Dine My Way - new MedallionClass enhancement

[Turk1]

Thanks for all the input. Hopefully within the next few months everything will be cleared up. We enjoy Traditional dining, Late Seating, Table for 2. We do not have cruise until March 2022 on the Enchanted Princess but I was able to schedule the Amalfi, at 7PM, Table for 2 for the entire cruise. Using iPhone 11 and "so far" seems to work. Hopefully we will have same table and same wait staff for the entire time.

[Steelers36]

On 8/9/2021 at 10:18 PM, getting older slowly said:

Totally agreed

 

All our cruises have anytime dinning and have used the specialty restaurants, which had been booked a maximum a day in advance..   One like to be flexible .. as one is on holiday...

 

Maybe it is me.... but I do not get... making dinner reservations weeks , let alone months in advance...... if this is really the way cruising is heading...

 

What next all meals at sets time...going to bed and getting up at a set time

somehow I don't think so......   time to relax...

as there is no way anybody is going hungry on a cruise ship....

Anytime is for flexibility.  And you can still choose to be a walk-up and be seated, or perhaps wait a bit for your preferred table size.  Alternatively, when you do know when you would like to dine, you can also use the MC App and launch DMW in order to make a res - providing space available.  If not, just show up as a walk-up.  We don't know what the system is doing with inventory limit, but it could be that not every chair is available to be booked.  This is how it should work - either make a res when you know your time, or show up in person.

 

People making a res weeks or months in advance is most likely the Traditional Dining option.  You may recall when making a booking on Princess.com, or if your TA was doing it for you, they would ask your dining preference.  If it was TD, then you would specify Early or Late - and there was a posted time for each in the Cruise Personalizer.  Now that sample time in the Personalizer might be off by 15 mins or so once on board.  So, DMW allows for similar thing as TD guests can setup their time for dining for the entire voyage - similar to how it used to be done.  This is the idea of DMW.

 

What it is missing is a table size request (and that used to be part of the Cruise Personalizer options as well).  We are also supposed to be seated same table each night and have same wait staff.  Lots of folks like that routine as wait staff quickly get to know preferences and such.

 

For anyone who is a TD guest, they have the option in DMW to change it up on different evenings and, when booking something else, the system will realize their regular set table is going to be open for that evening.  We used to be good about letting our waiters know if we weren't coming the next night, but not everyone did.  If the System is working right, the DR Mgrs can see another open table that could be given to Anytimers.

 

Yes, there are still issues to be worked out, but I think we will see progress as time goes on. 

 

[Blackduck59]

36 minutes ago, Steelers36 said:

Anytime is for flexibility.  And you can still choose to be a walk-up and be seated, or perhaps wait a bit for your preferred table size.  Alternatively, when you do know when you would like to dine, you can also use the MC App and launch DMW in order to make a res - providing space available.  If not, just show up as a walk-up.  We don't know what the system is doing with inventory limit, but it could be that not every chair is available to be booked.  This is how it should work - either make a res when you know your time, or show up in person.

 

People making a res weeks or months in advance is most likely the Traditional Dining option.  You may recall when making a booking on Princess.com, or if your TA was doing it for you, they would ask your dining preference.  If it was TD, then you would specify Early or Late - and there was a posted time for each in the Cruise Personalizer.  Now that sample time in the Personalizer might be off by 15 mins or so once on board.  So, DMW allows for similar thing as TD guests can setup their time for dining for the entire voyage - similar to how it used to be done.  This is the idea of DMW.

 

What it is missing is a table size request (and that used to be part of the Cruise Personalizer options as well).  We are also supposed to be seated same table each night and have same wait staff.  Lots of folks like that routine as wait staff quickly get to know preferences and such.

 

For anyone who is a TD guest, they have the option in DMW to change it up on different evenings and, when booking something else, the system will realize their regular set table is going to be open for that evening.  We used to be good about letting our waiters know if we weren't coming the next night, but not everyone did.  If the System is working right, the DR Mgrs can see another open table that could be given to Anytimers.

 

Yes, there are still issues to be worked out, but I think we will see progress as time goes on. 

 

 

Thank you for this. I just hope that this works in practice as you have explained in theory. I know many loyal Princess cruisers and what they had to say about the Princess experience encouraged us to give it a try. So I decided to look here on the Princess boards and find no less than 3 threads on the "Medallion" app not to mention this "Dine my way" thread and the new dining thread that they just pinned. I will be following that thread looking for more real life experiences of people on ships and their encounters with the Medallion app and enhanced Dine my way.

Edited August 11, 2021 by Blackduck59

[caribill]

2 hours ago, Steelers36 said:

 

People making a res weeks or months in advance is most likely the Traditional Dining option.  You may recall when making a booking on Princess.com, or if your TA was doing it for you, they would ask your dining preference.  If it was TD, then you would specify Early or Late - and there was a posted time for each in the Cruise Personalizer.  Now that sample time in the Personalizer might be off by 15 mins or so once on board.  So, DMW allows for similar thing as TD guests can setup their time for dining for the entire voyage - similar to how it used to be done.  This is the idea of DMW.

 

 

With the old Traditional, by saying early or late seating you knew that whenever the main shows were scheduled for your voyage, when you boarded your traditional dining time would allow you to attend a show timed for your traditional meal.

 

But now when you select a dining time months or even over a year in advance, you do not know the timing for the main shows, so you are making a guess. When you finally learn the actual showtimes, if the time you reserved dinner for is not appropriate, it may be too late to book the time you actually now need to make the shows on time as the time slot you now know you need may already be full.

 

Traditional is more than having the same table and same waitstaff at the same time each evening. It also is proper timing to attend the main evening events.

 

I can understand why with DMW does not have a traditional dining option. Since even Princess does not know the timing of shows far in advance, they cannot set aside a time slot meant for Traditional diners as Princess would also be making a guess as to what that time slot needed to be until very close to embarkation day.

 

So basically, DMW is Anytime dining in all the dining rooms with the opportunity to select your anytime(s) in advance instead of trying to make reservations while on the ship.

[trbarton]

Interesting as I made my TD reservations many months ago but when I looked at my 2 upcoming cruises it showed no prior reservations made so I had to start all over again. Now I have screen shots. 
 

Anyone else noticed this?

 

Tom😀

[Steelers36]

7 hours ago, caribill said:

 

With the old Traditional, by saying early or late seating you knew that whenever the main shows were scheduled for your voyage, when you boarded your traditional dining time would allow you to attend a show timed for your traditional meal.

 

But now when you select a dining time months or even over a year in advance, you do not know the timing for the main shows, so you are making a guess. When you finally learn the actual showtimes, if the time you reserved dinner for is not appropriate, it may be too late to book the time you actually now need to make the shows on time as the time slot you now know you need may already be full.

 

Traditional is more than having the same table and same waitstaff at the same time each evening. It also is proper timing to attend the main evening events.

 

I can understand why with DMW does not have a traditional dining option. Since even Princess does not know the timing of shows far in advance, they cannot set aside a time slot meant for Traditional diners as Princess would also be making a guess as to what that time slot needed to be until very close to embarkation day.

 

So basically, DMW is Anytime dining in all the dining rooms with the opportunity to select your anytime(s) in advance instead of trying to make reservations while on the ship.

While I do agree that DMW as delivered thus far is more of a new way for AT dining, the above is not quite accurate.

 

Yes, when we selected Early or Late in Cruise Personalizer - or when making the booking - we could count on the timing for evening entertainment and Princess knew this months and years ahead of time.  But, Princess has also published which DMW dining times fit within the Early and Late TD windows, albeit buried in FAQ's.  (I have suggested they do something to highlight the times in DMW).  So, Princess knows the timing of main evening entertainment as well today as they used to.

 

If guests select one of the three slots for Early, or one of the three slots for Late, then they should be confident of being in alignment with evening entertainment.  If not, then there is a disconnect between CD team and dining team.  From what I have casually observed thus far, things are working out per this plan.

 

[Tedferg]

10 hours ago, caribill said:

 

a.)With the old Traditional, by saying early or late seating you knew that whenever the main shows were scheduled

b.)Since even Princess does not know the timing of shows far in advance, they cannot set aside a time slot meant for Traditional

This is contradictory.

[caribill]

8 hours ago, Steelers36 said:

Yes, when we selected Early or Late in Cruise Personalizer - or when making the booking - we could count on the timing for evening entertainment and Princess knew this months and years ahead of time.  Princess did not know the exact timing that much in advance. The time given in the Personalizer was a placeholder. Only when embarking did one learn what time traditional dining actually was. I had one B2B where the Personalizer had 8 PM as the late time for both segments. Reality was that it was 7:45 PM on the first segment and 8:15 PM on the second segment, but the average was OK at 8 PM.

 

 

 

But, Princess has also published which DMW dining times fit within the Early and Late TD windows, albeit buried in FAQ's.  (I have suggested they do something to highlight the times in DMW).  So, Princess knows the timing of main evening entertainment as well today as they used to.

 

If guests select one of the three slots for Early, or one of the three slots for Late, then they should be confident of being in alignment with evening entertainment.  If not, then there is a disconnect between CD team and dining team.  From what I have casually observed thus far, things are working out per this plan. Looking at the timing of the Princess Theater shows vs those three time slots, only the earliest of the three would end in tyime for the show based on past experience in the time dining room dining takes. Maybe since DMW asks if you want to eat at slow, medium or fast speed, you need to pick the time slot that would fit your speed the best.

 

See above in red.

 

[caribill]

16 hours ago, caribill said:

 

 

a.)With the old Traditional, by saying early or late seating you knew that whenever the main shows were scheduled

b.)Since even Princess does not know the timing of shows far in advance, they cannot set aside a time slot meant for Traditional

 

5 hours ago, Tedferg said:

This is contradictory.

 

How is it contradictory?

 

With the old Traditional you did not know the actual time you would dine until you boarded the ship (or looked at your cruise card when checking-in). The time in the Personalizer rarely matched the time on board as Princess did not set the actual dining time until very close to sailing when they knew the entertainment schedule.

 

There were many posts on Cruise Critic in the past complaining how the actual time for dining on board was 30 minutes or more earlier or later than expected based on the guess Princess made for times when they set up the Personalizer for a cruise.

 

You just could count on Princess making the actual dining time when you boarded to be what was needed to meet the early/late selection designation and also make your show.

[Tedferg]

4 minutes ago, caribill said:

 

 

How is it contradictory?

 

With the old Traditional you did not know the actual time you would dine until you boarded the ship (or looked at your cruise card when checking-in). The time in the Personalizer rarely matched the time on board as Princess did not set the actual dining time until very close to sailing when they knew the entertainment schedule.

 

There were many posts on Cruise Critic in the past complaining how the actual time for dining on board was 30 minutes or more earlier or later than expected based on the guess Princess made for times when they set up the Personalizer for a cruise.

 

You just could count on Princess making the actual dining time when you boarded to be what was needed to meet the early/late selection designation and also make your show.

OK I see it now 

[HleeCruiser]

Posted just now

I want to make a reservation and pay for it for a specialty restaurant for a friend.  I used to be able to do this at princess.com in the personalizer but that option is no longer available.  Does anyone know how this can be done so I can use my cc to pay for the dinner?  Thanks

[wowzz]

8 minutes ago, HleeCruiser said:

Posted just now

I want to make a reservation and pay for it for a specialty restaurant for a friend.  I used to be able to do this at princess.com in the personalizer but that option is no longer available.  Does anyone know how this can be done so I can use my cc to pay for the dinner?  Thanks

Can you please stop asking the same question in multiple threads!

Just give your friend $50 !

[DuncanBlizzard]

5 hours ago, caribill said:

Looking at the timing of the Princess Theater shows vs those three time slots, only the earliest of the three would end in time for the show based on past experience in the time dining room dining takes. Maybe since DMW asks if you want to eat at slow, medium or fast speed, you need to pick the time slot that would fit your speed the best.

 

We ate at 5:00 every night except in Juneau when we were on shore later.  We asked for fast speed in the system, but it was slow and we found ourselves racing to the show and were even a couple minutes late for one show.  We started letting them know we wanted to be out in time for the show, and eating sped up considerably.

 

And I'm surprised everyone keeps saying that if you have the same wait staff, they learned your preferences.  I had the same wait staff every night, and I was still asked for every salad and every entree if I wanted fresh pepper.  I never want pepper and started waiving them off as they headed to me with the pepper.  Same with the bread which I can't eat.  They never gave up on me wanting bread.

[Steelers36]

5 hours ago, caribill said:

 

See above in red.

 

Maybe it was good timing, but we often had a 5:30pm or 5:45pm dinner start with friends and made early theater show.  Not trying to split hairs, but I get that the :40 time might be tight but shouldn't be any issues with the :00 and :20 times (the first two for Early & Late).  Whatever the case, if Princess has published three times for Early and three times for Late, then they ought to be coordinated with entertainment times.  Either that or change/fix one or the other.  

[Kay S]

1 hour ago, DuncanBlizzard said:

I had the same wait staff every night, and I was still asked for every salad and every entree if I wanted fresh pepper.  I never want pepper and started waiving them off as they headed to me with the pepper. 

I think there is law that requires every server on land or on sea to ask if you want pepper every time.😁

[AF-1]

20 hours ago, HleeCruiser said:

Posted just now

I want to make a reservation and pay for it for a specialty restaurant for a friend.  I used to be able to do this at princess.com in the personalizer but that option is no longer available.  Does anyone know how this can be done so I can use my cc to pay for the dinner?  Thanks

Go into the app, click on the dining link, click on view or book individual daily reservation, click add a reservation,  click on specialty dining, next you will need to add your friends name under guests, you have to add their reservation booking number,  once you do that your name will have grren check marks, click on your name and undo the green check marks,  next you should be able to add your friends and pick a time for them to dine in a specialty restaurant,  it will have your credit card number and click yes  to confirm the reservation.

[AF-1]

6 minutes ago, AF-1 said:

HleeCruiser:  Go into the app, click on the dining link, click on view or book individual daily reservation, click add a reservation,  click on specialty dining, next you will need to add your friends name under guests, you have to add their reservation booking number,  once you do that your name will have green check mark, click on your name and undo the green check marks,   your friends name and booking number should appear,  click on friends name until you see green checkmark. Hit continue button and you will then pick a date, time, and which restaurant you want.  Next you should see your credit card (you should have already added a cc to your profile) then click confirm and you are good to go.   Now when you are in dining area and scroll till you see the date it will show up.  It will also show up in your friend's app too.  If this is a surprise you may have to wait until you board the ship.   I just did this an hour ago and it worked fine. My friend and his wife know they are going to dinner at Sabbatini's 

 

Edited August 12, 2021 by AF-1

[HleeCruiser]

20 hours ago, wowzz said:

Can you please stop asking the same question in multiple threads!

Just give your friend $50 !

No!  and it is none of your business where or how many times I post.  Just scroll on by dude.  You are not a polite person. 

[HleeCruiser]

30 minutes ago, AF-1 said:

Go into the app, click on the dining link, click on view or book individual daily reservation, click add a reservation,  click on specialty dining, next you will need to add your friends name under guests, you have to add their reservation booking number,  once you do that your name will have grren check marks, click on your name and undo the green check marks,  next you should be able to add your friends and pick a time for them to dine in a specialty restaurant,  it will have your credit card number and click yes  to confirm the reservation.

Thank you very much.  Will give it a try.  

[AF-1]

26 minutes ago, HleeCruiser said:

Thank you very much.  Will give it a try.  

good luck.  It worked for me so it should work for you.  Have a great weekend.

[HleeCruiser]

1 hour ago, AF-1 said:

good luck.  It worked for me so it should work for you.  Have a great weekend.

I should have said that I will not be on the cruise with the folks I wish to comp a specialty meal to.  Does that make a difference?

[AF-1]

8 minutes ago, HleeCruiser said:

I should have said that I will not be on the cruise with the folks I wish to comp a specialty meal to.  Does that make a difference?

Let me ask you this?  Have you ever used the medallion class app before?  Princess started doing medallion cruises in 2019.  I believe you would have to be on same cruise to use the medallion class app.  Since you are not sailing the only way, I know of it to contact Princess directly and tell them you would like to pay for your friends' dinner or possibly buy them a gift card and have it sent to their stateroom.

[HleeCruiser]

8 minutes ago, AF-1 said:

Let me ask you this?  Have you ever used the medallion class app before?  Princess started doing medallion cruises in 2019.  I believe you would have to be on same cruise to use the medallion class app.  Since you are not sailing the only way, I know of it to contact Princess directly and tell them you would like to pay for your friends' dinner or possibly buy them a gift card and have it sent to their stateroom.

Yes, we have done several MC app cruises but this is the first time the App has incorporated the dining option.  I used to be able to do the comped meals for friends on the personalizer but there are no dining options available on the personalizer since the MC App for dining became active. 

Again thank you for your assistance.  I was hoping to avoid the long wait times for Princess to pick up the phone.  We have two cruises booked and I like the way we can make reservations in advance in the App.  Both my cruises are Green Lane except the Boarding Time which I understand can not be selected until closer embarkation time.

[AF-1]

13 minutes ago, HleeCruiser said:

Yes, we have done several MC app cruises but this is the first time the App has incorporated the dining option.  I used to be able to do the comped meals for friends on the personalizer but there are no dining options available on the personalizer since the MC App for dining became active. 

Again thank you for your assistance.  I was hoping to avoid the long wait times for Princess to pick up the phone.  We have two cruises booked and I like the way we can make reservations in advance in the App.  Both my cruises are Green Lane except the Boarding Time which I understand can not be selected until closer embarkation time.

Unfortunately, if you are not logged into the app, you cannot access the dining options.  Once you log in you will have a home page that lists your ocean ready profile.  It also shows a knife, fork, and clock, depicting setting up dining times.  If you click on the knife and fork it takes you to dining page.  There you can set up and pay for specialty restaurants.  But I don't believe you would be able to do that since you are not sailing.  

[wowzz]

3 hours ago, HleeCruiser said:

dude

Do people still say that!