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

[Dan M.]

I thought that the Dine My Way was pretty useless. The app locked up and crashed constantly when trying to schedule dinner reservations. We ended up eating at four different tables in five nights... not hardly what I was expecting.

 

Princess should reserve one dining room for DMW and let others schedule their meals before cruising in the traditional dining way.

[rbtan]

7 hours ago, oldmovieguy said:

We recently sailed on Sky and booked a mini suite plus which enabled us to bypass the queues for dining, we are just about to book on Enchanted Princess but I cannot find any reference to a similar club arrangement for dining. Can someone kindly confirm either way please.

Ben? Is that you?

[kapsgp]

 

"We recently sailed on Sky and booked a mini suite plus which enabled us to bypass the queues for dining, we are just about to book on Enchanted Princess but I cannot find any reference to a similar club arrangement for dining. Can someone kindly confirm either way please."

 

 

You can wait list for a Club Class mini suite if there are none available. We were #3 on the Sky waitlist for December and cleared about 3 months before final payment .

Edited August 21, 2022 by kapsgp

[rheathslc]

On 8/2/2022 at 3:39 PM, Steelers36 said:

1. I don't think DMW is smart enough to restrict the free SD dining for a Suite guest to night 1.  Besides, I have read reports in the past of Suite guests getting it on another night.

This might be a recent update but it DID restrict our Suite benefit SD reservation to the first night on our upcoming 7-day cruise on the Royal. When I tried to book a different night it wanted to charge me.

 

However, we had previously been booked on two B2B 5-day cruises on the Diamond before they were cancelled and it DID let us reserve the SD on the first night of each even though that's supposed to only be for 6 day or longer cruises. So smart enough to restrict to first night but not to limit it to 6-day or longer cruises. I wasn't going to complain about that though. Haha! I wonder if I would have been charged on board in the end. Heck, I've been charged on board even when I DID pay in advance through the app. I got it removed but had to spend 30 minutes on crew chat to do it. It would be so nice if the system worked the way it's supposed to but I guess that's asking a lot. 🙂 

[JF - retired RRT]

1 hour ago, rheathslc said:

However, we had previously been booked on two B2B 5-day cruises on the Diamond before they were cancelled and it DID let us reserve the SD on the first night of each even though that's supposed to only be for 6 day or longer cruises. So smart enough to restrict to first night but not to limit it to 6-day or longer cruises. I wasn't going to complain about that though. Haha! I wonder if I would have been charged on board in the end. 🙂 

We were in a suite on a 5 day cruise and booked SD on the ship. No problem & no charge. Guess it depends on whether the SD staff knows or cares that it's not supposed to be included.

[windsor26]

With all the problems Medallion dine my way has given me for my next cruise  I wrote to Princess JanSwatz   and wow!  got a telephone call today from Princess advising that they did not have any spaces on the cruise for me to have a shared table 

When I pointed out that I had - several weeks ago -  booked the same time every night for a shared table and two weeks later all but one day had disappeared from my account  she said that I had cancelled them???!!   I advised that this was not correct and obviously it was ANOTHER glitch from the Medallion app  but she reiterated there wee no spaces for me to book now for  shared table.

I asked why she had telephoned just to advise what I had seen on the dine my way and she said this was just to acknowledge that thy had contacted me!!   She went on to say when we had '

make friends' on board we could go to the customer relations desk and have the bookings linked and have a shared table with them them    How they would then have a large table when they do not ow escapes me   and I then advised that it was a shared table that enable us to make new friends not visa versa    

So no joy then for me  this cruise   hope they do not 'cancel' the bookings I have made for the Majestic in January

[Kay S]

Ugh.  I see things have not improved.  I have done two HAL cruises since the startup with traditional dining like the good old days.  I have booked Princess again for June '23 to use up a bunch of FCC from Covid times.  I was hoping Princess had seen the light, but I guess not.  Making the best of it, I guess it's back to nightly reservations and standing in line for a table for two and chatting with the other twosomes next door.  This will be my last Princess cruise.  I sure hope the Corp geniuses don't decide to ruin HAL next.

[richstowe]

On 8/25/2022 at 10:57 PM, windsor26 said:

With all the problems Medallion dine my way has given me for my next cruise  I wrote to Princess JanSwatz   and wow!  got a telephone call today from Princess advising that they did not have any spaces on the cruise for me to have a shared table 

Wow. What did you say to poor poor Jan? 😁

[windsor26]

1 hour ago, richstowe said:

Wow. What did you say to poor poor Jan? 😁

I doubt 'Poor Jan' even read  it but it was a polite explanation of why I was disappointed that my previously organised every night at the same shared table had been deleted by the medallion and I was unable to rebook this as they only had 5.30 available   Not that it was any help at all from a telephone call but I expect we will get a lot of this 'assistance'  They think that a unhelpful phone call will stop us nagging and I suppose they ae correct as I have decided to wait until I board and chase the Director of tables (sic)  then

[loge23]

Who is the "My" in "Dine My Way" anyway? Padgett??

We booked our reservations (silly btw - "booking" dining reservations on a cruise ship) last night for our upcoming 26 night cruise one night at a time. This is progress??! And only on one's mobile device?

I kept saying to my wife that this would have been so much easier if one could do this on a PC, but no - that make too much sense. So you have your most loyal customers, many of whom are relatively new to this type of tech, having to book their DR times on their phones/pads -no guarantee of the same table and shuttled to different DR's for "My" preferred time. 

No wonder why there is so many dissatisfied Princess cruisers these days. Have to hope the onboard experience bears at least in some semblance to what we know and used to love about Princess.

[richstowe]

40 minutes ago, loge23 said:

No wonder why there is so many dissatisfied Princess cruisers these days. Have to hope the onboard experience bears at least in some semblance to what we know and used to love about Princess.

I've got some more bad news. About the MDR reservations anyway . We had to make reservations in all three rooms on the Caribbean Princess at various times from 6:30 to 7:30 . Once on board we discovered these reservations were mere suggestions . A couple of nights the no reservation line was shorter and faster then the line for those with reservations . Obviously no ability to build any familiarity with the staff . Did I mention the MDR's were uncomfortably hot ?

On the more positive side, the food was generally okay and the cruise itself was great . 

[Steelers36]

1 hour ago, loge23 said:

Who is the "My" in "Dine My Way" anyway? Padgett??

We booked our reservations (silly btw - "booking" dining reservations on a cruise ship) last night for our upcoming 26 night cruise one night at a time. This is progress??! And only on one's mobile device?

I kept saying to my wife that this would have been so much easier if one could do this on a PC, but no - that make too much sense. So you have your most loyal customers, many of whom are relatively new to this type of tech, having to book their DR times on their phones/pads -no guarantee of the same table and shuttled to different DR's for "My" preferred time. 

No wonder why there is so many dissatisfied Princess cruisers these days. Have to hope the onboard experience bears at least in some semblance to what we know and used to love about Princess.

I have my grievances with DMW, but a couple of points here.

 

DMW is available in the web version of MC App Ocean Ready.  So, you can use your PC to make dining reservations. 

 

Did you not see the option to book for the entire voyage?  It's like booking all 26 nights in one shot.  It does require the guest to pick same DR, same time, same type of res (Sharing/Private).  So, that saves a lot as long as the same time works for the guest and the space is available on all nights.

 

It is true that if you want to delete reservations, it can only be done one day at a time.

[richstowe]

6 minutes ago, Steelers36 said:

Did you not see the option to book for the entire voyage?  It's like booking all 26 nights in one shot.  It does require the guest to pick same DR, same time, same type of res (Sharing/Private).  So, that saves a lot as long as the same time works for the guest and the space is available on all nights.

 

I used this option when I booked 90 days out . Much to my displeasure, the app makes reservations on the nights your desires are available but doesn't notify you that the other nights are left unbooked . I didn't realize this . So I got two out of 13 nights and discovered this a month before sailing . Day after day I went back in to discover acceptable spots which took a week.

And as I said above, 

28 minutes ago, richstowe said:

A couple of nights the no reservation line was shorter and faster then the line for those with reservations .

  Not great .

[chamima]

2 hours ago, loge23 said:

Who is the "My" in "Dine My Way" anyway? Padgett??

 

LOL

[rbtan]

I guess one of the problems is when a lot of pax want to eat at the same time. It's tough if say..800 pax want to eat at exactly 7PM. Perhaps they should offer the traditional times for those who prefer at either the early or the late seating. We book Club Class & avoid that, but I'm sure a lot of pax don't want to spend extra to get the faster seating.

[Kay S]

Having finally cracked the password disaster, we are booked on two cruises in order to use up FCC left from covid times.  We're doing Club Class on the first one.  I can't face the nightmare the reservation thing was on the last cruise.  On the nest cruise, next summer, I'm going to try the Jan Swartz solution of "making friends on the cruise and trying to replicate traditional with same time, same place, linked reservations work around."  After that, I'm gone from Princess forever.  They have completely ruined the dining experience for me.

[beckntom]

On 9/8/2022 at 6:15 PM, Kay S said:

.... After that, I'm gone from Princess forever.  They have completely ruined the dining experience for me.

Our thoughts--and plans--exactly!  The Traditional Dining experience was too important to us.

[Steelers36]

16 minutes ago, beckntom said:

Our thoughts--and plans--exactly!  The Traditional Dining experience was too important to us.

I may have stated this before.  As much as I rail against Princess for issuing a sub-standard dining app 15 months ago and not having a good process for providing the TD experience that they still promise, I would not leave Princess for that reason alone.  It would take more than that for me to slam the door on them.  There are other lines not really doing TD from what I read.  And you couldn't give me a free cruise on Cunard, for example.  DMW is not their only issue, but if everything else was as good as it was, just saying that dining option alone wouldn't have me tank them.

[suzyed]

I made all our  dinner reservations on the Medallion for our upcoming cruise weeks ago and just checked the APP and all the reservations are gone with the exception of the Specialty Dining reservations.  I had booked them in the Island Dining room and now they are not even offering that as a choice??
What's up with that??

 

[Steelers36]

1 hour ago, suzyed said:

I made all our  dinner reservations on the Medallion for our upcoming cruise weeks ago and just checked the APP and all the reservations are gone with the exception of the Specialty Dining reservations.  I had booked them in the Island Dining room and now they are not even offering that as a choice??
What's up with that??

 

Ouch and double ouch.  I have read a couple of stories like this in which the guests noticed once checked-in on board.

[Barry H]

On 9/7/2022 at 4:01 PM, Steelers36 said:

I have my grievances with DMW, but a couple of points here.

 

DMW is available in the web version of MC App Ocean Ready.  So, you can use your PC to make dining reservations. 

 

Did you not see the option to book for the entire voyage?  It's like booking all 26 nights in one shot.  It does require the guest to pick same DR, same time, same type of res (Sharing/Private).  So, that saves a lot as long as the same time works for the guest and the space is available on all nights.

 

It is true that if you want to delete reservations, it can only be done one day at a time.

We are on the same cruise as loge23. A B2B cruise. The online (PC) app displays the button to choose the option for booking the entire cruise, however, it does not accept that as a choice. We booked each of the 26 days separately. We were able to get most of the nights in one dining room but had to book a few nights in the alternate dining room. Will have to go back online to check that our reservations are still there.

 

On our last cruise you could get the traditional dining effect only if you booked for 5:00 or 5:20. Then you could request the same waiter's area. 

 

One night a lot of people arrived at the same time and the dining room filled really fast and made service and meals come out slow.

 

Now we have to be led to a table every night. There is a line of staff ready to do this when they are given a slip of paper with the next available table for the number in your party.

[Steelers36]

34 minutes ago, Barry H said:

We are on the same cruise as loge23. A B2B cruise.

Mind responding with which ship?  Thanks.

[rbtan]

On 9/11/2022 at 7:13 PM, beckntom said:

Our thoughts--and plans--exactly!  The Traditional Dining experience was too important to us.

We, too really like the enjoyment of getting to know the staff who work so hard for us. We do find that CC comes pretty close to that..but at a higher cost.

[Kay S]

2 hours ago, rbtan said:

We, too really like the enjoyment of getting to know the staff who work so hard for us. We do find that CC comes pretty close to that..but at a higher cost.

It was actually on your recommendation that we decided to go for CC on our short upcoming cruise.  We have lots of FCC to use, and I remember you talking about how easy it was to be seated and served.  If I were a cynic, I might think Princess is trying to drive people into CC with the current DMW brouhaha.  🙃

[UpcountryTravelers]

Experience on Discovery Princess this July:  Dine My Way was pretty much useless.  This was with kids and grandkids, so with DMW only available about a week before the cruise, it was darn near impossible to coordinate.  And with an Alaska cruise, you never know when you will get back.  So, other than one night in Crown Grill that our TA arranged for us, we ate in the buffet every other night.  Wish they would go back to Anytime Dining that we liked.