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

[BamaVol]

13 hours ago, memoak said:

Breakfast and dinner every day. Lunch is only served on sea days not port days

I can see the advantage at dinner.  Has anyone ever encountered a crowded MDR at breakfast?  They’ve always appeared less than half full any time we’ve gone.

[chamima]

6 hours ago, BamaVol said:

I can see the advantage at dinner.  Has anyone ever encountered a crowded MDR at breakfast?  They’ve always appeared less than half full any time we’ve gone.

 

You're correct that the dining rooms are not so crowded at breakfast but the advantage of the Reserve dining room is that you'll get the same waitstaff and they know your likes and dislikes.  If you prefer to be anonymous just go to the MDR instead.

[Steelers36]

8 hours ago, chamima said:

 

You're correct that the dining rooms are not so crowded at breakfast but the advantage of the Reserve dining room is that you'll get the same waitstaff and they know your likes and dislikes.  If you prefer to be anonymous just go to the MDR instead.

On our last voyages, we settled in with the same fellow at breakfast and it was great.

[terrierjohn]

On 1/23/2024 at 2:22 AM, Steelers36 said:

Not only that, @latebuyer, but you will not have any issue sharing.

We actually found on our Sky cruise last year that it was quicker to get a table for 2, and the staff seemed to push us that way. In fact when we pushed to get a shared table we waited quite a while for others to join us, and ended up only 4 on an 8 top.

[Steelers36]

2 hours ago, terrierjohn said:

We actually found on our Sky cruise last year that it was quicker to get a table for 2, and the staff seemed to push us that way. In fact when we pushed to get a shared table we waited quite a while for others to join us, and ended up only 4 on an 8 top.

With Princess, there is always exceptions to the general "rules" and nothing much is absolute.

[PacnGoNow]

8 hours ago, Steelers36 said:

With Princess, there is always exceptions to the general "rules" and nothing much is absolute.

Perfect analogy!  

[beachgirl50]

With the standard package, what is the cost of O’Malleys on Enchanted?  There is a menu with $10 sandwiches/burgers and $5 apps/desserts. We each had a burger, and were charged a cover charge of $15 plus the gratuity. Not sure how it all works for the standard package folks. Thanks in advance!

[WfO75080]

On 1/29/2024 at 12:21 AM, Thrak said:

 

On our recent cruises in Australia and New Zealand I was appalled to find that nobody cared how many drinks a person had. People were allowed to use drinks from other people's packages. For example: If you had a package and only drank 4 drinks in a day the bar staff was perfectly happy to let you "give" the rest of "your" drinks to anybody else you liked. I met one man who had consumed all of his drinks and a great many of his spouse's drinks and some drinks from his friend's package. Yes, he was quite drunk. It used to be that "sharing" was not allowed but, at least on our recent cruises, it was accepted without question.

Our last cruise was 01/23 and when they scanned your Medallion it showed your picture. I had forgotten mine one evening and tried to use the wife's. They turned me away.

[qoap24]

My last Princess cruise was on Regal and we were in a full suite, I have a cruise booked on Enchanted in a Reserve mini suite. I am sure I already know the answer, but for Reserve is breakfast only available for the Reserve section of the MDR and not in the speciality dining restaurant ( I can't remember which one on Regal. And if only the MDR, is there a difference in the menu?

[Steelers36]

53 minutes ago, qoap24 said:

My last Princess cruise was on Regal and we were in a full suite, I have a cruise booked on Enchanted in a Reserve mini suite. I am sure I already know the answer, but for Reserve is breakfast only available for the Reserve section of the MDR and not in the specialty dining restaurant ( I can't remember which one on Regal. And if only the MDR, is there a difference in the menu?

Suite guests only for the special breakfast.

[memoak]

2 hours ago, qoap24 said:

My last Princess cruise was on Regal and we were in a full suite, I have a cruise booked on Enchanted in a Reserve mini suite. I am sure I already know the answer, but for Reserve is breakfast only available for the Reserve section of the MDR and not in the speciality dining restaurant ( I can't remember which one on Regal. And if only the MDR, is there a difference in the menu?

You will b in reserve dining for breakfast. It will not be like the suite breakfast. You will have the regular menu and maybe one extra dish 

[OTrail]

My first time on Princess. I'm a solo cruiser, can I just turn up at the main dining room for lunch/dinner and be seated at a random table with others or is it better to reserve a time through the app? 

 

Also are there any days with the MDR is formal only and if you're not suited and booted for a formal night you need to eat elsewhere?

[BamaVol]

2 minutes ago, OTrail said:

My first time on Princess. I'm a solo cruiser, can I just turn up at the main dining room for lunch/dinner and be seated at a random table with others or is it better to reserve a time through the app? 

 

Also are there any days with the MDR is formal only and if you're not suited and booted for a formal night you need to eat elsewhere?

You may wait a little longer if sharing, but it will be available.

 

Dress as you like and you will be allowed to dine in the MDR any night.  Long pants and a collared shirt will keep people from staring, but don’t appear to be necessary.

[memoak]

27 minutes ago, BamaVol said:

You may wait a little longer if sharing, but it will be available.

 

Dress as you like and you will be allowed to dine in the MDR any night.  Long pants and a collared shirt will keep people from staring, but don’t appear to be necessary.

I have seen people turned away on formal night for short shorts, some halter tops but for the most part dress decently and no problem 

[Rescue Dog Mom]

23 hours ago, OTrail said:

My first time on Princess. I'm a solo cruiser, can I just turn up at the main dining room for lunch/dinner and be seated at a random table with others or is it better to reserve a time through the app? 

 

Also are there any days with the MDR is formal only and if you're not suited and booted for a formal night you need to eat elsewhere?

Good questions. Following!

[lorri111]

I just found a workaround to a problem we had. I booked dining slots on my app but even though it said they were accepted and it gave me a little heart in top corner it didn't actually record the bookings. But it did on my husbands, and when I tried to book again it still didn't work for me but it put a second booking for same time on his. So I went into web version of app and was able to follow prompts to put a booking in and it was accepted, and thankfully didn't do a duplicate in my husband's app. So now it registers correctly on both our apps. Weird eh.

[57eric]

If I'm tracking, all of the MDRs take walk ins.  Is there any way to assess the wait times short of physically showing up at each one?

[Steelers36]

4 minutes ago, 57eric said:

If I'm tracking, all of the MDRs take walk ins.  Is there any way to assess the wait times short of physically showing up at each one?

I would suggest to ask a DR Mgr or DR Host and they likely know best how they operate on that ship and the best DR for shortest waits.

[Torfamm]

On 2/9/2024 at 2:23 PM, BamaVol said:

You may wait a little longer if sharing, but it will be available.

 

Dress as you like and you will be allowed to dine in the MDR any night.  Long pants and a collared shirt will keep people from staring, but don’t appear to be necessary.

The “no shorts” rule is sometimes enforced by dining room managers. I’ve seen people turned away several times in the last year or so. 

Edited February 11 by Torfamm

[BamaVol]

9 minutes ago, Torfamm said:

The “no shorts” rule is sometimes enforced by dining room managers. I’ve seen people turned away several times in the last year or so. 

No one was stopped on CB in March for shorts. In September, we were in Alaska so there were no shorts. 

[Torfamm]

1 hour ago, BamaVol said:

No one was stopped on CB in March for shorts. In September, we were in Alaska so there were no shorts. 

They are definitely allowed more often than not. They were consistently turning people away on the Sky in November and December of last year and I saw it happen another couple of times this year. I always point it out, not because I personally care what people wear, but so that people are aware that they may be required to wear long pants in the MDR.

[BamaVol]

2 hours ago, Torfamm said:

They are definitely allowed more often than not. They were consistently turning people away on the Sky in November and December of last year and I saw it happen another couple of times this year. I always point it out, not because I personally care what people wear, but so that people are aware that they may be required to wear long pants in the MDR.

I agree that packing at least one pair of long pants is smart.

[leck57]

Ok, a report on Dine My Way on the Coral Princess that we disembarked today. Lovely cruise and a nice ship despite needing a little bit of love. We thought the comradery between the crew on this ship was the best we had seen, demonstrated by the last dinner parade and at the last theatre show where about 200 crew across all teams walked up on stage at the end of the show with many waving their National flags.

 

Anyway, on to dining. Disclosure - I prefer the old anytime dining where you could walk up and either get seated or given a pager if no tables are ready. I do not like to be organised to the point where I have to be at a Dining Room at a booked time (Specialty Dining excepted) and I accept I may have to wait at times. On the second day of our cruise I thought I'd just fall in to line with the new system and book at table, this was about 10am in the morning. One Dining Room had no slots available, shared table or otherwise, and the other Dining Room had 5pm only. Too early for us.

 

So I went to one of the Dining Rooms about 6.30pm ready to dine but not expecting anything. The gentleman on the door immediately advised that they had nothing and long story short, it led to a discussion about the booking system and the former way. I said to the guy that I could see heaps of empty tables and he said they were setting up for 7pm arrivals. I said why have long periods of time when tables just sit there. He had no answer, and of course, he was just being a good Company man. He could sense my annoyance and said if we returned at 6.50pm he would find us a table. We did that and at the conclusion asked if we wanted that table the next night, and the next night etc. While in the Dining Room I observed that about 25% of the tables were never occupied at any time and as we struck up friendship with the adjacent (almost touching) table, our meals took a long time, so I was able to observe over a few hours. I should stress that the guy on the door and I were very respectful to each other and he laughed every time we arrived for dinner and I said we had a booking for 6.50pm. I tipped him well last night.

 

However no one should have to put pressure on staff or they be put in this position, with this system that now doesn't have any balance between booking or walk ups.  In fact on Coral there was essentially no walk ups I assume between about 6.15 to around 7.30pm. I'm totally convinced the old system was much better overall, where both booked tables and walk ups were well allocated. I have done about 10 Princess cruises so know the systems pretty well but I'd hate to be a first time cruiser dealing with this.. 

 

But......it ain't going to change, so I'll play Princess' stupid game. For my 21 day cruise in July I have booked a table every night for 7pm. That might work for us some nights but others not and I will cancel that time at sometime during the day. However I will have blocked a table that no one can book until I cancel and like me, they will look at the App during the day and see no tables available. Also like me they may observe a Dining Room with many empty tables caused by no shows.

 

Yep, it's a first world problem I know, and despite my ramblings this doesn't stop me from having a great cruise. I know people that are happy to book and want that certainty of a table at a set time will disagree with me, or of course, I'll hear how the system is fine on other ships, but I've been on two Princess cruise in the last 12 months on different ships and the issues were the same.

 

Rant...has ended. 

[lorri111]

Can you use your Princess Plus package to get wine by glass in MDR rather than buy a discounted bottle?

[capriccio]

1 minute ago, lorri111 said:

Can you use your Princess Plus package to get wine by glass in MDR rather than buy a discounted bottle?

Yes.  In fact in my unscientific observation that is the most popular method.