MDR Dining lines

[Dive Girl]

Hi all, the last 2 times we sailed with Princess, earlier this year, even though we had reservations in the MDR, the wait to be seated was over 1/2 hour. Lines extended up the stair wells!

 

Is this still the case?

 

Thank you for your replies!

[dreaminofcruisin]

33 minutes ago, Dive Girl said:

Hi all, the last 2 times we sailed with Princess, earlier this year, even though we had reservations in the MDR, the wait to be seated was over 1/2 hour. Lines extended up the stair wells!

 

Is this still the case?

 

Thank you for your replies!

 

It really depends on the itinerary, the time you go to dinner, and sometimes the makeup of the passengers.

Just off the Enchanted in October. We had early dinner reservations-- 5:30 or 6. Walked right into the dining room each night. We noticed there were lines later in the evening, though still not excessively long. It was in  the Mediterranean and Europeans tend to eat later. The average age also skewed younger than most Princess cruises we've been on .... I'd say a lot of people in their 40s and 50s. I think if they are younger, they aren't as inclined to go to the MDR.

On an itinerary with a lot more Americans and/or more older people, I think the early dining times are busier than the late times. 

[Rick&Jeannie]

49 minutes ago, Dive Girl said:

Hi all, the last 2 times we sailed with Princess, earlier this year, even though we had reservations in the MDR, the wait to be seated was over 1/2 hour. Lines extended up the stair wells!

 

Is this still the case?

 

Thank you for your replies!

Your experience was truly unusual and not the norm for most cruises. 

[Dive Girl]

Our reservations were between 6 and 630pm. It was a horrible experience. 

[SargassoPirate]

39 minutes ago, Dive Girl said:

Our reservations were between 6 and 630pm. It was a horrible experience. 

Peak time.  No wonder.

 

Just off the Regal.  Had 7:30 reserved and short line if at all.

[memoak]

Thank goodness we always eat after 7:30 even at home

[MissP22]

2 hours ago, Dive Girl said:

Hi all, the last 2 times we sailed with Princess, earlier this year, even though we had reservations in the MDR, the wait to be seated was over 1/2 hour. Lines extended up the stair wells!

 

Is this still the case?

 

Thank you for your replies!

You must have reserved dinner between 6 to 7:30. Correct? 

Choose either an earlier of later time & the lines diminish considerably. 

[Yehootu]

56 minutes ago, SargassoPirate said:

Peak time.  No wonder.

 

Just off the Regal.  Had 7:30 reserved and short line if at all.

Regal, 5:15, no line.

[BlerkOne]

I don't bother with reservations and just walk right in - usually about 30 minutes before they close.

[Dive Girl]

Thank you all!

[Torfamm]

4 hours ago, Dive Girl said:

Hi all, the last 2 times we sailed with Princess, earlier this year, even though we had reservations in the MDR, the wait to be seated was over 1/2 hour. Lines extended up the stair wells!

 

Is this still the case?

 

Thank you for your replies!

No lines at all on the Grand since we sailed Saturday 

[MissP22]

14 hours ago, BlerkOne said:

I don't bother with reservations and just walk right in - usually about 30 minutes before they close.

Sure, except that hardly anyone wants to eat dinner at 9:15 PM at night..... at least in the US. 

[BlerkOne]

2 hours ago, MissP22 said:

Sure, except that hardly anyone wants to eat dinner at 9:15 PM at night..... at least in the US. 

More like 8:30. Don't they stop seating at 9? They don't run out of food.

[MissP22]

8 minutes ago, BlerkOne said:

More like 8:30. Don't they stop seating at 9? They don't run out of food.

They'll sill let you in a 1 minute to 9 PM.

[BlerkOne]

5 minutes ago, MissP22 said:

They'll sill let you in a 1 minute to 9 PM.

As they should. And service will be even faster as the staff want to finish up. But I try not to push it that much.

 

My last cruise was from a port with a 2 hour time difference, so eating "late" wasn't really that late, although we do prefer to eat later than many. And we "fall" back tonight an hour.

 

 

[BlerkOne]

13 minutes ago, BlerkOne said:

As they should. And service will be even faster as the staff want to finish up. But I try not to push it that much.

 

My last cruise was from a port with a 2 hour time difference, so eating "late" wasn't really that late, although we do prefer to eat later than many. And we "fall" back tonight an hour.

 

 

Doah - I guess it was late - it was 2 hours in the other direction. I think.

[EricJ]

The lines were bad today on Emerald with both passengers and crew getting short tempered. E.g., 5:40 reservation seated at 6:15. Crew blamed passengers for all coming at once and blamed corporate giving out reservations. It seemed to not matter at all whether you had a reservation. Both lines led to the same person, who served both lines equally. They kept yelling "Only sharing tables."  They didn't care what you had reserved. Other cruise lines manage the main dining room much better.

[Steelers36]

I wonder if sometimes DMW is giving out too many bookings at various times than the room can handle.  That is a setup or programming issue.  The DMW algorithm is a black box to us on the outside and have no idea how bookings are allocated given the inventory and time slots.

 

Maybe it works better for the Royal Class ships, but not so well for the pre-Royal ships with smaller DR's?  That said, seemed to be fine on Island last November (which is one size smaller again and only has two DR's, so it and Coral would have to have been special cases).

 

I often have wished I had some solution design insight into DMW, but I don't see how that will ever be possible.  I'd be prepared to believe that most of the DR Mgr's and DRO's hate the system.

 

[highloyo]

Off from the Discovery a week ago. Our reservations for 4 were always between 6:40 and 7:20. We never had a wait. I think the ship sailed at 90% capacity. No problems at all with the service either.

[MissP22]

4 hours ago, Steelers36 said:

I often have wished I had some solution design insight into DMW, but I don't see how that will ever be possible.  I'd be prepared to believe that most of the DR Mgr's and DRO's hate the system.

Why they let unlimited people make reservations for the most popular time is puzzling.  They then arrive at the selected time & wonder why there's such a jam up. Why not allow just a limited amount of reservations to be made at specific times. I thought that it was supposed to work that way but obviously not, 

[Steelers36]

4 hours ago, MissP22 said:

Why they let unlimited people make reservations for the most popular time is puzzling.  They then arrive at the selected time & wonder why there's such a jam up. Why not allow just a limited amount of reservations to be made at specific times. I thought that it was supposed to work that way but obviously not, 

One would think it is done as you suggested, but hard to know for certain.  My sense from various posts on the subject is that some ships operate a lot more smoothly than others in terms of DR waits.

[MissP22]

45 minutes ago, Steelers36 said:

One would think it is done as you suggested, but hard to know for certain.  My sense from various posts on the subject is that some ships operate a lot more smoothly than others in terms of DR waits.

I just solved the problem by eating early. We arrive at 5 PM, get in line and are seated immediately. I know that a 5 PM seating isn't for most people but hearing of all the late seating problems would make me think twice of arriving at 6 or 6:30 and have to deal with what I hear about. 

[SargassoPirate]

51 minutes ago, MissP22 said:

I just solved the problem by eating early. We arrive at 5 PM, get in line and are seated immediately. I know that a 5 PM seating isn't for most people but hearing of all the late seating problems would make me think twice of arriving at 6 or 6:30 and have to deal with what I hear about. 

Do you eat with the Seinfeld's? 😂

[antsp]

Why doesn't Princess bring back traditional dining like so many passengers want

[atobols]

On our cruise in June, we had 7:20 reservations and usually had to wait about 20 minutes in line.  It also took about 2 and a half hours for our table of 5 to finish. Lines were a bit longer on formal nights.  We're doing the Hawaii Christmas/New Year cruise next month.  We decided to try an 8:20 reservation for this one.  Hopefully, the lines and the time it takes to eat dinner will be greatly reduced.