Has implementation of Club Class Dining created longer wait times for the rest of us?

Yeah, had a little of a hard time following. Bottom line (to me): I think I understand that the cc tables are in the AT/TD dining room, not the AT only, correct??:confused:

That is correct, based on our recent Regal cruise. We have long been AT diners and always go to the MDR after 7:30. On the Regal we had every dinner in the deck 6 dining room, which is not open for AT until 7:30. We never experienced any wait to be seated in that Deck 6 dining room so the allotment of space to Club Dining had zero impact.

Hank

I think as the OP stated

"' My travel agent warned me to be prepared for even longer wait times for popular dinner times."'

Which leads one to think that the TA doesn't like the idea, of people whom have payed for the privilege , or those rewarded for loyalty .

(ie club suites / suites / elite cruiser )

Also the people who go to MDR and are going there regardless of cabin. so where does the longer wait times come from....... storm in a tea cup

My opinion and from discussion from our waitstaff for 20 days in march on the royal all that club class gives you is colored napkins and sometimes a special menu item

Actually, this thread points out one very important benefit you've missed: the ability to walk right in and have a table waiting, rather than a pager and a wait to be seated.

On the Pacific Princess it had no effect. On the Royal Princess there were huge lines around 7:00 pm.

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Thank you Hank!

Experience on Island in September (two sailings) was extreme effect, especially when dining room opens. This ship has only two dining rooms, one fixed seating and the other split between fixed and anytime early (dining room switches to anytime after first seating). The club class took up around 20% (30 tables or so, most two-top) and fixed seating took up 40%. Lines of 200 or more passengers when the dining room opened. Generally you needed to be in line 40 minutes before the doors opened to get in. They were a bit more generous letting us make reservations, but after the first night we noticed that the area we were in (about 10 tables) were reset to club class after we ate. So the expanded the club class seating after they got some experience with when the club class would show up.

Club Class was never more than half full in 15 days, yet they were still expanding the area after the first set of anytime people left. The problem is that Club Class guarantees a seat and usually it is the same seat, so these chairs were removed from anytime inventory for the whole evening just in case the club class person showed up.

Lots of folks were having hour or more waits when they showed up when the dining room opened.

We also had one couple in front of us one night in the Anytime Reservation line. He was in a suite, had a regular fixed seating table and club class, but wanted to eat with another couple and had made a reservation - so both his fixed seating and club class seating were going vacant that night. Not sure how they handled other nights for him and whether they permanently moved him to either fixed or club but not both.

The answer is yes. We are also elite cruisers on Princess and I find the Club Class particularly grating. On our last cruise, one side of the anytime MDR entrance was reserved exclusively for Club class entry. A relatively small group of diners were seated in the alcove area just inside the entrance. Meanwhile, the line on the other side of "anytimers" extended well into the atrium area. I'm always in awe of businesses that go out of their way to irk their customers.

The issue of Princess changes has been well-documented on these boards, but do many off the points of differentiation that made Princess our choice years ago have become only available as premium items. Why upgrade on Princess when you can just upgrade to another cruiseline?

 

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Upgrade on Princess because it is the best deal around. Better than RCL, better than Celebrity. CC is well worth the extra fare. The cruislines are simple doing what airlines and hotels have been doing for years. Pay more, get more.

Club Class on the Star is an area carved out of anytime dining space, so we could easily see the whole dining room. Maybe earlier in the evening there's a backup, but when we ate at around 7:30 each night, anytime dining was less than half full. Having tried Club Class once, it would be very hard to go back to anytime or traditional dining.

That’s right, some seem to think it’s the same on every ship.

diamond for example uses 3 and 1/2 ATD (albeit smaller) rooms, cc WAS in one of them, took up about half the room I’d guess.

In my opinion it’s really hard to tell what impacts on waiting times.

My gut says the waits have become slightly more frequent and slightly longer, but I may be wrong about that.

Upgrade on Princess because it is the best deal around. Better than RCL, better than Celebrity. CC is well worth the extra fare. The cruislines are simple doing what airlines and hotels have been doing for years. Pay more, get more.

Bingo! After experiencing CC in May, we will not be cruising on Princess again without it. And if you’re lucky, you’ll find it for the same price as a regular mini suite as we did during a recent sale for our 12 night Med cruise next May.

Upgrade on Princess because it is the best deal around. Better than RCL, better than Celebrity. CC is well worth the extra fare. The cruislines are simple doing what airlines and hotels have been doing for years. Pay more, get more.

Upgrade would be nice from a lower category cabin. I'd pay something, but won't ever happen. But it's probably less than a premium/luxury line fare anyway.

..........

We also had one couple in front of us one night in the Anytime Reservation line. He was in a suite, had a regular fixed seating table and club class, but wanted to eat with another couple and had made a reservation - so both his fixed seating and club class seating were going vacant that night. Not sure how they handled other nights for him and whether they permanently moved him to either fixed or club but not both.

Something wrong there - not supposed to happen that way. Princess shouldn't be assigning double dining. As I understand it Suites and Mini's covered by CC can elect to remain in TD, but then they should be removed from CC space allocation needs. IDK if such a situation can change, such as a person deciding they no longer want TD and move to CC as entitled, but then TD space would be forfeited. Can't have both simultaneously - that is crazy.

Something wrong there - not supposed to happen that way. Princess shouldn't be assigning double dining. As I understand it Suites and Mini's covered by CC can elect to remain in TD, but then they should be removed from CC space allocation needs. IDK if such a situation can change, such as a person deciding they no longer want TD and move to CC as entitled, but then TD space would be forfeited. Can't have both simultaneously - that is crazy.

There is not a “CC space allocation”, so that should not be impacted. Unless one wished to dine with friends at a fixed time that did not have CC dining privileges, IMO it would be a total waste to have TD. In general my observation is that a significant number of TD dining spots are not utilized every night. I do agree that unless you are cruising with non CC dining friends it is rather selfish to reserve TD if you are not using it most of time. (Crazy as you say)