4/13/24: Princess Rolls Out Fleetwide Dining Revolution

[suekel]

1 hour ago, Dani24 said:

We're in a suite on our next cruise, so definitely taking advantage of the Reserve dining. On our prior suite cruise we had a section of a dining room with regular anytime diners in the other part. Just curious if they'll pair the Reserve section with traditional, reservation or walk-ins. I don't know that I care where they place us, just curious about the logistics of it all. 🙂

I don't think they'll change the reserve dining area out of the midship on 6.

[Arizona Wildcat]

1 hour ago, lorri111 said:

We have a booking for late Sept with reserved MDR, they are not showing yet as cancelled.

Probably because they said they will be cancelled over the coming days.  Just announced and doubt Princess would do that on a weekend.  It is thousands and thousands of reservations. 

[lorri111]

1 minute ago, Arizona Wildcat said:

Probably because they said they will be cancelled over the coming days.  Just announced and doubt Princess would do that on a weekend.  It is thousands and thousands of reservations. 

Must be fun for them!

[cr8tiv1]

1 hour ago, lorri111 said:

We have a booking for late Sept with reserved MDR, they are not showing yet as cancelled.

 

Were you able to make reservations for Reserved Collection MDR (formerly known as Club Class dining)?  Or did you make reservations for the Main Dining Room? 

 

I didn't think it was possible nor necessary to make reservations for Reserved Collection MDR.

 

AND, as usual, app is non-responsive today so I can't "book" dinner reservations on an upcoming cruise in Reserve Collection MDR (just to see).

[lorri111]

7 minutes ago, cr8tiv1 said:

 

Were you able to make reservations for Reserved Collection MDR (formerly known as Club Class dining)?  Or did you make reservations for the Main Dining Room? 

 

I didn't think it was possible nor necessary to make reservations for Reserved Collection MDR.

 

AND, as usual, app is non-responsive today so I can't "book" dinner reservations on an upcoming cruise in Reserve Collection MDR (just to see).

 

For the general MDR (not reserve)

[foodsvcmgr]

Excellent news, I had been holding out hope that they would reinstate the TD option.

Now I will consider Princess again going forward.

[Princess Chatterer]

Do a google search on the title.  Quick summary:  Main dining reservations that already have been made for voyages sailing September 14 and beyond for any ship except Sun Princess will be cancelled. Main dining reservations for guests sailing through September 13 will not be affected. Why?  Because Princess will designate separate dining rooms aboard every ship in the fleet to the three table service options – one dedicated to traditional dining offering an early and a late seating every evening; one offering reservable dining times; and a third with open seating to support walk-ins anytime.  

[reedprincess]

In case you missed it, there a multi -page thread on this  already, with a lot more detail, and speculation of course, lol.

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/3003226-41324-princess-rolls-out-fleetwide-dining-revolution/

 

 

 

 

Edited April 14 by reedprincess

[jeromep]

What's old is new again.  That is all.

[kywildcatfanone]

If they allowed casual dining and got thr service to an hour or under, we would consider going back to the DR. 

[terrierjohn]

22 hours ago, phabric said:

Thanks for the information.  I will have to make new reservations in June.

Keep us informed if you learn the start date.

It wont come into effect until Sept 14th sailings.

[terrierjohn]

21 hours ago, JimmyVWine said:

More like 25%. 
The people who opt for the traditional dining room will all have “reservations” per se. But those reservations will be for a set time each night. So 100% of the people who dine there fall into the reservation bucket. And 100% of the people who dine in the “reservations available” dining room will have reservations. But eventually those two dining options will fill up leaving the rest of the guests to dine without reservations. Right now, a ship that takes reservations for all three dining rooms can accommodate more guests who want reservations because the Traditional Dining model, while popular, is highly inefficient. Sectioning off one full dining room that will have 2 set seatings will accommodate far fewer guests than if that dining room took reservations throughout the evening. It is easy to flip a table twice under that model. (5:15, 6:45 8:15). With traditional, they can only flip once.  
 

All in all, I think this is a good model and one that longtime Princess loyalists have been asking for. But it probably will hurt the Blue Medallion folks who won’t know to book ahead. The Traditional Room and the popular times in the Reservations Room will fill up quickly with PES people who can reserve immediately upon booking. Then the remaining slots will fill up after others make final payment. But newbies who don’t know to do this will get on board and be left with mostly the walk-in option. 

 It also states the following, 

........

"Now whether guests prefer an early seating every evening, or change things up every night, or even change their mind, these flexible dining options ensure that their dining preference is effortlessly accommodated.”

 

which reads as though you could switch your dining preference mid cruise.

[terrierjohn]

17 hours ago, Honolulu Blue said:

Noted. Thanks for the update. My next Princess cruise is in August, so if the flick the switch all at once, I won't be affected by this.

I wonder how Coral and Island will operate this system?

[Torfamm]

22 hours ago, Torfamm said:

Cancelling all existing reservations is incredibly frustrating. 

And to add to the frustration, I will actually be on a cruise and blocked from managing future cruises when re-booking  cancelled reservations becomes possible. UGH!

[Torfamm]

10 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

 It also states the following, 

........

"Now whether guests prefer an early seating every evening, or change things up every night, or even change their mind, these flexible dining options ensure that their dining preference is effortlessly accommodated.”

 

which reads as though you could switch your dining preference mid cruise.

I think that means reservations can be made or canceled for individual evenings. I can’t imagine how they would manage traditional dining for people who don’t want to eat at the same time and table every night

[Coral]

They could easily have solved their "dining issues" by building larger dining rooms and having more alternative free dining venues that are desirable to pull people away from the dining rooms. Their dining rooms have never been large enough to handle people with reservations. If a table is reserved at 6:15 or 6:30, no one can eat at the table before hand. So it sits empty.

 

Having "dined my way" several times, I have been extremely frustrated with the dining experience.

[alwalaska]

15 hours ago, UpcountryTravelers said:

So...just what is the difference between traditional and reserved?  Just the times available? I predict confusion by eliminating anytime, which has been our preferred for years.

 

 

 

15 hours ago, Rudy888 said:

The difference is with traditional you have the same table , same waiter. And if you share the same tablemates, 

Reserved, same time. But maybe different table and waiter. 

 

I thought on Reserved you would be able to pick different times on different evenings.  Way back in 2018, last time we sailed Princess, you could reserve a different time each night. Traditional is same time whole trip, same table, same people, etc.  I hope that is what it will be again. 

[susancruzs]

This seems like good news to me.  I haven't cruised since 2019, looking forward to two cruises in '25, but dreaded trying to figure out the dining. 

 

I've always loved traditional, sailing alone it's nice to connect with a group of people. 

[PacnGoNow]

22 hours ago, phabric said:

Did your PVP say a date when we can re book reservations?

June 17, 24 in the press release.

Edited April 14 by PacnGoNow

[voljeep]

24 minutes ago, Coral said:

They could easily have solved their "dining issues" by building larger dining rooms and having more alternative free dining venues that are desirable to pull people away from the dining rooms. Their dining rooms have never been large enough to handle people with reservations. If a table is reserved at 6:15 or 6:30, no one can eat at the table before hand. So it sits empty.

 

Having "dined my way" several times, I have been extremely frustrated with the dining experience.

lack of staff as likely - cooks, waiters, servers 

[PacnGoNow]

15 hours ago, Stosh68 said:

One post says starting September 1st, another says September 14th.   As I have a sailing that leaves September 1st, it affects me since I've already made my reservations.   Why are we merging posts that contain different information.  Figure out which is correct and remove the incorrect information.

I’d put more creditably in the press release from PCL by 

@LACruiser88.  Sep 14th and beyond bookings.

 

But, we know that could change.

🥴

 

[Coral]

9 minutes ago, voljeep said:

lack of staff as likely - cooks, waiters, servers 

There were issues when they built the Caribbean, Crown, Emerald, Ruby, etc.... and had the same size dining room as Grand, Golden, Star, Diamond and Sapphire.

 

There simply wasn't enough space in the dining room to accommodate extra passengers.

 

Obviously after COVID, they had a difficult time with staffing.

Edited April 14 by Coral

[memoak]

12 hours ago, cr8tiv1 said:

 

Were you able to make reservations for Reserved Collection MDR (formerly known as Club Class dining)?  Or did you make reservations for the Main Dining Room? 

 

I didn't think it was possible nor necessary to make reservations for Reserved Collection MDR.

 

AND, as usual, app is non-responsive today so I can't "book" dinner reservations on an upcoming cruise in Reserve Collection MDR (just to see).

You cannot make reservations for the Reserved class dining area. There will be little or no wait whenever you show up   Only full suites and reserve class mini can eat there

[FLAlaska]

12 minutes ago, PacnGoNow said:

I’d put more creditably in the press release from PCL by 

@LACruiser88.  Sep 14th and beyond bookings.

 

But, we know that could change.

🥴

 

The PVP that posted orginally on FB, posted a correction after the official release came out.

[Arizona Wildcat]

1 hour ago, Torfamm said:

I think that means reservations can be made or canceled for individual evenings. I can’t imagine how they would manage traditional dining for people who don’t want to eat at the same time and table every night

TDining is same time every night.  Don't want same time each night book the MDR with reservations.   Just want to show up then go to the 3rd dining room.