Personal Choice Dining?

[ukbound]

We haven't cruised with Princess since the ships have gone this way. I don't really understand how it works. Do you make reservations or do you just show up like on NCL? We are considering a cruise on the Grand.

[Kirsten T]

We did this for the first time in April on Coral. We could make a reservation in the PC dining room if we wanted, or just show up. If there was a wait upon showing up, we got a pager. Don't think we waited more than 15 minutes tops. We've always loved traditional dining on Celebrity but really liked PC and we're doing it again this January. The flexibility was nice and the service everywhere was great.

Cheers,

Kirsten

[cruiserforlife]

If you opt for Personal Choice dining instead of traditional,you will eat in a separate dining room and can show up freely usually with only a short 5-10 minute wait,if that and only during peak dining times depending on the number in your party.If the wait is excessive,they will give you a little handheld "beeper" that flashes when your table is ready which allows you to enjoy a drink at the bar while your table is prepared.

Generally,PC dining works extremely well and provides you with added flexibility meaning that you are not tied down to a "set" dining time.You will give up some of the little extra's that come with traditional such as the personal waitstaff interaction that comes when your waiter anticipates your every need.Also.no Baked Alaska in PC.

We did PC dining on the Sun in January and after the first night,we found a waiter that we liked and just made a standing reservation at the same table and time everynight.By doing this,we moved our dining time up by 30 minutes so that we'd have more time to enjoy the evening shows.I didn't feel like we gave up anything by doing PC dining.

Please keep in mind,if you have traditional dining and want to try PC,you can't go back to traditional.

Give it a try,it worked for us.

Hope this helps,

CFL

[bjkTX]

We have done PC dining on both Princess cruises and determined what excursions I had planned for each day of the cruise and what time I figured I'd want to eat, once I got onboard I called and made reservations for the entire week. Worked out fine and we never had to wait. I imagine there are very busy periods during the evening that might require a short wait - but apparently we don't eat at that time :-)

[ukbound]

Can you request your table size? In other words, can my family just sit by ourselves? My parents will be celebrating their 50 wedding anniversary for this cruise. Normally, we like to meet new people via dinner, but this is a different experience for us.

[cynbar]

You can absolutely request your table size. I think the sizes are 2, 4 and 8, not sure if they have any bigger. We have never had any trouble getting a table for 2 (if we want to eat by ourselves) or 4 (if our friends were traveling with us.) It works out great.

[cruiserforlife]

Can you request your table size? In other words, can my family just sit by ourselves? My parents will be celebrating their 50 wedding anniversary for this cruise. Normally, we like to meet new people via dinner, but this is a different experience for us.

 

ukbound,

Since you have your family with you,there shouldn't be any problem requesting a table for say 6,8,or 10.You can actually turn PC dining into your own "traditional" and reserve the same table each night with the same waitstaff at the same assigned time if you like to eat at a designated time.If not you can just wing it,enjoying the day and what it may bring you and just dine when the time suits you best.

That is the beauty of PC dining....

[ukbound]

Thank you so much for the information. Personal choice sounds like the perfect answer for us! I hope to book the cruise this week!

[Times Prince]

Another little trick with Personal Choice dining. Try to get there before the early shows get out, and you will usually be seated immediately. Once the shows are out, it's beeper time. You can usually catch the later shows.

[smudge's mom]

My experience with Personal Choice was pretty good, but I don't know the future of what Personal Choice has turned into - a hybrid of formal seating.

 

When we asked for a table for four - most nights we were told they didn't have four person tables available - wanted us to share. After stating we really wanted a table for four, they capitulated and gave us a table for six. All around us, there were empty tables for four - waiting for the "reservation" people. Usually, these tables were still empty when we left.

 

I think Princess has to make a decision about how they want this to work. By the end of the cruise, almost all the tables were reserved. If people go in the first few days and reserve a specific table and time for the entire cruise, why didn't they just opt for the regular formal seating?

 

Makes no sense to me.

[Twaincruisers]

We always eat early and on the Golden all of us the first night had such a great time we just came back at the same time each night and asked for the same table...drove the guy at the door crazy. The single lady at our table referred to him as "Mr Meany"; she was first one there the second night and he refused to seat her at the table. On Thursday we arrived with two other people from this group, "Mr Meany" wasn't there, we stated we were there for table 10 and the new man said "Yes, I know." He jestured toward the table and said, "You know the way!" So, they can be flexible!

[Times Prince]

I think Princess has to make a decision about how they want this to work. By the end of the cruise' date=' almost all the tables were reserved. If people go in the first few days and reserve a specific table and time for the entire cruise, why didn't they just opt for the regular formal seating?

 

Makes no sense to me.[/quote']On our last cruise, virtually everyone we talked to had requested traditional seating but were told the traditional dining room is full and waitlisted. We were #255 on the list. So people make do with the best alternative they can. We typically request the waiter when we find a good one - that way there are more options for tables in their serving area.

 

What Princess really needs to do is to cancel all further reservations on the first night when the party doesn't show up and doesn't cancel. Maybe then people would have the courtesy to cancel and open up those reserved tables for other passengers. :) Cancellation takes a 2 minute phone call. Alternatively they could have a computer system automagically cancel reservations in the main dining room when reservations are made by cabin number for the specialty restaurants.:rolleyes:

[CruiseFever]

We haven't cruised with Princess since the ships have gone this way. I don't really understand how it works. Do you make reservations or do you just show up like on NCL? We are considering a cruise on the Grand.

 

You can do both.

 

Personal choice dining, also called Anytime Dining, is another way to feed you. It allows you to eat when you want and with who you want any time during the dining room hours of operation.

 

On our first experience with this, we too (like the above) thought we'd lost out. We were number 85 on the wait list and were sorry we didnt make it to traditional. But we were soon proved wrong and it all ended up being wonderful and our preferred dining option.

 

On the Golden, for example, there were two other dining rooms to serve those who had selected or had been given Personal Choice dining. We chose one, liked it a lot, and asked to be seated at the same table, at the same time, with the same waiter for the rest of the cruise. This was no problem. So for all practical purposes we did have traditional dining. The same menu was being served the only difference was that the people around us were not always the same...although many were.

 

We could have simply walked into one of the PC dining rooms during serving hours when we were hungry and been seated, probably after a wait. We could have phoned in reservations for various places to eat at various times during the week in advance, say on the first day aboard. Not a bad idea if you like early dining but not when the ship is in port and you'll be ashore, for example.

 

It's really all about flexibility and goes beyond just dining to encompass a style of vacationing termed Personal Choice Cruising. The Anytime Dining part, for example, makes it possible to meet new friends on a shore excursion or at pool side and have dinner with them that night.

 

Before, when meeting a new friend one of the questions asked would be "Which (traditional assigned dining) seating are you? From there plans for the evening could be made and a time set up to meet after dinner. Now you can include dinner in your plans for the evening and at a time tht is convenient for you.

 

In addition to the traditional and Personal Choice dining rooms are other specialty restaurants like Sabatinis or the Sterling Steak House that offer sit down dining for a small additional fee and are reservation only. These offer even more flexibility but require thinking ahead.

 

Providing yet another choice besides these sitdown table service restaurants is the Horizon Court a 24/7 buffet. On some ships it's buffet by day that transforms itself into more of a service oriented venue at night. There's also a Pizza and Grill open a good chunk of the day and 24 hour room service that has extensive offerings.

 

That's it in a nutshell.

[ironmagnolia]

We were disappointed in our PC dining experience on the CB last week. We have always done Traditional Dining, and thought we might like to try PC, but we won't be doing it again.

At 6:30pm the first night, we went to the Coral Dining room with our party of nine, and were seated promptly. The next night, at the same time, we went the Palm, and were told they were booked, and our wait would be about 1 1/2 hrs. My elderly mother is a diabetic, and we needed to eat no later than 6:30pm, but we did not realize until then that you MUST make a reservation EVERY night in order to eat at your desired time. Perhaps our large party was the problem, but we had to scramble to get what times were not already booked for the rest of the week. By the second day, only the earliest and latest times were available, as everyone was making reservations for the whole week,so it was not much of a "personal choice" experience. It was very stressful for us, and will do Traditional Dining in the future.

Also, we found the warmth and comraderie (sp?) missing, we were never able to get to know our waiters, and they seemed rushed to get everyone in and out.

[ilovhywd]

We had a wonderful experience with PC dining on the CB last week. We had been on a long waiting list for traditional dining, but it never came through.

 

We made a reservation at 7:50 each night which enabled us to catch the 7:00 show in the Explorer's Lounge as well as the late show in the big theater.

 

We adored our waiters the first night, and we asked for them on subsequent nights. We were able to sit with them for all except one night, when their tables were full. We got to know other parties of two who ate at the same time and often sat with them. So our PC dining was almost like traditional, but better because we were able to see more than one show per night.

 

Here's a hint that I posted on a related thread: We learned that there are many more tables for two in the Palm Dining Room than in the Coral Dining Room. This info might be helpful for those couples who wish to dine alone.

[cynbar]

One of the things we like the best about anytime dining is the flexibility to show up at the DR when you're ready to eat, and be seated without too much of a wait. Making reservations for the whole week seems to defeat this purpose. I can understand that there could be a problem with a large group of 9-10, but have passengers recently had problems with twosomes or small groups because so many reservations were made ???

[bjkTX]

"I think Princess has to make a decision about how they want this to work. By the end of the cruise, almost all the tables were reserved. If people go in the first few days and reserve a specific table and time for the entire cruise, why didn't they just opt for the regular formal seating?"

 

I agree if it's for the same table and time every night. We have opted for PC dining on both previous Princess cruises and made reservations for the week as soon as we got onboard - based on what we had planned for each evening. Some days we asked for an early reservation so we could catch a show, others we elected to eat later because of a late shore excursion.

 

I really don't care about having a particular table and didn't feel as a previous poster did who said: ".... we found the warmth and comraderie (sp?) missing, we were never able to get to know our waiters, and they seemed rushed to get everyone in and out." We have had good experiences with the PC waiters on both prior cruises and didn't feel like we were missing out on any service because we hadn't got to know them....but that's another topic already on the board :-)

[m steve]

PC dining seems to be a real mess. Why jump around from dining room to dining room to get the same meal in each of them? I really enjoy interaction w/ my wait staff and might go to a specialty room once or twice during the cruise. If the menu is identical, just book the same seating in whatever room you choose to dine in. That way you can get the right size table at the desired time and get a waiter and captain that will know you.

[stephp6]

We did PC on Princess a few weeks ago. If you ask to be sat with others, there was no wait. We enjoyed meeting new people every night. Food was just average.

[geoherb]

Princess still has a lot of kinks to work out with "Personal Choice" dining. No. 1, it's not truly "Personal Choice" if you want traditional and end up not being able to get it. On Grand-class ships, I think they should switch one of the PC dining rooms to traditional. Then do away with reservations for the PC dining room--make it first come, first served. People who need standing reservations are usually the casualties from the traditional dining waiting lists.

 

We wereforced into PC dining on one Princess cruise. I'd be reluctant to book another cruise if we couldn't get traditional dining.

[DesrtDrmr]

We always book way out, and have our choice of dining. We always booked traditional. Our last cruise was the 15 day Island Hawaiian sailing. We booked early traditional, table for two. We got what we booked. When we were on board, we went to the dining room, and our table, and found that we had delightful waitresses, and that our table for two was about six inches from another table for two. Not exactly what we had in mind.........those long "do you remember" kind of conversations over our forty years together. The next day, we looked up the Maitre' d, and changed to Personal Choice, which we NEVER thought we would like. We LOVED it! I think we ate in the dining room nine nights, some times we had a table for two, sometimes a larger table.......whatever we asked for or agreed to. We were given a pager on two of those nights and had to wait about ten minutes to be seated. Heck, that's better than in our home town. One night we ate in a specialty restaurant, and several other casual nights, we ate at the Horizon Court. Surprisingly, the food at Horizon Court was the same as in the dining rooms...........just carved and served, or serve yourself. We loved having the options.........sometimes went early, sometimes late. We always followed the dress code, and most of the other people did too............eating in the Horizon Court was sort of like finding an undiscovered place. It was fun........it was all fun! We loved not having to tell anyone where we'd be or when. Of course, it might have been different if we'd been sailing with friends or family, but for the two of us, it was wonderful!

By the way, I don't THINK they had lobster at the Horizon Court, but we had dinner on Formal Nights in the dining room, so dont know for sure............

[ukbound]

So...on the Grand, personal choice dining isn't in the main dining room? I may have misread the above posts.