Turning up late to Traditional dining

[Russell21]

We always book the late session as we eat late at home. Not as late as when we lived in the Philippines when the evening meal is eaten around 9.30 to 10.00 PM.

[NSWP]

1 hour ago, Russell21 said:

We always book the late session as we eat late at home. Not as late as when we lived in the Philippines when the evening meal is eaten around 9.30 to 10.00 PM.

We dine around 6.30pm - 7pm at home.   When we visited our son in Lima, Peru a few times, a big lunch was served in the family home @ 2pm until 4pm, followed by ye olde siesta !   Then if everyone wanted to go out for dinner, out we went at 10pm, perhaps for some roasted guinea pig or cerviche.  Those South Americans are night people.  Down here in Batemans Bay most club and restaurant kitchen turn the burners off @ 8pm, much to the disgust of Mic and his mob from NatCap lol.

Edited November 6, 2018 by NSWP

[Pushka]

7.30 we are usually finishing off pre dinner drinks. We don’t bother much with shows. 

[mr walker]

5pm dinner???? - most days I've not even home from work yet, and not had the first beer. On a cruise, I likely have had a beer or two by 5pm, but afternoon tea, or late lunch, is still not digested :-).

 

Couldn't imagine having dinner before 8. We either do late dining [8:30] or MTD around 8pm, having had a couple of drinks and likely the early show.

[OzKiwiJJ]

Has anyone actually confirmed that these new times are actually the real times for Australian itineraries? In my experience the times in the Personalizer are never what they turn out to be in reality. Late traditional used to be listed as 8pm (I think) but was always 7:45pm on Australian sailings, and was 8:15pm on the Med cruise we did last year. I'm just wondering if Princess is just using US-based times in the Personalizer but will modify them depending on the itinerary.

Edited November 6, 2018 by OzKiwiJJ

[Aus Traveller]

21 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

Has anyone actually confirmed that these new times are actually the real times for Australian itineraries? In my experience the times in the Personalizer are never what they turn out to be in reality. Late traditional used to be listed as 8pm (I think) but was always 7:45pm on Australian sailings, and was 8:15pm on the Med cruise we did last year. I'm just wondering if Princess is just using US-based times in the Personalizer but will modify them depending on the itinerary.

Don't know yet, but we got emails from Princess a few days ago telling us about the earlier dinner times. Maybe Princess is trying to even out the requests for early dinner v. late dinner. With early dinner this early, there will probably be more people asking for late dinner. However, a problem will occur if passengers get on the ship and find a sitting that was advertised as 7pm, has become 8pm.

 

We always booked early traditional dining but 5pm is just too early. The 5.30-5.45 was a bit too early, but we felt the later sitting was too late. Since ATD became available that is what we have used, and loving it.

Edited November 6, 2018 by Aus Traveller

[OzKiwiJJ]

We're trying ATD on Majestic in a couple of weeks. There was no point in booking TD as we're going to two of the speciality restaurants to try them and it's only a six night cruise. If nobody else posts actual times before our cruise I'll try to post them.

 

One thing we found with late TD on cruises since ATD was introduced in this region is that timings of entertainment around the ship, other than the main shows, wasn't good for late TD. The entertainers seemed to be always taking breaks when we came down for our pre-dinner cocktails, and also after dinner, and the PES lounge hours finished a bit too early. 

[MicCanberra]

I will post on my return but that will be Nov 25.

[Seadog & Sea Hag]

I’ve decided that we will just do anytime dining and forget about the Traditional at 5

[cruisin-m]

You would think it was the 1st of April making dinner 5:00pm 😉! Must be for the very senior and families (wonder if they give out bibs to everyone at this seating😂) 

The new second seating traditional dining is still too early for me now so definitely ATD if I was to go Princess. 

 

You would be back from the island at 3:30 stressing about getting ready for formal nights.. crazy. 

 

I agree it’s rude coming to dinner late but if I didn’t have another choice to pick I would also be coming at least 30 minutes late each night because that is a joke eating at 5:00pm!!! At least dinner service might not be as dragged out and slow as it usually is 👍

[OzKiwiJJ]

Just boarded Majestic. Traditional dining times are 5:15pm and 7:30pm, so 15 minutes earlier than they used to be.

 

We're doing Anytime dining on this cruise so I won't be able to gauge how the slightly earlier Traditional times are working for shows etc.

[OzKiwiJJ]

Show times tonight are 7pm and 9:15pm which means we probably won't be able to go to it as we have a dinner reservation at Harmony for 7:30. Not happy,  Princess!!!!😡

[MicCanberra]

Cheers, thanks for reporting back, hope you have a great cruise.

[NSWP]

On ‎11‎/‎18‎/‎2018 at 11:40 AM, OzKiwiJJ said:

Just boarded Majestic. Traditional dining times are 5:15pm and 7:30pm, so 15 minutes earlier than they used to be.

 

We're doing Anytime dining on this cruise so I won't be able to gauge how the slightly earlier Traditional times are working for shows etc.

I wonder if they will push the 5.15pm sitting back to 5pm? 

[OzKiwiJJ]

43 minutes ago, NSWP said:

I wonder if they will push the 5.15pm sitting back to 5pm? 

Apparently they are trialing different times on a couple of ships in our region. One is 5pm - sorry, but I can't remember which ship. The other is, of course, Majestic.

 

We had a good senior crew turnout at the Meet and Greet and I mentioned that there had been negative comments here and on FB cruise sites about the earlier times.

 

Tonight's show is 7:15pm and 9:30pm.

[Aus Traveller]

Princess will soon see if the timing of 5.15 or 5pm are acceptable to their passengers. People will vote with their feet - or their knives and forks.

 

I can see many more people going to ATD. We have already booked that for our next cruise, and would have changed it if we were slotted in for a very early dinner. We have been OK with 5.30 where we would often arrive at 5.40 or so, but the earlier timeslot would not suit us.

[NSWP]

47 minutes ago, Aus Traveller said:

Princess will soon see if the timing of 5.15 or 5pm are acceptable to their passengers. People will vote with their feet - or their knives and forks.

 

I can see many more people going to ATD. We have already booked that for our next cruise, and would have changed it if we were slotted in for a very early dinner. We have been OK with 5.30 where we would often arrive at 5.40 or so, but the earlier timeslot would not suit us.

Having done most of my Princess cruises (22) on ships operating from USA, UK and Europe, filled with North Americans I can tell you that many of them will be happy to eat at 5pm, the 'Americans like to early syndrome.'    Princess for some years has been running a 5.30pm sitting in addition to the 6pm and 8pm ones.  As for us if we had a Princess cruise booked we would be taking the 2nd TD @ 7.15pm, for us that time is perfecto.

Edited November 19, 2018 by NSWP

[NSWP]

1 hour ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

Apparently they are trialing different times on a couple of ships in our region. One is 5pm - sorry, but I can't remember which ship. The other is, of course, Majestic.

 

We had a good senior crew turnout at the Meet and Greet and I mentioned that there had been negative comments here and on FB cruise sites about the earlier times.

 

Tonight's show is 7:15pm and 9:30pm.

Thanks for that, enjoy your adventure, I trust the Tasman Sea is not too rough.  I will have to check ye olde bridgecam.

Edited November 19, 2018 by NSWP

[Russell21]

We board Sun Princess tomorrow, dining times are 5.00PM and 7.15PM, up from 7.45 and 5.30.

[MicCanberra]

1 hour ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

We had a good senior crew turnout at the Meet and Greet and I mentioned that there had been negative comments here and on FB cruise sites about the earlier times.

 

 

Good work, Glad CruiseGal had it sorted then. Would have liked to have been there as well.

[Russell21]

Well I've heard nothing but opposition to the changes, and I don't like it either, so princess must be a bit confused. Following is the email I received from them this morning, even though my  Personaliser has been showing the new times for a while now.

 

Making our guests happy is our number one priority. Because of overwhelming feedback requesting earlier dining times, we’re adjusting our Traditional Dining schedule. We’re making the following changes to Traditional Dining times only: For Traditional Dining, the new times are: 5 p.m. first seating 7:15 p.m. second seating   Anytime Dining remains the same, running from 5 p.m. onward. You can review or change your dining time by visiting Cruise Personalizer, calling your Travel Agent, or calling 1-800-774-6237 (North America), 0344 338 8663 (UK), 132 488 (Australia), or 0800 780 717 (New Zealand). We look forward to welcoming you on board soon!

[MicCanberra]

Overwhelming responses for or against, from aussies or yanks, on the early times, very confusing.

[Aus Traveller]

4 minutes ago, MicCanberra said:

Overwhelming responses for or against, from aussies or yanks, on the early times, very confusing.

I don't think they are referring to feedback on the new times. The Princess email referred to "overwhelming feedback requesting earlier times" and that is what they have responded to. Les might be correct: it could be overwhelming feedback from guests from USA wanting earlier dinners. Maybe they can't go as long without a feed 😊.

 

If the early timeslot doesn't work in our part of the world, I hope that Princess will adjust it. I am expecting the earlier timeslots on our next cruise, but we are going to ATD anyway.

[MicCanberra]

We do ATD but earlier dining times in one MDR has an effect on all the wait staff and cooks, they may end up finishing ATD by 8.30.

[Docker123]

When I was a student in the US, the dining time in the dorms started at 5.30 — with long queues. Also ended (closed) about 7.

 

then again, 5 is a pretty usual time in nursing homes.