Dining

[susanks1]

We are going on our cruise to Alaska next September. Our ta set us up for late dining since the early dining was already full. What if we decide 8:30 is too late and want to eat earlier? Do we just go to the dining room and do select dining? Can you do both or do you have to pick just one? Is there an additional cost for select dining? The tips have already been charged to our account. Thanks.

[shagdancer]

We are also on an Alaska cruise in May 2011- on princess. We will be in ports sometimes as late as 9:30. We were assigned early dining (about 5:30), waitlisted for Late dining which was at 8:30 and switched to Anytime dining which was anytime from 6 to about 10 pm. We wanted to be able to stay in port as long as possible and not have to rush back to ship for dinner. Plus we have a group of 10 and there was no way we would please everyone. So now we plan to let everyone group as they want, when they want and make their plans to eat when they want. Hope it works out as we have never done Anytime dining. S.

[Lsimon]

If there is room they will allow you to switch to select dining. On our recent cruises I know a switch could have been made either way but this is not always the case as one are or the other might already be at capacity.

 

While you may be able to switch one way or the other it would not be appropriate to switch back and forth and if you're at fixed dining you are not normally eligible to go to select - although I suspect that an advance discussion with the Maitre d' if there was a specific day you needed to dine at a different time might be OK'd.

 

Fixed dining is not only about the dining times but also about getting to know your wait staff and your dining companions. If the benefits of fixed dining are less important to you then the flexibility on seating times then why not sign up for select dining from the start?

[Lsimon]

We are also on an Alaska cruise in May 2011- on princess. We will be in ports sometimes as late as 9:30. We were assigned early dining (about 5:30), waitlisted for Late dining which was at 8:30 and switched to Anytime dining which was anytime from 6 to about 10 pm. We wanted to be able to stay in port as long as possible and not have to rush back to ship for dinner. Plus we have a group of 10 and there was no way we would please everyone. So now we plan to let everyone group as they want, when they want and make their plans to eat when they want. Hope it works out as we have never done Anytime dining. S.

 

Only thing I'll caution you on: We've done select dining twice with large groups. The first time the group shifted around a little both between the size of the group (ranged from 7 to 11 of us) and the times we wanted to eat. This was very problematic and resulted in some long waits. Some of the issues might have related to the newness of the Select dining program which had only been implemented a short time before our cruise.

 

The second time we had a group of 7 and made a standing reservation for the same time every night. Things worked out great and a table was always available for us. Of course we gave the dining room staff advance notice of the couple nights during the cruise when we planned to eat elsewhere on the ship (specialty, casual or off the ship).

 

Bottom line is that Select seems to work well for those in a small group (2 or 4) who can change plans often or large groups who stick with a given time and size but not so well for large groups who vary the dining times and number at the table. This would largely be due to a lower number of large tables and the fact that a smaller group can be seated at a larger table but the reverse is not true.

[shagdancer]

Thanks for the info! I'll be sure to check that and let the group know. S

[kitty9]

We are going on our cruise to Alaska next September. Our ta set us up for late dining since the early dining was already full. What if we decide 8:30 is too late and want to eat earlier? Do we just go to the dining room and do select dining? Can you do both or do you have to pick just one? Is there an additional cost for select dining? The tips have already been charged to our account. Thanks.

 

You cannot bounce between select and traditional. You have to pick one or the other and stay with that. You MIGHT be able to use select one one night, if there is space, but don't count on it. We've found select to be fully booked weeks before cruises depart.

[susanks1]

Thanks everyone for your help.