One cruise our friend did all the planning and booking for a group of us so she had access to all the bookings. We had changed ours to YTD as we told the group we didn't like to eat that late but something she did near our sail date changed it back to the Late Seating (and twin beds but the Steward was able to remedy that right away). We did not notice until we checked in.
We went to the Maitre D' as soon as we could after boarding to change and he said they had no openings but would see what they could do. We went with the group to late seating that night and met the servers. The next day the Maitre D' and said they were able to change us to YTD.
We had the best of both worlds that cruise. They never put anyone else at the groups table so we could eat when we wanted or with the group on those days we got back on the ship late anyway. 😁