I have cruised Princess before and used anytime dining. However on this ship I would NOT recommend using anytime dining. EX: At the Captain's Dinner we decided to go early and get a few pictures. By 5:15 we saw the line wrap from the entrance of the dining room all around through the main lobby and down the hall. We got in line immediately and waited for 102 minutes to get to the front door of the dining room only to figure out they handed out beepers like they do in restaurants. Except in our case they ran out of beepers so you stood waiting for beepers to be returned. This whole time NOBODY announced over the load speakers what was happening or nobody came through the lines and explained the situation. Finally at 10:20 we walked out of the dining room. This resulted in missing all of the shows and activities. After spending the entire week and seeing the operation of the dining room I can understand why we waited every night for at least 30 minutes to get a table if you arrived at 4:45. Once you sit down it may take a minimum of 20 minutes to get the menu and place your order. On all the nights it was a least one hour by the time we sat down to get our main course and not a single night did we leave the dining room in less than 2 hours. This Dining room operation gets a 1 where the services for room cleanup gets a 5. However the experience changed my opinion of Princess. After at least 20 cruises this experience proved to be WORST of all. Women standing in Heels and others standing with canes for over 2 hours as you creep through the lobby. In this case the dining manager did not see fit to make an announcement over the loudspeakers that affected most passengers but yet at 4:00 in the morning you get awaken by an announcement in every room that there is a missing teenager that has been missing for over several hours. FYI. He was found in a friends room. In summary terrible management and Princess crew management knowing there were issues could have at least handed out a coupon for a free drink, etc.

FYI All the good shore excursions were sold out 60 days before. A good management team would have a backup source to handle the strong bookings. Fortunately trip advisor web site directed us to find better excursions at half the prices. EX: ATV in Puerto Vallarta through Princess was $129 for 2 hours with 20 guests. Ours was personalized for 3 1/2 hours for $69 with a follow up email of pictures and video and there were only 3 of us. We ran into the fellow passengers at a bar in the jungle and they described their experience as bad because they were always stopping for an inexperienced driver or breakdown. They were in shocked when they saw our ATV's, the rental times, and our escort taking free digital pictures/videos.

Overall this was not their first sold out cruise to the Mexican Rivera anytime dining is not anytime, excursions are minimal at best and the overall experience is not what we have come to expect from Princess. The most positive experience was the cabin Stewart. So much for their 50th year anniversary. I don't think they will be so happy when they make it to their 60th year.