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Your Time Dining?

taffy12

By taffy12,
in Carnival Cruise Lines

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toddlangford

toddlangford

Posted
Posted

We are defiantly trying it I think having to wait for a few minutes to seat from time to time is well worth not having to rush on port days and also on sea days not rushing to or from entertainment or other activities

 

 

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T. Advisor King

T. Advisor King

Posted
Posted
I've done ATD three times and have found we prefer traditional (early) because we have found the service consistently better. Specifically on all 3 cruises with ATD our food would arrive cool and the meal times were quite lengthy waiting for service.

 

...

 

Re the tables for 2. They are really awkward. You're so close that you can hear (very easily) the conversation at the neighboring table but you're technically not at their table. So do you join the conversation so you're not just eavesdropping? Or is that rude since you're not at their table? Very uncomfortable to me ...

 

But one thing I do greatly prefer about ATD is that its possible to time your meals to avoid the dancing waiters!

 

Out experience with YTD was quite different. We found that the service was much quicker because we weren't stuck with a waiter bogged down by trying to keep 30 passengers all at the same point of their meal at the same time. We ordered, the food arrived. No waiting for everyone else on that waiter's circuit to order. No waiting for everyone to finish his/her appetizer before the main course arrived. It was much closer to like a regular restaurant.

 

While I agree that the tables for 2 are quite close together, I never felt like I was forced to either listen to, or actively avoid listening to their conversations. To the "10 questions" poster, it was definitely not the case that it would be rude not to join their conversation. In fact, it would be rude to join their conversation without first receiving the social cues to do so.

 

I do agree it was nice avoiding the embarrassing song-and-dance routine.

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laumicmah

laumicmah

Posted
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My thoughts on dining times after 6 cruises on Carnival are:

1- the late dining is too late for us, did it once and never again

2- YTD with a larger group has a couple issues:

a- you may wait for a table, especially elegant nights and it could be a long wait

b- it may be hard to agree on when to go amongst members of group (we went with friends once who wouldn't get up and eat 1st meal until noon-ish and so they like to go to dinner around 8...we were up and at 'em around 7-8am and like to go to dinner earlier...it caused some conflict. We did a 2 day CTN with another family and had issues with dinner times then too, but it was only 2 days).

3- YTD's best time to go is 5:45-6:15ish and then 7:45-on...6:30-7:45 is BUSY with YTD.

4- I found the service can get all wonky with YTD...it just messes up their normal flow of things. We have had good service here and there, but we've had some terrible service with YTD. Just MHO! Of my 6 CCL cruises, 5 were YTD (after 1st late seating...did early seating on another cruiseline).

5- I think YTD works great for couples or smaller families...less waits (but still may wait some nights, just not as long).

 

Am about to go on 7th CCL cruise and we are going back to early seating. It will be my family of 5 and SIL's family of 3. We just think it's best to know from the get-go that we will all need to meet up at MDR at a set time.

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hoss23

hoss23

Posted
Posted

In May on the Freedom ATD was in the Chic dining room lower level. Just dont make the mistake I made. I asked someone where the "chick" dining room was and they had all to do to control their laughter. It is pronounced "sheek". Needless to say I didnt make that mistake again.

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Giantfan13

Giantfan13

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We started with anytime dining on NCL, when they first started it, and loved it ever since.

 

for us, the biggest advantage is that, like everyone else has said, you eat when you want. So on seas days you may want to eat a bit earlier you do so, you may want to take in the early show then eat, do so, you may want to stop by for a drink before dinner, you do so. Then on port days, again, you can just wander down to the main dining room when you want to. No need to feel you can't take a quick nap after a day of touring, shower, rest up. To having to rush to make that early seating.

 

 

With TD, it's the same sea days and port days and we found we like to eat at different times on those different days.

 

Cheers

 

Len

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sailincajunns

sailincajunns

Posted
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"mispronouncing it wrong" -- that's a crack-up! :D:D

Soooo, if someone is "mispronouncing it wrong", that would mean there were pronouncing it RIGHT in the first place, correct?:p

 

In any case, we fell in love with 'your time' dining when we did our first NCL cruise. Being able to work dinner into your plans, as opposed to working your plans AROUND dinner makes a huge difference for us. We've been pretty much 'just us two' since our transition to YTD. We've never had a substantial wait, but we have observed some larger groups that did seem to be waiting for a table to 'fit' their needs.

 

We've never had an issue with the 'table for two' configuration.

 

Service on CCL in the MDR is not what it was a few years ago, but we've not perceived a drastic difference between the service we get with YTD as opposed to traditional dining.

 

Hope the feedback helps. Enjoy your cruise, no matter what option you select.:rolleyes:

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