Anytime dining on the Ruby

[ambelina]

We have signed up for early traditional dining on the Ruby for our October cruise but we usually don't like the early seating because of late returns from port. The late seating is too late for us. We have been doing anytime dining now for many years but on our last 2 cruises, it was very disorganized. For those that have recently sailed on the Ruby, have you found AD to have long lines, long waits or general disorganization? We really prefer AD for the flexability. Thanks

[dasi11]

A friend sailed recently on Ruby in the Caribbean, and said it was a nightmare. I am on Ruby soon and I have signed up for anytime dining. I tried to change to early but it is full... I hope they finally have it worked out when I sail on Ruby in June.....

[Pam in CA]

If people are coming back onboard late from tours, then the Anytime dining room will be very crowded with long lines/waits unless you eat early. There's just so much the Maitre d' can do if everyone shows up at once wanting to be seated. Add to that the people from early Traditional going to Anytime because they missed their early dinner.

[OCruisers]

The can call the DINE LINE and make reservations for Anytime. :)

LuLu

[ambelina]

If people are coming back onboard late from tours, then the Anytime dining room will be very crowded with long lines/waits unless you eat early. There's just so much the Maitre d' can do if everyone shows up at once wanting to be seated. Add to that the people from early Traditional going to Anytime because they missed their early dinner.

 

We have always eaten at approximately the same time and we are always willing to share. We never had to wait or at least not long until our last 2 cruises. We even saw irate people telling off the Maitre d' and being let in before anyone else which didn't make for happy calm diners. Some of the wait times were 45 minutes to an hour. I don't know if the reservation system is making the system not work as well or maybe there are just more people signing up for anytime dining. I wondered if this is a problem on all ships or just the Royal (inaugural Caribbean) and the Sapphire which is where we had the problem. We love Princess but not sure about the dining. :confused:

[bhopal21]

Anytime was a mess on our B2B on the Ruby in February.

 

We only ate in the dining room one time due to the wait.

 

That is one of the drawbacks to the larger ships, the same size dining rooms, theatres etc with more passengers.

 

Mike:)

[MetmanOne]

I just returned from the Ruby and had no problems with any time dining. I ate between 5:30 and 6:00 PM and never had to wait. I always shared a table. Just ask to be not seated at the large table for ten unless you are not in a hurry. Eating early, I was able to make the 7:00 PM activity in the Showroom. There were people in line waiting in the no reservation line when I left the dining room.

 

Ron

[Pam in CA]

If you eat early, of course you won't have a wait as the tables aren't full and you don't have to wait for them to turn over. That goes without saying.

 

However, if you're back on the ship a little later due to a tour, you could very much experience long waits. Once all the tables are filled, space is dependent on turnover, people finishing and leaving.

 

IMHO, reservations screw up the timing of turnover. Not the fact of reservations themselves but because of people: they come late or even are no-shows.

 

As long as Princess allows passengers with Traditional dining to go to the Anytime dining room, Anytime will never work well.

Edited May 19, 2014 by Pam in CA

[bhopal21]

reservations screw up the timing of turnover. Not the fact of reservations themselves but because of people: they come late or even are no-shows.

 

As long as Princess allows passengers with Traditional dining to go to the Anytime dining room, Anytime will never work well.

 

I could not agree more!

 

Mike:)

[dorisis]

No more ATD for us. It was very disorganized on our last cruise on Royal. So, it's back to Traditional for us.

[san diego sue]

Another big problem is allowing people to have a fixed table the whole cruise in anytime dining. This really cuts down on the seating available for anytime dining people. On our last cruise on the Island Princess, more than half the dining room had fixed diners. We were one of them. Unfortunately friends we were traveling with saw the Matre'D first day

and changed us to this situation. I didn't like it, had to eat at 5:15

but didn't want to allienate our friends so went along with this.

I have seen this happening on other ships as well. We prefer eating anytime.

[waltd]

Our situation was a bit different then San Diego Sue. We were also on the Island and had asked for early Traditional. After the fact we found out that we were put in Any Time Dining with a set time each night. I did not care for this arrangement. There was not the same type of service that you would have received in Traditional. Our servers were constantly going back and forth to new tables that arrived during the seating. There was a bit of a wait during courses due to this. If there is a next time and the same situation arises I will try to get to a true Traditional dining room. We still had a great time and met some nice people.

[dasi11]

I don't understand why anyone in traditional dining would be allowed in ATD? It adds to the problem..... maybe everyone should just sign up for traditional dining and do ATD anyway? Better yet, make the whole dining room ATD with a certain floor to report to? I think I need to change to traditional dining and go on time to enjoy my cruise...

[flamomo]

No matter what their Captain's Circle loyalty level or cabin category is, people who get back too late from being ashore to make it to their assigned Traditional Dining time, should do one of 3 things .... go to the buffet for dinner, go to one of the alternative dining restaurants, or order room service.

 

Actually, there's a 4th alternative ..... go up on the Lido deck to either the Pizza place or the Burger grill to eat.

 

The one thing they should NOT do is try to go into one of the Anytime Dining rooms. Leave those seating spaces for people who are actually assigned to those dining rooms.

[insidecabin]

On our Emerald trip we only had a big line once on deck 6, I ran down to the other restaurant on deck 5 no line at all so we just went there.

 

They operated 3 fixed sittings with the deck 5 dining room doing the very early 5:00(ish) seating and then reverted to anytime.

 

If we arrived after 8:30 there was loads of table and no line so could not even share most nights.

 

ON the ruby in 2 weeks will try to remember to report back.

 

If we do hit a problems we will just adapt our dinning time and not be part of te problem. It's not like we are going to go hungry.

[mskaufman]

We were on Ruby last June. We never had a problem getting a table for 4 at the time we wanted. We did generally call for a reservation.

[Steviewonder1]

We were on the Ruby last October in the Eastern Med and never had a problem getting to our early dinning reservation. Book your excursions with 4 or 5 star companies not Princess. You get small groups and they will get you back to the ship 1 hour before sailing, which in almost all cases occurs about the time of early dinning, with the exception of overnight stays in port.

[marazad16]

We did a B2B on The Ruby in January and did anytime dining - loved it! We tend to be late eaters so had no issues what so ever. We did eat in the specialty restaurants 4 days out of 10.

[karena1]

As long as Princess allows passengers with Traditional dining to go to the Anytime dining room, Anytime will never work well.

 

 

Totally Agree!! On Royal Caribbean and Celebrity if you sign up for traditional dining you cannot go to flexible dining and that is the way it should be. We never make reservations on those lines and we rarely if ever wait. When we were on Ruby in Jan the lines were crazy and like others we ended up only eating in the dining room 2 nights and went to the buffet the other nights. Until I read this I was unaware that they allowed traditional diners to come in Anytime Dining. Now I understand why it is so disorganized

 

We never eat early, usually went down there between 7:30 and 8:30. Everyone we talked to complained about the lines. The thing was, once we did get in to dinner, there were tons of empty tables. Tells me either not enough staff or they mix Anytime with Traditional diners and that should not happen. Anytime dining should have a separate dining area and only Anytime diners should be allowed to go there. That would help fix the issues they have.

 

We go on Ruby again in Dec and hopefully it will be better this time. If not, we will end up in the buffet a bunch also. We don't mind waiting a little bit, but when the line is that crazy and no one seems to have any organization, there is not use standing there and waiting.

Edited May 20, 2014 by karena1

[Aquahound]

I gotta say. ATD was a disaster on my Ruby cruise a couple months ago. Lost reservation one night and a 45 minute wait the other, and it was to the buffet for dinner on the third...never to return to the MDR.

 

It was my first Princess cruise and it didn't leave a good dining impression. I'm on the CB this weekend and I pray it's better.

[bhopal21]

I gotta say. ATD was a disaster on my Ruby cruise a couple months ago. Lost reservation one night and a 45 minute wait the other, and it was to the buffet for dinner on the third...never to return to the MDR.

 

It was my first Princess cruise and it didn't leave a good dining impression. I'm on the CB this weekend and I pray it's better.

 

Thanks for relaying your experience Paul as I remembered it was not good. We also only ate in the MDR once during our B2B because our table for 2 was more like a table for 20 with only inches separating them.

 

Mike:)

[Aquahound]

Thanks for relaying your experience Paul as I remembered it was not good. We also only ate in the MDR once during our B2B because our table for 2 was more like a table for 20 with only inches separating them.

 

Mike:)

 

Hi Mike. :) Oh yeah, don't even get me started on that long bench seat with only a foot of clearance between tables!

 

This cruise coming up is only 3 nights and I got my military OBC, so if the CB dining room is set up the same, we may just forego the MDR all together. We were planning on eating specialty at least one night anyways.

[bhopal21]

Hi Mike. :) Oh yeah, don't even get me started on that long bench seat with only a foot of clearance between tables!

 

This cruise coming up is only 3 nights and I got my military OBC, so if the CB dining room is set up the same, we may just forego the MDR all together. We were planning on eating specialty at least one night anyways.

 

You had a foot of clearance?:rolleyes: I'm jealous. lol

 

We mostly ate at the Crown Grill after that and it was very good.

 

I will be interested to hear about your CB cruise.

 

Mike:)

[marazad16]

Thanks for relaying your experience Paul as I remembered it was not good. We also only ate in the MDR once during our B2B because our table for 2 was more like a table for 20 with only inches separating them.

 

Mike:)

 

I totally forgot about that! Really disliked that.

[insidecabin]

We never eat early, usually went down there between 7:30 and 8:30. Everyone we talked to complained about the lines. The thing was, once we did get in to dinner, there were tons of empty tables. Tells me either not enough staff or they mix Anytime with Traditional diners and that should not happen. Anytime dining should have a separate dining area and only Anytime diners should be allowed to go there. That would help fix the issues they have.

 

On Emerald and my understanding it is fairly standard

 

One room traditional 2 seatings

One room very early seating followed by anytime

One room Anytime.

 

http://www.princess.com/learn/onboard/food_dining/Dining_Options.pdf

 

We tend to eat a little later and never had the problem, the one day it was bad we went down stairs and no line walked straight in I checked a couple of other times and again no line

 

I wonder if people are unaware there are TWO anytime rooms they can use and are not checking both.

 

Be interesting on our Ruby trip in June, I might even make it a project to monitor the Anytime dining.