Fix Anytime Dining

[Cruisin' Chick]

Any video or pictures? :confused:

 

:p He's shifted his schedule as he's been getting up at dawn. Yep, he's now retired but he's been renovating a house several days a week in the morning hours before it gets too hot.

 

when I come home from the meeting I'm about to go off to, he'll be asleep.

[bigenna]

Another possible scenario regarding early TD diners "missing" their assigned dining time : they booked their cruise on line, picked from the available choices and chose 6 pm, and were confirmed for that time.

Fast forward to the first night on the cruise - showed up at six only to be told their table was gone - no explanation, just an annoyed look from the head waiter.

Next night, arrived ten minutes "early" at 5:50, only to be told angrily that you need to be on time if you want your assigned seating to be held. Ouch! Finally get told there is no 6 pm dining time - it is at 5:15 - check your card!

This happened to us earlier in our cruising days. We did not scrutinize every word on our cruise card and had no reason to believe that the dining time we had confirmed would be changed without someone advising us of this change.

Princess needs to take some responsibility for the inconsistencies in the way this whole dining issue is handled.

[Times Prince]

Another possible scenario regarding early TD diners "missing" their assigned dining time : they booked their cruise on line, picked from the available choices and chose 6 pm, and were confirmed for that time.

Fast forward to the first night on the cruise - showed up at six only to be told their table was gone - no explanation, just an annoyed look from the head waiter.

Next night, arrived ten minutes "early" at 5:50, only to be told angrily that you need to be on time if you want your assigned seating to be held. Ouch! Finally get told there is no 6 pm dining time - it is at 5:15 - check your card!

This happened to us earlier in our cruising days. We did not scrutinize every word on our cruise card and had no reason to believe that the dining time we had confirmed would be changed without someone advising us of this change.

Princess needs to take some responsibility for the inconsistencies in the way this whole dining issue is handled.

It happened to us on our last cruise. CONFIRMED Traditional at 6:00PM, arrived onboard to see our cards had a table at 5:00 dining. Went to Maitre'D first day. No seating available at 5:45PM (the revised 6:00 PM seating). We ended up with Anytime Dining, and ate in the Horizon Court most nights, because when we would arrive at 7:15 or so, there was a wait list.

[seafish]

Princess does check cards before entering MDR

[Cruise Junky]

Princess does check cards before entering MDR

 

only occasionally. Definitely not on a regular basis.

[JimmyVWine]

Another possible scenario regarding early TD diners "missing" their assigned dining time : they booked their cruise on line, picked from the available choices and chose 6 pm, and were confirmed for that time.

Fast forward to the first night on the cruise - showed up at six only to be told their table was gone - no explanation, just an annoyed look from the head waiter.

Next night, arrived ten minutes "early" at 5:50, only to be told angrily that you need to be on time if you want your assigned seating to be held. Ouch! Finally get told there is no 6 pm dining time - it is at 5:15 - check your card!

Understood. But what happens next is important. Either the passenger acquiesces and takes the newly assigned time, or they reject it and switch to Anytime. Requests to switch from TD to ATD are never refused. So if the passenger makes the switch, from that point forward they are not a TD diner crashing the ATD MDR. They are an ATD diner showing up for dinner. To wit...

 

It happened to us on our last cruise. CONFIRMED Traditional at 6:00PM, arrived onboard to see our cards had a table at 5:00 dining...We ended up with Anytime Dining

[floridalover5623]

only occasionally. Definitely not on a regular basis.

 

They usually only check at the beginning of a cruise & figure the people will know where to go by the third day or so.

 

Understood. But what happens next is important. Either the passenger acquiesces and takes the newly assigned time, or they reject it and switch to Anytime. Requests to switch from TD to ATD are never refused. So if the passenger makes the switch, from that point forward they are not a TD diner crashing the ATD MDR. They are an ATD diner showing up for dinner. To wit...

 

And then the preassigned seat in traditional dining goes unused for the rest of the voyage with two more people added permanently to anytime dining.

[JimmyVWine]

And then the preassigned seat in traditional dining goes unused for the rest of the voyage with two more people added permanently to anytime dining.

Yes! Finally! Somebody gets it. The TD seats go unused. The TD dining room starts to look empty. And the people who show up at the ATD dining room are actually assigned to be there, either from the outset our because they made a change. This doesn't make the people who switch "crashers", "rule breakers", "cheats" or a scoundrels. Does this add to the wait time at the ATD MDRs? Yes. Does this result in the TD MDR being underused? Yes again. But it doesn't mean that: "I had to wait an hour in line at the ATD MDR because hundreds of people with TD were bucking the system and crashing my dining room."

Edited October 4, 2016 by JimmyVWine

[floridalover5623]

Yes! Finally! Somebody gets it. The TD seats go unused. The TD dining room starts to look empty. And the people who show up at the ATD dining room are actually assigned to be there, either from the outset our because they made a change. This doesn't make the people who switch "crashers", "rule breakers", "cheats" or a scoundrels. Does this add to the wait time at the ATD MDRs? Yes. Does this result in the TD MDR being underused? Yes again. But it doesn't mean that: "I had to wait an hour in line at the ATD MDR because hundreds of people with TD were bucking the system and crashing my dining room."

 

I suspect that's why they don't force the TD diners to switch immediately to AT seating if they do want to eat in AT. It might be only for the one night & they might return to their assigned seat for subsequent nights.

[Bruin Steve]

Yes! Finally! Somebody gets it. The TD seats go unused. The TD dining room starts to look empty. And the people who show up at the ATD dining room are actually assigned to be there, either from the outset our because they made a change. This doesn't make the people who switch "crashers", "rule breakers", "cheats" or a scoundrels. Does this add to the wait time at the ATD MDRs? Yes. Does this result in the TD MDR being underused? Yes again. But it doesn't mean that: "I had to wait an hour in line at the ATD MDR because hundreds of people with TD were bucking the system and crashing my dining room."

 

So...Why does this NOT happen on Celebrity or Royal Caribbean???

 

No matter which way you slice it, it is BAD dining room management by Princess.

[cruzsnooze]

Understood. But what happens next is important. Either the passenger acquiesces and takes the newly assigned time, or they reject it and switch to Anytime. Requests to switch from TD to ATD are never refused. So if the passenger makes the switch, from that point forward they are not a TD diner crashing the ATD MDR. They are an ATD diner showing up for dinner. To wit...

 

Actually I honor my contract and confirmed dining time of 6 PM. My table mates last time said they understood and didn't like the change from 6 PM either. They showed up at 6 PM after the first night. If the waiter and princess didn't like it then they ought to change their confirmed contract to say maybe 6 PM dining. Most people won't do it the way I handled it but if they did it would get fixed.

[bigenna]

Yes! Finally! Somebody gets it. The TD seats go unused. The TD dining room starts to look empty. And the people who show up at the ATD dining room are actually assigned to be there, either from the outset our because they made a change. This doesn't make the people who switch "crashers", "rule breakers", "cheats" or a scoundrels. Does this add to the wait time at the ATD MDRs? Yes. Does this result in the TD MDR being underused? Yes again. But it doesn't mean that: "I had to wait an hour in line at the ATD MDR because hundreds of people with TD were bucking the system and crashing my dining room."

Thank You!

Now that I have found Cruise Critic the last few years I "get it" too.

What some people on these boards sometimes don't think about is that, like myself when I was a newbie to cruising, not everyone understands how the whole, TD/ANYTIME dining system works. I was just thrilled to be on a cruise and did not micromanage every little nuance as how it was all put together.

That rude head waiter should have explained what was the problem (that Princess had given us misinformation about our assigned dining time) instead of just angrily sending us on our way. Heck, all we knew was that there were several dining rooms on the ship and for some reason our assigned one didn't want us there.

[JimmyVWine]

So...Why does this NOT happen on Celebrity or Royal Caribbean???

The behemoths on RCCL are like apples and oranges. They have sooooo many more dining options that I don't think that the MDRs are as much in demand. Plus, their double-decker MDRs dwarf those of Princess. Can't speak to Celebrity. Haven't been.

 

No matter which way you slice it, it is BAD dining room management by Princess.

You'll get no argument from me that changing a 6:00 dining time to 5:15 and then getting all huffy about it when people complain or miss their seating is indefensibly bad dining room management. But that issue is a different one that that made by folks who insist that the root of all evil are the hundreds of TD diners who are cheating.

[seafish]

Cruise Junky - only occasionally. Definitely not on a regular basis.

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Princess did every night on Feb 2016 Royal B2B (14days) followed by Emerald (7days) out of Port Everglades - maybe this was just a 21 day Princess aberration - but (they) did check & did re-direct.

[Kinkacruiser]

Most of the readers here are aware of the policy, but some choose to be more flexible.However, there would be many Princess cruisers have never heard of Cruise Critic, and I'm not sure if the dining 'policy' is really explained to them?

Perhaps this could be explained politely at muster, along with the washing hands notification?

If our cruise cards are checked for muster then why not for the assigned MDR?

Edited October 4, 2016 by Kinkacruiser

[shredie]

Princess does check cards before entering MDR

They check in the beginning at TD, but I'm not sure what happens in ATD (because I'm sitting in TD and not crashing ATD.)

 

 

And then the preassigned seat in traditional dining goes unused for the rest of the voyage with two more people added permanently to anytime dining.

 

Not necessarily. The first day of dining lots of shuffling goes on. Someone who was on a waiting list for TD might have been assigned ATD because the room was full. If someone then officially changes to ATD, a space in TD frees up. I know the idea that people prefer TD is a hard concept to understand for some people, but there really are those who want TD and do not want ATD. There is ALWAYS a waiting list for early TD, and often one for late. Someone clearly wants that early TD slot (and not just so they can ignore it and go crash ATD which apparently HUNDREDS of diners do every evening on every ship on every itinerary.:rolleyes:)

[GRAYTech]

One question I have is do they take you cabin number and record it or do you just walk in at ATD? I don't mean verify your dinning assignment, just do they record who ate where if it's in a MDR.

[JimmyVWine]

One question I have is do they take you cabin number and record it or do you just walk in at ATD? I don't mean verify your dinning assignment, just do they record who ate where if it's in a MDR.

Not sure there is a set protocol. On some cruises my cabin number was recorded every night. On other cruises, it didn't seem to be.

[floridalover5623]

They check in the beginning at TD, but I'm not sure what happens in ATD (because I'm sitting in TD and not crashing ATD.)

 

 

 

Not necessarily. The first day of dining lots of shuffling goes on. Someone who was on a waiting list for TD might have been assigned ATD because the room was full. If someone then officially changes to ATD, a space in TD frees up. I know the idea that people prefer TD is a hard concept to understand for some people, but there really are those who want TD and do not want ATD. There is ALWAYS a waiting list for early TD, and often one for late. Someone clearly wants that early TD slot (and not just so they can ignore it and go crash ATD which apparently HUNDREDS of diners do every evening on every ship on every itinerary.:rolleyes:)

 

I was referring to someone who changes late in the cruise like on day 4 of a 7 day trip. I seriously doubt if they back fill the TD seating at that time. Sure if they have a whole table of say 6 or 8 they might shuffle a whole group in there but if it's 2 seats here & 2 there they won't bother. Hence the AT delays.

[shredie]

I was referring to someone who changes late in the cruise like on day 4 of a 7 day trip. I seriously doubt if they back fill the TD seating at that time. Sure if they have a whole table of say 6 or 8 they might shuffle a whole group in there but if it's 2 seats here & 2 there they won't bother. Hence the AT delays.

 

 

I was referring to people who officially change (hence the use of the word "officially" in my original comment which you here reference.). According to Princess policy as stated on the web site, a passenger has 24 hours to change dining status. Therefore, any table shuffling done in the official way would play out as I said.

Any shuffling done "day 4 or 7" would not be official.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[floridalover5623]

I was referring to people who officially change (hence the use of the word "officially" in my original comment which you here reference.). According to Princess policy as stated on the web site, a passenger has 24 hours to change dining status. Therefore, any table shuffling done in the official way would play out as I said.

Any shuffling done "day 4 or 7" would not be official.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

Maybe I'm confused but with notice I don't see the reason why a person can't officially switch on day 4. That leaves the vacancy remaining for the rest of the cruise while the AT dining room gets a little more crowded each day.

[GUT2407]

Not sure why people sign up for ATD on Princess if they hate the way Princess Choose to run it.

[Renmar]

Not sure why people sign up for ATD on Princess if they hate the way Princess Choose to run it.

 

Some people do not sign up for ATD, they are there because PRINCESS CHOOSE to place them there because if the TD is full that is the only option Princess gives. I would be really PO'd :( if they would assign the Horizon court or the IC as my dining venue :eek:.

 

Theo

[Bruin Steve]

Not sure why people sign up for ATD on Princess if they hate the way Princess Choose to run it.

 

Quite simple...

We cruise on Princess mostly because for a cruise (locally for us) out of Los Angeles, the choices most of the year are Princess or Carnival...and we WON'T cruise Carnival for a number of reasons...

 

Once you get to that point, one needs to choose a dining assignment. The only choice they give you are:

1) A traditional assignment, generally at 5:30...WAY too early to eat dinner for us...

2) A traditional assignment, IIRC at 8:30... a little late for dinner and it tends to interfere with other nighttime activities onboard...or

3) Anytime...meaning you show up when convenient and play Russian Roulette with the chances of a long wait time messing up your evening plans...

 

When we cruise on Celebrity, we also choose their version of anytime, go for drinks from 5-7 and show up at the MDR at 7:00 ...and get seated right away.

 

When we cruise on Princess, we find ourselves headed for the dining room around 6:30 (building in a 30 minute contingency for wait time...if it's longer, we often find ourselves rushing through dinner to get to planned night time entertainment).

 

So, why do we choose Anytime? Because we PREFER to eat around 7:00.

We DON'T like the way they manage it, but, what are the choices? Better to just ask the question "Why can't Princess manage it better?"...If Celebrity can do it, why can't they?

Edited October 4, 2016 by Bruin Steve

[Bruin Steve]

BTW, we've been cruising a long time now...

When we first started cruising, ALL of the cruise lines had ONLY traditional seating. Everyone had an assigned table at an assigned time...either "Main" or "Late". If you didn't make it to your assignment, for whatever reason, you could eat at any time at the buffet (there were no specialty restaurants then)...

 

BUT, those assigned times were always 6:00 and 9:00...Except some cruise lines, while in Europe, would skew that a little and start main dining at 6:30. No such thing as a 5:30 dinner time...(or even a 5:15, as we've seen on some ships).

 

If Princess would just go to a 6:30 pm traditional dining time, we'd probably take it...

 

Of course, with Traditional dining assignments, I remember all of the strange assignments we got...no longer an issue with anytime because they change every night. But here are the "best ones" we've had:

 

--one cruise we were assigned to a table with all extremely elderly folks, all a bit hard of hearing...table conversation was, at best, difficult...(We were, at the time, in our early 40s)

 

--one cruise, we were assigned to a table for 12 with four young couples on their honeymoons (We were there with our then elementary school aged daughters...actually, that table was a bit fun in some ways)

 

--one cruise, we were put at a table where everyone else at the table were an extended family of ultra-religious Christians (We are not). They all joined hands and prayed out loud--lengthily--before each dinner (We didn't). They were slightly rude to us when we ordered wine. We probably should have asked to have our table assignment changed, but it was early in our cruising history and we didn't know we could do that.

 

--one cruise (yeah, I've talked about it on this thread), we were assigned to a table for 8...and we were the only ones who ever showed up.

 

So, some more reasons we might prefer anytime dining! ;)