another MTD vs. early seating question

[kimberlym4]

When booking our cruise, I had wanted early seating but was waitlisted and assigned to MTD. I was a bit disappointed but since then I have read here that many are happy with MTD. I still really prefer early seating except on one of the port days when I think we'd rather eat later. On that day, can we use MTD and stay with our early seating on all the other nights? If not, I am considering moving us back to MTD. I know we could always use the Windjammer but I really do not want to miss out on the main dining room.

[dacsmom]

You cannot switch from one to the other, you have to decide and stick with just one. Why not make reservations for a 6:00 MTD time and later the one night. That way you will probably have the same waitstaff.

[leaveitallbehind]

When booking our cruise, I had wanted early seating but was waitlisted and assigned to MTD. I was a bit disappointed but since then I have read here that many are happy with MTD. I still really prefer early seating except on one of the port days when I think we'd rather eat later. On that day, can we use MTD and stay with our early seating on all the other nights? If not, I am considering moving us back to MTD. I know we could always use the Windjammer but I really do not want to miss out on the main dining room.

 

No, you cannot use both - you have to either choose traditional fixed seating or MTD. However, you can make early reservations similar to that with early seating with MTD and request the same table and wait staff if desired. RCI will accommodate you with this. That way you can keep the early times you want but have the flexibility to change as needed. Keep in mind with MTD you will prepay your gratuities.

 

BTW we are one of those who really like MTD for the flexibility.

Edited June 5, 2014 by leaveitallbehind

[bearette]

Since you want to eat late one night MTD is perfect. You can eat when you want. You can make reservations to help get the same waitstaff or just show up.

 

It is considered rude to take traditional and then try to use my time dinning. You are preventing someone else from enjoying traditional if you are planning on switching dinner times.

 

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[negc]

As someone has already suggested, your best option is to replicate early traditional dining when you choose the My Time Dining option. Choose to dine around 6 pm each evening in MTD and at a later time the one evening when your schedule makes 6pm unworkable. You can likely have the same wait staff each evening, including, if you can align your schedule with theirs, the late night. If you are determined to have traditional dining, you can, on that late night, choose to dine in the Windjammer, or make a reservation in one of the specialty restaurants.

[schlimazel_traveler]

There was a family on our cruise who wanted to change from late seating to MTD before the first night's dinner. They were told MTD was full.

 

The other advantage of doing the MTD and making your reservations for 6 PM each night is that you won't get surprised by having the time changed to 5:30, which happened to everyone who booked 6 PM traditional on our cruise.

 

6 PM is ok--5:30 is just too darn early for me!

 

The only downside to MTD, I thought, was that we did not always have the same waiter. We had one team for two nights and another team for three nights. (We ate in the Windjammer on formal nights.) But their stations were right next to each other.

 

If you like to watch the waitstaff perform, you might not be able to see it from the upper level, or if you eat in between traditional seatings as we did.

 

(Another downside is having to prepay the gratuities. That is irritating.)

[kimberlym4]

Thanks for your responses! I think I may go back to MTD, do you know how early I can request dining times on line?

 

By the way, I know that as someone mentioned, gratuities are charged ahead for MTD and they did get added on to my outstanding balance. Now, that they have moved me off the waitlist to traditional dining the gratuities remain on my outstanding balance. Not a big deal to me - pay upfront or pay later - but not how I thought it would be done.

[cb at sea]

Personally, I think they try to get as many into MTD as possible, to "pre charge" the gratuities! But, like you said...pay now or pay later...it all comes out the same!

 

We like traditional seating, as we enjoy tablemates. In MTD, you are very unlikely to have tablemates, even if you want them....most MTDers like to eat alone.

[Clarea]

Thanks for your responses! I think I may go back to MTD, do you know how early I can request dining times on line?

 

By the way, I know that as someone mentioned, gratuities are charged ahead for MTD and they did get added on to my outstanding balance. Now, that they have moved me off the waitlist to traditional dining the gratuities remain on my outstanding balance. Not a big deal to me - pay upfront or pay later - but not how I thought it would be done.

Now that you are on traditional dining, you can contact whoever booked your cruise and have prepaid gratuities removed if you wish.

[kimberlym4]

LOL.. I guess it doesn't matter! Just went to my reservation to change back to MTD and now there is a waitlist for IT! Too funny.

[OCruisers]

Lots of people are now beginning to realize the benefits of MRD so it's becoming "wait listed" at times useless booked early ... not as easy to change over to MDT from TD as it once was.

LuLu

[mr walker]

We like traditional seating, as we enjoy tablemates. In MTD, you are very unlikely to have tablemates, even if you want them....most MTDers like to eat alone.

 

Maybe it was because we were downunder, but at MTD we [DW & me] had tablemates on all 14 nights of our Voyager cruise, as many as 10 of us.

[tomatosauce]

Maybe it was because we were downunder, but at MTD we [DW & me] had tablemates on all 14 nights of our Voyager cruise, as many as 10 of us.

 

I am a solo traveler and I have only once been put at a table by myself. On my last Voyager cruise (Singapore to Sydney last year) I kept on having repeat tablemates even though I just turned up when I felt like it.

[mlbcruiser]

Tomatosauce, that's kind of good to hear. When RCCL first began MyTimeDining, we (usually late seating lovers) tried it, thinking it would be the same as when we did it on the Coral Princess. The hosts there were very good at asking if you wanted to dine w/others and encouraging this. Completely the opposite experience on RCCL. We are going to try it again in spring w/a group of friends, so it won't be an issue.

[aussielozzie18]

I have the reverse problem. I booked almost a year out and was told MTD was full and that I have to have a fixed dining booking. I would much prefer the flexibility of MTD.

[jd07]

We had MTD on radiance for 18 days. Even when we had a table for two tables were so close together it was easy to chat. Meet so many great people which we constantly bumped into around the ship. And we always has someone to dance with in the club :). The freedom of dinning whenever we wanted was great.

 

 

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[Envelope21]

The flexibility of MTD is really nice, but we do like the idea of having table mates. The last two times we had MTD, we always requested to be sat with others, but we always ended up sitting by ourselves.

 

I wonder if it might help if we asked the concierge to reserve our table for us and specifically ask that we dine with others. Has anyone tried that?

[tserface]

They work really hard to join you at a table if you want or put you at a table for two if you request that. They also really try hard to keep you at the same table with the same waitstaff. On our recent B2B cruise we had the same waitstaff for both cruises. On the first we were at a table for 8 with mostly the same people every night (a couple left to do specialty dining one night). They even noted the table so when we walked up they remembered us each night and just directed us to the table just as if it were traditional dining.

 

If you go at the same time every night they try to make it as much like traditional as possible.

 

I like MTD more than ever.

 

Tom

 

The flexibility of MTD is really nice, but we do like the idea of having table mates. The last two times we had MTD, we always requested to be sat with others, but we always ended up sitting by ourselves.

 

I wonder if it might help if we asked the concierge to reserve our table for us and specifically ask that we dine with others. Has anyone tried that?

[negc]

I have the reverse problem. I booked almost a year out and was told MTD was full and that I have to have a fixed dining booking. I would much prefer the flexibility of MTD.

 

Check when you first board the ship and it may be possible for them to shift you to MTD.

[Envelope21]

They work really hard to join you at a table if you want or put you at a table for two if you request that. They also really try hard to keep you at the same table with the same waitstaff. On our recent B2B cruise we had the same waitstaff for both cruises. On the first we were at a table for 8 with mostly the same people every night (a couple left to do specialty dining one night). They even noted the table so when we walked up they remembered us each night and just directed us to the table just as if it were traditional dining.

 

If you go at the same time every night they try to make it as much like traditional as possible.

 

I like MTD more than ever.

 

Tom

 

Thanks, Tom. Maybe that was the problem, we went at different times every night. Our next cruise is tomorrow and we have MTD, so we can give it a try! Thanks!