Dining Time For Princess

[Raxter54]

We're possibly booking a Princess cruise for 2023. Has Princess done away with traditional set time dining, and gone to Dine My Way on all their ships?

[mom says]

Yep.

[JimmyVWine]

Yes, but the Dine My Way functionality allows you to book the same dining room at the same time every day. That gets you half way to replicating the Traditional Dining experience.  Once you are on board, if you liked your table and servers on the first night, you can ask the Dining Room Manager if you can have that table on each subsequent night. If that request is granted, then you pretty much have replicated the Traditional Dining experience all the way. 

[DallasGuy75219]

16 minutes ago, Raxter54 said:

We're possibly booking a Princess cruise for 2023. Has Princess done away with traditional set time dining, and gone to Dine My Way on all their ships?

Yes but in the app you can make a reservation for the same time every night in a single step (and likely wind up with the same servers most or all nights).

[KreinKrunker]

22 hours ago, DallasGuy75219 said:

Yes but in the app you can make a reservation for the same time every night in a single step (and likely wind up with the same servers most or all nights).

That would make sense, but in reality, it doesn't work that way.  As JimmyVWine said, talk to the Head Waiter, or whatever they are called these days.  We've had to do that on five cruises so far.

[SiliconCruiser]

57 minutes ago, KreinKrunker said:

That would make sense, but in reality, it doesn't work that way.  As JimmyVWine said, talk to the Head Waiter, or whatever they are called these days.  We've had to do that on five cruises so far.

We actually had one of the host/hostesses do that for us.  If she wasn't the one greeting us, and someone else assigned a table to us, she would interrupt the busser or whomever was taking us to our table, and she just gave them the table number.  Seemed that we ran into her at the dining room for lunch, another dining room at dinner, and she said that she remembered us from the buffet (her title was Buffet Steward.)

[geoherb]

The problem with the new way is that it doesn't work for people who like to share a table in a traditional dining setting. It's fine for couples or families who can arrange to get the same table each night at the same time.

[Visaman666]

I was in a group tour for, a band called Squeezebox, who performed private concerts on the ship. The travel agency made the dining arrangements which was at 5:25 PM each night. The first night we had assigned seating, but by the end we could just walk by the lineup and sit wherever we wanted among our tables. 

 

 

[antsp]

What possessed Princess to get rid of traditional dining. 

[DallasGuy75219]

1 hour ago, antsp said:

What possessed Princess to get rid of traditional dining. 

The same thing as all the other cruise lines at least offering if not pushing my time/my way/any time dining... labor costs:

 

1. By opening earlier and closing later than they would with two fixed seatings, they can stretch a smaller number of servers over a longer dinner service.
2. On any given night they know a certain number/percentage of cruisers are not going to eat dinner in the MDR, but they don't know which specific people on what night (other than advance bookings for specialty restaurants).  My time/my way/any time allows seats/tables that would otherwise go unused at two fixed seatings to be filled by any cruiser needing a seat/table. 

[antsp]

15 minutes ago, DallasGuy75219 said:

The same thing as all the other cruise lines at least offering if not pushing my time/my way/any time dining... labor costs:

 

1. By opening earlier and closing later than they would with two fixed seatings, they can stretch a smaller number of servers over a longer dinner service.
2. On any given night they know a certain number/percentage of cruisers are not going to eat dinner in the MDR, but they don't know which specific people on what night (other than advance bookings for specialty restaurants).  My time/my way/any time allows seats/tables that would otherwise go unused at two fixed seatings to be filled by any cruiser needing a seat/table. 

In other words, greed and profit. The demise of cruising continues 

[wowzz]

13 minutes ago, antsp said:

In other words, greed and profit. The demise of cruising continues 

A bit harsh. People want affordable cruises,  and profits are a fact of life.

Princess are doing the same as any other company - looking at ways  of  keeping prices down and profits up. 

[luv2travel06]

On 7/31/2022 at 10:32 PM, DallasGuy75219 said:

Yes but in the app you can make a reservation for the same time every night in a single step (and likely wind up with the same servers most or all nights).

Just off the Caribbean Princess for the 13 day New England/Canada cruise. We had reserved 7:20 every night on the app. Somehow it got changed to 7:00pm. We were assigned to the Palm dining room, the larger dining room on deck 6 aft. Dinner on embarkation day was a chaotic mess. There was a very long line to get in. Once we were finally seated, it was clear the servers were overwhelmed, and after approximately 15 minutes of waiting for our server, we walked out. The maitre d'(?) seemed concerned as we left, but the situation seemed unfixable.

 

There was a very long line again on day 2, and we were seated in a different section. Service was more prompt, but it was clear the server was having difficulty keeping up, and he was not particularly friendly/pleasant.

 

We talked to a manager in the Coral dining room about getting a table with the same server there each night, but he said he could not guarantee it, but would be more likely to be able to accomodate us at a later time.

 

We returned to the Palm on day 4, there was no line, and the concerned maitre d' specifically assigned us to a certain server's section, as he did the next 2 times we returned.

 

In the end, we visited the World Fresh Marketplace for dinner 7 out of 13 nights.The MDR experience on the Caribbean Princess was much less pleasant than the late seating schedule during our cruises on the Emerald in December and March. It would seem that the servers cannot be happy with the present situation, and are likely receiving far fewer incidental gratuities than they would with the early/late seating schedule of the past.

 

 

Edited August 7, 2022 by luv2travel06

[Steelers36]

On 8/2/2022 at 2:24 AM, DallasGuy75219 said:

My time/my way/any time allows seats/tables that would otherwise go unused at two fixed seatings to be filled by any cruiser needing a seat/table. 

That could be accomplished and still provide TD experience.  They were doing this previously as well in most cases.

 

[sloopsailor]

On 8/1/2022 at 11:40 PM, antsp said:

In other words, greed and profit. The demise of cruising continues 

 

It is not about "greed and profit". It's about convenience, for both the cruise line AND the passengers. Passengers get to choose when and where they want to dine, the cruise lines get to spread out the massive effort to feed thousands of people over several dining hours instead of during two blocks of time. Win-win.

 

I'm different than you. I don't cruise to dine where and when the cruise line tells to me to dine. I go to do things that I want to do, including dining where I want and on my schedule. This earth shattering change to you is a positive improvement to me. And the vast majority of passengers agree. 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 7, 2022 by sloopsailor

[antsp]

13 hours ago, sloopsailor said:

 

It is not about "greed and profit". It's about convenience, for both the cruise line AND the passengers. Passengers get to choose when and where they want to dine, the cruise lines get to spread out the massive effort to feed thousands of people over several dining hours instead of during two blocks of time. Win-win.

 

I'm different than you. I don't cruise to dine where and when the cruise line tells to me to dine. I go to do things that I want to do, including dining where I want and on my schedule. This earth shattering change to you is a positive improvement to me. And the vast majority of passengers agree. 

 

 

 

 

Why would something you don't use be an improvement to you. Traditional dinind was always full, and wait listed so obviously passengers want it

[MissP22]

6 hours ago, antsp said:

Why would something you don't use be an improvement to you. Traditional dinind was always full, and wait listed so obviously passengers want it

The way I understand it is that people who prefer the tradition dining style can still tailor it to their liking with who they want to eat with. They can also specify a time which has never been available prior. We've haven't chosen traditional in many years but isn't this an improvement? 

[Jadn13]

It gives you flexibility

-If you want to eat later due to excursion times

-If you want to dine in a specialty restaurant  it doesn’t leave a bunch of empty tables in the MDR

-I can opt out of my reservation on nights when I want to eat pizza and watch MUTS

-If I went to tea at 3:30 then I may not be hungry for a 5pm reservation 

 

 

[billco]

The Dine My Way system works for us. We like to dine early (5:30) when the dining room opens and just after a glass of wine and some appetizers at the Elite/Platinum Happy Hour. Recently sailed on the Enchanted Princess. As we entered, a server from a previous cruise spotted us. The hostess put us down at a table in his area and for the rest of the cruise we just checked in with hostess and went to our table. We liked the early time, because we got a chance to chat with our server and his assistant before the room got busy. His complaint was that they were short staffed, so it was difficult when the room filled up. In fact, some servers were enlisted to work in the galley. 

[beckntom]

48 minutes ago, MissP22 said:

The way I understand it is that people who prefer the tradition dining style can still tailor it to their liking with who they want to eat with. They can also specify a time which has never been available prior. We've haven't chosen traditional in many years but isn't this an improvement? 

Absolutely not for us.  We loved the old Traditional Dining because it gave us the opportunity to enjoy dinner with the same group of people--whom we met on the first night--and get to know them well over the course of the cruise.  We remain in contact with friends from those evenings.  As it stands now, even if you're able to arrange the same table and servers each night at a shared table, you will be with new cruisers each night.  Every night's conversation will begin with the basics, starting with "where are you from?"  It's difficult to make true friends with nothing more than one night of those basic conversations.

 

We are truly going to miss Traditional Dining.

[MissP22]

7 minutes ago, beckntom said:

Absolutely not for us.  We loved the old Traditional Dining because it gave us the opportunity to enjoy dinner with the same group of people--whom we met on the first night--and get to know them well over the course of the cruise.  We remain in contact with friends from those evenings.  As it stands now, even if you're able to arrange the same table and servers each night at a shared table, you will be with new cruisers each night.  Every night's conversation will begin with the basics, starting with "where are you from?"  It's difficult to make true friends with nothing more than one night of those basic conversations.

 

We are truly going to miss Traditional Dining.

But it is possible to arrange to be at the same table with the same people for the entire cruise. All you have to do is talk to the DR host who will relay your request to the DR head waiter. Nothing has changed the way I see it.

Maybe I'm missing something. 

[MissP22]

27 minutes ago, Jadn13 said:

It gives you flexibility

-If you want to eat later due to excursion times

-If you want to dine in a specialty restaurant  it doesn’t leave a bunch of empty tables in the MDR

-I can opt out of my reservation on nights when I want to eat pizza and watch MUTS

-If I went to tea at 3:30 then I may not be hungry for a 5pm reservation 

 

 

Simple enough.

It's a system designed to please everyone.

I don't see why there's any confusion.

[mike&elena]

Replicating traditional dining is nearly impossible if you don't like the table/server you are randomly assigned on the first night.  This was the case on our last cruise.  We had made a same-time, same-dining room reservation for the whole cruise on the App and found that DMW had assigned us to a noisy table next to the galley door.  When we asked the Dining Room Manager if we could be re-assigned to a new table which would replicate TD, he said "No, all the tables had been assigned by the DMW App and were not available for reassigmnent unless a party did not show up for dinner that night." For the next six nights we tried to get a fixed table, but were batted around the dining room to different locations.  It took sending a letter to the Food & Beverage Manager and a personal meeting with the Director of Restaurant Operations to finally get a fixed table assignment in another dining room.  The chaos others have described with long lines and grumpy passengers will continue until Princess gives the dining room staff the authority to run the restaurants.  The App is a disaster!!!  This is no way to run a cruise line!

[SantaFeFan]

2 hours ago, mike&elena said:

Replicating traditional dining is nearly impossible if you don't like the table/server you are randomly assigned on the first night.  This was the case on our last cruise.  We had made a same-time, same-dining room reservation for the whole cruise on the App and found that DMW had assigned us to a noisy table next to the galley door.  When we asked the Dining Room Manager if we could be re-assigned to a new table which would replicate TD, he said "No, all the tables had been assigned by the DMW App and were not available for reassigmnent unless a party did not show up for dinner that night." For the next six nights we tried to get a fixed table, but were batted around the dining room to different locations.  It took sending a letter to the Food & Beverage Manager and a personal meeting with the Director of Restaurant Operations to finally get a fixed table assignment in another dining room.  The chaos others have described with long lines and grumpy passengers will continue until Princess gives the dining room staff the authority to run the restaurants.  The App is a disaster!!!  This is no way to run a cruise line!

 

With traditional dining you ALSO might not like the table/server, plus you might ALSO not like your table mates! I don't see how your argument makes any sense when considering the crap shoot that was traditional dining. In the prehistoric days we have had good tables in perfect locations, bad tables back in a crowded corner, good servers who treated us like family, bad servers who had difficulty getting our orders correct, good table mates who we enjoyed talking to, and bad table mates from hell (like those four religious zealots who demanded that we stop talking while they prayed and then asked us not to order wine with our dinner because alcohol offended them - seriously! And it went down hill from there). 

 

Most of the passengers I have talked to, and most of the posters on these forums who share their dining experiences, prefer the new Dining My Way format, considering it far superior to the archaic traditional dining system of ancient times. 

 

Sorry that you had a bad experience. But considering how loudly you are complaining about it, perhaps your attitude was part of the problem?

 

Edited August 8, 2022 by SantaFeFan

[MissP22]

2 hours ago, mike&elena said:

Replicating traditional dining is nearly impossible if you don't like the table/server you are randomly assigned on the first night.  This was the case on our last cruise.  We had made a same-time, same-dining room reservation for the whole cruise on the App and found that DMW had assigned us to a noisy table next to the galley door.  When we asked the Dining Room Manager if we could be re-assigned to a new table which would replicate TD, he said "No, all the tables had been assigned by the DMW App and were not available for reassigmnent unless a party did not show up for dinner that night." For the next six nights we tried to get a fixed table, but were batted around the dining room to different locations.  It took sending a letter to the Food & Beverage Manager and a personal meeting with the Director of Restaurant Operations to finally get a fixed table assignment in another dining room.  The chaos others have described with long lines and grumpy passengers will continue until Princess gives the dining room staff the authority to run the restaurants.  The App is a disaster!!!  This is no way to run a cruise line!

The exact same thing could have happened with the old way of placing people at tables in the DR. Unless you knew which table you were placed at by visiting the Maître D' on embarkation day, it was always pot luck.

So blaming at app isn't appropriate.