“Traditional Dining No Longer Exists”

[Astro Flyer]

31 minutes ago, coopco said:

We were on the Grand in Dec. for a 5 day cruise and had the same waitstaff every night.

As I recall many of those cruises had very few passengers onboard…would you know how many were on the ship?

 

That could be a factor for having such a good experience & glad that it worked well for you. 👍

[coopco]

29 minutes ago, Astro Flyer said:

As I recall many of those cruises had very few passengers onboard…would you know how many were on the ship?

 

That could be a factor for having such a good experience & glad that it worked well for you. 👍

Good point. I can’t remember how many but it wasn’t many - less than 1,000 I believe. We’ll see how things pan out on future cruises but for now, it sounds like I’ll have to get used to different wait staff and table mates for dinner like it is for breakfast and lunch. Bummer.

[caribill]

15 hours ago, Rudy888 said:

The comment that Traditonal Dining is gone. Maybe I am wrong but traditional dining is opting for one of the 2 times for Traditional dining. Like 5:30 or 7:30.

Anytime Dining is picking your time like 6:30. Where it appears you may or may not be able to get the same table each night

 

 

Traditional dining was picking early or late seating and then Princess would pick the early/late seating times to coordinate with Princess Theater showtimes.

 

Traditional dining meant you could pick a table size and it was usually what what assigned.

 

Traditional dining meant having the same table and wait staff throughout the cruise.

 

Traditional dining meant if others than your traveling party were at the table that the others would be the same people the entire cruise.

 

None of these things is true with DMW.

a) You must guess what time to dine to match with showtimes that are not determined until months after you can book your dining time.

b) Per this thread you are unlikely to get the same table and table size and waitstaff each evening even though you selected what you wanted months in advance.

c) Nothing has been posted about having the same other people at your table each evening, but I suspect that is also not happening.

[Steelers36]

2 hours ago, coopco said:

Oh that’s promising. So I made reservations for our next cruise for 5:40 every night at the same dining room.  Do you think that would mean we’ll have the same table? It’s a good experiment at least. Thanks for the info.

You should if you made a full voyage option and not by individual nights.  As to what I THINK will happen, it's a guess because DMW is not setting things up that way and depends on what the ship's DR mgmt will do.

[caribill]

12 hours ago, chicgotgame said:

I’ve got the same table booked February 18, 22 until May 4, 22 when I disembark. 

 

Booked in advance with the app?

 

Or did you have to make arrangements once on board?

[caribill]

2 hours ago, Steelers36 said:

Princess indicated originally that the new times in DMW that coincided with Early & Late TD, were 5:00, 5:20, & 5:40 and then 7:00, 7:20, & 7:40. 

 

ETA:  They never said you couldn't get same table & wait-staff at other times.  The inference was that selecting the times above would have you in sync with evening show times.  That has been a lark, however, with so many ships sailing half full and only having one show each evening.

 

 

And even with two shows, the show times have not been the same on all ships.

[capriccio]

OP here.  Last night we showed up at 6:20 at our assigned dining room (Capri) for another round of of host/hostess staff huddling around the computer and a hard copy seating chart.  Then we were led away to the formerly closed Santorini dining room on deck 5 and handed over to staff there.  The hostess went and looked for an open table (it seemed they were only using half the dining room), returned and led us to a table.  She confirm that the Santorini MDR would be open for dinner for the remainder of the cruise.  After dinner we asked the waiter if we could reserve the table.  He said check with the hostess.  They took down our names and room numbers and then said “ we can try but if we seat someone there at 5 pm it will not have turned over by 6:20!.”

[Lady Arwen]

7 hours ago, Steelers36 said:

If you think those options in the App are making any impact in the DR, I have some swamp land in FL you might be interested in.

No thank you, the last place I would want any kind of land is Florida! lol. As for dining, I don’t sweat the small stuff.  If we get a table for two by the window, as requested, that would be terrific.  If not, oh well, we’ll get a table somewhere in the MDR and we’ll still have a nice glass, or two, of wine and a decent dinner that I don’t have to cook.  We plan on having a wonderful time cruising the British Isles and will count our blessings that we’re able to do so.

[caribill]

2 hours ago, capriccio said:

After dinner we asked the waiter if we could reserve the table.  He said check with the hostess.  They took down our names and room numbers and then said “ we can try but if we seat someone there at 5 pm it will not have turned over by 6:20!.”

 

And that is exactly what one would expect to happen when the entire dining room is switched from traditional fixed time dining for everyone to some (sort of) traditional diners and some anytime diners with no tables reserved for just two traditional serving times aligned with Princess Theater showtimes.

 

Pre-DMW, on ships with three dining rooms, two of them were 100% traditional for the first seating and one of them was traditional for the second seating. Basically over two traditional seating times, 50% of dining rooms were set up for traditional.

 

On RCI, the multi level dining room is set up all evening with a combination of traditional and anytime. Depending on pre-cruise demand, there are enough tables allocated for traditional diners with the rest then allocated to anytime.

 

Princess could do the same instead of having all three dining rooms with no tables actually set up just for traditional dining.

[Torfamm]

7 hours ago, caribill said:

 

Traditional dining was picking early or late seating and then Princess would pick the early/late seating times to coordinate with Princess Theater showtimes.

 

Traditional dining meant you could pick a table size and it was usually what what assigned.

 

Traditional dining meant having the same table and wait staff throughout the cruise.

 

Traditional dining meant if others than your traveling party were at the table that the others would be the same people the entire cruise.

 

None of these things is true with DMW.

a) You must guess what time to dine to match with showtimes that are not determined until months after you can book your dining time.

b) Per this thread you are unlikely to get the same table and table size and waitstaff each evening even though you selected what you wanted months in advance.

c) Nothing has been posted about having the same other people at your table each evening, but I suspect that is also not happening.

I think the issue of having the same people at the table each night is what made traditional dining impractical now that there are so many options for dinner other than the MDR. So many seats can be empty at a table on a given night. I would be curious to know what percentage of passengers eat in the MDR every night of a cruise.  

I’ve heard many who like traditional dining say they were unhappy to be sitting alone at a large table many nights. I know I wouldn’t like that.

Edited March 13, 2022 by Torfamm

[Steelers36]

4 hours ago, capriccio said:

OP here.  Last night we showed up at 6:20 at our assigned dining room (Capri) for another round of of host/hostess staff huddling around the computer and a hard copy seating chart.  Then we were led away to the formerly closed Santorini dining room on deck 5 and handed over to staff there.  The hostess went and looked for an open table (it seemed they were only using half the dining room), returned and led us to a table.  She confirm that the Santorini MDR would be open for dinner for the remainder of the cruise.  After dinner we asked the waiter if we could reserve the table.  He said check with the hostess.  They took down our names and room numbers and then said “ we can try but if we seat someone there at 5 pm it will not have turned over by 6:20!.”

Oh my!!!  Of course if a guest has a res for a table at 6pm or 6:20pm, the table has to be held open for them as a 5pm res will not be finished yet.  It is the way restaurants work.  Either you force everyone in at once, turn them over and force the next shift in ~2.25 hrs later, or you hold tables for varying start times.  Princess is allowing people to book every 20 minutes.  By definition, tables need to be allocated in order to have them available for those choices.  I really don't think this was well thought out at all and DMW is hopeless at being able to deliver a completely automated solution.  Maybe they should have had OpenTable write the application.

[BabySarge]

"I think the issue of having the same people at the table each night is what made traditional dining impractical now that there are so many options for dinner other than the MDR. So many seats can be empty at a table on a given night. I would be curious to know what percentage of passengers eat in the MDR every night of a cruise.  

I’ve heard many who like traditional dining say they were unhappy to be sitting alone at a large table many nights. I know I wouldn’t like that"

 

It has been our experience when seated at a large table under traditional dining and with people that were not travelling with us but that we were sharing the table with for the duration of the cruise, say a table for eight or ten, that if any of the people were not going to be attending dinner the next evening, they said so.  In that way we knew if the table was going to be down two, four, or eight people or whatever and we could decide if we wanted to eat elsewhere or not.  It also advised the waitstaff of who would and would not be there the next night which also helped them with planning regarding any dietary restrictions they were dealing with for passengers.  Of our 34 cruises we have always done traditional dining, late seating, and were/are NOT fans of Dine My Way at all.  

 

We were very fortunate on our most recent cruise (Jan 28 - Feb 12, 2022) to be on the Emerald Princess where the Maitre D' (simply cannot use that other stupid title or remember it!) had evidently designated the Botticelli Dining Room as the Traditional Dining space and we were able to have the same table for two (COVID rules as it was just us travelling together) with the same phenomenal waiter (Sonny), assistant waiter (Renz), and head waiter (Francesco) every night for the entire 30 days.  

 

To find out, however, that Botticelli was for traditional dining was not easy and not information readily available once on board or on the DMW app.  It took going to the dining room (DaVinci) I booked on the DMW app at the time booked and talking to the staff there and trying to make sure we would have the same table and wait staff every night in that dining room.  Good thing I asked because if we had stayed at DaVinci that would not have been the case.  Fortunately, they called Botticelli and were able to get us in there at the time we wanted (7:30) and explained that was the traditional dining room.

 

We've booked another cruise for September on Caribbean Princess and I am not looking forward to having to deal with the Dine My Way app or cluster it is.  Fingers crossed someone will get their head out of their backside and find a way to fix this mess.

[beach_fever_4ever]

 a couple of questions, we will be sailing on the Enchanted, our first medallion cruise :

- why is the Capri dining room the only option on the app ?

- it appears we can get a table for 2 or share a table, but no option on table size ?

 

We tried anytime dining two nights years ago and dinner took forever. One couple ordered a drink and got it when dessert showed up. Food orders were mixed up. We never wanted to do that again. It sounds like we are forced into it unless we eat by ourselves. What fun is that ?

[JimmyVWine]

16 hours ago, wowzz said:

On our Sky cruise in October last year,  we strolled into the MDR around 20:00 the first night, and got a two top.

Did the same the next night.  Similar table location,  same diners sitting alongside us. Awful experience - thereafter we went earlier or later to make sure we had a different table - met different people, all of whom were charming.

This is exactly what has me puzzled about the angst shown in this thread.  There seems to be an assumption that if you use DMW to book the same table at the same time in the same MDR each night that your experience is going to be Utopian and worthy of repeating.  How do you know?  You could get stuck at an awful table with servers you don't click with, next to boorish oafs who talk politics all throughout dinner.  The last time we had TD was on a Disney cruise at a table for four and our tablemates could not have been less interesting or cordial.  And don't overlook the fact that the diner/server dynamic is a two-way street.  YOU may want the servers you had the night before, but maybe THEY don't want you and asked the Manager to avoid placing you with them.  We all think that we are perfect.  But your idiosyncrasies and peccadillos may drive the servers nuts.  You will be gone in a week or two, but the Manager/Server relationship is going to last many months.  The Manager's first loyalty is to keeping his/her staff happy, regardless of what you may believe. 

 

My experiences (and hence opinions...YMMV), is that the servers all fall within a range of acceptable and they do not make or break my dining experience.  We click with some more so than others, and yes, we have asked to be seated in the same area night after night (in ATD) because we really enjoyed a particular Head Server and Assistant.  And every single such request was honored even if the Head Waiter asked if we would be willing to wait an extra 10 minutes for a table to open up.  But if the request could not be honored, it wouldn't crush me, as I have never been served by anyone in the MDR who made my blood boil.  (Horizon Court is an entirely different discussion!)  So my advice is to test drive your dining arrangement for the first night and see if you should be speed-dating, or getting engaged.  Don't get bent out of shape if your same-table-every-night preference is not locked in on Day 1.  

[rjack22]

Can you do the old "Anytime Dining" anymore?    I don't want to make any MDR reservations.  I don't want to decide ahead when we are going to eat.    I want to be able to walk up and seated at whatever time we want, abet a short wait for a table.  Just like in a regular restaurant.     Is this even do-able?

[JimmyVWine]

5 minutes ago, rjack22 said:

Can you do the old "Anytime Dining" anymore?    I don't want to make any MDR reservations.  I don't want to decide ahead when we are going to eat.    I want to be able to walk up and seated at whatever time we want, abet a short wait for a table.  Just like in a regular restaurant.     Is this even do-able?

Yes, you can just show up wherever and whenever if that is your preference.

[1965]

9 minutes ago, rjack22 said:

Can you do the old "Anytime Dining" anymore?    I don't want to make any MDR reservations.  I don't want to decide ahead when we are going to eat.    I want to be able to walk up and seated at whatever time we want, abet a short wait for a table.  Just like in a regular restaurant.     Is this even do-able?

This is exactly how we feel. In Nov on the Regal we did just that & it was perfect for us. It was anytime dining & never a wait for a table for 2 "no sharing." Lol. 

[PescadoAmarillo]

29 minutes ago, BabySarge said:

We've booked another cruise for September on Caribbean Princess and I am not looking forward to having to deal with the Dine My Way app or cluster it is.

This. It used to be that we’d book a cruise and I was instantly over the moon with excitement. Now, I have to first deal with making sure we get the OBCs associated with FCCs that used to be FCDs, then tackle the Medallion app check in and invariably just give up and finally deal with the dining situation. The only way my husband is getting me on a cruise in two weeks is that he is already on the ship and has promised he’ll have it all taken care of before I get there. 
 

Not many people are in a position to have a shake down cruise before their real cruise. It shouldn’t have to be this hard. 

[Cruise Raider]

We’ve not had any problems getting the same table with our favorite wait team every night, most recently on the Ruby.  Our reservations were at 6:20 PM.  One night we went to the MDR and the DRO apologized that he seated a table for 4 at ‘our table’ 😉 but they were just finishing up.  He asked if we wouldn’t mind waiting for about 10 minutes.  Of course not!  He promised to only seat two guests at that table from then on … which he did.  
I also sailed solo and asked to eat alone at dinner and just lived my wait team.  They saw to it I got a seat in his section very night.  Granted, on all occasions, we informed the DRO or hostess if we would be eating at one of the specialty dining rooms so they didn’t need to hold the table open for us.  
Maybe we have just had awesome MDR hostesses on our several cruises since the restart but I do really love the DMW options.  We’ve had nothing but great luck in securing a table with our favorite wait teams and without any lengthy waits since they’ve started this.  
Previously, there were times when we were actually skunked out of eating at our preferred time (between 6:00 and 6:30).  It is no longer an issue, albeit, we’ve yet to be on a ship at full capacity.  

[AZjohn]

10 hours ago, BabySarge said:

……, that if any of the people were not going to be attending dinner the next evening, they said so.  In that way we knew if the table was going to be down two, four, or eight people or whatever and we could decide if we wanted to eat elsewhere or not. 

I don’t want to sound disrespectful to you but, this is exactly why we are glad we don’t have to deal with traditional dinning.

 

My wife and I are very nice and kind people who enjoy to meet others. But when we are on vacation on a cruise we don’t feel obligated to tell anyone if we decide last minute to eat somewhere else. If my wife tells me she feels like a specialty restaurant or buffet or wants to eat early or late, we will do that and not inform anyone we are not traveling with.

 

This is just who we are and I respect what you like. Just understand we are not all alike.

[caribill]

13 hours ago, JimmyVWine said:

 There seems to be an assumption that if you use DMW to book the same table at the same time in the same MDR each night that your experience is going to be Utopian and worthy of repeating.  How do you know?  You could get stuck at an awful table with servers you don't click with, next to boorish oafs who talk politics all throughout dinner. 

 

If that happened pre DMW, you could simply ask the headwaiter to assign you to a different table for the rest of the cruise. You were not forced to stay with people you did not want to be with.

[caribill]

15 hours ago, Torfamm said:

I think the issue of having the same people at the table each night is what made traditional dining impractical now that there are so many options for dinner other than the MDR. So many seats can be empty at a table on a given night. I would be curious to know what percentage of passengers eat in the MDR every night of a cruise.  

 

 

We have seen the following in the past with Traditional Dining:

a) Some tables are only occupied on formal evenings.

b) Some tables are occupied except for formal evenings.

c) Some tables may have some of the people not there some evenings when they decide to dine elsewhere that night.

 

Over the years we have had TD with Princess, I can only remember a couple of times that all the others assigned to our table (usually 6-top or 8-top) had other arrangements that night and we were the only couple there.

 

[1965]

8 hours ago, AZjohn said:

I don’t want to sound disrespectful to you but, this is exactly why we are glad we don’t have to deal with traditional dinning.

 

My wife and I are very nice and kind people who enjoy to meet others. But when we are on vacation on a cruise we don’t feel obligated to tell anyone if we decide last minute to eat somewhere else. If my wife tells me she feels like a specialty restaurant or buffet or wants to eat early or late, we will do that and not inform anyone we are not traveling with.

 

This is just who we are and I respect what you like. Just understand we are not all alike.

We feel exacly the same. We were on our 3rd or 4th cruise many yrs ago when we learned about anytime dining, that we did not have to be tied to a time, place, table, dining companions for dinner. I could never go back to traditional dining. 🙂

[Kmkub]

On 3/12/2022 at 7:43 PM, PescadoAmarillo said:

And the issues are not limited to just getting a reservation that replicates Traditional Dining. The Emerald Princess was in Curaçao late one evening, we decided we were having too much fun on shore to go to dinner, I cancelled our reservation in the app using WiFi on shore, and then the next night when we arrived everyone wanted to know where we were the previous night. Neither the dining room, the restaurant manager nor our waitstaff had received any notification of our cancellation. Wasn’t that a big talking point when DMW was rolled out?

 

It worked for us on Enchanted in January.  Every time we cancelled, the wait staff was notified that we wouldn't be there.

 

Sigh - too many bugs.

[Princessfan20]

6 hours ago, caribill said:

 

We have seen the following in the past with Traditional Dining:

a) Some tables are only occupied on formal evenings.

b) Some tables are occupied except for formal evenings.

c) Some tables may have some of the people not there some evenings when they decide to dine elsewhere that night.

 

Over the years we have had TD with Princess, I can only remember a couple of times that all the others assigned to our table (usually 6-top or 8-top) had other arrangements that night and we were the only couple there.

 

We noticed something similar on a cruise a couple of years ago when ATD was over-flowing we were directed to TD and sat at a table for 8 with one other couple.  They said the other couples showed up the first night but they had not seen them since then and were basically eating alone each night.  

 

Just seemed like a complete waste of staff, space and effort when I am sure the tables could have been used in a more effective way for all passengers.