Anytime Dining Questions

[ms.sunburn]

That's too bad! I would have loved to have had the tables combined so that I could meet new people. On my very first cruise, I met the greatest couple and have stayed in contact ever since. I wouldn't change the assigned dining. Maybe what Carnival should do, is on the ships with 2 dining rooms, turn one room into the ATD and the other into assigned. I know many people still love the traditional dining offered.

 

Actually, they seemed to do this on the Freedom. The Chic dining room had Anytime Dining and the Posh was assigned seating. We were looking forward to meeting people at dinner as we met some fantastic new friends on our Med. cruise, but that just didn't happen unfortunately.

[RMcoolX]

I liked NCL's version of anytime dining (Freestyle), but Carnival's version left a lot to be desired. We tried it once so far, and I didn't like it at all. They were corraling us in to the Anytime Dining section like cattle, gave us the newbie/trainee waiters, stuffed us, and got us out for the next folks. Stick to the traditional dining on Carnival, IMO. NCL does it well, Carnival needs to stop!

[askimdog]

This past January there was a snafu and we had to take anytime ( we were suppose to dine with my brother and sisters families for a group of 9 at Early...only to find out it was not to be, an error had occured) . Anyway, the few times we did dine in the MDR ( 2 breakfast and 2 dinners) we had a table for 3 everytime and never a wait. So it was great. I'd do anytime again. We did dine at 5:45 though, so we beat the rush likely.

[rnvattes]

They were corraling us in to the Anytime Dining section like cattle, gave us the newbie/trainee waiters,

 

Hubby and I wondered about this on our trip, and I wonder if anyone here truly knows the answer.

 

Are the traditional wait staff ranked higher than the YTDs, or the reverse, or neither? On the one hand, we felt like the traditional staff might be more experienced so they could give that experience that so many are saying they miss (or are afraid they'll miss) by going YTD. On the other hand -- given our fabulous experience where our YTD wait staff knew us by name and remembered our preferences after the first time we sat with them on the second night -- we wondered if they might be more experienced in YTD to keep up with potentially ever-changing clientele and a faster pace.

 

Anyone know the answer to this?

[askimdog]

We have done 3 cruises, the last one this past January with Anytime Dining. We noticed no difference in rotating waiters or the service of waiters. The other cruises we had Early dining. All seem the same, we never had a rapport or got to know or had a talkative waiter the first 2 cruises, so having a different team every meal on the last cruise was fine.

[Kato27]

We did ATD last summer. It was just me and my wife, also first cruise ever. We never waited more than 10 minutes either and we always had a table for 2. The tables were not that close to each other. As for ur waiter, if u like him like we liked ours.

When u go back to MDR for supper on the other nights , just ask to be seated were he/she is serving, we had he same waiter the whole cruise.

When we went for breakfast in the MDR, that's when we would sit with other couples, got to meet some nice folks.:)

[surfjock27]

We just got back from the Dream and sat in ATD the entire cruise.

Every night we requested the same waitress (Oksana) and always asked for a table for two.

Out of the seven nights, we had to wait only once.

The wait was 15-20 minutes.

Other than that, we were sat right away.

[katiel53]

We always do anytime dining. We usually go to dinner when the restaurant opens so there are no waits. We usually get to have a good selection of tables. If we find a table and wait staff that we particularly like, we will reserve it for the rest of the cruise. If we make good friends while onboard, we will make arrangements to have dinner together as well.

 

Unfortunately on Carnival, you can not reserve a table at any time if you have ATD. You can request the same wait staff and table, and if it is available you may get it. If it is not, you can either get a beeper and the staff will let you know when the table or wait staff or both become available, or you can decide to get another server or table.

 

We have had some good luck with ATD on Carnival as well as some bad luck. On our first Dream cruise there were 4 of us and we had an excellent wait team and asked for them every night. We had to wait most nights, and that was our choice. On the 2nd Dream cruise we waited every night and decided it wasn't worth it. So, for the 3rd Dream cruise we had scheduled dining.

 

On our last Dream cruise, it was just DH and I. We had ATD and went at different times. We didn't have any wait staff that we felt were especially good, so we were seated at various tables for two. By that I mean one night we got no butter dish. Another night we had a butter dish, but it was empty. One night we weren't served any bread. Just little things and they didn't ruin our dinner, but we noticed the service was not the same as it had been. The tables were right next to the tables on either side of us. I felt as though we were at a table for 6, but that we had arrived late for dinner as the others were on entrees when we arrived. I thought it was not something I would do again when it was just the two of us.

 

We went at different times and a couple of nights because it was after 8, we did end up with booths so we didn't have anything sitting thisclose to us. We asked for booths every night, but were told they are for 4 people. On our next Dream cruise we are going back to scheduled dining.

[marshhawk]

Thanks for the insights on this. DH and I are trying YTD on our next cruise, for the reason of being able to spend more time in ports, not running back for an early dinner (which was always too early for us) and we think that late seating is a bit too late for us. But DH wants to meet people, he enjoys conversations with others. So, we can request to be seated with others, right? It will be on the Legend and I noticed that at least in their drawings, there are a lot of table for 2 upstairs. I am hoping that we can share our meals with other people.