Dining / Fitness

[TN LadyRider]

I apologize if this is not the appropriate place to ask this. My husband and I have cruised twice with RCI (and leaving this Sunday for our third) on their Voyager ships. We are not ones who love to dress up and enjoy our cruising for the snorkeling, sunning by the pool and reading a good book, and seeing the shows in the evenings. We are not traditional diners but always ate in the Windjammer as we prefer to avoid "schedules" as much as possible while on vacation. We are avid fitness people as well and want to use the weights and cardio on the ships daily.

 

My question is will we fit in on any of the Princess ships? I am sufficiently confused about the "anytime" dining as from what I have read, it can still involve some scheduling or possibly having to wait in a line - and again, we are not formal dressers. The Windjammer on RCI is come whenever they are open with no lines.

 

I also read that some of the Princess ships require you to schedule a time on a treadmill as there must not be enough to accommodate the number of passengers. I REALLY don't want to have to do that. I want to pretty much be able to go when I feel like it and not have to wait in line for that as well.

 

Would really appreciate some kind of idea as we have tended to book our next cruise while we are on one, and we head to the Port this Saturday. So, if it sounds like we would like the Princess line, we might forego booking with RCI again and try a Princess cruise. Thanks so much for your insight!!

[Gator83]

I think you will be perfectly fine on Princess. I have been on 2 Princess cruises and did not have to wait for exercise equipment, but I did go in the morning. I think the earlier you get there the less people will be there.

 

As for anytime dining: I only had to wait for a table one night out of 2 cruises and that was the first formal night. Some people do seem to have problems with getting a table right away but I really didn't see that.

 

I say book the cruise and have a great time.

[PescadoAmarillo]

I think you will fit very well on Princess...we, too, like RC, but my husband loves Anytime Dining, for exactly the reasons you mention. We do do formal night, but often on "non-formal" nights, we end up in the buffet if we don't want to dress up, and we always take Anytime dining, which has worked out very well for us.

 

As for scheduling treadmills...on some ships, you must; on others you don't have to. But I found on our last ship (Diamond), if I went to the fitness center around 5 minutes after the half hour, the treadmills that weren't being used were where people signed up but didn't show up, and I was able to get in at least 25 minutes at a stretch. One time the person did show up, 5 minutes later, and I simply relinquished the treadmill to them and walked on deck instead. In the evenings and in the afternoons when the ship is in port, there is never an issue getting one.

[Sox Fan Cruiser]

And while you did have to "reserve" a time for a treadmill, you could use the eliptical machines anytime with no reservation. The trainers said that the treadmills fill up because the older passengers use them for walking. But the free weights and other cardio machines are almost always available except during peak times.

 

As for anytime dinning, we always want just a table for two so we sometimes have to wait. But we just head to our favorite bar and have a pre-dinner martini. :D The wait is never very long. I too don't like to be on a schedule on vacation.

[critterchick]

I think you'll be fine on Princess! If you don't want to eat in one of the dining rooms (there is at least one dining room on the ship that serves the traditional menu but at the time you want, barring a huge crowd), you can always eat in the Horizon Court (open 24 hours, unlike the Windjammer on RCI) or one of the specialty restaurants (usually for a fee).

 

When we've sailed from LA (to Vancouver), the treadmills were very crowded in the morning, but there was almost nobody there after 11:00 am or so.

[Bushido]

We had to sign up for the treadmills on our Alaska cruise last year on the Diamond. I found it to be more crowded in the morning than in the afternoon. We just made a point to go up to make sure and sign up for the times we wanted.

 

The anytime dining is quite easy. We would go down and get a table very quickly. Its nice to be able to do what you want when you want to do it. However my wife and I ate at the Horizan Court more than anything. We are just easy to satisfy

[Bushido]

We had to sign up for the treadmills on our Alaska cruise last year on the Diamond. I found it to be more crowded in the morning than in the afternoon. We just made a point to go up to make sure and sign up for the times we wanted.

 

The anytime dining is quite easy. We would go down and get a table very quickly. Its nice to be able to do what you want when you want to do it. However my wife and I ate at the Horizan Court more than anything. We are just easy to satisfy

[TN LadyRider]

Thanks so much for all the info! Another question - does the 24-hour buffet offer much to choose from, meaning like the Windjammer on RCI? It offers much the same selection as in the main dining and a lot more.

[Steve13]

We've done 3 Voyager cruises and just finished our first Princess Cruise. You'll be fine on Princess. In fact, as others have mentioned you'll have more dining options than just the buffet because you can always go to the anytime dining room. Just remember though that the anytime dining room does have the same dress code as the traditional seating dining room.

[Bushido]

The Horizon Court 24 hour buffet was pretty close for the dinner selections from the dining rooms to the buffet. You did not get everything that they offered but it was a pretty solid selection with some extra varieties thrown into the mix. So much so that my wife and I will not be doing any of the dining room dinners for our next voyage. Hope this helps a bit

[TN LadyRider]

The Horizon Court 24 hour buffet was pretty close for the dinner selections from the dining rooms to the buffet. You did not get everything that they offered but it was a pretty solid selection with some extra varieties thrown into the mix. So much so that my wife and I will not be doing any of the dining room dinners for our next voyage. Hope this helps a bit

 

Sounds like exactly what we would prefer to do too. Thanks so much!