My Time Dining - Am I Missing Something?

[packercruising]

Also, if you make reservations, you have more control over where you sit. We usually like our table and wait staff and can request them specifically.

[CapeCodCruiser]

Call me crazy...I just don't get all the reservations for MTD. The whole point of MTD is the ability to show up at whatever time every day depending on what you are doing/want.

 

Why not just pick traditional dining if you are still going to commit to show up at the same time everyday?

 

We have done it on 3 or 4 cruises now and love it - just show up. I think the longest we have ever waited was 15 minutes on a formal night.

[Clarea]

Call me crazy...I just don't get all the reservations for MTD. The whole point of MTD is the ability to show up at whatever time every day depending on what you are doing/want.

 

Why not just pick traditional dining if you are still going to commit to show up at the same time everyday?

 

We have done it on 3 or 4 cruises now and love it - just show up. I think the longest we have ever waited was 15 minutes on a formal night.

There are some folks who find the early traditional dining too early and the late traditional dining too late, so a fixed MTD time works better for them.

 

I always suspect a conspiracy and think that when the cruise line sets early dining at 5:30pm, they are trying to move people to MTD.

[stlouistravelers]

The "popular" time slot (6:30-7"45) is never avail. for pre-booking. You can do that when you board. Make 1 reservation for the 1st night...do the rest as soon as you board.

 

I just booked 630 in pre booking. It may just be the ship. You also have a radio button to select the same guest for all reservations. Then you get to select your venue.

[dolphingirl47]

Call me crazy...I just don't get all the reservations for MTD. The whole point of MTD is the ability to show up at whatever time every day depending on what you are doing/want.

 

Why not just pick traditional dining if you are still going to commit to show up at the same time everyday?

 

We have done it on 3 or 4 cruises now and love it - just show up. I think the longest we have ever waited was 15 minutes on a formal night.

 

I most certainly have not booked the same time every night. Our reservation times range from 6:00 to 9:00. The reason why I wanted to make reservations is that during our only cruise experience where we did not have assigned seating, we had to stand in a line that went the full length of the deck to even get a pager. After the second night of this, we just did speciality dining. We could just stick with traditional dining, but early dining is too early for us and my husband does not eat late every day.

 

Corinna

[molsonschooner]

In 2025 when I finally make Diamond + I'll be sitting all by myself in late traditional dining! I guess I'll be the last one to give it up :p

 

Haha. That is our favourite time as well

[packercruising]

Call me crazy...I just don't get all the reservations for MTD. The whole point of MTD is the ability to show up at whatever time every day depending on what you are doing/want.

 

Why not just pick traditional dining if you are still going to commit to show up at the same time everyday?

 

We have done it on 3 or 4 cruises now and love it - just show up. I think the longest we have ever waited was 15 minutes on a formal night.

 

Whichever way suits you best is the way to go. You do not have to commit to the same time every day, or the same servers. Oddly enough, plans change on the ship. With traditional dining, you are stuck. :D

[mattg43]

I still don't have a grasp on the whole traditional vs MTD vs making reservations for specific times.

 

We are currently set up for Traditional at 830 for an Oct Oasis cruise. I have separately gone in and set up a reservation for the first night at 6:30 (although the last time I call RC, the rep didn't see that in the system so I have to verify).

 

We are also on the MTD wait list.

 

 

On our last cruise (Enchantment Feb 2016) we had MTD. My wife set up a reservation after we boarded and after dinner each night, we just set up a new one for the next night. We did that for each of the remaining nights. We always had a table for 2.

 

I think I read recently where MTD is where they put you in with whomever to fill a table? We never had that issue - was that because we always set a reservation? We are taking our 3 boys this time and would rather not be seated with strangers, so should I get off the MTD wait list?

[Clarea]

...

I think I read recently where MTD is where they put you in with whomever to fill a table? We never had that issue - was that because we always set a reservation? We are taking our 3 boys this time and would rather not be seated with strangers, so should I get off the MTD wait list?

Traditional is where they may put you at a table with others.

 

With MTD, they assume you want your own table unless you tell them otherwise.

[53sunset]

We are on my time dining for our first cruise with our young son later this month. We plan to head down as soon as the restaurant opens - is it worth booking a time or does it tend to be easy to get a table that early?

 

We always use My Time dining and usually go as soon as the dining room is open because we like to have the rest of the evening for entertainment. We have hardly ever had to wait more than 5 minutes at the most.

Enjoy your first cruise. :)

[packercruising]

 

 

On our last cruise (Enchantment Feb 2016) we had MTD. My wife set up a reservation after we boarded and after dinner each night, we just set up a new one for the next night. We did that for each of the remaining nights. We always had a table for 2.

 

 

Sounds like you understand it really well. This is usually the way we do it too, or we wait until next day when we see what is on the menu. Depending on the ship and dining room, tables for two can be close to other tables for two. It gives us a chance to meet other people and affords a degree of privacy.

[aviator1945]

Also, if you make reservations, you have more control over where you sit. We usually like our table and wait staff and can request them specifically.

 

I agree. In addition to having made MTD reservations beforehand online in the Cruise Planner, we have on most of our recent cruises followed this up in the MDR assigned to MTD, which has been open from just about when the first guests board until about 3:30pm, enabling us to get a good table location and in some cases even servers that we have previously had. The exact place and time for this is usually posted in the Cruise Compass Boarding Day Edition (the flyer that you get in the terminal during.check-in prior to boarding the ship).

[packercruising]

We have never had the same servers for two different cruises except a B2B. That must be neat. We just never saw the advantage of reserving MTD online. Maybe we have just been really lucky with the servers we have had. They have been great. The only couple times we have had servers we did not like, we had traditional dining. Go figure.

[DragonOfTheSeas]

It usually does.

 

I think that the TA will be a good place for you to try MTD. There is so much leisure/down time on a TA that there is less pressure with getting on and off the ship, getting back for a dinner time, etc. Much easier to "go with the flow".

 

I would love to have dinner one night with you guys. ;)

 

Then ask to be waitlisted for late traditional.

 

--yes, we have done a couple of TAs and feel this would be a good time to try out MTD. [i should not knock it until I try it, correct?]

 

Merion Mom It would be great to meet you on the ship. I love reading your posts.

[KansasK]

There are some folks who find the early traditional dining too early and the late traditional dining too late, so a fixed MTD time works better for them.

 

I always suspect a conspiracy and think that when the cruise line sets early dining at 5:30pm, they are trying to move people to MTD.

 

I think they are pushing early dinner to earlier times, too. For a while I thought the 5:30 early traditional time was because dinner takes longer with fewer staff.

 

5:30 means some afternoon excursions are coming back just an hour earlier, instead of an hour and half or so before dinner. My husband had a dive in Belize and we missed dinner because his excursion got back late.

 

For my last two cruises, the Navigator had 5:30 early traditional dinner. The Allure had 6:00 early dinner.

[impatientlywaiting]

The "popular" time slot (6:30-7"45) is never avail. for pre-booking. You can do that when you board. Make 1 reservation for the 1st night...do the rest as soon as you board.

 

That is definitely not true. I just pre-booked our MTD for our b2b next month for 6:30 for all 29 days. :D

[impatientlywaiting]

First of all, I know that I do not have to make advance reservations for dining, but after an absolutely horrible dining experience on NCL where we spent ages standing in line to get dinner, I feel happier to have a reservation to fall back on.

 

Dining reservations opened sometime yesterday PM for our next cruise. When I am trying to make reservations, there are times available in 15 minute slots from 5:30 to 6:30, nothing from 6:30 and 7:45 and then again in 15 minute slots from 7:45 to closing. Do they simply now seat people between 6:30 and 7:45 or are those slots already gone?

 

I have made reservations for the first three days and I am finding the process a little cumbersome. For every day I have to select the guests, the date and time, check out and then rinse and repeat. Can the reservations really only be done one by one or is there a quicker way of doing this?

 

Corinna

 

The quickest way I've found - call Crown & Anchor and have them do it! When it's done, before you get off the phone, they send you a confirmation email!

[dolphingirl47]

The quickest way I've found - call Crown & Anchor and have them do it! When it's done, before you get off the phone, they send you a confirmation email!

 

Thanks, I will remember this for next time.

 

Corinna

[Half Pint]

Call me crazy...I just don't get all the reservations for MTD. The whole point of MTD is the ability to show up at whatever time every day depending on what you are doing/want.

 

Why not just pick traditional dining if you are still going to commit to show up at the same time everyday?

 

We have done it on 3 or 4 cruises now and love it - just show up. I think the longest we have ever waited was 15 minutes on a formal night.

I was going to say the same thing. If you're going to make a reservation, use the traditional dining times and leave MTD to those of us that want to use it as intended.

[mom2tcdx2]

The "popular" time slot (6:30-7"45) is never avail. for pre-booking. You can do that when you board. Make 1 reservation for the 1st night...do the rest as soon as you board.

 

Is this a new change or ship specific? Reason I ask is in February I did reservations for 4 ahead of time and all three nights I booked 7 PM.

[packercruising]

I was going to say the same thing. If you're going to make a reservation, use the traditional dining times and leave MTD to those of us that want to use it as intended.

 

Absolutely! The big advantage of MTD is its flexibility.

 

Go Packers!

[mtu_huskies]

I was going to say the same thing. If you're going to make a reservation, use the traditional dining times and leave MTD to those of us that want to use it as intended.

 

I wish I could! We are traditionally late dining, but with a 2yo and 4yo, and 5:30 being so early (it's kind of link 4:30 central time that we're used to) we are doing MTD all at the same time all week. We could've handled 6PM like I see on so many other ships, but 5:30 is pushing it for being too early.

[Biker19]

Is this a new change or ship specific?

 

Even on a certain ship it can be different - on Freedom 7 PM slots were available last Nov but not available for this Dec (nothing between 5:45 and 7:30).

 

BTW, MTD booking became available 117+ days out on Freedom.

[Earthworm Jim]

I was going to say the same thing. If you're going to make a reservation, use the traditional dining times and leave MTD to those of us that want to use it as intended.

 

But it's my understanding there are few tables for two in traditional, is that correct? If you don't want to be seated with someone else, aren't you almost forced to go MTD?

[Clarea]

But it's my understanding there are few tables for two in traditional, is that correct? If you don't want to be seated with someone else, aren't you almost forced to go MTD?

It's been our experience that there are a small number of tables for two in traditional dining.