Caribbean Princess - Personal Choice or Traditional ?!?!?!

[RachelNYC]

Hi there. This is my 4th cruise and my boyfriend's first. We're sailing on the Caribbean Princess on 5/21/05 and we're VERY excited. However, we're not sure whether to do Personal Choice dining or the tradional fixed seating for dinner. What do you guys think??? What are the pros and cons of both????

Thanks for your input-

Rachel ;)

[Guest Snorkelbunny]

Well, I feel that personal choice is the way to go. You get the wonderful dining room experience, but you are able to choose your own time to dine. You may choose to eat at a table for two or a large group table depending on your mood that evening. Also, if you happened to dislike your table mates at traditional dining, it was a problem. No longer an issue with personal choice.

 

The one benefit for me with traditional dining is that the waiter and assistant waiter get to know your individual preferences for drinks, etc. However, I have been told that if you find a waiter you like in a personal choice dining room, you may certainly request to be seated in their area each evening.

[mhcruisers]

We just got off the Caribbean Princess and I would rather get off the ship immediately than do Personal Choice again. Not that it was our choice..we selected Traditional 8 months ago when we set our reservations and nothing we could do or say would get it changed to traditional when we got on board to find we have Personal Choice. The difference? Terrible service! They have no idea how many will show so they have a 'skeleton staff" Our first 2 nights (there were 4 of us), we had a waitress. No busboy, No bar waiter. She had to do it all. She was running crazy and had no time to be friendly towards us, and heaven forbid...even introduce herself. The next few nights we had a busboy, but he was rarely around. Our biggest relief was our night in Sterlings. Great food and great service. Too bad we couldn't dine there every night!

 

Pat

[Guest Snorkelbunny]

MHcruisers,

 

I am so sorry to hear that :( I hope you had a good cruise despite the dining issues. I am glad I did not have that experience on the Grand with Personal Choice nor have my friends and relatives who have cruised recently. Hopefully it was just a temporary problem for one cruise.

[RachelNYC]

Other than the main dining room, the Caribe Caffe, Sterlings, and Trattoria, what are the other restaurants onboard that you can dine at if you partake in Personal Choice?

 

-Rachel;)

[CruiseFever]

There is a lot of information on the specifics of each on the Cruise Critic board I'd recommend looking at which option is best for YOU.

 

I think that if you enjoyed traditional dining options on your other cruises then you'll probably find Princess' traditional dining rooms to be right along the same lines. While it's difficult to convey how you will perceive your experience, those who liked traditional in the past seem consistent in their like for the traditional dining experience of today's Princess..minus the nostalgia factor*

 

If you liked traditional dining room fare but found the fixed times inconvenient and don't mind the notion of a possible wait to get in to dine depending on the size of your party, Anytime Dining might be for you.

 

*The nostalgia factor proposes that, in general, most everything was better in "the good old days".

[zurmoly]

We chose PC over traditional to tyr it out. We are a family of three. We never watied to be seated and found the service excellent.

[cruisingfreak]

We usually do Traditional dining, so it was quite a surprise when they gave us PC dining in July, on the Caribbean. We were able to get it changed back, but we had to wait until the next nite, when they would have a table available. We went up to the Caribe Cafe & it was wonderful that nite. All the lobster, crab legs & shrimp you could eat. I thought I was heaven.

 

We'll be back in July & maybe we'll do the Cafe again the first nite. Will have to tell our waiter we won't be there.

 

 

Minette

[roe2ship]

Hi there. This is my 4th cruise and my boyfriend's first. We're sailing on the Caribbean Princess on 5/21/05 and we're VERY excited. However, we're not sure whether to do Personal Choice dining or the tradional fixed seating for dinner. What do you guys think??? What are the pros and cons of both????

Thanks for your input-

Rachel ;)

 

Rachel, I am on the same cruise! Stop by at our roll call and join us.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=26772&goto=newpost

 

With Personal Choice, you can dine whenever and with whomever you want. We never waited for a table. There are two dining room on the Caribbean Princess for Personal Choice dining. Sterlings and Sabatini's has a charge......not sure of Sterlings but Sabatini's is $20.00 pp. It was wonderful.

[spongerob]

We have tried both systems. I had read many of the same horror stories about Anytime dining prior to our being assigned to it, and had the same concerns. In all honesty, it wasn't that bad, but we found that we really missed getting to know the people we were dining with and the personalized service that we received in traditional dining. At times the waiters seemed rushed and just went through the motions. I can't say that we ever had bad service in Anytime, it just didn't come up to the same standards you get in traditional.

 

The other downside to Anytime is that if you are seated with others, you have to go through the same "Where are you from, how many cruises, yada yada yada," every time you sit down. That gets old after a while. We have been fortunate and have been seated with very interesting people in traditional dining. Sometimes we've had such a great group that we have cancelled alternate dining reservations because it would be a shame to miss out on dinner.

 

There really isn't a right or wrong choice in this, however.

[KAJOKG]

MHCRUISERS - Sorry you had such a disappointing experience with PC dining. We, too, just came back from the Caribbean Princess cruise. We had PC dining and did not experience anything you describe. The service was excellent and waiters were warm and friendly. We chose the Palm Dining Room because it was larger and quieter. We choose to dine by 6:45 and never had a problem getting a table for 4 (we were with our daughter and son-in-law). We have had traditional dining on other ships and we really hate it. We feel so tied down. I do know that many like to have the personal attention you get with traditional, but I much prefer to be independent. It's one of the reasons we choose Princess.

[jcike1980]

Other than the main dining room, the Caribe Caffe, Sterlings, and Trattoria, what are the other restaurants onboard that you can dine at if you partake in Personal Choice?

 

-Rachel;)

Palm and the Coral Dining Rooms, JCIKE

[cherrymonty]

hello. my name is ericka. i am coming on this cruise, by myself, i won it on a tv talk show. I WILL NOT KNOW anyone on board, what do i need to do to get invited to "hang" out with some of you. I am 33, single, fun, and EAGER to experience my first cruise. feel free to email me at erickaparadize@yahoo. Also, what do single people do for fun on a "non-singles" cruise

[mazzy]

We just did Personal Choice on the Dawn. We really liked our waiter the second night, so we set up a standing reservation with the maitre'd for the remainder of the cruise. Really a case of having you cake and eating it too. One night when the kids joined us and our party of four doubled in size, we arranged a larger table with the same waiter and were all set to go.