Anytime Dining - works for you?

[paul929207]

On the Grand, early this year, the waiter asked for our room number while taking our order. No sure what good that does. We asked why and never got a real answer

[sherryf]

This was our experience on the Coral last month & the waiters sometimes recorded our cabin number also.

 

A few weeks ago on the Star, they checked one of our cards before seating us every night. I don't know if they were actually turning away traditional diners, but they were definitely checking consistently.

[Cruisin' Chick]

First, although travel agents are supposed to ask what dining arrangements a customer wants, I suspect many just ask early or late and do not let the customer know about the anytime option. So the traditional can be "full" with a number of the people not realizing there was another choice and who do not eat there anyway.

 

Second, empty tables do not mean those not there are crashing anytime. They could be people who like to eat at the buffet, have a special evening at a specialty restraurant, or just having pizza or burgers on deck. I am usually surprised at the number of people at the buffet when I stop by there in the evening.

 

Of course, some of those missing could be "illegally" doing anytime. Often we do see posts on Cruise Critic about cabin number being asked for at the anytime entrance, so there is some checking on some ships.

 

And then there was the couple mentioned in a post a couple of years ago who never ate in a dining room because they thought it would be an extra charge each evening. Their traditional seats remained unused the entire cruise.

 

I think some TAs might not be bothering with educating new cruisers or those new to the cruise line they're booking. So this may be part of the crux of the problem. A couple of times I've seen people come to CC and post that they found out at the end of their first cruise or sometime after that the MDR meals are included in the fare. I was lucky to have my first cruise with someone who already had one under his belt and guided me through what I needed to know. Plus, we both took the time to read the answer booklet sent to us and even now, before each cruise, we go on the Princess website and read as much of the info as possible, just in case something's changed.

 

A good TA would suggest a newbie read the FAQs and offer to answer any questions. And also take the time to explain (hopefully with the right info) subjects such as dining and tipping.

[elliair]

We love AT dining. We like the fact that we can be seated at a table for 2 instead of traditional dining at a table of 4, 6 or 8. We also like the option of going to the Lido buffet if we don't feel like going to the MDR. We've never waited more than 15 minutes. We find a lounge and have a glass of wine and listen to the music.

[caribill]

Plus' date=' we both took the time to read the answer booklet sent to us.

 

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The problem is that Princess saves money by not sending the booklet out anymore and new cruisers do not know it exists as a download.

 

Maybe Princess should send it out in printed form to new customers or at least send a link to it in an E-mail.

[dad2my3]

I'm taking my first ever cruise next month (just a four day trip to Ensenada and back) and I chose Anytime Dining. I'm happy to hear that they offer seating for two--and I will wait as long as needed, early or late, pager or not.

 

It is very rare for my wife and I to get away like this and we want to spend it together with some privacy as we celebrate our 15th anniversary. I'm sure that we will have many opportunities to meet new people and be sociable throughout the cruise, but I'd prefer a nice romantic dinner for two at the end of the day and I'm glad that is an option.

[clr315]

We did anytime on princess our last cruise. When we went on celebrity they took reservations for anytime so we just walked right on at dinner time, we were disappointed on princess to find they didn't do reservations. But we arrived at dinner said table for two and we were aske "happy to share?" We answered no were given the buzzer and would go get a drink. Sometimes it was five minutes sometimes 10. Never more then 15. Not as big of a deal as I thought.

 

We were on Caribbean princess and others told us not all princess ships do anytime this same way.

[IDsailor]

My wife and I always do Anytime Dining. We have found that even on longer cruises we do more buffets than the dining room. When we do go to the dining room we always go early and request to share tables. Only once have we been seated with a, shall we say "unfriendly" couple at the table. We have met some wonderful and interesting people by sharing tables.

[Bruin Steve]

I'm taking my first ever cruise next month (just a four day trip to Ensenada and back) and I chose Anytime Dining. I'm happy to hear that they offer seating for two--and I will wait as long as needed, early or late, pager or not.

 

It is very rare for my wife and I to get away like this and we want to spend it together with some privacy as we celebrate our 15th anniversary. I'm sure that we will have many opportunities to meet new people and be sociable throughout the cruise, but I'd prefer a nice romantic dinner for two at the end of the day and I'm glad that is an option.

 

We typically enjoy dining with others...meeting people, sharing some interesting conversation, etc.

 

BUT, for a romantic dinner with just the two of us, our option of choice is to visit a specialty restaurant...There's an added charge, but the service and experience is a step above...As we usually seem to be cruising on our anniversary and/or one of our birthdays, this is really the more private, more quiet option...worth the small added cost for an anniversary dinner IMHO...

[dad2my3]

We typically enjoy dining with others...meeting people, sharing some interesting conversation, etc.

 

BUT, for a romantic dinner with just the two of us, our option of choice is to visit a specialty restaurant...There's an added charge, but the service and experience is a step above...As we usually seem to be cruising on our anniversary and/or one of our birthdays, this is really the more private, more quiet option...worth the small added cost for an anniversary dinner IMHO...

 

I think we might do that, since its a special occasion. If we can go on a longer cruise in the future, we'd be more likely to share a table with others and get to know some new people over dinner.

[sewingmolly]

We've done anytime on all 5 of our cruises with 2 different kinds of experiences. Three of our cruises were mostly multi-generational families with kids and 2 cruises were mostly couples. We usually eat between 7:30 and 8:00 and never had more than a 10 minute wait. On the cruises with families, we always got a table for 2. On the couples cruises, we usually shared a table. On the ships that we've been on, there have been two AT dining rooms. We check one of the dining rooms and if it seems busy, we run up or down the stairs to the other and ask for a table at the least busy room.

 

We just took our first non Princess cruise on RCCI. We were not impressed with their version of anytime. The attitude seemed to be - How dare you show up here when ever you want and expect us to seat you. It was very awkward.

[caribill]

One disadvantage of traditional is that activities which are only scheduled one time in the evening can be while you are dining.

 

We did anytime only on one of our Princess cruises. While most evenings we were seated immediately or within a few minutes, the one evening I did want to attend a one time activity we had almost an hour wait to be seated and as a result were not finished eating in time to go to that activity.

[hansi]

Most of our Princess cruises are on the Ocean Princess with only TD. We have had three trips where AD was offered and took AD each time. The first, 35 days from Buenos Aires to Seattle on the Star Princess, we found a wait team we really like and were able to make a reservation with them for the rest of the cruise. Yes, we locked ourselves into a time (7:30). Worked great.

 

Last October/November we were on the Crown for 36 days. We would show up about 7:30 each evening and never waited more than 2 or 3 minutes. Only people getting a pager were those wanting a table for 2. We always said we would share.

 

This past January thru March we spent 49 days on the Grand Princess. Again we showed up at about 7:30 and never waited for a table. On interesting things was that most passengers (about 2000) were on for the full 49 days with there rest doing one of the three legs. We found there were 20 or so couples that ate about the same time as us and with different combinations we ate with the occasionally. Most of them we ate with 5 to 10 times over the 7 weeks. We also got to know most of the staff in that dining room

 

 

We have done over 40 cruises with Princess, and apart from one or two occasions when were given a pager, we have never had a problem with AD.