Curious about Anytime Dining complaints

[kbaird]

As I've been reading up on reviews leading up to our cruise this month I've come across several complaints regarding a wait time with the anytime dining. This perplexes me as it doesn't seem any different than a restaurant in the "real world". If I went to Red Lobster at 6pm chances are high I would be waiting for a table.

 

The way it seems to me is that traditional dining is the equivalent of having a guaranteed reservation.

 

Anytime dining is like walking into a restaurant and waiting for a table, the more specific the request, the longer the wait (window seat vs the wall or 2 seat table vs community table)

 

And if you want fast food, sit where you want than it's the Horizon for buffet.

 

So I'm curious if I'm missing something or if there are other reasons why so many people have complained about having at wait for a table with anytime dining?

[Happy2cruise]

Not sure if this is part of the problem but Anytime Dining allows reservations to be made. Many people will make a reservation for the entire week for the same table. IMO, this is not "anytime" dining:confused:

[UPGrandma]

Sounds like you have the "any time" dining plan figured out. On NCL last July, hubby and I went each night about 7-7:30 and had short to none wait times. We requested the same server each night and a table for 2.

[Pam in CA]

You are right in that it's like going to a popular restaurant. However, it's billed as "any time" and you can make a reservation but still wind up waiting an hour or more for a table. That's why I prefer Traditional dining: I know exactly what time I'm eating, have the same waiter every night, and can plan on exactly what I'm doing during the evening.

[Colo Cruiser]

As I've been reading up on reviews leading up to our cruise this month I've come across several complaints regarding a wait time with the anytime dining. This perplexes me as it doesn't seem any different than a restaurant in the "real world". If I went to Red Lobster at 6pm chances are high I would be waiting for a table.

 

The way it seems to me is that traditional dining is the equivalent of having a guaranteed reservation.

 

Anytime dining is like walking into a restaurant and waiting for a table, the more specific the request, the longer the wait (window seat vs the wall or 2 seat table vs community table)

 

And if you want fast food, sit where you want than it's the Horizon for buffet.

 

So I'm curious if I'm missing something or if there are other reasons why so many people have complained about having at wait for a table with anytime dining?

 

Like you say with any restaurant there will be peak times that the diners overwhelm available facilities. It happens everywhere. Before 6 and after 8 are pretty good usually.

[dfields1814]

I have no complaints about AD waits. We always use AD. we never wait a long time. However we do eat before 6:00 to after 7:30. To me that is just common sense if you don't want to wait. Some ships let you reserve a table during non peak hours in AD like before 6:00 or after 7:30. If the ship does take reservations I usually get them to be on the safe side although we really probably don't need a RSVP.

 

The real challenges to AD are on the Diamond and the Sapphire because they have 4 AD restaurants half the normal size, So one restaurant may fill up before the others. I always get RSVP wham on those ships.

 

The Coral (and Island) have only one AD restaurant. First time we were on the Coral you needed to be there before six or have an hour wait. Second time we were on the Coral that was not a problem.

 

I read on other post that some of the problems is the TD people using the AD restaurants so they fill up faster. I don't know if this is true but on our last couple of cruises thy checked our cruise card before sitting us at a table.

[Jetswdo]

We have never had a problem with anytime dining arangements on either Princess, NCL or Celebrity--and here is why:

 

We generally like to eat at 6:00 at table for 2- we prefer just to eat dinner by ourselves---just too tired at end of the day to make conversations with anyone.

 

As long as we show up by 6:15 we never had to wait more than 5 minutes. On our last cruise on Celebrity- we noticed people lining up after 6:30, while we were just starting our deserts. It was that way in specialty restaurants as well-

Maitre d's on board said 7:15-8:00 are the busiest times and to avoid that time for any time dining. Also to make reservations at specialty restaurants earlier or later to avoid major wait times. The lastest reservation that we made was for 7:00 a couple of times. No problems at all on any of the lines.

[RNGALNG]

We have used only anytime dining with Princess. On two of our longer voyages, we went with friends who need to dine early. On the Coral, we found there was a wait the first night. So, the next morning and every morning after, we made reservations for the time they wanted. Never had to wait again. With the reservation, we always said we would share a table as well. So, we met new friends each evening.

 

On the Sapphire to Hawaii and back, there were 4 (?) open restaurants for anytime dining. We found that even though the same menu was in each, some were more busy than others. We never had to make reservations on that cruise and never had to wait.

 

My DH and I traveled the rest of our cruises alone. We never have had to wait for a table on any of the ships. We didn't feel tied down to one time, one table. We loved being able to just pass it up some nights, go later because we were busy doing something else. Just free spirits! And it has worked for us each time.

 

I do think that the time you dine and the time of year you are sailing have something to do with the possibilities of having to wait for a table. It also depends on the make-up of the passengers. Now that our children are on their own, we can travel anytime we feel like it and not just when they are away at summer camp or visiting family. You get a different age group in the summer than during the school year!

 

So, go try anytime. We love it!

[MauiLvrs]

We always use AD. we never wait a long time. However we do eat before 6:00 to after 7:30.

 

And that would not really be anytime would it.

 

We found that we could be seated with little or no wait at 7:30 ... but that really isn't anytime.

 

This is what it looks like at 6:30

[hockeygal54]

I signed up for AD in Jan on CB and on PC cruise which we returned from 10 days ago. Suffice to say I won't do it again. Both times I was told conflicting stories about how to get a table "reserved". Initially I was told by dine line that you had to call THAT morning and request a table for "x" and if you were willing to share (which we always were, just not a huge table filled with nothing but senior citizens nor kids). Then discovered on our PC cruise that someone had reserved a table for 10 for the entire cruise @ the same time everyday. It was either be there @ the door when they opened or wait until later, like after 8-8:30. If you didn't do that it was a cattle call and we just ended up in HC.

 

 

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[sueandkent]

It really depends too if you are willing to sit with others. On our recent CB cruise we ate at peak times and were sat each time immediately. We always dined with others at at table for 8. Met lots of nice people.

[shredie]

That's why I prefer Traditional dining: I know exactly what time I'm eating, have the same waiter every night, and can plan on exactly what I'm doing during the evening.

DH hates lines and he's not very patient if he has to wait for a table, so we have always done traditional. I have always seen lines outside the "Anytime" dining rooms as we are making our way to our traditional seating. At one time, I was afraid that traditional dining would fall out of favor and disappear as the non-traditional kind became more popular. I hear enough complaints now about it that I no longer fear for my traditional table.

[Thrak]

I don't care. I am on a CRUISE. I am not getting up in the dark the next morning because the alarm is going off. I'm not looking ahead to another darn work day. I dont have to be anywhere or do anything.

 

Yes, I may want to make it to a show. So what? I can plan for that and arrive a bit earlier for dinner. At this point it is such a wonderful thing for us to be able to cruise that it's pretty hard to make us get upset by a wait for dinner. Maybe we'll get jaded later. I hope not.

[satxdiver]

I always do ATD these days. I plan when to eat dinner based on the activities scheduled that night resulting in dinner being anywhere from 6:00 PM to 8:00 pm. I made reservations in the past and never had to wait more than a few minutes. Now I just show up realizing the 6:30 - 7:30 times are crowded. Sometimes if I am in a big hurry to eat and get to the evening activities, I have dinner in the HC particularly if the food that night is more to my liking than what is offered in the MDR. At this point I would never return to TD.

[Mom33]

Sitting here waiting to disembark the Royal. We use AT dining every cruise and never had to wait. We usually share. This time, we dined alone and between 6 and 6:30 with no reservations and never waited.

 

 

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[Loonbeam]

A word about reservations.

 

MDs do have the discretion to make standing reservations. In most cases, those are done to resolve an issue, for example, we sat one night as the 'guests of honor' at an 8 top with a table of 6 that had a standing AD reservation. The reason was their TA did not link bookings and two of the group were in AD and 4 in TD. The MD couldn't accommodate them in TD so he set up something in AD even though the general policy for the cruise was no standing reservations. It's important to note they were willing to work with the MD, they did not get exactly the time they wanted and they were willing to meet two new people each night so as not to waste seats. We sat their mid cruise -by that point, they had a whole introduction comedy routine going. One of my favorite social meals that trip.

 

I've also seen them take that approach for people with severe dietary needs, to make it easier on the headwaiter, servers and kitchen.

 

There are perfectly acceptable reasons to have standing resses in AD but it should not be the norm.

[Bruin Steve]

First, to set this up, let me say that over the past few years we have shifted from our former "Main" or Early seating traditional dining to "anytime" dining.

 

For us, especially on some of the more interesting itineraries--like Europe--where port times vary greatly, the ability to vary our dining times has become invaluable.

 

We have now had "Anytime" on multiple cruises and multiple cruise lines--including Princess, Oceania (where everyone is on anytime), Celebrity and Royal Caribbean. In fact, in just the last several months, we have cruised on Celebrity Silhouette, Golden Princess and Royal Caribbean Allure of the Seas and have had anytime dining on eac...

 

We are fully aware that it functions "just like going to a restaurant back home" BUT we have found very significant differences...

 

On Oceania, we never waited for a table and they did not even use any form of buzzer or device. The only great issue we had with Oceania was that we would state that we preferred to share a table with others and they would still seat us at our own table--often a larger table--but never bring anyone to sit with us (in fact, we've had this same issue with Princess--but there, for reasons I'll explain later, it is even more bizarre). On Oceania, with EVERYONE in "anytime" and with so many specialty restaurants at no additional charge, the main dining room was very amply sized and, therefore, getting a table was never an issue.

 

On both Celebrity and Royal Caribbean, we were amazed with how well the system worked. We tend to head to dinner at approximately 7:00 pm each night and they seemed to have notations in their computer as to where we had been seated each night...and, each night they sat us in the same area of the dining room, often at the same table, with the same waiter...On one Celebrity cruise, we had the same tablemates most nights! (We had a very nice group. I assume that if we didn't enjoy the tablemates, we could have asked and they would have seated us elewhere). BUT, we NEVER had a wait for a table...EVER!!!

 

On Princess, we have expereienced our only waits for tables on any of the cruise lines. We have been told that the wait might be 45 minutes--and we've complained. Usually the issue is this: Back home, we likely have nothing planned after dinner. If we have, say, tickets to a show, we have the option of just going to a different restaurant. On the ship, we usually want to eat dinner and finish in time to make it to a show...and there is no other real restaurant choice. So, when we complained (very nicely--not angry, no cursing, no shouting...just polite disappointment and explanation), they have somehow, miraculously found us a table sooner--including, on one occasion, sending us to a different dining room. But, for the most part, one just sits around and waits.

 

Okay--the issue with being seated eith two of us at a table for six on Princess: So, one night, we ask to share a table...they seat us at a six-top...and never bring anyone to join us. I watch as, a few minutes later, they bring in the couple who was two behind us in line--who also asked to sit with others (I know because we spoke with them on our way out after dinner)--and they seat them at another large table a few tables away from us--where they proceed to eat their entire dinner by themselves! Basically, they have people waiting in line and no open tables, yet they have wasted eight seatsing possibilities through poor management...

 

Okay, aside from poor management, here is how I have analyzed the Princess problem: More than anything else, it is ship design...Whereas Royal Caribbean has one very large three deck dining room, Princess ships are more fragmented...The worst "Anytime" issues we saw were on the Sapphire Princess--which had something like 4 separate dining rooms. With multiple dining rooms, you have less flexibility. If too many people show up at one time at one of the dining rooms, it is not easy to send them elsewhere. (Another major issue when we cruised on the Sapphire, which I hope they've cleaned up, was, at that time, Princess seemed to have no system for restricting "Anytime" to those actually signed up for "Anytime"--so, people assigned to traditional would just use that assignment as a "backup" and force crowding in Anytime while the traditional tables went half empty...a real nightmare).

 

The other issue is that these ships were designed traditionally...the size of the dining rooms were designed to accommodate just enough people to cover everyone under the old system. Originally, the reason for traditional dining--on ships many years ago--was that, say you had a full capacity of 1,500 passengers on a cruise ship, you would build a dining room that could seat 750 people at a time. Everyone had their assignment at one of the two shifts and everything fit neatly without a seat to spare. That formula has been warped considerably by the newer trends in cruising. With Anytime dining, you make people happier, thinking they are not forced to choose what may not always be a convenient dining time, but you run the risk of having everyone show up at the same time--and, if you still only have 750 seats for 1500 people--and, say, in the extreme, all 1500 show up at 7:30, you have a problem. There are only two things you can do to try to influence the situation a bit--you try to encourage as many as you can to use the specialty restaurants...and, you try to encourage people to make reservations for anytime dining--so that you can nudge them to easier to manage time slots.

 

You can also ease the situation by pushing anytime diners through the meal in a shorter timeframe--something restaurants back home secretly do. They want to squeeze in "extra seatings"--instead of serving two seatings during the dinner hours, move the people along so you can fill the table three times...

 

But, the real answer is that you also have to enlarge the restaurant size. That allows you to seat more people at the same time...

 

In summary:

1) Design ships with single dining rooms/greater flexibility/larger capacity

2) More efficient systems. Don't waste open seats. Encourage table sharing. Crosscheck Anytime eligibility.

[ldubs]

We have used anytime dining extensively on many cruises. Our experience has been good. Literally, we have had to wait only a few times, and have never had to wait more than 15 minutes. Except for one occasion, we have always had a table for two. The experiences shared here vary considerably, from hour long waits and long lines at one extreme to no problems on the other. I wonder why that is. Is it the cruise location (Caribbean?), luck, or ??

[Colo Cruiser]

Sitting here waiting to disembark the Royal. We use AT dining every cruise and never had to wait. We usually share. This time, we dined alone and between 6 and 6:30 with no reservations and never waited.

 

 

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Thats good to know! Welcome back. :)

[Bruin Steve]

The experiences shared here vary considerably, from hour long waits and long lines at one extreme to no problems on the other. I wonder why that is. Is it the cruise location (Caribbean?), luck, or ??

 

It should be obvious that a lot has to do with timing...People who show up right when the dining room opens likely never endure a wait--because all of the tables are available and waiting. Of course, if I wanted to eat at 6:00 pm every night, I'd just request traditional dining. Likewise, people that show up toward the end of the dining hours also rarely find a wait...people have left and the crowd is thinning out...tables are available.

 

Show up between 7:00 and 7:30 and you're more likely to find you have a wait. Tables have filled up and no one who came between 6:00 and 7:00 is anywhere close to finishing dinner and freeing the table.

 

Other factors have slight influences. Depending on the itinerary and hours in port, there may be some effect on when people show up to the dining room...Say you are in a popular tourism port and the ship doesn't set sail until 7:30 pm, then more people are getting in late and and showing up at dinner a little later. Another factor might be the number of kids on board. People with younger kids tend to want to eat a bit earlier. Supply and demand. Also, the show schedule or other scheduled events may influence when people get to the main dining room.

 

But, basically, some people, perhaps those who consistently eat early, never experience waits or other problems. Those who tend to show up at 7:00-7:30 may often experience those issues...

Edited April 6, 2014 by Bruin Steve

[avcruz]

I don't care. I am on a CRUISE. I am not getting up in the dark the next morning because the alarm is going off. I'm not looking ahead to another darn work day. I dont have to be anywhere or do anything.

 

 

 

Yes, I may want to make it to a show. So what? I can plan for that and arrive a bit earlier for dinner. At this point it is such a wonderful thing for us to be able to cruise that it's pretty hard to make us get upset by a wait for dinner. Maybe we'll get jaded later. I hope not.

 

 

Like!

 

 

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[OCruisers]

As I've been reading up on reviews leading up to our cruise this month I've come across several complaints regarding a wait time with the anytime dining. This perplexes me as it doesn't seem any different than a restaurant in the "real world". If I went to Red Lobster at 6pm chances are high I would be waiting for a table.

 

The way it seems to me is that traditional dining is the equivalent of having a guaranteed reservation.

 

Anytime dining is like walking into a restaurant and waiting for a table, the more specific the request, the longer the wait (window seat vs the wall or 2 seat table vs community table)

 

And if you want fast food, sit where you want than it's the Horizon for buffet.

 

So I'm curious if I'm missing something or if there are other reasons why so many people have complained about having at wait for a table with anytime dining?

 

Gosh, we don't understand it either? :confused:

Anytime works great for us and gives us the flexibility we like.

We are "easy" -- happy to share at any wait station -- and never have had to wait.

LuLu

~~~~

[58Piano]

When we tried anytime dining we found that after they set us down we had to wait until the table was full before they took food orders. It seemed like the dining experience took longer to do. We decided to go back to traditional dining. We like a table for two. Because sometimes you have nice very interesting people to talk with. But sometimes you do not. Having the same wait staff all week is nice also.

[Colo Cruiser]

When we tried anytime dining we found that after they set us down we had to wait until the table was full before they took food orders. It seemed like the dining experience took longer to do. We decided to go back to traditional dining. We like a table for two. Because sometimes you have nice very interesting people to talk with. But sometimes you do not. Having the same wait staff all week is nice also.

 

You always have the ability to speed up service and not wait for others.

Just ask. ;)

[Hlitner]

On our Princess cruises (we have been on quite a few) we seldom have to wait more then a few minutes for a Anytime Dining table. It does help that we always ask to share a large table. Those that insist on a 2 top during a busy time might have to wait. But waiting is no big deal since they have pagers... The few times we have had a longer wait we just went to a nearby bar and enjoyed a cocktail until we were paged. Tis no biggie :)

 

Hank