Anytime Dining

[Luvtoeat]

Will be booking the dream and am thinking of doing anytime dining but have heard the wait for a table can be long. Would greatly appreciate hearing of anyones experiences with this dining option.:)

[ImmortalxKiss]

I am curious, too ..as we have chosen this as our dining option on the Inspiration in 34 days!

[Frank12]

We tried it once so far. Usually we were seated right away. At the most we waited 5 minutes one night.

[cajunchick]

we never had to wait last year on the conquest. have anytime on the triumph in May. Now when we were on ncl in 04 we had to wait almost every night but i think that was because all they have is flexible dining so a lot of people went at the same time. I think that having traditional and anytime makes it more balanced. :rolleyes:

[klmorg]

Never had to wait on the Legend... but the Dream is a bit BIGGER with more passengers. BTW... Loved Anytime Dining!!!!!!

[mferris77]

I'll be on the Dream and was looking into this as well. I haven't seen too many mentions of having to wait to be seated. Some people have had to wait, but it wasn't consistently a problem - I imagine it all depends on when you show up versus when everyone else happens to want to eat as well. (Directly after a big show or event? Maybe there's a wait.)

 

They do give you one of those flashy/beepy things that are used in normal restaurants, so you can wander around until your table is ready.

 

We ended up going with anytime. I'd still rather wait a few minutes to go when I want to go over being forced to eat at 6:30 or 8 every night.

[sallyb]

We did Anytime (Your Time) on Pride in September and Dream in January. The only time we had to wait was because we requested specific wait teams and that only happened once on each cruise. We really liked the wait staff we got at the beginning of each cruise, so we didn't mind a 15-20 minute wait to be seated in their section. I love this dining option and will request it every cruise.

[MikeM]

I'll be on the Dream and was looking into this as well. I haven't seen too many mentions of having to wait to be seated. Some people have had to wait, but it wasn't consistently a problem - I imagine it all depends on when you show up versus when everyone else happens to want to eat as well. (Directly after a big show or event? Maybe there's a wait.)

 

They do give you one of those flashy/beepy things that are used in normal restaurants, so you can wander around until your table is ready.

 

We ended up going with anytime. I'd still rather wait a few minutes to go when I want to go over being forced to eat at 6:30 or 8 every night.

We found on our last trip that the wait list is getting longer as YTD becomes more popular. On the Inspiration the Dinning room was 50-55% YTD and my guess this will increase significantly in the near future. Wonder what it will be like when 3-5 thousand want to eat at the same time. Same type of monster will be the Self Assist Debark. I assume Carnival will go back to some form of crowd control system.

Below the current CCL blurb.

 

“Your Time” Open Seating DiningGuests on “Your Time” open seating may dine any time in the Main Dining Room between 5:45pm and 9:30pm and are able to request any table size or waiter. Guests are seated on a first come, first served basis depending on party size. Pagers are provided if a modest wait time is required so guests may relax elsewhere on the ship until their table is ready; in most cases, guests are accommodated within 20 minutes.

 

Due to the limited number of large tables available, parties greater than 10 guests may need to be accommodated at different tables. It is important to advise accordingly as to manage expectations and avoid disappointment once on board.

 

“Your Time” open seating is currently available on 12 ships and will be implemented one ship at a time as modifications in dining room table configurations are completed on each ship. The implementation will be completed fleet wide by summer 2010. As “Your Time” dining is implemented on each ship, we will send Travel Agents/direct guests notification via email/fax so we can provide the guests an opportunity to switch to this option or retain their original choice.

[katiel53]

We did my time dining on Dream in January. There were four of us and we went about 7PM every night. The first night we were seated at a table that had another table within 6 inches and we didn't like that at all. The other people were half through dinner when we were seated and it seemed very awkward.

 

I told the hostess that we didn't want to sit at this type table every night. She put some kind of note in her computer so that after that we had a booth every night with basically no wait with the exception of the 2nd formal night. We had to wait about 15 minutes and we didn't get our booth that night. The other nights we had the same booth and waitstaff.

 

It seems that up until about 7:30 or so, the my time dining room was really busy and then it seemed to slack off. I loved being able to go to dinner at 7. Our friends prefer early and we prefer late, so the my time compromise was perfect for us.

[poobears]

We did our time on Fantasy and never had a wait. It was great we got to eat when we wanted, didn't have to see the singing waiters (sorry we don't like them) and always got a table for 2 like we wanted. We chose to be seated with a different wait staff each night and it was cool seeing how different each group was from the previous one. Some were top notch, some were ok. All were very friendly.

 

I can imagine in a much larger ship you may hit some lines but I think as long as you go between the main time rushes you'll be fine. We've chosen anytime dining this year on Fascination too. Can't wait :)

[nancyjo95]

We had any time for our first Cruise on the Conquest in October. Loved it. Service was good to great and we never had to wait. We usually arrived between 6:30 and 7 pm. We liked it so much that we are doing again on our next cruise this October on the Ecstasy.

[Traveler353]

How about any solo cruisers, what are your expericences with anytime dinning? I will be trying it for the first time in September on the Triumph.

[4xcruisers]

anyone have experience with a larger party and any time dining? We are a party of 7, 5A and 2K.

we are considering this option. we usually do late fixed but it interferes with some of the kids activities and we like to eat as a family so ATD might work well.

Our concern is us getting split up in to smaller groups or having inordinately long waits for a table for 7.

 

experiences anyone?

[Luv2Travelnow]

We had a party of 6, chose Your Time Dining, never had to wait on the Elation last week.

 

I can't imagine dining any other way. It is the best!!

[CarribbeanTina271]

We just tried it on the Inspiration..though it wasn't my choice because we were a large group of 16! BUT it worked out perfect, one night we waited maybe 5 mins.. We even got tables beside each other every night..now this may have been because it was spring break and 75% of our cruise was college spring breakers and not doing the anytime dining:p

 

Would I do it again, yea sure..

[rebric12]

Just try it. You may love it like I did and never want to go back to traditional.

[TDCRose]

Had YTD on the Jan. 2 sailing of the Dream. Only had to wait one night-first elegant night-about 20 minutes-all other nights we were seated right away. We were a party of four and went to dinner between 6:30 and 7:00 pm each night. We like YTD and will always request for furture cruises-have it for Jan. 2011 sailing on the Freedom.

[FightOnRon]

4 HAL cruises and 1 CCL two weeks ago. The last HAL had a version of it but you still ahd to make a reservation for what time you wanted. Didn't try it. Tried it on the Paradise 2 weeks ago (just a party of 4) but don't think I'll go back to traditional.

 

It was nice being able to wander in when it fit my schedule and one night one of our party was 30 minutes late from when we told her to be ready (extra sp a time) but it made no difference. Plus we requested the same waiter everynight. That did cause us to wait one night about 10 minutes,,no big deal at all.

[Illa Zilla]

My family and I (DW, DSX2) did Any Time Dining on the Carnival Dream March 6-13. I don't know if we'll go back to traditional dining. Never had to wait more than 5 minutes, and that was even requesting the same waitstaff.

We ate anywhere from 1745 to 2000. Were able to get ready for dinner without feeling rushed or feeling like we've got a couple of hours to kill. I loved it! :D

[Alvinsr]

Just booked it for the first time on the Triumph in June, like the feed back so far.:o

[Wolfie48]

Will be booking the dream and am thinking of doing anytime dining but have heard the wait for a table can be long. Would greatly appreciate hearing of anyones experiences with this dining option.:)

 

DW and I did anytime dinning on the Paradise and never had to wait to be seated. But the waitstaff seemed rushed and less attentive so we will not be doing it again. I prefer getting to know the staff as well as the other cruisers assigned to our table. JMO :)