Carnival Spirit "Anytime dining"

Just wondering how "anytime dining" works on Carnival Spirit.?

Firstly - my definition of "Anytime dining" -- you turn up at the main dining room at anytime during the hours that it is open, and they seat you at a table with others. Anytime dining works well on P&O ships for breakfast and lunch -- but does not work at all for dinner/evening meal. On P&O, if you turn up at say 7PM, they ask you to go away until 8PM or ask you to make a booking for a set time for tomorrow night (this is really just traditional dining times in disguise :))

Thanks for any advice from those who have cruised on Carnival Spirit.

Barry

Barry,

We were on the Spirit last year. The dining room runs over two levels, with the bottom level basically dedicated to the set seating dining. Anytime diners go the upper level.

Your definition is correct and thankfully, it is not like P&O, which we have experienced also. If it is busy, they may send you away for 10-15 minutes, but we always got in when we arrived. You get the choice of dining alone or with others.

Hope you enjoy "showtime"!!!!!

Thanks Fletch

Sounds good. We have been allocated "anytime dining" for a short 8 day cruise in August. We prefer to dine with others -- but for only 8 nights, we will be happy to dine with a mix of people - rather than try to get to know people on a longer term basis (as we do on a longer cruise) . We always enjoy breakfasts and lunches in the MDR - as a way to get to talk to a wide range of people. I find it to be much more "sociable" -- and see dining in the Buffet as inherently " unsociable". :) Although - sometimes I am indeed "unsociable" :) and the buffet suits me then. At age 67, I have been foolish enough to enter into the Sydney City to Surf this year for the first time -- so I don't know how sociable I will be on the ship :)

Barry

Barry when are you cruising in August. I'm on the spirit on 20 august sailing.

Barry when are you cruising in August. I'm on the spirit on 20 august sailing.

On 12 August - 2 days after the C2S

Barry

On 12 August - 2 days after the C2S

 

Barry

Small world Barry.....I am on the same cruise as you!

Small world Barry.....I am on the same cruise as you!

Barry & Fletch, I will be working at the OPT on the 12th as I am doing some work with Carnival & P&O over the winter so come and say hello ( ask for Graham) I will not be doing check in but will around somewhere. Be good to put faces to names.:D

I always thought even though it is "anytime" dining you still need to nominate a time that you want to eat to avoid everyone arriving at the same time, although have not sailed with Carnival(yet)so maybe they do it differently.

It's funny with Carnival you do not need to fill in a health questionaire unlike all the other cruise lines. They just ask you how you are feeling or if you have been sick?????

Small world Barry.....I am on the same cruise as you!

Ah yes!! of course! I remember now from the Roll Call :)

Looks like there will be at least 3 of us at the M&G :)

Barry

It's funny with Carnival you do not need to fill in a health questionaire unlike all the other cruise lines. They just ask you how you are feeling or if you have been sick?????

Good - one less bit of paper to fill in on the day :) We haven't cruised since November last year ( had bad sickness and eventual demise in the close family since then) -- that cruise was with P&O from Portside. It was also the first time we had been with them for 4 years - but had been with P&O many times before that. I always told people how well P&O did the boardings at Portside -- so they should after all these years .. BUT -- this particular boarding was an absolute shambles. They told everybody to turn up at 10AM - no staggered boarding times. This past weekend we sent friends off on Sea Princess to Perth - fortunately their boarding procedure was excellent -- actually the same as we had previously experienced with P&O. The local TA at Portside told me that P&O have now reverted back to staggered boardings.

Barry

We cruised on Carnival Spirit out of Hawaii to Vancouver about four years ago and the any time dining was just turn up at the time you wanted. If you wanted a table for 2, sometimes it took about 15 or so minutes but we wanted to be seated with other people so were seated straight away.

Cheers:)

We cruised on Carnival Spirit out of Hawaii to Vancouver about four years ago and the any time dining was just turn up at the time you wanted. If you wanted a table for 2, sometimes it took about 15 or so minutes but we wanted to be seated with other people so were seated straight away.

 

Cheers:)

Sounds good!! Thanks for that.

Barry

Carnival Spirit is great for anytime, they won't accept bookings you just rock up at dinner when you are ready for it.

Most times you get seated immediately if not they give you one of those buzzer things that you get at the pub when you order a meal to let you know you can come to dinner.

If you go outside of the peak rush, you will be seated straight away with no line at all :)

We had Anytime Dining on our Carnival Spirit cruise last month and it worked really well. We could go to the Empire Dining room whenever and they found us a table virtually straight away each time. We were a group of four and we were sat together every night.

The flexibility of eating when your are actually hungry is excellent.

Just a view from the other perspective.....

When on Spirit (as per many others) if you are Anytime Dining you are on the upper level (Deck 4)

There is a lot going on on the lower level (3) where the traditional seating is... particularly "Showtime".....where the staff provide a fantastic show. (The guy doing his version of Jimmy Barnes's "Working Class Man" should not be missed)

Unless you are close to the balcony on the upper level you will miss a lot of this.

I also found this to some extent on Solstice...

cheers

Just a view from the other perspective.....

 

When on Spirit (as per many others) if you are Anytime Dining you are on the upper level (Deck 4)

 

There is a lot going on on the lower level (3) where the traditional seating is... particularly "Showtime".....where the staff provide a fantastic show. (The guy doing his version of Jimmy Barnes's "Working Class Man" should not be missed)

 

Unless you are close to the balcony on the upper level you will miss a lot of this.

 

I also found this to some extent on Solstice...

 

cheers

Sounds like fun. I haven't seen any performances in the MDR for a long time (apart from the Chef's acknowledgement thing).:D

Sounds like fun. I haven't seen any performances in the MDR for a long time (apart from the Chef's acknowledgement thing).:D

I have a video of one of the waitstaff doing his fantastic "Barnsey Impression" but its a bit too big to load on here.

Here is a snapshot (bit dark I know) which clearly shows the upper dining area and how they had to stand at the rail to see the show.

Cheers

We were on the upper deck of the dining room for Anytime Dining and when the fun and games started on the lower deck lots of people went over to the railing and watched. Not ideal for the people sitting close to it. Some waiters on the upper deck were singing and dancing too.

Cheers:)

Barry,

 

... Hope you enjoy "showtime"!!!!!

I have seen videos of this, do they do it at one set time or several times during the night?

Thanks

:)

I can't remember if it was a set time, but we were usually in the DR at about 7 every night and we saw quite a bit of the singing by the waiters.

Cheers:)

Hi :) we had set time dining on an 8 night south pacific cruise on carnival. There were performances - singers, dancing etc every night. The kids didn't want to go back to kids club in case they missed it. If u book for set time, u don't have to use it - we would just let our wait staff know that we were eating in one of the other venues the next night :)

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On my Spirit cruise a month ago, I think there were just too many people for anytime dining. There were lines every single night just to get to the hostesses. Sometimes out past the elevators. Up to 40-50 people waiting in the line, never any less than 10-20. Unless you got there between 5:30 and about 6:00 you would almost certainly be given a buzzer and told to wait. The wait was anything up to 45 minutes. They were taking groups of people downstairs to sit at empty scheduled dining tables on some nights. It settled down much later in the evening, but if you want to eat somewhere between 6:00 and 7:00 you're pretty much out of luck.

Before the cruise I was listed as "wait listed" for anytime dining up until the week before the cruise. I'm thinking they might have just approved everyone and left the poor hostesses to deal with too many people vying for too few tables...

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We will be getting off as you get on. I will make sure I try to look after the ship for you ;)

Just a view from the other perspective.....

 

When on Spirit (as per many others) if you are Anytime Dining you are on the upper level (Deck 4)

 

There is a lot going on on the lower level (3) where the traditional seating is... particularly "Showtime".....where the staff provide a fantastic show. (The guy doing his version of Jimmy Barnes's "Working Class Man" should not be missed)

 

Unless you are close to the balcony on the upper level you will miss a lot of this.

 

I also found this to some extent on Solstice...

 

cheers

I am confused about Anytime Dining and the alternative with Showtime. When and how does one choose these options?

I am confused about Anytime Dining and the alternative with Showtime. When and how does one choose these options?

Don't get too excited about the so-called "Showtime" in the dining room. It is just an impromptu bit of singing/dancing by the staff on the lower level - which, as a diner in the upper level ( and who basically couldn't see anything much) using Anytime Dining, I found to be a bit interruptive and annoying. On the upper level, you can only see anything from the seats near the railings and , as you are ushered to an allocated table , it is a lottery as to whether you are allocated a seat anywhere near the railings.

We dined in the Anytime Dining only 4 times during our recent short cruise- on two nights it reasonably went nicely and smoothly , on two other nights it was something of a nightmare. Don't really know why - maybe the different times? maybe something else going on onboard?

One "problem" I saw at anytime dining was something that I have also seen with P&O Anytime dining ( and which doesn't happen for breakfasts and lunches in the dining room) -- this is the practice of asking people for their names and cabin numbers and writing this down on a sheet of paper before allocating a waiter to take you to your table. This procedure seems to slow down entry into the Dining Room quite badly - and I have no idea why they do it, - they don't do it at breakfast and lunch times.

Barry

Don't get too excited about the so-called "Showtime" in the dining room. It is just an impromptu bit of singing/dancing by the staff on the lower level - which, as a diner in the upper level ( and who basically couldn't see anything much) using Anytime Dining, I found to be a bit interruptive and annoying. On the upper level, you can only see anything from the seats near the railings and , as you are ushered to an allocated table , it is a lottery as to whether you are allocated a seat anywhere near the railings.

 

We dined in the Anytime Dining only 4 times during our recent short cruise- on two nights it reasonably went nicely and smoothly , on two other nights it was something of a nightmare. Don't really know why - maybe the different times? maybe something else going on onboard?

 

One "problem" I saw at anytime dining was something that I have also seen with P&O Anytime dining ( and which doesn't happen for breakfasts and lunches in the dining room) -- this is the practice of asking people for their names and cabin numbers and writing this down on a sheet of paper before allocating a waiter to take you to your table. This procedure seems to slow down entry into the Dining Room quite badly - and I have no idea why they do it, - they don't do it at breakfast and lunch times.

 

Barry

Barry its to stop you from having only part of a meal early and then returning after a show or activity to have say just desert and coffee or cheese and biccys:)

In US on Carnival some go into MTD early and only have a main then return later to finish their courses or even start over.

People go to MTD very early with their kids and take up seats then try to return for their own main meal much later without the kids.