Has Princess got it very wrong?

[Iamcruzin]

We are always amazed at how passengers with early sitting (and a reserved table) will queue up 15 or 20 minutes before the dining room opens its doors. But the OP needs to understand that in the US plenty of folks like to eat early. When we started crusing back in the early 70s, the late seating were always full and the early seatings empty. Now, on many ships it is just the opposite. Personally we do not care when they have early seating since we always do Late Sittings or Personal Choice. To us, cocktail time is about 7 so we certainly cannot imagine eating dinner in the late afternoon :)

 

Hank

 

I remember those days. Even booking a year in advance you were never guaranteed late seating. I always had to pre tip the Maitre D to get my early seating switched to the late seating which I requested when I booked. The passenger demographic has changed over the years as only people who are retired, unemployed or work the night shift can eat at 5:00pm at home. I grew up with my father working the night shift so we always ate between 5 and 5:30 unless we were at practice for some sport. Now with my wife and me both working full time we are lucky to be eating by 8:00pm. This defiantly works for us on a cruise because we eat at the least desirable time so there is never a wait.

[RickEk]

On Princess ships based in Australia - Sun, Dawn & Sea Princess there is NO anytime dining. Our options are 5.30pm or 8.15 traditional dining only. This thread is about the early dinig time of 5.30pm in the height of summer in a port intensive itinerary.

 

Yes, you are correct that this thread only concerns ships that are home-ported in Australia...

 

 

As you have indicated on Australia based vessels such as the Dawn etc, cultural preferences were taken into consideration. As such it was the option of Princess Cruises Australia to retain only the TD timings in the dining rooms.

 

Should the cruising masses of Australia feel differently about their needs, then their preferences should be made known to the line's head office in "Oz".

 

The 5:30 timings cut into our Platinum/Elite happy hour in Skywalkers (may be elsewhere on Oz based vessels) which goes from 5-7pm, so we choose AT.

 

If it's a cultural thing that premised the decision for TD on Oz based ships and cultural preferences have changed, then advise the cruise line. If enough do so you may somewhere down the line see positive results to your efforts.

 

Ciao for now!!!

 

BTW, when we were on Sea Princess last year, they did not have the Platinum/Elite happy hour... they said that they did not have a venue for it...

[hb1491]

I could be wrong. But I thought there were shortages of early dining times at 6 pm and that Princess created an additional 5:30 pm early seating for traditional diners in the anytime dining rooms.

 

You are correct it is additional and that dinning room used, will be an any time dinning room at 8:00pm

[HRPro]

We are confirmed for 6pm MDR seating for our Alaska cruise next June and there has been no change in our cruise personalizer.

[ILVTX]

We are also totally astounded by the sudden change to 5.30pm dining. Apart from the issues listed above, in one port, Napier, we arrive at midday and sail at 7pm. How many early diners are there going to be attending on this day?? I also wonder if Princess are aware of daylight saving, where it doesn't get dark until approx 9pm. Lastly, we are now unable to rely on booking the ships shore tours.....because we may not make it back in time to shower and dress ready for dinner.

This half hour difference will have a huge impact.

Jen and Bob

 

I just checked our itinerary for our NZ cruise in February. We have booked a tour which returns to the ship at 5:15. I'm glad it will be a "smart casual" dinner. We will have dinner in casual attire, not too sure how "smart" we will be!

 

Our personalizer also originally noted that our dinner time was 6:00, then later changed to 5:30.

 

Patsy

[amberdawn6]

Same here on Sea Princess to NZ 30/10/11, originally 6pm...now 5.30pm on cruise personaliser...no anytime dining option...

[Kinkacruiser]

On the Australian Princess ships, first sitting used to be 5.45pm and there was a waitlist for that sitting. I can't see that 15 mins will bother too many people, especially in the winter months, when that's about sunset time in the southern latitudes.

[amberdawn6]

From my perspective (first time cruiser) the 5.30pm dining option in oct/nov would have me finished dinner in time to find a quiet spot to watch the sunset at around 8pm...nice :)

fyi...second seating is 7.45pm

[Waynetor]

We are booked on the Sea Princess for both the De 8 and 16th sailing from Sydney. Our personalizer still shows 6pm. There is the option for 5:15 or 8:15.

As others noted the early times make it hard in some ports with late excursions. It's hard to understand why the Sea Princess can have anytime dinning while doing the Alaska runs but can't do it while sailing downunder.

[aussie57]

As others noted the early times make it hard in some ports with late excursions. It's hard to understand why the Sea Princess can have anytime dinning while doing the Alaska runs but can't do it while sailing downunder.

 

Good point

[mummyrose]

Open Seating

Hi all when we did the cherry blossom cruise and had late port depatures etc the dining room became open seating.....(Sun Princess) which worked out well plenty of seats for all

[Cruisin' Chick]

Since the OP didn't specify that he seemed dismayed about this applying to the Aussie cruises, I also have to point out that many of us in the US don't mind, or even prefer, dining around 5 or 5:30.

 

Most of the time when visiting a port, I've had to be back on the ship by 5 or so anyway, but if we weren't able to get back to the ship to make our assigned seating in those few exceptions, we've gone to the buffet, no problem.

 

And I do appreciate that Princess is trying to provide more availabilities for those of us who want traditional dining.

[catsforever]

Just looked at my booking summary on Sea Princess and my traditional dining time has been changed from a 6:00 to a 5:15. Called Princess and my travel agent and was told that there is no 6:00 offered only the early (YES early, is right!!) at 5:15 and the late at 7:45. Disappointed but used the anytime dining last May on Sea Princess and there was always at least a 30 minute wait. Ended up at the buffet a couple of nights. Guess I will skip lunch and eat early?

[PescadoAmarillo]

Many in the US, especially older folks, like to dine very early, at what would be a ridiculous hour for much of the world. I remember being in Barcelona and wanting to dine "late" (we thought) at 8:30pm and of course, there were no choices. I'd also say that we're more early to bed, early to rise than much of the world (agrarian roots? I don't know...). I do know I'd love to dine late on a cruise, but DH just can't. He says he can't eat and then go right to bed, and since we're usually up at dawn...well, something's got to give, and in our case we dine at 6pm and are usually in bed no later than 11pm.

 

But, I admit, implementing a 5:30pm traditional dining in one of the Anytime Dining Rooms, and also allowing TDers to go to AT whenever they want has truly screwed up AT on Princess. We now dine at 6pm every night, but in an AT dining room, as we intensely dislike the traditional dining room at the back of the Grand Class ships.

[Coral]

We are confirmed for 6pm MDR seating for our Alaska cruise next June and there has been no change in our cruise personalizer.

 

Believe me - this doesn't mean that this will be the time you will eat.

 

We had 3 choices to choose from for the Sapphire to Alaska this summer: 5:30, 6:00 and 8:15. We choose 6 pm. 6:15 or 6:30 is perfect for me. The entire time my booking said 6 pm.

 

Once we got on the ship, the Traditional dining room times were either 5:30 (with doors open at 5:15) and 8:15 I believe. So instead of getting 6 like we signed up for, all early diners got 5:30.

 

The reason we were told by a head waiter is that early diners stay late and they can't get the dining room ready on time for the late diners. I thought maybe this was a decision by the Matrde but it could be more widespread then that.

 

Personally -I can't eat late and then go to sleep. If I eat at 8:15 and go to sleep at 11:00, my stomach doesn't work that way. I also like to see the shows so I eat early so I can see the entertainment after.

 

When speaking to the head waiters - he said the demand is so huge for early dining. It used to be for late dining but in the last several years, early has dominated the dining time and they often have space available at sailing for late dining. Early dining is no longer just for older folks. It seems like many people want this.

[Coral]

[quote name='captainron']T[B]he early 5:30 traditional dining is in addition to the regularly scheduled sittings. [/B] This was instituted because there was a significant demand for it. Many people had been complaining that after the first regular scheduled TD sitting that by the time they got to the Princess Theatre for the early show all the seats were gone.

[/QUOTE]

Not on the Sapphire recently. All early dining (even in International dining room) was at 5:30 with doors opening at 5:15.

[SoBaycruiser]

I'm assuming there will not be any changes to the smaller R-ships like the Ocean Princess. We've booked a 2013 trip and don't want to eat earlier than 6 pm. Anyone know differently?

[Matcodixon]

Due to the port intensive Grand Med cruise we have booked in August, we definitely wanted late TD. It has been pushed back to 8:15 PM. We can live with that, however it would be impossible to push the early TD any later and still get the MDR turned over in time for the late one.

Simple fact. Not everyone can eat at 6:00-6:30 Pm I can just imagine the ATD lines at that time. :eek:

[The Crusher]

Course coming from different time zones 5:30pm could mean 7:30pm CDT time for our us when we travel next week on the Golden. What am I gonna do when I get up at 4:00am??? LOL! Will the disco be still open?

[Matcodixon]

[quote name='The Crusher']Course coming from different time zones 5:30pm could mean 7:30pm CDT time for our us when we travel next week on the Golden. What am I gonna do when I get up at 4:00am??? LOL! Will the disco be still open?[/quote]
Yes, 2 hours can be a bit difficult. I am not sure how we will adjust to the 9 hour difference when we get to Venice! :eek: We arrive at 9:00 am after flying for 14 hours and a 3 hour layover. It will be our midnight!

[mr green]

We enjoy dinner at 5.30pm.

john

[Aussieflyer]

We were on a short Daw Princess cruise in May with late TD but the whole traditional dining was changed to AT. Service was pretty ordinary and we were not impressed. It is possible that Princess will do the same in ports in NZ where they leave late and passengers may not be back.

[caribill]

[quote name='pvmeistrel']I'm assuming there will not be any changes to the smaller R-ships like the Ocean Princess. We've booked a 2013 trip and don't want to eat earlier than 6 pm. Anyone know differently?[/quote]

You should be OK with a 6 PM dining time.

The 5:30 TD time is for the overflow early TD which is held in one of the anytime dining rooms. The Ocean and Pacific do not have a second dining room, so there is no reason for an earlier TD dining time.

[windsor26]

[quote name='Banjo']I just returned from a 11 day Emerald Baltic cruise and had a 530 seating. No problem with us and it also appeared with the folks that sat around us. [B]Many times we arrived around 6[/B] and our table was still available.[/QUOTE]

I trust you had a table for two as arriving 30 minutes late makes it very difficult for a large table waiter and is rude to the other guests

[TorontoTL]

I like eating at 530 pm, that's perfect for my family and me.