I think the article is vague on how the program will work. If they follow what HAL did with "As you Wish Dining", then one level of the dining room will be open and the other level fixed. The article almost leads one to think people would just be wandering in among the fixed sitting. There certainly will be glitches, as there are in anything new, but if one level is designated for open dining the kitchen should be able to handle it without too much heartache. It actually should provide less pressure on the cooks to have meals spread out more. That was the reason Carnival went to the two early times, and two late times, on some of the ships. I prefer fixed dining myself, but the cruise lines change with what the clients demand. Hopefully it won't be too rough of a transition.
I enjoy the Personal Choice dining, you get to meet more people. It is fun to have traditional as well. I have seem to notice the dining room problems f-mattox mentioned on Princess a lot, especially on the last evening of the cruise. Hmmm...wonder why
Not to be spreading rumors, but I have been told this new dining option will most likely be implemented fleet wide through out 2009. Has anyone tried it on the Legend yet?
We sail on Legend in Sept of 2009. I am so glad that I opted for early seating. My first experience with "anytime dining" was on the Star Princess when we went to Alaska, although the food was good, the service was less than expected. I will never do that option again.
Guests who pre-reserve our Classic Reserved Dining (CRD) options (Main & Second sitting) will not be able to reserve Open Seating times.
I am glad to hear this, also. In our limited experience, this is also how it's done on HAL. We had assigned main (second) seating earlier this month on Ryndam, and my niece wanted to have dinner earlier one night so that she could catch a particular act in the show lounge. They wouldn't let her reserve in the AYWD area for one night, and I was glad for that (although sad for her).
I think that maybe carnival took a step back with the anytime dining. I love the dining experience, the same people every night,but that is just my opinion. I know you can not make everyone happy but with 2 to 3 thousand people trying to eat in 5 hrs...there has to be some structure. I will stick to the dining room myself.
If you are a first time cruiser you really dont understand how much fun the table can be. Just my thoughts.
We are sailing on the Freedom in Jan. Is it Legend-class ships, or just the Legend? I don't think I would ever choose flexible dining. If I didn't want to go to dinner, I would just go to the buffet.
I have to wonder, what happens if too many people choose traditional seating, or vice versa? If they're taking out a whole dining room (or even a level of a dining room), I could see that causing some dining room issues.
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