Anytime Dining Question(s)

We are experienced cruisers (15) but have never chosen the Anytime
Dining option. However, friends we are sailing with this time on the
Dawn Princess want to give it a try so have a couple of questions,
please.

1. Pros and cons, did you like it or not, would you do it again?

2. Does this dining option follow the same dress code as Traditional
Seating, ie. formal, semi-formal etc.?

Your honest opinions would be appreciated.
Thanks.

"~Florida Girl~" wrote in message
...
| We are experienced cruisers (15) but have never chosen the Anytime
| Dining option. However, friends we are sailing with this time on the
| Dawn Princess want to give it a try so have a couple of questions,
| please.
|
| 1. Pros and cons, did you like it or not, would you do it again?
|
| 2. Does this dining option follow the same dress code as Traditional
| Seating, ie. formal, semi-formal etc.?
|
| Your honest opinions would be appreciated.
| Thanks.
|

I just got off the Grand Princess, and PC (Personal Choice) dining is the
way to go in my opinion. I originally had a late seating table for 2 with
traditional dining. But upon boarding the ship I canceled that and went PC.
There was a large group of us that had met on cruisecritic.com precruise so
we ended up having dinner together every night (same time, same table just
because of the waiter). There were nights we could add more people if we met
more who wanted to join in etc.

I've been debating a Carnival Cruise b2b with the Grand in April, but I'm so
concerned that I'd dislike traditional dining, that we're probably going to
do the NCL Sea b2b with the Grand (what a culture shock lol). But the Sea
was our first cruise together and it's leaving the NCL fleet in April.

Btw, the dress code is the same regardless of which dining style you choose.
With the exception of the buffet and the "fast food" style eateries. If you
want dinner with a large group. Only one of you need to make the reservation
with the number of people you want. (We loved our waiter, so we had a
standing reservation for a table for 8, a table for 4 and a table for 6 each
night at 8pm with one night being 8:30. All tables being close enough to
talk with the whole group)

LES!

~Florida Girl~ wrote:

1. Pros and cons, did you like it or not, would you do it again?

2. Does this dining option follow the same dress code as Traditional
Seating, ie. formal, semi-formal etc.?

Anytime Dining works well for me. I have done this 3 times on Princess.
I enjoy having dinner when it suits my schedule. I had dinner as early
as 6:00 and as late as 10:00. If you want to see the shows in the
showroom lounge, you have to arrange your dinner time according to
showtime.

I follow the dress code, unless I eat in the buffet. On one cruise, I
ate in the buffet every night except one.

Becca -----good luck making your decision...

MOAGC http://www.motherofallgroupcruises.com/
Miracle in May http://www.cruisemaster.com/miracle.htm
Canada - New England http://www.cruisemaster.com/carnivalFall.htm
Caribbean Princess http://www.cruisemaster.com/caribprin.htm

On Mon, 20 Dec 2004 10:06:02 -0500, (~Florida Girl~)
wrote:

We are experienced cruisers (15) but have never chosen the Anytime
Dining option. However, friends we are sailing with this time on the
Dawn Princess want to give it a try so have a couple of questions,
please.

1. Pros and cons, did you like it or not, would you do it again?

Pro --1. Going to eat when you want to eat.
2. Getting the size of table that you want to eat at.

Pro/Con --We went at different times and the longest wait we had was
20 minutes for a table. They will give you a pager that you take with
you and they page you when a table is open.(that the wayit was on the
Grand a couple yeras ago)

Con -- Not having the same waiters. But guess you could try reserving
the same table.

2. Does this dining option follow the same dress code as Traditional
Seating, ie. formal, semi-formal etc.?

I believe so, but really do not know for sure. We always dressed what
the dress code was for that night.

Your honest opinions would be appreciated.
Thanks.

Like you, we are experienced cruisers and have yet to try anytime dinning,
until now. We sail January 8 on Sun Princess and have confirmed "Anytime
/Personal Choice" dinning.

Last year on Grand Princess did it for us. We have always booked early
seating and enjoyed our table mates company. Last year, first try at late
seating on Grand, two couples bailed from a table of 8 and left us with a
mother and daughter, very nice, but hard to sustain conversation. When
Personal Choice was first introduced we felt it might ruin fixed seating and
for us, it appears it might have.

We sailed Dawn P. January, 1998 and had a nice time. You didn't say when
you sail the Dawn but we will publish our review when we return and will
share our first-time experience with Personal Choice.

Bob Hersey

BTW: I intend to bring my tux - as usual.

"~Florida Girl~" wrote in message
...
We are experienced cruisers (15) but have never chosen the Anytime
Dining option. However, friends we are sailing with this time on the
Dawn Princess want to give it a try so have a couple of questions,
please.

1. Pros and cons, did you like it or not, would you do it again?

2. Does this dining option follow the same dress code as Traditional
Seating, ie. formal, semi-formal etc.?

Your honest opinions would be appreciated.
Thanks.

"~Florida Girl~" wrote in message
...
We are experienced cruisers (15) but have never chosen the Anytime
Dining option. However, friends we are sailing with this time on the
Dawn Princess want to give it a try so have a couple of questions,
please.

1. Pros and cons, did you like it or not, would you do it again?

2. Does this dining option follow the same dress code as Traditional
Seating, ie. formal, semi-formal etc.?

Your honest opinions would be appreciated.
Thanks.


Anytime dining is totally disruptive to the evening entertainment activities
on a ship.
While your dining room may be traditional dining and you are locked into
early or late entertainment,
the rest of the ship of anytime diners are all trying to get into clubs and
lounges at the same time.
With anytime dining there is no orderly flow of main and late dining
passengers with the main and late shows.
Another thing to consider, there are only a fixed number of traditional
dining seats available.
You may choose traditional dining, but board the ship to find you have been
place in anytime.
Regardless of whether you are in the traditional or anytime dining rooms,
the ship for all practical purposes in an anytime entertainment ship,
and this means you will have to arrive at the lounges up to one hour early
to insure a seat.
That is our experience just off the Caribbean Princess.
We will never again go on a ship that offers anytime dining.
G&V
Port Saint Lucie Florida

Short answers - in line

~Florida Girl~ wrote:

We are experienced cruisers (15) but have never chosen the Anytime
Dining option. However, friends we are sailing with this time on the
Dawn Princess want to give it a try so have a couple of questions,
please.

1. Pros and cons, did you like it or not, would you do it again?

YES and YES



2. Does this dining option follow the same dress code as Traditional
Seating, ie. formal, semi-formal etc.?

YES


Arlene---also a Florida girl

This is the most fantastic experience. One of the reasons why we have
been on 6 cruises with PRINCESS and again in Feb 05.

The best thing is that you can choose who you want to sit with and
when. Sitting at a table who are all 85+ means the conversation is
boring. I don't care to talk about drugs and which parts of your body
have been replaced every freakin meal !!!!

We find a group of people we can assosiate with and we reserve our
table every night. If we want to eat early because we are at sea or
there is no shore tour we go at 6:00 PM. If we just get on the ship
at 5:30 from a shore tour, we want to get to our cabin, clean up,
change, get a drink from our fridge and wind down. We then go at
8:00. We can even reserve a table for two.

Being stuck in an early seating means getting up so early for
breakfast. Old people are up at 4:30 AM every day and start getting
testy if they are not fed by 5:30 PM.

GOD. It is a vacation and time to relax. It is my vacation and I am
going to enjoy it the way I want.


I love Princess for anytime dining and now that I am 5+ cruses
(platnium member) perks are seperate lounge for boarding and embarking
as well as FREE internet.