Change in Traditional Dining Times?

[CCFC]

I’m currently on Caribbean Princess and second sitting is an early 7:45.

[metairiegal]

We live in South Florida and 5:00 is way too early for us.

Plus, I don't want to get dressed for formal nights at 4:00 in the afternoon.  That really cuts your day short and on top of it having to miss the Platinum/Elite lounge before dinner and the 5:00 sailaways. 

Thank goodness for CC, otherwise I would not have know they changed our time because we were confirmed at 6:00pm.  This has altered our upcoming Nov cruise on the Caribbean Princess and our upcoming Dec cruise on the Regal.

Edited October 17, 2018 by metairiegal

[stoneharborlady]

Hmmm, I remember posting not too long ago about finding five o'clock to be very early to eat dinner.  I had my head taken off by several fellow posters who find five to be a very reasonable time for dinner.  I guess it is up to the individual.  I enjoyed tea onboard, and I think that was rather late in the afternoon, too late to be followed up by a very early dinner.

[Doug R.]

1 hour ago, spyro1952 said:

Not sure Princess can make big changes like this with great success.  Look at Share - not a great success.  Look how long it’s going to take to get the medallion fleet wide - not a great success.  My opinion is that NCL has a different dining product all together.  They have a limited amount of “free” dining slots and those reservations are now booked on line far in advance.  The rest of the passengers are forced to eat at pay restaurants.  I do think it is to get more people into a later sitting or ATD.  I will be happy with an earlier late sitting if I’m traveling solo.  Traveling with my friend, although we always book separate cabins, gets harder as she wants to eat before 6 pm.  I just can’t eat at 4:45 or 5 pm and dinner time is one thing I am adamant about.  My biggest complaint about ATD is the service.  I’ve always found it “less than” in comparison to service in the TD rooms.  I’ll see what happens in 2 wks when I’m on the Crown solo.  

It is not true that NCL has limited "free" dining slots. We were able to get seats in the no extra charge restaurants without advanced reservations. No one is "forced" into the pay restaurants; quite the opposite, you have to scramble to get reservations at the pay venues if you procrastinate.

I think that the main barrier for Princess to follow the NCL model is the relative lack of alternative (pay) dining venues.

We noticed very little difference in the level of service between ATD on all of our Princess cruises and others where we had Traditional.

[luvtocruiseNH]

WOW!!!  So glad I check this board.  Do not want to eat at 5:00.  Changed to 7:15.  Gives you a chance to relax after getting back on board.  Going on the Caribbean Princess in January.

[FSU Girl]

Cruise next May changed from 8:15 to 7:45. Didn't get any notice about it, just noticed when looking at the online reservation

[RDC1]

34 minutes ago, Doug R. said:

It is not true that NCL has limited "free" dining slots. We were able to get seats in the no extra charge restaurants without advanced reservations. No one is "forced" into the pay restaurants; quite the opposite, you have to scramble to get reservations at the pay venues if you procrastinate.

I think that the main barrier for Princess to follow the NCL model is the relative lack of alternative (pay) dining venues.

We noticed very little difference in the level of service between ATD on all of our Princess cruises and others where we had Traditional.

Many of us feel that it is a positive for  Princess that it does not consume large amount of interior public space with large numbers of alternative for pay dining venues, the few it has is quite enough.

[nawilliams]

Did anyone find out if the show times changed? I was able to change my time to 7:15. Also, has anyone done Anytime Dining on Princess?

[HleeCruiser]

We are on the Regal Princess in Jan 2019 and confirmed our late traditional dining time as 8:15.  Checked the Personalizer and it has been changed to 7:15 P.M.!!  Not happy about that!  For those who have experienced the  new Traditional Dining times,  have they scheduled the theater entertainment accordingly?  Last year the early Traditional diners went to 8 oclock show and the late traditional diners went to the 10:15 show.  Surely they will take this into consideration when scheduling the evening entertainment.

[voljeep]

15 minutes ago, nawilliams said:

Did anyone find out if the show times changed? I was able to change my time to 7:15. Also, has anyone done Anytime Dining on Princess?

we always do anytime ding ... in the mdr, that is hardly "an event" to us, so we can take a pager and enjoy a(nother) glass of wine in Vines

[paul929207]

It was 5:30 and 7:45 on the Royal last week.

[floridalover5623]

3 minutes ago, paul929207 said:

It was 5:30 and 7:45 on the Royal last week.

That's typical for most of the ships. 

[Hlitner]

43 minutes ago, nawilliams said:

Did anyone find out if the show times changed? I was able to change my time to 7:15. Also, has anyone done Anytime Dining on Princess?

We have been doing Anytime dining on Princess (and many other cruise lines) for at least the past decade.  On Princess we have no problem since we tend to go to dinner after 7:45 when there is not any great demand.  Most Princess ships have 3 MDRs and use 1 for traditional, 1 is used for both traditional and anytime, and 1 is only anytime.  We love the freedom to go to dinner when we please and make our own decision on whether we prefer to share a large table (our norm) or perhaps have a quiet dinner for 2.  

Hank

[reedprincess]

57 minutes ago, nawilliams said:

Did anyone find out if the show times changed? I was able to change my time to 7:15. Also, has anyone done Anytime Dining on Princess?

No one has experienced it yet, as the changes were made only yesterday.  So, whomever sails whichever ship sails next with the new times will be able to answer.  

According to Princess, via their Facebook page,  they've adjusted the times based in demand and trends, and evening entertainment may be adjusted accordingly - along with PES event, Captain's Circle parties, champagne waterfall, afternoon tea and so forth.  

Remains to be seen. We sail Tuesday. Several ships sail before that with the new times, hopefully someone will chime in soon...

[norcalcruzr]

On the Grand Princess last week the dining times were 5 p.m. for early seating and 7:30 for second seating.  The showtimes changed to reflect the dining changes.  First show in the Princess theater was 6:30 p.m and the second show was at 8:15.  

My husband and I, and sister and brother in law, opted for the early seating for dinner, originally scheduled for 5:30, we didn't find out until we were on the ship that the dining times had changed.  It was a little early for dinner but it worked out fine.  We had plenty of time after dinner to get seats for the second show.  The only thing we missed was afternoon tea, too close to dinner time.  

[Astro Flyer]

You’ve got to be kidding Princess! 😡

All four of our future cruises had our TD times changed from 6:00 to 5:00 with the other options being 4:45 and 7:15.  And with nearly all of the sailing times from ports being at 6:00 or later that is ridiculous.  So either return early to get ready for dinner or miss eating in the dining room & going to the buffet...cost cutting.

Currently we rarely attend the nightly PES event between 5:00 & 7:00 due to early TD.  With these new times no one with early dining will attend...another cost cutting change.  Even if adjusting this & other activities to earlier times that does not work with sailing times from ports.

Based on the information reedprincess posted about Princess stating they’re responding to passengers demand & trends then Princess must be confusing those things with HAL passengers. 🙄

Edited October 18, 2018 by Astro Flyer

[FritzG]

18 hours ago, reedprincess said:

Princess response to questions about dining times on their Facebook page :

"Hi, XXX The dining times in our system were updated to more accurately reflect the actual dining times on board our ships. We're sorry for any confusion this may have caused."

Seriously?  4:45 is a more accurate reflection of dining times? That's ridiculously early.   Wreaking havoc with our group reservation next month.  

 

That makes no sense at all.  They already had an early first seating that was very early so why change the regular 6pm--which rarely was 6pm?  How does 5pm "more accurately reflect the actual dining times on board our ships" when there was no 5pm dining time offered?  We have 2 cruises booked for 2019, and dining times that had been confirmed have both been changed, and we're not at all happy with this.  Are they trying to get rid of TD and forcing everyone into Anytime Dining.

[BrnBrok]

Just found out that our 8:00 or 8:15 traditional on the Island Princess had been changed to 7:00.  Not happy.  We like to have time to come back to the ship, do some things, and get ready for the evening.  On land we do eat earlier, but somehow later time works better on a cruise.  We will just have to see how it works out.  If it does not work out we might switch on the ship to anytime dining and pick a later time.  Of course we will have to see how this all works out with show and other activities.

[Sooz49]

6 hours ago, Ombud said:

Sorry, Hank, but ATD doesn't work well for those with a food allergy.  Its really problematic to repeat it to every waiter. I could stick with Kai Sushi (not on all ships) or just have plain steamed veggies (NO black pepper).

Besides my issue isn't with the time change but with lack of notification.  Change whatever you want, just give me the option of modifying it to meet me needs. Like when they changed coffee card & soda policy but we were forewarned ... or the publicity around limiting alcohol to "just" 15 drinks a day 🙂

Hi Ombud ... I respect your right to choose whichever style of dining you want but just want to give a heads up that Anytime dining has a great system for dealing with passengers with allergies ... I get assigned a Head Waiter by the Maitre D' ... each night the HW brings me the menu for the next days lunch/dinner and I make my selections which are noted so they can be prepared according to my needs. When I arrive at the DR the next day and am assigned my table when the waiter brings the menus to the table I just tell him I have an allergy  preorder ... he/she then makes contact with the HW and my safe meal is brought with the other meals ... at some point while I am dining the HW will then come to the table with the menus for the next day and the cycle begins again. HTH

Edited October 18, 2018 by Sooz49

[Ombud]

1 hour ago, Sooz49 said:

Hi Ombud ... I respect your right to choose whichever style of dining you want but just want to give a heads up that Anytime dining has a great system for dealing with passengers with allergies ... I get assigned a Head Waiter by the Maitre D' ... each night the HW brings me the menu for the next days lunch/dinner and I make my selections which are noted so they can be prepared according to my needs. When I arrive at the DR the next day and am assigned my table when the waiter brings the menus to the table I just tell him I have an allergy  preorder ... he/she then makes contact with the HW and my safe meal is brought with the other meals ... at some point while I am dining the HW will then come to the table with the menus for the next day and the cycle begins again. HTH

I did NOT know that! When I started cruising years ago they said it's better to stick to MDR so I made the incorrect assumption that meant TD as well!! I did ATD to Alaska in 2015 and was given 7:30 as a standard dining time with 1 waiter team .... so that further cemented the incorrect thought that I needed same team

[geoherb]

I won't be happy if second seating traditional dining is any earlier than 7:45. On the Royal last month, it was a reasonable 8:15. We always had time to make the show in the theater. The second show doesn't have the demand for seats that the earlier one does.

[Sooz49]

1 hour ago, Ombud said:

I did NOT know that! When I started cruising years ago they said it's better to stick to MDR so I made the incorrect assumption that meant TD as well!! I did ATD to Alaska in 2015 and was given 7:30 as a standard dining time with 1 waiter team .... so that further cemented the incorrect thought that I needed same team

Yep I have also been told to stick to MDR (instead of the Buffet) ... but yes any seating in MDR works with an allergy ... and also the HW can assist on any evening you prefer to eat in one of the speciality restaurants too ... same deal. 

[geocruiser]

8 minutes ago, Sooz49 said:

Yep I have also been told to stick to MDR (instead of the Buffet) ... but yes any seating in MDR works with an allergy ... and also the HW can assist on any evening you prefer to eat in one of the speciality restaurants too ... same deal. 

I also have a  food allergy.  The main dinning room I the HW takes care of me.  At the buffet I get one of the chefs, and he walks me around to all the food and tells me what I can and can not have.  You have to get a chef with the big white hat to help you.  

[Host CJSKIDS]

I went to check my next cruise and the website is down.  I couldn't get in and got the message "we are having technical difficulties".  Perhaps they are overloaded with people changing their dining times?!!

[Astro Flyer]

5 minutes ago, Host CJSKIDS said:

I went to check my next cruise and the website is down.  I couldn't get in and got the message "we are having technical difficulties".  Perhaps they are overloaded with people changing their dining times?!!

Me too...looks like their routine weekend website problems have been extended to weekdays.

we're having technical difficulties

We apologize for any inconvenience and will be back shortly.