CRUISE NEWS! Dining Disasters Onboard Cruise Ships! What To Do To Improve Your Dining Experience!

[@LetsGoTravelTips]

Question: How is the Dining experience been for you onboard?

[@silviaeaston]

I like to eat late (making sure that the Pinnacle/etc. happy hour is gone and the first theatre show is finished....so I have NO problem with "late" reservation.

[@MTnest93]

I'll be on the Sun in a couple weeks and appreciate your video. I don't however think that someone in a suite, regardless of how much they spent, should get preferential treatment once on board for specialty dining. Their class of cabin gave them the ability to book dining early. That's the benefit they paid for when it comes to dining. If they failed to do that, then they need to accept what is available just like everyone else. As for the Dine Line, it's been great for us. We are traveling as a party of 6 and when the app wasn't working, I was able to call and secure reservations for our party with no issues. Hope your voice comes back fully soon - take care :)

[@lisat6872]

I saw Regal Princess was having engine problems AGAIN this past week. Getting cold feet for our British Isles cruise in June. Should I work on "Plan B"????????😮

[@cathrinelandreman2730]

I took your advice from one of your previous videos, and got a screen shot of our dining reservations of each night for the next three cruises. We are platinum and I made them as soon as I booked. We have dining booked up to February of 2027. 🤣 We are looking forward to our upcoming cruise on March 8 on the Sun Princess. I love all your tips…they really come in handy. I do hope you are feeling better soon, and thanks for the great advice.👍🏻

[@PattiMiller-l4y]

We think the dine line is great! Our experience with using the app to book specialty dining is our credit card was charged for the dinners, not the Premier package. We got shipboard cruise credit but no refund to the card. The dine line prevents that. 😂

[@ekimnosettam]

I have only sailed one time on Princess since they switched to the standard, flexible, and walk-in MDRs and hated it, not the cruise, just the dining situation. I travel solo and don't like sharing a table. I also don't like the set dining time and didn't know ahead of time what times I wanted, no problem, I can do the flexible MDR. I tried to make reservations for a private table, but none were available. No problem, I can just go to the walk-in MDR. When I got there, they told me it would be 45 minute to an hour, but come with me. They took me to the standard MDR and sat me at table that the reservation didn't show for. I had specialty dining the next 2 nights. Couldn't get a reservation the 4th night so I went to the buffet. The next night I couldn't get a table in flexible, tried the walk-in and ended up at the exact same table in the standard MDR. I never did make it into the walk-in one. My next Princess cruise isn't until December, am I supposed to know now when and where I want to eat now? I may just make a reservation in the standard MDR that I know I will not use for much of the cruise just so I know I have an option, but that takes up a table unnecessarily Sorry for the rant, I enjoyed the cruise, in fact I booked my next Princess cruise on that cruise. It just made dinner time annoying..

[@janicebrianmozeski2208]

Make your reservation as you said, so you have one. Just be sure to let the staff know the day before when you will not require your table and they can open it to someone else for that day. Enjoy!

[@ekimnosettam]

@@janicebrianmozeski2208 what is the point of the flexible dinning room if you can't get into it? I think they tried to fix something that wasn't broken and in the process broke it.

[@LoveBoatCruising]

Thank you, dining is a very interesting cruise subject. My experience is dining after the first showtime is typically not crowded at all. I also prefer to pay extra in main dining room for items available from specialty restaurants. I enjoy meeting the dining staff before my first meal to ask for certain times and tables. I do tip the dining room staff with cash as well. I always remember my cruise fare paid for dining room meals for breakfast, lunch, tea time and dinner. I like the buffet for the salad bar, but rarely visit because I enjoy the dining room. I also order multiple dishes if I’m not sure and I send back any food that I do not enjoy. I rarely eat at specialty restaurants but I do order specialty items for room service sometimes. I don’t know what will be happening at the time I show up for my meals, but I enjoy the process and appreciate everything involved in getting food to my table. ❤-Angie

[@suelelievre5513]

Glad you're sounding better tonight! We had dining booked on an upcoming Sky cruise. Decided to change a couple of days, so I canceled the times on the app. When I went to book new ones, it said there was no availability on any days! Then the app, over the course of two days, wouldn't recognize our booking number. This also happened on Discovery last year. So, I waited three days, got back on with the app as usual, and the dining had been fixed, and I was able to book. Like you said, keep trying!!

[@melodeekistner2936]

The dining situation is so difficult but it doesn't take a genius to realize that this was going to happen when Princess began including unlimited specialty dining in their Premier package. Those specialty dining rooms are not very big. I think this is going to make a lot of loyal Princess passengers very frustrated. We decided to switch to HAL for our Alaska cruise in June.

[@happycruiser]

The DINE line is wonderful. When I tried on the app, looked like no times were available for 2 specialty restaurants we wanted, main dining we could only do group table, not a table for two, but once I called DINE line...all problems were resolved in very quick order. Personally I wouldn't even bother with the app. This was for SUN Princess in May of this year. We also decided (because we didn't have the status to do earlier) we paid off our cruise 3 weeks early. We believe that would put us before those waiting until the mandatory date to pay. Were were able to get into Speelbound and Tepanyaki both on sea days, and get 6:30pm table for 2 all of nights.

[@lilbert61]

For the 60th Anniversary Mexican Riviera Voyage on Dec 6 2025 I was able to reserve all my dinners in the Allegro MDR. I was able to book through the app as soon as the cruise came available on the app about a month ago.

[@cruisingforone]

To cut a long story short, I tried to change specialty dining on the app and dine line, no luck and told to change on board. On first day boarding I was able to make two changes. However, I found out that if I went to the venue in the evening, I was told, come anytime you want, we have plenty of availability. Keep in mind I am a party of one. I noticed in the specialty restaurants, at least half the tables were empty. I assume this is due to short staffing. By the way, I had the new premier package and booked specialty dining every night, I loved it.

[@caroledalgleish2979]

My suggestion, make your reservations and on the nights you choose not to dine in MDR just let them know you will not be there.

[@LynnDavis-ln3bx]

Sun October 2024 I found making through APP very easy & simple And changed times a couple times on A b2b from Ft. Lauderdale had no problem I went to dining room & hostess was very helpful 🌟🥂🌟

[@ThelmaFrohlich]

If Princess sets up the fine line, they should make sure it works right.

[@ronaldmiller6292]

Allison, I succeeded in booking my dining reservations for 7 pm every night at a private table on the Royal Princess for the 60th Anniversary Cruise to the Mexican Riviera. Perhaps because of my Elite status? I have only paid my $99 deposit so far.

[@mariamoore7031]

We just returned from a cruise on the Sun Princess. We had a wonderful time. We had fixed dining and it was wonderful.

[@LetsGoTravelTips]

I am so glad that you had such a great experience with fixed dining on that ship!

[@PaulKobayakawa]

Allison, we were on the Majestic Princess for 51 days and had our dining in the Alegro MDR which is walkin reservations. But many of the tables were all just like traditional dining where we had the same table and waiters.

[@trbarton743]

I’m going on the Discovery Princess, February 1, Mexican Rivera cruise, with a total of 5 people. On of the members noticed that I only had dinner reservations for 3 of us. My best choice was calling the Dine Line, who were very helpful. They could only arrange a table for 5 of us for the 1st 3 nights of our 7 day cruise & their app showed the other nights no table for 5 was available. My plan is once onboard I will go to the place that handles the dinning reservations to see what they can do for our other nights. I’ll also keep checking on the Dine Line to see if there are any changes. My fingers will be crossed.

[@annbingham1512]

Are you sick, that's sad.

[@arobauer]

I've been cruising on princess since the '80s and let me tell you something. Princess dining in particular has turned into a cluster. You know what and there's no way you can sugarcoat it LOL I just listened to your explanation and I have yet another princess Cruise coming up on March 25th to Europe and I have no idea from your explanation if they still have traditional dining, early seating and late seating. And the bad news is almost no one at the princess 800 number even knows what traditional dining is. If you say you want the early seating, they immediately ask you. What time would you like sir? That is not the early seating. The problem is simple. It's your generation and below there's a bunch of whiny little all about me people that has to have everything they want. They want to eat when they want. They don't want to wait on lines and I don't want to fall into an early seating and a light seating which is the only solution that has ever worked in cruising. You merely walk into the dining room you go to your table. You have the same waiter every night. This is what traditional cruises like my wife and I enjoy your waiter gets to know what you want every by the third day of a 14 to 21 day Cruise most of the important stuff is waiting for you before you even get there. It's a fabulous experience. Now. The food is turned to. And the whiny little generation x and above are so concerned about themselves that they don't care about the experience of anything. They'd rather sit there with their face buried in their phone or their computer and the whole socialization factor has pretty much faded away unless you're in my age group the 65 and up. Not that we're all innocent LOL but princess management has been slowly dismantling a once. Great brand capitalizing on the fact that because of covid and no cruising essentially for a number of years to pent up demand and such that they're selling out most cruises. I assure you that won't last forever and then it will come back to we seniors who supported princess pretty much all throughout the covid. I think we cruised at least eight cruises with princess during covid where the ships were at most 55% full and I didn't see any of these younger whiners on those cruise ships and they were the ones that were least susceptible to the disease. I know that's a little dose of honesty for you, but sometimes you have to hear the truth

[@lindajarman4240]

Allison, how do we handle the dining on the group cruise we are on with you to Antartica next Jan 26?

[@LetsGoTravelTips]

Hi Linda, I will have a reservation for the group. You don’t have to worry!❤️

[@lynnfranklin5098]

Yes they still have Traditional Dining and easy to book on App. Use Allison or your own Travel Agent and most of your issues would be handle. I sailed princess on the Pacific and original Sun so I have seen the gambit. I LOVE The new options and between the App or an agent I get my issues resolved. When my agent of 30 years retires I will switch to Allison

[@arobauer]

And here's another problem you may not be aware of, but the app is a joke and the people you talk to recently or let's say post covid or even bigger jokes figure that out. Before covid I will be talking to a representative from princess and maybe the conversation would turn to how many cruises have you been on? And they would say oh I've been on 30 or 40 cruises. How would you talk to someone on princess? You know they're lying in the first minute and you asked the magic question. Have you ever been on a cruise ship in your life and the answer is almost 100% of the time. No, I've never been, but I'd like to go one day. No wonder they can't help you or don't understand your questions. The only thing I agree with you Juan is that all cruise ships are hiring idiots now. I don't know if it's dei hiring or what the problem is, but customer service is the biggest oxymoron on the planet in the cruise industry