Dine My Way - new MedallionClass enhancement

[MamaFej]

3 hours ago, Thrak said:

 

I'm sure when you get aboard the maître d' will find a way to accommodate your group. I can't imagine traveling with a group that large. (I especially can't imagine cruising with my wife's sisters... 🤪)

You couldn’t pay me to travel with Hubby’s siblings (you couldn’t pay Hubby enough, either). 
We have enjoyed cruising twice with my brother and his family, (and once with a group of almost 30, all of whom recognized each other’s need for autonomy). About 20 of us ate together most nights, at four proximate tables. It worked out quite well. 
 

Regarding accommodation of Roll Call groups, on our Chile to San Diego cruise in 2019, Celebrity was awesome, hosting multiple get-togethers, including a meet and greet, drinks and snacks in a Royal Suite at the end of a cabin crawl, and a special luncheon with a special menu. On an Iceland/Ireland cruise, Celebrity gave us a great rate on specialty dining at the Lawn Club for CC Roll Call members. 
 

It doesn’t hurt to ask, and the cruise line might just surprise you. 

[Tedferg]

@MamaFej I am going to round up 20 other passengers, just so that I can use the word 'Proximate' 🙂

 

[JF - retired RRT]

14 hours ago, Thrak said:

 

Very cool. Sometimes Princess will surprise you. We had a cruise on Coral Princess and had a pretty active Cruise Critic group. We met with quite a few officers at the Meet and Greet and they decided they would have a special lunch just for our group. We had a private dining room and special items. Some just ordered off the menu but many of us took advantage of the specialty dishes they made for us. We ordered a main dish that looked like stuff you might get at the Chef's Table dinner complete with a little spiny lobster on top. It was really good. We also ordered the special desert. (I have no idea why some folks didn't take advantage of the specialty offers.) The desert was something we have never seen on a cruise - again, I think it was likely something one would get at the Chef's Table dinner. It was amazing.

 

Jealous 🙊

[JF - retired RRT]

14 hours ago, Thrak said:

 

Very cool. Sometimes Princess will surprise you. We had a cruise on Coral Princess and had a pretty active Cruise Critic group. We met with quite a few officers at the Meet and Greet and they decided they would have a special lunch just for our group. We had a private dining room and special items. Some just ordered off the menu but many of us took advantage of the specialty dishes they made for us. We ordered a main dish that looked like stuff you might get at the Chef's Table dinner complete with a little spiny lobster on top. It was really good. We also ordered the special desert. (I have no idea why some folks didn't take advantage of the specialty offers.) The desert was something we have never seen on a cruise - again, I think it was likely something one would get at the Chef's Table dinner. It was amazing.

 

Jealous 🙊

[Colorado Coasty]

On 7/20/2021 at 1:34 PM, XBGuy said:

 

 

When My Wine Dining is finally rolled out on actual cruises, passengers are still going to want to dine at their preferred times.  So, how will this new program improve peak period operations?  

 

 

I'm sure this is a typo but what a great idea for those of us that enjoy a good wine with our dinner every night.

[RDJ]

I was having issues with the app, it wasn’t allowing me to make dinner reservations for my March sailing (nor was it saving my profile updates). But this week finally reservation options did appear (for main dining only, not specialty). So I’ll I was able to pick a time for each day, fingers crossed it saves going forward. We used to like traditional dining (early) but found it interfered too much with port times, but late seating for us is too late. We did anytime dining last time and we were never able to get in until late anyways (or make reservations)… it was terrible. So I personally hope this Dine My Way works out for us!

[XBGuy]

2 hours ago, Colorado Coasty said:

I'm sure this is a typo but what a great idea for those of us that enjoy a good wine with our dinner every night.

 

Wow.  What kind of slip is that?  You have eagle eyes @Colorado Coasty

 

Actually I have been able to enjoy My Wine Dining for quite some time on Princess.  I love their policy for carry-on wines.  No SmartPhone software needed.

[Fishboy1947]

19 hours ago, Thrak said:

 

I'm sure when you get aboard the maître d' will find a way to accommodate your group. I can't imagine traveling with a group that large. (I especially can't imagine cruising with my wife's sisters... 🤪)

We have a good group, our three adult children, their spouses and 9 grandchildren aged 13-21. All raved about first cruise to AK

[AF-1]

On 7/21/2021 at 1:51 PM, Fishboy1947 said:

My cruise isn’t until June 2022 but after reading the comments thought I would see how DMW works. I am platinum and we are a family group of 17.

 

I was able to reserve a table for 18 at different times for each night.  Although when you look at the daily reservation it indicates 17 at a table for 8

You will probably have to split your group.  I had a group of twelve and the wait staff pushed tables together so we could all sit together.  But it takes forever to eat.  The next time we split our group of eleven.  We sat at tables near each other and were able to get our food a lot sooner. 

[Alcairns]

I am sorry if this has been discussed before but 48 pages is a lot to work through! In the past we have been offered speciality dining packages. For example 4 speciality dinners for $100. This was always offered once on board. With the introduction of Dine my Way will these offers be available? There is no point in booking speciality restaurants in advance if there are on board offers! 

[Steelers36]

40 minutes ago, Alcairns said:

I am sorry if this has been discussed before but 48 pages is a lot to work through! In the past we have been offered speciality dining packages. For example 4 speciality dinners for $100. This was always offered once on board. With the introduction of Dine my Way will these offers be available? There is no point in booking speciality restaurants in advance if there are on board offers! 

I have not seen this on Princess, but we have not been on tons of cruises.  Some restaurants only charge $25.  Top price is $29 - e.g. @ Crown Grill - so a $4 savings per person.  You can certainly wait until on board and ask since the price does not increase when on board and usually no problem getting a res as long as you don't wait to last minute.

[Roger88]

1 hour ago, Steelers36 said:

I have not seen this on Princess, but we have not been on tons of cruises.  Some restaurants only charge $25.  Top price is $29 - e.g. @ Crown Grill - so a $4 savings per person.  You can certainly wait until on board and ask since the price does not increase when on board and usually no problem getting a res as long as you don't wait to last minute.

I think it all depends on the time of the year and the current menu. If there is fish in the menu most of the time, the overall price for the check will be higher than usual. Other types of cuisine like italian or spanish usually are much cheaper (French as well) 

[RRFan]

1 hour ago, Alcairns said:

I am sorry if this has been discussed before but 48 pages is a lot to work through! In the past we have been offered speciality dining packages. For example 4 speciality dinners for $100. This was always offered once on board. With the introduction of Dine my Way will these offers be available? There is no point in booking speciality restaurants in advance if there are on board offers! 

I’ve never seen that offered on a Princess ship. 🤔

[skynight]

2 hours ago, Alcairns said:

I am sorry if this has been discussed before but 48 pages is a lot to work through! In the past we have been offered specialty dining packages. For example 4 specialty dinners for $100. This was always offered once on board. With the introduction of Dine my Way will these offers be available? There is no point in booking speciality restaurants in advance if there are on board offers! 

I also have never seen this on a Princess cruise. A few times there was a coupon book in the cabin that contained a buy one, get one free on boarding day.

Here is the Princess dining guide. Check your ship's deck plans to see which dining choices are available.

https://www.princess.com/downloads/pdf/food-and-dining/dining-options.pdf

[Alcairns]

My apologies I think you are all correct. I am thinking of another not to be mentioned cruise line. 

[Steelers36]

1 hour ago, Roger88 said:

I think it all depends on the time of the year and the current menu. If there is fish in the menu most of the time, the overall price for the check will be higher than usual. Other types of cuisine like italian or spanish usually are much cheaper (French as well) 

Specialty restaurant pricing does not vary by season of year.  It varies by venue.  Check out the link @skynight posted.

[wowzz]

25 minutes ago, Steelers36 said:

Specialty restaurant pricing does not vary by season of year.  It varies by venue.  Check out the link @skynight posted.

I think you'll find that Roger tends not to revisit his posts!

[Tedferg]

We have booked same time every night on two cruises, 7:00. We were assigned table for two both times, did not see a table size option nor dining room option. Is it usual to see such options ? We prefer to Share but thought two top might be forced by COVID. 
 

we were assigned Monticello on Ruby and Allegro on Majestic. Were these previously TD ? I wondered if we were assigned pseudo TD. 

 

Is there a way to change DR ?

Edited July 25, 2021 by Tedferg

[Steelers36]

5 hours ago, Tedferg said:

We have booked same time every night on two cruises, 7:00. We were assigned table for two both times, did not see a table size option nor dining room option. Is it usual to see such options ? We prefer to Share but thought two top might be forced by COVID. 
 

we were assigned Monticello on Ruby and Allegro on Majestic. Were these previously TD ? I wondered if we were assigned pseudo TD. 

 

Is there a way to change DR ?

It could be a challenge to find posts where these questions were covered, so NP to repeat.

 

You were not not seeing something.  Indeed, selection of table size is not one of the selection parameters and has been noted as a design fail and they need to address it.  They realize some like to dine with their own party and some like to share space and meet new people at dinner. 

 

As for how DMW assigned tables - based on the inventory available for each voyage, DMW defaulted each cabin to the smallest available table size at either 5:00pm or 7:00pm if booking was Traditional.  If you attempt to book same time every night of cruise - or even for a single night - the DMW algorithm presents back the minimum table size to fit your dining party and doesn't offer other, larger sizes.  This should change eventually.

 

ALLEGRO - this is Deck 6 Aft and was always TD for the entire evening (but AT diners might be sent there to fill any empty tables if there was an AT line-up. 

 

????? (on RUBY) - Not sure what you mean as no such DR.  There is Botticelli and Michelangelo.  Assuming you meant Botticelli, that is also Deck 6 Aft and was always TD for the entire evening.

 

The 7pm time you picked is one of three time slots considered in the Late Traditional window.

 

I am wondering when your cruises are since some voyages in 2022 did not have all inventory loaded and the Aft DR didn't seem to be there.  Some aren't getting access to DMW.  In my case, we have functional DMW for an OCT 31, 2022, cruise, but not for a B2B2B beginning OCT 01.

 

My DMW experience so far is only one DR is presented per time slot.  I have read a post by someone who just sailed or is in next week or so, and they were presented with all three DR's as choices at the time slot they picked.

 

As I understand it, the initial voyages are going with social distancing at dinner and no mixed tables beyond your own dining party (which could be formed from >1 cabin).  Princess doesn't know yet (or isn't saying the plan) when Covid-19 restrictions will be lifted and dining can be mixed up like before.

 

But for sure, we need to be able to select preferred table size and that should be communicated to Princess at every opportunity to make sure it happens.

[Tedferg]

Botticelli indeed on Ruby Oct 24 2021 Allegro Majestic Feb 26 2022. Regarding previous responses, it is interesting to follow a long thread like this, pieces of a jig saw puzzle, but when in context of one’s own situation it is hard to put them into perspective. DW and I might have a TD experience, same table, same staff 🙂

 

[mthomp5]

On 7/21/2021 at 10:51 AM, Fishboy1947 said:

My cruise isn’t until June 2022 but after reading the comments thought I would see how DMW works. I am platinum and we are a family group of 17.

 

I was able to reserve a table for 18 at different times for each night.  Although when you look at the daily reservation it indicates 17 at a table for 8

Did you have to do anything to be able to book 17 people through Dine My Way?  I’m trying to book dining times for myself and my husband who are on the same booking and also include one other person on their own booking.  I select that person to add to the reservation but I get an error message.  
 

if I book for just my husband and myself, I can reserve a slot no problem. It’s just a problem when I try to add someone not on our booking. 

[Fishboy1947]

11 hours ago, mthomp5 said:

Did you have to do anything to be able to book 17 people through Dine My Way?  I’m trying to book dining times for myself and my husband who are on the same booking and also include one other person on their own booking.  I select that person to add to the reservation but I get an error message.  
 

if I book for just my husband and myself, I can reserve a slot no problem. It’s just a problem when I try to add someone not on our booking. 

No, I just added the other 15 people as travel companions. Did not have any problems.

[capriccio]

1 hour ago, Fishboy1947 said:

No, I just added the other 15 people as travel companions. Did not have any problems.

 

That is exactly what I did for our group of 6 on a March 2022 and group of 8 on a July 2022 cruise.  That was about the only aspect of the Medallion app that I didn't have a problem with last month!

[mthomp5]

7 hours ago, Fishboy1947 said:

No, I just added the other 15 people as travel companions. Did not have any problems.

Finally got our dining times reserved.  But I had to login on my phone as my mom and it worked.  Logging in as me didn’t work!  

[cruise2relax]

I am booked for January and am Elite, no where on the App is DMW and I do not see an update available.  Anyone having the same issue?