wanted to eat with friends so had an Anytime reservation. He was in a suite and allowed to use the Club Class area so he effectively tied up seats in all three areas.

Lots of folks gave up on the dining room for the 15 day cruise but lots just started showing up earlier and earlier.

I'm glad they keep the club class segregated to the deck 6 DR on the Royal rather than splinting it between decks 5 and 6.

The DR on 5 was busy enough without slowing down service by reserving half the DR.

I have been to the Club Class dining on the Regal, Royal, and Emerald. The Club Class section on those ships were on deck 6 and occupied no more than one fourth of that dining room

I've read all the hoopla about the the "Club Class" and find nothing inviting about any of it. Gee I'll upgrade for more money so I can have a different shower head! Entire program sounds like smoke and mirrors to charge more for the same stateroom. We haven't done traditional last 10 cruises, but as I recall, there was no "wait" to be seated for traditional dining.

I've read all the hoopla about the the "Club Class" and find nothing inviting about any of it. Gee I'll upgrade for more money so I can have a different shower head! Entire program sounds like smoke and mirrors to charge more for the same stateroom. We haven't done traditional last 10 cruises, but as I recall, there was no "wait" to be seated for traditional dining.

Club Class exists to fix Anytime Dining capacity issues, not TD, and in most cases does impact TD capacity thereby pushing more passengers out of (early) traditional and into anytime. It also exists to fix the perceived service difference between TD and ATD: all too often, the best waiters end up handling TD, or maybe just life as an ATD waiter is so harried and hurried that those folks are less detail-oriented.

The Club Class Dining Area takes up very little space.

A bigger problem is folks who book Traditional and don't show up for dinner at their table and decide to go elsewhere. Seems to always be lots of empty seats in TD. :rolleyes:

On Crown our server said that the CC servers have priority on having their orders filled, so it causes a small delay for the non-CC servers for the traditional dining. Whether this is noticeable/affecting a pax's experience is probably variable. With tables for 2 that eat quickly, the delay is probably more noticeable than in cases where there's more chatting and slower eating.

We were at the back of the dining room and had some unusually food service (but the servers were working their butts off and I don't blame them for service being slow). The distance from the station to the galley combined with the CC "jump the line" thing were the two main drivers according to them (and I have no reason to doubt them as we were very clear we appreciate all their hard work and weren't bothered by the wait).

The Club Class Dining Area takes up very little space.

A bigger problem is folks who book Traditional and don't show up for dinner at their table and decide to go elsewhere. Seems to always be lots of empty seats in TD. :rolleyes:

That is why Club Class should be in the Traditional Dining room.

Club Class exists to fix Anytime Dining capacity issues, not TD, and in most cases does impact TD capacity thereby pushing more passengers out of (early) traditional and into anytime. It also exists to fix the perceived service difference between TD and ATD: all too often, the best waiters end up handling TD, or maybe just life as an ATD waiter is so harried and hurried that those folks are less detail-oriented.

All the crew rotates every so many cruises. They give every one of them a rotation (including waiters) so that there is no favoritism for the better positions.

And that even includes what serving position in each of the DR's.

We were on the Emerald in January. As far as I could tell Club Class didn't affect our Anytime dining at all, but we do eat fairly late, usually 8 to 9.

There were really very few tables in Club Class filled at that hour--it took me a while to figure out why a section of the dining room was almost empty every night and had roses instead of 'cheaper' flowers.

We did not make reservations and never waited more than 3 to 5 minutes for a table for two, but again that may be because we eat late. I honestly never saw more than 4-5 tables full in Club Class. It didn't affect the speed of our orders either.

Seems to always be lots of empty seats in TD. :rolleyes:

Maybe people simply don't sign up for traditional, leaving those seats empty.

I think, in general, people like to eat earlier. This make late seating a lot less crowded

that in years past.

Those people who don't sign up, then show up for anytime ... as is their right.

All the crew rotates every so many cruises. They give every one of them a rotation (including waiters) so that there is no favoritism for the better positions.

A friend of mine did club class for an entire contract.

For 2 contracts before that, she was in Sabatini's for the entire contract(s).

There are def. better and worse stations, and there is plenty of favoritism.

(just like any job)

We were on the Ruby in December. Previously sailed the Crown (2X) and Caribbean, before CC. We've always had Anytime and never experienced any serious waits... until the Ruby. It was a madhouse. 30+ minute wait not uncommon. I couldn't figure out what was so different about that sailing... until now. A large part of the ATD dining room was taken up with CC tables, and as others have stated, very few were occupied most of the time. This must have had a resultant negative impact on ATD wait times. Just one of the things about that cruise that left a very bad taste in my mouth about Princess.

Hi,

 

Have never used Club Class dining but do enjoy traditional and anytime. No reason for us to upgrade. However am a bit concerned that the dining experience may not be the same since the addition of Club Class. This does not seem to be case but thought I would ask.

 

 

 

Does service get affected?

 

Could you be seated right next to Club Class and therefore "feel" and see the difference?

 

 

 

Thanks in advance for sharing experiences.

No

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That is why Club Class should be in the Traditional Dining room.

No. Club Class is anytime dining. The idea is that CC diners can show up whenever they want and not have to wait for a table. It would not work for them to show up at the traditional dining room between the two traditional seatings.

Why not? It would be a special section of the dining room and the servers there would be treating that section as being anytime, no different than if it was in the anytime dining room.

However, it could affect the early traditional dining seating as that if often full and now there would be less seats available for traditional dining.

Thanks everyone for sharing. Before CC, I thought to two main issues with dining times have been getting early traditional dining and getting true anytime dining without a wait. Now adding club class to the same area does not seem to help either and probably makes anytime dining have more of a wait?

I'm glad they keep the club class segregated to the deck 6 DR on the Royal rather than splinting it between decks 5 and 6.

The DR on 5 was busy enough without slowing down service by reserving half the DR.

Club class is not half of a dining room. Maybe 10% of one of the mid ship dining rooms, located in one corner.

Thanks everyone for sharing. Before CC, I thought to two main issues with dining times have been getting early traditional dining and getting true anytime dining without a wait. Now adding club class to the same area does not seem to help either and probably makes anytime dining have more of a wait?

No impact on anytime since the busiest time is early and the CC is located in a dining room that is use for early traditional. Might actually help since some of the people using CC would have been in the anytime crowd.

Later on when that dining room switches to anytime there is usually not much of a crowd or wait.

The biggest impact, and that is not much of one, is that it does reduce the number of early traditional slots in that dining room by 10% or so. That dining room is usually 5:30, with the one for traditional dining in the back usually a 6:00 dining time.

No impact on anytime since the busiest time is early and the CC is located in a dining room that is use for early traditional. Might actually help since some of the people using CC would have been in the anytime crowd.

 

Later on when that dining room switches to anytime there is usually not much of a crowd or wait.

 

The biggest impact, and that is not much of one, is that it does reduce the number of early traditional slots in that dining room by 10% or so. That dining room is usually 5:30, with the one for traditional dining in the back usually a 6:00 dining time.

Obviously you have actually experienced Club Dining. On the Emerald Club Dining, early Traditional Dining, and Anytime Dining in the Dining Room was exactly as you described.

IMO Anytime Dining has been an issue for a long time. As would be expected when Princess attempts to mix Traditional and Anytime at the same time. The number of empty seats in Traditional Dining every night very likely exceeds the total number of seats in the Club Dining section. (My observation)