Late Seating-Dining

[beamqueen]

Just a quick dining question for all of you. I see a lot of threads about whether anytime dining is worth it and it seems that the general consensus is that people love it! I just wanted to hear from people who like the more traditional dining and why they prefer it. We had booked late seating for our cruise next summer but I am debating switching over to anytime dining...any reasons to keep the traditional dining?

 

If we do switch to anytime dining are there better times to eat at than others?

 

Thanks!

[ready2cruzagain]

We do the late seating for our dining. I personally do not like anytime dining. We did it several years ago and then had one night of it on Princess last year (one night the whole ship goes to anytime dining).

 

When we did it...we always had a wait time of around 30 to 40 minutes. We like the same wait staff every night but could not get them. Last year on Princess we were seated and it took 40 minutes for us to even get water. Had to get the maitre'd to get service. Once again for us...anytime dining stunk.

 

 

[Sixtytwo]

We are traditional and much prefer late dining in the MDR. We enjoy getting to know the wait staff and have fun with them throughout our cruise. We have done ATD on occasion and it is OK, but we just prefer fixed times. We like the late seating because we don't have to rush back from shore when we are in port to get ready for early seating. We enjoy getting dressed for dinner and then having a glass of wine in the atrium prior to dinner.

 

We don't like to rush while on a cruise and, funny as it seems, we don't like to stand in line waiting to be seated. Whichever you do, hope you have a great cruise!

[bobsfamily]

We prefer the fixed dining option and also prefer the late-night, usually less young children. We've tried the anytime and just did not like it. as the above poster said the wait times could be very long. We were on the Dream and elegant night the wait to get to the front of the line was about 1 hour which got me - no not a table - A PAGER! We actually spoke to the Matire 'd(sp?), got changed to late seating which was about 15 minutes from starting and never looked back.

[Ms Jo UK]

I love traditional late dining, especially on a large table we have met some lovely people. However on our next cruise we are having MTD and hope for lovely time just the two of us and sre hoping we will love the experience.

 

Jo

[Lady President]

We were on Valor 6/30-7/7 and had to wait 30-60 minutes every night for anytime dining. We also ended up at a table for two every night. Generally, we like the freedom to go whenever and meeting new people each night, but it didn't quite work out that way. Don't get me wrong, we still had a great time. Next Carnival cruise, we'll pick late seating though.

[wmowan8485]

When cruising with my daughter, I prefer anytime dining for the two of us. We've never experienced long waits with it.

 

When cruising solo or with large numbers I prefer the set dining times. Cruising solo I get to meet interesting people.

 

On my upcoming Victory cruise there will be 11 of us so we have late dining. Dinner will be our meeting time and too many of us for anytime dining.

[23BAR]

We always choose late dinning. We don't like to rush for early seating and we have seen some very long lines for ATD and we don't like to wait while on vacation either. We also really enjoy the waitstaff and the service is also Great !! They always get to know what we like and after the 1st night we never have to ask for all of the little things we like !!!

 

 

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RCCL Majesty of the Seas 1995

Disney Wonder April 2009

Carnival Liberty Oct 2012

Carnival Breeze Feb 2014

[nodogkisses]

Just a quick dining question for all of you. I see a lot of threads about whether anytime dining is worth it and it seems that the general consensus is that people love it! I just wanted to hear from people who like the more traditional dining and why they prefer it. We had booked late seating for our cruise next summer but I am debating switching over to anytime dining...any reasons to keep the traditional dining?

 

If we do switch to anytime dining are there better times to eat at than others?

 

Thanks!

 

 

Here's my two cents. We prefer the traditional late dinner seating if we are cruising with more than just two of us. Definitely. More fun. But, we prefer the Anytime Dining when it's just DH and myself.

 

 

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[Cyber Kat]

We've always done late seating traditional dining. We just like not having to rush - having a cocktail before dinner. And I like to hit the sushi bar (on ships that still have one) at 5-5:30. That's too late for a before dinner snack if you do early.

 

This time late seating came with an added perk. Apparently there aren't as many people who like late seating, so there were a LOT of empty tables. We were 3 at table for TEN and had wait staff falling all over us! Another roll? More water? Can I pour your wine? Three people asking if everything is okay with the food. It was great!

[beamqueen]

Thanks for the opinions everyone! I have been on one cruise (like 7 years ago!) where we did traditional late seating so I automatically just picked it again. If you are on board and hungry before late seating are there places you can get a quick snack? I assume the buffet is open at this time?

[lrowe70]

We prefer traditional earl dining because we travel with a young child who has some specific needs. Having the same servers each night helped this to run smoothly. Also with the early dining we didn't miss any of the late shows.

 

A few times we walked by the long lines for any time dining which looked very crowded. We like being able to walk right in, be seated, and have drinks and food within minutes.

[DebJ14]

We no longer cruise NCL because they only have ATD dining. We have done any time dining on Carnival, Princess and HAL and hated the experience on all 3 lines. We found that often the wait times, coupled with slow service made us late for shows or other activities we wanted to pursue. If you like eating as soon as the dining room opens then ATD is fine, but most seem to want to eat around 7 or 7:30pm. Whenever we went at these times we always had to wait. We prefer traditional late dining. We like to have the same wait staff each night who quickly get to know that 1. We don't want bread EVER and 2. We want water not iced tea every night and 3. DH wants Decaf and I want regular coffee after dinner every night. It just magically gets taken care of without having to tell the wait staff. With late dining we do not have to hurry back to the ship from port to eat. We have time for a shower and a nap and maybe even a snack. Dinner is much more relaxed. When DH and I travel by ourselves we now request a table for 2. We then kind of control the speed of our dinner.

I will say that when traveling with our grandchildren we get early dining. That way the waitstaff will know that grandchild #1 wants shrimp cocktail and french fries every night and grandchild #2 wants a plain chicken breast, french fries and plain vanilla ice cream every night. They get served quickly and taken to back to Camp ASAP for the evening activities.

[DebJ14]

Thanks for the opinions everyone! I have been on one cruise (like 7 years ago!) where we did traditional late seating so I automatically just picked it again. If you are on board and hungry before late seating are there places you can get a quick snack? I assume the buffet is open at this time?

 

Depends on the ship. On the Magic we like to hit the Red Frog Pub for some Mojitos and Coconut shrimp or hit the Taste Bar, but on other ships we just call room service and snack while getting showered and dressed.

[Lovefuninthesun]

Love the traditional dining, late seating. We love to relax before dinner, have a cocktail in the atrium bar and listen to the music. We have always been at a large table, and have had great luck with our assigned table mates.

I am curious about the ATD though - might give it a try on a short cruise to see if we like it as well.

 

 

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[BigRed93]

We like traditional late seating. Mostly because we have a group of 18, and we know we will have seats and there is no debating what time to go to dinner.

 

 

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[Ehpride]

I like late dining because I like having the same tablemates. We really built up a rapport last time and enjoyed chatting each night.

 

Plus, we like having a table we can just go to with wait staff who sutomatically bring us iced tea.

 

I can go to a restaurant at home at any time that I want. I feel like having traditional dining makes dining on a cruise something special.

 

I prefer late over early because I like to spend as much time as possible outside during the day, get ready, take pictures and have a drink before dinner.

 

If I need a snack before dinner, I'll stop at the taste bar, get sushi, order veggies from room service or get a snack from the buffet. Sometimes, it's even an ice cream cone on the way back to the cabin.