waitlisted for early dining?

[lssg]

We will be cruising on the Emerald during Thanksgiving. We are waitlisted at 141 for early dining...what are the odds of getting early dining or will I have to settle for anytime dining....

[needtogetawayfromcold]

I would just plan on any time dining. Last time we were also waitlisted and it was in the 100's and never made it. I didn't think I would like the any time but we found it to be rather nice. By the third night we ended up just staying at the same table as we liked the waiters. We just reserved the same table at the same time every night of the cruise. There was even another couple that did the same thing because we all got along so good. They pretty much have the same food as traditional although you don't get all the fanfare of traditional. We are going on a cruise the end of January. I did request 1st seating but we are also waitlisted which really doesn't make any difference. I think you will enjoy the anytime dining.

 

Have a great cruise!

[lssg]

My son will be disappointed, on past cruises he enjoyed getting to know the wait staff and they always had what he liked waiting for him at his table...has anyone been waitlisted as far down as us and received their dining time? I am really hoping...once on board I believe I can request early dining to see if anything in open is that right?

[cbpanda]

Last year we booked our June cruise on the Caribbean Princess in March. We were waitlisted at 242 for early traditional dining. Unfortunately, we never cleared the list, but in three months we came down to #24. There's always hope. Have you passed final payment yet?

[kodiac]

When we booked our cruise a few weeks ago on the Grand, we were #127 for the first dining. We are already at #95 in just two weeks. Hopefully we get our pick!

[sept10dsm]

My son will be disappointed, on past cruises he enjoyed getting to know the wait staff and they always had what he liked waiting for him at his table...has anyone been waitlisted as far down as us and received their dining time? I am really hoping...once on board I believe I can request early dining to see if anything in open is that right?

You can request and if open I'm sure you will get it. You can also reserve the same table every night at the same time and will have the same staff. Just a thought. I believe others have made that suggestion also. You basicalaly can end up with a similar option. Good luck in getting what you want!!

[marlong]

When we were on the Crown in January. My son and his girlfriend were waitlisted despite the fact the travel agent handled everyhting. I called Princess several times. We were finally told to go to the restaurant about 4 pm. The maitre'D is there and he handles request. We were accomodated. So do that as soon as you board.

[taxatty]

When we were on the Crown in January. My son and his girlfriend were waitlisted despite the fact the travel agent handled everyhting. I called Princess several times. We were finally told to go to the restaurant about 4 pm. The maitre'D is there and he handles request. We were accomodated. So do that as soon as you board.

We had the same experience on the Royal--a much smaller ship. DW gave the maitre'd a big smile, and the next day the "you've been switched" envelope was in our stateroom box.

 

Les

[SusieQusie]

We were just on the Crown last week. Started out in the high 100's (can't remember exactly where.) Moved slowly in the beginning, the took some really big jumps. About a week or so before the cruise, we made it off the waitlist and got confirmed for Early Traditional Dining. We loved it!! My kids (teens) especially loved it because it freed them up to be with their friends by about 8:00 p.m. Also, we NEVER felt rushed, loved our waiters, and would definitely try for the same seating when we cruise again. Good luck and keep up the faith!

[d-Lo]

We too were waitlisted on the 8/1 sailing and made it to traditional late dining but our friends we were sailing with did not. We were able to have the Maitre D reserve us a set dining time each night of the cruise despite that. My question is this...if so many people are waitlisted for traditional dining, doesnt that tell Princess that we prefer that dining plan. Why not give all diners their requested traditional dining time and only have a minimal number of anytime reservations based on each sailing.. We spend almost 2 hours on the first day onboard waiting to talk to the Maitre D. It seems to me that the very long lines trying to rearrange their times is an indicator that most prefer early or late traditional. Especially if there are more than 4 or 6 in your party. It just makes it easier than trying to coordinate dinner times each night. All of the people we talked to on line were in the same situation. They had either asked for early or late dining and were waitlisted.

[SusieQusie]

We too were waitlisted on the 8/1 sailing and made it to traditional late dining but our friends we were sailing with did not. We were able to have the Maitre D reserve us a set dining time each night of the cruise despite that. My question is this...if so many people are waitlisted for traditional dining, doesnt that tell Princess that we prefer that dining plan. Why not give all diners their requested traditional dining time and only have a minimal number of anytime reservations based on each sailing.. We spend almost 2 hours on the first day onboard waiting to talk to the Maitre D. It seems to me that the very long lines trying to rearrange their times is an indicator that most prefer early or late traditional. Especially if there are more than 4 or 6 in your party. It just makes it easier than trying to coordinate dinner times each night. All of the people we talked to on line were in the same situation. They had either asked for early or late dining and were waitlisted.

 

I totally agree. I wanted to say also that at our Early Traditional Dining, all of the tables around us were filled each night with the same people. In other words, the people who requested Traditional Dining actually USED Traditional Dining. I've read people imply that sometimes passengers request and get the Traditional Dining, then decide after they are on the ship or after a day or two that they really don't like it, and just don't show up or whatever. Again, this is just my experience on this one cruise, but it seemed that many people would have preferred to have Traditional but were not able to get it. I think maybe 2 rooms should be for Traditional and 1 for Anytime.

[Momma Mojito]

My son will be disappointed, on past cruises he enjoyed getting to know the wait staff and they always had what he liked waiting for him at his table...has anyone been waitlisted as far down as us and received their dining time? I am really hoping...once on board I believe I can request early dining to see if anything in open is that right?

We booked our September 2 cruise and were wait listed at 184 . we finally moved up to 72 about a month ago but it hasn't moved anymore.

[Princess Chatterer]

The Ruby Princess sailing on November 15, 2008 is already waitlisted, sixteen months in advance. You snooze on booking early, you lose on fixed seating.

[lssg]

It seems like alot of others have been waitlisted....I believe on our last cruise they did open an anytime dining room and made it early traditional dining...I am guessing we will not know if we made it off the waitlist till we go on the cruise. I booked this cruise earlier than any of my other cruises, so I was surprised to be waitlisted...but oh well......thanks for all the replys I feel better....

[Sea and Me]

I checked our reservation today and found out that we are waitlisted #76 on our Jan.26th cruise. Our TA asked for a table for 4 for first seating when we booked in June. If our number doesn't go down we will just do anytime, same time everyday, hopefully. We did this before and got the same table & wait staff everyday. I'm just going to keep checking. On longer cruises passengers tend to do early traditional seating and the later seating has less passengers. Hey at least we don't have to cook:D