Alaska cruise..Early, late, anytime dinning? What's the pros and cons

[Jishell]

What are your views on the different dinning options on an Alaska cruise..our travel agent automatically signed us up for the early seating..but I'm not so sure that's what we want to do.

[Pam in CA]

I prefer late Traditional dining as I like to relax after a day of touring, shower and change, and have a pre-dinner drink before dinner. But, everyone's preference is different. Some prefer to eat early, some prefer to do Anytime dining.

 

If you have Traditional dining, you can switch to Anytime. Chances are you can't switch from Anytime to Traditional dining as there is usually a long wait list.

 

The pro's for Traditional are that you have your table, you get to know your waitstaff and fellow diners, and you know exactly what time to be in the dining room and you can just walk in and be seated. Some people consider all of these "pro's" as "cons."

 

With Anytime, you can go to a dining room when you want to. You are more flexible with your dining time. The cons are that you have different waitstaff every night and can experience long waits for a table, even when sharing. Waits of up to 45 minutes or longer are not unusual. People have reported that they've never had a wait but that's not my experience or my observation.

[5326jan]

I agree with everything Pam said! We also prefer late Traditional Dining. The biggest advantage I can see to AD is that if you change your mind and want to do something different, it's no big deal, just do it. If you have TD -early or late - and you decide not to come, your table mates will be waiting for you to be seated before their orders are taken. I think that is the one thing new cruisers don't understand.... it makes a difference whether you show up or not. If you know you're not going to come, it's polite to let your waiter or fellow diners know. We don't do formal nights, so we tell them from the first night not to wait for us. :)

[capriccio]

If the 2 Alaska cruises we done are indicative, they have long stops in port (except Ketchikan) - check your itinerary. If you plan to make the most of each port, late Traditional or Anytime is better than early Traditional. We don't like to be rushed while on vacation:o.

[caribill]

If you have TD -early or late - and you decide not to come, your table mates will be waiting for you to be seated before their orders are taken...it makes a difference whether you show up or not. If you know you're not going to come, it's polite to let your waiter or fellow diners know. We don't do formal nights, so we tell them from the first night not to wait for us. :)

 

 

We tell our tablemates that any evening we are not there within ten minutes, to just go ahead and order.

[5326jan]

We tell our tablemates that any evening we are not there within ten minutes, to just go ahead and order.

 

Great idea! That allows you to be more spontaneous too. :)

[HRPro]

We like to do Traditional early dining so we can make the shows and still have a relatively early bedtime. Alaska itineraries are port intensive with early morning starts. The one late departure that could have interfered with our Traditional dining time was in Skagway, and we chose to do ultimate balcony dining that evening, so it was no problem. You can also do one of the specialty restaurants or Horizon Court on a night when you have a late port time.

[ntvsdgrl]

I prefer late Traditional dining as I like to relax after a day of touring, shower and change, and have a pre-dinner drink before dinner. But, everyone's preference is different. Some prefer to eat early, some prefer to do Anytime dining.

 

If you have Traditional dining, you can switch to Anytime. Chances are you can't switch from Anytime to Traditional dining as there is usually a long wait list.

 

The pro's for Traditional are that you have your table, you get to know your waitstaff and fellow diners, and you know exactly what time to be in the dining room and you can just walk in and be seated. Some people consider all of these "pro's" as "cons."

 

With Anytime, you can go to a dining room when you want to. You are more flexible with your dining time. The cons are that you have different waitstaff every night and can experience long waits for a table, even when sharing. Waits of up to 45 minutes or longer are not unusual. People have reported that they've never had a wait but that's not my experience or my observation.

 

I agree with Pam as well. I'm going in August and picked late traditional dining so I can sleep in later, go on later excursions.

 

p.s. Pam, I hope you have a wonderful trip next week. Will you be doing a "Live From"? :D

[gerbobs2]

We enjoyed anytime dinning felt good to try different dinning rooms and staff. Also enjoyed the ability to go anytime we wanted. Traditional is nice when you want the same group to dine with. Anytime you can have a group table to eat with or dine for two.. It's whatever floats your boat..

[Pam in CA]

p.s. Pam, I hope you have a wonderful trip next week. Will you be doing a "Live From"? :D

Thanks... and not sure. It'll probably depend on how motivated I am and whether there's anything to report that hasn't been reported before. I'm very boring because I don't do trivia, I don't carry bottles of wine (or anything else onboard), I have perhaps one pre-dinner drink and I rarely go to the evening entertainment. Not sure what's left to report on. :)

[Jishell]

Thank you everyone for your insight. I'm still considering what to do..thanks again!

[Plant]

We prefer Anytime Dining on all of our cruise's, but especially in Alaska. There's just so much to see that we'd rather eat after dark than miss anything :) !

 

We don't do the show's or the late night clubs.

 

We haven't found that we have to wait for a table unless we go between 7:00-8:00, and ask for a table for two. If we want to eat at a big table (usually) there's no wait at all.

 

It's really dependent on your preferences,

[Pam in CA]

Thank you everyone for your insight. I'm still considering what to do..thanks again!

If it were me, I'd either keep the early Traditional dining or, if you can, switch to late Traditional. If either of these doesn't work for you, you can always switch to Anytime once onboard. You can't switch to Traditional onboard from Anytime.

[shepp]

Though I still have late traditional booked for my next cruise, I'm seriously thinking about ditching it in favor of traditional. Last time - which was, granted, a thirty-day cruise - I got tired of missing evening activities (mostly games and movies) that conflicted with my dining time. We switched to anytime, were able to often dine with close friends who had anytime, too, and waited almost not at all for a table, usually a table for two or four, though we did dine on the late side.

 

Yes, you can easily switch as we did from traditional to anytime, but that can cause a bit of social awkwardness as you "desert" the others at your table.

 

And no, I don't find having the same waitstaff every night a big deal, even if my iced tea isn't waiting for me.

[ntvsdgrl]

Thanks... and not sure. It'll probably depend on how motivated I am and whether there's anything to report that hasn't been reported before. I'm very boring because I don't do trivia, I don't carry bottles of wine (or anything else onboard), I have perhaps one pre-dinner drink and I rarely go to the evening entertainment. Not sure what's left to report on. :)

 

Thank God we won't have to hear about bringing wine on board. That thread has been beaten to death and is so ready for the glue factory. ;)

 

Well if no "Live From" at least a review of your trip when you come back. You know how we look to your wisdom and experience on cruising. :D

[paradise4ever]

tried both. like traditional better. late dining cause i like to go to afternoon tea and this gives my body time to create an appetite. i like having the same wait staff as they remember what you like. i usually have my drink ready for me. when i went cruising with my spouse who had alzheimers he always wanted to sit and eat and our wait staff took care of him. as soon as he sat down they had a bowl of chicken soup for him. they were the greatest. they catered to him which made it easier for me. with anytime dining you cannot always get a table when you wanted to. although late traditional is a little late first seating is a little early. accomodate yourself and enjoy.

[Arizona-Cruising]

3 trips to Alaska and we have always had early dining, it has never been a issue on missing dinner time.

We enjoy the early shows so early dinner works best for us. Most of our table guests make the dinner also, maybe 1 night you may miss due to port activities.

 

It is an individuals preferance but we enjoy bonding with our table guests and sharing our days activities with each other.

[58Piano]

My concerns with what dining time to choose in Alaska is this. We live in Florida. There is a big time difference from Alaska to Florida. Not sure is it 4 hours? So if I usually eat between 6pm and 7pm then what time will it be in Alaska compared to what I normally eat at. So an earlier time will be closer to what I am used to? It is hard to get used to such a big time difference for only a week or two. But oh my an Alaska trip would be a lifetime dream of wonderful memories!!

[DoulaAnn]

I can only speak to late Traditional, as that's all we've ever done. We chose it because it gave us time to get back from our shore fun, freshen up, have a drink (or whatever) and still get to dinner without being frazzled. That was the upside. The downside, as some have mentioned, is that you typically miss the big-stage shows, unless you skip dessert and/or really scramble. The other downside, that I didn't consider, was how full I was at bedtime. I'm normally a "stay-up-late" kind of gal, but with shore excursions virtually every morning (I would say at the crack of dawn, but since it never gets dark ...) I was having to get to bed earlier than I would usually. Don't know if that helps, but I hope so.

 

Ann

[caribill]

My concerns with what dining time to choose in Alaska is this. We live in Florida. There is a big time difference from Alaska to Florida. Not sure is it 4 hours? So if I usually eat between 6pm and 7pm then what time will it be in Alaska compared to what I normally eat at. So an earlier time will be closer to what I am used to? It is hard to get used to such a big time difference for only a week or two. But oh my an Alaska trip would be a lifetime dream of wonderful memories!!

 

Yes, 4 hours. So if you are used to eating dinner at 6 PM ET, that would be dinner at 2 PM Alaska time.

[sherryf]

My concerns with what dining time to choose in Alaska is this. We live in Florida. There is a big time difference from Alaska to Florida. Not sure is it 4 hours? So if I usually eat between 6pm and 7pm then what time will it be in Alaska compared to what I normally eat at. So an earlier time will be closer to what I am used to? It is hard to get used to such a big time difference for only a week or two. But oh my an Alaska trip would be a lifetime dream of wonderful memories!!

 

Surely you will adjust to the time change to some extent. You aren't planning to go to bed at 7 PM and get up at 2 AM. ;) It may be rough the first day or so, but you'll adjust. I'd still say an earlier time is closer to what you are used to. If you often eat at 6 at home, you probably wouldn't want to suddenly start eating at 8 on vacation.

 

On all of my Princess AK cruises, we've done Anytime dining. We often eat on the early side anyway, but like the flexibility of going when we want and going much later than usual when we get in from port late.