Changes in Princess

[oskidunker]

Good point. 

[Rassa]

With Anytime Dining, I noted in the past the long queue for 5.30ish.   If we chose Anytime Dining, is the queue long at 6 pm or 6.30?

[hansi]

Anytime dining always works for us

Edited April 22, 2019 by hansi
change text

[jeromep]

On 4/20/2019 at 5:17 AM, flhusker said:

Hubby and I have been loyal Princess cruisers; however with the changes this year we are switching to another cruise line.  Dinner times at 5:15 and 7:30 are you kidding me!  Do they think they are running an Old People's Home.  Active seniors don't eat that early.  Show times in Princess Theater have also been changed, I suppose to accommodate for the earlier dining times.  Now I find out from a friend that the lariat for the new Medallion costs $7.00-$18.00.  Are you kidding me!  You treating me old and at the same time have your hand in my pocket.  Thanks but no thanks!  Goodbye Princess!

I've never been attracted to set dining times.  Anytime dining has always done the job for us.  I understand the appeal of a set dining time, and I think more importantly, having the same wait staff every night, but i can't reconcile it with my "way of cruising".  It's not that important to me that I get the same table staff every night I dine.

 

Like any stage or live music production, you go when they put it on.  If you can't make it, you can't make it.  I thought about purchasing season tickets to the local symphony this year, but their dates and times were just not compatible with my schedule, so no purchase.  When cruising, I prefer to take in the early show and do a late dinner.  I can't do that in my regular life, but when cruising everything is flexible.

 

I'm not under the impression that we have to purchase any holder for the Medallion.  I am under the impression that you can just pocket it and everything is cool.  If you do a Google search there are folks out there who have the Medallion's dimensions and are using 3D printers and other tools to make holders of their own taste, sometimes at very competitive prices.  You may want to look at alternate sources.

 

I have relatives that cruise with RCI and Celebrity, a lot.  Those lines get good reviews from them, but when we compare similarities and differences, I always feel like I will get a better deal and treated better on Princess than with their closest competition.

Edited April 22, 2019 by jeromep

[JimmyVWine]

5 hours ago, Rassa said:

With Anytime Dining, I noted in the past the long queue for 5.30ish.   If we chose Anytime Dining, is the queue long at 6 pm or 6.30?

Yes and no.  The physical line may not be as long, but your wait will be as long, if not longer.   That big line you see at 5:30ish will probably fill the dining room and there won't be any room for additional diners until that wave finishes their meals and vacates the tables which will never be by 6:00.  So if you show up at 6:00, there might not be a long line, but the people in that line will have to wait 30-45 minutes for a spot to open up and for the table to be cleared and reset.  While Anytime dining really is "any time",  crowd behavior and "group think" turn it into "wave dining" with the first wave being at 5:00-5:30 and the second wave being at 7:00-7:30.  

 

Think of it this way.  Lets say that a dining room holds 400 people.  At 5:00 a line begins to build and by 5:15, 150 people have been seated and the line out the door has 260 people in it.  You see the line of 260 people and decide not to get in it.  By 5:45, 250 of the 260 people in that line have been seated and the line shrinks to just 10 people.  At 6:00 you see that short line and decide to get in it.  While you are only the 11th person in line, that line is not going to budge until a table of diners finishes their meal, departs and the staff can clear and reset the table.  This could take close to an hour.  During that hour, the line builds again until it has 400 people in it.  At around 6:30 or so, wave after wave of early diners depart and the tables get reset.  Soon after, all of the 400 people get seated rather quickly and the line shrinks to nothing again.  So one wave of diners gets seated between 5:00-5:30 and the second wave of diners gets seated at 6:30-7:00.  It some respects, you are better off being the 390th person in line than the 11th, (if you are in the second wave).  The 390th person actually waits less time than the 11th person because the 390th person joins the line just as it begins to move into the dining room.  Indeed, the person who waits the longest for Anytime Dining is the very first person who missed the cut for getting in to the first wave.*** 

 

Crowd behavior on a cruise ship is always going to work this way as long as there are enough people who want to dine at 5:30 to fill the dining room.  And when this happens, Anytime Dining becomes "any time except 6:00".  With ATD, you pretty much have to decide if you want to dine at 5:00-5:30 or at 7:00-8:00 and pick your spot.  It is for this reason that when you call to make a reservation for Anytime Dining (on ships that take reservations), you are always offered "before 5:30 or after 7:30".  There is no way for them to accommodate 6:00 or 6:30 because all the early diners will take those seats. 

 

***This is how it works in theory.  In reality, there is always a trickle of people who get seated now and then as someone in the dining room may have only wanted a salad, or a single course and dined for only 15-20 minutes.  So the first person who missed the cut for the first wave will probably get in earlier than the math suggests.

Edited April 22, 2019 by JimmyVWine

[MissP22]

13 hours ago, getting older slowly said:

Thanks... so a bit of old school...   that is nice

 

one thing I agreed with is dressing for formal night  ( jacket and tie )

 

Cheers Don

You should stay with TD dining where more of the people adhere to formal clothing.

[Dani24]

That “early” dining time might not work for some people... but it has nothing really to do with age or activity level. My husband and I are in our 30’s and very active. We’ve always done Anytime Dining, but tend to go earlier. We’re much happier eating at 5:30 than 7:30. And now that we have a kid we appreciate an earlier dining time even more (since her bedtime is generally 8 pm). At home our dining time varies — but we usually eat by 6 pm. And if we’re going out to dinner we usually go at 4:30 pm.

Maybe we’re just old folks in young people’s bodies. But this is what works for us. Princess offers multiple choices so people can find what works for them. Fixed times/tables, Anytime dining, buffet whenever, room service whenever. Nobody is limited!

[pris993]

On 4/21/2019 at 4:10 PM, getting older slowly said:

Can one ask ... what is it with Tradition Dining... eating with the same people at the same time every night..... 

Is it one of those traditions from the past that people must hang on to ?

,

As now a days... you have anytime dining, other restaurants and the buffet to eat at ? 

 

I know everybody is different... just as well  or we all want to eat at the same time....

 

Cheer Don

We did Traditional late dining for years, table for 2..  We did to get the same waiter every night, my dh is very fussy... 

The truth is we can do just as well  at the buffet, selecting what we want ourselves, or we go to the Crown Grill... we save on extra tips in the MDR, (we leave the auto tip on always) use the money saved to go to the Crown Grill... so folks do different things for different reasons... we gave up on the Traditional MDR ... when we were on Celebrity in the Mediterranean... we were on an 11 night cruise .. after 5 nights we said this is not fun in the MDR, noisy, waiter can hardly get by the tables without bumping into someone.. lighting so low we hardly read the menu... so we skipped the MDR, , went to the buffet (Celebrity then was doing a buffet similar to the Royal)... we eat late afternoon, took nap, then dressed and enjoyed entertainment, never missed the MDR.... at alll.    So it helps to change it up sometimes... we have never looked back.    NOw do the same thing on all cruise lines. 

[4cats4me]

On 4/22/2019 at 6:14 AM, JimmyVWine said:

Yes and no.  The physical line may not be as long, but your wait will be as long, if not longer.   That big line you see at 5:30ish will probably fill the dining room and there won't be any room for additional diners until that wave finishes their meals and vacates the tables which will never be by 6:00.  So if you show up at 6:00, there might not be a long line, but the people in that line will have to wait 30-45 minutes for a spot to open up and for the table to be cleared and reset.  While Anytime dining really is "any time",  crowd behavior and "group think" turn it into "wave dining" with the first wave being at 5:00-5:30 and the second wave being at 7:00-7:30.  

 

Think of it this way.  Lets say that a dining room holds 400 people.  At 5:00 a line begins to build and by 5:15, 150 people have been seated and the line out the door has 260 people in it.  You see the line of 260 people and decide not to get in it.  By 5:45, 250 of the 260 people in that line have been seated and the line shrinks to just 10 people.  At 6:00 you see that short line and decide to get in it.  While you are only the 11th person in line, that line is not going to budge until a table of diners finishes their meal, departs and the staff can clear and reset the table.  This could take close to an hour.  During that hour, the line builds again until it has 400 people in it.  At around 6:30 or so, wave after wave of early diners depart and the tables get reset.  Soon after, all of the 400 people get seated rather quickly and the line shrinks to nothing again.  So one wave of diners gets seated between 5:00-5:30 and the second wave of diners gets seated at 6:30-7:00.  It some respects, you are better off being the 390th person in line than the 11th, (if you are in the second wave).  The 390th person actually waits less time than the 11th person because the 390th person joins the line just as it begins to move into the dining room.  Indeed, the person who waits the longest for Anytime Dining is the very first person who missed the cut for getting in to the first wave.*** 

 

Crowd behavior on a cruise ship is always going to work this way as long as there are enough people who want to dine at 5:30 to fill the dining room.  And when this happens, Anytime Dining becomes "any time except 6:00".  With ATD, you pretty much have to decide if you want to dine at 5:00-5:30 or at 7:00-8:00 and pick your spot.  It is for this reason that when you call to make a reservation for Anytime Dining (on ships that take reservations), you are always offered "before 5:30 or after 7:30".  There is no way for them to accommodate 6:00 or 6:30 because all the early diners will take those seats. 

 

***This is how it works in theory.  In reality, there is always a trickle of people who get seated now and then as someone in the dining room may have only wanted a salad, or a single course and dined for only 15-20 minutes.  So the first person who missed the cut for the first wave will probably get in earlier than the math suggests.

This is the most awesome description of Anytime (Not really anytime) Dining I’ve ever seen on the Princess Board.   ŁOL

Funny how times have changed.  Back in 2004-2011, the only times we were offered when calling the DINE line were 6:20 or 8:20, when we really wanted 7:00-7:30 in those days.   And way back in the day, early 90s, nobody wanted early dining ever!  The popular seating was always the 8:30 one.   

 

[hobbyfarmer2]

On 4/20/2019 at 8:17 AM, flhusker said:

Hubby and I have been loyal Princess cruisers; however with the changes this year we are switching to another cruise line.  Dinner times at 5:15 and 7:30 are you kidding me!  Do they think they are running an Old People's Home.  Active seniors don't eat that early.  Show times in Princess Theater have also been changed, I suppose to accommodate for the earlier dining times.  Now I find out from a friend that the lariat for the new Medallion costs $7.00-$18.00.  Are you kidding me!  You treating me old and at the same time have your hand in my pocket.  Thanks but no thanks!  Goodbye Princess!

Sorry to hear these changes are not working for you.  We like to eat early despite being younger than most aboard because we like to get to the early show and listen to the bands or party a bit later on.  The Medallion lanyard is free, by the way.

 

Best of luck to you.

[Jean2065]

Since we live in Florida it is just a three and a half hour drive to Port Lauderdale but over the years we have had the most amazing table mates and since then have booked cruises with them. That would seldom happen with anytime dining. They have to fly over from Europe. One time two guests didn't speak English but we made it work. I have kept in touch for many years with all of them. This next cruise we're down for Traditional dining and at least will go the first night and use the international cafe if we have a late excursion. 

[Ombud]

I'm changing to AT. Here's why:  It has nothing to do with the dining time surprise surprise!! On my last cruise I was seated it at lunch with 2 young men. One of them had old black stuff between his teeth. And his breath was so bad that I nearly couldn't take it. I could not tolerate being seated with him for more than a few minutes. Made a lousy excuse & left. Now if I was seated at dinner with him for 13-16 nights and I had to smell that every night I would not eat. The thing with AT is if you don't like your dining companions 1 night you won't have them the next. I am fussy. I have dining restrictions. But I have been assured by Princess that they can accommodate me in AT. Getting to eat around 6:00 p.m. is just an added bonus

[memoak]

9 minutes ago, Ombud said:

I'm changing to AT. Here's why:  It has nothing to do with the dining time surprise surprise!! On my last cruise I was seated it at lunch with 2 young men. One of them had old black stuff between his teeth. And his breath was so bad that I nearly couldn't take it. I could not tolerate being seated with him for more than a few minutes. Made a lousy excuse & left. Now if I was seated at dinner with him for 13-16 nights and I had to smell that every night I would not eat. The thing with AT is if you don't like your dining companions 1 night you won't have them the next. I am fussy. I have dining restrictions. But I have been assured by Princess that they can accommodate me in AT. Getting to eat around 6:00 p.m. is just an added bonus

Even with Traditional dining you can change tables whenever you want - we have had a few times when we could not stand our table mates (nothing in common, racist and homophobic comments) and simply went to the Matri D and moved to a different table - happens all the time especially after the first night

[OCruisers]

On 4/20/2019 at 12:19 PM, Colo Cruiser said:

One word comes to mind.....anytime.   

 

Yes, Anytime!

Also .... Club Class Dining is great if you happen to be in a full suite or CC Mini-Suite! 

[CRUZBUDS]

We just got back from a 15 day on the Ruby Princess.  After 45+ cruises it was our first time to use anytime.  We did it to accommodate traveling companions.  We had a great time, but we hope to never do anytime again.  The service level you get at traditional from a good service team is leaps and bounds better than we had at anytime.  We only had bad service one night, but the rest was basically just OK.  

 

Unfortunately we are booked for anytime on our next cruise on the Celebrity Eclipse.  The option was early at 6::15 or late at 8:45.  8:45 ! - are you kidding me?   We may try now to switch to early, which is wait-listed.  After the impersonal service on the Ruby, we don't want to anytime.. 

 

We started cruising long before anytime was an option -- now we've tried it and it is not for us.  Love Princesses new late traditional times.  (We wouldn't want the new early)    

[Jean2065]

On 4/21/2019 at 7:24 PM, oskidunker said:

You bet. I would never do anytime and line up with a pager. Traditional every time  no wait. Same great waiters who know what we like every night. We have always been seated with interesting people 

 

R

 

On 4/21/2019 at 9:51 PM, joybook said:

Wow! These are really 1st world problems aren't they? I wonder if there are any people from 3rd world countries watching and reading? Just enjoy the benefits of being fortunate enough to be cruising.

I like the fact in TD our waiter always knows what we like to drink. I haven't made up my mind this cruise if we're going to TD on formal nights, we've always done it in the past. I have cruise in March and April. The one we're going on now is freestyle:( I guess they allow shorts in the dinning room on NCL? Well it will be interesting.)

[Georgie562]

Keep in mind the grass is not always greener on the other side..

 

I can''t wait to Celebrate my 35th Birthday on Princess this Monday!

I hope they" treat me old", I hope they cater to me, I hope they cook for me, I hope they make up my bed, I hope they make me good drinks.

 

 

 

Edited April 26, 2019 by Georgie562

[Jean2065]

On 4/22/2019 at 9:14 AM, JimmyVWine said:

Yes and no.  The physical line may not be as long, but your wait will be as long, if not longer.   That big line you see at 5:30ish will probably fill the dining room and there won't be any room for additional diners until that wave finishes their meals and vacates the tables which will never be by 6:00.  So if you show up at 6:00, there might not be a long line, but the people in that line will have to wait 30-45 minutes for a spot to open up and for the table to be cleared and reset.  While Anytime dining really is "any time",  crowd behavior and "group think" turn it into "wave dining" with the first wave being at 5:00-5:30 and the second wave being at 7:00-7:30.  

 

Think of it this way.  Lets say that a dining room holds 400 people.  At 5:00 a line begins to build and by 5:15, 150 people have been seated and the line out the door has 260 people in it.  You see the line of 260 people and decide not to get in it.  By 5:45, 250 of the 260 people in that line have been seated and the line shrinks to just 10 people.  At 6:00 you see that short line and decide to get in it.  While you are only the 11th person in line, that line is not going to budge until a table of diners finishes their meal, departs and the staff can clear and reset the table.  This could take close to an hour.  During that hour, the line builds again until it has 400 people in it.  At around 6:30 or so, wave after wave of early diners depart and the tables get reset.  Soon after, all of the 400 people get seated rather quickly and the line shrinks to nothing again.  So one wave of diners gets seated between 5:00-5:30 and the second wave of diners gets seated at 6:30-7:00.  It some respects, you are better off being the 390th person in line than the 11th, (if you are in the second wave).  The 390th person actually waits less time than the 11th person because the 390th person joins the line just as it begins to move into the dining room.  Indeed, the person who waits the longest for Anytime Dining is the very first person who missed the cut for getting in to the first wave.*** 

 

Crowd behavior on a cruise ship is always going to work this way as long as there are enough people who want to dine at 5:30 to fill the dining room.  And when this happens, Anytime Dining becomes "any time except 6:00".  With ATD, you pretty much have to decide if you want to dine at 5:00-5:30 or at 7:00-8:00 and pick your spot.  It is for this reason that when you call to make a reservation for Anytime Dining (on ships that take reservations), you are always offered "before 5:30 or after 7:30".  There is no way for them to accommodate 6:00 or 6:30 because all the early diners will take those seats. 

 

***This is how it works in theory.  In reality, there is always a trickle of people who get seated now and then as someone in the dining room may have only wanted a salad, or a single course and dined for only 15-20 minutes.  So the first person who missed the cut for the first wave will probably get in earlier than the math suggests.

Yes in theory but do the people at anytime dining given let's say a table of 6-8 all eat at the same time or just order when they sit down? I'm guessing you all realize I have never done this. I guess I'm a traditional gal and probably too old to change. Guess that will leave two slots open for AD.

[Daniel A]

On ‎4‎/‎20‎/‎2019 at 8:17 AM, flhusker said:

 Active seniors don't eat that early.  You treating me old and at the same time have your hand in my pocket.  Thanks but no thanks!  Goodbye Princess!

DW and I are active seniors.  I didn't know we were required to eat dinner at a particular time.  We generally eat dinner when it fits into our active lifestyle.  What time are we supposed to eat dinner?

[Ombud]

1 hour ago, Daniel A said:

DW and I are active seniors.  I didn't know we were required to eat dinner at a particular time.  We generally eat dinner when it fits into our active lifestyle.  What time are we supposed to eat dinner?

When you're hungry? One of the benefits of being retired is not tied to a time schedule 

[caribill]

On 4/20/2019 at 10:36 AM, Hlitner said:

 On some of the cruises they will have a 7pm show which works fine for us and it happens to be the least crowded show.  So we go that early show which usually ends around 7:45. 

I was on a Princess cruise several months ago where they had changed the late seating time to 7:30. While 7:30 is an OK time for us, they did not change the scheduling of other activities.

 

What used to end at 7:45 (such as the early show you mention) still ended at 7:45.  The Captain's welcome and farewell speeches were still scheduled to begin at 7:30 and be over by 7:45.  Trivia that started at 7:15 was still going until 7:45.  etc.

 

So late seating passengers could

a) skip the event they would normally attend so they could be at dinner on time

b) attend the event and walk out early, possibly interrupting a performance

c) go to dinner at 7:45 and inconvenience others at their assigned table

 

Neither a, b or c is a good situation.

[caribill]

On 4/20/2019 at 12:53 PM, XBGuy said:

 

My obvious point, here, is that Princess is not blazing a new trail with these new times--unless somebody wants to quibble that 5:15 is early and 5:30 is not.  Early dining in that timeframe has been around for quite a while.

 

For those that like to eat that early, 5:00, 5:15 and 5:30 are probably acceptable.

 

For those who previous had early traditional dining at 6:00 or 6:15, the earlier times are not often acceptable and on cruises that stay in port until 5 or 6 PM not practical as it cuts into shore time in order be able to be cleaned up and ready for dinner at 5 PM.

 

As for Anytime being an alternative, that is great if you have paid enough to be in a Club Class cabin which allows you to have true Anytime dining. For those not in Club Class, Anytime means you can show up anytime, but you may not be seated for a while because hundreds of other passengers have decided their Anytime is the same as yours. On the one cruise we did do Anytime, we had wait times up to an hour and often missed after dinner activities we wanted to attend because of it.

[caribill]

On 4/21/2019 at 11:43 AM, maggie777 said:

Wishing Princess would list actual dining times for each ship. The personalizer is not correct.

 

On 4/21/2019 at 11:45 AM, oskidunker said:

It would certainly take us out of the guessing game, but maybe that’s what they want. 

 

Actual dining times may not be established until close to the embarkation date while booking a cruise (and the early/late dining time) can be up to two years before embarkation. As long as Princess does not maintain an actual fixed time on all ships in all parts of the world, the Personalizer will not be accurate except by coincidence.

[caribill]

6 hours ago, Jean2065 said:

Yes in theory but do the people at anytime dining given let's say a table of 6-8 all eat at the same time or just order when they sit down? I'm guessing you all realize I have never done this.

 

Usually the waitstaff waits until the table is full and then starts the service. Just like in traditional, each course is served to all at the table at the time time.

[Woobstr112G]

On 4/20/2019 at 9:19 AM, Colo Cruiser said:

One word comes to mind.....anytime.   

The way Princess runs it?.....😁😁😁

 

Bob

(p.s.) Just a little Saturday morning humor....