Emerald Princess dining shambles

[UK Cruiser2]

Certain people talk overly loud in the MDR as if they want everyone to look at and listen to them.

[c*r*u*I*s*e]

I might be missing the point here but...........

20 or so people moaning and 3500 plus just getting on with it, and having a great cruise!!

 

Having been on Princess a few times (including to the Med. Sept 3rd coming up....and it's sold out too)

I have absolutely no fears or worries about such things.

Never ever had any problems with ATD in the MDR or horizon for that matter, or the sun loungers come to think of it!!

 

If you're whinging about overcrowded ships......

1 Vary the time's you go to eat...if 3000 people all go at the same time, of course you're gonna hit problems!!

 

2 Choose an alternative time to cruise...off peak!!

 

Remember everybody has a level playing field, it's just how they choose to deal with things that differs!!

 

Personally I wouldn't let any trivial matters ruin my vacation and the love of cruising!!

 

Controversial maybe,but that's my opinion....

 

Steve

[GandM-nq]

We are booked on the cruise on20th August with anytime dining. Is it too late to switch to traditional dining and does anyone know if the service was better on traditional dining on the last mediterranean cruise? we have only cruised once before with Disney and their set time dining worked well but i have never experienced anytime dining before.

Check your port departure times. We did ATD on the Emerald last year (Med, 4 weeks). Was a port intensive cruise and departure times from ports varied a lot. We didn't want to do traditional early - be sitting down for dinner before we even had set sail from some ports! Traditional late was, well, seemed too late. So we went ATD.

 

Most nights we turned up for ATD somewhere between 6.15-6.30 pm. We always accepted sittings with others. Never really any wait of note (except one night we were a little later and got the buzzer. Was 15 minutes till buzzed). And one good thing to note - At entrance to ATD dining room, staff were checking dining status on passenger cards. I presume it was to stop people that were Traditional getting in on the ATD.

Edited August 11, 2016 by GandM-nq

[TracieABD]

This is just for me, but TD is one of the best parts of cruising. I love having a dedicated seat at a specific time for evening dining. In the long run, it is so much easier...

[JimmyVWine]

 

Personally I wouldn't let any trivial matters ruin my vacation and the love of cruising!!

 

Controversial maybe,but that's my opinion....

 

Steve

 

Not in the least. What people have to realize is that the sailings with 3000 people on board can be money losers, or barely profitable at best, and that in order for the cruise line to make money, it has to "kill it" in the high season when it can crunch 3600 people on the same ship. In other words, the 3000 person sailings are the "treading water" cruises, and the 3600 sailings are the money makers. So the latter aren't going to go anywhere anytime soon. And the cruise line is not going to start implementing new procedures that will cut into the profitability of those more crowded cruises. We have to accept them as a fact of life. So coping strategies have to be employed. One is to avoid the high season altogether and try to stick with the "treading water" cruises. Another is to alter dining strategies if a crowded cruise must be booked. But the idea that Princess needs to "fix the problem" is a lost cause. To them, there is no problem.

[FritzG]

Any Traditional diners should never be allowed to use AT dining unless it was not busy. That is like taking up two different spaces.

 

I agree. I think that it would go a long way if Princess would just check cruise cards at the door for AT and send TD diners to their assigned dining room or another venue. You have to stop at the door to wait for a table so a quick check of the cruise card wouldn't take a lot of time.

 

Also Princess needs to make a clear policy as to whether it's ok for TD to go to AT. Right now it seems very vague. We always book TD, and the dining room is often fairly empty because people book TD and don't show up for the entire cruise. It's no fun sitting with only 2 people at a table for 6, an experience we've had many times in the last few years.

[Colo Cruiser]

Certain people talk overly loud in the MDR as if they want everyone to look at and listen to them.

 

 

I find that can happen anywhere.

[SWORRUB1]

I might be missing the point here but...........

20 or so people moaning and 3500 plus just getting on with it, and having a great cruise!!.....

Steve

 

That is par for the course I think, if you go in peak weeks then you must expect and accept lots of people being about. If you dont like that then go at other times. The other times are subsidised by the peak time travellers!

 

It was busy, it was frustrating in the first couple of days at the MDRs on this 23rd of July cruise but it was all predictable. I think that the staff coped well once the scale of the problem became clear, most frustrating thing for me was again the sun lounger hogging, and the ability of some groups to get up at 6AM to get a sunbed! However that was their (sad) choice!

 

There was a rumour that some parents left the children on board ship on port days and with the amount of children running around at times that wouldnt have surprised me.

 

The good news is that we didnt have the terrible weather that is unfortunately affecting the current cruise, bet there is no sun lounger hogging this week!

[donaldsc]

I agree. I think that it would go a long way if Princess would just check cruise cards at the door for AT and send TD diners to their assigned dining room or another venue. You have to stop at the door to wait for a table so a quick check of the cruise card wouldn't take a lot of time.

 

Also Princess needs to make a clear policy as to whether it's ok for TD to go to AT. Right now it seems very vague. We always book TD, and the dining room is often fairly empty because people book TD and don't show up for the entire cruise. It's no fun sitting with only 2 people at a table for 6, an experience we've had many times in the last few years.

 

Totally agree. I do not think that TD people should be allowed in AT ever and without exception. They picked TD and they should stay out of my AT dining room. If they do not like it or they can not make it to TD on time, let them eat in the buffer.

 

DON

[BigTimeCruiser]

Totally agree. I do not think that TD people should be allowed in AT ever and without exception. They picked TD and they should stay out of my AT dining room. If they do not like it or they can not make it to TD on time, let them eat in the buffer.

 

DON

 

AGREE 100 percent.

[Taters]

I haven't sailed on Princess for some time, but have one booked for January, 2018. The big trend in cruising over the past 5 years or so has been to cut positions on board, having less and less staff doing more work. And in the meantime, the cruise companies have done things to squash more and more passengers on board their ships. Perhaps it is becoming clear that the lines need to begin adding more staff again.

 

But wait! That would cut into their profits! So I don't see it happening any time soon. Sad, really.

 

I cruise to relax and be a bit pampered. Mega ships scare me. I hope that my cruise aboard the Caribbean Princess is amazing. After our one and only Christmas cruise, we will not book in high season again.

[Cinerama]

We always book TD, and the dining room is often fairly empty because people book TD and don't show up for the entire cruise. It's no fun sitting with only 2 people at a table for 6, an experience we've had many times in the last few years.

 

I have never seen the TD room fairly empty. Once we were at a table of four or maybe it was six and it was just the two of us for the entire cruise. Because of that, for lunch we sat with other people. Usually for breakfast and lunch we ask for a table of two.

[rbt001]

We just got back from an Emerald Princess Mediterranean cruise and if this was amongst our first Princess cruises there's no doubt we wouldn't be back.

 

The ship had in excess of 3600 guests according to the cruise director, which is around 500 more than the normal capacity declared by Princess. Boy did it show.

 

For the first time ever for us the ability to call and reserve a table on the day was withdrawn for Anytime Diners. This despite all Princess brochures and ads (including bizarrely those on board) trumpeting the feature. Waiting lines were 30 minutes plus just to get a pager; the additional wait was then never less than another 30 minutes and some nights was 90. The reason was clear: nearly all the tables were re-arranged to be for 10 or 12, and staff pushed (a little too hard for many people's liking) the idea of sharing. Fine if you like it, an imposition if you don't.

 

After 3 nights of this, again for the first time ever for us, we gave up and went to the buffet. So did several hundred others, with the result that it too became unworkable, with the servery area so crowded the crew couldn't refill the shelves. In the end people were taking their main meal at the pizza or burger bar, sometimes even in formal gear. What a joke.

 

People blame school holidays and the presence of lots of children, but the fault isn't theirs, it's Princess for allowing too many people on board. Anyone with any experience of cruises could and would have predicted the problems, so why were they allowed to happen? I have asked Princess and look forward to their reply.

 

I've sailed on Emerald three times in the past 12 months, so when I read the title I was expecting to learn of overturned tables and chairs, waitstaff hobbling around with hair a mess, a torn jacket on the Maitre 'D, food all over the floor scattered with broken plates....

 

When in reality it's just a discussion of long waits by impatient passengers for ATD during a packed holiday cruise.

 

Well I'm glad in reality, the staff I got to know on Emerald are, in fact, okay and just doing fine. Whew!

[Murphey]

How would anyone know if a TD diner is in the AT dining room??:confused:

[rbt001]

How would anyone know if a TD diner is in the AT dining room??:confused:

 

Do you mean: what happens when a guest reserved and confirmed for TD instead uses ATD?

 

From what I've read hear, I don't think anyone would know. Posters have expressed in the past how unfair that is, and how the TD person should notifiy and change to ATD if they intend to do that so the table can be freed up for someone else.

[SoCal Cruiser78]

Deleted post.

Edited August 11, 2016 by SoCal Cruiser78

[floridalover5623]

How would anyone know if a TD diner is in the AT dining room??:confused:

 

It's printed on your cruise card and sometimes they check at the door for the first few days of the cruise & redirect the TD people to the correct DR. After a while they assume the people know where to go & stop checking.

Also if TD diners are late for their allotted time because of a tour getting back late they can ask the head waiter if it's OK to go to anytime dining and they rarely refuse anyone. Princess likes to keep everyone happy.

 

Another thing.. if a TD person doesn't like the seating given they can switch to AT dining just by asking. Of course their assigned seat in the TD dining room goes unused for the rest of the trip.

Edited August 11, 2016 by floridalover5623

[JimmyVWine]

It's printed on your cruise card and sometimes they check at the door for the first few days of the cruise & redirect the TD people to the correct DR. After a while they assume the people know where to go & stop checking.

That is how the ship's personnel know. The question posed might mean: "How do you, as a passenger know if there are TD people in the ATD MDRs?" And the answer to that is...you probably can't tell. Which calls into question the posts where people say: "I hate it when they let lots of TD people into the ATD MDR", or "On my cruise, there were lots of TDs in the ATD MDRs." Unless some braggard announces that they are a TD and they pulled a fast one and got into the ATD MDR, it is almost impossible to tell.

[geoherb]

On one of our latest Princess cruises, they seated anytime diners in the traditional dining room on the second formal night. There were plenty of empty tables in the traditional dining room by then.

 

The one time we were forced into anytime dining, the wait times were too long the first night, so we ended up going to dinner late--no earlier than 8:30 and one time as late as 9:45. There wasn't a wait by then. The thing we disliked about it, though, was that by then we were stuck at a table for two. We'd prefer to share.

[floridalover5623]

That is how the ship's personnel know. The question posed might mean: "How do you, as a passenger know if there are TD people in the ATD MDRs?" And the answer to that is...you probably can't tell. Which calls into question the posts where people say: "I hate it when they let lots of TD people into the ATD MDR", or "On my cruise, there were lots of TDs in the ATD MDRs." Unless some braggard announces that they are a TD and they pulled a fast one and got into the ATD MDR, it is almost impossible to tell.

 

Of course. They just like to have someone to blame because they had to wait 20 or 30 minutes because a table wasn't available at 6:15 when they arrived at the door. :rolleyes:

I guess it never occurred to them to try and arrive earlier when there's not much of a wait but then how can they enjoy a glass of wine while watching the sun set. ;)

[SoCal Cruiser78]

...I was expecting to learn of overturned tables and chairs, waitstaff hobbling around with hair a mess, a torn jacket on the Maitre 'D, food all over the floor scattered with broken plates...

 

That sounds like the one (and only) Carnival cruise I did :).

[hettyD]

We were asked our cabin number EVERY night in ATD so presumably they could check everyone was in the right dining room...

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

[jagoffee]

I agree. I think that it would go a long way if Princess would just check cruise cards at the door for AT and send TD diners to their assigned dining room or another venue. You have to stop at the door to wait for a table so a quick check of the cruise card wouldn't take a lot of time.

 

Also Princess needs to make a clear policy as to whether it's ok for TD to go to AT. Right now it seems very vague. We always book TD, and the dining room is often fairly empty because people book TD and don't show up for the entire cruise. It's no fun sitting with only 2 people at a table for 6, an experience we've had many times in the last few years.

IMO the worse part of your experience is apparently cruisers who wanted TD (it would not be me) were not able to dine in TD.

[Pierlesscruisers]

I agree. I think that it would go a long way if Princess would just check cruise cards at the door for AT and send TD diners to their assigned dining room or another venue. You have to stop at the door to wait for a table so a quick check of the cruise card wouldn't take a lot of time.

 

I think that instead of taking away a choice, as your solution would do, they ought to charge (on a per non-cancelled seat basis) those cabins who are scheduled for a traditional dining seat in a dining room for any seat that is not used. That way the person who does not cancel a reserved seat and causes an unnecessary wait for a cruiser and extra work (due to any delay in seating of the diner) on the wait staff. They do ask that you cancel such a reservation to allow more timely seating and I have done so when my wife and I have, for whatever reason, canceled such a reserved seat. Of course, that is probably not a workable solution and would not even be implemented in the first place, but it would make some of the people "pay" for their discourtesy.

 

One person's opinion.

 

Tom

[GUT2407]

We were asked our cabin number EVERY night in ATD so presumably they could check everyone was in the right dining room...

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

 

Not sure about that being the reason.

 

We had ATD last year over five weeks, the door man on the first few days checked our card to ensure we were ATD but had to ask our room number every night. Yet knew us well enough by about week two, to Greer us by name in Port, I suggest the room number may have more to do with allocating tips than confirming you have ATD.