Change in Traditional Dining Times?

[Bethcb]

We have 3 cruises planned and always enjoy 8pm or 8:15pm seating. Noticed that 2 cruises were changed to 7:15pm and one was 7:45pm. Hope once on the ship we can at least stretch the 7:15 to 7:30 or 7:45pm. Sounds like this 7:15 time is very popular.  If not, we may go to the Anytime Dining. 

[PoohUnderstands]

Well, you have to give Princess credit for one thing - topic of the newest thread out there - number of balls of butter thread...... move on over.  You are old news now!

 

Pooh

[RDC1]

10 hours ago, caribill said:

 

I do not think there are actually new times for dining when you are on the ship. What is new is what is listed in the personalizer. In the past the times on ship rarely were what was listed in the personalizer. I have no reason to believe the times now listed in the personalizer are accurate either.

 

People may be happy/unhappy with what they see with the changes shown in the personalizer, but may be unhappy once on board and see the actual times differ from what the personalizer listed.

Actually the new times are not closer to the actual times than the old ones.  For example the mid ship dining room was usually listed as 5:45, but actually usually opened at 5:30, the stern was usually listed as 6, but the doors actually would open around 5:45. A variance of about 15 minutes on cruises leaving from the US.

 

The new times of 4:45 and 5:00 represent a variance of 45 minutes from the recent normal opening time.  I expect these changes to be real.

[RDC1]

1 hour ago, Sheltieluv said:

I have the same question as Minniem.  Our cruise is a year away; we are booked and confirmed for early seating.  (It changed from 6 p.m. to 5:30, but that's ok). However, we are waitlisted for the early seating, and our waitlist # seems to change daily.....14 to 26 to 34, and now we're at #36.  How can we be confirmed and waitlisted at the same time???  This is our first cruise with Princess.  Is this a "normal" thing, and can we assume it will sort itself out?  Thanks!

How are you getting the wait listing location?  If you are checking by looking at the dining times in the personalizer then you are not getting your wait time, you are getting what the wait would be if you selected that option at that time.  If it says you are confirmed, you are confirmed.

[RDC1]

2 hours ago, Hlitner said:

I could make you a bet that the 4:45 seating will be full on nearly all cruises.  And you will still hear folks (especially from FL) complaining that its too late for dinner :).

 

Hank

I agree.  The 5pm, Stern dining room, will probably be full.  The 4:45 will probably have more open space available for anytime. I also expect late dining at 7:15 to be full.

 

I believe this is what they are counting on.

[Sheltieluv]

RDC1, thanks so much for the explanation.  We have only cruised on Regent, and there are no assigned dining times in the main dining room, so I was confused with the confirmed/waitlist notation.  It just didn't make sense to me, so thank you again for clearing that up!

[sandsunsurf]

7 hours ago, minniem said:

I booked a Feb cruise almost 2 years ago with a confirmed 5:30 seating which of course was changed this week to 4:45.  But the odd part is I am now on the waitlist #27 for the 4:45 seating.  I find it hard to believe people are rushing for this time slot.  And how did I go from confirmed to #27?  Something very odd is going on at Princess headquarters.

Same thing just occurred to my reservation. Thanks to cruisecritic users in the roll call, I checked my dining time from a recent email and it had been changed from 6:00PM confirmed to 5PM confirmed. So I looked online and the website had us #51 on waitlist for 5pm, with a Table for 6!  I switched it to 7:15.  Confirmed now.  But weird changes and a bad idea for Princess to change this on the fly.  

[RDC1]

13 minutes ago, sandsunsurf said:

 

13 minutes ago, sandsunsurf said:

Same thing just occurred to my reservation. Thanks to cruisecritic users in the roll call, I checked my dining time from a recent email and it had been changed from 6:00PM confirmed to 5PM confirmed. So I looked online and the website had us #51 on waitlist for 5pm, with a Table for 6!  I switched it to 7:15.  Confirmed now.  But weird changes and a bad idea for Princess to change this on the fly.  

 

If by checking you went into the personalizer and clicked on the 5pm dining option then it has nothing to do with your reservation.  That is telling you want your position would be if you selected that option at that time. So you 5pm was confirmed and at the time you clicked on it had 51 people on the waitlist.  Might be lower now since your 6 slots at 5 have been opened for those on the wait list.

Edited October 19, 2018 by RDC1

[Quantum Wino]

 If there is anybody currently on board the Pacific Princess, please let us know what the current dining times are?

[sandsunsurf]

47 minutes ago, RDC1 said:

 

If by checking you went into the personalizer and clicked on the 5pm dining option then it has nothing to do with your reservation.  That is telling you want your position would be if you selected that option at that time. So you 5pm was confirmed and at the time you clicked on it had 51 people on the waitlist.  Might be lower now since your 6 slots at 5 have been opened for those on the wait list.

I checked by going to the personalizes but I didn’t click anything. It appears that the drop down menus default to your current selection- my menus were 5pm and table for six. After fixing and applying changes my menus now go to 7:15 and 2. I even went to another website and came back to check because I really wanted to check the part about my table for six, since there’s nowhere else to see that information.  Regardless of whether or not my 5pm time was confirmed or not or for 6 vs 2, it’s a change everybody needs to check on their own reservations. 

[sandsunsurf]

This is sure a poor decision by Princess

Edited October 19, 2018 by sandsunsurf
My bad attitude

[RDC1]

57 minutes ago, sandsunsurf said:

I checked by going to the personalizes but I didn’t click anything. It appears that the drop down menus default to your current selection- my menus were 5pm and table for six. After fixing and applying changes my menus now go to 7:15 and 2. I even went to another website and came back to check because I really wanted to check the part about my table for six, since there’s nowhere else to see that information.  Regardless of whether or not my 5pm time was confirmed or not or for 6 vs 2, it’s a change everybody needs to check on their own reservations. 

What did the summary page say.  It has two lines the first says XXXX requested and the second line will say either XXXX confirmed or XXXX waitlist.  If you click on dining time you will get the guest check in and on board preferences screen. On that screen it will say the following.  The waitlist number in that window is what it is currently at and what you will get if you select that option at that time (similarly the table 2 has nothing to do with your selection it there as the first of many choices for a new selection).  So did the data change on the summary page when the time changed to show a waitlist or did it still show confirmed only with the earlier time?

 

The waitlist time do show just how over subscribed the early dining times tended to be.  Will be interesting to see how that changes as people start selecting based upon the new dining times.

Dining Preferences

Dining Requested: 5:00 PM 
Dining Confirmed: 5:00 PM

Close

Changing your dining request will forfeit your current confirmation and waitlist position, if any.

Anytime DiningSimilar to restaurants, dine with whomever you like anytime from 5:00pm – 10:00pm in our Anytime Dining Rooms.Traditional DiningExperience the cruise tradition of dining each night at the same time and with the same table mates and waiter.

Dining Time:                4:45 PM (Waitlist #136)   5:00 PM (Waitlist #60)   7:15 PM         Table Size:   Any   2 Persons   4 Persons   6 Persons   8 Persons   10 Persons 

 

 

Edited October 19, 2018 by RDC1

[RDC1]

1 hour ago, Quantum Wino said:

 If there is anybody currently on board the Pacific Princess, please let us know what the current dining times are?

I would Pacific Princess to be changed less than most ships due to no anytime.  Similarly the changes on the Diamond changed less than what is being shows for most cruises.  The Diamond tends to be traditional only on its Asian cruises.

[Quantum Wino]

1 minute ago, RDC1 said:

I would Pacific Princess to be changed less than most ships due to no anytime.  Similarly the changes on the Diamond changed less than what is being shows for most cruises.  The Diamond tends to be traditional only on its Asian cruises.

You would think so, but 6pm has become 5pm, on our booking.

[RDC1]

Just now, Quantum Wino said:

You would think so, but 6pm has become 5pm, on our booking.

I must admit I find that to be a bit of a surprise since Diamond only moved up by 30 minutes, instead of the full hour else where. I guess that maybe their stats indicate preference for later dining in Asia. I would have expected that it was due to no Anytime, but your data on the Pacific would indicate not.

[PrincessE.]

Just now, RDC1 said:

I must admit I find that to be a bit of a surprise since Diamond only moved up by 30 minutes, instead of the full hour else where. I guess that maybe their stats indicate preference for later dining in Asia. I would have expected that it was due to no Anytime, but your data on the Pacific would indicate not.

 

 

If you go back to my original post that this change is fleet wide - it will affect every Princess ship; passengers have no control at saying what time they would like to eat whether it be traditional early or late Princess has already instituted the time change,  except for buffet or open & open sitting will be jammed & in line you will wait until there is a free table as this cruise has 2 holidays & will be jammed with snowbirds & children.  I would think that Princess also has some other plans in mind regarding dining venues; it is about control & money.  Your only alternative is to complain on board & not on the Princess survey at the end of your cruise as those questions are already designed to give Princess the answer they want to hear. PE.

[Hlitner]

I am trying to keep from laughing when I hear 7:15 called "late dining."  In my world that is still cocktail time :).  But there is no question that Princess is simply reacting to the trend in the USA to eat dinner at "tea time."

 

Hank

[canadarocks]

Looks like Princess hasn't rolled out this new policy on all their ships yet. According to Eagle_and_hawk (who are currently on the CB and are posting) fixed dining is at 5:15pm in the Coral dining room, and at 5:30pm & 7:45pm in the Palm. Consistently inconsistent? 

[RDC1]

25 minutes ago, PrincessE. said:

 

 

If you go back to my original post that this change is fleet wide - it will affect every Princess ship; passengers have no control at saying what time they would like to eat whether it be traditional early or late Princess has already instituted the time change,  except for buffet or open & open sitting will be jammed & in line you will wait until there is a free table as this cruise has 2 holidays & will be jammed with snowbirds & children.  I would think that Princess also has some other plans in mind regarding dining venues; it is about control & money.  Your only alternative is to complain on board & not on the Princess survey at the end of your cruise as those questions are already designed to give Princess the answer they want to hear. PE.

Had no doubt that it was fleet wide.  The amount of change is different in some areas and ships.  In the Med the amount of change is less than for US originating routes.  The amount of change on the Diamond, a ship with no anytime dining, in Asia was also less.  Was only surprised that Pacific, another ship without Anytime, received the full change, instead of less like Diamond.

 

Unlike you, I expect that this change will, once fully implemented, enable better use of the dining room capacity then they currently do.  With many from the over subscribed early traditional shifting to late TD.  Creating room for those that wanted early TD, but have been forced into Anytime, contributing to the early crunch there, to be able to select early TD or the new 7:15 late TD.  I expect late TD to be full, instead of half empty like it is now since to more people 7:15 is more appealing than the past 8:15 time.  The people that really really want late still has Anytime, usually not busy after 8.

 

You will get some that really really want to eat at 6-6:30 that might shift into Anytime, but I expect that the change will also result in more Anytime capacity in the mid dining room, by reducing demand in the 4:45 time slot.

[sandsunsurf]

@RDC1 I'm not sure if we're arguing or just repeating each other.  What I said still stands true- when you go to the page to change dining options, your currently selected options are what populate the drop down menus. Princess changed me from 6pm (which I know I selected as a table for 2, but that info  isn't on a summary page) to 5pm table for 6.   That would have been quite a shock to me upon embarkation, if I hadn't luckily been informed of this thread from my roll call thread.  There are going to be quite a few cruisers that are going to get a rude surprise.

 

I have attached a screen snip from exactly what that screen looks like now, with any clicks, just when I go to that screen, showing you what I mean that the drop downs are populated with your current selection.

 

With all of this said, I actually find the 7:15 time to be perfect dining time.  6 was a bit early but better than 8:30. So this has worked out, I just wish there would have been a notification from Princess themselves letting us all know.

[RDC1]

13 minutes ago, sandsunsurf said:

@RDC1 I'm not sure if we're arguing or just repeating each other.  What I said still stands true- when you go to the page to change dining options, your currently selected options are what populate the drop down menus. Princess changed me from 6pm (which I know I selected as a table for 2, but that info  isn't on a summary page) to 5pm table for 6.   That would have been quite a shock to me upon embarkation, if I hadn't luckily been informed of this thread from my roll call thread.  There are going to be quite a few cruisers that are going to get a rude surprise.

 

I have attached a screen snip from exactly what that screen looks like now, with any clicks, just when I go to that screen, showing you what I mean that the drop downs are populated with your current selection.

 

With all of this said, I actually find the 7:15 time to be perfect dining time.  6 was a bit early but better than 8:30. So this has worked out, I just wish there would have been a notification from Princess themselves letting us all know.

This is exactly what I was trying to explain.  The data at the top, which matches the dining info on your summary page is YOUR dining status  Requested and Confirmed 7:15. That is where the information specific to your reservation is.

 

The data near the bottom in the white boxes is not related to your reservation. When it shows a wait list in those white boxes it is what your position would be if you selected it at that moment (same with the other time options if you look at the drop down in the box).  It will always show 2 persons for table size because that is the first option for selection. It gets confusing because the system does retain the dining time and the traditional vs anytime part of your selection, but not confirmed vs waitlist and not table size. If it showed something other than 2 persons in the white box that is rather unique, have not seen that in over 30 cruises.  Might be an artifact of them changing the time. 

 

The only way to find out what they show to be your requested table size is to actually call Princess.

Edited October 19, 2018 by RDC1

[sandsunsurf]

13 minutes ago, RDC1 said:

This is exactly what I was trying to explain.  The data at the top, which matches the dining info on your summary page is YOUR dining status  Requested and Confirmed 7:15. That is where the information specific to your reservation is.

 

The data near the bottom in the white boxes is not related to your reservation. When it shows a wait list in those white boxes it is what your position would be if you selected it at that moment (same with the other time options if you look at the drop down in the box).  It will always show 2 persons for table size because that is the first option for selection. It gets confusing because the system does retain the dining time and the traditional vs anytime part of your selection, but not confirmed vs waitlist and not table size. If it showed something other than 2 persons in the white box that is rather unique, have not seen that in over 30 cruises.  Might be an artifact of them changing the time. 

 

The only way to find out what they show to be your requested table size is to actually call Princess.

That's not correct.  And I just did it again to make 100% sure.  The drop down menus default to WHAT YOU CURRENTLY HAVE SELECTED.  So to be sure, I changed my dining to 4 person table. Logged out. Logged back in (not just a new screen like last time) and went to the dining options. The drop down menus showed 4 person table. I changed it back and now when I go to that page it loads with 2 person table.  Try it yourself. I'm pretty tech savvy, so I can try and make more screen shots or a screen recording if you want.

Edited October 19, 2018 by sandsunsurf

[RDC1]

1 hour ago, sandsunsurf said:

That's not correct.  And I just did it again to make 100% sure.  The drop down menus default to WHAT YOU CURRENTLY HAVE SELECTED.  So to be sure, I changed my dining to 4 person table. Logged out. Logged back in (not just a new screen like last time) and went to the dining options. The drop down menus showed 4 person table. I changed it back and now when I go to that page it loads with 2 person table.  Try it yourself. I'm pretty tech savvy, so I can try and make more screen shots or a screen recording if you want.

I currently have 5 cruises booked.  On mine it gives 2, even though all are for 6 tops.

 

They might have made a recent code change that has not run all the way through,  mine still shows its old behavior that it has for years.  Just out of curiosity, if you have more then one booking go to another booking and see if it changes in line with the booking or just keeps the same value? 

 

Would be interesting to see what others show.  How about the waitlist those are certainly NOT your position

[PrincessE.]

So glad I started a healthy discussion which should be directed to Princess for explaining Pe

[lorri111]

Thanks for the heads up. I just checked our travel summary and our early seating has been moved up to 4.45!!!!! I like to eat early but this is getting a little silly!