Anytime Dining or Traditional

[Asil65]

Need some advice. Have always chosen anytime dining on my last 3 Princess cruises as my dh and I have always liked the flexibility. On our next cruise we will be taking the kids 10 and 12 and are wondering if it might be better to chose traditional dining instead.Love to hear peoples experiences with both types of dining with kids. Thanks!

[Colo Cruiser]

Need some advice. Have always chosen anytime dining on my last 3 Princess cruises as my dh and I have always liked the flexibility. On our next cruise we will be taking the kids 10 and 12 and are wondering if it might be better to chose traditional dining instead.Love to hear peoples experiences with both types of dining with kids. Thanks!

 

We did anytime since its inception a few years ago however we got tired of the hassle sometimes getting a table during peak times and missed having the same wait staff. So about 2 years ago we went back to trad late seating and love it. We will stay there now.

With kids will you pick early seating? Late seating gets pretty late for the kids I think.

[karatemom2]

Since we began cruising primarily with Princess we have always chosen Anytime Dining for our family. Our kids are 10 and 15. I did not like the restrictive nature of traditional dining on other lines. Especially with kids, we prefer to have the flexibility to plan our dining times around the variations in our daily schedule. I think with younger children a set dining time might be nice, but with older kids, the ability to dine when and where we prefer is better in my opinion. Plus, I really like to have the option of dining with just our family when we want time to ourselves or having the option of dining with friends we meet on board when we want to. We really love Anytime Dining and Princess does it very well. It is one of the many reasons we keep returning to Princess.

[paul929207]

I guess it would depend on how much your kids will want the routine of TD. With AD, you can go when you want and not have to rush to get ready. However, you also may have to wait for a table.

[chamima]

Are your kids staying in your cabin?

When we traveled with our 4 daughters they had their own cabin and we found it easier to just know that we met at dinner at 8:15, rather than trying to round them up to decide when to eat.

[shepp]

I much prefer to eat in a all-adult setting so I don't have to tailor my conversation to kid level. So I'm thinking that unless you land a TD table for four, Anytime would make it less persistently awkward all around if you ended up with a tablemate like me.

[friedshrimp]

What are the seating times for Anytime Dining (1800-2100, or 1900-2200, etc....)? Also, there are two dining rooms on the Emerald Princess for Anytime Dining. Can you go to either one or are you assigned to a dining room without being assigned a time??

[caribill]

What are the seating times for Anytime Dining (1800-2100, or 1900-2200, etc....)? Also, there are two dining rooms on the Emerald Princess for Anytime Dining. Can you go to either one or are you assigned to a dining room without being assigned a time??

 

On the Emerald, you can be seated between 5:30 PM and 10:00 PM. You can go to either of the Anytime diring rooms. If one has a long wait, check what the wait is at the other.

[paul929207]

Anytime dining is from 1730 to 2200.

 

Each evening you can eat in either one.

[Colo Cruiser]

Yes 5:30 -10:00

[katisdale]

I like both traditional and anytime dining. When we travel with our grandchildren we choose either anytime or early traditional. The kids want to go to their area which opens at 7 PM. This is easily accomplished with anytime (we go between 5:30 and 6) or early traditional. However early traditional is at 6:15PM and they start to get a little antsy the closer it gets to 7PM if we aren't finished.

[karatemom2]

I much prefer to eat in a all-adult setting so I don't have to tailor my conversation to kid level. So I'm thinking that unless you land a TD table for four, Anytime would make it less persistently awkward all around if you ended up with a tablemate like me.

 

I totally understand your perspective which is one of the reasons I love Anytime Dining for our family. Much as I love my children, I certainly realize that many adults vacationing without children probably would prefer not to share a table with a family. That is OK by me. I wouldn't want to make anyone uncomfortable. With Anytime Dining we always request a table of four for just our family unless we have met friends or other families on the ship who would like to dine with us. At least then I know it's by choice, not by the luck (or lack of luck depending on your point of view) of the dining assignment.

[Liz54]

My last cruise was with my sister and my 16 year old middle son. We did late traditional with 5 strangers and it was fantastic. Our boy learned about formal dining, dinner table cnversation and staying engaged until everyone at the table was ready for the next course and the end of the meal. We tried to teach these things at home - and I guess we did it, but this "dress rehersal" was perfect. He is now all polished up, and three years later the table manners are still intact! Worth the price of the cruise IMHO!

[TERESAh]

Need some advice. Have always chosen anytime dining on my last 3 Princess cruises as my dh and I have always liked the flexibility. On our next cruise we will be taking the kids 10 and 12 and are wondering if it might be better to chose traditional dining instead.Love to hear peoples experiences with both types of dining with kids. Thanks!

 

I would take the traditional as if you dont like it, you can always change to anytime--but not the other way around. Our service for anytime on Ruby was not very good---I think too many people chose it and not enough waiters. One night it took almost three hours for dinner as there was a 1/2 wait between every course.

[genevieve7000]

We have always done early traditional and had a table for just the four of us. The waiters always had drinks ready for the kids (made them either special fruit drinks or chocolate milk), knew their names and what kind of things they liked to eat. Our waiters have been outstanding and really enhanced the whole dining experience. We have loved having the same waitstaff the whole cruise, so we can't imagine doing anytime.

[Cruisin' Chick]

We have always done early traditional and had a table for just the four of us. The waiters always had drinks ready for the kids (made them either special fruit drinks or chocolate milk), knew their names and what kind of things they liked to eat. Our waiters have been outstanding and really enhanced the whole dining experience. We have loved having the same waitstaff the whole cruise, so we can't imagine doing anytime.

 

We're the same way. And I think knowing what time you're going to eat is good when you have kids. I guess if you do anytime, you'll want to go early so that there isn't a wait, but I rather not risk it and not have to worry about the waitstaff.

[Asil65]

Great input. Thank you everyone. A good friend that I met on a previous cruise just booked the same cruise as we did. She asked if we could be seated together. Just changed my status from AT to TD so we could sit with our friends. We will do the early seating. I have travelled w/o kids so I totally get the " Don't want to be seated with children idea". Our cruise is not for 5 more months and the princess rep told me that it was good that I changed my status when I did because often by this time the TD is all booked up. What happens if we decide to eat in a specialty restaurant one night? Do you just let the wait staff and table mates know ahead of time?

[Sunbreez]

What are the usual TD times?

[azdmelani]

When I was a teenager and sailed with my parents, I hated that we did the 8PM seating. I was always in a rush to meet my friends, and never got to have dessert (clearly the best part of the meal!).

 

I would suggest anytime again, you can always make a standing reservation so it becomes a more traditional dining setting. Enjoy!

[paul929207]

Yes, if you will not be at dinner, it is polite to let your wait staff or tablemates know.

[paul929207]

On our last Princess cruise, it was 5:45 and 8:00

[houch]

I usually cruise with my girl friends with from 3 to 7 in our group. We always do first seating traditional. This avoids the hastle of all of us trying to decide when to go. It works for us. I like having the same wait staff and in our smaller groups we have always enjoyed our table mates, I still email with several of them. Our early dining times have been either at 6 or 6:15. With some of the long tours on the European cruises we have missed our dining time but then went to the buffet. When we mentioned to our waiter we would return too late to freshen up first he told us to come right from the tours, we did, in our casual clothes and had no problem. On our Holy Land cruise pretty much the whole ship would miss the early dining time so they just changed the times for those days.

[Asil65]

I'm pretty sure that we have a 6:15 pm dinner time for the early seating. Any earlier for me would seem strange. I agree with you about the fact that it will be much easier to plan around a set time for dinner. May rule out some excursions but with 4 of us anytime dining with the scheduling and waits may have been a pain.

[caribill]

Great input. Thank you everyone. A good friend that I met on a previous cruise just booked the same cruise as we did. She asked if we could be seated together. Just changed my status from AT to TD so we could sit with our friends.

 

Make sure that your reservations are linked so that Princess will know to seat you at the same table.

[paul929207]

Make sure that your reservations are linked so that Princess will know to seat you at the same table.

I would plan to check with the friends when you board to be sure you are at the same seating and table.