Long before you step aboard, the booking form asks a question that will quietly shape every evening of your holiday. Would you like a fixed time to dine each night, the same table and the same faces, or the freedom to turn up when you please? It sounds like a small administrative choice. It is in fact the difference between two rather different holidays.
Every major line now offers some version of both, under a confusion of brand names: Club and Freedom, Traditional and My Time, Select, Freestyle, As You Wish. This guide cuts through the labels. It explains how fixed and flexible dining really work, what each line calls its version, and how to end up with the evenings you actually want.
The two systems, and the trade off
Fixed dining, also called traditional or club dining, gives you an assigned sitting, an early one or a late one, at the same table every night. You keep the same waiters, who soon learn how you take your coffee, and usually the same companions, who by the last night feel like old friends or, occasionally, do not. Your table is always ready and there is never a queue. The price of all that is rigidity. You dine when the ship says, and you plan the theatre and the excursions around it.
Flexible dining, which each line brands differently, hands you the clock. You arrive when it suits, early after a long day ashore or late after a show, and you are seated as tables come free. You can dine with your own party every night or meet new people. What you give up is consistency, a different waiter each evening, and the chance of a wait at the busy hours between half past six and eight.
How anytime dining works now
Flexible dining once meant queuing at the door, and its reputation still carries a memory of that. Most lines have since moved it inside an app. P&O has My Holiday, Princess the MedallionClass app, Carnival the HUB, Virgin its Sailor app. You either book a slot in advance or join a virtual queue, then wait in a bar or up on deck until a message tells you your table is ready. It has taken most of the sting out of the peak hour crush, though on a full ship at seven o’clock a short wait is still possible if you simply walk up.
The British lines
P&O Cruises
P&O gives you Club Dining or Freedom Dining. Club is the traditional choice, two sittings at half past six and half past eight, the same table and companions throughout. Freedom lets you arrive any time between six and half past nine, with the My Holiday app holding your place in a virtual queue. There is no charge for either and, unusually, no daily tips to weigh up, since P&O has included gratuities in its fares since 2019. One thing to watch: Club Dining is not offered on Iona or Arvia, the two largest ships, which run Freedom only.
Cunard
Cunard is the one line where your dinner is decided by your cabin grade. Book a standard Britannia cabin and you choose an early or late sitting in the grand Britannia Restaurant, or its flexible Open Dining if you prefer to vary the hour. Book a Club Balcony and you dine in the separate Britannia Club restaurant on a single, relaxed open seating. The Princess Grill and Queens Grill suites each have their own restaurant, single seating, your table held for the whole voyage, dine when you like. Note that a daily service charge still applies on some lines regardless of which dining style you pick, so it is worth checking yours separately.
Marella, and the British traditionalists
Marella, TUI’s all inclusive line, keeps it simple with open seating throughout, no fixed sittings and tips included in the fare. At the other end of the spirit, Fred. Olsen and Ambassador hold firmly to the old way, two fixed sittings at dinner and no anytime option at all. Saga, all inclusive and unhurried, uses a single open seating so you arrive when you like within the dinner hours, though it will happily set you a fixed table on request.
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The international lines
Royal Caribbean
Royal Caribbean offers Traditional Dining, an early sitting around half past five or a late one around eight, or My Time Dining, its flexible option, which you can reserve in advance or walk up to. One catch worth knowing: choosing My Time means paying your gratuities in advance. The menu is the same whichever you pick.
Celebrity Cruises
Celebrity calls its system Celebrity Select Dining and splits it three ways, Early, Late or Anytime. The first two are fixed sittings with the same table and team; Anytime is the flexible choice, but only a set number of guests can have it on each sailing, so if you want it, choose early. There is no price difference between them.
Princess Cruises
Princess folds everything into one app led system, Dine My Way. Through the MedallionClass app you can set a standing time and table for the whole cruise, in effect traditional dining, or leave it loose and book each evening as you go. It is the same machinery serving both camps, which is rather the point.
Norwegian: Freestyle
Norwegian built its whole identity on flexibility. Freestyle Dining means no fixed times and no assigned tables anywhere. You walk into whichever restaurant appeals, at whatever hour it is open, and are seated on arrival. For anyone who bristles at a set sitting it is the natural home; for those who love the same waiter and tablemates every night, it is the opposite of that.
MSC Cruises
MSC still leans traditional, with a fixed early or late sitting on its everyday Bella and Fantastica fares. Dining when you please has mostly been tied to the fare you buy: the higher Aurea experience and the exclusive Yacht Club eat when they wish. Since 2026 there is a third route, Dine on Your Time, which lets Bella and Fantastica guests pick their hour rather than take a fixed sitting. For now it runs only on MSC Seashore and MSC Seaside.
Holland America and Carnival
Holland America’s As You Wish dining lets you pick a fixed early or late sitting or dine flexibly, reserving by four o’clock or simply turning up. Carnival offers the same shape under its own names, an assigned Early or Late seating, or Your Time Dining that you manage through the HUB app.
Virgin Voyages and Disney: the outliers
Two lines throw the template out. Virgin Voyages, adults only, has no main dining room and no fixed seating at all. Instead there are more than twenty included restaurants and a food hall, all booked through its app like a small city of eateries. Disney does the opposite and choreographs the whole thing: rotational dining sends you round three themed restaurants over the cruise, your waiters moving with you, on an assigned early or late seating. Different philosophies entirely, but neither offers the simple fixed or flexible choice the other lines do.
Which should you choose?
It comes down to how you like to spend an evening and who you are travelling with.
- Choose fixed if. you like routine, want the same waiter and tablemates, are travelling to be sociable, or simply want a guaranteed table with no wait. It suits show planners and first time cruisers who like the structure.
- Choose flexible if. your days are full of excursions, you are cruising with young children, you keep irregular hours, or you would rather not be tied to a sitting or a fixed set of companions.
- Either way, book early. the first sitting and the capacity limited anytime tiers both fill up, so your preferred choice is not guaranteed if you leave it late.
Getting the evenings you want
- Sort it on embarkation day. If you are waitlisted for a sitting, or want a table for two rather than a shared eight, see the maitre d’ at the restaurant on the first afternoon. That is where these things are fixed.
- Use the app for flexible nights. Book your slot or join the virtual queue rather than walking up at seven, the busiest hour, and you will rarely wait.
- Dress codes apply either way. Formal or gala nights apply in the dining room whether you booked fixed or flexible, so pack for them regardless of your seating.
- Keep the speciality restaurants in mind. Booking a speciality venue for a night simply means skipping the main dining room, a useful escape on a formal night you would rather dress down for.
Frequently Asked Questions
Often yes, but it depends on space. Fixed sittings and the capacity limited anytime tiers can be full, so a change is not guaranteed. The best moment to sort it is with the maitre d’ on your first afternoon aboard.
Sometimes, at the busiest hours around seven. Most lines now let you pre book a slot or join a virtual queue through their app, which nearly always avoids standing in line.
Yes. Gala and formal dress codes apply in the main dining room regardless of whether your seating is fixed or flexible. Pack for them either way, or plan to dine somewhere more casual that evening.
Flexible dining usually suits families best, since you can eat early on a busy day or late after the pool without being tied to a sitting. Disney is the exception, where the rotational system and a consistent serving team work very well for children.
On the app based systems, to a degree. Princess Dine My Way and similar let you set a standing table and time for the whole cruise, giving you the consistency of fixed dining while keeping the option to vary a night when you want to.
If you love routine, a familiar waiter and a guaranteed table, choose the fixed sitting. If your evenings are unpredictable and you would rather keep them open, choose the flexible option and use the app to skip the queue. Whichever you pick, decide at booking and confirm it with the maitre d’ on your first day aboard.
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