Anytme Dining?

Can those of you who have been on board the Ruby or her sister ships, and who have chosen anytime dining comment on it (especially if you have been on the Mediterrainian)? We are still trying to decide whether to do tradtional or early sitting, or even late sitting. I have heard that there are line ups of up to an hour on some anytime dining sittings. On the Med cruises, we will be in ports for a longer period of time, so I am wondering which is better.

Hi - DH and I spent 20 days on her sister, the Emeraldin January. We had anytime dining. A word of caution - we are dedicated anytime dining fans - so of course we are going to say go with anytime. It's one of the reasons we love Princess.

On a port intensive med cruise - why? Because if you do have extended port times, you could miss your early seating assignment, or have to rush to get to the second fixed seating, or come back hungry but still wish to dine in a dining room. We LOVE the flexibility.

There are two anytime dining rooms on these ships, in addition to the specialty restaurants, and if you are willing to share a table, you should not have much of a wait on most evenings.

Two additional thoughts - this does not always hold true on formal night, it could be hard to get seated at certain times, such as immediately after the Captain's Welcome Aboard party, or right after shows leave out. Also, if you know what time you might want to dine that eveing, try calling and making a reservation before you leave to go ashore for the day.

Over the years, the waitstaff and maitre'd have commented on the ebbs and flows of anytime dining "rush hours", and honestly, it tends to depend upon passenger demographics, and they also note that people tend to prefer to dine later in anytime dining over the holidays, but then things generally swing back to earlier preferences in anytime.

I think that with such a port intensive cruise, the formal dining rooms may get less traffic - people will return from shore excursions tired and just opt to have a quick meal at Cafe Caribe/Horizon Court rather than "dressing" for dinner and making an event of it, especially with the anticipation of another long day ashore the next day. Also, with baggage fees and weight allowances, more (but not the majority) of passengers will opt for a more casual approach to attire and choose the more casual dining venues.

5 cruises with Princess using Anytime Dining as a group of 2 that is 'willing to share' a larger table. Never a minute's wait for dining table - even when showing up at peak times. We just say 2 - willing to share and we have been escorted immediately to a table.

On a port intensive cruise like the Med, I would definitely do anytime dining.

Can those of you who have been on board the Ruby or her sister ships, and who have chosen anytime dining comment on it (especially if you have been on the Mediterrainian)? We are still trying to decide whether to do tradtional or early sitting, or even late sitting. I have heard that there are line ups of up to an hour on some anytime dining sittings. On the Med cruises, we will be in ports for a longer period of time, so I am wondering which is better.

Anytime is the way to go!!

Early seating is way too early and rushed from the long port days, sometimes we got back as last as 5:30-6pm.

Late seating becomes can be late if the next day you are planning to be off the ship by 7:30am as we were in almost every port.

We did anytime with a standing reservation at 6pm. By 6:30-6:45 all the tables were seated. We left between 7pm to 7:45 and saw a line of between 2-10 couples deep at the worst ( formal night). Arrive before 6:30 and I think your wait should be minimum based on what we experienced.

Many cruises with anytime dining. When my daughter joins us for dinner, we eat at a table for 3 around 5:30 to 6:00. When she doesn't join us (i.e. eats with the kids program) we eat at a table for 2 just after 7:00 (the kids program usually opens at 7:00). Usually seated right away, and don't recall the last time we had to wait more than 10-15 minutes.

We love anytime dining for the flexibility. We like a table for two and usually dine anywhere from 7:15 to 8:30 PM. The only time we've experienced a wait is on formal nights and it wasn't as long as we usually wait to be seated at a resort restaurant while on vacation. The best thing about anytime dining is you don't have to worry about what time your excursion is over.

Just wondering if on a Med cruise as we will be on, whether most everyone will be going to the dining room at the same time? And, what does it mean when you say that you had a standing reservation at 6?

Just wondering if on a Med cruise as we will be on, whether most everyone will be going to the dining room at the same time? And, what does it mean when you say that you had a standing reservation at 6?

"standing reservations" meant that we had a reservation in anytime dinning at 6pm every day of the cruise at the same table and with the same dinning attendants. We were a party of 11 and they allowed it before 6:30 and after 8:30 if memory serves me right. This worked out perfect as we'd always be back early before the rush, had time for a dip in the pool and a shower then to dinner between 5:45 to 6pm. We'd often pop up between courses to the top for a view of the sailaway then back for more food :D

I think the dining times were likely more skewed to later then earlier with the port days. Most days sailaway was as early as 5pm to as late as 7pm. In many ports people stayed on deck to enjoy the sail aways. For us it was where is the food, we're hungry :D

We did anytime dining for our Med cruise last year, and I would highly recommend this. It allowed us to eat earlier on some nights if we had a sea day or shorter port day, and we got a chance to take our time by eating later on a longer port day. We didn't find the dining rooms particularly crowded. As mentioned above, probably a lot of people opt for the buffet rather than getting ready for the MDR. Plus, people returned to the ship at varying times and likely had different schedules in mind (eat right away, relax first, or whatever.) Personally, I think that anytime is custom made for any port intensive cruise. Actually, the only time we have had long waits has been on the formal nights, so we usually reserve for those evenings and just show up when ready on the others.

We love anytime dining and it is one of the reasons we travel on Princess. We have never made a reservation and are always willing to share. The longest we have ever waited is 10 minutes and that was on formal night at 7:30. I just love the flexibility of dining when you want. I also enjoy meeting new people every night. We are also thinking of a European cruise this summer and will be going with anytime dining.

Just wondering if on a Med cruise as we will be on, whether most everyone will be going to the dining room at the same time? And, what does it mean when you say that you had a standing reservation at 6?

We did anytime dining on the Grand Princess in the Med in 2006. We loved it. As others have said, the Med is port intensive. If we had opted for early seating traditional dining, we would have had to often rush to get ready for dinner. The late seating traditional dining would have been too late to eat on those days when we had to get up very early the next morning. As it was, we were able to get back to the ship, go up to the pool deck and have a few beers and just relax. When we felt like eating, we went and ate. We are doing the Med again in a few months and are looking forward to anytime dining. In fact, we were very disappointed on our Hawaii/Tahiti cruise as the Tahitian Princess did not have anytime dining.

I can't comment on what would be the best time to eat with anytime dining. When we felt like eating, we ate. We never had to wait, but we never requested a table for two either.

are the menus the same in the anytime dining rooms or are they different from the traditional room?

are the menus the same in the anytime dining rooms or are they different from the traditional room?

Menu's are always the same in Traditional and Anytime!:)

thanks, i was hoping so.

5 cruises with Princess using Anytime Dining as a group of 2 that is 'willing to share' a larger table. Never a minute's wait for dining table - even when showing up at peak times. We just say 2 - willing to share and we have been escorted immediately to a table.

 

On a port intensive cruise like the Med, I would definitely do anytime dining.

You weren't on board Sea Princess during her Y2008 NE/Canada cruises. :mad:The lines at Anytime were long and always slow moving.

The main problem was the Head Waiter who didn't have a clue as to how to run an Anytime dining room.

I'd done two previous Anytime cruises on Crown and Grand with very little, if any, wait times.

It's amazing how just one incompetent clown can create sheer havoc for hundreds of passengers.