Mtd vs set time dining

[united4life]

I'm just curious on how fellow CC members feel which is better for dinner. Mtd or early dining time. I don't really like that RCL made me pay for gratituities up front because I chose Mtd. What if I get bad service or wanna tip a certain crew member more?

[gcvt]

We love MTD because we hate having to be anywhere at a certain time. I wouldn't worry about getting bad service at all! If you want to tip extra for exceptional service, you can just add cash in the envelope(s) they give you with your pre-paid vouchers.

[davekathy]

I'm just curious on how fellow CC members feel which is better for dinner. Mtd or early dining time. I don't really like that RCL made me pay for gratituities up front because I chose Mtd. What if I get bad service or wanna tip a certain crew member more?

 

I can't say one is better than the other. For us we perfer early traditional.

[newbiecruiser09]

We've done MTD twice and enjoyed it both times. Liked the flexibility of being able to set our own schedules. Service both times was excellent We had the same tables and same wait staff every night. You are free to tip more if you want for good service. If service is ever bad, talk to the head waiter or matre de.

[megr1125]

LOVE MTD!

 

You pay your gratuities ahead as you may not have the same servers every night...unless you ask for same time, same servers, same table...

 

you can always add additional cash at the end..you'll get vouchers and envelopes-you can add cash to these.

 

as for bad service? well...it is their JOB to assure you get good service. if there are issues (and remember...the 1st night almost ALWAYS is a little disorganized..) speak to the maitre d or head waiter...they will be happy to assist and switch your table....

 

only the best servers are selected to serve MTD....and getting bad critiques on comment cards has a direct connection to the money they make....and can, in some cases, lead to termination...

 

Sooooo.....give it a try. Have I always had perfect service from the get-go? Nope...BUT do i tell someone who has the power to fix it? You bet! Does it improve? I wouldn't be Diamond Plus with 2 more booked if I wasn't a happy camper...and having spent 25 years in customer service, including 6 in hotel...I would say i am pretty picky!

 

I like to call MTD Meg's Time Dining..as i get the same table, same time, same servers every night! (Gotta be sure to keep up my addiction to potato croquettes! MUCH easier to have the same servers!)

[united4life]

Thanks for great information. I'm a first time cruiser booked on the allure in November. Looking forward to it

[negc]

I'm just curious on how fellow CC members feel which is better for dinner. Mtd or early dining time. I don't really like that RCL made me pay for gratituities up front because I chose Mtd. What if I get bad service or wanna tip a certain crew member more?

 

If you get bad service, the most effective way of dealing with it is to complain to the head waiter or to guest services and if it continues, make sure to mention the offender in your guest satisfaction survey. If you want to tip a certain crew member more, you are always free to hand him or her a separate gratuity, The reason that they require prepaid tips is to more fairly distribute the gratuities to those who work in that section of the dining room since they may not always have the same guests for the entire cruise. Unless you actually object to the idea of tipping the hard working staff, you are going to tip the same amounts either before or at the end of the cruise, and prepaid gratuities are a more convenient way of tipping for many who otherwise might not want to decide who to tip if they have different servers nightly. Our experience in both traditional and my time dining is that the overall service is excellent and getting substandard service from anyone in the dining room is definitely the exception rather than the rule.

[Cigar King]

I prefer the traditional dining. It gives me the chance to get to know some new people.

[slh182]

I'm going on my first cruise in a couple of days. We chose my time dining because we are private people and really don't care to meet anyone. I'm not a people person. I also don't like the idea of needing to be somewhere at a certain time. I'm often late for things and would hate to interrupt anyone's dinner.

[terpfan101]

I prefer the traditional dining. It gives me the chance to get to know some new people.

 

I've only been on two cruises and only one of which I was seated with people not from my family (traditional dining). However I enjoyed that aspect and am not sure I'd like the MTD constant shuffle as much.

[swedish1]

Luv MTD.....we always get a table for 4 and have never had a problem at around 7pm ish!

[united4life]

For MTD do you usually get a table for two or are you sat with other people. I don't mind just nice to have a nice dinner with your loved one

[jebuell]

I've never cruised without being with a large group, and for groups traditional dining is best so you can all eat together. However, I think if it were just myself and my SO we'd probably go MTD for flexibility.

[Familygoboston]

Never going back ! Since they added MTD it's all I'll do!

 

Yes, you can request to sit all by yourselves, just once or every night if you prefer. You can show up with a new friend and dine with them ( provided they have MTD) or you can ask to be seated with others ( if others entering at that time wish to be seated with others).

 

I like it because it fits my schedule, I don't have to suffer other peoples opinions about whether I'm dressed well enough to enhance their experience or suffer when they are late, or decide to linger for hours over cognac and dessert. I don't usually make dining an event at home and especially not on a cruise ship where the food is only passable anyway. Let's sit down, get served, eat and move on is my motto!:D

[ALSEAU]

We prefer early assign seating. Second seating is to late for our preference. We enjoy meeting and dinning with new cruise mates. Also getting to know our serving staff. Have had MTD only once and eventhough it was convenient we had more dinners in the Windjammer than the Main Dining Room not enough self discipline to get ready without a deadline.

[Beth_55]

We haven't cruised in over 2 years and we did the MTD then. But we had to reserve a time the day before. Just think that kind of defeated the purpose of us eating when we felt like it. Has this changed ?

[Traveling Library]

You don't need to book the day before but you can. We tend to eat at the same time (7-ish) so we made a reservation. Some cruises we've sat at different tables each night and others we've sat with the same people. It really depends on who we meet. We found it to be a nice way to expand our circle of acquaintances.

[gcvt]

Yep, you can call ahead but you don't have to. We just got off Freedom and if you just showed up with a party of 2 or 4 it was no problem to get in real quick, as they just slid two single tables together to make a table for four. Parties of 6, 8, etc. were be seated at round tables so maybe they had to wait a few minutes. We never saw many people waiting outside the dining room entrance though.

[househunter]

We love MTD and won't do anything else! At home we don't eat at exactly the same time for dinner each night, we eat when we're hungry. We really hate to be told what time we will be hungry for dinner especially on vacation.

 

Some days we may sleep in and have a late breakfast/early lunch and others we may have only a late lunch. Maybe one night we want to see a show before dinner and the next after. We feel that WE should get to choose when and where we eat.

 

We also deal with people every day in our jobs and our vacations are time to spend together. We do not want to make small talk with people we don't know at dinner. We may meet another couple we like in a bar or on deck and make plans to dine with them one night but the next we can eat alone.

 

I know there are still people who prefer traditional and that is great- for them! Do what you think will work best for you, there is no better or worse way to go, it just depends on you!

[cb at sea]

We like tablemates, so we choose traditional dining. At MTD, you can't always be sure of having others to eat with.

 

We spend all day together and it's nice to have others to talk with for an hour or two at dinner!

[cruisinck]

After 25 cruises Dh and I tried my time dinning in November and loved it. We were on a back to back on Liberty and had the traditional at 6 as we have always had. The first 4 days we had great tables mates and wonderful service. The second 5 days started out bad. Now I know that the first night is always crazy and being Thanksgiving week and all but our waiter or assistant waiter did not come to our table for 45 min and we had nothing in common with our table mates. After dinner we found our head waiter from the week before and he was in the MTD area so we tried it and enjoyed going a little later at 6:30 and we sat at a table for 2. On our next Liberty cruise in January we again did MTD and when asked if we wanted a large or small table we didn't care so they sat us at a table for 10. We really enjoyed everyone we sat with. I don't think we will ever go back to traditional.