Originally posted by LHT28:
When were were on Princess in '05 if you switched from Set dining to anytime you could not go back to set dining.
They were checking your S&S card at the entrance to be sure you were "Anytime" or they sent people to the buffet.
Maybe things have changed
Some people thought the Anytime diners were getting better meals!!
I don't the meals were any different but when we first changed to pc dining we missed out on the fruit flambé, Cesar salad, cherries jubilee & the baked Alaska parade. I think all of these "specials" are long gone except for the parade which I didn't care for one way or the other anyway.
They were checking your S&S card at the entrance to be sure you were "Anytime" or they sent people to the buffet.
As with many things on cruises, I'll bet this has more to do with the dining room manager. They might also allow a traditional diner to use anytime if they show up at a slow period and not at peak time. It is also possible to use anytime and reserve a table for the same time every night - thus you can have your own customized "assigned" seating.
Personally, if I wanted to skip early seating one night I'd want to try an alternate restaurant or the buffet dinner.
RichC, you are correct: all those specials are gone now except the "parade of the baked Alaska". You can still get Caesar salad, but it's not like the old days when they made it right at the table.
Originally posted by f-mattox:
You can still get Caesar salad, but it's not like the old days when they made it right at the table.
Rich- I can't quite understand why they eliminated those specials since it didn't actually cost them any more. (and yes there was something different about the Cesar salad made right at the table. Perhaps the raw egg?
They just can't give that kind of personal attention to each table when you have the number of passengers you do today. I'm thinking of the original Island, Pacific and Sun Princess with 600-700 passengers.
And maybe they still give this kind of service on their small ships today. Does anybody know?
I believe it is a coddled egg - granted not much more than raw but at least it sees a little cooking. Not sure if it meets with public health rules.
Another possibility to consider - turnover of crew. It used to be that dining room staff made careers with the cruise line and they "got into" doing the table side theatrics. The training of the staff isn't what it used to be.
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