Anytime Dining on RCCL

[bluediving]

Just booked to travel on Brilliance from Dubai, 12 day India cruise. We have booked anytime dining but so far only read poor reviews of this and are now having second thoughts. Anyone have recent experience and what would people advise. Many thanks

[Cruzin Carol]

Just booked to travel on Brilliance from Dubai, 12 day India cruise. We have booked anytime dining but so far only read poor reviews of this and are now having second thoughts. Anyone have recent experience and what would people advise. Many thanks

 

 

We have done MTD ever since it started and love it. We like to go around 7 - 7:30. It's best to have a reservation so you don;t have to wait by just showing up. You can even call just an hour ahead for most flexibility. We often get a wait staff we like and ask to sit with them again.

[Bakincakes]

Just booked to travel on Brilliance from Dubai, 12 day India cruise. We have booked anytime dining but so far only read poor reviews of this and are now having second thoughts. Anyone have recent experience and what would people advise. Many thanks

 

 

Some pax have had difficulties, others have had good experiences. Seems as though it can be hit or miss and depends upon the ship.

 

RCI does encourage pax to make standing reservations for each evening. Many pax feel this is restrictive and goes against what the M in "MTD" stands for. Others claim they go at any time and have no issues getting seated.

 

I guess you will just have to take the chance and hope it works out as you have planned. Experiences, it seems, are all over the map from fabulous to horrid.

[land lover]

Have selected MTD 6 times now and the experience has been different every time. Have done it as a couple, 3 GFs and my family of 5.

 

I think you need to try it a couple of times before you can have an opinion..It certainly has changed since it's inception.

 

For me overall the experience has been very nice.

[cb at sea]

We enjoy having a set table with tablemates....I'm not sure why so many folks are afraid of eating with others...do you drool, or something??? Having folks to talk to is fun! EVeryone onboard is "like-minded"...you are apparently into vacationing, in general, and cruising, specifically...

If you are pleasant, then you will have a great time, and look forward to dinner with your "dinner friends" nightly!

[Cruising89143]

We enjoy having a set table with tablemates....I'm not sure why so many folks are afraid of eating with others...do you drool, or something??? Having folks to talk to is fun! EVeryone onboard is "like-minded"...you are apparently into vacationing, in general, and cruising, specifically...

If you are pleasant, then you will have a great time, and look forward to dinner with your "dinner friends" nightly!

 

The OP was asking about MTD. Your comments do not help her one bit and why do you care why others want to dine alone?:rolleyes:

 

OP, I have tried MTD on four cruised. All but one cruise it worked just fine. The only ship where I had issues was the Adventure. I do agree that it can vary by ship. Some seem to do a better job with it than others but overall for us, we enjoy it and prefer it over traditional.

[lambs2]

This will be our first time trying My Time Dining on Royal Caribbean. We have liked it so very much on NCL but have always just had the traditional dining on our four previous RCCL cruises. This May we will be on a very port intensive Baltic cruise on the Vosion of the Seas, and although we prefer early seating we know we will have a couple late port nights on this cruise and wanted the flexibility of later dining just on those nights, instead of having to just settle for the buffet. I see they want us to schedule (sent us an email link but it is not operational yet, for some reason.) Will we have to select the same time for every night using that email reservation system? Or can we specify the couple nights we KNOW we will need later dining due to late ports? How late can you call and cancel/change each evening?

[Duckenz]

Hi we did My time dining while in the Baltics in September.We found it worked well and just made reservations as we left dining room for the time we wanted it for the following night.we managed to have the same wait staff that we liked everynight also.

 

Debbie

[Adammara]

We were in a suite on Indy and were 'confirmed' as having a table for two on second sitting. In the event we placed on a table for 6 second sitting.

 

The concierge was unable to get us a table for 2 on fixed dining, so we were put on 'My Time' dining instead. Long story, but we ended up with another couple on 'My Time' dining every evening 8.30pm with the same waiters on one of two tables!

 

When we go on Indy again we will opt for 'My Time', as it really suited us, we had 2 excellent waiters, very warm to hot food, and often recieved extra portions of food without asking. A request for 2 sweets was not a problem, probally why I put so much weight on!

 

On one occasion we could not get 'our' waiters, and were given a window table with different waiters, again, they were wonderful. We tried Chops and Portofino, and enjoyed them, but did not really think they were worth the extra, considering the service we had in the MDR.

 

After 30 cruises on fixed dining, our first experience of the flexible dining, was in Blu on Eclipse last year, and we loved the option of dining when it suited us, we went anytime between between 7.30pm and 9.15pm, and were usually seated immediately, had to wait a couple of times to get 'our'

waiters.

 

Richard

[Scoobydobe7]

We love MTD - we like to going with the flow - If we want to eat later we do, if we do not want to eat in the dining room we don't - It is nice to have the choice of where and when - Try it, you might like it!!!

[andersonrm]

We are trying MTD for the first time on our upcoming Voyager cruise. We did make reservations for 7:00 p.m. nightly as I'm assuming our cruise will be pretty full during spring break. My question is, what if you are not there right at your appointed reservation time? Do you lose your reservation? We are not planning on being late, but wondered what might happen if you were.

[Cruising89143]

We are trying MTD for the first time on our upcoming Voyager cruise. We did make reservations for 7:00 p.m. nightly as I'm assuming our cruise will be pretty full during spring break. My question is, what if you are not there right at your appointed reservation time? Do you lose your reservation? We are not planning on being late, but wondered what might happen if you were.

 

There is a very good chance that you will lose your spot and have to wait for a table to open. You're dining at a peak time when tables are going to be in demand.

[traveling1969]

Quote:

Originally Posted by cb at sea

We enjoy having a set table with tablemates....I'm not sure why so many folks are afraid of eating with others...do you drool, or something??? Having folks to talk to is fun! EVeryone onboard is "like-minded"...you are apparently into vacationing, in general, and cruising, specifically...

If you are pleasant, then you will have a great time, and look forward to dinner with your "dinner friends" nightly!

 

The OP was asking about MTD. Your comments do not help her one bit and why do you care why others want to dine alone?:rolleyes:

 

OP, I have tried MTD on four cruised. All but one cruise it worked just fine. The only ship where I had issues was the Adventure. I do agree that it can vary by ship. Some seem to do a better job with it than others but overall for us, we enjoy it and prefer it over traditional.

__________________

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Thank you for this reply. I too am tired of those folks who opine that dining alone is somehow a mistake and if we choose to, we're somehow missing out. That said, to the OP: we did MTD on our Liberty cruise. We made a reservation for the same time each night but the option for different times is available when you reserve. We enjoyed it and we sat at a table ALL BY OURSELVES! Bon Voyage!

[land lover]

Service and waiting, really comes down to how many people want MTD on your cruise. Each of our 6 experiences have been totally different.

 

Also, the most experienced servers will be your wait staff in MTD.

[bluediving]

Thanks for all the responses, most helpful. We have been lucky enought o travel many times on RCCL and always had second sitting on a large table which we have enjoyed. More recently we have enjoyed the grill experience on Cunard and also travelled on Seabourn. With both of these we have not been tied to fixed times which has suited us hence our decision to try MTD. From the comments I think we should give it a go. Thanks for all the comments.:)

[Oscar_the_Grouch's_Sis]

the op was asking about mtd. Your comments do not help her one bit and why do you care why others want to dine alone?:rolleyes:

 

 

THANK YOU!!!! I needed that!! :D :cool: :p

[9ersRule]

Just booked to travel on Brilliance from Dubai, 12 day India cruise. We have booked anytime dining but so far only read poor reviews of this and are now having second thoughts. Anyone have recent experience and what would people advise. Many thanks

 

We were on the Adventure OTS over Christmas. MTD was not well organized. Had standing reservations for 7:15PM. Had to wait each day and they always were surprised that we wished a table for four. Wait staff was efficient but we never saw the Head Waiter. Not sure why we have to tip him.

 

We were happy with the food.

 

On past cruises we had early dining and it worked perfectly. Will not use MTD again.