Your time dining

[JStarbrite]

It's been a while, but I'm back cruising! Something that is new, at least for me, is Your Time Dining. How does this work? Are you limited to a certain area of the dining room? The big shows used to be correlated with the dinner seatings. When you have your time dining can you go to any of the shows?

 

I can't believe that anyone would want it any other way.

[IndyGirl]

It's been a while, but I'm back cruising! Something that is new, at least for me, is Your Time Dining. How does this work? Are you limited to a certain area of the dining room? The big shows used to be correlated with the dinner seatings. When you have your time dining can you go to any of the shows?

 

I can't believe that anyone would want it any other way.

 

We did the "Your Time Dining" on the Miracle this autumn. We liked it, you can go to dinner any time from 5:45 to 9:00 pm. The upper level on one side of the dining room was used for YTD. You just approach the hostess and tell her your name and then they seat you. If never took more than 5 minutes to be seated.

Yes you have your choice of late or early show times. Even both if you want. :D

[ddcruiser1]

I had any time dining on my first cruise this past Aug. on the Valor. We loved it. We had a fairly decent size group (there were 9 of us). They seated us in the section just above the main dining floor (which is where all the "any time" diners were seated). We, for the most part went around 5:45-6:15 usually and after the second night asked to have the same waiter (who we had the rest of the trip because we loved him). That second night we also had an amazing table close to the railing so we could even see the performances from the dining staff downstairs (we requested to have that table the rest of the week--and they made sure it was there for us). I think for me, it's the only way to go. Yes, you can go to the shows after dinner. I think we made it to all of them. Hope this helps.

[blindrid]

We only do cruise lines that offer some sort of ATD (freestyle, etc.). That is the only way we will go. It gives time flexibility that I need as I'm nota pretty good guy at "needing to go to dinner at 6:00" when I'm on vacation.

 

Last month on the Liberty, we were asked to check in on the lower level of the dining room but were sat anywhere. We also didn't wait more than 5 minutes for a table (4).

 

Shows are open seating.

[Cuizer2]

It's been a while, but I'm back cruising! Something that is new, at least for me, is Your Time Dining. How does this work? Are you limited to a certain area of the dining room? The big shows used to be correlated with the dinner seatings. When you have your time dining can you go to any of the shows?

 

I can't believe that anyone would want it any other way.

 

You can go to either of the shows. And, FYI, I prefer the traditional dining with the set dining time.

[JStarbrite]

I had any time dining on my first cruise this past Aug. on the Valor. We loved it. We had a fairly decent size group (there were 9 of us). They seated us in the section just above the main dining floor (which is where all the "any time" diners were seated). We, for the most part went around 5:45-6:15 usually and after the second night asked to have the same waiter (who we had the rest of the trip because we loved him). That second night we also had an amazing table close to the railing so we could even see the performances from the dining staff downstairs (we requested to have that table the rest of the week--and they made sure it was there for us). I think for me, it's the only way to go. Yes, you can go to the shows after dinner. I think we made it to all of them. Hope this helps.

 

That's a good point. I didn't think about missing the floor show that the waiters put on. I don't suppose the Your Time waitstaff put on a private show just for you :)I'll have to keep that in mind when making plans for the evening. I might even consider changing to assign seating. I kind of like socializing with your table mates too.

[blindrid]

That's a good point. I didn't think about missing the floor show that the waiters put on. I don't suppose the Your Time waitstaff put on a private show just for you :)I'll have to keep that in mind when making plans for the evening. I might even consider changing to assign seating. I kind of like socializing with your table mates too.

 

The staff is the same. We sat through all of the waiters shows with ATD.

[momof4girls]

I just came off the Fascination where we had ATD (two of us). We had a wonderful waiter the first night, second night we had a waitress that I'm sure was having a bad day:(, and then the rest of the cruise we requested our same waiter from the first night. We were always seated on the left hand side of the dining room, which I believe was where ATD was held. The wait staff always made sure to do their singing and dancing around the entire dining room, so we never missed a show (we mostly just saw the ATD wait staff singing and dancing). HOWEVER, on my next cruise I will not choose ATD. I really missed visiting with other people and hearing "their stories". :( My BFF and I were always at a table for two:( so we both agreed we would change that on our next cruise. Plus, we almost always went around 8:15 which is late-dining, so that's what we'll do for future cruises. You could easily attend either show (early or late), and we were always seated within 5 minutes (usually right away though).

[klmorg]

Welcome back! Anytime dining, in my opinion, if the best thing Carnival has done in a long time. We've use it the last 2 cruises with a much better dining experience than we ever had with traditional. You can go dine whenever you are actually hungry, and when you are ready, no schedules to meet. We went at various times between the 5:45-9:30 and only once had a wait of around 5 minutes. And the service was fantastic. We did catch several of the "performances", no matter how hard we tried to avoid them... LOL. It's the only way to go for us.

[ddcruiser1]

That's a good point. I didn't think about missing the floor show that the waiters put on. I don't suppose the Your Time waitstaff put on a private show just for you :)I'll have to keep that in mind when making plans for the evening. I might even consider changing to assign seating. I kind of like socializing with your table mates too.

 

I don't remember them being part of the show or doing a "private show" for us. I'm pretty sure the group I was with (family/friends) were the ones who put on a show for them. lol

[lillian marie]

We love anytime dining. If you wish you can request the same wait staff each night too.

[DEBnGAB]

That's a good point. I didn't think about missing the floor show that the waiters put on. I don't suppose the Your Time waitstaff put on a private show just for you :)I'll have to keep that in mind when making plans for the evening. I might even consider changing to assign seating. I kind of like socializing with your table mates too.

 

I think Id pass on the "private show"... :o;)

[vawalkers]

ATD seems to work very well unless you are booked on a cruise which has a high percentage of older, retired people.....at least that has been our experience. We have never had any problems with ATD until this past January on the Miracle. We shared ATD with over 500 very lovely older people who also had ATD. (we both work with and really enjoy older people; I am not being unkind so please don't flame). ATD was then a nightmare unless you waited until after 8:15 or later to eat as the MDR did not have enough seating for that many ATD(s) at one time. Our cruise was very quiet and we had no problems with loud children so it was a good tradeoff. We are going with ATD on the Freedom next year.

[cajunchick]

I love ytd. So easy, never waited more than 15 minutes and that was only one time. the rest of the time was seated right away.:D

[katiecat]

ATD seems to work very well unless you are booked on a cruise which has a high percentage of older, retired people.....at least that has been our experience. We have never had any problems with ATD until this past January on the Miracle. We shared ATD with over 500 very lovely older people who also had ATD. (we both work with and really enjoy older people; I am not being unkind so please don't flame). ATD was then a nightmare unless you waited until after 8:15 or later to eat as the MDR did not have enough seating for that many ATD(s) at one time. Our cruise was very quiet and we had no problems with loud children so it was a good tradeoff. We are going with ATD on the Freedom next year.

 

We had the same experience on the sister ship Legend last week. Everybody wanted to eat at once, early! W had a beeper sometimes for an hour then I gave up on dining after the 4th night. I never had a problem at all on the victory for two weeks in a row the January before last.

[vawalkers]

We had the same experience on the sister ship Legend last week. Everybody wanted to eat at once, early! W had a beeper sometimes for an hour then I gave up on dining after the 4th night. I never had a problem at all on the victory for two weeks in a row the January before last.

 

I guess we can say that anytime dining for Carnival has become a hit!!! I don't think we have been on a ship before this January that had so many for ATD. We cruised The Freedom from the same port (Ft Lauderdale) last April and there was probably less than 100 people doing the ATD. The Legend also had no problems the year before that. We are going to try ATD again on The Freedom in Jan 2012. If it does not work well, then we will switch to a designated dining time for our 2013 cruise.

[sky_blu_eyz]

We had your time dining on the Pride a few weeks ago. We love being able to go eat dinner whenever we were ready. We had the best wait staff our 2nd night so we just requested to be in that section the rest of the week. We only waited one time, we were given a pager, but we only waited 4 minutes that time. I will ALWAYS book your time in the future.