Dining Poll - Do you like anytime dining?

[Elequieu]

Definitely love it. I don't eat with strangers when I go to Roy's and I'm not all that crazy about doing it on a cruise -- I really just want to catch up with my husband. :)

 

You mean Roys in Maui (and Phoenix)? Isn't it great?

[kgranq]

We love anytime dining.

[Elequieu]

We have always had traditional until two years ago. Our friends had any time so we went with that. It was OK but our table mates have always been great as are the wait persons. Sooo the next cruise will be back to traditional.

[Creeks]

We really enjoy the late traditional dining,

with wait staff that know what we like to have,

and have enjoyed our dinner companians.

Ok, in 20 cruises, we have asked to be

moved several times from incompatable

dinner mates, but then enjoyed the new

people.

 

Our one experience with anytime dining was

on an Alaskan cruise with brothers and sister

and their spouses: while we had late traditional

dining with one couple, the other 2 couples

had anytime, so we arranged to all eat

together one night. We enjoyed their company,

but the service was NOT as good as we had

in the traditional dining. But I can sadly see

traditional going away in a few years.......

[Andee]

We prefer anytime to traditional so much that I won't go on a cruise if traditional is the only option.

[Julia’s Journey’s]

We love anytime dining and it's one of the things we enjoy on Princess. We enjoy eating a little later so never had long waits and tend to just go with the flo especially on vacation.

[KikiKruiser]

LOVE LOVE LOVE Anytime Dining - prefer it to being locked into a set dining time every single nite. If no alternative, late dining is a distant second choice. :) And LOVE LOVE LOVE the tables for 2 - like another poster said earlier, it's time to catch up with hubbie on vacation.........:)

[Solara]

Traditional late seating large table is our preference.

[kenexx]

Would never do anything other than Anytime Dining. We never had a long wait at all on our recent Sydeny to LA on Sapphire. Most would have been 10 minutes.

[silvercruiser]

Anytime dining is a must for us and we were surprised at how popular tables for two are. On Caribbean Princess there were lots of them in Palm Dining Room. We foun a location and waiters we liked and were able to book it for the same time every night.

[willysgrandma]

We did Freestyle Dining on NCL and booked Princess specifically for it. We love it - no more pressure to hurry and get back and showered and dressed. When we get there, we get there.

 

I dread sailing RCCL in September and having to go back to traditional. We plan on using the aleternate restaurants a few times to get away from the fixed seating time.

[sunsetbeachgal]

We vote for Personal Choice...and tables for two....I'll share a table at lunch, but preferably not at dinner.

[MaryPoppinz]

You mean Roys in Maui (and Phoenix)? Isn't it great?

 

Yes, I mean anywhere I can get into Roy's. :)

[C&F]

Love it!! Even if we have to wait a few minutes, we just grab a drink and in no time we are in the dining room. This has worked if it was a table for 2 or for 4. One of the MAIN reasons we sail Princess!

F

[JLC@SD]

Traditional late seating large table is our preference.

 

....ditto......:)

 

We prefer the set time and the opportunity to get to know our tablemates.........and we get the variety of "anytime" at dining room breakfast and lunch.

[Jo in AZ]

Tried anytime dining on our last cruise and did not like it. Even tho' we ate in the same dining room (after we found one to our liking wait service wise) it just was not the same as the traditional that we encountered on our previous cruises. We feel the waiters are so much more "into your likes etc." in the traditional -- always know what hubby wants for after dinner drink and it's there. If we want escargot from a night or so ago, all we had to do was ask and we had it the following night. We didn't find this to be in anytime dining. So we are back to traditional on our Nov. cruise on the Dawn.

 

But everyone has their own likes and dislikes and I for one, certainly hope Princess keeps traditional dining for those of us that prefer the "old" way.

[ANNIEMAMA1]

anytime dining is for us..we are elite passengers and love princess...although if they were to discontinue anytime dining we would have to look elsewhere for our next cruise..sooo hope that never happens..

[SaylorGirl]

We used to sail RCI and then switched to Princess for the anytime dining. We haven't gone back to RCI since. We love it!! A table for two every night no more awful table mates.

[seacuracao]

We used to sail RCI and then switched to Princess for the anytime dining. We haven't gone back to RCI since. We love it!! A table for two every night no more awful table mates.

 

Anytime dining, the best! After CB iin may, the lack of personal "anytime" dining choices, brought me back to Princess when I was shopping for my Oct cruise.

 

different strokes, different folks. I work in a hotel and have to make small talk all year. Choose instead to enjoy my wife's company and be on VACATION.

As for the post saying they waited long for their tables, it must not have been on the CB. We found that if the other restaurants looked busy, the Palm was always the alternate and never waiting at all.:p

[PescadoAmarillo]

We have used Anytime Dining for all of our Princess cruises except our first, and love it for several reasons, but we really enjoyed a table for 2 on our last Celebrity cruise. Maybe we're into another phase of cruising where meeting new tablemates is not quite as important as enjoying a peaceful, relaxing dinner alone. I know that requesting tables for 2 in Anytime CAN result in long waits for a table, so we are considering requesting a table for 2 in traditional on our next Princess cruise.

 

So, here's my question....The only way we have been able to get seats together in the Princess Theaters is by taking Anytime Dining and getting there 15 minutes before the Traditional Dining folks. We do longer cruises with more sea days, so maybe that results in more crowded theaters, but on a cruise last year, a fistfight actually broke on in the theater over seats. For those who choose traditional, have you been able to get decent seats in the theater every night you're wanted them?

[trvlcrzy]

Anytime (modified) for us... We liked our table for 2 on CB. We asked for a table for 2 with Stoyan (the waiter we liked) each night. No problem.

 

On Sun Princess (embarking on Sunday), we traveled with my parents and asked for a table for 4 by the window. We liked our waiter immediately (great personality), so we wanted a standing reservation. I called the next morning (8 am for 8am-4pm hours) for a reservation for Table 28... No problem, except that I would have to call daily to get the table. Strange, but understandable. There are only 2 main DR on Sun, so less opportunity to please everyone's requests. Got to dinner on Monday night, our table had been given away. (No, we were not late for our 5:30 reservation. We were actually a few minutes early. They opened the DR about 7 min early, and we had been waiting for about 8 min before we got to the Maitre D'.) We were not happy, but we decided not to let it ruin our evening. It wasn't the fault of our servers, after all.

 

On returning to our cabin, I found the "let us know" card in the back of the portfolio. I wrote up the incident and asked how was I supposed to handle this differently to actually get the table we reserved? I submitted the card to the purser's desk the next morning. (It was Ketchikan... early port. We turned in the form at about 6:30 am. The night manager Luigi was very helpful. He promised us to take this to the Maitre D' personally when he could step away from the desk in about 10 minutes. He promised us a call informing us of our reservation for the evening.) When we returned from shopping (before our Duck tour at 11:30), the message light was blinking. Table 28 at 5:30. My parents received a card in their "mailbox" informing them of the reservation at Table 28 at 5:30 "for the rest of the cruise." I was glad that I didn't wait to register my concern. They were able to fix it to our satisfaction very quickly. If I had stewed about it all week and waited to complain on CC, I wouldn't have been satisfied! It was someone on this board who recommended to someone else: Give them a chance to fix it while you are still on board. What do you expect them to do about it after you disembark?

 

Thanks to whomever that was! It worked beautifully!

 

...And I wrote a "You made the difference" card for Luigi!

[stired]

Loved Anytime Dining on the Coral. We were 2 couples traveling together and never had to wait for a table. We loved the flexibility!

[kendon]

I like anytime dining ALOT, except on the Diamond and Sapphire due to dining room configuration.

[billisd]

We like flexability, so anytime dining, plus the alternative resaurants, and the full evening buffet make Princess a perfect fit for us.

[Pam in CA]

As for the post saying they waited long for their tables, it must not have been on the CB. We found that if the other restaurants looked busy, the Palm was always the alternate and never waiting at all.:p

Actually, it was on the CB. :) Two out of the 7-night cruise, we waited between 40 - 45 minutes for the table we'd reserved for the week. The tables around us had similar waits and there were long lines (maybe 50 people) with lots of angry people waiting to get in, both to reserved and walk-up.