TRADITIONAL DINING vs. ANYTIME DINING

[Nikkibird]

Which one is better and why?? I booked traditional for 8pm but now I am having second thoughts. Any opinions?

[bdjam]

Which one is better and why?? I booked traditional for 8pm but now I am having second thoughts. Any opinions?

Which one is better and why depends on your personal likes and dislikes. I think Second Seating Traditional is perfect. Why are you having second thoughts?

[wrecks]

We prefer late seating, traditional. You can get nearly the same style by 'reserving' the same table in the anytime dining rooms. Having never done that, I don't know if you are a group of 2 that you can get a specific table at a specific time in anytime dining - or you need to be able to fill a table to reserve it, i.e., 2 top, 4 top, etc.

We really enjoy our dinners, so late is no problem for us, we usually are the last ones out. When someone is waiting for your table, you can get rushed.

[chasetf]

Which one is better and why?? I booked traditional for 8pm but now I am having second thoughts. Any opinions?

We like late traditional. Traditional gives us a chance to get to know some fellow passengers in depth. Late Traditional gives us a chance to be on deck for the sailaway, lounge over our coffee because they do not have to get us out for the next crowd, and still get to the late show in plenty of time. If we get hungry, we just head up top for a quick snack to carry us over. :D

[Karen Carney]

We prefer early sitting. I don't like to go to bed with a full stomach. I eat early at home and would be uncomfortable waiting 2 hours to eat. Happy hour would be way to long. We still get to enjoy our tablemates in the 2 hours that dinner usually lasts. We usually take excursions early in the day so we can be back and spend some time at the pool.

[Cookiesbykk]

Just to throw the 3rd option into the mix, I'll put in my vote for personal choice seating. It gave us the flexibility to eat whenever we wanted (we saw plenty of people running for tenders so they could get back, shower, change and make their early seating after a day in port). Sometimes, we ate as early as 6:15, other nights as late as 8:15 and we never had to wait for a table! We had our choice of 2 different dining rooms. When we found a waiter/jr. waiter team we liked, we requested their table the rest of the nights so in the end we did end up with staff who knew us.

 

Karen

[Coolmama_1]

Here's a vote for anytime dining. We liked the flexibility of dining early or late depending on the day's activities. On our last cruise we traveled with my parents and my brother and sil so they were our tablemates and we had a great time. We found a waitstaff that we liked and reserved the table for the whole week. We also are early eaters as two family members have gerds and can't eat late or they would be up all night.

[spongerob]

Late seating is always our personal choice. It seems to work out well for us.

[flightiebel]

I am going on my first cruise 02/04/2006 - Diamond Princess , my booking agent booked me in for Personal Choice???? wWhat is all of the dining options ? What are they, how do they work? & what is best? Thank you for your help

[Druke I]

Well, we prefer 1st Seating Traditional.

 

We eat early at home, and are not night people. First most closely matches our needs. 2nd seating is too late for us - don't want to fall asleep during desert, or at the show which may follow.

[Robrph]

We returned from the Golden in December having traditional, late seating. We prefer late seating so we don't have to rush back from shore excursions, and if necessary, we just order a light snack from room service around 4-5PM to hold us over. The most objectionable thing for us was the fact that we missed a lot of the entertainment since they don't schedule shows twice each evening to accommodate early and late diners. So, sitting down at 8:30 and leaving the dining room at 10:30PM effectively eliminated most all of the floor shows. One night we missed a comedian that everyone raved about. I know comparing Princess to Celebrity is frowned upon on this board, but Celebrity schedules the main production shows twice each evening- an early show around 7PM for the late diners, and a late show around 9PM for the early diners. If we cruise Princess again, we would definitely do anytime dining.

[Lance1224]

DW and I enjoy personal choice dinning . We usually request a table for 6 and get the same waitstaff. We are early dinners and are first in line when the dinning room opens.

 

Lance:)

[MSN-Travelers]

Which one is better and why?? I booked traditional for 8pm but now I am having second thoughts. Any opinions?

 

Traditional dining gives you the ability to establish new friendships with people you meet at the dinner table every night. The wait staff has a greater opportunity to provide you personalized service as they learn your likes & dislikes. And you know that there is a place waiting for you at the same table, at the same time, every night.

 

Anytime dining gives you the freedom to eat whenever you like. You can eat with your small group or dine with others. You can have different wait staff every night or request the same pair every night. As with most freedoms, there can be a down side. You may have to wait for a short period of time to get a table and ... well, you don't always get to enjoy the same people and wait staff every night.

 

My wife and I have very structured work lives and enjoy non-structured vacations. We opt for the anytime dining.

 

I will admit that I noticed the service can be a little disjointed in the anytime dining room. The wait staff can have difficulty taking orders at one table while serving the main course at another and serving dessert at another. Then again, it is no different than being in a busy restaurant on shore.

[Pam in CA]

Paul and Marilyn... good summary. Having done PC dining twice, I much prefer the late traditional dining. Even though 8PM sounds late, you usually go through at least one or two time zones on a cruise so in reality, it doesn't make any difference to me. I adjust the times I eat during the day so that I'm not starved by 7PM. I also like getting to know the other people at the table, the more personalized service, and knowing I can just walk in to "my" table rather than having to wait (which if you have PC dining, you will need to do, even if you have a reservation.)

[Tak8]

As others have said, it is a matter of your needs. I like early. I normally cruise with my son and at age 12, 8:00pm is not what he is used to eating with his sports schedule. Also 8 seems late for me to fill up before show and bed.

[madelinerose]

We've chosen Anytime for our first Princess cruise in September, as we prefer the spontaneity. We'll have dinner when we're hungry and not feel obligated to dine because we have a set time in the traditional diningroom. I think PC/Anytime will be great for us. ;)

[Irishjayne]

We love traditional seating. We had 2nd seating on our first cruise and have chosen 1st for our next cruise. We felt it was a bit too late to eat. We missed a lot of the entertainment. If there was a late show scheduled, by the time we got there, there were no seats available. If we don't like 1st seating we can opt out to personal choice and give our seats to someone else on the waiting list. We shall see.

[ugogirl]

I asked this question on another thread and was reassured that late traditional dining still allowed you to go to the main production shows. Now on this thread it sounds like a problem. What are you going to miss by having late TD? Thanks.

[obnurse]

If we choose anytime dining, what's the average wait time at the 7-7:30 time? We're sailing Sun Princess.

[Irishjayne]

I asked this question on another thread and was reassured that late traditional dining still allowed you to go to the main production shows. Now on this thread it sounds like a problem. What are you going to miss by having late TD? Thanks.

 

On our cruise some of the late shows started at 9:00 or 10:00. So if you have 2nd seating then you will miss the 9:00 or the 10:00 one is full with standing room only.

[TexasMom2]

We were stuck with anytime dining on our first Princess cruise, even booking 11 months in advance. For us it was not a good thing. I prefer late traditional and the ability to see the shows before dinner. The only time we were able to see a show on the Grand was on a sea day, when we got to dinner by 6:00pm.

[whale-watcher]

For us, anytime dining works out better than traditional. We don't like to be tied down to a fixed dinner time, and we are not always hungry on a fixed schedule. We either eat in the dining room early, with the kids (we have never had a significant wait early in the evening), or late, on our own (after letting the kids eat room service or buffet early). Again, we have never had to wait later in the evening.

 

If we choose anytime dining, what's the average wait time at the 7-7:30 time? We're sailing Sun Princess.

This is probably the MOST crowded time for anytime dining, so we tended to either eat earlier or later, but last year onboard the Dawn there was usually a line at this time.

[ssantow]

We have always donr Traditional both early and late. If I were to do traditional again It would be early seating. With late seeting dinner is way too late (8;00). By the time dinner is over and the show is over it is just too late.

 

We are going on the Sea Princess in December for the Caribbean Adventurer cruise. This cruise has 11 ports of call in 14 days and we are in port till later in the day, so we are going to go with Personal Choice this time. We can make a standing reservation for 6:30 or 7:00 and still be done at a decent hour.

 

Stan

 

[call me cat]

Which one is better and why?? I booked traditional for 8pm but now I am having second thoughts. Any opinions?

We just got back from anytime dining, and depending on your personality, and whether you like to me LOTS of new people. We asked to be seated at a large table each night, and made many, many new friends. The service was wonderful everywhere, and my wine bottle always found its way back to me, lol. As previously stated, we had the choice to dine anywhere between 5 and 10, but usually between 7-8. We never had to worry about return times, or whether we had time for a nap. Anytime dining would be the main reason i would choose princess again.

[bdjam]

I asked this question on another thread and was reassured that late traditional dining still allowed you to go to the main production shows. Now on this thread it sounds like a problem. What are you going to miss by having late TD? Thanks.

I always have Late Seating Traditional and have never missed a late show. Princess schedules two performances – one early (usually starting at the same time as Late Traditional) for the Early Seating passengers and one late (usually starting a least two hours after Late Seating Traditional). The Anytime diners fit in where they want (and since the bulk of Anytime dining is in the 7:00 to 7:30 range, that means they miss the early show and go to the late). While I have missed some of the minor nighttime entertainment, I’ve not missed the headliners or the production shows. Even when I’ve gotten to the theater immediately before the show started, I was able to find a seat.