Dining on Royal Princess

I expect to make a booking very soon on Royal Princess for a 7 day cruise. Normally, I request second seating dining. Royal Princess will be the largest ship on which I have sailed that has so many dining options. I would appreciate receiving opinions from others who have sailed on either Royal or Regal as to what they would suggest. And, particularly from those cruisers who usually dine at a fixed seating time like me.

Many thanks for your input!

Go with what has worked for you n the past.

I expect to make a booking very soon on Royal Princess for a 7 day cruise. Normally, I request second seating dining. Royal Princess will be the largest ship on which I have sailed that has so many dining options. I would appreciate receiving opinions from others who have sailed on either Royal or Regal as to what they would suggest. And, particularly from those cruisers who usually dine at a fixed seating time like me.

 

Many thanks for your input!

Sailed on both the Royal and Regal and many other Princess Ships.

Have not seen where size of the Ship affected the time that I selected to dine.

Have a great Cruise.

Your MDR assignment has no impact on your ability to use alternative dining options. If you prefer to eat in the MDR most of the time, keep doing what you’ve been doing. Being a larger ship, everything has been scaled to meet the larger size of the ship so it operates just like the other ships.

My wife and I prefer MDR for dinner so we select traditional. But others don’t and select ATD and then go elsewhere most if not all of the nights. My opinion is really valid only for me. We can’t tell you what you should do since our preferences are likely to be different from yours.

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It is also available to do ATD, but call that morning with time reservation request so that you don't need to wait in line when arriving. They usually have a reservations row, separate from those that don't. In fact, we loved our waiter and assistant on the second night. So we asked the maitre d' to put us at the same table for the same time each night.

With 2nd seating dining time, I would choose Anytime Dining. Not had a waiting problem to be seated for 2 when going between7:30-8pm. It will also give us the flexibility to try the other dining venues whenever we want.

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Being a larger ship, everything has been scaled to meet the larger size of the ship so it operates just like the other ships.

Sailed on both the Royal and Regal and many other Princess Ships.

 

Have not seen where size of the Ship affected the time that I selected to dine.

Now my only experience on Royal-class was sailing solo on a five night getaway in November, so the OP (and everyone else) can take this for what it is worth. But to my eyes the dining experience is clearly intended to be different than on other Princess ships. The breadth and quality of the buffet, plus a full-service Alfredo's means that by design many more people will be dining not just "anytime" but truly "when and where they wish" and this doesn't even take into account the upcharge dining options; As it is so much easier to plan your meal around the rest of the evening, on Royal there clearly was far less intent of the CD/ED to schedule entertainment and activities around the fixed dining times. That is how Princess scales the dining to the ship's larger passenger numbers.

My last use of ATD had been on Star Princess in 2011. Since then I have taken three Princess cruises (and five on other lines) with fixed dining and swore I would never return to any line's "open dining" even though I had to on two other cruises where it was not available. But as I did in November on Royal and Regal I will choose ATD, even if slightly more due to that is what the onboard experience dictates over my personal preference of late TD.

With 2nd seating dining time, I would choose Anytime Dining. Not had a waiting problem to be seated for 2 when going between7:30-8pm. It will also give us the flexibility to try the other dining venues whenever we want.

If one truly wants to be seated on time every night they should still go with late TD. The one night I chose the MDR on Royal at a few minutes after 8:00 there was a line of at least 30-40 people at Concerto DR. While they may have all been waiting for two-tops I walked down to Symphony where I managed to alert the man at the door that I was willing to share and was seated immediately.

Tangentally this also applies to rotating in and out of the MDR: the one dinner and one lunch in five days I ate in the MDR (besided embarkation lunch) seemed agonizingly slow to me. But if committed to a leisurely pace every night I have always enjoyed such service.

Am on Royal in June, I hope they do not push the 1st sitting traditional, back from scheduled 6pm to 5.45pm or even 5.30pm as they do sometimes. :evilsmile:

Any recent Royal cruisers had experience of the above recently? :hearteyes:

On the Royal five night getaway in November the early seating was at 5:30 in both Allegro (where late seating was 8:00) and Concerto (which converted to ATD at 7:30). But I would think in Europe--where they get complaints that the 8:15 late TD is too early--this would be less likely than in the Caribbean. Rather than recent cruisers hopefully someone from last summer will answer.

Am on Royal in June, I hope they do not push the 1st sitting traditional, back from scheduled 6pm to 5.45pm or even 5.30pm as they do sometimes. :evilsmile:

 

Not just the Royal, but with all Princess ships the Personalizer listed traditional times are more of an approximate time than actual. If the time is listed as 6 PM turns out to be 6 PM, it will be a coincidence.

I once had a B2B with late seating for both listed in the Personalizer as being 8 PM. On the first segment it was actually at 7:45 and on the second segment it was actually at 8:15. But they did average out to be 8 PM.

Am on Royal in June, I hope they do not push the 1st sitting traditional, back from scheduled 6pm to 5.45pm or even 5.30pm as they do sometimes. :evilsmile:

 

Any recent Royal cruisers had experience of the above recently? :hearteyes:

On both the Regal with our three grandchildren in 10/17 and the Royal on 11/25/17 we chose the 5:30 dining as the DH likes to make the first show.

After the show one can always visit HC for a later snack.

Howard

In addition, one can always return to the MDR for desert or a late evening appetizer.

Not just the Royal, but with all Princess ships the Personalizer listed traditional times are more of an approximate time than actual. If the time is listed as 6 PM turns out to be 6 PM, it will be a coincidence.

 

 

I once had a B2B with late seating for both listed in the Personalizer as being 8 PM. On the first segment it was actually at 7:45 and on the second segment it was actually at 8:15. But they did average out to be 8 PM.

Yes, you are right, 1st and 2nd sittings can be moved in time at the discretion of the ship. We have had many experiences of that, done early and late.:hearteyes: It helps to establish the MDR times though, e.g. when one has shorex booked that get in late afternoon.

We moved back to TD and early dining at "6:00 PM" which in the last several cruises has been 5:30 PM. One can always eat somewhere else anytime instead of their assigned table/time but at least tell your waiters not to wait for you to appear. The biggest lines for dinner are early with almost no lines after 7:30 for ATD. However we were on a cruise around the Horn and realized that South Americans eat late. Lines of ATD pax started showing up at 8:00 PM or so every night with no lines before that time.