Yes, it is and always has been confused. The title "Personal Choice" adds to the confusion. I don't understand the need to have a catchy phrase for everything. Marketing people with too much time on their hands I guess. It would have been easier to simply say "X dining room is for assigned seating passengers and the Y dining room is for those who want open seating dinner. These options will be enforced at the door."
It is real confusing the way it is presented. Like Dave said, the program basically says "sign up for the fixed time in dining room X" or "choose your own time in dining room Y". Service and menu is the same in both. We chose "PC" went to the dining and made reservations for the same time, same table every night @ 7:30, timed right between early and late seatings. Doing it this way, you can change your reservation time for the next night while you are there if you wish. They make it way overcomplicated.
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I admire Princess for trying to please both camps (traditional/anytime) but it's sure not as complicated as they make it.
Dave's right--their promo stuff is probably written by green MBA's in cubicles in Santa Clarita, most of who have never been on a ship.
We cruised on the Grand Princess twice in the last 3 years and chose anytime dining both times. We have never been asked if we were booked for the traditional seating (how would they know otherwise?) We usually go later and haven't had to wait very often. The first cruise, we requested one of the tables for a particular waiter and the maitre'd knew after the first couple of times where we wanted to go. Only one night there was not a table available in that area. The second cruise we were in a different area of the dining room every night and were told that we couldn't make reservations. Of course, there were just the two of us so that wasn't really a problem.
Originally posted by Jill SC:
We cruised on the Grand Princess twice in the last 3 years and chose anytime dining both times. We have never been asked if we were booked for the traditional seating (how would they know otherwise?) We usually go later and haven't had to wait very often. The first cruise, we requested one of the tables for a particular waiter and the maitre'd knew after the first couple of times where we wanted to go. Only one night there was not a table available in that area. The second cruise we were in a different area of the dining room every night and were told that we couldn't make reservations. Of course, there were just the two of us so that wasn't really a problem.
How do they know? That also can vary from ship to ship. On the Diamond they ask for your room number and then look in the computer. On the ships without computers in the dining room they ask to see your cruise card which says your dining choice (unless they have changed that recently). On some ships(or particular cruise)they don't ask anything and just let you in. That is why there is so much confusion as to whether you will be allowed to visit back and forth. Everytime this subject comes up you will have different answers to the question based on one's last or past exeriences.
Standing reservations are another subject with multiple answers. On 99% of our cruises we have not had a problem getting one for the two (only) of us. We happened to know the Head Waiter from previous cruises so he got us the standing reservation on the one cruise where they did not want to give us one. Generally they do not allow standing reservations between 6:30 and 8:00 pm because they need to turn the tables over at least twice during the evening meal. If they gave a staning reservation for the other time they would have to hold the table and then not have time to seat someone after you were through. This can vary from ship to ship (or particular cruise)apparently because I've read where there was no restriction as to time for a standing reservation. Daily reservations may or may not be able to be made for the entire evening dining time. This also will depend on the ship (or particular cruise).
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Future cruises:
Star Princess - Dec. 2007-Rome- TA
Crown Princess- May 2008 TA & Baltics
Pacific Princess-Nov. 2008-Holy Land & Egypt
Diamond Princess- Apr. 2009 Asia- Bangkok to Whittier
Past cruises:
Golden Princess-2007-Alaska
Sea Princess-2005 Canada/New England
Diamond Princess- 2005 Mexican Riviera
Star Princess- 2004 x2 Med. Venice to Barcelona/ Barcelona to Rome
Dawn Princess - 2004 x3- Southern Caribbean
Grand Princess- 2003 x2 W.Caribbean/ 2004 Panama
Sun Princess- 2003 Mexico
Tahitian Princess- 2003 Tahiti & Cook Islands
Royal Princess- 2003 x2- British Isles / Norwegian Fjords & Iceland
Island Princess- 2003 Panama Canal / 2007 Hawaii
Sky Princess- 2000 China & Orient
Sitmar's Fairwind - 1979 x2- Caribbean/Panama Canal
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HAL-Amsterdam- 2004 Alaska
HAL Ryndam - 2001 x 2- S. America
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Viking Spirit/Pride -2006 Budapest to Amsterdam
I concur with what BJS said about Diamond Princess. When we renewed our wedding vows onboard, the time of the ceremony conflicted with our early sitting traditional dining time. I mentioned this to the wedding consultant, who said that she would make a reservation for us in one of the Anytime Dining Rooms as this was something we would not be able to do ourselves as they'd know our cabin number. (Phew...that was a long sentence.)
Princess does have this in the fine print that they have the right to refuse you entry into the Anytime dinning is you have sign up for the regular dinning room. You must make arrangement 24 hour in advance and they will review your situation.
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