Dine My Way & all new Dining questions since cruising restart!!

[mary_228]

Our family of three adults is sailing on the 19th for a ten day cruise. I love to dine with others, as we will be pretty sick of each other by dinner each night! Is it possible to share now with COVID? I assumed they would require us to socially distance during dining.

 

[Steelers36]

2 minutes ago, mary_228 said:

Our family of three adults is sailing on the 19th for a ten day cruise. I love to dine with others, as we will be pretty sick of each other by dinner each night! Is it possible to share now with COVID? I assumed they would require us to socially distance during dining.

 

Dining at mixed tables is a happening thing by the recent "Live From" reports on active cruises.  Put your dining party together in the MC App.  You can select dining time and opt for Sharing.  Or just show up at the DR entrance and let them know.  You may not have the same group each night - even if using the App.

[Ombud]

15 hours ago, Steelers36 said:

You may not have the same group each night - even if using the App.

Unless you are on the Emerald Princess and select the same time for several (not all) nights. Then 'they' or it assumes you are TD and will put you in the Botticelli Dining Room with the same guests / table each night. Good luck getting back to ATD. 3rd day -> still trying. I like showing up whenever. 

 

Da Vinci = ATD

Botticelli = TD

[mary_228]

5 hours ago, Ombud said:

Unless you are on the Emerald Princess and select the same time for several (not all) nights. Then 'they' or it assumes you are TD and will put you in the Botticelli Dining Room with the same guests / table each night. Good luck getting back to ATD. 3rd day -> still trying. I like showing up whenever. 

 

Da Vinci = ATD

Botticelli = TD

We are on the Emerald and prefer to show up whenever we wish, depending on the evening activities, which is why I was reluctant to sign up for anything on the app. Who knows what is happening until we see the planner? Or am I supposed to review that on my phone, ugh. I did notice that when I made a dummy reservation that I had the option of selecting either restaurant. Which is the more glamorous dining room? On some ships I feels we are in a basement with low ceilings, no view, etc.

[suzyed]

On 9/2/2021 at 10:47 AM, Roberto256 said:

I had an idea for princess ... if this is not already implemented.

 

When a passenger has a dinner reservation, they should get a pop-up alerting them a few minutes before.

The notification should include a 'cancel' button.

 

This would help with tables sitting empty waiting for people who are not going to show up.

 

Perhaps a notification a few minutes after the scheduled time ... if the passenger hasn't shown

up ... a pop-up that says we will be releasing your reservation in 10 minutes.

And, an opportunity to click cancel, or that you are on your way.

(just in case someone is stuck in traffic)

Great idea!

 

[MissP22]

22 hours ago, mary_228 said:

On some ships I feels we are in a basement with low ceilings, no view, etc.

It's typical Princess dining room. No comparison to the dining rooms on Celebrity or RCL.

 

[Loveh2ofl]

On the Enchanted Princess - is the Santorini dining room the one used for club class/suites?  Don't see it as an option on reservations but it looks to be a large room!

 

Edited December 12, 2021 by Loveh2ofl
spelling error

[Steelers36]

1 hour ago, Loveh2ofl said:

On the Enchanted Princess - is the Santorini dining room the one used for club class/suites?  Don't see it as an option on reservations but it looks to be a large room!

 

No, it will be Capri (Deck 6 - Mid-ship).  You don't/can't make a res for Club Class dining.  You just show up.

[Loveh2ofl]

46 minutes ago, Steelers36 said:

No, it will be Capri (Deck 6 - Mid-ship).  You don't/can't make a res for Club Class dining.  You just show up.

Santorini doesn't show up in app for reservations - only capri and amalfi - so just wondered what Santorini was used for looking at deck plans.  Articles before the ship was launched described it as one of 3 main dining rooms.  I'll find out soon enough when we're aboard in about a week 😉

 

See deck five - Plaza on the enchanted princess plans  https://www.princess.com/deckPlans.do?shipCode=EX

[capriccio]

48 minutes ago, Loveh2ofl said:

Santorini doesn't show up in app for reservations - only capri and amalfi - so just wondered what Santorini was used for looking at deck plans.  Articles before the ship was launched described it as one of 3 main dining rooms.  I'll find out soon enough when we're aboard in about a week 😉

 

See deck five - Plaza on the enchanted princess plans  https://www.princess.com/deckPlans.do?shipCode=EX

Its been reported by passengers on many ships (not sure about the Enchanted though) that only 2 out of 3 of the MDRs are currently being used for passengers.  The third is for crew to give them space to spread out as opposed to using the crew mess.  Given that the number of current passengers seems to be less than (sometimes much less than) 2/3 of capacity it hasn't impacted the availability of tables at dinner.

[Steelers36]

2 hours ago, Loveh2ofl said:

Santorini doesn't show up in app for reservations - only capri and amalfi - so just wondered what Santorini was used for looking at deck plans.  Articles before the ship was launched described it as one of 3 main dining rooms.  I'll find out soon enough when we're aboard in about a week 😉

 

See deck five - Plaza on the enchanted princess plans  https://www.princess.com/deckPlans.do?shipCode=EX

In your case, that DR may be out of use due to low pax load.  I also know that there are more future voyages in 2022 where they only loaded one DR inventory into DMW.  Don't ask me when they will add more.  There are a lot of challenges with DMW.  One would think Princess is expecting to fill ships later in 2022 so they will have to load more DR inventory. 

[nocl]

On 12/12/2021 at 3:22 PM, Steelers36 said:

In your case, that DR may be out of use due to low pax load.  I also know that there are more future voyages in 2022 where they only loaded one DR inventory into DMW.  Don't ask me when they will add more.  There are a lot of challenges with DMW.  One would think Princess is expecting to fill ships later in 2022 so they will have to load more DR inventory. 

One each ship it appears that one dining room.  Usually the one on five is being used for Staff level Crew dining.

[Steelers36]

4 hours ago, nocl said:

One each ship it appears that one dining room.  Usually the one on five is being used for Staff level Crew dining.

At least some recent voyage reports indicate both DR's on Deck 6 are in use.  IDK if crew is still using a guest DR on any ships.

Edited December 15, 2021 by Steelers36

[nocl]

46 minutes ago, Steelers36 said:

At least some recent voyage reports indicate both DR's on Deck 6 are in use.  IDK if crew is still using a guest DR on any ships.

The dining rooms on Deck 6 are in use, on most ships the club diners enter on the right and other diners (walk in and appointments on left)  On some ships that is switched.

 

Or did you mean to say that on some ships the dining rooms on both 5 and 6 are open?

 

With ships capacity limited to 60% and with the block of rooms reserved for crew quarantine they would not be stretched for dining capacity.

 

the Deck 5 midship dining rooms are the ones being used by staff crew.  Easiest to access by crew without going through public space.

Edited December 15, 2021 by nocl

[nocl]

1 hour ago, Steelers36 said:

Two of the DR's on ships with three are Deck 6 mid-ship and Deck 6 aft and they share a galley area.

 

I had not read capacity limited to 60% as some voyages went off in summer with more than that.  I have just thought the demand has been down during Fall.  Anyway, with 55%/60% or more capacity, you would expect 2 DR's in use.  Do we know how many crew are still quarantining on each ship?  We know sections of cabins are reserved for any outbreak that might happen.

 

 

 

Not quite following your description.

 

Grand class and Royal class all have common location of dining rooms.  They each have one in the stern on Deck 6.  There is one mid ship  on deck 6 (one large room 2 entrances, one on each side of the elevator lobby, There is one mid ship on Deck five, again with two entrances one on each side of the elevator lobby. 

 

On the Majestic they are using the entire mid ship dining room on 5 for staff dining. The crew quarantine area is located on Deck 9 front starboard. In that areas there is 1 Premium Suit, 7 balcony cabins,  20 deluxe balcony. There are also 4 inside cabins but from what I was told those are not being used.

 

Have not heard or seen anything about any special passenger quarantine space established.  No other space was blocked off like the section used for crew quarantine.

 

The Sapphire and the Diamond were a bit different in that on those two ships the mid ship dining rooms are actually broken up by walls into two separate dining rooms on each floor each with one entrance.

 

The Coral and Island only have the two midship dining rooms, 1 on 5 and 1 on 6. each with an entrance in the center.

 

The comment on limits came from one of the ships medical staff. 

 

 

Edited December 15, 2021 by nocl

[Glad Bailey]

Emerald cruise not until Sept 2022,but as elite,and able to,I used DMW to book table for 2 each night at 6.00 pm.

A few weeks later signed on to peruse Medallion App and dining reservations had disappeared.

Now only one dining room available to book and if you want table for 2,only time is 

8.40 pm.

I can’t believe all tables for two in both restaurants are fully booked so far in advance.

Any phone no I can ring

Thanks in advance for any suggestions 

[nocl]

37 minutes ago, Glad Bailey said:

Emerald cruise not until Sept 2022,but as elite,and able to,I used DMW to book table for 2 each night at 6.00 pm.

A few weeks later signed on to peruse Medallion App and dining reservations had disappeared.

Now only one dining room available to book and if you want table for 2,only time is 

8.40 pm.

I can’t believe all tables for two in both restaurants are fully booked so far in advance.

Any phone no I can ring

Thanks in advance for any suggestions 

Make sure your medallion app is latest version.  I had some issues with booking reservations, that went away when I reinstalled app.  Doubt everything is booked 9 months from now.

 

What dining room is showing.  On mine we were able to pick from the stern dining room as well as the one on deck 6.

[Steelers36]

43 minutes ago, nocl said:

Make sure your medallion app is latest version.  I had some issues with booking reservations, that went away when I reinstalled app.  Doubt everything is booked 9 months from now.

 

What dining room is showing.  On mine we were able to pick from the stern dining room as well as the one on deck 6.

I believe there are plenty of voyages that far out with only one DR loaded to DMW.  I have observed similar - alternative choices at first and the last time they made major changes to DMW, it changed to one DR only.

[ihopfar]

2 hours ago, Glad Bailey said:

Emerald cruise not until Sept 2022,but as elite,and able to,I used DMW to book table for 2 each night at 6.00 pm.

A few weeks later signed on to peruse Medallion App and dining reservations had disappeared.

Now only one dining room available to book and if you want table for 2,only time is 

8.40 pm.

I can’t believe all tables for two in both restaurants are fully booked so far in advance.

Any phone no I can ring

Thanks in advance for any suggestions 

 

We are booked on Emerald in Sept 2022.  Our dining reservations for a table for 2 disappeared, came back, and then disappeared again.   I am going to guess it is a glitch that is going to work itself out and our reservations are still there.

[nocl]

2 hours ago, Steelers36 said:

I believe there are plenty of voyages that far out with only one DR loaded to DMW.  I have observed similar - alternative choices at first and the last time they made major changes to DMW, it changed to one DR only.

I have three scheduled and am able to access two DR on all of mine.  Can not say about any others.  That includes one on the Emerald, one on the Grand and another on Majestic.

 

Again all I can say is that I had problems with a fairly new version of the app, upgraded to the latest version and problems went away.  Maybe a slight mismatch between the latest change and the version on the phone.  At least something to try.  Other option is to call and see if the the dining rooms were intentionally removed which would probably take discussion with the technical team not customer service, since they can see what the actual data it.

Edited December 15, 2021 by nocl

[Glad Bailey]

Thanks for the helpful replies.

I shall re-install the app to see if that helps,if not wait and see what the future holds !!

[paradiselivin1]

On 12/3/2021 at 7:24 PM, rabin1 said:

Did they let her stay there?

Sure did. It was probably easier for them and there were certainly plenty of open tables...

[Dbld777]

Just off the Regal last Tuesday. We've always loved TD and having the same waitstaff each night. Pre-cruise we were able to get the Medallion app to work and reserve a private table for 2 each evening at 6:00 PM. It became apparent that these reservations are not really connected to a specific table each night and that as we approached the hostess, she asked what our dining preference was and then turned us over to one of the two DR Supervisors(used to be Head Waiters). They looked around at their current inventory of tables and and proceeded to take us to a table, sometimes giving us a choice of a couple in the same vicinity. By the third night they also began asking us if we had a favorite waiter and if there was a table available, they would sit us in his/her area. This all worked pretty well because there were only approximately 1300 passengers on board. It really looked a lot like the prior implementation of ATD, which we selected on one cruise(and said never again), where they simply try to match incoming diners with available tables and wait staff. By the end of the 8 day cruise, it looks apparent to us that when ships are full, there will be very little chance of having the same wait staff and table each night unless you are eating early, when all tables are initially available to start filling. After that early timeslot, on a full ship, it will be basically ATD. And if you think about it, they can't save your table every night for a 6 PM dining slot. The ships were designed to use the capacity of the 3 MDRs in two seatings, where all(or most) of the tables are in use, at least in the early seating and most are in use for the late seating. I believe that is why they moved to an earlier first seating time(from 5:45 to 5:00) in order to entice more diners to the late seating thus leveling out the work load for the wait staff and the kitchen. 

 

I hope that I'm wrong, however once the ships are sailing full, the Dining Room Supervisor role is going to be the most stressful on the ship, trying to please diners who are trying to take advantage of a "Dine My Way" offering. The potential for disappointed diners from having to wait for their table and also the loss of the ability to have the same table and wait staff may create a lot of customer dissatisfaction. We spoke to one waiter who said the wait staff is already fearing the loss of the TD end of cruise tipping. It just feels like this "Dine My Way" offering was designed without much input from senior ship dining room staff. Sorry for the long post, but wanted to convey some observations and actual experience from a recent cruise. Hope that Princess leadership is listening to the customer feedback and will react quickly to help make it work.

[RNRcruisers]

We will be on Regal next month as a group of four. I am interested to see how this works out for us. We are diehard TD cruisers and will be very disappointed if it is truly gone. I am willing to wait and see how it all shakes out but it is probably going to be a deal breaker for us. I am bummed because we really enjoy Princess but if TD is really gone then we'll be looking around for alternatives. Maybe if enough request a return to TD they will listen but so far it doesn't appear to be the case.

[Clownfish Cruiser]

I sure didn't know this about the dining change, but it's been several years since we've cruised. I did find the information in the Medallion app. Thanks for posting this information!