No more Traditional Dining reservations taken effective January 1, 2015

[John&LaLa]

We're booked for Freedom in June 2015, and we were able to book late traditional dining. Seems everyone has had a different experience when booking.

 

Put us down for still having traditional dining booked for 8 of 9 next cruises. The April Oasis is DD, it used to be traditional as well, but it magically changed

[fishtaco]

Why not? NCL does daily auto gratuity.

 

If you think not then try to explain why MTD on RCCL can only be secured with "Pre Paid Grats":confused:

 

What is so special or different about MTD on RCCL that it "Must" require cruisers to pre pay all gratuities even those for the cabin attendant that has absolutely nothing at all to do with a dinning option:confused:

 

MTD was a new introduction of a dinning experience that many if not most jumped at the chance of securing.

 

NCL fleet is not RCCL fleet.

 

Or do you believe that a DD dinning will bring no necessity for pre paid grats? If so what are your thoughts on why MTD require pre paid grats?

 

MTD requires pre paid grats for one reason and one reason only, to stop some from "Stiffing"on grats.

 

A future DD without pre paid grats would fly against why RCCL introduced compulsory grats for MTD.

 

Perhaps it is I that is Stupid:confused:

[Ourusualbeach]

If you think not then try to explain why MTD on RCCL can only be secured with "Pre Paid Grats":confused:

 

What is so special or different about MTD on RCCL that it "Must" require cruisers to pre pay all gratuities even those for the cabin attendant that has absolutely nothing at all to do with a dinning option:confused:

 

MTD was a new introduction of a dinning experience that many if not most jumped at the chance of securing.

 

NCL fleet is not RCCL fleet.

 

Or do you believe that a DD dinning will bring no necessity for pre paid grats? If so what are your thoughts on why MTD require pre paid grats?

 

MTD requires pre paid grats for one reason and one reason only, to stop some from "Stiffing"on grats.

 

A future DD without pre paid grats would fly against why RCCL introduced compulsory grats for MTD.

 

Perhaps it is I that is Stupid:confused:

 

But don't forget that when MTD was introduced all gratuities were paid in cash by guests directly to waiters, assistant waiters and cabin attendants directly at the end of the week. This made it difficult with MTD to tip as you could possibly have to tip 3 different people every night and many would not do this.

 

Once the automatic daily gratuities started being added to the Seapass card on a daily basis there really is no reason for the prepaid gratuities.

 

Prepaid gratuities are a legacy system that really is not needed anymore and hopefully will be phased out with DD.

[LMaxwell]

 

MTD requires pre paid grats for one reason and one reason only, to stop some from "Stiffing"on grats.

 

 

That may have been potentially true when it tips were not added to onboard accounts, but now that they are the only reason MTD must pay ahead is to play "bank" for RCI. They get all that money 2-3 months before a cruise, it sits in bank accounts earning interest and then gets disbursed when? 2 weeks? 4 weeks? 6 weeks after a cruise? So there is a tremendous amount of money always in that account earning interest. There's no legitimate other reason to treat one set of guests differently than another; they could just as easily charge everyones account daily.

 

I firmly believe with DD that prepaid grats are going to be mandatory and that the use of OBC for tips will end. Traditional dining will likely remain on smaller ships though. This is my opinion and we will see in the coming months what happens.

[ncb106]

i booked 8 cabins yesterday for my friends on the liberty in may 21 2015 they all have traditonal dinning for 600 pm.

[LMaxwell]

Once the automatic daily gratuities started being added to the Seapass card on a daily basis there really is no reason for the prepaid gratuities.

 

Prepaid gratuities are a legacy system that really is not needed anymore and hopefully will be phased out with DD.

 

I agree with you but I don't think we are going to have that outcome unfortunately.

[PSCruiser]

We're booked for Freedom in June 2015, and we were able to book late traditional dining. Seems everyone has had a different experience when booking.

 

That's only because the way dining fills up is different on every cruise.

This thread is what happens when an observation is made (no reservations available for traditional dining on a certain cruise) and this is extrapolated into an incorrect hypothesis (we are seeing the end of traditional dining)!

[moesyk4]

I have no issues with MTD, but sincerely dislike prepaying tips...I have never once removed tips but for us, cruising is a luxury and we spend very little on board...generally less than $50 total when you don't include tips. We don't drink on board except maybe 1 or 2 the whole time, we don't gamble, we don't buy stuff at the stores, and we do private excursions. On this upcoming cruise, we should have approximately $400 in OBC. Basically, it would RCCLs of forcing us to pay twice. Not sure how much of OBC is refundable vs. not, haven't looked into it that much, but we will have to come up with an additional $400 towards tips 3 months before the cruise that we wouldn't have had to before.

[Folk Singer]

Just make a reservation everyday for 6pm. That makes it simple.

 

 

Simple is good.

[John&LaLa]

I have no issues with MTD, but sincerely dislike prepaying tips...I have never once removed tips but for us, cruising is a luxury and we spend very little on board...generally less than $50 total when you don't include tips. We don't drink on board except maybe 1 or 2 the whole time, we don't gamble, we don't buy stuff at the stores, and we do private excursions. On this upcoming cruise, we should have approximately $400 in OBC. Basically, it would RCCLs of forcing us to pay twice. Not sure how much of OBC is refundable vs. not, haven't looked into it that much, but we will have to come up with an additional $400 towards tips 3 months before the cruise that we wouldn't have had to before.

 

Have your TA provide free grants instead of OBC

 

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[MaddyandMax]

I am sailing on the Liberty in exactly a year and have 6:00pm traditional dining. We booked almost 6 months ago and when we tried to reserve early dining we were told it was already full. We has to haggle with them and indicate that 8:00 pm dining is too later when you are traveling with 2 three year olds, a 5 year old and a 10 year old. We were finally able to reserve the early dining. So I'm wondering if that problem was just that the dining time the OP wanted was already completely booked.