Any reviews on My Time Family Dining on RCCL?

[sarahcd]

From what I understand, they serve kids 3-11 in an expedited manner and then Adventure Ocean staff comes and gets them - is that right? For the 6pm seating, what time do they generally collect the kids? Is it over a period of time or a mass exodus of kids? My biggest concern is my child spening the rest of the evening in dinner clothes, so we may or may not use this option. Just wanted to hear some feedback.

[foxesden1]

We care doing this. I am also at a loss. I was thinking of going up after my dinner and changing her. Then I fought about taking a bag and letter her get changed butni do not think she will be able to undo her dress. Then I roughy about taking her to the washroom.. But wha t am I going to do with her clothing?

[milton333]

How dressed up do you plan to have your LO for the MDR? Every day? I don't think there's really a dress code for very young children, and even for older ones it's mostly no flipflops and no shorts, with wide latitude for anything else.

[fisherhum]

I don't know about the family dinner and pick up but I have always quickly taken then kids back to the room to change and then up to AO between main and dessert. The kids often are finished their dessert before we are done main course due to excellent service from the wait staff. DH or I run the kids up to change and go then we stay and have dessert and relaxing coffee etc without them. This has worked for us.

[foxesden1]

My dd will be dressed for dinner just as my husband and I will be.

[boulders]

My experience with My Family Time Dining on the Radiance. The meal for ds came out super quick. No time to dilly dally. The waitstaff brought out the same meal for him every night almost as we sat down. At 6:40 p.m., IF I'd remembered to sign up for MFTD in AO EVERY day, the counselors would meet the kids outside the 3rd floor MDR, sign them in and take them upstairs. So this would mean, I'd have to leave the table just as my main course was coming, walking through the MDR, wait for the counselor, wait to be checked in, walk back to my seat to a cold entree and a table where my older two kids had already eaten their entrees. I'm not a fan of MFTD.

 

Now, I or one of the two older ones take ds up after 7 pm after everyone has finished dessert. DS is 5 and very able to sit through the one hour or so that dinner takes.

[kayakstef]

The pick up was at 6:40 and worked out perfectly for us. The counselors were right at the door and drop off went quickly. Every other night, the kids ate at Johnny Rockets (had to pre-register) so they didn't even come to the dining room. DD stayed dressed in nice capris and shirts. She's not a dress kid.

[crzgrl66]

My experience with My Family Time Dining on the Radiance. The meal for ds came out super quick. No time to dilly dally. The waitstaff brought out the same meal for him every night almost as we sat down. At 6:40 p.m., IF I'd remembered to sign up for MFTD in AO EVERY day, the counselors would meet the kids outside the 3rd floor MDR, sign them in and take them upstairs. So this would mean, I'd have to leave the table just as my main course was coming, walking through the MDR, wait for the counselor, wait to be checked in, walk back to my seat to a cold entree and a table where my older two kids had already eaten their entrees. I'm not a fan of MFTD.

 

Now, I or one of the two older ones take ds up after 7 pm after everyone has finished dessert. DS is 5 and very able to sit through the one hour or so that dinner takes.

 

On Liberty of the Seas, pick up was at 6:40. I totally agree with boulders review. Of the 6 nights that it was offered, we tried it three times and only once did the timing work out for us. Our waiter usually gave the children their food around 6:25 and 15 minutes was not enough time for them to eat. Once we were too late and missed the councelors, the second time it worked out okay, and the third time we tried the kids really wanted dessert and there was not enough time. For the rest of the week, we decided that it was better to have them stay with us and take them to kids club right after dinner. It's a good concept, but the waiters have to be exceptional to pull it off in time and the kids have to be willing to give up dessert and any items that they would like to try off the adult menu. Clothing for us wasn't an issue. On the formal night, we had DS where a t-shirt under his dress shirt and he quickly took off his dress shirt at the table.

[ekatiel]

Reviving this thread from a few weeks ago to see if anyone else has a review. We just booked on the Voyager for my kids' Spring Break 2012, so I've got a while to hear reviews about this dining choice before I make a decision. It sounds WONDERFUL in theory, but it seems like it needs a little more polishing in practice :(. I also have a couple of questions about it: Do the kids have to order off the kids' menu? My little ones usually end up with adult entrees-- they like steak and lobster as much as the next guy ;)! Also, one of my little guys has food alleriges, so often, the choices on the kids' menu are not safe for him, so he HAS to order off the adult menu. Also, someone mentioned missing dessert-- my kids won't go for that! Did you child just miss dessert b/c the entree came out too late, and they didn't have time to eat?

 

We cruised (on Carnival) with the kids last March, and used the advice many of you gave on here about dining-- try to keep the kids a course ahead, so that one parent can take them to the kids' club in between your entree and dessert. That worked well for us, so I'm wondering if we should just stick with that plan! Thanks for any input you have! --Katie

[sharktums]

We just sat and ate dinner as a family, then when the dessert menus would come out I would tell my husband what I wanted and I would run our little one up the gazillion stairs to AO. I justified that running up and down the stairs would balance out eating dessert! =)

 

My daughter loves wearing dresses and nice clothes and never wanted to change before heading to AO.

[luvmylilangels]

Does anyone know if you can do my family time dining for just one night? We are going to chef's table one night and it starts at 7:30pm. So we would like to take the kids down to the MDR to eat beforehand and then they could go to AO afterwards while we are at Chef's Table. If they could eat expedited for that one night that would be great. I don't think we will need to use it any other night.