Traditional vs anytime dining on Princess

[A&Jfamily]

We (me, DH, DS-12, and DD-9)are booked for the traditional early (6:00) dining on the Caribbean Princess. Now after reading up on other dining options, I am wondering if the anytime dining would be more suited for a family. We have never cruised and my travel agent advised me that traditional is nice because you have the same waiter nightly and he gets to know your likes and dislikes.

It sounds like anytime dining may be good if kids are interested in activities going on and you may not be able to make iti to dinner at 6:00.

I would like the kids to eat at least a few dinners together with us.

Is the food the same in both dining options?

What time do shows start to work dinner around?

Any input is greatly appreciated!:)

 

We just came off the Caribbean Princess Saturday. My kids have done tons of Carnival and this was their first Princess. They started cruising at 2 and 8 years old and are now 8 and 14.

 

They both prefer a 6 pm fixed dining. It allows them both to be free for evening activities, as we "require" a family dinner as they spend so much time on sea days "doing their own thing!" The kids/teen programs are down by 5 pm allowing you time to clean up. They also really enjoy developing a relationship with the wait staff.

 

Also, I will let you know that the first couple of nights, we tried to do anytime at 6:15 and 6:45 respectively. NO LUCK! In fact, the first night, the wait was like 45 minutes...we walked in an sat down at Sabatinis. Highly recommended, though my youngest was so worn out, he crashed, and I walked him back to the room before the first course began.

 

Anytime is offered in only one dining room before 7 pm...thus contributing the the wait; the Coral? then opens up after it completes first seating.

 

We found it best to head to dinner about 5:45....6 at the latest. Formal nights are no issue...enough pass up dressing up that the dining rooms are fine. The sea days are more problematic.

 

Oh - and if your youngest wants to dinner with camp, on our cruise it was ONLY offered on the first formal night. My son missed it (Mom made him dress up) and he was seriously displeased.:D

[mjmalino]

So far we have done 3 cruises with a fourth booked (all with kids, well teens for the upcoming one) ans we have done anytime dining for all but 1. Traditional is nice, but anytime gives you more flexibility. One our last cruise, which was traditional, we found that few times we really weren't interested in having dinner at 6, especially if we were in port until 5pm as sometimes we would have a late lunch/snack ashore. The kids programs end at 5 and then start back up at 7. If you choose to do early traditional, and your kids are at least 8, you can give them permission to sign themselves in and/or out of the kids camp. We found that at least allowing them to sign in was useful, especially after dinner if we were still conversing with table mates and they were ready to go.

 

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[glojo]

Do I take it that 'Anytime' dining is not available in the main dining restaurant?

 

I perhaps like the idea of anytime dining but is it at the cost of possibly being able to war more casual clothing?

 

I have never, ever been someone that is known for looking smart but my idea of cruise ship holidays is still very much in keeping with the dressing up for my meals and of course my beautiful wife wearing an elegant dress and if this means dining at set times then so be it.

[SadieN]

Nightly dress code applies to all regular sit down restaurants. If you want to dress down, there's always the buffet.

[BCCRUSINGCOUPLE]

We (me, DH, DS-12, and DD-9)are booked for the traditional early (6:00) dining on the Caribbean Princess. Now after reading up on other dining options, I am wondering if the anytime dining would be more suited for a family. We have never cruised and my travel agent advised me that traditional is nice because you have the same waiter nightly and he gets to know your likes and dislikes.

It sounds like anytime dining may be good if kids are interested in activities going on and you may not be able to make iti to dinner at 6:00.

I would like the kids to eat at least a few dinners together with us.

Is the food the same in both dining options?

What time do shows start to work dinner around?

Any input is greatly appreciated!:)

 

We have sailed a few times with our DS. We have done both dining options and we prefer set seating time the best. The reason we found this worked better our server got to know our little guy and when we came to our table everything was set up for him. 2 They always made sure that we ordered quickly so our little one did not have to be in the dining room for a long time. Plus worse case if you got back late or there was a show you could always have the horizon court if needed. Anytime is good but we found longer waits as it seemed that most of the ship all got hungry at the same time lol.

[Sub-Arctic Dweller]

V B