Advance reservations required in main dining rooms?

[amcankid]

We’re sailing on the Crown in a few weeks. Our first time on Princess.

when I go to my app and check dining choices

it shows the three main dining rooms that of course are included in the cruise. But at first a couple of days ago it showed some

reservation time slots available and now when I click on any of them it says no time slots available.  
I am confused as to what this is because we have dine anytime so why would I reserve a time slot for each day 3 weeks before I even get on the ship?

Can someone please explain how this works? Are we gonna be stuck eating at the buffet each night?

 

[wallyj]

Princess no longer has ‘traditional’ 1st seating , late seating, fixed time dining where you are assigned a time and table which is yours every night.

 

With any time dining you are able to show up when you want to dine, during operating hours, but be aware you might have a wait, since there are only so many tables. 
 

Princess allows you to make ‘reservations’ which theoretically will save you some waiting  time, as the restaurants will have 2 lines, reservations and no reservations. 
 

Depending on your sailing and when you decide to dine will determine if a reservation will be helpful/recommended or not.

 

Some passengers have reported success in requesting the same table/section for every night, when they have found wait staff to their liking, but YMMV.

Edited January 13 by wallyj