Princess Dining Options

[Russell21]

The new Princess dining options are aparently allowing dining booking for future cruises starting from tomorrow. Will be interesting to see how it works out,HaHa, compared to the way the app system worked initially.

[MicCanberra]

Will be interesting if anything actually improves with the dining experience 

[Jean C]

Tomorrow US time?

 

We have an upcoming cruise and I'd already selected our dining times, table size, MDR. That information disappeared months ago. It will be interesting to see if our prior bookings are carried forward. I already have reminders in my phone to check tomorrow and, if no luck, on Tuesday. I'll be mighty cross if my bookings got lost in the system 😡 

[Muffinz]

Yes - it will be interesting

We have our criuse coming up on Crown Princess in December and we've not been able to make any dinner reservations for the MDR - becaue we've not paid in full for the cruise

But some have commented on CC they've yet to pay for their cruise but have been able to make dinner reservations for the MDR ok... so it seems it's hit and miss.

 

I understand Princess are bring back traditional dining times (early / late) so I might try the app this week and see if I am able to book dining times

[arxcards]

4 hours ago, Jean C said:

Tomorrow US time?

 

We have an upcoming cruise and I'd already selected our dining times, table size, MDR. That information disappeared months ago. It will be interesting to see if our prior bookings are carried forward. I already have reminders in my phone to check tomorrow and, if no luck, on Tuesday. I'll be mighty cross if my bookings got lost in the system 😡 

No idea for us either. I had thrown in bookings on a few cruises, but I can't see if they are still active either. No rush for us, as nothing till February.

 

There is a little heart in the top right corner of the dining screen, and that will likely show where your bookings are when this is all sorted - if they are still active.

[Jean C]

11 hours ago, arxcards said:

No idea for us either. I had thrown in bookings on a few cruises, but I can't see if they are still active either. No rush for us, as nothing till February.

 

There is a little heart in the top right corner of the dining screen, and that will likely show where your bookings are when this is all sorted - if they are still active.

Thanks, we'd spotted that. It's not working yet so I'll try again tomorrow. Because early on with the medallion some people found that there was a glitch and the reserve same time every day button wasn't holding the reservations for every day so they'd get to the restaurant and find they had no booking (probably fixed long ago), I diligently made fresh bookings for every single day 🥴 I'll probably still do the same, just in case, hehehe 🤷‍♀️

[arxcards]

When it comes to booking early, maybe they would prefer anyone who wants to lock-in a time for the whole cruise to be selecting fixed dining, and those with flexible bookings need to book each night individually, and even after boarding.

[MicCanberra]

It is my experience they want everyone booking in times whether fixed or not so they can coordinate better. It makes sense as a business but as a diner I like flexibility and to eat when I wish. Some nights early (5.30-6pm), some late (8.30-9pm), most mid sessions (7-7.30pm).

[arxcards]

44 minutes ago, MicCanberra said:

It is my experience they want everyone booking in times whether fixed or not so they can coordinate better. It makes sense as a business but as a diner I like flexibility and to eat when I wish. Some nights early (5.30-6pm), some late (8.30-9pm), most mid sessions (7-7.30pm).

That is kinda how they set it up on the app originally, except so many of their traditional dining cruisers weren't being catered for. It is an improvement to cater for fixed bookings, flexible bookings and walk-up without booking options.

 

We have pre-loaded flexible bookings for the past few cruises, and it has been a breeze. The issue is walking-up with pre-booking and joining a line of people doing walk-up, so separating the dining rooms as planned should make it much easier.

[windsor26]

They sent me an e mail a few days ago to book my options but when I tried (several times)  it tells me there are NO vacant times available in ANY of the restaurants   I have e mailed Princess asking why but no reply yet

[arxcards]

36 minutes ago, windsor26 said:

They sent me an e mail a few days ago to book my options but when I tried (several times)  it tells me there are NO vacant times available in ANY of the restaurants   I have e mailed Princess asking why but no reply yet

The dining process is being updated and is supposed to go live overnight (17th, US time).

Try again tomorrow.

[Gwendy]

Last year on Enchanted they cancelled all our prebooked dining.  Then every morning they sent us a reminder of our ‘new’ dining times for the day. Yep same time, same dining room that we had booked months ago.  Interesting the lines outside the dining room were for booked and walk up.  The booked line took a lot longer to go through.

[Aus Traveller]

1 hour ago, windsor26 said:

They sent me an e mail a few days ago to book my options but when I tried (several times)  it tells me there are NO vacant times available in ANY of the restaurants   I have e mailed Princess asking why but no reply yet

I have had cruises that when I phoned Princess, they would tell me that they only had private tables and only either 5pm or 8pm and nothing in between. I wanted share tables at 6.30 or 6.40pm. Grrr...... On each of these cruises, when I boarded, I phoned the DINE line and the lovely young steward asked what time I wanted. No problems. Booked in, but she said we could turn up when we were ready to dine. 

[Jean C]

I've just tried again, still no luck 🙁 Not to worry, I'll try again later today and then again tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow until I get somewhere. I phoned Princess a few weeks ago and they said once on board, with platinum status level, we'd get priority seating and they made a note on our account to that effect. I'd voiced my frustration at the unpalatable prospect of eating at the Horror Zone every night 🥴

[Wanderers2]

New dining in the app dose not appear to be working. I even tried logging out & back in but no luck.

 

Word on another site says that the change has been delayed 🤪

[Muffinz]

3 minutes ago, Wanderers2 said:

New dining in the app dose not appear to be working. I even tried logging out & back in but no luck.

 

Word on another site says that the change has been delayed 🤪

yes - either that or too many people jumping on the app at once trying to book dining times!

[Jean C]

3 minutes ago, Wanderers2 said:

New dining in the app dose not appear to be working. I even tried logging out & back in but no luck.

 

Word on another site says that the change has been delayed 🤪

Thanks for the update. If you come across another "live" date, would you be kind enough to post on this site, to keep us all up-to-date.  It would have been helpful all along if Princess had made a note on their site that the dining booking system was down - too much to hope for, I guess 😪

[arxcards]

Unless you need to do it for a cruise in the next month or so, I think it best to sit back and allow others to be beta testers anyway.

[MicCanberra]

I am prepared to wait till we board, and then sort it out each day or just wing it as a walk up.

[Gwendy]

37 minutes ago, MicCanberra said:

I am prepared to wait till we board, and then sort it out each day or just wing it as a walk up.

From previous experiences seems a good plan.

[Astro Flyer]

3 hours ago, Jean C said:

I phoned Princess a few weeks ago and they said once on board, with platinum status level, we'd get priority seating and they made a note on our account to that effect.

Unfortunately I think you got another of their inexperienced call center reps who provides misinformation.
 

We’ve been at the Captain’s Circle elite level for many years & have never received any priority seating onboard. For our 50th wedding anniversary cruise the day before sailing all of our DMW reservations were there. Upon boarding all of them were changed to ones we didn’t want. They only said sorry…nothing is available for your preferred times. 🤨 And those reservations were made a year in advance for our special cruise!

It’s not unusual for Princess to miss their stated deadlines so it’s not surprising to me. They should be providing an update about the implementation when they realized it wouldn’t be available on June 17.

 

Edited June 18 by Astro Flyer

[Jean C]

On 6/16/2024 at 2:23 PM, Russell21 said:

The new Princess dining options are aparently allowing dining booking for future cruises starting from tomorrow. Will be interesting to see how it works out,HaHa, compared to the way the app system worked initially.

 

1 hour ago, Astro Flyer said:

Unfortunately I think you got another of their inexperienced call center reps who provides misinformation.
 

We’ve been at the Captain’s Circle elite level for many years & have never received any priority seating onboard. For our 50th wedding anniversary cruise the day before sailing all of our DMW reservations were there. Upon boarding all of them were changed to ones we didn’t want. They only said sorry…nothing is available for your preferred times. 🤨 And those reservations were made a year in advance for our special cruise!

It’s not unusual for Princess to miss their stated deadlines so it’s not surprising to me. They should be providing an update about the implementation when they realized it wouldn’t be available on June 17.

 

Wow, that's not good regarding your previously booked reservations. I hope you were able to celebrate and enjoy your anniversary regardless 🥂 

 

[Jean C]

Here's the Princess announcement from April about the upcoming changes to dining options, tucked away in their news releases section. All dining bookings for voyages departing prior to 14 Sept remain intact, those for voyages departing after that date are deleted and will need to be rebooked 😪

 

https://www.princess.com/en-au/news/news-releases/2024/04/princess-cruises-rolls-out-fleetwide-dining-revolution-traditional-reservable-open-seating-and-anywhere-service-now-available-for-every-guest-preference

[Wanderers2]

Found this on another site

 

Queried through insta why the MDR bookings are not available on the App yet as they advised they would be on 17 June and received this response.

 

” We apologize for the delay in opening main dining reservations. July 1 is the new date to book reservations for guests sailing Sept 1 and beyond. Thank you for your understanding and patience. Stay tuned for further updates!"

 

Would have been great if princess had passed on this information.

 

[arxcards]

23 minutes ago, Wanderers2 said:

Found this on another site

 

Queried through insta why the MDR bookings are not available on the App yet as they advised they would be on 17 June and received this response.

 

” We apologize for the delay in opening main dining reservations. July 1 is the new date to book reservations for guests sailing Sept 1 and beyond. Thank you for your understanding and patience. Stay tuned for further updates!"

 

Would have been great if princess had passed on this information.

 

Yes, it would be as simple as changing the app to read available from July 1 instead of saying no bookings available. The lack of info is annoying, but specialty restaurants are available for booking, and anyone cruising within the next 75 days can book their tables under the existing system.