Your Time Dining

[musik07]

I am going on the Glory in May with my best friend ( a first time cruiser) and I have mainly cruised on Royal (my parents line of choice) so I am not sure how the Your Time dining works. Do we need to make reservations and will we get to sit with other people? I know when I have done it on Royal we need reservations and we always were at a table for just the 4 people who were traveling. I think the two of us would really enjoy the flexibility (as long as we didn't have a long wait) and would like to sit with other people as well. Should we stick with our early dining (we may change to late yet!) or try the your time?

[*Mach*]

No reservations are required... just show up when you'd like to be seated for dinner.

If you would like to be seated at a larger table you can ask the Maitre d' when you arrive at the dining room and they can manage your request.

:)

[Fla Mike]

We did YTD on the Miracle in January, just two of us.

 

Now this was just a weekend cruise, so longer ones may be different, but it was packed each night with lines.

 

Our check in area was the upper level, no reservations, I do not think they take them.

 

Both nights we went about 7:30 PM.

 

The first night we waited on line about 15 minutes, and were told that id we wanted a table for 2 it would be about 15 more minutes, we chose to share a table with another very nice couple.

 

The 2nd night same line, but we chose to wait for a 2 top. About 35 minutes after the original 15, a two drink wait :D

 

They gave us one of those beeper things with all the lights like you get at Outback.

 

I am still mixed about it, we booked another CCL cruise in October and just went with late seating.

 

We are doing a Celebrity Cruise in May and keep the YTD though, I want to see how another line does it.

[BeccaBecca1713]

Are you already confirmed for a particular seating? At this point it would be difficult to switch, as your options would probably be to get waitlisted.

 

We did ATD on our last cruise. We only went 3 times to the MDR that cruise. Waited the first night for about 5 minutes with a beeper thingy, the other 2 nights walked right in. We usually went around 7-730pm. Service was not as good. Waiters looked irritated and our food took FOREVER to come out. Me and hubs usually just prefer to hit up the buffet or deli for most of the cruise.

 

EDIT: I actually just looked at your sailing and all 3 dining times are still listed as available!

[firefly333]

Odd you needed reservations on RCL as its not required for others.. maybe you had that option and because they suggested it thought it was required.

 

Any time on Carnival works exactly the same as on RCL, you can ask for a certain time and waiter if you run into one you like .. or not.. both work the exact same.

[Lydia B.]

We have done anytime dining the last 2 cruises, I still kind of prefer the late seating...but I am a bit of a type A personality.

And if you like the staff entertainment (I still enjoy it) then keep in mind that the any time dining is usually the main level, but to the far edges of the dining room and you can't see much of the action. To each their own, Lydia of Ohio

[Barsnikel]

We've done both YTD as well as assigned seating. We prefer YTD. Never had a problem with it. No lines, services was excellent. We always were seated at a table for 2 (but we never requested anything different).

 

I would suggest, for the benefit of the 1st time cruiser, you go with assigned seating instead of YTD. There is a lot of fun in meeting other people, comparing stories, etc... but for ourselves, we now prefer YTD.

[Martini Mom]

We did ATD on our last cruise. Service was not as good. Waiters looked irritated and our food took FOREVER to come out.

We felt the same way when we tried ATD on our last cruise in July. It's back to assigned dining for our April cruise. :D

[evergladesgator]

On our last cruise on the Miracle, YTD was TTD their time dining. We waited over an hour on the second day and dw changed us to regular seating at the early dining. Much better.

[laumicmah]

We did YTD on the Glory this past August. I'd suggest that you go early or late because from 6:30-7:45 it can be crowded and you may have a wait. Elegant night especially. If you go right around 5:45-6:00, you may be seated by the window. You can ask to be put with other folks or you can just dine at a 2 person table (you can alternate if you like). You can also request the same staff each night, but may have to wait. You can get a pager and go sit in the lobby bar area while you wait and they usually have a band or karaoke going on at that time. Honestly, if I were going back on the Glory I would just do traditional early seating.

[ChefSusan]

The only time we've ever had an issue with assigned seating for dinner was on our previous cruise - had to constantly ask for water and bread, we were always the last table in our wait team's section to be served, and it seemed like dinner took the full two hours every night. The only reason why we did assigned seating is because we were with first time cruisers, and we wanted to give them the full dining experience.

 

When we've done YTD, we have never run into these problems - always seated in our favorite wait team's section nightly (if there was a wait we'd get a pager and go have a drink), food came out on time, and we never had to ask for anything!