Dine My Way - new MedallionClass enhancement

[cruisequeen4ever]

I am excited about this! Frankly, some of this should have been implemented long before now. The ability to request a table

location, to eat at a variety of spaces around the ship, to have food delivered to your lounger, and to do all of this from your phone will be fantastic. 

Edited May 9, 2021 by cruisequeen4ever

[JF - retired RRT]

3 hours ago, Coffeeluvr05 said:

Glove wearing is kind of useless if they are not changing them after touching other surfaces.  It's such a pet peeve of mine when I see food service employees wearing gloves.  What's the point if they handle my food, touch the cash register, my cc, and then do the same with each subsequent customer?  I think glove wearing just gives a PERCEPTION of cleanliness.  It just makes me cringe.

Yeah. Having people who aren't educated about how to do it right is a problem.

I was standing in the lobby of a restaurant the other day waiting for my take-out order. One of the waitresses was "cleaning" the menus. She would take a menu off the stack of "dirty" menus and plop it onto a table. Then she sprayed it with the cleaning solution, flipped it over onto the contaminated table and sprayed the other side. 

Not my idea of clean.

[wowzz]

45 minutes ago, JF - retired RRT said:

Yeah. Having people who aren't educated about how to do it right is a problem.

I was standing in the lobby of a restaurant the other day waiting for my take-out order. One of the waitresses was "cleaning" the menus. She would take a menu off the stack of "dirty" menus and plop it onto a table. Then she sprayed it with the cleaning solution, flipped it over onto the contaminated table and sprayed the other side. 

Not my idea of clean.

And, you won't get Covid from handling a menu anyway, so the whole exercise is just a charade.

[caribill]

12 hours ago, Coffeeluvr05 said:

Glove wearing is kind of useless if they are not changing them after touching other surfaces.  It's such a pet peeve of mine when I see food service employees wearing gloves.  What's the point if they handle my food, touch the cash register, my cc, and then do the same with each subsequent customer?  I think glove wearing just gives a PERCEPTION of cleanliness.  It just makes me cringe.

 

Sort of like a TSA agent wearing gloves when checking your ticket or driver's license. The agent is protected, not the owner of the ticket or license.

[1965]

We eat dinner at various times & in various venues, depending on our mood & that day's activities. Would we need to fill in the dining preferences section on the medallion? We always request anytime dining. I'm thinking that's as much as we need to do. Thanks for any info/input.

[JF - retired RRT]

9 minutes ago, 1965 said:

We eat dinner at various times & in various venues, depending on our mood & that day's activities. Would we need to fill in the dining preferences section on the medallion? We always request anytime dining. I'm thinking that's as much as we need to do. Thanks for any info/input.

This is all new, so no one knows the answer...yet.

A guess - it's probably an option.

[cruzsnooze]

How will Princess accommodate all those requests to eat by the window?

[caribill]

46 minutes ago, cruzsnooze said:

How will Princess accommodate all those requests to eat by the window?

 

They will provide a picture of a window you can display on your smart phone while dining.

[Tedferg]

I am even more convinced that this will lead to the end of separate ding room for Traditional Dining. It has to be much easier for Princess to handle 'Anytime' in all dining rooms. TD becomes pseudo TD. No empty tables in TD while there are long lines for Anytime; no complaints about TD slipping in to Anytime; reduce or eliminate complaints from Anytime standing in line while others had Anytime reservations etc. See:

[Tedferg]

58 minutes ago, cruzsnooze said:

How will Princess accommodate all those requests to eat by the window?

I hope they have a way to distribute requests for preferred times/locations to prevent these being locked up by the same people every night. Overall, Dine My Way looks like a good solution for PAX and Princess once people become used to using it. Even in a situation where your preferred time is not available you would know when you would be seated without lining up for a buzzer and then an unknown wait time.

[jagoffee]

16 minutes ago, Tedferg said:

I am even more convinced that this will lead to the end of separate ding room for Traditional Dining. It has to be much easier for Princess to handle 'Anytime' in all dining rooms. TD becomes pseudo TD. No empty tables in TD while there are long lines for Anytime; no complaints about TD slipping in to Anytime; reduce or eliminate complaints from Anytime standing in line while others had Anytime reservations etc. See:

I believe you are correct, but it is a little confusing.  I would think that the idea of always eating with only a certain group of people will end.  For those that use the option to dine at the same time each day may have different people joining them at times.  It is a good way for Princess to make sure that tables do not remain empty while other people are waiting for a table.  When a person makes a reservation somewhere else, their table will become available for someone else.  (Perhaps Princess will even try to capture the information for people did not cancel their reservations, but are dining elsewhere?). At least this is the way I hope it will work.  It has never made sense for people to wait for a table in the Anytime dining room while 100s of seats are empty in a TD area.  

The process for guests who do not make advanced reservations is unclear to me.  Perhaps a standby process?  Or very last minute reservations?

 

Princess should be commended for trying something different.  

[Tedferg]

jagofee - good points, though since you can reserve to sit with friends, those who make friends onboard could eat together if they wish. I can see that traditional TDers might say this is not TD but to me it is close enough and much more efficient. It will be confusing at first and probably some wrinkles to be smoothed out.

 

People who do not make reservations at first, would be treated like regular Anytime, including a buzzer and indefinite wait. After a couple of nights on board they will sort it out. Also, as you suggest, reservations would need to expire after say 15 minutes, freeing up that slot for others. I am sure that many will treat it as current Anytime and take their chances each evening. We have always been happy with Anytime buzzer system and waiting in the bar. Only once in ten cruises have we had a  long wait.

Edited May 10, 2021 by Tedferg

[Steelers36]

39 minutes ago, jagoffee said:

It has never made sense for people to wait for a table in the Anytime dining room while 100s of seats are empty in a TD area.  

Smart MD's and HW's have diverted folks to TD tables from our observations.  That said, they cannot really seat people in the 100% TD DR late into the early seating since they need the tables free for the late seating.  So, even if an early TD passenger is in and out quickly, they don't have enough time to do a full service and have table free for the late TD crowd. 

 

Having more flexibility may help, but TD tables with same wait staff are inevitably going to create some gaps with empty seats.

 

[Tedferg]

9 minutes ago, Steelers36 said:

Having more flexibility may help, but TD tables with same wait staff are inevitably going to create some gaps with empty seats.

 

But wouldn't the new system allow TD at any time in any dining room and be the best of both worlds ?

[Steelers36]

Just now, Tedferg said:

But wouldn't the new system allow TD at any time in any dining room and be the best of both worlds ?

No.  The catch is the folks that want the same wait staff each night and that means heading to the same section at least, if not the exact same table.

 

But, having a reservation anywhere in a DR (no guarantee of same table) should improve options for AT.

[jagoffee]

13 minutes ago, Steelers36 said:

Smart MD's and HW's have diverted folks to TD tables from our observations.  That said, they cannot really seat people in the 100% TD DR late into the early seating since they need the tables free for the late seating.  So, even if an early TD passenger is in and out quickly, they don't have enough time to do a full service and have table free for the late TD crowd. 

 

Having more flexibility may help, but TD tables with same wait staff are inevitably going to create some gaps with empty seats.

 

 

3 minutes ago, Tedferg said:

But wouldn't the new system allow TD at any time in any dining room and be the best of both worlds ?

Tedferb, I suspect you are correct.  There  might not  be different dining rooms for different types of reservation choices in the long term.  I suspect that cruisers could pick any available time for their same time/same staff reservation.  If someone at the table dines in a Specialty restaurant one day, someone else could join the table.  There would not be traditional dining in the same way.  Tables will be turning over at various times in each dining room.  I suspect if someone eats quickly, their table might remain empty if there is a second later reservation for that table.  Just like in a restaurant.  It would certainly gives Princess a lot of flexibility.  

[beg3yrs]

3 hours ago, caribill said:

 

They will provide a picture of a window you can display on your smart phone while dining.

Bring a large tablet and you can pretend you're dining in a suite. Hey why not a movie of the ocean and you can watch for ocean life too?

[Steelers36]

1 hour ago, jagoffee said:

 

Tedferb, I suspect you are correct.  There  might not  be different dining rooms for different types of reservation choices in the long term.  I suspect that cruisers could pick any available time for their same time/same staff reservation.  If someone at the table dines in a Specialty restaurant one day, someone else could join the table.  There would not be traditional dining in the same way.  Tables will be turning over at various times in each dining room.  I suspect if someone eats quickly, their table might remain empty if there is a second later reservation for that table.  Just like in a restaurant.  It would certainly gives Princess a lot of flexibility.  

Yes, it could become more flexible as you say, but to get the same wait staff, passenger will need to get at least the same section of the same DR, if not the exact same table, each night.

[caribill]

2 hours ago, Tedferg said:

But wouldn't the new system allow TD at any time in any dining room and be the best of both worlds ?

 

2 hours ago, Steelers36 said:

 

 

But, having a reservation anywhere in a DR (no guarantee of same table) should improve options for AT.

 

I think we are all speculating on what all this means. Someone at Princess put together some words that can be open to several different interpretations.

 

It could be that the traditional dining room is totally unchanged from what it has been.

 

It could be for anytime that all they are trying to do is eliminate the hand held buzzers so that is one less item to worry about being sanitized between users as well as eliminate all the calls to the dining room at 8 AM to get a reservation for anytime that evening.

 

Or it could be something new and game changing for Princess.

 

We all just do not know.

[Tedferg]

1 hour ago, caribill said:

 

 

I think we are all speculating on what all this means. Someone at Princess put together some words that can be open to several different interpretations.

 

It could be that the traditional dining room is totally unchanged from what it has been.

 

It could be for anytime that all they are trying to do is eliminate the hand held buzzers so that is one less item to worry about being sanitized between users as well as eliminate all the calls to the dining room at 8 AM to get a reservation for anytime that evening.

 

Or it could be something new and game changing for Princess.

 

We all just do not know.

You are correct of course, but it just flashed into my mind that mixing Traditional and Anytime this way would be a neat solution.

[Idratherbeatsea]

On 5/6/2021 at 4:25 AM, MX-Drew said:

Note: whilst the idea of this post was meant as tongue in cheek as I wrote it there mat be a touch of truth to it. 

 

This does look interesting but I fear it may not work well in practice given I can't order my Medallions to be delivered to Southampton without a delivery charge (an error I'm told) let alone having them delivered to my home.

May be sort the basics out first! I can imagine being onboard and the app charging $6 delivery just to eat in the MDR.

 

 

They won’t deliver the medallions to Canada. We have to pick up at pier.

[Torfamm]

15 hours ago, jagoffee said:

I believe you are correct, but it is a little confusing.  I would think that the idea of always eating with only a certain group of people will end.  For those that use the option to dine at the same time each day may have different people joining them at times.  It is a good way for Princess to make sure that tables do not remain empty while other people are waiting for a table.  When a person makes a reservation somewhere else, their table will become available for someone else.  (Perhaps Princess will even try to capture the information for people did not cancel their reservations, but are dining elsewhere?). At least this is the way I hope it will work.  It has never made sense for people to wait for a table in the Anytime dining room while 100s of seats are empty in a TD area.  

The process for guests who do not make advanced reservations is unclear to me.  Perhaps a standby process?  Or very last minute reservations?

 

Princess should be commended for trying something different.  

This is a great way to avoid the modern problem of empty chairs in traditional dining now that there are so many options for specialty restaurants and other dining venues. I can’t count how many people post about being left alone at a table for 8 when the others assigned to that table don’t show up.

[AF-1]

If anyone here has sailed Norwegian Cruise LInes;  they have been doing anytime dining for years.  It works very well.  They eliminated Tradional dining times; if you want to eat same time every night you can request that.  Seems like Princess is going to that type of scenario too.

[Steelers36]

36 minutes ago, AF-1 said:

If anyone here has sailed Norwegian Cruise LInes;  they have been doing anytime dining for years.  It works very well.  They eliminated Tradional dining times; if you want to eat same time every night you can request that.  Seems like Princess is going to that type of scenario too.

My ideal would be same table in a mid-ship DR with time between 6:00pm and 6:15pm.

[AF-1]

7 minutes ago, Steelers36 said:

My ideal would be same table in a mid-ship DR with time between 6:00pm and 6:15pm.

I normally eat sometime before 7pm.  So, I have a little flexibility to work with.  Thanks