Traditional Late Seating: Poor Choice

[Editor]

Hi All:

 

We have the late seating in traditional dining on the Diamond. Will this cause problems seeing shows?

[nets33]

Not at all... ship usually have the shows scheduled for both the early and late traditional dining.

 

The early seating is seeing the shows while the late seating is being fed. Once the late seating is done they usually have the show again. Just keep an eye on your watch. Sometimes my late dinners have gone really late because we were having so much fun at dinner and we missed shows. :)

[edste]

Dinner usually takes about 2 hours and that still gives us plenty of time to get to the show. We've even had time to take a stroll around the deck before going into the show. Enjoy your trip and don't worry about anything.

[Pam in CA]

We have the late seating in traditional dining on the Diamond. Will this cause problems seeing shows?

It shouldn't. Often, the shows are run twice an evening, or two shows will run two nights in a row, swapping times. Sometimes, the show you want to see will be before dinner, sometimes after. It depends on the show and the time of late seating (which can be between 8:00 - 8:30PM.) Regardless, Princess makes an effort to make sure that the shows you want to see are available if you choose late seating. After all, many people choose 8PM or later even in Anytime seating.

 

If you want to leave at a particular time, let your servers know and they will make sure your dinner is completed in time.

[Mike A]

We were on the Diamond on it's last Alaska sailing of the year. We had Traditional Late Seating and we did miss many of the shows. When I asked about the lack of late show times the CD stated that due to the average age of the passengers on our sailing (60+) they scheduled the shows to meet the needs of the majority of Passengers. I must admit, our dining room was never full and the ship was a ghost town after 11:00. The Casino and Internet Cafe were empty. We were able to see the Comedy Shows and the International Crew Show. However any show in the Princess Lounge started well before we finished dinner.

[Editor]

Mike, that's too bad. I don't expect that will be the case on our trip. We'll be on the spring break cruise to the MR. It will most likely be filled with families.

 

Thanks to you all. Glad to hear we won't miss a thing!!!

[honeymoon4ever]

oops

[Pam in CA]

It probably depends on the itinerary. Alaska is not normally a late crowd. On our Sea Princess cruise this past summer, we had late traditional dining and our dining companions went to the show every night after dinner. So I know that some CDs do schedule them and many go after late dinner.

[chasetf]

We were on the Diamond on it's last Alaska sailing of the year. We had Traditional Late Seating and we did miss many of the shows.

I am not doubting what you say, but find it interesting. I will qualify my response by saying we have never done Alaska with Princess, so it might be different from our experiences.

 

We are late traditional on every cruise except one, which we had a standing 8pm Anytime reservation. We have never missed a show because dinner was late and the show was early. They have always scheduled the show so the Late Traditional diners could make it. In some circumstances where they schedule a late night buffet around the pool, they would have our show before dinner.

 

That is one reason we like Late Traditional, so we can enjoy our desert and after dinner coffee and not be rushed getting to the show. :D

[Mike A]

I am not doubting what you say, but find it interesting. I will qualify my response by saying we have never done Alaska with Princess, so it might be different from our experiences.

:D

This was also different from all our other experiences as we also always do late traditional. As I said in my earlier post, due to the time of year (September) the average age was very high on this cruise and almost no families. I am 51 and my wife 46. From what I could see we were two of the youngest on the ship other than some honeymooners. We were not bothered by the fact that we could not see the production shows as we were mostly interested in the comedians. In addition my wife and I were the only diners in our waiters station. As a result the service was fabulous. BTW, when we were on the Caribbean Princess the production shows always were available to late seating diners.

[JLC@SD]

Hi All:

 

We have the late seating in traditional dining on the Diamond. Will this cause problems seeing shows?

the problem is not getting there to see the shows............the problem is staying awake through the show if you are not a night owl....:)