My Time Dining - Am I Missing Something?

I was going to say the same thing. If you're going to make a reservation, use the traditional dining times and leave MTD to those of us that want to use it as intended.

OK, I am going to bite. What happens to people for who early traditional dining is too early and late traditional dining is too late? 5:30 and 8:30 are kind of the opposite extremes. Also, what about people like me that like to have a variety of different dining times, but also want the safety net of a reservation?

As they say, once bitten, twice shy. I know that my experience was on a different cruise line, but one of my co-workers, who is an avid Royal Caribbean cruiser tells us horror stories of his one and only time of trying My Time Dining. This was on Mariner before she headed to China.

So where does this leave us? Should we not cruise?

There is also the little bone of contention of leaving MTD to those that want to use it as intended. I would think that if people purely walking up to the dining room when they are good and ready was what Royal Caribbean was intending, then they would not allow or even encourage advance reservations. When we sailed on NCL this was not an option unless you were in a suite.

I personally think there is room for both schools of thoughts and the fact that people on here have reported that if they have to wait at all, the wait is minimal supports this.

Corinna

My reply has nothing to do with you question, but your name. I'm a Corinna as well!!! I have NEVER seen anyone with my name.

First of all, I know that I do not have to make advance reservations for dining, but after an absolutely horrible dining experience on NCL where we spent ages standing in line to get dinner, I feel happier to have a reservation to fall back on.

 

Dining reservations opened sometime yesterday PM for our next cruise. When I am trying to make reservations, there are times available in 15 minute slots from 5:30 to 6:30, nothing from 6:30 and 7:45 and then again in 15 minute slots from 7:45 to closing. Do they simply now seat people between 6:30 and 7:45 or are those slots already gone?

 

I have made reservations for the first three days and I am finding the process a little cumbersome. For every day I have to select the guests, the date and time, check out and then rinse and repeat. Can the reservations really only be done one by one or is there a quicker way of doing this?

 

Corinna

My reply has nothing to do with you question, but your name. I'm a Corinna as well!!! I have NEVER seen anyone with my name.

There is not many of us around.

Corinna

So where does this leave us? Should we not cruise?

 

There is also the little bone of contention of leaving MTD to those that want to use it as intended. I would think that if people purely walking up to the dining room when they are good and ready was what Royal Caribbean was intending, then they would not allow or even encourage advance reservations. When we sailed on NCL this was not an option unless you were in a suite.

 

I personally think there is room for both schools of thoughts and the fact that people on here have reported that if they have to wait at all, the wait is minimal supports this.

 

Corinna

Is this something new with NCL? We love their Freestyle Cruising philosophy, but I am pretty sure we were able to make dining reservations.

I agree, there is room for several schools of thought. Cruises are not supposed to be stressful.

Is this something new with NCL? We love their Freestyle Cruising philosophy, but I am pretty sure we were able to make dining reservations.

 

I agree, there is room for several schools of thought. Cruises are not supposed to be stressful.

They may have changed this since our one and only cruise with them, which was in spring of 2009. I was really excited about the Freestyle concept beforehand, but at least on our cruise, the execution was lacking.

No, I fully agree with you there. Cruises should be fun and relaxing and with the exception of this one cruise, all of mine have been just that. I am sure our next two cruises will be as well.

Corinna

They may have changed this since our one and only cruise with them, which was in spring of 2009. I was really excited about the Freestyle concept beforehand, but at least on our cruise, the execution was lacking.

 

No, I fully agree with you there. Cruises should be fun and relaxing and with the exception of this one cruise, all of mine have been just that. I am sure our next two cruises will be as well.

 

Corinna

Our only disappointing cruise was on Carnival. Good to get it all out of the way at once! They did have great pizza, though. :rolleyes:

Our only disappointing cruise was on Carnival. Good to get it all out of the way at once! They did have great pizza, though. :rolleyes:

We have only cruised NCL, Disney and Royal Caribbean. Nearly did a cruise on Carnival last year out of Miami, but ended up doing a cruise on Royal Caribbean out of Dubai instead. I am so glad we did. Already I managed to cross of some bucket list destinations by switching to Royal Caribbean and we have two pretty exciting cruises booked. We love Disney, but they keep doing the same itineraries over and over again.

Corinna

Good old bucket list. :) We crossed off the Panama Canal on NCL Star, Australia on RCI Radiance and Norwegian Fjords/Baltic on the Vision. Our first 3 cruises on NCL were pre-Freestyle.

Good old bucket list. :) We crossed off the Panama Canal on NCL Star, Australia on RCI Radiance and Norwegian Fjords/Baltic on the Vision. Our first 3 cruises on NCL were pre-Freestyle.

I crossed off Alaska, Hawaii, Mayan ruins, Colombia, Costa Rica and the Panama Canal with Disney and Suez Canal and Petra with Royal Caribbean.

Corinna

We are still trying to figure out how to do Hawaii without flying over there and back. :) Something I would like to do for our 25th Anniversary in 2018. Alaska, we did with HAL in 2005 and again with Princess in 2009, only because their prices were rediculously cheap.

I am unfamiliar with MTD as I've always done the early traditional dining. I booked a cruise on May 1, 2016 on Serenade of the Seas that sails on January 12, 2017. This will be a mother-daughter cruise, and a surprise for my daughter who knows nothing yet. We have been on a couple of other cruises and always have a blast! This time will be different because she has been going through cancer & a myriad of other medical issues.

One of our favorite times on the ship is the traditional dining, getting to know your tablemates & making lasting friendships. When I initially booked the cruise, I asked if she could put us down for early dining and she indicated I should call back as she was unable to access that information. I called back in June and was then told the traditional dining is filled and we have to do MTD. The cruise is 7 months away!! How does that happen? I realize many people prefer MTD, but we are just the opposite. I am more than disheartened and, had I been told that upfront, I would have made a different choice of ship. GO PACK GO!

I am unfamiliar with MTD as I've always done the early traditional dining. I booked a cruise on May 1, 2016 on Serenade of the Seas that sails on January 12, 2017. This will be a mother-daughter cruise, and a surprise for my daughter who knows nothing yet. We have been on a couple of other cruises and always have a blast! This time will be different because she has been going through cancer & a myriad of other medical issues.

One of our favorite times on the ship is the traditional dining, getting to know your tablemates & making lasting friendships. When I initially booked the cruise, I asked if she could put us down for early dining and she indicated I should call back as she was unable to access that information. I called back in June and was then told the traditional dining is filled and we have to do MTD. The cruise is 7 months away!! How does that happen? I realize many people prefer MTD, but we are just the opposite. I am more than disheartened and, had I been told that upfront, I would have made a different choice of ship. GO PACK GO!

I would contact whoever booked your cruise and ask to be put on the wait list for traditional dining.

If that fails, then go see the host/hostess at the entrance to the dining room as soon as you board the ship. They may be able to move you to traditional then, or possibly the second night.

What Bob said. Plus do not give up trying to get it changed. Sometimes it makes a difference who you talk to.

If all else fails, you can treat MTD like Traditional. Reserve for the same time every night and tell them you want a table with other people. If you got to the dining room when you embark, you might even be able to choose the table. You might find that people that do MTD are a lot like you, they like consistency. There is a good chance many of them will dine with you most nights.

Good luck!

I still don't have a grasp on the whole traditional vs MTD vs making reservations for specific times.

 

On our last cruise ....... We always had a table for 2.

 

I think I read recently where MTD is where they put you in with whomever to fill a table? We never had that issue - was that because we always set a reservation? We are taking our 3 boys this time and would rather not be seated with strangers, so should I get off the MTD wait list?

Hi Mattg

You are missing one of the joys of cruising if you think we are all "strangers"! We are just friends you haven't yet met, and might not have the pleasure of meeting if you sit by yourselves. With MTD you get to meet many different people - try it. I higly recommend it.

We have had tables for two that are close to other tables for two. They are configured so that you can meet a lot of really nice people, but still have some privacy. We like it! Bottom line is, it isn't our vacation, it is yours. Have fun!

There are some folks who find the early traditional dining too early and the late traditional dining too late, so a fixed MTD time works better for them.

 

I always suspect a conspiracy and think that when the cruise line sets early dining at 5:30pm, they are trying to move people to MTD.

you are exactly right Bob, we always book MTD and I always prebook 630 - which is a perfect time for us. Also if someone books the same time every night, they try and sit them in the same place with the same waiters etc., which we also really like :)

you are exactly right Bob, we always book MTD and I always prebook 630 - which is a perfect time for us. Also if someone books the same time every night, they try and sit them in the same place with the same waiters etc., which we also really like :)

I did not realise they would try to keep us with the same waiters, which would be great. We found the biggest downside of MTD versus fixed time was not getting to know the waiters. We also like 6.30 so I will book that for each night provisionally for our October cruise and see what happens.

I did not realise they would try to keep us with the same waiters, which would be great. We found the biggest downside of MTD versus fixed time was not getting to know the waiters. We also like 6.30 so I will book that for each night provisionally for our October cruise and see what happens.

Absolutely! Even if you eat at various times you can ask for the same waiters, and the same table too. A lot of times we do not even have to ask. If we really like the wait staff, we make sure to let the maitre D know.

We like MTD. We usually pick 6:30 every night, but then once onboard we may switch it up to accommodate Specialty restaurants, etc. or - we may find someone we want to dine with and change a bit to dine with them. It is very flexible. If we like our wait staff the first night we will reserve that table and waiter for the following nights. If we aren't impressed we will change until we find one we do like.:)

That is a good way to do it. And we fill out a VIP card, or whatever they call it to be sure they get recognition, as well as giving them a cash tip at the end of the cruise.

Thanks Clarea, I'll give that a try.