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

[lorri111]

On 2/15/2024 at 5:39 AM, Thrak said:

 

Guessing it was Allegro - aft on Deck 6?

That's interesting as we are booked on Royal in April and were able to do dinner bookings for each night in Allegro - so I guess the Allegro room can't be all anytime dining?

[Saelicv]

Hi! We are finalizing our Alaska cruise on Discovery Princess for June. This will be our 4th cruise with Princess. Our last cruise was in 2022 and we enjoyed the all of the dining options available. However, it seems that dining has changed since our last cruise. We haven't booked any of the Princess Plus or Princess Premier packages yet and would like information on what dining is included and not included without the packages. We just want to know what will be included and what will be a la cart if we chose not to purchase a package. I think the main dining rooms and the buffet is included with our regular cruise fare, but what about the other casual eateries? Specifically, I enjoyed getting sandwiches, crudite, and desserts at the International Cafe. Is that now an upcharge? What about Swirls and the grill up on the Lido deck? What about afternoon tea? Thanks!

[Steelers36]

1 hour ago, Saelicv said:

Hi! We are finalizing our Alaska cruise on Discovery Princess for June. This will be our 4th cruise with Princess. Our last cruise was in 2022 and we enjoyed the all of the dining options available. However, it seems that dining has changed since our last cruise. We haven't booked any of the Princess Plus or Princess Premier packages yet and would like information on what dining is included and not included without the packages. We just want to know what will be included and what will be a la cart if we chose not to purchase a package. I think the main dining rooms and the buffet is included with our regular cruise fare, but what about the other casual eateries? Specifically, I enjoyed getting sandwiches, crudite, and desserts at the International Cafe. Is that now an upcharge? What about Swirls and the grill up on the Lido deck? What about afternoon tea? Thanks!

Those last listed locales are still free.  Have you researched on Princess.com? 

https://www.princess.com/en-us/ships-and-experience/onboard-experience/food-and-dining

 

[Saelicv]

That link was very helpful! I hadn't come across that. Most of what I had found was generic and pushing the packages. Thanks!

[Cruise Starter]

1 hour ago, Saelicv said:

That link was very helpful! I hadn't come across that. Most of what I had found was generic and pushing the packages. Thanks!

Also this PDF lists venues by ship:

 

https://www.princess.com/content/dam/princess/corporate/pdfs/restaurants-dining-venues-on-board.pdf.coredownload.inline.pdf

 

 

[galensgrl]

Hi everyone. My sisters and I are going to the Caribbean in August on the Enchanted Princess. We each get two specialty restaurant dinners with our premier packages. My sisters are foodies and want to try the specialty and the casual restaurants. My question here is, is it worth it to try all three specialty restaurants on the ship, specifically wondering if Sabatinis is a good place to eat? I live in New England and there are Italian restaurants all over the place. If we go for Italian food, I of course want it to be "Good" Italian food and not taste like frozen meatballs and Stouffers lasagna or what have you. If you've dined at Sabatinis, did you enjoy it? The two restaurants we are definitely trying are CG and Catch by Rudys, they seem popular and hopefully those two have fine beef and fish. Either way, it is highly unlikely we will go hungry. Thanks all. 

[Steelers36]

56 minutes ago, galensgrl said:

Hi everyone. My sisters and I are going to the Caribbean in August on the Enchanted Princess. We each get two specialty restaurant dinners with our premier packages. My sisters are foodies and want to try the specialty and the casual restaurants. My question here is, is it worth it to try all three specialty restaurants on the ship, specifically wondering if Sabatinis is a good place to eat? I live in New England and there are Italian restaurants all over the place. If we go for Italian food, I of course want it to be "Good" Italian food and not taste like frozen meatballs and Stouffers lasagna or what have you. If you've dined at Sabatinis, did you enjoy it? The two restaurants we are definitely trying are CG and Catch by Rudys, they seem popular and hopefully those two have fine beef and fish. Either way, it is highly unlikely we will go hungry. Thanks all. 

The SDs are a nice experience.  Just don't expect Michelin star quality.  

[Ellipooh]

17 minutes ago, Steelers36 said:

The SDs are a nice experience.  Just don't expect Michelin star quality.  

^^^^This.

I love Sabatini's.  I certainly prefer it over Crown Grill, but you will find many others who feel exactly the opposite.  Sadly, the days of 5-star truly fine dining on board have sailed, unless you pay for the top-notch all-inclusive lines. 

The Specialty Dining options on Princess are a lovely evening out to a special dinner.  Enjoy your cruise.

[rome2009]

I have booked multiple cruises on Princess. I was able to access my 2 cruises I booked a few months ago to book dining times. However, on our next cruise which we just booked, I cannot for the life of me find where to go to even see the other cruises, let alone book a dining time for our 3rd cruise. I can only see the upcoming cruise we are going on. Any advice?

[Dee_Jay]

13 hours ago, rome2009 said:

I have booked multiple cruises on Princess. I was able to access my 2 cruises I booked a few months ago to book dining times. However, on our next cruise which we just booked, I cannot for the life of me find where to go to even see the other cruises, let alone book a dining time for our 3rd cruise. I can only see the upcoming cruise we are going on. Any advice?

I assume you're talking about the new app.  What worked for me is to log out, then log back in with the booking number of the cruise you want to access. It's a little more work than the old app, but it gets you where you need to be.

[terrierjohn]

On 2/12/2024 at 7:16 PM, memoak said:

It is not really a Princess game. Most land based restaurants take reservations for specific times and then walking as tables are available   I would bet you could go into most restaurants at popular times and find empty tables that are reserved for the near future and you would not be able to just take one. That is why some popular restaurants take a credit card number for a reservation so they can charge you a no show

Comparison with a land based restaurant with maybe 100 covers, and a very variable potential clientelle,  against a cruise ship restaurant with over a 1000 covers and a guranteed clientelle that have to be fed is not truly sensible.

If the cruise ship is to make optimum use of all its MDRs, it cannot afford to have empty tables waiting for customers, the old turn up and join a short queue, then fairly quickly join a sharing table or take a pager if you want a 2 top is. IMO, the only sensible way to operate a freedom dining option, and maybe keep one smaller MDR for passenger who want a fixed traditional 2 seating dining experience.

 

[memoak]

1 minute ago, terrierjohn said:

Comparison with a land based restaurant with maybe 100 covers, and a very variable potential clientelle,  against a cruise ship restaurant with over a 1000 covers and a guranteed clientelle that have to be fed is not truly sensible.

If the cruise ship is to make optimum use of all its MDRs, it cannot afford to have empty tables waiting for customers, the old turn up and join a short queue, then fairly quickly join a sharing table or take a pager if you want a 2 top is. IMO, the only sensible way to operate a freedom dining option, and maybe keep one smaller MDR for passenger who want a fixed traditional 2 seating dining experience.

 

Fixed time traditional dining has gone the way of the unicorn

[terrierjohn]

Just now, memoak said:

Fixed time traditional dining has gone the way of the unicorn

I only suggested it as an option to satisfy those who desire a regular fixed dining time, but I guess the suggestion of one of the MDRs being devoted to bookings and the others reverting to the old Anytime Dining option of walk ups, is probably a better option.

Of course the dining option would have to be fixed for the entire cruise, and the booking one would probably need to have a maximum limit.

[upwarduk]

On 2/16/2024 at 4:10 PM, Cruise Starter said:

Also this PDF lists venues by ship:

 

https://www.princess.com/content/dam/princess/corporate/pdfs/restaurants-dining-venues-on-board.pdf.coredownload.inline.pdf

 

 

Thanks for the link, I have taken a screenshot of page 1.

We were last on the Crown Princess in 2016 and were then assigned a dining room.

It appears dining has changed since then and it’s taking a long time to get my head around what is available to us for no extra charge ( we are booked with Princess Plus, as it came with the booking).

[TheMichael]

On 2/17/2024 at 11:31 AM, terrierjohn said:

I only suggested it as an option to satisfy those who desire a regular fixed dining time, but I guess the suggestion of one of the MDRs being devoted to bookings and the others reverting to the old Anytime Dining option of walk ups, is probably a better option.

Of course the dining option would have to be fixed for the entire cruise, and the booking one would probably need to have a maximum limit.

 

I guess what I don't understand is that given a passenger has the means literally in their pockets to book or change or check whether a restaurant is all booked up, even just before they might want to eat, why there should be much facilitation of walk-ups at all, aside from handing them a beeper.

 

I understand that a not-insubstantial number of cruise passengers are not friendly with technology - mostly elderly - that's fine, there should be a few walk-ups available, and maybe cruise lines should make their whole experience different to expedite all of the things the app-conversant are able to do easily. Perhaps allow people to sign up for the cruise as "non-app," and block the onboard functionality of the app itself for those people (no ordering or reservations) in favor of a dedicated desk/phone.

 

But I don't think there should be much accommodation for the "I don't wanna" crowd, which unlike the group above, seems to be growing. If they care so little about booking an available dining time, they should be willing to either wait or make use of an alternate venue if the line is too long for their liking.

 

The risk of not getting a table in the MDR if I want to eat at 6pm but haven't booked is something I accept as the result of my own actions, like everything in life. Then again, I normally eat later, while pretty much everyone with issues around getting into the MDR is trying to turn up at 5 or 6.

 

[Tedferg]

@TheMichael are you suggesting that a person can see available dining times via the App and so should have no need to walk up? I don't think the App is accurate enough to allow that. Often there is little selection at certain times but no-shows and other diners finishing early means there are empty tables. I also think you would need to scroll through ding rooms separately, which is a pain. I have seen Host suggesting another dining room that has availability, easier than scrolling through App for Tiem and Dining room.

[mya603]

Um, I'm still unclear on walk up to the dining rooms.  Can you still just walk up and get a table?  I travel solo and normally eat at 5 so I can go join in the evening time activities after.   Will I need to make a reservation for 5?  I mean, if I meet people and we want to meet another evening for dinner it may be later than 5.  Could we still just walk up and get a table? I don't mind waiting a little bit.   All this talk of reservations is confusing me as I have never made a reservation for MDR before.  But having said that, I haven't cruised since 2019.

[memoak]

27 minutes ago, mya603 said:

Um, I'm still unclear on walk up to the dining rooms.  Can you still just walk up and get a table?  I travel solo and normally eat at 5 so I can go join in the evening time activities after.   Will I need to make a reservation for 5?  I mean, if I meet people and we want to meet another evening for dinner it may be later than 5.  Could we still just walk up and get a table? I don't mind waiting a little bit.   All this talk of reservations is confusing me as I have never made a reservation for MDR before.  But having said that, I haven't cruised since 2019.

You can always walk up and ask for a table. If no table is available you may have to wait. Be advised the 5:00 seems to be a very popular time and you will see people lined up waiting for doors to open as early as 4:30

[mya603]

Thank you!  I'm pretty flexible with dining times.  But still like the idea of walking up an sitting with other people every night.  And I don't mind waiting for a few minutes.   

[TheMichael]

3 hours ago, Tedferg said:

@TheMichael are you suggesting that a person can see available dining times via the App and so should have no need to walk up? I don't think the App is accurate enough to allow that. Often there is little selection at certain times but no-shows and other diners finishing early means there are empty tables. I also think you would need to scroll through ding rooms separately, which is a pain. I have seen Host suggesting another dining room that has availability, easier than scrolling through App for Tiem and Dining room.

 

The app tells you which times are bookable, yes.

 

If you want to gamble with no-shows, or you find that walking from dining room to dining room is easier than looking them up in the app, and you're okay with the idea that if you do those things at 6 pm you're likely to find no joy - hey, you do you. 

[terrierjohn]

On 2/20/2024 at 8:46 PM, TheMichael said:

 

I guess what I don't understand is that given a passenger has the means literally in their pockets to book or change or check whether a restaurant is all booked up, even just before they might want to eat, why there should be much facilitation of walk-ups at all, aside from handing them a beeper.

 

I understand that a not-insubstantial number of cruise passengers are not friendly with technology - mostly elderly - that's fine, there should be a few walk-ups available, and maybe cruise lines should make their whole experience different to expedite all of the things the app-conversant are able to do easily. Perhaps allow people to sign up for the cruise as "non-app," and block the onboard functionality of the app itself for those people (no ordering or reservations) in favor of a dedicated desk/phone.

 

But I don't think there should be much accommodation for the "I don't wanna" crowd, which unlike the group above, seems to be growing. If they care so little about booking an available dining time, they should be willing to either wait or make use of an alternate venue if the line is too long for their liking.

 

The risk of not getting a table in the MDR if I want to eat at 6pm but haven't booked is something I accept as the result of my own actions, like everything in life. Then again, I normally eat later, while pretty much everyone with issues around getting into the MDR is trying to turn up at 5 or 6.

 

If you think about it, having bookings must reduce the restaurant capacity very significantly, because you have tables ready laid but waiting for their customers to arrive, which will be at least 30 mins. 

If the restaurant operates totally on walk ups, then every table can be utilised.

I accept there will be busy periods leading to some queueing, and those wanting a table for 2 might need to be given pagers sometimes, but overall I am sure this system would be a far more efficient way to utilise the MDRs.

[BamaVol]

2 hours ago, terrierjohn said:

If you think about it, having bookings must reduce the restaurant capacity very significantly, because you have tables ready laid but waiting for their customers to arrive, which will be at least 30 mins. 

If the restaurant operates totally on walk ups, then every table can be utilised.

I accept there will be busy periods leading to some queueing, and those wanting a table for 2 might need to be given pagers sometimes, but overall I am sure this system would be a far more efficient way to utilise the MDRs.

Wouldn’t it be great to actually get an opinion from someone who has run a restaurant?  Any takers?

[terrierjohn]

On 2/20/2024 at 8:46 PM, TheMichael said:

 

I guess what I don't understand is that given a passenger has the means literally in their pockets to book or change or check whether a restaurant is all booked up, even just before they might want to eat, why there should be much facilitation of walk-ups at all, aside from handing them a beeper.

 

I understand that a not-insubstantial number of cruise passengers are not friendly with technology - mostly elderly - that's fine, there should be a few walk-ups available, and maybe cruise lines should make their whole experience different to expedite all of the things the app-conversant are able to do easily. Perhaps allow people to sign up for the cruise as "non-app," and block the onboard functionality of the app itself for those people (no ordering or reservations) in favor of a dedicated desk/phone.

 

But I don't think there should be much accommodation for the "I don't wanna" crowd, which unlike the group above, seems to be growing. If they care so little about booking an available dining time, they should be willing to either wait or make use of an alternate venue if the line is too long for their liking.

 

The risk of not getting a table in the MDR if I want to eat at 6pm but haven't booked is something I accept as the result of my own actions, like everything in life. Then again, I normally eat later, while pretty much everyone with issues around getting into the MDR is trying to turn up at 5 or 6.

 

If you think about it, having bookings must reduce the restaurant capacity very significantly, because you have tables ready laid but waiting for their customers to arrive, which will be at least 30 mins. 

If the restaurant operates totally on walk ups, then every table can be utilised.

I accept there will be busy periods leading to some queueing, and those wanting a table for 2 might need to be given pagers sometimes, but overall I am sure this system would be a far more efficient way to utilise the MDRs.

[terrierjohn]

3 minutes ago, BamaVol said:

Wouldn’t it be great to actually get an opinion from someone who has run a restaurant?  Any takers?

Only if they were cruise ship restaurant managers, I don't know of any land based restaurants of the same size.

[terrierjohn]

P&O have introduced a web based on board booking system, and their MDR  booking procedure would be ideal, if operated totally on the on-line system. It's a virtual queue procedure which shows the number of passengers waiting for each MDR, and your phone buzzes you when your table is ready. Unfortunately because not everyone has, or wants to use their smart phone, they have allowed passengers to book tables in advance, which along with walk ups makes the virtual queue system worthless.

 But I am convinced this would work perfectly if everyone had to use the VQ system.