Anytime dining questions

[Cruisegirl6]

HELLO,

 

We haven't ever had my time dining/anytime dining, we have a few questions as we will be on the Valor on southern caribbean cruise in May and need to decide to choose main or anytime.

 

1- For those who had the anytime dining, did you find there was a long wait for a table?

 

2- Those who had the anytime dining would you do it again?

 

3- We will be a party of 5 adults, would it be possible we have a table only for ourselves or will we be forced to share the table with other people?

 

4- Could I make reservations to have anytime dining at 7pm each night or must we just show up and wait for a table?

 

5- Which dining room do they use on the Valor for my time dining?

 

Thank you.

[A&Jfamily]

HELLO,

 

We haven't ever had my time dining/anytime dining, we have a few questions as we will be on the Valor on southern caribbean cruise in May and need to decide to choose main or anytime.

 

1- For those who had the anytime dining, did you find there was a long wait for a table?

 

2- Those who had the anytime dining would you do it again?

 

3- We will be a party of 5 adults, would it be possible we have a table only for ourselves or will we be forced to share the table with other people?

 

4- Could I make reservations to have anytime dining at 7pm each night or must we just show up and wait for a table?

 

5- Which dining room do they use on the Valor for my time dining?

 

Thank you.

 

I don't know the specifics of the Valor but based upon personal experience with ATD I would not do it with a party of 5. The ships tables aren't configured easily for parties larger than 4. So 2, 3 or 4 works great - but beyond that, you have to wait until they can put 3 tables of 2 or a 6 top opens. One time we waited over an hour for a table and other nights 20-30 minutes was often the norm. It did not seem to matter when we showed up - and no, you can't make reservations.

 

I would personally urge you to pick whichever time works best (be it early or late) on your schedules and go with traditional dining. Our family, except our first cruise where we had 5 (2 boys then 2 and 8) were seated with a family of 3 (with an 8 year old boy). In all my other cruises, we have had our own space.

[PekingeseLady]

I've done anytime many times and love it. That said if I were traveling with 4 other adults I would do Traditional. That way you don't have to get with everyone everyday for when you want to do dinner. You either show up or you decided to do something else. This makes for much less STRESS on your cruise.

[falkcor]

in response to your questions:

 

1 - i find the wait time is directly correlated to the size of your party, and of course the time you go - but more so the size of your party. group of 2 for single 2 tops - never a wait. group of 6, even with request for a specific wait team each night - one wait of not more than 10 minutes on a 7 day cruise. group of 10 - FORGETABOUT IT! lol. we always had to wait almost an hour when we tried as a group of 10 on splendor, would never want to try that again.

 

2 - yes, i'll always select anytime dining when its available. although as i mentioned above probably not with a group of 10, perhaps next time we'd trade off shifts with the kids elsewhere, etc. i still much prefer anytime dining over early / late.

 

3 - we never had a problem getting tables for our group of 6. just realize that sometimes specific requests will encounter a longer wait time. the one time we did have to wait with our group of 6 was when we requested a particular wait staff - even then it was all of 10 minutes.

 

4 - they do not accept reservations. just show up.

 

5 - anytime is in the lincoln dining room midship off the lobby on deck 3

[jeffinhouston]

Anytime dining on the Magic in December worked great for our group of 9. Only wait was on first elegant night and it was about 20 minutes. Otherwise we walked straight in without any wait and had the same table and servers.

 

Traditional dining would not have worked for our group because we never had the same group of our 9 go at the same time. Some nights, 5 of us went at 6:30 pm while the other 4 went at 8 pm. The flexibility YTD provides is great for a group.

 

No - they weren't seating people together with others - they have enough table configurations from 2 to 10-tops to handle whatever group sizes there may be.

[astropilot]

HELLO,

 

We haven't ever had my time dining/anytime dining, we have a few questions as we will be on the Valor on southern caribbean cruise in May and need to decide to choose main or anytime.

 

1- For those who had the anytime dining, did you find there was a long wait for a table?

 

2- Those who had the anytime dining would you do it again?

 

3- We will be a party of 5 adults, would it be possible we have a table only for ourselves or will we be forced to share the table with other people?

 

4- Could I make reservations to have anytime dining at 7pm each night or must we just show up and wait for a table?

 

5- Which dining room do they use on the Valor for my time dining?

 

Thank you.

 

We always do anytime dinning.

1) The wait time has always been under 10 minutes for us.

2) Yes. We have it again in April

3) should be possible. On the Freedom we were a party of 10, and they always had our table ready (the same one, a 12 top) for us within a few minutes of our showing up.

4) don't know about that.

5) don't know that either, sorry.

 

Take the anytime dinning, it's great!!

[stargate fan]

HELLO,

 

Hello.

 

We haven't ever had my time dining/anytime dining, we have a few questions as we will be on the Valor on southern caribbean cruise in May and need to decide to choose main or anytime.

 

1- For those who had the anytime dining, did you find there was a long wait for a table?

 

We befriended two couples on our Legend cruise in August. After the third night we switched from assigned dining to Your Time dining so we could eat with our new friends. We agreed to meet every night at 6:30 and never encountered a wait.

 

2- Those who had the anytime dining would you do it again?

 

Only if we went with friends. We would book assigned dining if we sailed alone. Of course, if we made friends with people who had Your Time dining, we'd switch again. :D

 

3- We will be a party of 5 adults, would it be possible we have a table only for ourselves or will we be forced to share the table with other people?

 

Yes, you can have a table to yourselves. Just ask the maitre d' when you go into the dining room.

Every time we checked in on Legend, we always were seated at a table for just the six of us.

 

4- Could I make reservations to have anytime dining at 7pm each night or must we just show up and wait for a table?

 

No reservations. First come, first serve only.

 

5- Which dining room do they use on the Valor for my time dining?

 

Can't help with Valor as we haven't sailed her yet.

 

Thank you.

 

You're welcome.

 

We always used to request late assigned dining, until we tried Your Time and loved it.

 

Have a great cruise.

Edited January 13, 2015 by stargate fan

[cefm]

Your time dining was in the Lincon

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Lovefuninthesun]

HELLO,

 

We haven't ever had my time dining/anytime dining, we have a few questions as we will be on the Valor on southern caribbean cruise in May and need to decide to choose main or anytime.

 

1- For those who had the anytime dining, did you find there was a long wait for a table? The only night we waited at all was the first formal night, about 45 minutes. But that was partly because we ate a little later, we requested a table for 2, and a specific waiter. The other nights -- even though we had the same requests -- we walked right in.

 

2- Those who had the anytime dining would you do it again? Yes! I will never do traditional dining again if I can help it!

3- We will be a party of 5 adults, would it be possible we have a table only for ourselves or will we be forced to share the table with other people? You can request a table by yourselves. You might have to wait, however.

4- Could I make reservations to have anytime dining at 7pm each night or must we just show up and wait for a table? No reservations

 

5- Which dining room do they use on the Valor for my time dining? Sorry, dunno

Thank you.

 

See my answers in red.

[westcruzer]

I enjoy traditional seating so we have the same servers. They get to know our style and requests which makes us feel we are getting special treatment. IMHO the anytime dining I feel as though the service is not as good because they have no vested interest.

[stargate fan]

I enjoy traditional seating so we have the same servers. They get to know our style and requests which makes us feel we are getting special treatment. IMHO the anytime dining I feel as though the service is not as good because they have no vested interest.

 

On Legend, we were able to request the same dining staff every night. We received much better service than on our two days at assigned dining, pre-switch.

[georgiacruizer]

We started out with YTD on our recent Glory cruise. We didn't have to wait long to get a table, but our wait to receive our food was ridiculous! We switched to early seating (in the same dining room one floor up). Each night we noticed people who were seated below us in YTD around the same time we were. We would be getting our main course, and they were just receiving their appetizers!

[JMHAM1]

I'm struggling with this. We are a family of 8....6 kids. We usually cruise NCL because they have the Freestyle and we never know what to expect for dinner time. I can't imagine me wanting to make a certain time with everyone. That being said, our 4 y/o won't really want to sit for a 2 hour meal. I know we probably won't eat dinner in the MDR every night so I hesitated booking a "seating" because I would hate to see one of their big tables be empty.

 

A long wait doesn't work for us either. Restless kids and restless hubby!

 

I feel like the early seating is too early to get everyone presentable on port days and the late seating is way too late for the littles. Are we doomed to the buffet?

 

What do y'all think?

[Yellowbird75]

We have done ATD every cruise and loved it. We have never had any wait other than the line to get to the Maitre d. We have always been seated immediately and on our own. Not sure how it is with 5 adults as it has always just been the 2 of us. We love it because you can fit dinner in wherever you want, rather than having to watch the clock, and still get the great food in the dining room instead of eating at the buffet. No reservations as far a I know, you just show up.

[Cruisegirl6]

Im still debating what to do keep traditional early or go for anytime dining....on the other hand, we can eat at the steakhouse three nights instead of two that I was thinking about and one evening we are planning on having dinner at a restaurant in Aruba since the ship is there till 10pm, with this being said, it only leaves us three nights in the main dining room which I think we may keep our traditional early seating. :rolleyes:

[Arizonagirl14]

Just back from the Valor December 28th Cruise from San Juan. We had ATD and loved it. It was out first time. The very first night we found a waitstaff that we liked and asked for them the 4 nights we dined in the Lincoln room. They were great and I saw no difference in this and set time dining except the flexibility to dine we we wanted.

 

We never had to wait any of the 4 nights, and we dined at various time( anytime between 6:15 and 7:45 pm).

 

We were served promptly and did not encounter slow service as some have discussed in previous posts.

 

 

 

 

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[turning40withMickey]

I'm struggling with this. We are a family of 8....6 kids. We usually cruise NCL because they have the Freestyle and we never know what to expect for dinner time. I can't imagine me wanting to make a certain time with everyone. That being said, our 4 y/o won't really want to sit for a 2 hour meal. I know we probably won't eat dinner in the MDR every night so I hesitated booking a "seating" because I would hate to see one of their big tables be empty.

 

A long wait doesn't work for us either. Restless kids and restless hubby!

 

I feel like the early seating is too early to get everyone presentable on port days and the late seating is way too late for the littles. Are we doomed to the buffet?

 

What do y'all think?

 

I think you'll be fine.

We had ATD with a group of 7 last year and it worked out great. We didn't always have 7, but at least 5 every night and we never waited more than a few minutes.

We were also used to freestyle with NCL but had no problems whatsoever with ATD.

[SBthud326]

I have done ATD with both my Carnival cruises, including the Valor. Absolutely LOVE it. I have been with 2 of us and with 3 of us (so I know, smaller parties make it easier), but have never had a wait, and we have gone at all different times. Both cruises we found a wait staff in the first night or two that we loved and then requested their section each night after. The hosts knew us quickly and knew where we wanted to sit. I love the flexibility that you get, especially with the port days.

Edited January 14, 2015 by SBthud326

[trvlgirlmq]

I have traveled as a family of 4, 5 and 8. We have always done ATD. I have waited once with a pager in my 4 cruises. We tend to go to dinner about 7 and usually ask for the same servers and it's never an issue. We are always seated alone. They have big round tables for 8-10 if you are a larger group. On Dream we always sat at a round table for 6 (there were 5 of us). I would never want to be tied to a specific dinner time.

[serene56]

I think traditional for a group- only because there is no going back and forth with what time should we meet for dinner.. the time is already set.

 

the waiter gets to know what you like.

--

but if you do decide on Anytime-- the hostess will ask if you want a table for just you or do you want a larger table

 

No one forces you to do anything you do not want--- on any cruiselines

[LPYRCRUISER]

Anytime dining on the Magic in December worked great for our group of 9. Only wait was on first elegant night and it was about 20 minutes. Otherwise we walked straight in without any wait and had the same table and servers.

 

Traditional dining would not have worked for our group because we never had the same group of our 9 go at the same time. Some nights, 5 of us went at 6:30 pm while the other 4 went at 8 pm. The flexibility YTD provides is great for a group.

 

No - they weren't seating people together with others - they have enough table configurations from 2 to 10-tops to handle whatever group sizes there may be.

 

There will be six of us on our cruise in February. We booked last minute and this is our first experience with YTD. Just curious which dining room is used

[happy cruzin]

I don't know the specifics of the Valor but based upon personal experience with ATD I would not do it with a party of 5. The ships tables aren't configured easily for parties larger than 4. So 2, 3 or 4 works great - but beyond that, you have to wait until they can put 3 tables of 2 or a 6 top opens. One time we waited over an hour for a table and other nights 20-30 minutes was often the norm. It did not seem to matter when we showed up - and no, you can't make reservations.

 

I would personally urge you to pick whichever time works best (be it early or late) on your schedules and go with traditional dining. Our family, except our first cruise where we had 5 (2 boys then 2 and 8) were seated with a family of 3 (with an 8 year old boy). In all my other cruises, we have had our own space.

 

 

OP - I can't speak for the Valor either.....but on the Breeze a table for you group would not have been a problem. They tended to seat an entire section at a time so they would have seated you - at a table alone if that's your wish - as they filled that particular section.

DH and I have only done ATD a couple of times - but have certainly enjoyed the flexibility. They only wait for us was about 10 minutes the first Elegant night on the Breeze. But - silly us - we went right at 7:00! :rolleyes: If we had hung out at the bar and enjoyed a cocktail first they probably would have not been a wait at all. ;)

Edited January 14, 2015 by happy cruzin