Anytime Dining

[scaaty]

My DH is a traditionalist who is worried about anytime dining. We're currently waitlisted for late seating, but doubtful we will get it. So far all of the posts I've read have been positive about anytime dining and I'm trying to assure DH that it's a really good idea.

 

Any feedback, positive or not is most appreciated.

 

Thanks!!!!!!!!!

[coiran]

Works for us!!

 

Ron

[dlp252]

I can't compare with the traditional dining because I've only done the Anytime. I can say that the Anytime dining rooms are very nice and the food was very good.

[PescadoAmarillo]

We really like anytime dining. When we are on cruise lines that don't offer it, we enjoy doing the traditional thing, but on Princess we always opt for anytime dining because it makes for a MUCH more relaxing cruise experience. Here are the things we like best about it:

 

-On the nights we're sailing away from a port, we generally hang out at the hot tub during sailaway, and feel no pressure to have to go in and get ready for dinner.

 

-If we don't feel like doing a full-blown dinner, we can eat in the Horizon Court or room service, and don't feel like we're "standing up" our tablemates.

 

-We don't ever start out by making reservations. That way, we look at the Patter each day and decide first on the show or shows we want to see, or look at what time the sunset will be and plan our dining time each evening around that.

 

-If we encounter a waiter that is really excellent, we may begin to make reservations each day, in the morning, for his/her table, again planning around the shows and/or sunsets; otherwise, we just head for the dining room when we're ready to eat.

 

-Even without reservations, we've never waited more than 20 minutes for dinner (you get a beeper and can go and shop, go out on deck and watch the sunset, have a drink, etc.)

 

-When we make new friends during the cruise, we are free to make dinner plans with them; we're not locked in to dining with the same people every night.

 

-We meet a lot more people with anytime dining...sometimes it "hits" and we end up dining with them again, othertimes it doesn't, but, again, we have options.

 

-Sometime we'll eat dinner early, but skip dessert, go to a show or two, and head back to the dining room again late just for coffee and dessert.

 

-Anytime dining is much more like the way we eat at home...we don't eat at any one time at home; why should we on a cruise?

 

Bottom line...no pressure, no timetables.

 

The downside:

 

-I don't think, in general, that service in anytime dining is as good as traditional dining. However, saying that, I found the service on our 30 night Sapphire Princess cruise to be outstanding in all the restaurants, and we have always had at least one or two very good or excellent waiters on every Princess cruise.

[scaaty]

JMB

Thanks for your wonderful reply! You definitely got DH thinking it may be a good thing!:) :) :)

[kickerbear]

Does anyone know if the menu is the same as in the main dining room?? I have heard that "when the main dining room has Lobster or crab it is not available for anytime dining??" Is this correct?? I am not sure and this will be the first time we will be cruising with Princess??

 

thanks,

[cherylandtk]

Menu is the same, do not fret.

[kickerbear]

Thank you....

[CruiseFever]

JMB- nicely put!

[sunluva7]

The next best thing to traditional dining is a standing reservation each night in one of the PC dining rooms. Our family of 6 began the week on Saturday night in the Palm dining room on the CB and loved our waiter so much that we reserved the table for the rest of the week. The nice thing about this plan is that if you choose to eat in an alternative dining room one night, then you just let them know you won't be needing the table that night. It was perfect for us. :)

[804]

Hello,

 

We tried PC diining the Golden and it worked well. We were able to get a table for 2 with very little wait time. Additionally,later in the week, we were able to fix into a time and a waitstaff that we favored.

 

However on the Diamond IT DID NOT WORK WELL AT ALL. When we called for a reservation we were told that we could have 6:15 or 8:15... Sounds more like Tradional dining to me???? There were times when we had to take our chances and walk-in. We waited a long time or had to take a table that was less than desirable to us.

 

So, sailing again on Golden Oct22 and we will take our chances on the PC dining once again. We do like the concept when it works!!!!!.:) :cool:

 

804

[Ninjachyck]

We loved it on the Dawn...we are definitely "port" people, so we usually didn't get back to the ship until 4:30, then head to our stateroom, relax, take a swim/hot tub, and then get ready for dinner. We usually didn't head down until about 8:30, and it was great! We always had the option of just the 2 of us, or joining up with others.

We wanted anytime dining on this cruise, but the Tahitian doesn't offer it. So, the late seating it is!

[cjh]

We love PC never waited more then 5 minutes even when the ship is full.

[cynbar]

We have tried both traditional and anytime dining, and we prefer anytime for all the reasons listed so clearly above. Sometimes the service is not as good, but we always remember we're not tied into those waiters. We have also had times when we found good waiters and a good table, then just requested them the rest of the week (no need to reserve for this, just tell the maitre d' when you walk up to the DR and he will estimate how long the wait will be.) Traditional can work very well, but it really requires a good table and waiter and congenial tablemates. We have occasionally had cruises when at least one or more of those aspects weren't present, and it can make for a lengthy week (I know we could have requested a change, but it was never a disaster and we hesitated to offend our tablemates.) But, the flexibility of dining when you're ready is still the biggest seller for anytime dining!!

[mii]

We love anytime dining and we also never had to wait, make reservations etc. When we felt like eating we did. Now of course we are normally early eaters so it was never a problem. If it was ever a problem in the dining room we just went to the buffet, or ended up with a pizza. Honestly you sure do not starve on a ship.

 

Marilyn

[atlcple2]

We had Personal Choice Dining (or Anytime Dining) last week on the CB and loved it! I think that initially they may have had kinks to work out when they first started on this ship, but we never had to wait for a table. We went usually around 8pm-8:30pm in the Palm Dining Room. Good service. It was just the 2 of us and they sat us at a table for 2 half the time and asked if we minded sitting with others, which we didn't, so we shared a table the other half of the time. We met many lovely people and it was nice to have the choice. We didn't try the other dining room as we were pleased with the Palm. We were in the back of the ship so it was very convenient.