Do you think the waiters are better at assigned seating?

[Rankbronc]

One plus for Any Time Dining is that if you find a great wait staff you can request them each remaining night. If the were not to your liking, then trade them in until you find one you like. With the traditional you are more or less stuck with the same staff good or bad.

[CruiserKid]

I loved anytime dining because it was at my convenience. However, I'm back to traditional dining. It really depends what you want out of dinner. Both are great in my opinion.

 

Dinner is an event for me on a cruise ship. If I just want to eat something, the Lido Restaurant will be just fine. But if I want to enjoy a nice, relaxing meal, then the dining room experience is best on traditional dining. I don't mind the "slow" service because I'm enjoying the company and experience. On anytime dining, I've received EXCELLENT service most of the time. However, as a solo traveler, I rather use traditional dining instead of risking being placed with couples or a family for dinner. Not that couples or a family is bad, but I feel like a third wheel or intruding a family because I'm the only one that is not part of the family. At least on traditional dining, I've got my reserved seat and it's usually with other singles and solo travelers.

[Name Of The Game]

In our experience, there wasn't a good enough wait staff at Anytime we would request again.

[GottaLuvCruising]

We haven't tried Carnival's Anytime Dining option. But we have done Freestyle on NCL and Personal Choice on Princess along with two dozen cruises with assigned dining. While we do like the flexibility of open seating, we strongly feel that the service was better and far more attentive with assigned dining (and we like that the servers get to know our preferences). We chose main seating on our most recent and next cruise. Unless itinerary warrants open seating, we'll likely stick with an assignment in the future.

[klmorg]

The service is dependent upon the actual wait staff... doesn't really matter if you have traditional or anytime. You can have good, or GREAT, with either. I wouldn't necessarily use other people's opinions to make my decision about dining, I'd have to try it myself to form my own opinion. Which is what we did. :)

[Chelseaprincess]

Sailing with Carnival, we did both, traditional (first time on the Miracle) and any time dining (December 2009). Although you have great flexibility with any time dining, you compromise service, personal touch and attention to detail, IMHO. We never requested to be seated with the same wit staff, as we never had great service.

Here are some examples. Only once we got recommendations from the waiter regarding what to order. Once, our meal was so rushed that I think we finished the dinner within 45mins. Another time, it took almost two hrs, and there were only four of us at the table.

I guess you know now why I would love to go back to traditional dining next time.

[schultz]

We have had great service on our assigned seating dining, with the exception of two years ago. Our waiter was not very personable or efficient except for the second last night when he took out photos of his family and remembered our likes. His assistant was great, though and that was where our extra tip went. We payed him directly. Last year we tried anytime dining & found it pretty good most of the time. We were 4 so it was easy to seat us. This year there will be 9 of us so I think our best bet would be assigned seating.

[Kurbanfan]

One good thing about anytime is if you get a bad wait team you don't have to have them again.....unlike traditional where you would be stuck for the whole week......our worst service to date was traditional on the Spirit.......

[GlendaleCruiser]

I've heard stories of long waits on some ships for anytime dining, but I can see from the posts that it is not always the case.

 

I prefer assigned traditional seating but don't expect my waiter to know that I will want something every night unless I tell them. The first night I tell them that I will want an espresso every night with dessert and I never have to ask them again. On the other hand, most nights I drink iced tea with dinner, but sometimes we order wine. If I want Iced Tea every night I will say so at the start of the cruise.

[G'ma]

I find all the waiters to be excellent...they are all well-trained professioals..