late seating on Pacific Princess

[lovelyladi]

We will be on Pacific Princess in August in the Med. We booked late seating 8:15 which is a bit late for us but there is not anytime dining (sigh) on this ship. We figured that is was light late and the ship did not leave most porst until 6:00.

 

Now I have heard that on late leaving days our dinner time may be pushed back to 9 or so in order to accomadate the early seating dinner group a bit later.(I would think they could go to the buffet or pizzeria) Is this true...because after 9 is much too late and if the early time gets later in some ports we may switch to early dining.

[MichTraveler]

We were on the Tahitian Princess a few years ago, and we really missed having Anytime dining. We did the early seating. I do not remember the starting time ever changing for us. Seems the early was too early and the late was too late.

[lwnbwlr]

I hope you're not suggesting that the entire early sitting group be forced to eat in the Lido so that you can maintain your dining hour.

[katisdale]

We were on the Royal last year. We did the Holy Land Cruise. Two nights the times were pushed back about 15 minutes for both seatings if I remember correctly. We had early seating and ate at the buffet one night when we were feeling really rushed to get to dinner on time.

[BJS]

We were on the "old" Royal (only traditional dining) in the British Isles several years ago and two nights when the majority of the ship's excursions were not returning until early seating time they pushed the early seating back 1/2 hour and asked the early diners to try to be there no later than 15 minutes after that.

 

.

[Pam in CA]

I've been on several cruises where they pushed back the dining times but it's never been more than 15 minutes -- and absolutely never at 9PM. The latest I've ever seen it pushed to has been 8:30PM.

 

If the Pacific is like the Royal, you can go to the Bistro at night. It's sit-down, table-waited dining with a limited menu that's mostly Italian food but it was fabulous. We used it as an alternative one night on our Royal cruise (same cruise as katisdale) and I wouldn't hesitate to do it again.

[whale-watcher]

We will probably end up ordering room service or eating several meals in the buffet/bistro on the TP this summer with our busy and exhausting port schedule in AK...I can't imagine cutting port time short for dinner, and late seating will be really late after a long port day. We did sign up for early seating, so at least we can enjoy the dining room on sea days (with the exception of glacier bay, which we visit in the afternoon/early evening).

 

We had originally planned to sail on the PP this summer on a Holy Land itinerary, and also signed up for early seating dining as we figured that we would probably just eat a light dinner at the buffet/bistro/room service after a long and hot day of touring.

[Hoyaheel]

We did AK on the Pacific Princess and none of our dinner times were switched except embarkation day (they assigned you to a seating as you boarded--not your regular table or time, but still in the dining room....Or you could use the bistro or buffet)

 

Not everyone likes anytime dining--one of the reasons we chose PP is the traditional dining set-up;)

[rclooking]

on the Holy Land trip, when tours returned late, the dining room was open seating from 6:30 to 9:30 instead of two fixed seatings.

[Pam in CA]

on the Holy Land trip, when tours returned late, the dining room was open seating from 6:30 to 9:30 instead of two fixed seatings.

I believe they did this on our Holy Land cruise last November but then I was taking the overnight in Jerusalem so I'm not sure. If this is the case, then it's a much better way to handle dinner and seating on those nights.