Personal Choice Dining Reservations etc. trying to make sense of it all

[Linda2433]

Ok let me get this straight, if you have personal choice dining you need to make reservations for the Palm Dining or Coral as soon as you get on board. However, they won't let you make reservations for 6pm thru 8 pm before or after is oK?

I am guessing the Caribe Cafe and Horizons are buffet and you don't need reservations? Can you make reservations for the Sterling Steakhouse and the Italian Rest. to eat between 6pm and 8 PM? Also is their a third restaurant that you pay an additional charge for like $8.00 or something like that, If yes how is that restaurant and what is it called?

 

Also can you bring food back to the cabin from the buffet for breakfast? Like

something you couldn't get from room service, like hot items?

[MoreCruise]

No, not true, you can make reservations between 6 and 8pm - we had our reservations made for all nights on the first day for 7:30pm each night. The 6 and 8pm rule is I think something that is only when you try to make reservations on the same day, and it's at the discretion of the matridee.

 

No reservations necessary nor possible for the buffets. You can make reservations for the specialty restaurants whatever time ever you want. Even for lunch on certain days.

 

Yes, you can bring food wherever you want - they're pretty flexible about that.

[Linda2433]

Thanks, That clears it up. Thought Personal Choice was going to mean not between 6-8. Did you know anything about the other Restaurant where you pay an additional price, I think it was some kind of caribbean rest. ???

[Glassman]

Having been stuck with personal choice dining on our last cruise we found out that you have to make a reservation every day for the time you eat, We made ours as soon as the reservation line opened in the morning and a card was delivered to our cabin every day. I wouldn't use it unless I had to because of a late cruise purchase or all the times for regular dining are full. I think you miss something with personal choice that you get with regular dining. Out of 8 cruises the last one is the only one we couldn't get early dining so we had to take personal choice or eat in the cafeteria or eat at 8:30. Being a retired teacher that ate in cafeterias and taught night school for years I didn't want late eating or the cafeteria. Your choice however. Enjoy your cruise, we are ready for our next one. Glassman

[CruiseFever]

Ok let me get this straight, if you have personal choice dining you need to make reservations for the Palm Dining or Coral as soon as you get on board. However, they won't let you make reservations for 6pm thru 8 pm before or after is oK?

I am guessing the Caribe Cafe and Horizons are buffet and you don't need reservations? Can you make reservations for the Sterling Steakhouse and the Italian Rest. to eat between 6pm and 8 PM? Also is their a third restaurant that you pay an additional charge for like $8.00 or something like that, If yes how is that restaurant and what is it called?

 

Also can you bring food back to the cabin from the buffet for breakfast? Like

something you couldn't get from room service, like hot items?

 

Here's the deal:

 

Personal Choice (Anytime dining)

 

Personal choice dining, also called Anytime Dining, is another way to feed you. It allows you to eat when you want and with who you want any time during the dining room hours of operation.

 

On the Golden, for example, there were two other dining rooms to serve those who had selected or had been given Personal Choice dining. We chose one, liked it a lot, and asked to be seated at the same table, at the same time, with the same waiter for the rest of the cruise. This was no problem. So for all practical purposes we did have traditional dining. The same menu was being served the only difference was that the people around us were not always the same...although many were.

 

We could have simply walked into one of the PC dining rooms during serving hours when we were hungry and been seated, probably after a wait. We could have phoned in reservations for various places to eat at various times during the week in advance, say on the first day aboard. Not a bad idea if you like early dining but not when the ship is in port and you'll be ashore, for example.

 

It's really all about flexibility and goes beyond just dining to encompass a style of vacationing termed Personal Choice Cruising. The Anytime Dining part, for example, makes it possible to meet new friends on a shore excursion or at pool side and have dinner with them that night.

 

Before, when meeting a new friend one of the questions asked would be "Which (traditional assigned dining) seating are you? From there plans for the evening could be made and a time set up to meet after dinner. Now you can include dinner in your plans for the evening and at a time tht is convenient for you.

 

In addition to the traditional and Personal Choice dining rooms are other specialty restaurants like Sabatinis or the Sterling Steak House that offer sit down dining for a small additional fee and are reservation only. These offer even more flexibility but require thinking ahead.

 

Providing yet another choice besides these sitdown table service restaurants is the Horizon Court a 24/7 buffet. On some ships it's buffet by day that transforms itself into more of a service oriented venue at night. There's also a Pizza and Grill open a good chunk of the day and 24 hour room service that has extensive offerings.

 

That's it in a nutshell but one of the most important elements is rarely mentioned. It's not so much a matter of choosing up sides as to which is better, Anytime or Traditional, as it is which is a more appropriate match for you. We've enjoyed both styles on a number of cruises and are happy to have this as yet another option to facilitate a fabulous cruise if appropriate for us and our traveling companions.

 

 

Cafe Caribe

 

Actually, The Caribe Cafe is two more buffet lines, not one. It offers a great deal of flexibility in feeding us beginning with the Embarkation Lunch you'll find as you board the ship on the first day. Then, with the Horizon Court's two serving areas, a total of four are open and all serve the same selections to the ravenous cruisers as they first board. At night, on that first night, the Cafe Caribe transforms to (as Toto noted) more of a table service restaurant if you want it to be that .

 

You can go through the buffet, sampling the Caribbean themed entree's (I know that sounds vague, but it works, trust me) which on that first night feature a fabulous selection of seafood.

 

You can also walk into the dining area which, since lunch, gained tablecloths and is preset with wine glasses and flatware where you will be treated to a table service type experience, complete with menus.

 

We didn't realize this until the cruise was over. The two times we dined there we simply walked through the buffet, then found a table and sat down, like most other people we viewed on our particular sailing.

 

Documentation available in your cabin or online does not make this apparent. I think that's because they like to retain the flexibility to do different things with this space and don't want to get locked in to one set way of doing things.

 

To me, that's all flavored with Personal Choice Cruising, which allows you do do stuff (like eating, or "Anytime Dining") when you want, where you want and with whom you want.

 

The hours of this venue are varied (see below) serving Pastries and Beverages from 4AM to 10AM, Dinner from 5:30 to 11PM, and "Bistro" service from 11PM to 4AM.

 

Tips:

• If you like the appetizers they're passing out on deck during Island Night head to the Caribe Cafe, they have them all on the buffet.
  
• When open, we'd go through the Horizon Court buffet first then the Caribe Cafe buffet. More selections, usually easier to find a seat during busy times back by the Caribe Cafe.
  
• While the Horizon Court buffet is a scramble type layout where it is appropriate to skip stations you don't want and go directly to the ones you do the Caribe Cafe is more of a straight line cafeteria setup, although it is not straight as in linear.
  

Movies Under The Stars (aka "MUTS")

 

My first experience with Movies Under The Stars came along quite by accident as I strolled around on deck and happened upon a playing of the Tina Turner:One Last Time concert. This was awesome for all ages and very enjoyable. During these concerts (they do a Tom Jones one later in the week) it's not the popcorn and cushy lounge chairs by invitation, you can just wander in and find a seat. There are waiters to get you drinks but most people I saw with food had brought it from a buffet.

 

We signed up early for the two shows that were playing, picking one at 7:30 and the other a couple nights later for the 10:30 show. We didn't make it to either one but recieved tickets early in the day in our stateroom mailbox. There is just so much to do on this ship that it's difficult to decide which things to do and which things to skip. When we were scheduled for the 7:30 show was on the first formal night, along with Ryan, Amy (ccmembers) and another family we'd met along the way. We watched as 7:30 came and went before dessert.

 

Oh well, better luck with the next showing at 10:30 on another night that we had reservations for. We didn't make that one either because we were at a show earlier in the night and by then we'd fallen into the Skywalker's routine that dominated late night entertainment...something we didn't know when we made reservations.

 

And that's the tough part

 

By recommendation we made reservations for the Movies, Sabatinis and the Sterling Steakhouse all within an hour of boarding using our stateromm telephone. Easy. We wondered why people stood in line for hours in front of Sabatinis later in the day to make their reservations. We thought we knew exactly when we wanted to go to each of those places. What we didn't anticipate was meeting so many nice people on board, becoming friends and a part of their plans as well as them a part of ours.

 

That pretty much blew all our reservations right out the window...in a good way though.

 

I think I'd still make reservations early, right after boarding, as part of the list of things we do right when we get on the ship...perhaps taking the place of "check dining room table assignment" as we would have done before discovering the wonders of Personal Choice dining.

 

Or we might consider doing what I heard others had pretty good luck at....waiting until the last minute. They're reluctant to commit to seats at Movies Under the Stars that go unclaimed at showtime but I know for a fact that there were some and they're not assigned. Dining reservations, however, are not that hard to get at the last minute, probably due to people like me who made them early and then their plans changed.

 

We called to cancel our reservations like good little boys and girls do but I bet there were a lot of people who just did not show. In the dining rooms, I am told, they hold the table for ten minutes then give it up. I suppose it has a little to do with being in the right place at the right time with flexible dining plans.

 

Remember too that there are multiple options to anything you can make a reservation for. Like a bunch of other guests I felt a sense of urgency to make those reservations so I wouldn't miss out on stuff.

 

While a reservation does guarantee that you'll be able to do one of these things it doesn't guarantee a good time.....and to me that's what it's all about. I won't for a minute fret and worry about making a 7:30 movie reservation while enjoying a lovely formal night dinner with new-found friends. They still offer afternoon movies in the Princess Theatre that we enjoyed a whole lot on previous cruises.

 

If you've never done it, you owe it to yourself to see some movie while at sea.

 

Many people think "Why watch a movie at sea? I can do that at home!" True, but every time you see that movie, a clip of that movie, or that movie mentioned in conversation, you'll think of your cruise..for a long time in the future and think "...I saw that on the cruise!"

[awfw]

That is a great explanation of the Personal Choice Dining experience! On the Caribbean Princess in Oct. we went through the same ritual of making reservations by phone (after learning about that on CC) before I even looked around the room! Our reservations for Ultimate Balcony Dinner, Sabitini's, Sterling Steakhouse and Movies Under the Stars were easily done and then I relaxed! We did make it to all of our reservations except Sabitini's which we cancelled because we were just not hungry when the time came and were sure we could not enjoy 2-2.5 hours of constant eating. Our plan in May when we return to the CP is to just make Sabitini's and Sterling Steakhouse and probably another movie. It appears that the more recent CP cruisers have been reporting that you can no longer make dining reservations by phone, but now need to line up at Sabitini's at 1:00. I hope this is not the case, but I will if I must!

Also, the Tina Turner Concert on MUTS is fantastic. It was a perfect show to showcase the MUTS technology. I caught parts of it twice and will go again next time.

 

awfw

[mbw1024]

Chris, I am going on Golden in October and was wondering about the 2 PC dining rooms and how that worked. Are they the same hours, etc and it is a matter of just choosing one or the other at your discrection or are you assigned to a PC dining room?

 

mary beth

[ahracer]

I've never made a reservation. Just show up when you are ready to eat. Usually we walk right in, sometimes we have to wait 5-10 minutes.

 

Scott

[Linda2433]

Wow, Life is Cruising, thanks for the detailed explanation, I really appreciate it. I am however still confused i think about whether you can call for the reservations when you first board for the whole week or not. Getting different answers on that one. Anyone been on the Caribbean Princess lately have you been able to make reservations the day you board or do you have to stand in line as someone else mentioned? Thanks for any answers.

[cruiserforlife]

linda,

 

Can't comment on the Caribbean,but I was just on the Sun and made one standing reservation about the 2nd night with my Maitre 'D after we ate that night which was good for the same table with the same waitstaff at the same time.We received a card the next day in our cabin but only one as opposed to one everyday as another poster noted.

 

It worked out perfectly for us because we truly enjoyed our waiter,felt we had received the exact same dining experience that we would have enjoyed in traditional,and we sped up the 2nd seating time we would have had by about an hour which was very helpful when trying to make those 2nd. shows.

Plus,we just walked through the crowd every night directly to our waiting table.

 

In reality,PC dining works at it's very best when you just "go with the flow' and enjoy all that's available while cruising.It's the flexibilty of PC that makes it a winner...if you just go and enjoy and live every minute while on the ship,dinner will take care of itself,believe me and it'll all workout.

[Linda2433]

thanks again cruising for life. Booked personal choice because I didn't want to

have to be at dinner at a certain time. Going with my husband and two teenagers and would like us to all eat together for dinner anyways so need lots of flexibility. Will probably book the steak house and the italian rest. when we board if we can and then maybe see what happens, don't want to be too comitted especially on days we are off the ship. Would like to try the dining room too, kids will probably prefer the buffet. Will just see what happens when we get there.

[J18ktleo]

When we sailed on the Grand and the CP we loved 'Anytime Dining' because it was just so...anytime you were ready just go to the dining room and be seated (maybe a little wait on formal nite but that was all)

However, on the Diamond, reservations were pretty much a requisite and we saw others turned away since there were those of us in line with reservations and it seemed that if you didn't have a reservation you had to wait til much later to get in...we felt like it was a requirement and also there was no seating between 7-8 (as they were trying to catch up from the 'first seating' until 'the second seating'). We didn't really enjoy this aspect of the dining program but I think it was particular to the Diamond (and maybe also the Sapphire) because of the 4 different 'themed' restaurants?

Can't wait to try the program on the Golden where I think it'll be back to what we expect it to be? :rolleyes:

 

RE: MUTS...when we were on the CP the Tina Turner concert was AWESOME! But no one NO ONE should have to see Tom Jones that close up in concert...that was no appealing at all! :eek:

[senior lady]

We've always taken personal choice dinning on our cruises. Never had a problem. In fact on our last cruise the waiters they put us with the first night were so much fun, that we just request that table again for the whole cruise. It was great meeting for a drink first and then going for dinner around 7:15 everynight. We also found on the days at port, we just went to the buffet and enjoyed dinner just as much.

I find that 6:30 is to early, and 8:30 is to late. So picking what ever time we want for dinner is great.

also if you have the attitude that it's like going to a popular resturant and having to wait to be sitted. We would just go for a drink, and when our "space ship" vibrated then we headed back to eat.

 

It all in how structured you like your life to be, we like to "just go with the flow":)

[Ti2m]

Ok let me get this straight, if you have personal choice dining you need to make reservations for the Palm Dining or Coral as soon as you get on board....

 

Our forced PC dining had us stressed before our CP cruise having been pleased with traditional dining in the past. By he time we sailed we ended up having the choice of PC or traditional but decided to try the PC since we were resigned by that point. We showed up, got a table for two and we loved it!

 

We had a great wait staff and each night would make reservations for the next night at Marvin's table.

 

Timm

[giustot]

You don't have to make a reservation for PC unless you want to. You can show up anytime for dinner but you may have to wait for a table if the dining room is full.

 

Whether you can make a reservations between 6-8pm depends on the Maitre D' and how full the ship is. If you're sailing in the summer or during school breaks I doubt you'll be able to get that reservation. Tom.

[jturner901]

I've never made a reservation. Just show up when you are ready to eat. Usually we walk right in, sometimes we have to wait 5-10 minutes.

Scott

We had the same experience as Scott. We never reserved and we never had any more than a 7 minute wait and that was only on one night. The only reason we had the wait is because a bunch of diners all showed up at the door at the same time. It took a few minutes to get everyone seated. We never had to wait for them to clear a table for us. We arrived to dine most nights between 8:00 and 8:30. The one night we opted for the Cafe Caribe, it was excellent. The service of clear plates and pouring water was top notch.

[Linda2433]

ok so if you don't have reservations you just go to the place you want to eat, dining room and if there is a wait they give you a beeper and you can wander the ship, go get a drink whatever you don't have to just wait by the dining area? I can deal with that. I am assuming you still need to make the reservations for Sterling or Sabattinis (spelling?)? Is Sabatinnis really a 2 to 21/2 hour meal? Why so long ?

[jturner901]

Is Sabatinis really a 2 to 21/2 hour meal? Why so long?

Tons of food in multiple courses.

[gkeyes1008]

That is a great explanation of the Personal Choice Dining experience! On the Caribbean Princess in Oct. we went through the same ritual of making reservations by phone (after learning about that on CC) before I even looked around the room! Our reservations for Ultimate Balcony Dinner, Sabitini's, Sterling Steakhouse and Movies Under the Stars were easily done and then I relaxed! We did make it to all of our reservations except Sabitini's which we cancelled because we were just not hungry when the time came and were sure we could not enjoy 2-2.5 hours of constant eating. Our plan in May when we return to the CP is to just make Sabitini's and Sterling Steakhouse and probably another movie. It appears that the more recent CP cruisers have been reporting that you can no longer make dining reservations by phone, but now need to line up at Sabitini's at 1:00. I hope this is not the case, but I will if I must!

Also, the Tina Turner Concert on MUTS is fantastic. It was a perfect show to showcase the MUTS technology. I caught parts of it twice and will go again next time.

 

awfw

What is the Ultimate BalconyDinner? I have not heard that before.

[J18ktleo]

The "Ultimate Balcony Dinner" is the most awesome experience we've ever had on a cruise...and it took me awhile to book it but am I ever glad we did!

They only do 2 a nite per ship/sailing and it's a private dinner on your balcony with personal/private wait staff and the most awesome food...perfectly and beautifully prepared just for you by the chef (you can tell, it;s not the dining room food or presentation!) and served on your balcony like a gourmet fine dining experience! Worth every penny,..a memory to last a lifetime! :rolleyes:

They come to your cabin in the afternoon while you're out and set a beautiful table with linen table cloth and 1/2 hour before dinner begins bring a centerpiece of fresh flowers, hors d'oeuvres and a bottle of champagne (we got White Star...wonderful!) . Then come back at dinner time and serve the most wonderful meal,,.we had surf and turf (lobster and delicious filet mignon)...and afterwards dessert and coffee...under the stars...just you two...all alone with the whole ship inside and you're outside...

wow...what an incredible experience! :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

[LARGIN]

Sounds great.. Will have Ultimate Balcony Dinner on our Hawaii cruise

[J18ktleo]

you will love it...make sure you book it right away. We got on the ship at 12:30 and called to book it right away...there was already someone else booked the nite we wanted within 1 hour of boarding time!

Also, plan your nite carefully (although I don't know if it matters as much in Hawaii). We did it the nite we left Mazatlan which was nice weather...the next couple of nites as we cruised north it got cooler and colder and I'm so glad we didn't book later in the cruise! :rolleyes:

[JIMDSB]

Hi Linda,

 

Recently off the Diamond and our PC Dining went something like this:

 

There are 4 (free) PC Dining rooms on the Diamond. They are Vivaldis (Italian), Sterling (Steak), Santa Fe (Southwest) and Pacific Moon (Asian). As soon as we got on the Ship, we called and were only able to reserve the first Two nights. We were told that we could reserve the rest of the nights on the Second day, which we did, early. Our reservations for the week were between 6:00 and 6:30 (we are early eaters), depending on what we what going to be doing that sepcific day. Dont cut yourself short on Port days. Everything worked to perfection. They were always ready for us (even when we wewe 10 minutes late 1 day).

Dont forget, you can order off the main dining room menu if nothing suits your fancy on the PC menu. We did that probably about 5 times on the Cruise.

HAVE A GREAT TIME.

[bluehorizonlover123]

The Diamond is the only ship I know where reservations are most important. Because the restaurants are very small and can only hold a certain amt of people. They will take reservations before 6pm and after 8pm. Otherwise you can just walk in. If you have a large party of people to seat you would be better off with reservations.

[ahracer]

The Diamond is the only ship I know where reservations are most important. Because the restaurants are very small and can only hold a certain amt of people. They will take reservations before 6pm and after 8pm. Otherwise you can just walk in. If you have a large party of people to seat you would be better off with reservations.

 

Sapphire also.

 

Scott