Change in Traditional Dining Times?

[Shmoo here]

36 minutes ago, caribill said:

Actual dining times are really not cast in concrete until relatively close to the cruise. Bookings for cruises (and dining times) starts up to two years before embarkation and there is no way to know that far in advance what the actual dining times will be.

 

While I've only been cruising for 11 years, we've done 23 cruises (booking anywhere from 2 years to 3 months out) and only this last one on Princess  have we had our dining time change (and not for the better).

 

 

 

 

[caribill]

2 hours ago, Shmoo here said:

While I've only been cruising for 11 years, we've done 23 cruises (booking anywhere from 2 years to 3 months out) and only this last one on Princess  have we had our dining time change (and not for the better).

 

Are you on your cruise yet? If not you do not know what time the early and late seatings will really be.

 

Of course before the recent change in times listed in the personalizer the previously listed times did not reflect reality either.

[Cindy]

11 hours ago, caribill said:

 

Actual dining times are really not cast in concrete until relatively close to the cruise. Bookings for cruises (and dining times) starts up to two years before embarkation and there is no way to know that far in advance what the actual dining times will be.

 

 

 

Not all other lines manage it. I forget whether it was RCI or Celebrity, but pre-cruise late seating was listed as being 8:30 (very unacceptable), but turned out to be around 7:30.

 

I’ve taken about 30 cruises on 5 different lines...Princess, Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, HAL, and Carnival. In my experiences, Princess is the only line on which we’ve experienced the reserved dining times differing from the on board dining times.

[MGAfhc]

On ‎12‎/‎12‎/‎2018 at 5:29 PM, norcalcruzr said:

The new earlier dining time is geared towards elderly guests and their parents.

I think it is actually geared toward trying to get two seatings that will be acceptable to their passengers. Most pax would like 6:00-6:30 as their ideal time, but that would mean an unworkable 8:30-9:00 second seating. What they have come up with is a compromise to try to spread the service evenly over two seatings. 

[Shmoo here]

12 hours ago, caribill said:

Are you on your cruise yet? If not you do not know what time the early and late seatings will really be.

 

Of course before the recent change in times listed in the personalizer the previously listed times did not reflect reality either.

Just back from our cruise a week ago.  The dining times were, indeed 5:00 and 7:15.  Just as we were notified they would be a week before the cruise.

 

 

[jennybenny]

16 hours ago, Mediaspot said:

I am writing this as we leave P.V. for Manzanillo on the Grand, a 10 dayer out of S.F. to Mexico... I bet that a lot of you are Platinum or Elite... Let me state my feelings in no uncertain terms, EARLY TRADITIONAL DINING AT 5:00 PM SUCKS!!! Do you like to go to the Elite/Platinum Cocktail Party before dinner??? If you answered YES you are out of luck... You can... A. Wolf down a drink and scarf a nosh from 4:30-5:00 and be on time for dinner... or... B. Arrive late for dinner, inconveniencing your tablemates and hurrying through dinner (they have another group after you for Late T/D)... or... C. Stand in line for Anytime Dining or hit the buffet... This is not the Princess Cruises Dining Experience I enjoyed on my first 28 cruises with Princess but it may very well be my memory of my LAST cruise with Princess. Again, I hope P/Cruises monitors social media and acts accordingly.  Thom.

What is late TD currently Thom?

Thank you in advance

Jenny

[marylizcat]

23 minutes ago, MGAfhc said:

I think it is actually geared toward trying to get two seatings that will be acceptable to their passengers. Most pax would like 6:00-6:30 as their ideal time, but that would mean an unworkable 8:30-9:00 second seating. What they have come up with is a compromise to try to spread the service evenly over two seatings. 

Seems to me that they have simply switched the unpopular 8.30 for an unpopular 5pm. So how does that help?

 

Standard port times are 8-6, meaning onboard time is 5.30. Maybe people might be willing to come back early in beach destinations, but who is going to rush back from Rome or Florence for a 5pm dinner?

[Mediaspot]

What is late TD currently Thom?

Thank you in advance

Jenny

 

J. Late T/D is 7:30P

 

T.

[candy4040]

Why can't they do 5:30 and 7:30 for seating?  Maybe even 5:45 and 7:30?   Do we actually need to have two hours to dine?   No way do I want to eat prior to 5:30 or later than 8:00,  I love having same table mates and the anytime dining doesn't do it for me.  We have signed up for the Crown Grille for several nights on our next cruise,  Wish they would get this figured out since it is causing a lot of angst amount Princess cruisers.  

[MGAfhc]

4 hours ago, marylizcat said:

Seems to me that they have simply switched the unpopular 8.30 for an unpopular 5pm. So how does that help?

 

Standard port times are 8-6, meaning onboard time is 5.30. Maybe people might be willing to come back early in beach destinations, but who is going to rush back from Rome or Florence for a 5pm dinner?

It sounds like the new 7:30 time would be ideal for you.

[marylizcat]

7 minutes ago, MGAfhc said:

It sounds like the new 7:30 time would be ideal for you.

Well, yes, that is my point! 7.30 probably suits the vast majority of people compared with 5 or 8.30. So the change isn’t going to help them fill the unpopular sitting.

[RDC1]

5 hours ago, marylizcat said:

Seems to me that they have simply switched the unpopular 8.30 for an unpopular 5pm. So how does that help?

 

Standard port times are 8-6, meaning onboard time is 5.30. Maybe people might be willing to come back early in beach destinations, but who is going to rush back from Rome or Florence for a 5pm dinner?

seems to 5pm still full, but not over subscribed, 7:15 now also full rather than half empty. at least that is how it appeared on my cruise two weeks ago. if early td drops enough they can convert deck 6 midshipmen from early td to any time. as a plus didn't have to get to the early show 30 minutes in advance. good seats still available 5 minutes before.

[Capitaine Crounche]

We were on the Regal last week (W. Caribbean).
Few weeks before our cruise our dining time was changed without notice. 
We were on 6:00 pm traditional dining and that was changed for 5:00 pm. When I called Princess I was 
told that changes would make new dining times more accurate and would reflect what Cruise Personalizer 
displays... So I change my dining time for 7:15 pm because 5:00 pm was too early AND because I was 
told that new timings would be ACCURATE... When I board the ship I discovered that my dining time 
was 7:45, not 7:15! How is this accurate? I first requested a table for 6:00 pm, was switched for 
5:00 pm, then asked for 7:15 pm and ended with a table at 7:45 pm! It is very frustrating and not the 
way Princess should treat its guests!

Edited December 26, 2018 by Capitaine Crounche

[skoeper]

16 minutes ago, Capitaine Crounche said:

We were on the Regal last week (W. Caribbean).
Few weeks before our cruise our dining time was changed without notice. 
We were on 6:00 pm traditional dining and that was changed for 5:00 pm. When I called Princess I was 
told that changes would make new dining times more accurate and would reflect what Cruise Personalizer 
displays... So I change my dining time for 7:15 pm because 5:00 pm was too early AND because I was 
told that new timings would be ACCURATE... When I board the ship I discovered that my dining time 
was 7:45, not 7:15! How is this accurate? I first requested a table for 6:00 pm, was switched for 
5:00 pm, then asked for 7:15 pm and ended with a table at 7:45 pm! It is very frustrating and not the 
way Princess should treat its guests!

 

Same thing happened to us on the Royal last month.  Our group of 10 even got split up in different dining times.   We were soooo mad.   It was our first time ever sailing Princess, too.   I'm not sure we will sail them again.  It might seem trivial to some people, but when you are hypoglycemic, dining times are important and you choose them based on when you know your body is going to need to eat.    Having a snack while you wait for a late dining tends to spoil your appetite just enough to not be able to try everything you'd like to at dinner. 

 

I think what bothered me the most was that Princess never emailed us about the change.   Our Personalizer stayed the time we chose originally.   When we learned about the change here on CC, we had our travel agent (who was traveling with us for the first time) change our dining time.   We weren't happy about doing this,but we dealt with it.   Then when we checked in and got our seapass cards, they said something entirely different.   Grrrrrrr.    Not a relaxing way to begin a cruise 😞

[wahwah1]

19 minutes ago, Capitaine Crounche said:

We were on the Regal last week (W. Caribbean).
Few weeks before our cruise our dining time was changed without notice. 
We were on 6:00 pm traditional dining and that was changed for 5:00 pm. When I called Princess I was 
told that changes would make new dining times more accurate and would reflect what Cruise Personalizer 
displays... So I change my dining time for 7:15 pm because 5:00 pm was too early AND because I was 
told that new timings would be ACCURATE... When I board the ship I discovered that my dining time 
was 7:45, not 7:15! How is this accurate? I first requested a table for 6:00 pm, was switched for 
5:00 pm, then asked for 7:15 pm and ended with a table at 7:45 pm! It is very frustrating and not the 
way Princess should treat its guests!

 

Thanks for the update.. My sailing is in June, I will keep my early dining (5:30 pm) for the time being. I requested a table of 4 for the family only. I guess it is not a big deal if we show up 15 min late..  our new dining time is 5 pm.

[hllwdcruiser]

43 minutes ago, Capitaine Crounche said:

We were on the Regal last week (W. Caribbean).
Few weeks before our cruise our dining time was changed without notice. 
We were on 6:00 pm traditional dining and that was changed for 5:00 pm. When I called Princess I was 
told that changes would make new dining times more accurate and would reflect what Cruise Personalizer 
displays... So I change my dining time for 7:15 pm because 5:00 pm was too early AND because I was 
told that new timings would be ACCURATE... When I board the ship I discovered that my dining time 
was 7:45, not 7:15! How is this accurate? I first requested a table for 6:00 pm, was switched for 
5:00 pm, then asked for 7:15 pm and ended with a table at 7:45 pm! It is very frustrating and not the 
way Princess should treat its guests!

Because we are traveling with two other couples we decided to choose TD over Anytime for the first time since we started sailing with Princess. We originally had 6 PM confirmed but when they changed it to 5 we all changed to 7:15 confirmed. After reading all these reports that the late seating is actually 7:45 we now are planning to switch to Anytime again. I feel like Goldilocks, 5 PM is too early, 7:45 is too late, how hard is it for Princess to get it just right?!? And what exactly is Princess's definition of "confirmed"? Why don't they just say "approximately"?

[Capitaine Crounche]

Last week on the Regal, TD times were 5:00, 5:30 and 7:45 PM, but they were supposed to be 4:45, 5:00 and 7:15 PM...

[wahwah1]

5 minutes ago, Capitaine Crounche said:

Last week on the Regal, TD times were 5:00, 5:30 and 7:45 PM, but they were supposed to be 4:45, 5:00 and 7:15 PM...

I am so confused. My cruise personalizer still said 5:30 pm, but I receieved an email saying it will be changed to 5 pm a month ago. Princess is not very organized.

 

I have only sailed with Princess once. They screwed up hundreds of passenger's traditional dining times. I think the system overbooked the confirmed early dining. There was a huge line up complaining on the first day why they got late dining instead.

 

[Micahs Grandad]

We are just back from the Pacific Princess.

 

We booked early seating which has been 5 30. We were told they were pushing that back to 5 which we felt was too early and were told late dining would be 7 15.

 

We chose late get on the ship and we see dining is 7 45. Went to see MD and we were given 5 30.

 

When we asked him about this we were told each ship has discretion to do as they wish.

 

We have four more booked and had changed to late but since that have changed back to early and who knows what they will do.

 

Hoping lots of people complain to the President of Princess causing them to go back and fix what was not broken.

[Mediaspot]

31 minutes ago, Micah's Grandad said:

 

 

Hoping lots of people complain to the President of Princess causing them to go back and fix what was not broken.

That last sentence pretty well says it all... Just back from 10 days on the Grand... Stayed w/5PM because 7:30 was too late and didn't want to stand in line for Anytime... Past 28 cruises w/Princess have been delightful... This one, due to the rushed or absence of pre-dinner cocktails and appetizers, was not as good. Hope Princess is monitoring this thread... Notice that only 2-3 out of over a hundred respondents have been in favor of the change(s)... Do we have some "ringers" on this thread??? 

[bemis12]

 Complainers are far more likely than satisfied people to post in a thread. The numbers that you are seeing aren’t an accurate reflection of the public at large. 

[GUT2407]

I heard they based it on when demand in ATD indicated people were most requesting.

[Shmoo here]

24 minutes ago, GUT2407 said:

I heard they based it on when demand in ATD indicated people were most requesting.

 

Well, then, change the ATD dining hours.  Open up that dining room earlier, but leave us TD people alone.

[MGAfhc]

3 hours ago, Shmoo here said:

 

Well, then, change the ATD dining hours.  Open up that dining room earlier, but leave us TD people alone.

If you mean ending the use of the Deck 6 AT dining room for early TD dining I agree, and I think most AT diners would also. As it is, Princess gives TD diners (who are about 1/3 of the passengers) 2/3 of the available resources for the early seating.

[Shmoo here]

1 hour ago, MGAfhc said:

If you mean ending the use of the Deck 6 AT dining room for early TD dining I agree, and I think most AT diners would also. As it is, Princess gives TD diners (who are about 1/3 of the passengers) 2/3 of the available resources for the early seating.

Not necessarily.  Just open the ATD earlier than 5:00 for those who want to eat dinner earlier.

 

I'm a early TD person.  I'm not thrilled that my preferred time of 5:30 (or 5:45, 6:00 at the latest) is now 5:00.  

 

It seems to me, if they are filling up 2 dining rooms with enough people to fill the early seating on TD, then that's what people want.  Traditional, but at a bit later time.  Those people who want ATD must be aware that they are not necessarily going to get their preferred time for eating when selecting that option.