Change in Traditional Dining Times?

[swomom]

We are sailing on the Grand to Hawaii on 10-24.  The booking summary has always said early traditional dining at 5:30 (which, by the way, I think is ridiculously early).  I checked today and our time is now 4:45......perhaps it is best if I don’t express here what I am really thinking😲😩🤐🤐

[jennybenny]

I am glad someone posted the changed dining times.  I never look at that!!  We always get the second early seating, but 5 PM is a bit earlier than I'd like to eat. I want to change to 7:15, but would hate to eat at 8!  I can deal with 15 minutes later, but not 45 minutes to an hour.  Do I make the change now?  Do I wait a month?  Do I wait until I'm on the ship and then maybe get stuck with ATD?  Ahhhh!!  The torture!  😞

[spyro1952]

2 minutes ago, jennybenny said:

I am glad someone posted the changed dining times.  I never look at that!!  We always get the second early seating, but 5 PM is a bit earlier than I'd like to eat. I want to change to 7:15, but would hate to eat at 8!  I can deal with 15 minutes later, but not 45 minutes to an hour.  Do I make the change now?  Do I wait a month?  Do I wait until I'm on the ship and then maybe get stuck with ATD?  Ahhhh!!  The torture!  😞

They only changed today.  I look at my booking summary daily when I’m close to going and saw 5 then looked at my other bookings and saw one at 4:45 and another at 5.  Different ships. 😑  For my cruise in 2 weeks I don’t want to try and change anything on board as it will be a mad house with all those that haven’t realized they did this.  Maybe by the time of my spring cruise they will change it back.  You know prince

 

15 minutes ago, swomom said:

We are sailing on the Grand to Hawaii on 10-24.  The booking summary has always said early traditional dining at 5:30 (which, by the way, I think is ridiculously early).  I checked today and our time is now 4:45......perhaps it is best if I don’t express here what I am really thinking😲😩🤐🤐

Yep I totally get it.

[canadarocks]

7 minutes ago, jennybenny said:

I am glad someone posted the changed dining times.  I never look at that!!  We always get the second early seating, but 5 PM is a bit earlier than I'd like to eat. I want to change to 7:15, but would hate to eat at 8!  I can deal with 15 minutes later, but not 45 minutes to an hour.  Do I make the change now?  Do I wait a month?  Do I wait until I'm on the ship and then maybe get stuck with ATD?  Ahhhh!!  The torture!  😞

First... you're welcome. 🙂  I thought the same thing at first, but changed both of mine today because I expect the 7:15pm time slot will become waitlisted VERY quickly. 

[knittertwitter]

I recently sailed on the Golden Princess, and opted for Traditional Dining at 8:15 pm.  However, once on board I discovered the late sitting was at 7:45 pm instead.  I'm not sure why the website listed 8:15 if that's not an actual option.

[victory2020]

I just checked my booking for next month on the Ruby, then came here to ask if it had happened on any other ship/itinerary. Apparently it is fleet wide.

[hllwdcruiser]

4 hours ago, canadarocks said:

We HAD 6:00pm traditional booked on both our Caribbean & Crown Princess cruise next year. NOW we're listed for 5:00pm (with 4:45pm & 7:15pm as the other options). Is this the new normal for Princess?

(hate the tiny new font BTW) 

Thank you for posting this - I. too. went on Princess to check and our time had changed from 6 confirmed to 5 confirmed. I switched to 7:15 which for us is a perfect time to eat.

[bemis12]

Princess always has website problems.  I'd certainly wait a few days before I changed dining times.  You might discover they changed back.

[spyro1952]

4 minutes ago, bemis12 said:

Princess always has website problems.  I'd certainly wait a few days before I changed dining times.  You might discover they changed back.

Still not taking a chance and end up eating at 4:45 pm.  If it changes I’ll either eat late TD or try and change on the ship.  Does not appear to be a web site problem.

[Ombud]

I called my PCC and confirmed that my 6pm dining on 2 of the 3 cruises changed to 5pm. She switched me to 7:15. 6pm had a wait list but that's gone now .... 7:15 rapidly filing up probably due to sites like this that let people know there's an issue. 3rd cruise is still 6pm, apparently Australia / New Zealand are not in the revised timing.

FWIW: Boarded Royal in June confirmed for 6pm, I was shifted to 5:30 as they no longer had 6 pm on the Royal

[hllwdcruiser]

15 minutes ago, bemis12 said:

Princess always has website problems.  I'd certainly wait a few days before I changed dining times.  You might discover they changed back.

We were going to change our time anyway. 6 is too early and if they changed it to 5:45 that would have been worse. We weren't sure if we wanted to wait until 8:15 for TD or just go with ATD. Out new TA put us down for the 6 o'clock in case we wanted it because that is the one that gets booked up first. Now I wonder if the 7:15 slot will be the most desired.

[spyro1952]

I think 7:15 will be very popular.   Actually I think it’s a great time.  I don’t go to shows so that’s not an issue for me.  Now I can go to P/E lounge for a drink.

[TwoCruisers]

I just checked our booking and found that our seating time has changed from 6:00 to 5:00. We are also now Waitlisted #17. We booked this cruise on the Pacific Princess in September 2017 and we have not been waitlisted until now.

NOT HAPPY!☹️

[Pam in CA]

4 hours ago, spyro1952 said:

Yes they did vary some once you got on board but now the only choices you have for early TD when you book are 4:45 or 5 pm.  They’re not going to vary those times by 45 mins to an hour.

I’ve seen dining times vary by that much but it’s been years. Once had late dining confirmed for 8:15pm. It was 7:30pm once I boarded. 

[OCruisers]

Like Pam & others ....  You never really know until you are aboard the ship.  

[geocruiser]

I had my TA change mine today too.   said that Princess sent her no notice of this.  She was very happy that I told her.  I was wondering about the show time too.  I think the late show will have to  still be available. 

[OzKiwiJJ]

3 hours ago, knittertwitter said:

I recently sailed on the Golden Princess, and opted for Traditional Dining at 8:15 pm.  However, once on board I discovered the late sitting was at 7:45 pm instead.  I'm not sure why the website listed 8:15 if that's not an actual option.

It seems to vary depending on where the cruise is. Most of the cruises out of Australia have the late sitting at 7:45 but it was 8:15pm in the Med, and I have noticed that people tend to dine later in European countries.

[suzyed]

7 hours ago, Diver2014 said:

We have traditional dining on the Crown Princess next month and again next May confirmed for 5:30pm, per our

travel summaries on the website. That's what we were offered when we made the reservations, since we're early

eaters, that suits us just fine.

We had that too and they JUST NOW changed it 7 days before sailing....to 4:45!!!!  Not eating at 4:45.  That's ridiculous! And we in Europe!

[reedprincess]

Princess response to questions about dining times on their Facebook page :

"Hi, XXX The dining times in our system were updated to more accurately reflect the actual dining times on board our ships. We're sorry for any confusion this may have caused."

Seriously?  4:45 is a more accurate reflection of dining times? That's ridiculously early.   Wreaking havoc with our group reservation next month.  

[floridalover5623]

8 hours ago, suzyed said:

We had that too and they JUST NOW changed it 7 days before sailing....to 4:45!!!!  Not eating at 4:45.  That's ridiculous! And we in Europe!

That's close to our regular eating time here in Florida. 

A little late perhaps. 

[minniem]

I see mine was changed as well to 4:45. I live in FL and we eat early but definitely not that early.  I wondered if they are trying to eliminate the second early traditional dinning by making it so early no one will book it.  Then they have more room for Anytime. I don't like it but am not sure what we will do.

[hllwdcruiser]

42 minutes ago, floridalover5623 said:

That's close to our regular eating time here in Florida. 

A little late perhaps. 

Hah! Perhaps on the west coast but that definitely does not apply in Miami! 

[Mary loves to travel]

oh boy.   Just checked our next cruise, and yes we've been changed as well, from 6 pm (which was a little early for us, but not unreasonable) to 5 pm.   I actually really like the 7:15 time.   I've read here that Anytime Dining is really busy from about 5 or 5:30 onwards .. so traditional at 4:45 and at 5 pm could help in that regard perhaps?

My concern is if I change our dining to 7:15, then Princess were to change it again, we would end up with dinner at 8:15.    First world problems, I know, but ..... any guesses on how permanent this change is?   We'll be on the Grand to Mexico, if that makes a difference.

 

Mary

[DnA2010]

Well I just looked and we went from 8:15 I believe (which I was fine with) to 7:15...a bit early but will see how it works out- this is for Emerald in 2 days 

[Diver2014]

I went back into our Princess reservations for the Crown Princess next month in the Caribbean and again next May in the British Isles and found I could change my dining preferences.  I changed next month to 5:15pm waitlisted #20 (it was originally 5:30 but then Princess changed it to 4:45). Now the waitlist shows #8.  We're early eaters but c'mon 4:45?  Then I was able to change next May's British Isles cruise back to the original 5:30p.  We decided if they change us to 4:45 or anytime after 5:30, we'll just eat in the Horizon Court for dinner (but I'll miss my crème brulee!).  I really think Princess is trying to phase out traditional dining.