Early dining vs Traditional Dining.

[DocM4]

Can someone confirm for me that the Early Dining at 5.30 is generally held in the Donatello Dining Room (Golden Princess) and that 6.00 Traditional would be in the Canaletto.

 

Thanks

[oskidunker]

thanks

[cherylandtk]

OP said Golden Princess...;) and yes, that is the way I have seen it done. 5:30 Early-early held in Donatello; depending on size of that traditional group the room may or may not be open to Anytime diners at the same time. Sometimes it is mixed seating, sometimes it is just traditional until 8ish. Regular Early and Regular Late traditional dining in the Canaletto room.

[Jasperdo]

Yes, that's how it was on the Golden in January. This is directly from the Princess Patter:

 

Donatello - 5:30pm-7:30pm (First Seating Traditional Enhanced Dining) : 7:30pm Onwards (Anytime Dining)

Bernini - 5:30pm-10:00pm (Anytime Dining)

Canaletto - 5:45pm First Seating : 8:00pm Second Seating (Traditional Dining)

[ihopfar]

Looking at choosing Anytime Dining on a SB Alaska Cruise in 2012. My in-laws who will be traveling with us, are normally early eaters. I want as all to choose Anytime Dining so that some nights they can eat early and we can eat late, but still have the option of eating together other nights.

 

What makes me nervous is the limited availability of Anytime Dining before 7:30 because of the Early Dining. Does this make Anytime difficult for folks who want to eat early?

 

Thanks,

Brad

[Jasperdo]

 

What makes me nervous is the limited availability of Anytime Dining before 7:30 because of the Early Dining. Does this make Anytime difficult for folks who want to eat early?

 

Thanks,

Brad

I really depends. We were on a 14 day cruise on the Golden Princess in January. We ate in the Anytime Dining Room about 10 of those nights. Various times between 5:15pm and 6:45pm. (Yes, the AT Dining Room was open earlier than the stated time) Half the time we walked right in, no wait. The waits we did have varied from 5 minutes to the longest wait - 40 minutes. So there was really no rhyme or reason to the waits. Two Formal nights there was no wait at all. Yet the third Formal was our longest wait.

[cherylandtk]

Brad, Don't worry too much. Theoretically if half the cruisers ate early and half late, the early diners would all fit into the three dining rooms at the same time, 1/3 in each room. Just because two of them are assigned and one is anytime would be irrelevant. Now, if some of those don't show up until 6 or 6:30 (say half of the non-assigned diners) or if the split between early and late is not even, there might be times where a glut of diners is evident, but you would see that in the later hours in a trickle down effect. In general the system works.