Sapphire - Personal Choice Dining - Yet Another Change

[Golfette]

I just heard that on Sapphire & perhaps other personal choice dining ships they are only accepting reservations for the times 5:30 to about 6:20. Has anyone else heard anything about this? Things seem to change on these ships on a daily basis. It makes it hard to plan when you're with a large group.

[merela]

on board the Diamond and Sapphire.

 

PC dining means you can dine any time in the PC dining rooms and not restricted to the early seating and late seating of the Traditional Dining Rooms.

 

If you don't want to risk the waiting time during peak hours at night, and if you want a table for a specific number of people (2, 4, 6, 8, or 10) and you don't want to share a table, I would recommend that you made reservations as soon as you board the ship. Just call D.I.N.E. The catch is that you can make reservations for 6pm or 8pm. They give you a little break by giving you an extra 20 minutes, so essentially you can make reservation at 6:15pm the latest. No one is going to give your table away at 5:30pm if you reserved a table at 6pm. So if you have a reservation for 6:15pm, you can go there between 5:30pm-6:20pm without your table being given away. Another reservation time is 8pm. So essentially, you can only make reservations around the same time as early seating or late seating.

 

You may feel that it's forcing you to accept early seating or late seating even if you have signed up for PC dining. You can always make reservations and cancel or change it later. You can't do that if you have traditional seatings.

 

A couple of times, our kids were still napping when 6pm rolled around and we were going to miss our 6pm PC dining room reservation. We just cancelled it and went to the dining room at 7:30 after the kids woke up. If you don't mind sharing a table with other people, you'll be seated quickly, even during peak dining hours. At 7pm, it'll be impossible to find a table for 2 just by walking up to the PC dining room.

 

Another good thing about PC dining room is that after having early dinner with my kids at 5:30pm, I send them to the kids' club at 7pm, then DH and I can go back to the PC dining room again and enjoy the dinner again at a leisurely pace (or just for desserts).

 

I love the anytime dining concept. I just wish they had kept the 4 themed dining rooms.

[CruiseFever]

Yes, nothing new on that as noted above

 

If you're with a large group and have the option, you really do need Traditional Fixed Dining. Anytime Dining is just not set up for large groups as hard as they try.

 

If Traditional is not an option plan on eating early or late. Large groups are just asking for a headache if they think they're going to walk into an Anytime Dining room at 7:00 and sit right down. It's really just too complicated to happen all the time, there are too many variables working against them.

 

If you have that kind of luck you're in the wrong room...you should be in the casino!

 

That's not to mention that the quality of your dining experience may suffer.

 

Here's an example:

 

If it's a large group they're not going to all sit at the same table and unlike a land based restaurant they can't push the tables together, they're bolted to the floor. When served, everyone may not be served as close to all at once as with a smaller group. If that's the case and all the tablemates have good manners, they wait until all are served. By the time all are served, somebody's soup might not be as hot as it would have been otherwise. By the time they get back home and write a review, they've forgotten that they were a part of a large, more challenging to serve, group. All we hear is that the soup was not as hot as it should have been compared to their previous cruises. The fact that the previous cruises were with 3 other people rather than 23 doesn't make it in to the review.

 

If they know a large group is coming they can better plan ahead. Cruise ship kitchens are set up to serve a LOT of meals at the same time. That's not the potential problem. The challenge is getting it all down on the table at once and keeping a nice flow between courses.

 

They really do try hard, and are very good at it. But what keeps them awake at night is the thought that all that person who got their soup first who thinks is that the soup was cold and it took too long between courses .

 

Does that make sense?

[JanMD]

We just got off on Sunday.

We never had problems with coming in. We had the time as 6:15 and then had to push it up to 6 and then the last night it was around 7:30- no problem with coming in. We ate at the Savoy rest.

Jan

[Pam in CA]

We just got off on Sunday.

We never had problems with coming in. We had the time as 6:15 and then had to push it up to 6 and then the last night it was around 7:30- no problem with coming in. We ate at the Savoy rest.

How large was your group?

[Golfette]

Thanks so much for your comments. We have a group of 10 and were planning on making reservations at each dining room for the full 7 nites as soon as we got aboard for about 6:45 or so. What I am gathering from your comments is that we'll have to eat by at least 6:15, if we're lucky, every nite or wait til after 8 which is really too late for us. Also, that in all probability we won't be able to eat together and/or if we do eat together, some of us will get our food before the others. I guess we are going to have to rethink our whole group plan. This is rather disappointing as when we read all the descriptive brochures on the various cruise lines before selecting Princess, the description of Personal Choice as when and where you want is very misleading. Just another example of Buyer Beware. :(

[Pam in CA]

Golfette... I understand your frustration and agree with you that the terminology of "Anytime" dining is very misleading. For the most part, any group of up to 4 people really can show up and eat at any time. That's true and as advertised. It's when you have a larger group that needs to be accommodated at a large table that it gets complicated.

 

Just like at any fine restaurant, when you have a party of 10, you can't show up and expect to be seated right away. And, popular restaurants I'm familiar with don't accept reservations during peak times. That pretty much the case with Anytime dining.

 

My suggestion is that when you board the ship, go to the Maitre D (one will be in one of the dining rooms making reservation changes) and explain that you have a large group and what can he do to help make your vacation the best possible experience.

[bdjam]

Thanks so much for your comments. We have a group of 10 and were planning on making reservations at each dining room for the full 7 nites as soon as we got aboard for about 6:45 or so. What I am gathering from your comments is that we'll have to eat by at least 6:15, if we're lucky, every nite or wait til after 8 which is really too late for us. Also, that in all probability we won't be able to eat together and/or if we do eat together, some of us will get our food before the others. I guess we are going to have to rethink our whole group plan. This is rather disappointing as when we read all the descriptive brochures on the various cruise lines before selecting Princess, the description of Personal Choice as when and where you want is very misleading. Just another example of Buyer Beware. :(

I agree with Pam – rather than viewing the situation as one where Princess has sold you something other than what you expected, talk to the Matre’d when you get on the ship. Given the size of your group, my guess is that he will work something out for you. Of course you need to approach it as you’re asking for help – not like you’re complaining about how Anytime Dining works…you can catch more flies with sugar…

[Golfette]

Pam & pdjam, you are so right! We will contact the Maitre' D 1st on & see what can be done. Otherwise we'll break into 2 groups, I guess. Thanks very much for your help!

 

Lisa

[Pam in CA]

Another suggestion: if you're planning to go to a specialty restaurant, make a reservation as soon as possible after boarding. When we were on the CB last New Year's, the Sterling Steakhouse was completely full and had no reservations available in just 24 hours.

[M&M CRUZERS]

We just got off of the Diamond last saturday. It was just the 2 of us but we never had to wait at all in any of the restaurants. We would go between 6:30 and 7:30 each evening but there was NEVER any wait at all. We did do Sterlings on the first formal evening with a reservation at 7:30 and not a problem. We even crashed the international dining room(traditional dining) on the last night and ate with new friends that had main dining time. Not a problem even that night, the waiter just put out 2 exta settngs. Entire wait staff very accommodating.