First time Your Time Dining

I know the YTD vs. early/late dining has been had a million times, but I want to ask a specific question to those who have done YTD.

I am taking my parents on their first cruise. I selected YTD because my daddy is not sure if he would like having to go at the same time every night (i.e be hungry earlier than dining time or not hungry yet at dining time.) I have always done late dining and love it. I'm worried that they will miss out on the traditional cruise dining experience doing YTD the first time.

Has anyone ever tried YTD first and then gone back to early/late dining on a later cruise? I'm hoping my parents enjoy cruising enough to want to go again and I hope next time to be able to talk them into set dining times once they really understand how cruises operate.

I guess I am just second guessing our choice of YTD because I'm used to only having late. If you tried YTD but prefer early/late, please share why.

Thank you!

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YTD is great for the reasons why your dad wants it. But it can backfire on him. Depending on the ship, itin and other pax you might have to wait. We’ve had anywhere between no wait to over an hour. Formal nights and 7pm have always been issues. A willingness to share a table might get you seated quicker at those busy times.

If you decide to do assigned dining, speak with the MD. If there’s space available you’ll be changed.

Disclaimer: I’m going to play devil’s advocate here.

When I first started cruising, I thought it was the end of the world that we had late dining. We ate early every night, and that was what I was hoping for on board. Once we had late seating, I learned to really enjoy it and was a tough sell on YTD when we made the change. Now, I’m not sure I would go back if I had the option. While I had grown to love late dining, it was nice to have flexibility around the entertainment schedule. Additionally, you can still eat around that late seating hour. You could even request the same serving team every night if you find that you love the team you have that first night. Essentially you can still have the late dining experience that you prefer. Heck, maybe you can start a little earlier and work your way back every night to show your parents how great late dining is!

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It sounds like you are a late diner. Are you alone or a couple??

Do your parents eat as late as you do?

Is that timing an issue for you?

We will never do traditional dining again!

We are a senior couple and prefer eating together unless we meet folks on the cruise with whom we'd like to dine.

Your parents may prefer eating with folks (like you) that they know.

We don't think the "dining experience" is any less without traditional set dining times. We always find a wait staff the we like and then ask for them each evening. By the end of the cruise they are often saving "our table" for us. I don't think you will have any problems unless your parents want to eat early and you want to eat later!

I like YTD. we usually get there when the dining room first opens and there’s no wait. Or we will get there about an hour before closing and there’s no wait.

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We had YTD a couple of cruises thinking the freedom to choose would be convenient. We ended up spending time each afternoon to decide what to do, and all but one evening out of 14, we were waiting in line for the doors to open.

The one time we went later we had to wait about 45 minutes for a table,

Switched to early dining for the next two cruises and love it. I won't go back to YTD.

Different strokes, etc.

I hope you enjoy your cruise.

YTD is great for the reasons why your dad wants it. But it can backfire on him. Depending on the ship, itin and other pax you might have to wait. We’ve had anywhere between no wait to over an hour. Formal nights and 7pm have always been issues. A willingness to share a table might get you seated quicker at those busy times.

If you decide to do assigned dining, speak with the MD. If there’s space available you’ll be changed.

Thanks for the advice. I like having my table ready for me at 8:15. It makes it easier to plan shows/activities and my lunch(es) ;) for an 8:15 dining. Thank you for the tip on being willing to share a table. I guess if we are hungry enough, we will do so to avoid a wait.

Disclaimer: I’m going to play devil’s advocate here.

 

When I first started cruising, I thought it was the end of the world that we had late dining. We ate early every night, and that was what I was hoping for on board. Once we had late seating, I learned to really enjoy it and was a tough sell on YTD when we made the change. Now, I’m not sure I would go back if I had the option. While I had grown to love late dining, it was nice to have flexibility around the entertainment schedule. Additionally, you can still eat around that late seating hour. You could even request the same serving team every night if you find that you love the team you have that first night. Essentially you can still have the late dining experience that you prefer. Heck, maybe you can start a little earlier and work your way back every night to show your parents how great late dining is!

 

 

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Thank you. When I first started cruising, early or late was the only option. I chose late due to the advice of others so we wouldn't have to rush back from port for dinner. I loooooved it and have stuck with it for all 5 cruises. Now my parents are going and I want to do what they would like, which is the freedom to choose... :rolleyes:. Perhaps in the future I can convince them from late dining. My daddy thinks that's too late to eat, but I don't think he fully realizes all the things going on to make that dining time necessary. I'm so excited to finally introduce them to the only thing I love as much as I love them! LOL!

It sounds like you are a late diner. Are you alone or a couple??

Do your parents eat as late as you do?

Is that timing an issue for you?

We will never do traditional dining again!

We are a senior couple and prefer eating together unless we meet folks on the cruise with whom we'd like to dine.

Your parents may prefer eating with folks (like you) that they know.

We don't think the "dining experience" is any less without traditional set dining times. We always find a wait staff the we like and then ask for them each evening. By the end of the cruise they are often saving "our table" for us. I don't think you will have any problems unless your parents want to eat early and you want to eat later!

It will just be my parents and me! I'm so excited to get them all to myself since my brothers were born when I was six! :') Whenever they are ready for dinner, I will be going with them, so I know I can adjust accordingly, I just am worried about them missing out on what I experienced my first cruise, so thank you for your assertion that you don't think the dining experience is any less.

I like YTD. we usually get there when the dining room first opens and there’s no wait. Or we will get there about an hour before closing and there’s no wait.

 

 

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I like YTD. we usually get there when the dining room first opens and there’s no wait. Or we will get there about an hour before closing and there’s no wait.

 

 

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Thank you for the tips. Will mention this to my parents.

We had YTD a couple of cruises thinking the freedom to choose would be convenient. We ended up spending time each afternoon to decide what to do, and all but one evening out of 14, we were waiting in line for the doors to open.

 

The one time we went later we had to wait about 45 minutes for a table,

 

Switched to early dining for the next two cruises and love it. I won't go back to YTD.

 

Different strokes, etc.

 

I hope you enjoy your cruise.

That's how I feel about late (I LOVE IT), then again, I haven't tried anything else. I'm willing to be flexible for my parents though, because I finally am getting them to go with me. Perhaps once they see the ebb and flow of the day, the next cruise I can talk them into late dining.

I like YTD. we usually get there when the dining room first opens and there’s no wait. Or we will get there about an hour before closing and there’s no wait. We get the best of both worlds. We can either eat early when we want, or eat late when we want. You can still request your same team if you prefer

 

 

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I just am worried about them missing out on what I experienced my first cruise, .

Im not sure there is anything different that they would 'miss out' on. I have done both and prefer YTD. the only real differences are

YTD - there could be a wait for a table

Early or Late - you are forced to eat at the exact same time every day or not eat at the MDR

other than that, its the same. there is no missing out. If you don't like being forced to eat at a certain time or want flexibility then choose YTD. If you absolutely hate to wait at all for a table, then maybe YDT is not the thing for you

other than that.... no differences to miss out on

Rarely do you need to "rush" back to the ship for dinner. Most port times easily accommodate all dinner seatings....if you have a late departure, you can always eat at a local restaurant, too!

Hi PrincessK

You said it...your father thinks that dining after eight is too late. Why would you want to try and convince him otherwise.

There is nothing wrong with the early seating and most port departure times have you returning to the ship hours before dinner, so no rush. If your parents are used to eating earlier and typically eat at the same time every day, then I would suggest you try to arrange for a table at the early seating.

If you do the YTD and don't want to wait, you are better off arriving soon after the doors open (around 6 p.m.). This ends up being very similar to early seating, except that you are not going to the same table every night. The YTD is convenient for people who do not wish to dine with strangers.

24 years ago, DH and I started out with late dinner seatings, but changed to YTD about 5 or so years ago and love it. We usually go when it opens and yes, there is a long line then but it goes quickly once the doors open. When we leave the dining room around 7-7:30pm, there are usually lots and lots of people waiting with pagers. I would hate that and am glad we now go early. We like to get to the casino right afterwards. We also found that when eating at the late seatings, we were still so full too late in the evenings. I think part of is that as we got older, we were used to eating earlier at home. I reach a point that the later it got, the less I was interested in eating and wanted to get to the casino instead.

I like YTD. we usually get there when the dining room first opens and there’s no wait. Or we will get there about an hour before closing and there’s no wait.

 

 

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Same here, I'm there when it opens and there's rarely a wait. I think there was a line on the last night but it moved fast.

I don't know how easy it would be to switch from YTD to early or late once on the ship.......

We are also trying YTD for the first time next month. We have always had late seating. Will we have to wait if we go around 8 - 8:30? We are sailing on the Inspiration.

I've done YTD and Late and prefer YTD but experience-wise I didn't find it to be THAT different. As long as you're not on the Sunshine you'll be fine :)

After going to YTD from regular seating we have never gone back and dont plan on going back. And it seems for the same reason your father is concerned. We like to eat kinda whenever so set dinning is a bit of a hassle for us now.

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I've done YTD and Late and prefer YTD but experience-wise I didn't find it to be THAT different. As long as you're not on the Sunshine you'll be fine :)

Or on the Vista. ;)

Not sure when you are cruising but I had my time dining on a cruise in June and hated it. My traveling companion is diabetic so we tried to go early when the dining room opened. Every night we ended up with a pager and about an hour and a half wait if we wanted to eat in the dining room. You can’t make reservations. Funny thing is when we were finally seated over half of the dining room was empty. Even then service was extremely slow. Never again, I’ll take fixed seating over my time dining on Carnival. Royal Caribbean has a similar program but they do allow you to make a reservation similar to what you would do at home and it works much better.

I have never heard of 1 1/2 hour wait, ever. We ate around 8:30 and never saw a pager or waited more than a minute or two. We also had the same server for 14 days.

Not sure when you are cruising but I had my time dining on a cruise in June and hated it. My traveling companion is diabetic so we tried to go early when the dining room opened. Every night we ended up with a pager and about an hour and a half wait if we wanted to eat in the dining room. You can’t make reservations. Funny thing is when we were finally seated over half of the dining room was empty. Even then service was extremely slow. Never again, I’ll take fixed seating over my time dining on Carnival. Royal Caribbean has a similar program but they do allow you to make a reservation similar to what you would do at home and it works much better.

I'm not disputing what you posted or what you experienced but if you go when it opens, there will NEVER be a wait or an extremely short wait at best. The dining room is completely empty so if you go when the dining room opens, they can literally seat probably more than 100 in a matter of minutes. if you go 30 minutes after it opens, then you could wait a little while since most of the people just sat down. Once you are past the 1 hour mark after it opens, the wait varies but is never too bad because people are then leaving periodically so it keeps moving.

This coming cruise will be our fifth or sixth and 2nd with Carnival. Our very first cruise (Princess) we booked late in the game and were assigned any time (your time). We are a family with kids with ages raging from 10 to 17. We were also used to eating early. (We still eat with the early birds). Since we had no other choice but to take the any time, we just showed up each night when the doors opened. Never had to wait, we were able to get the same wait staff each night. This worked out well, but for subsequent cruises, we have chosen to go with set early dining (usually at 6pm). For our next cruise we are again trying out the Your time dining. What kept happening (for us) was that service took so long, we could never able to make it to the early shows and DH was too tired to make it to the later shows most of the week, so we ended up missing most of the great entertainment that was being offered. (my DH usually gets up around 3 AM and is in bed by 9 PM at latest on a good night. I am hoping that by using the Your time and being at the doors when they open (530 PM) we can make to the shows. It sounds like mom and dad are in the early bird set like us. I cannot imagine eating at 830 PM. Your options are limited. Either you eat early with them, or you eat separately. Maybe eating breakfast or lunch together would be a better alternative. You can't change people over night, even for a week.

Good luck!

I'm a traditionalist. I like the early dining option. Same dining team, same time, table is waiting. We eat in the MDR every night unless we are doing chef's table or steakhouse. When you have a really good dining team this makes for a great cruise as they quickly learn your names, your preferences, even have your drinks ready. I've found the early dining doesn't interfere with the entertainment schedule and if there is something specific you need to get to we'd tell the wait staff and they would ensure we'd be out by then. With YTD dining its just a crap shoot on the wait time, unless you are purposely going early or going late your going to encounter the wait list and if your going to go early or late on purpose you might as well do the set dining.

<soapbox>Don't select YTD dining then come to CC and complain about having to wait for a table. If you want a table ready, pick the set dining times.</soapbox>

I just returned from a cruise last Saturday and we had Your Time Dining for the first time. This will be our new choice for all cruises. We did not have to wait to be seated on any night and we had the choice of not only flexible time, but flexible seating arrangement. The experience was also exactly the same as traditional seating, we received the same service level from Carnival wait staff. There would have been two nights during our cruise that I would have had to eat in the buffet due to not being ready at a normal assigned seating or having something else I wanted to do during that time.