Princess cruises dinner question
 

I haven't cruised in a while, and now may go on a cruise. Before I made one reservation to sit at the same table at the same time with several people to get to know them, to share daily plans...

Now it looks like it can be only me at the table! Like it would be in any restaurant in any city. Like I am traveling alone?

Now everything is with the Princess Medallion app on your phone. You need a (smart) phone to make dining reservations before the trip.

Once you have everything set up on the Princess Medallion, and are logged in (good luck!) the steps are: Find Ocean Now, Tap "Dine My Way", Reserve for the Same Time Each Day (or maybe for a specific time?), You can pick "Table shared with other Guests". Select the dining room and then look the times available. If you have trouble with it now, ask when you get on board, there is someone helping people having issues with the Medallion. Or you can also use the big touch screens by tapping your medallion and make a reservation on those and maybe also from your state room. The Medallion didn't work that great for me on the Princess cruise I took last year.

You can try the table that first night and then cancel or switch to a different time for following nights if it doesn't work out. If you like the table you might want to stop at the desk on the way out and ask if you can have the same table again each night.

Seems like a rigamarole.
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With the NCL success of flexible dining, a lot of the mainstream cruise lines have moved away from forcing every one into set dining times at huge tables.

katybird, have you sailed on Princess since the restart? My experience a year ago they were still fully staffed and low occupancy. I have seen reports on Cruise Critic that now, with the return of full capacity cruising there are lineups for dinner seating at the Main Dining Rooms. Having a reservation in advance may help avoid some of the wait time.

On Cruise Critic there are pages devoted to the Princess Medallion. When it works it's great. But often it is glitchy and not every one is tech-savvy. As I said above, there are other ways to get a reservation once onboard.

I spoke to 2 different Princess agents, both said my reservation to share the table will depend on somebody else's desire to share.
Unless I am with a group of friends, no cruises for me! Upsetting, but I will get over it.

Have you thought about going on a more solo-friendly cruise line such as NCL? (Norwegian) Or joining in on the roll call for a cruise you are interested in? You will see that there are many people cruising alone.

Me, I don't actually like eating at the big tables. Takes forever.

MLGB, the reason I was looking at Princess is that they sail out of San Francisco, very convenient for me (and for a friend who would join me) not to fly. It looks, next year Carnival will be here, I didn't look at their dining and other arrangements. Oh, well, this is not the end of my world :)

Dayenu I thought I would chime in here. Given that you are traveling solo, I completely understand your desire to not sit at a table by yourself. What I would suggest is that you pick a fixed dining time, and if you find your are solo, simply speak with someone in the MDR and tey will always be happy to seat you with others.This should absolutely never be an issue. Hope that helps :-)

Replying only for the benefit of others who may possibly read this thread. This is misinformation. This is not what 2 different Princess agents told me as I posted above. This is not what posters on Cruise Critic told me. MDR employees can seat me with others ONLY IF THE OTHERS WOULD AGREE TO SHARE THEIR TABLE. And even then may be different people on different evenings.

I just finished a Princess cruise. The agents are correct. You will not be guaranteed seating at the same table even if you reserve. Not even the same waiter if you request the same table. You may or may not be able to share tables although I think most big tables were people who knew each other.

I think it is understood that one wouldn't be seated with people who request to dine alone. OH! I like that table by the window but people are seated there. I'l join them. I don't think so!

For CDVCruises and katybird: Some people such as Dayenu like the old school fixed dining times (early and late) where you have the same large shared table, same people, same waiter. There are not many of the mainstream cruise lines left who still will do that. Princess does not. Even Celebrity is starting to move away from that (they don't go to San Francisco anyways). Most of the lines are now at full capacity and they are trying to shift everyone into "Anytime" dining where even if you have a reservation for a shared table, it cannot be guaranteed. On my recent Princess cruise I found the one waiter who was halfway competent and they moved him to a different dining room! Most of the MDR servers are not well trained nor are they very fluent in English. Even if you say "no bread" to the first person who visits the table, two more will come by and try to give you bread. I think many of the experienced waiters are winding up in specialty dining venues. There is a LOT of new staff added to accommodate the increase in cruising.