Anytime Dining

Fast approaching our first cruise with Princess, on Golden in June. We have booked Anytime Dining, but can someone tell me if you can or indeed need to reserve in advance or can you just turn up for dinner at any time during the evening?

Fast approaching our first cruise with Princess, on Golden in June. We have booked Anytime Dining, but can someone tell me if you can or indeed need to reserve in advance or can you just turn up for dinner at any time during the evening?

We just turn up.

You can do either - Make a reservation or just walk in.

Reservations open at 8:00am each day. I think the phone number is 6219.

There are a limited number of reservations, so they do book up. So calling in the afternoon is not likely to work.

Be aware that you have to feel out passenger dining preferences. What times are more crowded than others. Every cruise can be different. With all the late departures on an Alaska voyage, I don't think there would be too many issues in getting a table. Most evenings, but not always, tables to share are easier to get than tables for two. A second DR opens for ATD at 7:30, thus more available tables for late dining.

If you RSVP Any Time dining you can only reserve at certain dining times. Usually before 6:00 or after 7:30.

If you know what time you want, you can make a reservation. We used the "just show up" approach. OK, if you do this, you have to realize that you might have a brief wait before being seated. That's the downtime of 'anytime." You can stand there and fume, or you can take the pager to a bar, International Cafe, or wherever and get a beverage of your choice while waiting.

Please post a review after your cruise--we are particularly interested in the condition and functioning of the ship.

Yes, anytime dining does have its quirks. I think that is why CC staterooms were born! Anyway, the main thing to remember is that if you like to eat around 6PM you will have a wait of some amount more than likely. If you like to eat around 7:30 or so, then you will probably never have a wait. If you want to combine ATD with traditional feel, then you will have to call every morning early and make a reservation (then what is the point of ATD?) So go into it with the idea you might have a wait like you do in a nice restaurant on the weekend on land.

I personally don't like that way as I have enough of it when I am on land, so I am loving CC dining and it's perfect for me and my vacation pampering!!!!!!

Pooh

As others note you can just show up. How long a wait varies by ship and itinerary as that affects the type of diners on board. Some cruises have a lot of early diners, others not so much. If you have early excursions your gone before reservations opens up.

ATD is our choice. If we aren't in a hurry we usually go down to the Piazza around 4:45 or 5:00 and find a seat, order a drink and watch the people. Then later go over to the Dining Room and ask for "Sharing" and usually are seated very shortly.

However, if there is something that we want to do then Reservation is the way to go.

Either way you can't go wrong and by the way, you will love the Golden Princess!

Just Mike

FYI: not all ships allow reservations in ATD. It depends on the Maitre D'.

BTW: as noted above, what's the point of ATD if you want a reservation? It's so much easier to do TD...same time, same table, same wait staff, so they know what you like.

the point is - and we are certainly not 'foodies' and dinner in the mdr is certainly no

'event' for us - we do scan the Patter at night, and somewhat choose what we think we might want to do the next night...comedian, etc

a reservation is nice for those nights if it happens

if not - meh...:halo:

FYI: not all ships allow reservations in ATD. It depends on the Maitre D'.

BTW: as noted above, what's the point of ATD if you want a reservation? It's so much easier to do TD...same time, same table, same wait staff, so they know what you like.

Because we don’t like the times TD is offered and because we like to be able to vary the time that we go to dinner. Depending on other activities and what time we leave Port we may range from 7:00PM to 8:30 PM on any given night. A reservation just shortens the wait window.

We enjoy eating early 5 pm-6pm so anytime dinting is perfect for us. just walk in at best or a short 5 minute wait at worst If we want we can get a snack later at one of the 10,000 eateries on board. We are on the Grand in June. Have a great cruise.

….BTW: as noted above, what's the point of ATD if you want a reservation? It's so much easier to do TD...same time, same table, same wait staff, so they know what you like.

The point of ATD is being able to eat at a time other than 5:30 or 8:30 (or whatever the set dining times are on a particular ship/voyage). We've almost always been able to get the same time and wait staff each night, often the same table, (just a smile, 'please' and 'thank you' to the dining room host can work wonders!) in ATD, eating when we want to - usually in the 7:00-7:30 time frame. We usually start the trip at a table for two, but before long seem to meet others that would like to share a table later in the voyage.

FYI: not all ships allow reservations in ATD. It depends on the Maitre D'.

BTW: as noted above, what's the point of ATD if you want a reservation? It's so much easier to do TD...same time, same table, same wait staff, so they know what you like.

We don't normally make a reservation - we just show up and say we are willing to share. The reason we have (finally) ditched TD is that we want the early seating but don't want it to be at 5:30 as that is too early. Princess always "guarantees" me a 6:00 PM dining time and then switches it to 5:30 when we sail. I absolutely detest being lied to by Princess on this count. Why in the world do they "guarantee" 6:00 PM and then switch me to 5:30? On Coral it's even worse as they make early dining 5:15 PM. No... freaking... way... That's crazy early. We switched to ATD on our last cruise an it worked out fine for us. Our next cruise is back on Coral so we definitely want ATD. Love that ship but not that crazy early dinner time. We do enjoy getting to know a set of folks for dinner with TD but just can't take the early times anymore.

Because we don’t like the times TD is offered and because we like to be able to vary the time that we go to dinner. Depending on other activities and what time we leave Port we may range from 7:00PM to 8:30 PM on any given night. A reservation just shortens the wait window.

Ditto. When the return from each port varies so widely on occasion, I don't want to lock myself into a time slot and deny myself a full day in port if desired....

We usually just show up; have done reservations only a couple of times, when we knew we had to eat around a certain time because of other things going on.

Earlier times will be more likely to have a wait. We prefer to eat at 8 or later and have little to no wait; we usually ask for a table for two.

I don't know if we have ever waited even 10 minutes, probably because we eat later.

We love ATD and we almost always choose to share. We love meeting new people every evening.

Anytime dining works great for our 3:00pm dinner hour.:rolleyes:

I always book TD at 6:00 p.m. I never show up before 5:45 p.m. and was never turned away.

Tony

I've done a few ATD's on California repositions. I show up 30 minutes before the MDR opens for lunch and dinner, but I discover there's about 200 people ahead of me.

Have others seen the same thing on Princess ships?

We don't like to eat early, but if we happen to be near the dining room at the early times I am always amazed at the huge lines. It's not for me, but apparently many people like eating very early.

Princess always "guarantees" me a 6:00 PM dining time and then switches it to 5:30 when we sail. I absolutely detest being lied to by Princess on this count. Why in the world do they "guarantee" 6:00 PM and then switch me to 5:30?

I do not think it is a "lie" as much as the Princess booking computer software unable to basically do anything other than ask you to choose between "early" and late "seating." Princess just chooses 6 PM as the "early" time.

Some times that early time turns out to be 5:15, 5:30, 5:45, 6:15 or 6:30. (And I am sure some percentage of the time it turns out to be 6 PM.) However, with bookings opening up now 18 months or more in advance of the sailing, the actual time is not yet known.

We usually do late traditional. On one B2B the "confirmed time" was 8 PM for both segments. The first segment turned out to be at 7:45 and the second segment turned out to be at 8:15. (But the average of the two was the promised 8 PM).

On our 75 day cruise on the Golden last year a lot of people were booked on traditional dining time ie early or late. Many however turned up for anytime dining if the fixed time didn't suit. So doing that gives you the best of both worlds.

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Fantastic idea. Everyone should do that.