Change in Traditional Dining Times?

[pms4104]

Our Nov 18 Coral sailing from L.A. already reflects the new times ... so it's starting soon. 

[Thrak]

4 minutes ago, pms4104 said:

Our Nov 18 Coral sailing from L.A. already reflects the new times ... so it's starting soon. 

 

Yep. I changed our time to 7:15 for that cruise. It's bad enough that they just arbitrarily changed the time to way early but it's insulting to have it say I "requested" the changed time.

[mrandmrsdd]

Hi anyone knows that the time will be for shows in the theatre yet, 

thanks di

[Murphey]

I think that the new 7:15 dining time is fabulous!  It was always when we wanted to go anyway.  I think the new earliest time is ridiculous.....who eats dinner at, what is it, 4:30, 4:45???

[Kwaj girl]

Who dines at 4:45 pm?  That is ridiculously early unless you are accustomed to going to places offering "early bird" specials offering lower prices.  I wonder who came up with this idea.....perhaps they are trying to close the dining room earlier to get the staff off-duty earlier so they can get to bed at a decent hour ?

[LEtue]

This sure has become an interesting thread!  I decided to call Princess and had a long conversation about it. 

 

Specifically for my sailing on the Sky - November 3, 2019 there were literally 3 answers.  Among her documentation she found references to 7:15, 7:45 and 8:15 (the only one I see) for late dining.  I am tempted to change to 8:15 and see what gets confirmed later.  Can't imagine that the early dining won't still be available later when everyone knows about the change and starts the mass migration to late dining.  

 

 

 

 

 

[Colo Cruiser]

10 minutes ago, LEtue said:

This sure has become an interesting thread!  I decided to call Princess and had a long conversation about it. 

 

Specifically for my sailing on the Sky - November 3, 2019 there were literally 3 answers.  Among her documentation she found references to 7:15, 7:45 and 8:15 (the only one I see) for late dining.  I am tempted to change to 8:15 and see what gets confirmed later.  Can't imagine that the early dining won't still be available later when everyone knows about the change and starts the mass migration to late dining.  

 

 

 

 

 

It could be changed 12 more times by then.

[Lucky TGO]

36 minutes ago, Kwaj girl said:

Who dines at 4:45 pm?  That is ridiculously early unless you are accustomed to going to places offering "early bird" specials offering lower prices.  I wonder who came up with this idea.....perhaps they are trying to close the dining room earlier to get the staff off-duty earlier so they can get to bed at a decent hour ?

 

I totally agree with you. It is Ridiculous!! Every one should call Princess 1-800-774-6237 to complain or nothing will be done. 

A lot of people are changing to 7:15 pm or later.  With all the cutbacks in the MDR help you may be there until after 10:30pm

Why is Princess keeping this a secret? Are they worried a lot people will start canceling their cruise and book elsewhere??😡

 

Tony

[RDC1]

9 hours ago, L454S said:

 

Yeah, this is the Nov. 23 sailing(12 day Greece) combined with the Dec.5 T/A(17 day). 

I do not think that the times will changes as much on European Med cruises.  I am doing a TA in the spring, followed by a cruise in the Med.  The times in the TA moved up, the ones in the Med stayed later.

 

From what I have heard some cruises in some regions (those where people normally eat later) are not getting the same large change.

[LEtue]

4 minutes ago, Colo Cruiser said:

It could be changed 12 more times by then.

 

Of course and I expect more changes.  But I really don't want my early dining moved up to 4:45   

[skoeper]

13 minutes ago, Lucky TGO said:

 

I totally agree with you. It is Ridiculous!! Every one should call Princess 1-800-774-6237 to complain or nothing will be done. 

A lot of people are changing to 7:15 pm or later.  With all the cutbacks in the MDR help you may be there until after 10:30pm

Why is Princess keeping this a secret? Are they worried a lot people will start canceling their cruise and book elsewhere??😡

 

Tony

After final payment, no one can cancel unless they have the "cancel for any reason" insurance.  I think it's dirty of them.   If they want early dining, I mean REALLY early dining, then offer it for future cruises, not one that can't be cancelled.    I kinda feel tricked.

[RDC1]

29 minutes ago, Lucky TGO said:

 

I totally agree with you. It is Ridiculous!! Every one should call Princess 1-800-774-6237 to complain or nothing will be done. 

A lot of people are changing to 7:15 pm or later.  With all the cutbacks in the MDR help you may be there until after 10:30pm

Why is Princess keeping this a secret? Are they worried a lot people will start canceling their cruise and book elsewhere??😡

 

Tony

Actually I am more likely to call and agree with the change.  If fact I already have.

 

Considering the problems I have seen with the numbers booking early dining, the low turnout for late resulting in very inefficient use of dining room space.  The past over subscribing of early td forcing people into anytime. 

 

The changes actually address a number of the issues.  Late TD will now be full.  Those that want early TD can get it, and it will probably not be over subscribed.

 

  If enough think that 5pm is too early then an entire second dining room will be available for early anytime. If late TD is over subscribed then certainly late anytime has not really had a problem of being overfull.

 

The only group that it won't work for are those that absolutely want TD in the 6 to 6:30 range. 

 

Of course there is also the knee jerk reaction that occurs with just about any change.

 

Let see how this actually works out.  Will check out TD in 2 weeks, and AT in Feb. Then back to TD in May. Things should be smoothed out by then.

 

Now if they would just check that those going to AT have actually signed up for it.

 

PS I have been on over 20 Princess cruises over the past 10 years.  It is not taking us any longer to finish a meal in TD then it did 10 years ago. Usually between an hour to an hour and a half.  We are not the first to leave the room either.

Edited October 24, 2018 by RDC1

[RDC1]

1 hour ago, LEtue said:

This sure has become an interesting thread!  I decided to call Princess and had a long conversation about it. 

 

Specifically for my sailing on the Sky - November 3, 2019 there were literally 3 answers.  Among her documentation she found references to 7:15, 7:45 and 8:15 (the only one I see) for late dining.  I am tempted to change to 8:15 and see what gets confirmed later.  Can't imagine that the early dining won't still be available later when everyone knows about the change and starts the mass migration to late dining.  

 

On my transatlantic  next May FLL to Barcelona the times are  4:45, 5:00 and 7:15

the next cruise from Barcelona to Athens  shows the times to be 5:15, 5:30 and 7:45  30 minutes later for the med cruise compared to the TA

 

 

 

 

[Nein2]

I like eatin early.  More time for the night life.

[paul929207]

1 hour ago, skoeper said:

After final payment, no one can cancel unless they have the "cancel for any reason" insurance.  I think it's dirty of them.   If they want early dining, I mean REALLY early dining, then offer it for future cruises, not one that can't be cancelled.    I kinda feel tricked.

Even with cancel for any reason coverage, that gives you a credit for a future cruise which will likely have the same dinner times

 

[Colo Cruiser]

...

[G&T Cruisers]

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.

[skoeper]

41 minutes ago, paul929207 said:

Even with cancel for any reason coverage, that gives you a credit for a future cruise which will likely have the same dinner times

 

Sigh.......that doesn't seem fair 😞

[BIGADORF]

Just to add my 2 cents to this discussion. I believe that one of the residual effects of the changes will be that people at the 4:45 or 5:00 TD will be late to show up for dinner. Between getting back to the ship, showering and dressing and possibly wanting to view the ship leaving the dock, people will just be running late. I am not sure what the “late time” will be and still allow people to dine in the TD. But if enough people are late and are turned away and have to eat in another Venue, there will be lots of unhappy cruisers. Since Princess has chosen not to notify people in advance, a lot of people will have already booked excursions that may not possibly get them back to the ship at a time that doesn’t allow enough time for them to get ready for the early dinner.

[Lucky TGO]

1 hour ago, BIGADORF said:

Just to add my 2 cents to this discussion. I believe that one of the residual effects of the changes will be that people at the 4:45 or 5:00 TD will be late to show up for dinner. Between getting back to the ship, showering and dressing and possibly wanting to view the ship leaving the dock, people will just be running late. I am not sure what the “late time” will be and still allow people to dine in the TD. But if enough people are late and are turned away and have to eat in another Venue, there will be lots of unhappy cruisers. Since Princess has chosen not to notify people in advance, a lot of people will have already booked excursions that may not possibly get them back to the ship at a time that doesn’t allow enough time for them to get ready for the early dinner.

 

I love to see what’s going to happen when A lot people show up 5 minutes every night before the doors close. 

Tony

[reedprincess]

9 hours ago, antsp said:

With the changes to traditional dining times, does anyone know the first cruise this will effect 

Our cruise left yesterday..23.  Our cruise personalizer had been changed to reflect the new times.

Onboard however, early dining is 5:30 and 7:45 in aft traditional,  5:15 in mid-ship and anytime is 5:15-9:30...... So, no changes to times onboard.  

[caribill]

3 hours ago, BIGADORF said:

I believe that one of the residual effects of the changes will be that people at the 4:45 or 5:00 TD will be late to show up for dinner. Between getting back to the ship, showering and dressing and possibly wanting to view the ship leaving the dock, people will just be running late.

Princess may think they can solve that problem by shortening port times so that all sailaways are by 3:30 PM

[caribill]

2 hours ago, reedprincess said:

Our cruise left yesterday..23.  Our cruise personalizer had been changed to reflect the new times.

Onboard however, early dining is 5:30 and 7:45 in aft traditional,  5:15 in mid-ship and anytime is 5:15-9:30...... So, no changes to times onboard.  

 

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.

[billco]

On 10/24/2018 at 7:19 AM, MsSoCalCruiser said:

I  just completed a cruise on the NCL Bliss.  We went to the buffet one night, the MDR once for lunch and also for dinner and had specialty dining three times. When we went to the MDR we did not have reservations. The MDR did not have a limited amount of "free" dining slots.  We walked up to the podium and we were seated immediately. The food in the MDR was very good.   The food in the specialty dining restaurants was fabulous! I will post a photo of my neighbors prime rib in the MDR. 

I have several cruises booked on Princess.   We are now booked for dining at 4:45 PM and waitlisted for 5 PM. I wish they would change it to at least 5:30 PM but it is what it is.  I thought about changing them all to ATD but I bet the wait times will be crazy long now.

We just completed a 15 day transatlantic on the NCL Jade. We booked all our dining reservations online 90 days prior to the cruise. Sometimes we showed up as much as a 1/2 hour before the reservation. One night we didn't have a reservation. We were always seated promptly. When asked if we wanted to share, we said no. Not a problem. It wouldn't bother me to see Princess drop traditional altogether and go the NCL Freestyle concept of dining. 

[jennybenny]

On 10/24/2018 at 9:32 AM, arizonaperson said:

 I also think cruisers reserve a traditional time slot ,show up on the first night or formal nights only,and then decide that they want to utilize the buffet or the specialty dining and never come back to the traditional table and never tell anybody. So there’s all kinds of different ways why the traditional tables are empty . Some people just change their mind once they get on board for whatever reason and they take up the traditional table space  not thinking that makes any difference. 

Julie

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

Edited October 25, 2018 by jennybenny