Change in Traditional Dining Times?

[recyclelady]

Changed our family Caribbean cruise in December to 7:15.  Even with kids along, 5:00 was just too early.

[RDC1]

12 hours ago, caribill said:

 

Before the recent changes, the dining times in the Personalizer were rarely the same as when on the ship.

 

After the changes, well, no change. They still do not reflect the actual dining times.

The times they listed do represent a change from recent norms of 15 to 30 minutes earlier, just not the full amount which would have been an additional 30 minutes.  Since this was one of the first cruises, occurring just after the change, they may have not done the full change yet.  Ask the question about a month from now.

[arizonaperson]

48 minutes ago, jennybenny said:

We never show up the first night.  We do specialty dining the first night of every cruise, on average we do specialty dinging about 2 times on a 7 day cruise and 3-4 on a 15 day cruise.  I still want Traditional and not anytime dining.  I never go to the buffet.  I have food issues (don't like mine getting coughed on, touched, returned, etc).  

Just because I like specialty dining does not mean I should not be allowed to do traditional

Totally agree.  Just wanted to point out to those that were mentioning that tables were empty in traditional the reasons that might apply. I don’t care for any time dining either. And since Princess really doesn’t have any rules with signing up for Traditional and going to specialty, or the Buffet or not eating at all ...

Julie

[jennybenny]

52 minutes ago, arizonaperson said:

Totally agree.  Just wanted to point out to those that were mentioning that tables were empty in traditional the reasons that might apply. I don’t care for any time dining either. And since Princess really doesn’t have any rules with signing up for Traditional and going to specialty, or the Buffet or not eating at all ...

Julie

Thanks Julie, I suspect Princess will be mixing things up in the near future.  They started with Club Class, now different TD times.  I predict there will be more changes to come.  More pay venues?  Getting rid of traditional dining all together?  I don't know.  Maybe I'm just being a worry wart.  

[hpeabody]

I don't have the tolerance with this slow internet to read through the posts to see what others have posted.  I am on board the Crown, boarded Oct 23rd.  I wanted to report that there is NO CHANGE to traditional dining on this ship.  Early in main dining room is the typical 5:45 PM and late is 8:00 PM.  Although my Cruise personalizer on the Princess website was changed to 4:45 PM a few days before embarkation.  FYI show times in Princess Theater 8:00 PM and 10:00 PM.

[bemis12]

48 minutes ago, hpeabody said:

I don't have the tolerance with this slow internet to read through the posts to see what others have posted.  I am on board the Crown, boarded Oct 23rd.  I wanted to report that there is NO CHANGE to traditional dining on this ship.  Early in main dining room is the typical 5:45 PM and late is 8:00 PM.  Although my Cruise personalizer on the Princess website was changed to 4:45 PM a few days before embarkation.  FYI show times in Princess Theater 8:00 PM and 10:00 PM.

 

Perfect.  Thank you for checking in.

[LarryL]

19 hours ago, G&T Cruisers said:

We are booked on the Pacific Princess for the Dec 22-Jan 6 cruise. We had booked 6 pm traditional dining and it was confirmed. Today, when I checked our personalizer, I saw we have been changed to 5 pm which is too early for us. I called Princess and was told that all dining times had been changed to 5 pm or 7:15 pm. We are disappointed by this as it means we will miss sail aways and enjoying the Platinum and Elite lounge before dinner. I know this is first world problems but I am not happy about it.

We're on the TA prior to your cruise. We had selected late dining at 8:15 and it has, since, been changed to 7:15. What's interesting is that I see it is, also, waitlisted. I've never seen late dining waitlisted before. Apparently, people are not fond of the earlier times. For this sailing at least.

[mcrcruiser]

Just e-mailed our TA to check  Princess dining times .We normally have dinner at 6 PM 

[mcrcruiser]

15 minutes ago, mcrcruiser said:

Just e-mailed our TA to check  Princess dining times .We normally have dinner at 6 PM 

 

 Yes Princess changed their dining times to 4:45 PM & 7 :15 PM . We have 2 cruises booked for Oct & Dec 2019 . We changed the dining times to 7:15 PM . 4:45 PM is far too close to lunch time  to be practical 

[skoeper]

Our TA received an email this morning about the Nov 9th, Royal Princess cruise.   For that sailing only, the TD times have been changed to 5:30 (early) and 7:45 (late).

[MGAfhc]

It seems to me the new times should have been 5:00 & 7:30 in the TD dining room and 4:45 for the mixed use mid-ship dining room.  That way if there is a change by many TD diners to the later time and a lesser demand for the 4:45 seating, they could admit AT diners as space is available.

[LEtue]

On 10/25/2018 at 4:52 PM, mcrcruiser said:

 

 Yes Princess changed their dining times to 4:45 PM & 7 :15 PM . We have 2 cruises booked for Oct & Dec 2019 . We changed the dining times to 7:15 PM . 4:45 PM is far too close to lunch time  to be practical 

 

So strange....

My Med cruise in November 2019 is still 5:30 PM and 8:15 PM and I got a second email confirmation from my TA this morning that she received no change notification for this sailing.

Are you sailing the Caribbean?

[Idratherbeatsea]

2 hours ago, LEtue said:

 

So strange....

My Med cruise in November 2019 is still 5:30 PM and 8:15 PM and I got a second email confirmation from my TA this morning that she received no change notification for this sailing.

Are you sailing the Caribbean?

I would check for myself. I don't think Princess sends out change notifications for all the diners effected. Just saying 

[geocruiser]

3 hours ago, LEtue said:

 

So strange....

My Med cruise in November 2019 is still 5:30 PM and 8:15 PM and I got a second email confirmation from my TA this morning that she received no change notification for this sailing.

Are you sailing the Caribbean?

My TA still has NOT gotten a change notice.  She found this out through me calling and telling her.

[chamima]

20 minutes ago, geocruiser said:

My TA still has NOT gotten a change notice.  She found this out through me calling and telling her.

 

 

Our TA sent out an email informing us the day after it was posted on CC.

She indicated she had communicated with Princess and confirmed the change.

(Although she didn't say how she originally found out - it might very well have been from a client)

This is what I got.

 

Please be advised that Princess has changed their dining times. You can review and change your dining times on the Princess Cruise Personalizer.  Travel agents were not advised of these changes.

Edited October 27, 2018 by chamima

[LEtue]

28 minutes ago, geocruiser said:

My TA still has NOT gotten a change notice.  She found this out through me calling and telling her.

 

Yes, my TA emailed me again today after she had talked to her Princess Rep.  My dining hasn't changed either so I think it depends on where you are sailing and when.  So far I am staying with my 5:30 PM confirmed since the 8:15 PM is too late for me......

 

[LEtue]

15 minutes ago, chamima said:

 

 

Our TA sent out an email informing us the day after it was posted on CC.

She indicated she had communicated with Princess and confirmed the change.

(Although she didn't say how she originally found out - it might very well have been from a client)

This is what I got.

 

Please be advised that Princess has changed their dining times. You can review and change your dining times on the Princess Cruise Personalizer.  Travel agents were not advised of these changes.

My TA got the same but apparently it isn't fleet wide or in all regions.  I learned that it is up to the Maitre D which I never knew before....

I have a year until I sail to I am going to continue to watch in case my 5:30 PM moves to 4:45 PM   

[Hlitner]

I guess one advantage to being anytime diners who dine after 7:30 is that none of this TC stuff really matters except how it might impact attendance at the various shows.   But I am intrigued by a 4:45 seating.  Am thinking that a majority in that seating will likely be from Florida where 4:45 is Early Bird time :).  If the weather is good, we will likely still be on deck in our loungers at 4:45.

 

Hank

[chamima]

4 minutes ago, Hlitner said:

I guess one advantage to being anytime diners who dine after 7:30 is that none of this TC stuff really matters except how it might impact attendance at the various shows.   But I am intrigued by a 4:45 seating.  Am thinking that a majority in that seating will likely be from Florida where 4:45 is Early Bird time :).  If the weather is good, we will likely still be on deck in our loungers at 4:45.

 

Hank

 

Which is where we'll be also.

Our late dinner switching to 7:15 is barely ok - but we're on the Pacific so not many choices.

I'm still holding out hope that once we board it'll be switched back to 8:15 or so.

(We have a drink package so it looks like our usual pre-dinner drinks will be on deck instead of in the bar. )

Edited October 27, 2018 by chamima

[LEtue]

2 hours ago, i'dratherbeatsea said:

I would check for myself. I don't think Princess sends out change notifications for all the diners effected. Just saying 

 

I have been checking for over a week.  My cruise personalizer has not changed and calls to Princess and emails from my TA yielded the same.  I am not able to select a late dining other than 8:15 PM so for now I have to stick with my 5:30 PM confirmed time.....

It may still change but for now - nothing.

[vmom]

Europeans tend to eat later in the evening so princess may keep the old dining times for the European itineraries. On the British Isles cruises there was a nice evenly distributed stream of people dining. 

 

I can understand why they felt they needed to make the change on the longer Caribbean cruises. Last two cruises I had involving the Caribbean the lines for ATD were long at 5-5:15. Older Americans like to eat early. 

 

People were lining up in front of the dining room doors at 4:45. The dining room was pretty empty at 8:00.

 

I think Princess had to make some sort of change in dining times for the longer Caribbean cruises and Panama Canal cruises. They will likely tweek the times as they see how this works. 

 

I am happy that Princess is trying to come up with a solution to the excessive demand for early dining on the Caribbean cruises.

Edited October 28, 2018 by vmom

[caribill]

5 hours ago, vmom said:

I can understand why they felt they needed to make the change on the longer Caribbean cruises. Last two cruises I had involving the Caribbean the lines for ATD were long at 5-5:15. Older Americans like to eat early. 

 

People were lining up in front of the dining room doors at 4:45. The dining room was pretty empty at 8:00.

 

 

If the dining time is really changed to 4:45, then I guarantee you that the long lines will be there at 4:15.

 

Lunch in a dining room is at 12 Noon. There is a line by 11:30. That does not seem to make Princess open up for lunch earlier than 12.

[Thrak]

41 minutes ago, caribill said:

 

If the dining time is really changed to 4:45, then I guarantee you that the long lines will be there at 4:15.

 

Lunch in a dining room is at 12 Noon. There is a line by 11:30. That does not seem to make Princess open up for lunch earlier than 12.

 

Oh yeah... I totally agree. No matter what time they state as "opening time" they will have a large number of folks lining up to try to "beat the opening time". I don't ge it. Nope, nope, nope, not at all. It seems someone on the Princess staff noticed and made a really  ridiculous judgement based on what they saw. (Of course that has always seemed to be the whole point of marketing people. They tend to tak a very small and isolated segment of data and, from that, interpolate an entirely bogus and bizarre set of data upon which they base their next decision.  I am sure that a very small of passengers would love the crazy 4:45 or 4;15 dining times that Princess has implemented but i can  pretty much guarantee (okay I really cant but it seems incredibly likely to me that I am correct) that it is only a very small minority that wants those super early dining times.

[babs135]

I'd like to hear from people whose time was changed to 4.45 and how it worked.  Was the dining room full, was there a queue of people waiting for the doors to open, etc. etc.

[geocruiser]

16 hours ago, Hlitner said:

I guess one advantage to being anytime diners who dine after 7:30 is that none of this TC stuff really matters except how it might impact attendance at the various shows.   But I am intrigued by a 4:45 seating.  Am thinking that a majority in that seating will likely be from Florida where 4:45 is Early Bird time :).  If the weather is good, we will likely still be on deck in our loungers at 4:45.

 

Hank

We all ways ate a late dinner as a child.  We ate a 7PM.  Because that is when my father got home from work and they wanted to eat together as a family.  So, I am use to eating on the later side.  Where I live now, (cold north) people eat early.  When I go out to lunch with friends, they want to be at the restaurant at 11:30.  Too early for me.  Dinner is early too.  When I married my DH dinner was at 6PM for us.  Now it is anytime between 6:30 and 8PM.  So, the 7:15 dinner time is great for me. I also spend time down south, and our friends eat early there too.

When I first started cruising the dining was:

Early - breakfast 6AM, lunch 12 noon, Dinner 6PM

Late- Breakfast 8AM, lunch 2PM, dinner 8PM

That was it on buffet other than the midnight buffet.Things keep changing over time.