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any time dinning vs traditional dinning


baileyimpact

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It is really a matter of personal taste.

with traditional dinning you dine with the same people every night and get to know them. plus your waiter gets to know you and your taste.

with anytime dinning you dine when ever you want and get to meet a variety of people briefly.

I personally like traditional

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We did anytime dining this last cruise and it was wonderful. We met so many wonderful people from our roll call that we never dined alone. Who ever was available went to dinner together every night. It was so nice being able to decide what time we wanted to eat instead of having to be there by the clock.

 

There is no difference in menu as far as traditional vs anytime. It is all the same.

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It really is a matter of personal choice.

 

We have done both, and will never go back to traditional. But that is just us. Sometimes we like to eat late, sometimes early. Sometimes we want to eat with others, sometimes just the two of us - so anytime works best for us.

 

Which ever way you choose have a wonderful trip.:)

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What do you think is the best way to go for a couple traveling alone.

 

 

We just experienced anytime dining on Oceania on our last cruise. Had always had traditional seating & didn't know how we would like the change, but we found it to be alot of fun! You can say you want to eat alone or share your table, & if you share you meet a new couple every night & we had a blast. I'd say try it (I have no idea why I am in italics) LOL

 

Jan

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As the others have said, it's a matter of personal choice. If you prefer to dine alone, you can get a table for two with the same waiters every night who quickly get to know you with Traditional dining. We prefer Traditional dining because we feel we get beyond the "where are you from" level of conversation and get to know people we might not otherwise have spent time with. We also prefer Traditional because we like to be able to just walk in to "our" table and not have to wait. With Anytime, you could very well wind up waiting, sometimes for quite a long time, for a table. It depends on what time you want to eat.

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We prefer anytime dining whether we are traveling alone or with others. I hate being told when I am supposd to be hungry.

 

We also like the option of dining with different people every night. We've met people we enjoyed dining with and made arrangements to meet them again on other nights.

 

Less stress feeling the need to rush back from a port to shower and get ready for dinner.

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Our up coming cruise is our first with Princess's anytime dining. (Larger party 9) Can a standing reservation be made for a certain table /time? Say, Table of nine/7pm/table xxxx. Essentially it sounds like the best of both world...the time you want and the table you would prefer. Any experiences with this system appreciated.

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How does Princess "anytime dining" compare with NCL America's "freestyle dining"? We had a horrible experience on the Pride of America. Whenever we tried to eat in the main dining rooms, there was a long wait (40 minutes to over an hour) for a table even though the dining rooms were more than half empty. We always sat by ourselves because we were not given the option of sitting at a large table with other passengers, although we would have preferred to meet new people. The air conditioning kept the temperature in the mid-60's, the service was terrible, and the food was mediocre. Because we were a party of two, we were not allowed to make reservations. The only other restaurant without a surcharge was reserved days ahead. We ended up eating almost every meal in the mediocre buffet. We will never sail NCL again.

 

Should we stick to traditional dining on Princess or is their "anytime dining" better than NCLA's?

 

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How does Princess "anytime dining" compare with NCL America's "freestyle dining"? We had a horrible experience on the Pride of America. Whenever we tried to eat in the main dining rooms, there was a long wait (40 minutes to over an hour) for a table even though the dining rooms were more than half empty. The air conditioning kept the temperature in the mid-60's, the service was terrible, and the food was mediocre. Because we were a party of two, we were not allowed to make reservations. The only other restaurant without a surcharge was reserved days ahead. We ended up eating almost every meal in the mediocre buffet. We will never sail NCL again.

 

Should we stick to traditional dining on Princess or is their "anytime dining" better than NCLA's?

 

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It is very hard to measure something like this: NCLA is a little different than NCL plus remember, NCLA is very port intensive. I don't know your experience, but I will say what you are discribing is very unusual for any "flex dining" situation. We have been on 10 NCL cruises (7 with freestyle) with parties as small as the two or us or as large as 20. The only time we waited more than a couple of minutes was the party of 20 from Cruise Critic. Even with reservations we waiited about 20 minutes. As for the alternative dining rooms being booked days in advance, this wouldn't be the case now as you can't make reservations more than 1 day in advance. It doesn't sound like you gave freestyle much of a chance if you choose to eat in the buffet almost every night. For you, traditional dining is probably a better bet.

 

I believe, like most have said, it is a matter of likes and disllikes. The positive about flex is exactly that; you can eat when you want, you can meet more people and choose whether you want to eat with 2 others or 6 others. I do think service is a tad bit better with traditional dining. The positive about traditional is getting to know others at the table with you, getting to know your wait staff and having them know your likes and dislikes.

 

I think everyone should try both and see which fits their needs.

 

Nita

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It It doesn't sound like you gave freestyle much of a chance if you choose to eat in the buffet almost every night.

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I believe, like most have said, it is a matter of likes and disllikes. The positive about flex is exactly that; you can eat when you want, you can meet more people and choose whether you want to eat with 2 others or 6 others.

Nita

 

We didn't choose to eat in the buffet almost every night. We ate there because (1) we were unable to make reservations in the dining rooms (except those that had a surcharge), (2) we were unable to eat when we wanted, because the waits were so long, (3) we were unable to choose whether we wanted to eat with 2 others or 6 others - we were always assigned our own table.

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We didn't choose to eat in the buffet almost every night. We ate there because (1) we were unable to make reservations in the dining rooms (except those that had a surcharge), (2) we were unable to eat when we wanted, because the waits were so long, (3) we were unable to choose whether we wanted to eat with 2 others or 6 others - we were always assigned our own table.
It seems like you choose the most popular eating times and as I said, NCLA is so port intensive, from what have heard that everyone comes back to the ship tired, wants to shower and then eat. I do think things have gotten better from what I have been told. Yes, it you do like to eat at a certain time and be guaranteed eating with others I think tradtional is the way to go.

 

Nita

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We have done it both ways and prefer the traditional fixed dining. There was a time when I thought I would never say that and that Anytime Dining was the just the very best.

 

Then a few years ago, we sailed with a group and it only seemed natural to all dine at the same time. Well there was no turning back after that. Since then we've tried it on other cruise lines as well and had a wonderful time getting to know complete strangers.

 

One time we did get sat with some people who were just wanted to gripe and moan about anything and everything. It was not a problem for the Maitre d' to graciously move us to another table. I think he graciously swapped us out with another moaning couple from what our new table mates said.

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We're done freestle on NCL and anytime on Princess and had good experiences with both. We have come to prefer this option as we enjoy relaxing with a cocktail after a day ashore and not having to worry with the time - especially if we're travelling with other couples. When we travel alone (2 of us) we tend to book a set time so we can meet people. If you don't like your assigned tablemates you can ask to change or switch to anytime dining. We've never waited more than 5 minutes or so and we've had varying groups from 4-10 and eaten @ 7:00-7:30. Like others have said it's a matter of choice, but it's nice to have the choice! We've gotten so we book a cruise line now that offers that flexibility.

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