We will be going on a Scandinavia/St. Petersburg cruise this summer and requested the early seating for dinner. We were informed that the early seating was filled, but we could have dinner at another restaurant that has the same menu under the "dine anytime" program. Anyone out there familiar with this? Do you make a reservation or just show up and ask to be seated?
A hassle or a pleasant experience?

It was a pleasant experience for us, we just showed up anytime between 6:30 and 7pm and the max we waited for a table for 4 was about 10 minutes,if we wanted to share a table
there was no wait. Perhaps the only downside is you get a different table with a different waiter every night,who won't know all your likes and dislikes but really the food is the same so for us it was fine.

We have always go anytime dining on Princess. Best bet to make reservation ahead of time. Some ship won't take reservation on first day. We always have standing reservation for 5 pm and we just walk in through "the other door" by-passing the line ups. They even keep same table if you ask. If you met people and want to sit together, change the reservation from 2 to 4 or wharever. You can also change the time. We have done just that for days taht we know we are going to get abck late from shore excursions. They will keep open wine for you as well. Give them the cabin number and they will put it away, save it for next day just like the regular seatings.

Once we have experimented with the any time dining on Princess, we haven't gone back. No bad experience yet for us but then we always made reservation.

It worked very well for us in Alaska,Anytime Dining was much smoother than Freestyle on NCL. Being able to make a reservation for the time and table made our trip much more enjoyable. If I remember right, we could make reservations for two days at time.

We were on the Star in January. We'd requested late seating and were put on a wait list. After the safety drill our first day on board we met with a rep from the dining room and told him we would prefer late seating. Later that night a note was slipped under our door advising we had been assigned a table for late seating.

We ate one night in the Portofino dining room with some friends we met at our hotel in Santiago, Chile, and toured the city with. They loved Anytime Dining and for one evening it was fine for us. We four were seated at a table for 10 and had an interesting lively converation with the other three couples. I'm not sure I would want to make friends every night, however. I think I still prefer traditional dining and if bored can always eat at one of the specialty restaurants, even though you are charged for those meals. Let's face it, you can't starve on a cruise ship no matter where you eat.

I've done this more than a few times, several times with Princess, and I really prefer it to fixed dining. While rarely a problem in the latter case, you might end up at an assigned table for 10 days or more with someone you don't get along with, then there's the hassle of trying to switch tables or dining times. With open seating, if this happens, there's always someone new tomorrow, and in the meantime you get to meet a lot of (sometimes) interesting people.

As an early diner, I have always been able to walk right in, and this usually holds for the first half-hour or so. Any later, and do make a reservation.