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Has MDR dining time change?

monakayk

By monakayk,
in Princess Cruises

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monakayk

monakayk

Posted
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Has the Main Room Dining time change? We have dinner in the traditional dining room and like to go late which has always been around 8:15 PM. However, a friend of mine who just did an Alaskan cruise said they had LTD at 7:30 PM. Just wanted to know if PCL has changed the dining times, cause over on our booking on the website it still states it at being 8:15 PM.

 

Any information concerning this issue is greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

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Colo Cruiser

Colo Cruiser

Posted
Posted
Has the Main Room Dining time change? We have dinner in the traditional dining room and like to go late which has always been around 8:15 PM. However, a friend of mine who just did an Alaskan cruise said they had LTD at 7:30 PM. Just wanted to know if PCL has changed the dining times, cause over on our booking on the website it still states it at being 8:15 PM.

 

Any information concerning this issue is greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

Depends on the cruise/demand/geographic location.

7:30 seems pretty standard for late but it is truly different on some ships.

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fishywood

fishywood

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When you book you are automatically told the times are 6:00 and 8:15.

But only once in my last dozen or so Princess cruises was the late sitting actually 8:15 and not earlier.

It is very common knowledge here that Alaska and Panama Canal cruises always move the times up to 5:15 and 7:30 (occasionally 5:30 and 7:45, but always assume the former).

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Thrak

Thrak

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Dining time is a pet peeve with me. Princess will "guarantee" you a dining time in the personalizer but, when you board, the time is not what was "guaranteed". Stop lying to me. Just be up front with the dang dining time and stop making a "guarantee" that is a lie.

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caribill

caribill

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The times in the Personailzer are just holding places for early or late dining.

 

You can book a cruise up to almost two years in advance of embarkation, long before the actual dining times will be known.

 

I once had a B2B where the place holder for both segments was 8 PM. Actual times ended up being 7:45 on the first segment and 8:15 on the second.

 

If your actual time ends up being the place holder time, it will be a coincidence, not due to great advance planning by the cruise line.

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mreasier

mreasier

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Much to my disappointment, the dining time on my cruise this past June on the Sapphire stayed at 8:15. On our four prior cruises, on the Pacific, Crown, Coral and Grand, the "8:15" dining time changed to 7:45 which we prefer.

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riclop

riclop

Posted
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Has the Main Room Dining time change? We have dinner in the traditional dining room and like to go late which has always been around 8:15 PM. However, a friend of mine who just did an Alaskan cruise said they had LTD at 7:30 PM. Just wanted to know if PCL has changed the dining times, cause over on our booking on the website it still states it at being 8:15 PM.

 

Any information concerning this issue is greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

You will find out when you board.

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Thrak

Thrak

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We prefer early dining and the "guaranteed" time of 6:00 PM works well for us. What doesn't work is the 5:15 PM time that is what actually happens when booking on Coral Princess (totally freaking ridiculous!) or even the 5:30 PM time on other ships. That's why we have started booking ATD. Why not just admit up front that the dining time will be earlier and stop giving a "guarantee" for 6:00 PM? Seems to me it would be more honest but, then again, I've never been a fan of "marketing".

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FritzG

FritzG

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We prefer early dining and the "guaranteed" time of 6:00 PM works well for us. What doesn't work is the 5:15 PM time that is what actually happens when booking on Coral Princess (totally freaking ridiculous!) or even the 5:30 PM time on other ships. That's why we have started booking ATD. Why not just admit up front that the dining time will be earlier and stop giving a "guarantee" for 6:00 PM? Seems to me it would be more honest but, then again, I've never been a fan of "marketing".

 

This is also my biggest pet peeve. When I book 6pm, I expect 6pm. Anything earlier is just way too early for dinner. We like TD with the same waiter and the same table each night. On our Hawaiian cruise in March we finally got the maitre d' to give us the same waiter around 6pm each night, but we still prefer td in the main dining room. I hope that we really do have a 6pm seating on the Royal next week.

The most frustrating part is that we can never get a straight answer as to who makes the decision to change the times. The maitre d' says it's corporate. Corporate says each maitre d' decides.

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fishywood

fishywood

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The most frustrating part is that we can never get a straight answer as to who makes the decision to change the times. The maitre d' says it's corporate. Corporate says each maitre d' decides.

 

On Golden this summer the 'welcome aboard' letter gave the times as 5:30 and 7:45.

 

Of course with muster at 7:30 departing Whittier the first night there was fixed seating at 5:15 followed by open seating as soon as the drill finished. (Though the Patter said that second seating would be held at 8:15 for that night only due to the drill, it turned out to be open; I asked to be shown my assigned table and was refused).

 

But the next day's Patter said dinner times were 5:15 and 7:30. When I went to the Maitre d's open hours that morning he said that too many people complain that 7:45 is too late, never mind the 8:15 that shows in most every cruises' Personalizer at the time of booking.

 

So for once responsibility was taken at the ship level. And I changed from late to ATD because to me 7:30 is too "in between" with not enough time to accomplish an evening activity before dinner. So put me down as also agreeing that 6:00 and 8:15 should be carved in stone, though for my own different reason. I guess there is some sort of statistical matrix Princess uses that says moving up the times will result in fewer people changing to ATD because it is too early, than leaving the times as is which would result in late diners feeling that 8:15 is too late after the first night resulting in an even larger exodus to ATD.

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caribill

caribill

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Our cruise in just over two weeks list the time as 8. Same as it was when we signed up last October.

 

And it will show as that time right up to embarkation day.

 

Your cruise card will have the real time. It might be 8. It might be earlier. It might be later.

 

Please come back here after your cruise and let us know what it turned out to be.

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