Fix Anytime Dining

[pablo222]

Celebrity has a normal policy of checking your dining assignment when you ask to be seated in Select (Anytime) Dining.

 

Princess does this on the first night, as well.

 

I think this is actually a good idea. Half the people on the

ship have no idea where they are, or that they are supposed

to be at a different dining room.

 

Combine that with the cruiser herd mentality -- if they see a line, they will join it.

Edited October 1, 2016 by pablo222

[pablo222]

All Princess would have to do to verify it s to tell all who are on charge of seating people in the AR dining room to not allow anyone that requested and was granted TD dining to not be allowed to eat inthe AT dining rooms. Prblem solved. Also stop allowing reservations in AT dining rooms for any reason and that solves that problem.

 

You just said if princess blocked traditional diners -- "PRBLEM[sic] SOLVED".

 

Why stop allowing reservations?

Just to be vindictive?

[Bruin Steve]

I think pablo is pretty close to correct here. There is a faction on this board who would welcome guards and if armed, so much the better. This faction is convinced that the only problem with ATD is sneaky TDers. This faction refuses to see that math is the answer: twice as many ATDers showing up at the same time for the available seats.

 

Do me a favor, shredded: try cruising on another line sometime...Celebrity or Royal Caribbean, for example. They do NOT have the same issues as Princess. But, the same "numbers" logic applies. They ALL have more anytime diners arriving at peak hours. Yet somehow, unlike on Princess, they manage it. Larger numbers showing up at peak hours is NOT the problem. Otherwise, you would have the same issue on Celebrity. The issue is that, on Princess, it is compounded by the large number of assigned traditional diners getting seated in anytime dining.

 

All of you who think it's not a big issue because YOU claim not to do it, please realize that many people do...enough to really skew those numbers and make seating anytime diners difficult.

 

Again, on Celebrity, they check your assignment at the door. If you are not assigned anytime, you are sent away. Period. No armed guards, no problems. Cruisers on Princess tend to feel entitled. Like that traditional dining assignment is just an option, a fallback. Miss it and you can always go to anytime. Don't want to wait for your late seating, just go to anytime, etc.

 

If you have 800 seats in anytime in which to accommodate 1600 diners, you can move enough people along to get them all seated...but what happens when you get 400 traditional diners (just 25%...and that Sapphire Princess cruise I talked about...it was a FULL cruise and, clearly, over half the seats in our traditional dining room were empty EVERY dinner) ) showing up in anytime? Now you've got to seat 2000 in those 800 seats. And none of those traditional diners are showing up at 5:30 or 8:30. If they wanted to eat then, they'd just go to their assigned table. So, not only do they stress the system, they exasperate the peak times.

 

Again, the issue does not exist on Celebrity. Because they enforce the assignments. It is CLEARLY the enforcement issue, NOT the "numbers"...

[yuccaman]

Celebrity has a normal policy of checking your dining assignment when you ask to be seated in Select (Anytime) Dining. They simply ask your cabin number and quickly enter it in their computer (at the door). If you are supposed to be in Traditional Dining, the door person will quickly point that out and politely tell you where to find your assigned table. No armed guards necessary :). When folks know the rules and the rules are politely (but firmly enforced) there are few complaints.

 

Hank

 

Now that's a thing of beauty. Not having experienced Celebrity, I think that's great.

Cruise lines are getting so afraid of enforcing their own rules (like diapered kids in pools, etc etc) so as to not "insult" anyone, they are dragging down everyone by lowering the overall quality of the experience.

Edited October 1, 2016 by yuccaman

[yuccaman]

Do me a favor, shredded: try cruising on another line sometime...Celebrity or Royal Caribbean, for example. They do NOT have the same issues as Princess. But, the same "numbers" logic applies. They ALL have more anytime diners arriving at peak hours. Yet somehow, unlike on Princess, they manage it. Larger numbers showing up at peak hours is NOT the problem. Otherwise, you would have the same issue on Celebrity. The issue is that, on Princess, it is compounded by the large number of assigned traditional diners getting seated in anytime dining.

 

All of you who think it's not a big issue because YOU claim not to do it, please realize that many people do...enough to really skew those numbers and make seating anytime diners difficult.

 

Again, on Celebrity, they check your assignment at the door. If you are not assigned anytime, you are sent away. Period. No armed guards, no problems. Cruisers on Princess tend to feel entitled. Like that traditional dining assignment is just an option, a fallback. Miss it and you can always go to anytime. Don't want to wait for your late seating, just go to anytime, etc.

 

If you have 800 seats in anytime in which to accommodate 1600 diners, you can move enough people along to get them all seated...but what happens when you get 400 traditional diners (just 25%...and that Sapphire Princess cruise I talked about...it was a FULL cruise and, clearly, over half the seats in our traditional dining room were empty EVERY dinner) ) showing up in anytime? Now you've got to seat 2000 in those 800 seats. And none of those traditional diners are showing up at 5:30 or 8:30. If they wanted to eat then, they'd just go to their assigned table. So, not only do they stress the system, they exasperate the peak times.

 

Again, the issue does not exist on Celebrity. Because they enforce the assignments. It is CLEARLY the enforcement issue, NOT the "numbers"...

 

Yes! Thank you!

[shredie]

Do me a favor, shredded: try cruising on another line sometime...Celebrity or Royal Caribbean, for example. They do NOT have the same issues as Princess. But, the same "numbers" logic applies. They ALL have more anytime diners arriving at peak hours. Yet somehow, unlike on Princess, they manage it. Larger numbers showing up at peak hours is NOT the problem. Otherwise, you would have the same issue on Celebrity. The issue is that, on Princess, it is compounded by the large number of assigned traditional diners getting seated in anytime dining.

 

All of you who think it's not a big issue because YOU claim not to do it, please realize that many people do...enough to really skew those numbers and make seating anytime diners difficult.

 

Again, on Celebrity, they check your assignment at the door. If you are not assigned anytime, you are sent away. Period. No armed guards, no problems. Cruisers on Princess tend to feel entitled. Like that traditional dining assignment is just an option, a fallback. Miss it and you can always go to anytime. Don't want to wait for your late seating, just go to anytime, etc.

 

If you have 800 seats in anytime in which to accommodate 1600 diners, you can move enough people along to get them all seated...but what happens when you get 400 traditional diners (just 25%...and that Sapphire Princess cruise I talked about...it was a FULL cruise and, clearly, over half the seats in our traditional dining room were empty EVERY dinner) ) showing up in anytime? Now you've got to seat 2000 in those 800 seats. And none of those traditional diners are showing up at 5:30 or 8:30. If they wanted to eat then, they'd just go to their assigned table. So, not only do they stress the system, they exasperate the peak times.

 

Again, the issue does not exist on Celebrity. Because they enforce the assignments. It is CLEARLY the enforcement issue, NOT the "numbers"...

 

Do me a favor, Stevie. Get my name right. Yep. It's all the fault of the TDs crashing ATD. Yes sirree, no doubt. Math has nothing to do with it. :p (If Celebrity is such a great deal and Princess is so bad, why do you book Princess in the first place?)

[Cruisin' Chick]

And how are you so sure of that?

 

sure of what? that informing passengers of what venues they can go to for a main dining room and checking cards will work? I think that if someone finds out they can't crash the ATD if they are assigned to t.d., they will stop doing so and head to their assigned seating, to the Horizon, or to the other venues, other than the ones assigned for anytime diners. Just like if you go to a fancy restaurant but are required to wear a jacket and tie to do so, you would know it's either arrive in a jacket and tie, or borrow their items if that's possible. the next time you go to that restaurant, you're going to dress as they require, right?

 

If Traditional diners are the root of all evil, I guess even silly math works.

 

We TDs are getting tired of being blamed for ATD problems. The way some people carry on here, you'd think there is a conspiracy in the TD every night where we all get together and storm, en masse, the ATD gates just to watch the ATDers yell and throw punches. :rolleyes:

 

 

If there is anger and nastiness going on down in the ATD line, I don't see it because I am minding my own business in TD. :p

 

absolutely. and if Princess starts restricting those admitted to the anytime dining room to those assigned to it, and there's still wait times, wouldn't that demonstrate that there's dining times more popular on that sailing?

[kennicott]

Some of these posts make me a tad nervous regarding folks that received traditional seating assignments for around 5:45 PM or even 6:00 P.M., then to get on the vessel and find out their seating is now set for 5:15 PM.

 

We haven't used traditional seating since 2010 on the Star Princess. Regent doesn't use traditional seating and on our other voyaging since then, on HAL and Princess, we have selected Anytime Dining.

 

However, in a little over six weeks we get on the Pacific Princess which doesn't offer Anytime Dining. Our traditional seating assignment is for 6:00PM. As I mentioned, I love the "Sail Aways". There are 15 ports with sail aways on this cruise. Seven departures are at 5:00 PM, three others occur before that and five others occur after. If find out, after getting on board that dining is before 6:00 PM, I am going to be most unhappy as that will mean I miss most sail aways.

 

I also gather from all the posts here that if you receive traditional seating you are supposed to stick with that and not use Anytime Dining. I have no argument with that, but as I mentioned, the last time we used traditional was on the Star, and when I booked "Anytime Dining" was relatively new. I said we would like to try that, they said, "let us put you down for traditional and you can use AD whenever you want, you don't have to use your traditional seating assignment". After the cruise began we liked the two other couples at our table and thought it would be a little odd and awkward to be there one night and not the next so we stuck with our assigned table. Apparently though, Princess isn't telling guests that anymore, correct?

Edited October 2, 2016 by kennicott

[IECalCruiser]

However, in a little over six weeks we get on the Pacific Princess which doesn't offer Anytime Dining. Our traditional seating assignment is for 6:00PM. As I mentioned, I love the "Sail Aways". There are 15 ports with sail aways on this cruise. Seven departures are at 5:00 PM, three others occur before that and five others occur after. If find out, after getting on board that dining is before 6:00 PM, I am going to be most unhappy as that will mean I miss most sail aways.

Prepare to be most unhappy [emoji32] On our cruise on the Pacific last December early seating was at 5:30 and late seating was at 7:45.

 

 

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[dplusd]

We've enjoyed our Princess Cruises, but their Anytime Dining was a disaster, due in large part (IMHO) to allowing TD diner access to Anytime Dining. We mostly sail Royal Caribbean now and their Anytime Dining is wonderful. Royal does not allow TD diners to go back and forth between TD and AD and that cuts down on crowds and wait times. They also have much nicer (roomier) two-tops compared to Princess.

 

We are considering a Princess cruise next summer so I stopped in here to check their board specifically to see what's going on with Anytime Dining. Doesn't sound like they have made any improvements! Too bad...

[JimmyVWine]

We are considering a Princess cruise next summer so I stopped in here to check their board specifically to see what's going on with Anytime Dining. Doesn't sound like they have made any improvements! Too bad...

But by the same token, almost everybody who reports that they show up for dinner around 7:15-7:30 has no wait to a minimal wait. So what does this tell us?

1.) Either all of the TD "cheaters" try to cheat between 5:30-6:30, (statistically unlikely, because if they were ready to eat at that time, why didn't they just go to their assigned table? Doesn't it stand to reason that if TDs are cheating by going to the ATD MDR, they are doing so later in the evening because they missed their own seating?); or

 

2). Too many people with ATD are crowding the podium at 5:30.

 

Lost in all of this noise is the failure of logic as to why someone with early TD would go to the ATD MDR at or around the time of their assigned seating. What makes more sense is if TDs with an early assigned time can't make their seating because of excursion issues and as a result storm the ATD castle later in the evening. But this does not seem to be the case. As time marches forward, the ATD MDRs get less and less crowded.

 

Princess does not have to change a thing. Passengers have to change their habits. If you want to guarantee yourself a seat in the one-and-only ATD MDR that is open at 5:30, queue up at 4:45-5:00. I promise that if you do that you will be seated. If you aren't willing or able to do that, then queue up at 7:15-7:30 and I guarantee that you will be seated. If you show up at 6:00, you are setting yourself up for failure. There is nothing that Princess can do to stop that. And if other cruise lines are not suffering from this phenomenon, it has to be because they either have larger dining rooms, or they have figured out a way to circumvent Euclidean math. Don't expect Princess to build bigger dining rooms. And don't expect them to invent a new math that solves this "problem."

[dplusd]

Princess does not have to change a thing. Passengers have to change their habits. If you want to guarantee yourself a seat in the one-and-only ATD MDR that is open at 5:30, queue up at 4:45-5:00. I promise that if you do that you will be seated. If you aren't willing or able to do that, then queue up at 7:15-7:30 and I guarantee that you will be seated. If you show up at 6:00, you are setting yourself up for failure. There is nothing that Princess can do to stop that. And if other cruise lines are not suffering from this phenomenon, it has to be because they either have larger dining rooms, or they have figured out a way to circumvent Euclidean math. Don't expect Princess to build bigger dining rooms. And don't expect them to invent a new math that solves this "problem."

 

Actually we always dine later...usually about 7:30pm. We did not have to wait as long as others on this tread report, but honestly on several nights it was a 30 minute wait to be seated in ATD. It's been a couple of years and I can't remember if it was a hostess or another guest in line that blamed TD for the long waits to be seated.

Edited October 2, 2016 by dplusd

[shredie]

But by the same token, almost everybody who reports that they show up for dinner around 7:15-7:30 has no wait to a minimal wait. So what does this tell us?

1.) Either all of the TD "cheaters" try to cheat between 5:30-6:30, (statistically unlikely, because if they were ready to eat at that time, why didn't they just go to their assigned table? Doesn't it stand to reason that if TDs are cheating by going to the ATD MDR, they are doing so later in the evening because they missed their own seating?); or

 

2). Too many people with ATD are crowding the podium at 5:30.

 

Lost in all of this noise is the failure of logic as to why someone with early TD would go to the ATD MDR at or around the time of their assigned seating. What makes more sense is if TDs with an early assigned time can't make their seating because of excursion issues and as a result storm the ATD castle later in the evening. But this does not seem to be the case. As time marches forward, the ATD MDRs get less and less crowded.

 

Princess does not have to change a thing. Passengers have to change their habits. If you want to guarantee yourself a seat in the one-and-only ATD MDR that is open at 5:30, queue up at 4:45-5:00. I promise that if you do that you will be seated. If you aren't willing or able to do that, then queue up at 7:15-7:30 and I guarantee that you will be seated. If you show up at 6:00, you are setting yourself up for failure. There is nothing that Princess can do to stop that. And if other cruise lines are not suffering from this phenomenon, it has to be because they either have larger dining rooms, or they have figured out a way to circumvent Euclidean math. Don't expect Princess to build bigger dining rooms. And don't expect them to invent a new math that solves this "problem."

 

There you go trying to use logic again. The aforementioned faction has its mind made up: traditional diners are crashing all the ATD dining rooms! You won't convince them otherwise. They'll just talk louder to drown out all that silly logic and those pesky facts. "LALALALALALA! I can't hear you!"

[shredie]

Actually we always dine later...usually about 7:30pm. We did not have to wait as long as others on this tread report, but honestly on several nights it was a 30 minute wait to be seated in ATD. It's been a couple of years and I can't remember if it was a hostess or another guest in line that blamed TD for the long waits to be seated.

 

Seems to me that might make a difference. One guest in line says "It's TDers." That's anecdote and possibly just a rumor based on conjecture. If the hostess says it, then she must know something from checking cards and is letting all those masses of TDers in and then complaining about it. I don't know why people are so determined to blame someone other than themselves for showing up with all the other ATDers at the most crowded hour.

[shredie]

Prepare to be most unhappy [emoji32] On our cruise on the Pacific last December early seating was at 5:30 and late seating was at 7:45.

 

 

On the bright side, the best food and service I've had on Princess has been the couple of times I've sailed the Pacific Princess. :)

[IECalCruiser]

...However, in a little over six weeks we get on the Pacific Princess which doesn't offer Anytime Dining. Our traditional seating assignment is for 6:00PM. As I mentioned, I love the "Sail Aways". There are 15 ports with sail aways on this cruise. Seven departures are at 5:00 PM, three others occur before that and five others occur after. If find out, after getting on board that dining is before 6:00 PM, I am going to be most unhappy as that will mean I miss most sail aways.

On our 11/21 cruise on the Pacific there will be nine sailaways, one at 2:00, six at 5:00 and two at 6:00 and we have early dining. For the Venice departure at 5:00 we will skip the DR. After watching our departure from Venice on our balcony we will go up to the Panorama Buffet for dinner. We may also do that as we depart Kotor if we didn't get up early enough to see her sail in through the Bay of Kotor. Otherwise, it is what it is. Of course I enjoy sailing into port as much or more than departing. "Parting is such sweet sorrow...."

 

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Edited October 2, 2016 by IECalCruiser

[kennicott]

Prepare to be most unhappy [emoji32] On our cruise on the Pacific last December early seating was at 5:30 and late seating was at 7:45.

 

 

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Thanks much for the warning, it really helps to have advance notice of these eventualities before you get on board and unprepared to be blindsided and shocked with unpleasantries such as this. Makes these C.C. forums worthwhile.

 

Wow, well anyway, if that be the case, then here is plan B: We have a table for two, so we aren't going to be missed or make tablemate's feel bad if we don't show. So, I'm going to figure out which sail-aways I absolutely don't want to miss and start making reservations in the specialities for those evenings (That is, I will do that, as soon as I have the opportunity to make them after having heard for certain how much, if any, we have been screwed on our TD reservation dining times.)

 

As I've mentioned before, extra charges for specialty dining we can cope with in order to make for great cruising, unpleasant dinners due to degeneration of MDN circumstances makes for a negative cruise experience.

[caribill]

Do me a favor, shredded: try cruising on another line sometime...Celebrity or Royal Caribbean, for example. They do NOT have the same issues as Princess. But, the same "numbers" logic applies. They ALL have more anytime diners arriving at peak hours. Yet somehow, unlike on Princess, they manage it.

 

Princess and RCCL do it very differently.

 

On Princess, there is a limit on how many passengers can choose traditional dining. Once that limit is reached, others that want traditional are forced into anytime.

 

Of course on Princess, anyone that wants anytime can sign up for it. So on some cruises, it is possible that 70% or more of the passengers may sign up for anytime.

 

On RCCL (and also Carnival), the number of anytime diners is limited. If too many passengers want anytime, those who request it after the limit is reached will be assigned to traditional (and be very unhappy about it).

 

So with the number of anytime diners limited, RCCL is less likely to have problems. With the number of anytime diners unlimited, Princess is more likely to have problems.

[shredie]

start making reservations in the specialities for those evenings

 

The two restaurants (Sterling Steakhouse and Sabatini's) alternate nights, so both are not open at the same time. They are in different locations, though. I find the buffet on Pacific Princess very nice. It's smaller than some others but there was always something there I could eat. I think you will be pleased with the food overall.

[pablo222]

On Princess, there is a limit on how many passengers can choose traditional dining. Once that limit is reached, others that want traditional are forced into anytime.

 

If Princess did this, we would have all new threads about

how:

"I was forced into late traditional, which ruined my vacation..."

and

"I think this was a trick by princess to get more people to

pay for speciality dining."

 

 

...which is a pretty good idea in itself.

 

Princess --- if you listen and do this, I want to be employee of the month!

[Mom33]

WHAT??? Princess actually Enforcing their own rules? I'll be a happy dog when that starts to happen.

 

:D What would be more amazing is if the human race would follow and enforce rules and regulations! ;)

Edited October 2, 2016 by Mom33

[floridalover5623]

:D What would be more amazing is if the human race would follow and enforce rules and regulations! ;)

 

Thankfully on Princess ships everyone follows all the rules. :p

[cruzsnooze]

 

 

if Princess starts restricting those admitted to the anytime dining room to those assigned to it' date=' and there's still wait times, wouldn't that demonstrate that there's dining times more popular on that sailing?[/quote']

 

It would cut the wait time to a more acceptable time. Waiting 65 minutes is not acceptable to me. It causes missed shows and activities. I did not see any pushing, nastiness when I waited 65 minutes I saw frustration and we all complained among ourselves about how Princess needed to find some solutions.

Reservations exacerbate the problem. Many times people are 10-15 minutes late which keeps a table out of commission sitting empty. Multiply that 10 - 15 minutes times several times and turning that table over 2 times and you have a back up causing a longer wait for those actually are using the rules as stated by Princess to eating when it's convenient for you.

Add that wasted time to passengers who are supposed to be in TD and you add longer wait times.

With a few simple fixes by Princess the wait time could certainly be reduced even if it's not eliminated. Had i waited 30 minutes or less I wouldn't have started this thread

[GRAYTech]

This thread reminds me of the numerous toilet paper threads.

 

It makes me wonder how some folks get along in real life if they are willing to spend so much energy ranting over pointless crap like toilet paper or being "upset" having a relaxing drink before your table is ready.

 

One on the TP thread even threatened to switch cruise lines if the TP wasn't changed to their liking. Never mind the single-ply cheap stuff is the only thing the sewer system can swallow without choking. Never mind if everyone decides to eat at 6:30PM there just isn't enough seating or staff to accommodate everyone immediately, the cruise line should fix it.

 

Do these same folks start fuming at the grocery store or Menards queued up waiting to checkout ? Actually I think that answer is yes, I have seen that happen first hand. I guess, why would cruising be any different.

[JimmyVWine]

Actually we always dine later...usually about 7:30pm. We did not have to wait as long as others on this tread report, but honestly on several nights it was a 30 minute wait to be seated in ATD. It's been a couple of years and I can't remember if it was a hostess or another guest in line that blamed TD for the long waits to be seated.

 

Your post supports my point.

 

You dined later and experienced waits that are shorter than those experienced by people who dine earlier. Conclusion? Waits are worse early on. In addition, the hostess said at 7:30 that TD people were causing your 30 minute wait. Conclusion? TD diners who are cheating are those who miss their assigned early time and go to an ATD MDR later in the evening. But none of this provides any support for the people who insist that there are TD diners with 5:30 seatings who show up at the ATD MDR around that time instead. Let's look at the possible scenarios:

 

1. TD diner with an early seating assignment skips his assigned seating and goes to dinner at 5:30 at the one and only ATD MDR open at that time. Why would they do that? It makes no sense to trade a no-wait dining option for an option where you must wait for a table. Sorry, but no one is doing this. If you are dressed and ready for an early dinner you use your assigned seat or go to an alternative dining location. Every time. You do not go wait in a line.

 

2. TD diner with an early seating assignment skips his assigned seating and goes to dinner at 7:30 at one of the two ATD MDRs open at that time. This is a real possibility but cannot explain long waits at 5:30 or 6:00.

 

3. TD diner with a late seating assignment skips his assigned seating and goes to dinner at 5:30 at the one and only ATD MDR open at that time. Why would they do that? Well, maybe they wanted early dining and it was sold out. But if that were the case, why wouldn't they simply opt for ATD? It never sells out. Why select TD? So this seems like a low probability.

 

4. TD diner with late seating assignment skips his assigned seating and goes to dinner at 7:30 at one of the two ATD MDRs open at that time. Why would they do that? What do they gain? Sorry. Not happening.

 

And the same results are achieved if you shift the arrival times by a bit. In fact, moving the arrival times makes it even less likely that a TD diner would be showing up at the one and only ATD MDR open early. Again, it is well known that there are waits at that dining room. What sane person would trade a guaranteed immediate seat for a 45 minute wait elsewhere? Is there anyone out there who is willing to admit to voluntarily waiting an hour for a table at the early ATD MDR in place of using their assigned seat? Anyone? Buehler?

 

None of the scenarios discussed above provide a logical reason why a TD diner would show up at the only open ATD MDR early on. So if waits are longer at 5:30, and TD diners are not skipping their own seating at that time to go to the ATD MDR instead, then the cause of the delay at that time must be something else.

Edited October 2, 2016 by JimmyVWine