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

[Tedferg]

On 12/25/2021 at 8:22 PM, Steelers36 said:

there is no practical and economical way to replicate the TD booking process within a computer program and largely exclude human intervention. 

 

 

IMO, DMW should have a dedicated dining space for TD and collect guest requests

 

Finally, the light went on for me. You are correct, no way for DMW to replicate TD, specifically same table / wait staff - the table would need to be kept vacant waiting for TD diner.

 

Regarding your second point, do you mean keeping tables vacant to permit TD with flexible times? This would be very inefficient.

 

My guess is they decided to do away with TD but paid lip service to TD suggesting DMW lets you reserve same time every night, possibly with same table guests PROVIDING THOSE GUESTS ORGANISED TOGETHER. Or they just completely misunderstood how TD really works, or that TD mattered so much. Final analysis is TD is inefficient and they ditched it!

 

[Steelers36]

17 minutes ago, Tedferg said:

Finally, the light went on for me. You are correct, no way for DMW to replicate TD, specifically same table / wait staff - the table would need to be kept vacant waiting for TD diner.

 

Regarding your second point, do you mean keeping tables vacant to permit TD with flexible times? This would be very inefficient.

 

My guess is they decided to do away with TD but paid lip service to TD suggesting DMW lets you reserve same time every night, possibly with same table guests PROVIDING THOSE GUESTS ORGANISED TOGETHER. Or they just completely misunderstood how TD really works, or that TD mattered so much. Final analysis is TD is inefficient and they ditched it!

 

HI.  No, I didn't mean to keep tables vacant all night to permit flexible TD times.  Princess themselves published what they consider to be TD times in the DMW FAQ's.  Those times were 5:00, 5:20, & 5:40 for EARLY and 7:00, 7:20, & 7:40 for LATE.  (That said, I do not think some of the ships currently sailing are considering these dining times when setting the main showtime as some of them are quite odd IMO and not in line with pre-Covid time ranges).  For example, 6:30/8:30 is too early and 8:00/10:00 is too late.  But that is my personal thought.

 

No matter which type of dining one is thinking of (AT/TD), if you make a dinner res for, say, 5:40 or 6:00, the table has to sit empty waiting because it won't be possible to seat and turn-over other guests prior to your time.  They will also have a table potentially sit idle for X minutes after you are done as they will have allowed Y minutes for the table to complete service and be ready for new guests.  If your party completes the meal in less than Y minutes, there won't be anyone else booked until Y minutes have passed - thus the idle gap which isn't large enough to squeeze in another full service.  Of course, if the next guests show up early and table is available, good to go.  I am just talking about how the System has to be setup - it has to block a table from being grabbed for a span of time once a reservation is made.

 

What I was suggesting, is that they should block off DR space for TD - as they always did - and keep that out of the DMW available inventory pre-cruise.  Collect the TD requests and allocate guests to tables according to their Private/Sharing and Table Size requests.  This is done just before sail date by DR staff and would use the published time slots.  Then, release any left over space to the DMW pool for AT usage or anyone making a change, etc.  Also, if a guest cancels any of their TD res (say, to go to Buffet or SD restaurant), then their seats also return to the pool during the cruise.  

 

I suppose they could offer TD for ANY of the time slots as they supposedly do now.  If I am booking Same Time/Same Table option in DMW for Full Voyage, I can potentially select ANY of the time-slots.  As long as they set aside SOME inventory for main time slots it could work.  The idea of Princess publishing what they consider Early & Late TD times is so guests know how to time their dining to get to major shows.  A guest could potentially elect to eat at a time where they would be in conflict with making show times, but that is their choice.  I just don't see that all ships are scheduling the show times to match up to the Early & Late TD as documented by Princess.  

 

As long as any inventory not used by TD requests is returned to DMW pool, the System can then offer more dining choices for spontaneous bookings and still make efficient usage of the DR's.

 

BTW, they could block off whole DR's or half of each DR - which might give more flexibility to fill No Shows.  The idea is to be able to manage giving TD guests the same table and tablemates each evening.  I doubt that most TD guests will care if there are other AT guests in the DR or other TD guests.  For example, I could care less who is dining around me or across the room.  I just want to be dining with who I want and with the same good waiters each night.  It makes things SO much smoother.

 

You are correct in that forming a dining party of family/friends you are cruising with and then dining together at a Private table at same time for full voyage can be TD, but it isn't all of TD.  Expecting guests to trade info on board after the cruise starts so they can form a custom dining party and get a table is not going to work as the space to have same table & waiters won't be there with the way DMW is working now.  Even if they didn't care about having same table location each night, it could be a challenge trying to get a table together at the same time each night (this would be a Private table designation for the Dining Party).  I would expect the System will end up offering a lot of Split reservations in this case (Splits are happening pre-cruise as well in some cases).  Whoever came up with the Split idea was not very smart IMO as the whole purpose of forming a Dining Party is to dine together.  The System may as well indicate Nothing Available which forces people to break up anyway. 

 

[Dbld777]

1 hour ago, Steelers36 said:

What I was suggesting, is that they should block off DR space for TD - as they always did - and keep that out of the DMW available inventory pre-cruise.  Collect the TD requests and allocate guests to tables according to their Private/Sharing and Table Size requests.  This is done just before sail date by DR staff and would use the published time slots.  Then, release any left over space to the DMW pool for AT usage or anyone making a change, etc.  Also, if a guest cancels any of their TD res (say, to go to Buffet or SD restaurant), then their seats also return to the pool during the cruise.

 

BTW, they could block off whole DR's or half of each DR - which might give more flexibility to fill No Shows.  The idea is to be able to manage giving TD guests the same table and tablemates each evening.  I doubt that most TD guests will care if there are other AT guests in the DR or other TD guests.  For example, I could care less who is dining around me or across the room.  I just want to be dining with who I want and with the same good waiters each night.  It makes things SO much smoother.

Isn't this basically what Princess had Pre-Covid and Pre-DMW? One dining room dedicated to ATD, one dining room dedicated to TD(2 seatings) and one dining room that is TD for early seating and then ATD after that? The DMW feature of MC app is then just allowing reservations for ATD, which some ships did previously(although didn't advertise it). Maybe going back to this is what us TD lovers are hoping Princess will realize they should do, while being able to keep the DMW feature for ATD lovers.

[Tedferg]

2 hours ago, Dbld777 said:

Isn't this basically what Princess had Pre-Covid and Pre-DMW? One dining room dedicated to ATD, one dining room dedicated to TD(2 seatings) and one dining room that is TD for early seating and then ATD after that? The DMW feature of MC app is then just allowing reservations for ATD, which some ships did previously(although didn't advertise it). Maybe going back to this is what us TD lovers are hoping Princess will realize they should do, while being able to keep the DMW feature for ATD lovers.

This is a rehash of early discussion. BTW I am commenting just because I am thinking aloud, not wishing to disagree with your points. TD times were changed, I forget the details, there was an early and late sitting. I think late sitting was not adequately filled so Princess brought it earlier which meant that Early TD had to be even earlier - many protested that Early was then too early. So original Late had problems and new Early had problems. No way to satisfy both Early and Late. PCL decided TD was a problem and inefficient. ATD wanted Reservations. Hey Presto DMW is the best of both worlds, or so they thought. 🙂

 

[Tedferg]

4 hours ago, Steelers36 said:

No matter which type of dining one is thinking of (AT/TD), if you make a dinner res for, say, 5:40 or 6:00, the table has to sit empty waiting because it won't be possible to seat and turn-over other guests prior to your time. 

I need to digest your other points; however, I think most restaurants do not hold set tables for specific reservations - I think they juggle available space against upcoming Reservations, often one has to wait for a table when arriving for a Reservation.

[Steelers36]

1 hour ago, Tedferg said:

I need to digest your other points; however, I think most restaurants do not hold set tables for specific reservations - I think they juggle available space against upcoming Reservations, often one has to wait for a table when arriving for a Reservation.

I imagine that happens in some places.  I am not an expert on the restaurant business, but I was thinking that there would be tables sitting waiting for next guests as with TD now.  Walk-ups wait for an opening.  Any res that is not made for opening (5pm), but also before the 5pm-ers are going to be done eating, has to be held open.  Simplistic example:  Restaurant has 50% of reservations for 5:00pm to 5:30pm and 50% for 5:45pm to 6:30pm.  They cannot let more early diners sit down or someone showing up at 6pm won't have a seat and will have to wait an hour perhaps until 7pm.  I am quite sure restaurants hold tables and they manage flow by only accepting so many res for every 15 mins.

[Tedferg]

13 hours ago, Steelers36 said:

I imagine that happens in some places.  I am not an expert on the restaurant business, but I was thinking that there would be tables sitting waiting for next guests as with TD now.  Walk-ups wait for an opening.  Any res that is not made for opening (5pm), but also before the 5pm-ers are going to be done eating, has to be held open.  Simplistic example:  Restaurant has 50% of reservations for 5:00pm to 5:30pm and 50% for 5:45pm to 6:30pm.  They cannot let more early diners sit down or someone showing up at 6pm won't have a seat and will have to wait an hour perhaps until 7pm.  I am quite sure restaurants hold tables and they manage flow by only accepting so many res for every 15 mins.

Agree and I too am not aware of how restaurants handle reservations; We live in a 55 plus community and many people dine early, so there is an early load. If we reserve for 6 or more, we do get a specific table. Often when asking for a reservation we are told, 'I can do 6:15 or 6:30 but not 6:00'. Suggesting to me, that they can see when tables might be free. I need to read your initial example again. The more I think about this the more I see how TD is inefficient. Maybe TD is an artifact of early cruising when set mealtimes were the only option and it became a favorite aspect of cruising. 

 

We were in Hawaii this summer and a very popular restaurant did not take reservations. Made sense not to have tables sitting empty when people were willing to sit in the bar for half an hour or more and wait. Not that this relates to cruising, just interesting that they saw no benefit from reservations.

[MustangGT]

FYI for anyone thinking Dine My Way reservations mean anything.  Don’t fret that you can’t get a table reserved when you want.  We boarded the Regal today and since we had selected TD when booking the cruise, I was able to reserve a private table for 2 in the same dining room for each night.

We went to the dining room tonight and had to wait in line behind parties that did not have a reserved time.  When I asked the host about waiting since we had a reservation, he explained that there is no Traditional Dining anymore.  When I spoke to a Head Waiter, he said reservations do not matter because they can’t hold tables. We just have to get in line and wait until a table is available.

This won’t ruin our cruise but I guess we don’t need to cancel our reservations since they don’t really exist.

[trbarton]

2 hours ago, MustangGT said:

FYI for anyone thinking Dine My Way reservations mean anything.  Don’t fret that you can’t get a table reserved when you want.  We boarded the Regal today and since we had selected TD when booking the cruise, I was able to reserve a private table for 2 in the same dining room for each night.

We went to the dining room tonight and had to wait in line behind parties that did not have a reserved time.  When I asked the host about waiting since we had a reservation, he explained that there is no Traditional Dining anymore.  When I spoke to a Head Waiter, he said reservations do not matter because they can’t hold tables. We just have to get in line and wait until a table is available.

This won’t ruin our cruise but I guess we don’t need to cancel our reservations since they don’t really exist.

I have been on 2 recent cruises on the Ruby Princess.  On my 1st cruise on October 31st I never had the same table/wait staff once. Now on my December 17th cruise the person in charge of the dinning room gave me the same table/wait staff each night. We had 2 lines, one for people with reservations & the other one for people without reservations. 
 

Perhaps it varies depending on which ship you’re on. 
 

I'm on the Majestic in February so I’m interested to see what happens. 
 

Tom😀

[Steelers36]

2 hours ago, MustangGT said:

FYI for anyone thinking Dine My Way reservations mean anything.  Don’t fret that you can’t get a table reserved when you want.  We boarded the Regal today and since we had selected TD when booking the cruise, I was able to reserve a private table for 2 in the same dining room for each night.

We went to the dining room tonight and had to wait in line behind parties that did not have a reserved time.  When I asked the host about waiting since we had a reservation, he explained that there is no Traditional Dining anymore.  When I spoke to a Head Waiter, he said reservations do not matter because they can’t hold tables. We just have to get in line and wait until a table is available.

This won’t ruin our cruise but I guess we don’t need to cancel our reservations since they don’t really exist.

WOW!!!  Just WOW!!!  I do not know what to say about this development. 

 

What you are posting is not just forget about TD - it's forget about any reservations made at all.  This seems unbelievable.

[Steelers36]

3 hours ago, MustangGT said:

FYI for anyone thinking Dine My Way reservations mean anything.  Don’t fret that you can’t get a table reserved when you want.  We boarded the Regal today and since we had selected TD when booking the cruise, I was able to reserve a private table for 2 in the same dining room for each night.

We went to the dining room tonight and had to wait in line behind parties that did not have a reserved time.  When I asked the host about waiting since we had a reservation, he explained that there is no Traditional Dining anymore.  When I spoke to a Head Waiter, he said reservations do not matter because they can’t hold tables. We just have to get in line and wait until a table is available.

This won’t ruin our cruise but I guess we don’t need to cancel our reservations since they don’t really exist.

I fired an email off to Customer Relations and also to M Siebaldi who is exec in charge of customer experience.  I am still surprised here that the DORO has completely tossed DMW aside and going by walk-up method only. 

[BabySarge]

12 hours ago, MustangGT said:

FYI for anyone thinking Dine My Way reservations mean anything.  Don’t fret that you can’t get a table reserved when you want.  We boarded the Regal today and since we had selected TD when booking the cruise, I was able to reserve a private table for 2 in the same dining room for each night.

We went to the dining room tonight and had to wait in line behind parties that did not have a reserved time.  When I asked the host about waiting since we had a reservation, he explained that there is no Traditional Dining anymore.  When I spoke to a Head Waiter, he said reservations do not matter because they can’t hold tables. We just have to get in line and wait until a table is available.

This won’t ruin our cruise but I guess we don’t need to cancel our reservations since they don’t really exist.

This situation will be the straw that breaks the camels back for us and get us to cruise with another line.  DH who WILL NOT stand in line and wait at a restaurant on land let alone on a cruise.  I simply do not understand what Princess is trying to do or hoping to accomplish or even what demographic they are trying to serve/appeal to with this BS!!  

[Hlitner]

Perhaps folks need to take a deep breath.  The onboard situation is very fluid during COVID and this is also reflected in DMW.  On most (if not all) of the Grand and Royal Class ships the latest norm has been to close 1 of the 3 MDRs.  On our Enchanted cruise we did make nightly reservations (I would always check and sometimes update during the morning while enjoying the IC).  When heading into to dinner our Medallion was scanned and we were always promptly seated.  A few times I did notice that a few folks were waiting (because they did not have a reservation?).  Even with only 2 MDRs there were always plenty of empty tables and more than adequate wait staff.   We were also told that Traditional Dining was gone but I guess that might be revisited once ships again get close to capacity and all the MDRs are functioning.

 

As to getting the same table/waiter, we did notice that the staff would send us to the same waiter and table if it happened to be available.  But tables are not held and it is luck of the draw.  When we appeared at the door our medallion was scanned, reservation noted, and then the hostess went to other staff to discuss what table was available.  Over the course of 20 days we probably dined in every section of the MDR and only had the same waiter/table 5 or 6 times.   We actually thought the system was very efficient since staff could easily spread out the workload among all the waiters rather than having a situation where a few waiters would be overwhelmed while others had no customers.   We actually found service too good/fast and had to sometimes tell our waiter that "we are not in a hurry."  

 

We have posted this before and will say it again.  Cruisers who still prefer the Traditional Dining model are running out of options throughout the cruise industry.  Most lines have moved away from TD since it is very inefficient and causes all kinds of staff inequities.  TD was fine in the days when everyone ate in the MDR.  But now, with multiple dining options on every ship, it is just not practical.  We think it will not be too long until folks will talk about "we remember when there used to be TD."

 

Hank

[Steelers36]

2 minutes ago, Hlitner said:

We have posted this before and will say it again.  Cruisers who still prefer the Traditional Dining model are running out of options throughout the cruise industry.  Most lines have moved away from TD since it is very inefficient and causes all kinds of staff inequities.  TD was fine in the days when everyone ate in the MDR.  But now, with multiple dining options on every ship, it is just not practical.  We think it will not be too long until folks will talk about "we remember when there used to be TD."

You may be right - and as time goes by, I begin to think it more true than not.  However, why doesn't Princess just come out with it already?  Perhaps they are trying to adapt as you suggested to lower passenger loads and will change things again as the months go on into 2022 and loads increase such that all DR's are back in play.

 

[MissP22]

6 minutes ago, Hlitner said:

We have posted this before and will say it again.  Cruisers who still prefer the Traditional Dining model are running out of options throughout the cruise industry.  Most lines have moved away from TD since it is very inefficient and causes all kinds of staff inequities.  TD was fine in the days when everyone ate in the MDR.  But now, with multiple dining options on every ship, it is just not practical.  We think it will not be too long until folks will talk about "we remember when there used to be TD."

 

Hank

Very possible especially with this new DMY approach. We don't care either was since we're always at a table for 2 but there are many who just love the traditional tables being able to talk to new people every night. 

[Hlitner]

Just now, MissP22 said:

Very possible especially with this new DMY approach. We don't care either was since we're always at a table for 2 but there are many who just love the traditional tables being able to talk to new people every night. 

DW and I are big fans of sharing tables with new folks and that is normally what we do on Princess.  In years past we would always opt for Anytime (Open) Dining and simply walk up to one of the MDRs when we wanted to eat (usually no earlier than 7:30).  We would always ask to share a large table and made many new friends over the years.  But on the recent Enchanted we generally opted for a private table for 2 because of COVID mitigation.  I mention this because although we do enjoy dining with others we have not done Traditional Dining in many years (at least 15).   With the TD model those who share would generally be sharing the same table with the same people night after night.  While sometimes this can be terrific other times it can be less than.  Sharing large tables in open dining means we would either meet different folks most nights or sometimes we would actually form our own groups from those we had met at previous dinners or at cocktails.  For us open dining and sharing gave us the best of all worlds.

 

I will add that our recent cruising on Seabourn has given us an even better option.  Senior Officers (including the Captain) and entertainers will often host open tables.  A cruiser need only let the hostess know they are interested in the hosted tables and then the invitations come (several times a week).  The hosted tables are generally for 8-10 and will have 1 (sometimes 2) senior officers and/or entertainers.   As a general rule it has been wonderful as we have met many fascinating folks and staff.  While the Senior Officers (and staff) on most mass market lines now generally avoid dining with passengers, on Seabourn they are encouraged to do so multiple times a week.  There is no real pecking order or hierarchy so even somebody in the cheap suites (me) might find themselves dining with the Captain one night, the Staff Captain the next night, the Lead Singer a few days later, etc. etc.  Not only is it lots of fun but we have learned a lot more about ship operations, shipboard life, etc.  On our two recent Seabourn cruises the most interesting topic of discussion was what many of these folks did during the COVID shutdown.

 

Hank

[MustangGT]

35 minutes ago, Hlitner said:

Perhaps folks need to take a deep breath.  The onboard situation is very fluid during COVID and this is also reflected in DMW.  On most (if not all) of the Grand and Royal Class ships the latest norm has been to close 1 of the 3 MDRs.  On our Enchanted cruise we did make nightly reservations (I would always check and sometimes update during the morning while enjoying the IC).  When heading into to dinner our Medallion was scanned and we were always promptly seated.  A few times I did notice that a few folks were waiting (because they did not have a reservation?).  Even with only 2 MDRs there were always plenty of empty tables and more than adequate wait staff.   We were also told that Traditional Dining was gone but I guess that might be revisited once ships again get close to capacity and all the MDRs are functioning.

 

As to getting the same table/waiter, we did notice that the staff would send us to the same waiter and table if it happened to be available.  But tables are not held and it is luck of the draw.  When we appeared at the door our medallion was scanned, reservation noted, and then the hostess went to other staff to discuss what table was available.  Over the course of 20 days we probably dined in every section of the MDR and only had the same waiter/table 5 or 6 times.   We actually thought the system was very efficient since staff could easily spread out the workload among all the waiters rather than having a situation where a few waiters would be overwhelmed while others had no customers.   We actually found service too good/fast and had to sometimes tell our waiter that "we are not in a hurry."  

 

We have posted this before and will say it again.  Cruisers who still prefer the Traditional Dining model are running out of options throughout the cruise industry.  Most lines have moved away from TD since it is very inefficient and causes all kinds of staff inequities.  TD was fine in the days when everyone ate in the MDR.  But now, with multiple dining options on every ship, it is just not practical.  We think it will not be too long until folks will talk about "we remember when there used to be TD."

 

Hank

Hank:

I am glad you had a pleasant experience.  I realize TD may be dead ( on some ships) but having a reservation did nothing for us.  They did not even scan our medallion to know if we had a reservation or not.  The HD admitted having a reservation on this ship at this time meant nothing.  That’s disappointing to anyone who thought they were lucky enough to reserve dining pre-cruise.

As with most situations, this is more evidence of Princess’s lack of standard operating procedures across the fleet.  Inconsistency is the only thing consistent!  Lol!!

 

[trbarton]

44 minutes ago, Hlitner said:

Perhaps folks need to take a deep breath.  The onboard situation is very fluid during COVID and this is also reflected in DMW.  On most (if not all) of the Grand and Royal Class ships the latest norm has been to close 1 of the 3 MDRs.  On our Enchanted cruise we did make nightly reservations (I would always check and sometimes update during the morning while enjoying the IC).  When heading into to dinner our Medallion was scanned and we were always promptly seated.  A few times I did notice that a few folks were waiting (because they did not have a reservation?).  Even with only 2 MDRs there were always plenty of empty tables and more than adequate wait staff.   We were also told that Traditional Dining was gone but I guess that might be revisited once ships again get close to capacity and all the MDRs are functioning.

 

As to getting the same table/waiter, we did notice that the staff would send us to the same waiter and table if it happened to be available.  But tables are not held and it is luck of the draw.  When we appeared at the door our medallion was scanned, reservation noted, and then the hostess went to other staff to discuss what table was available.  Over the course of 20 days we probably dined in every section of the MDR and only had the same waiter/table 5 or 6 times.   We actually thought the system was very efficient since staff could easily spread out the workload among all the waiters rather than having a situation where a few waiters would be overwhelmed while others had no customers.   We actually found service too good/fast and had to sometimes tell our waiter that "we are not in a hurry."  

 

We have posted this before and will say it again.  Cruisers who still prefer the Traditional Dining model are running out of options throughout the cruise industry.  Most lines have moved away from TD since it is very inefficient and causes all kinds of staff inequities.  TD was fine in the days when everyone ate in the MDR.  But now, with multiple dining options on every ship, it is just not practical.  We think it will not be too long until folks will talk about "we remember when there used to be TD."

 

Hank

I’m probably in the minority that prefers the same table/wait staff each night. 
 

Here’s a valid question did people usually give the servers some extra $ at the end of the cruise & if you’re  usually not with the same wait staff each night how did you do that?

 

On my just finished cruise on the Ruby, the person in charge of the dinning room offered my the same table/wait staff which I loved. They knew my preferences & when I arrived I had a drink waiting for me. Other people that joined my table wanted to come back & I saw some of the same people each night. Other people on some nights wanted to join my table, Papa’s Table, & were told that it was full. 
 

I’m in favor of people that don’t care where they sit having that as an option.  On my last cruise, December 17, I was given the same table each night & in my opinion I had some of the best service that I ever had & other people remarked as to our service. 
 

As to empty tables, around where I was seating, I only once saw an empty table as they were always used & some had the same people each night. 
 

Our server mentioned that she enjoyed getting to know people & having some of the same people each night was great. 
 

Tom😀

[Hlitner]

40 minutes ago, trbarton said:

I’m probably in the minority that prefers the same table/wait staff each night. 
 

Here’s a valid question did people usually give the servers some extra $ at the end of the cruise & if you’re  usually not with the same wait staff each night how did you do that?

 

On my just finished cruise on the Ruby, the person in charge of the dinning room offered my the same table/wait staff which I loved. They knew my preferences & when I arrived I had a drink waiting for me. Other people that joined my table wanted to come back & I saw some of the same people each night. Other people on some nights wanted to join my table, Papa’s Table, & were told that it was full. 
 

I’m in favor of people that don’t care where they sit having that as an option.  On my last cruise, December 17, I was given the same table each night & in my opinion I had some of the best service that I ever had & other people remarked as to our service. 
 

As to empty tables, around where I was seating, I only once saw an empty table as they were always used & some had the same people each night. 
 

Our server mentioned that she enjoyed getting to know people & having some of the same people each night was great. 
 

Tom😀

I cannot speak to whether other's tipped serving staff but we did not tip anyone other then a "special" bar tender.  IMHO once the mass market lines pushed out the automatic gratutities there was no reason to tip on top of tips unless we got very special service.  But tipping servers in the MDR did not seem practical since we probably had more then 10 waiters in 20 days.   Another interesting thing was that in the alternative restaurants (we ate in them all) there was no attempt (subtle or otherwise) to solicit tips.  We never noticed anyone slipping waiters money although it certainly may have happened.

 

We did have one waiter (Capri Dining Room) 3 or 4 times and would have been happy if we could have kept that same table and waiter.  But, as I posted, it was "luck of the draw" as to what was available when we came to the MDR.  We made our MDR reservations for 7:40 on nearly every night (except when we dined in the alternate dining venues).  We had two dinners in the Crown Grill, two in Sabbatinis, and one in La Mer.   We also ate lunch (embarkation day) in GiGis (a ridiculous name for an Italian pizza place) which is Alfredos on most other ships.   The one place we avoided was the new Salty Dog Pub since we thought it ridiculous to pay $18 for that menu (grilled cheese, fish and chips, a big burger, etc).  Both the Crown Grill and Sabbitinis were relatively popular.  La Mer was never very full  (not even half full) on any night.  The Salty Dog Pub was generally empty whenever we looked.

 

If anyone cares, we thought that the food in all venues was what I would call "Princess normal."  That is to say it was about average for a mass market line.  We did appreciate that all of our food was hot but the quantity of most Entrees was smaller than pre-covid...with a few exceptions.  

 

Hank

[raharris200]

Hopefully, someone can help me with this.   I have been successful in making reservations in the MDR for our cruise on the Enchanted on Feb 18th using DMW.  But I would like to also make some specialty dining reservations.  But that does not come up as an option on the App. The only options I have are the two main dining rooms.  Is there a lock out period for specialty dining so that I can't do that yet?

 

Any help would be appreciated.

[RNRcruisers]

There have been several comments about TD being inefficient. I guess I don’t understand that. The cooks and waiters know how many are coming, where and when. The hostesses aren’t really even required past the first night and can be more “efficient” elsewhere. Maybe I am missing something? 
 

With TD I like that my waiters know if I don’t want bread on the table, and that I like decaf coffee with my dessert. We’ve had waiters who serve us shrimp cocktail without asking when they hear we like it. We get special service that just isn’t the same as a restaurant at home. 
 

I have nothing against those who prefer ATD but why can’t we have both? We have had times where we were on a waiting list for TD so I know there’s a demand. For us, this is one of the special touches about cruising that can’t be gotten from other experiences. 

[Steelers36]

3 hours ago, MustangGT said:

Hank:

I am glad you had a pleasant experience.  I realize TD may be dead ( on some ships) but having a reservation did nothing for us.  They did not even scan our medallion to know if we had a reservation or not.  The HD admitted having a reservation on this ship at this time meant nothing.  That’s disappointing to anyone who thought they were lucky enough to reserve dining pre-cruise.

As with most situations, this is more evidence of Princess’s lack of standard operating procedures across the fleet.  Inconsistency is the only thing consistent!  Lol!!

 

This is a key point.  Just because a guest has made a res in MDR doesn't mean they are TD.  They are simply expecting to secure a table at their desired time for that evening.... Without waiting in a line with the "walk-ups".

Edited December 30, 2021 by Steelers36

[wowzz]

17 hours ago, Hlitner said:

I cannot speak to whether other's tipped serving staff but we did not tip anyone other then a "special" bar tender.  IMHO once the mass market lines pushed out the automatic gratutities there was no reason to tip on top of tips unless we got very special service

Seems eminently sensible.  There does seem to be a fixation about the need to tip, whereas in reality with DMW, and muliple other dining venues, there  is simply no reason or need to tip. 

[wowzz]

15 hours ago, RNRcruisers said:

We have had times where we were on a waiting list for TD so I know there’s a demand. For us, this is one of the special touches about cruising that can’t be gotten from other experiences. 

I think that may be a specifically American demand. 

Certainly on our European cruises, there has always been a wait list for anytime dining, and no one wants first sitting if TD is offered.

[Hlitner]

5 minutes ago, wowzz said:

Seems eminently sensible.  There does seem to be a fixation about the need to tip, whereas in reality with DMW, and muliple other dining venues, there  is simply no reason or need to tip. 

I think you understand you have touched on a cultural issue.  Many folks on our "side of the pond" seem to be afflicted with a syndrome often called "tipping guilt."  From an early age we have been schooled on "tipping is good and necessary" and it can be difficult for Americans (and Canadians) to accept that tipping is not necessary.  A few cruise lines such as Seabourn actually do their best to convince passengers that tipping is not expected or necessary.   Because we have traveled in parts of the world where tipping is actually seen as an insult (or goes against local mores) we no longer suffer that guilt on cruise ships.  But I do still believe in rewarding outstanding service with something extra.

 

Hank