Choas in mdr?

[Rjh8842]

I have read a few posts recently that have mentioned choas at the mdr. I have only saled Disney as an adult. With disney you arrive and are immediatly walked to the table by the servers. Simple. Is the process different at rccl? And if it is mayhem how do you avoid it? Tia.

[atnolan94]

Depends on the ship and dining style. There are multiple options. is there a particular cruise you are looking at?

[Rjh8842]

We are sailing the independence.

[atnolan94]

If you booked "traditional dining" you will sit at the same table at the same time every day. Very easy. For My Time, you make reservations in advance to avoid the chaos. If you do not make reservations in advance you can wait for a table, but thats when you find yourself in the "chaos." I'm a traditional dining guy.

[setsail]

It's a free for all

[theboss7593]

Even though I've only been on one cruise (last January -INDY) a ship that was close to capacity... we never once had an issue and we never made any reservations or any of that non-sense. Just showed up and chowed...

[atnolan94]

Even though I've only been on one cruise (last January -INDY) a ship that was close to capacity... we never once had an issue and we never made any reservations or any of that non-sense. Just showed up and chowed...

 

Thanks for the input...

 

FWIW I have only done traditional dining. With My Time, all my experience is based on what I read here. And of course everything you read here need to be taken with 35,000 grains of salt. (Or freshly ground pepper, for those who get the reference)

[Larry&Darla]

I am only replying to complain that we didn't have Choas in the MDR on any of our cruises !!!!

If somebody else got Choas then I am entitled to Choas and if I don't

get Choas I want some onboard credit or free chocolate covered strawberries.

 

Or a free drink or something else really valuable and free to me.

 

I I don't get Im going to Guest Services and creating CHAOS !:rolleyes:

 

 

actually Ive only done my time dining once and we had reservations for same time every night, with same table and same waiters. felt like traditional dining to me .

[Bobblehat71]

Even though I've only been on one cruise (last January -INDY) a ship that was close to capacity... we never once had an issue and we never made any reservations or any of that non-sense. Just showed up and chowed...

 

+1

 

Never an issue with My time dining or traditional.

[papaflamingo]

i am only replying to complain that we didn't have choas in the mdr on any of our cruises !!!!

If somebody else got choas then i am entitled to choas and if i don't

get choas i want some onboard credit or free chocolate covered strawberries.

 

Or a free drink or something else really valuable and free to me.

 

I i don't get im going to guest services and creating chaos !:rolleyes:

 

 

Actually ive only done my time dining once and we had reservations for same time every night, with same table and same waiters. Felt like traditional dining to me .

 

lol....:) :)

[nelblu]

Chaos, it's probably the same vocal people that complained about DD. lol

[BillOh]

I have read a few posts recently that have mentioned choas at the mdr. I have only saled Disney as an adult. With disney you arrive and are immediatly walked to the table by the servers. Simple. Is the process different at rccl? And if it is mayhem how do you avoid it? Tia.

 

If you do traditional dining, you are escorted to your table the first night, then afterward make your own way.

[sergeant655]

It is organized in the mdr for traditional. Last night a whole table managed to get the wrong deck and a few seapass catds had different tables on the cards to what they have on thier computers. My time is now on deck 3 and has 3 lines. On the left is the walk up line, the centre is the has reservations line and the right is a priority Line for suites and pinnicle. Service can lag a bit sometimes and the tables seem to be placed close together

[rbschultz]

I have read a few posts recently that have mentioned choas at the mdr. I have only saled Disney as an adult. With disney you arrive and are immediatly walked to the table by the servers. Simple. Is the process different at rccl? And if it is mayhem how do you avoid it? Tia.

 

If you're doing classic dining the first night could be a little hectic. The doors open and there are servers/maitre'ds waiting to show you where your table is if you hadn't already scoped it out. Generally we go find out table first thing when we arrive on the boat so we can just walk by the mass of people. After the first day the doors open and people just walk to their assigned tables.

[bouhunter]

You shouldn't have any problems being seated or served. Now, with that many people and servers in one place the general overall atmosphere is somewhat chaotic. One of the reasons we rarely visit MDR any more.

[breezy_carol]

actually Ive only done my time dining once and we had reservations for same time every night, with same table and same waiters. felt like traditional dining to me .

I have only cruised once and this was my experience. Never experienced Chaos anywhere.

[Tin can]

Never seen chaos but have just seen MTD pushed to its limit on our recent Navigator cruise and it seemed to cope reasonably well :)

 

There were 900+ children on board so lots of families (including us) wanting early MTD dinner times. Then the MTD section went quiet and then there was a second rush of people wanting MTD after families had left.

 

Lots of Maitre D types with radios walking around discreetly looking at dining progress and the lines when we left each evening were large but it seemed to cope.

[jennywren46]

We're just off Independence ,we've never had any trouble with. My time Dining. We always Prebook a time and get the same table and waiters each night and have always had wonderful service. This has applied to every different ship we've been on which is 7 so far.

[wilmingtech]

There are a lot of factors that go into determining a 'chaotic' dining room.

 

If its spring break ... the ship is probably sold out and lots of families and college age kids but no one in the main dining room.

 

If its fall (hurricane) season dining room is probably slightly busier with an older crowd but not crazy.

 

You've got to take into account the dining times as well. 6pm will be much busier than 8. You'll rarely have issues with later dining times

 

The only time I could see it being chaotic (or percieved to be chaotic) are sailings with large groups of people and they all want to sit together but have a mix of reservation times.

 

Other things that could play into a busy dining room are weather, sea days and port times.

 

But as most have said... I think its very rare you'd have chaos in the dining room unless there are large groups and those groups would most likely be the ones complaining.

 

That's my 2c anyways....

 

-Sean

[davekathy]

I have read a few posts recently that have mentioned choas at the mdr. I have only saled Disney as an adult. With disney you arrive and are immediatly walked to the table by the servers. Simple. Is the process different at rccl? And if it is mayhem how do you avoid it? Tia.

 

We always eat in the NDR Early Traditional table for two. First evening you are escorted to your assigned table. Each evening after that you go to your assigned table unescorted. We have never experienced any chaos being seated in the MDR for any evening.

[squadron]

I have read a few posts recently that have mentioned choas at the mdr. I have only saled Disney as an adult. With disney you arrive and are immediatly walked to the table by the servers. Simple. Is the process different at rccl? And if it is mayhem how do you avoid it? Tia.

 

Never experienced any problems. I do traditional dining.

[JCMass.]

We have experience it on our last two cruises, once on the Brilliance and just last week on the Serenade. We always sign up for MTD, and each day we decide where to eat and and then make a reservation for around 7pm. When we choose the MDR, there has not been much of a line, and we are seated at a table for two. This is where the chaos begins.

 

There is the one aisle from the kitchen to the waiters station in the middle and the other one at the end. If we get seated too near that aisle it is very obvious, and very chaotic. We have not really noticed it as long as we are three or more seats from this aisle. The wait staff is constantly running back and forth, often pushing carts with plates full of food, sometimes racks from the dishwasher or carts full of dirty dishes. There are head waiters with walkie talkies walking by talking and trying to expedite the seating. It is constant, I don't know how they keep up the pace for hours. One night last week we were seated towards the back, near the aisle and I was also facing the waiters station. They set the carts of food outside the waiters station, while others were dealing with the dirty dishes inside, all of them rushing back into the kitchen. Then there were those coming from the kitchen to the other waiters station, all of them running back and forth. It was just too much rushing around, and noise.

 

We finally gave up and ate at the Windjammer for dinner for the first time we had dinner there three evenings. Much larger selection of food choices, and it was quiet and relaxing. They played soft music you could hear, you cannot hear any music in the dining room. After sitting down with our plates the waitstaff were asking if we wanted something to drink or needed anything.

 

This is a recent development. I am not sure what is behind it. . . Some have mentioned that the Radiance class has had additional cabins added in the last few years, around 100 more guests. It is making the MDR busier trying to accommodate all the extra people ?

 

After reading here it seems not everyone is have this experience, but I think enough are. Anyone else know what is behind it ???

[Thetrail]

We have experience it on our last two cruises, once on the Brilliance and just last week on the Serenade. We always sign up for MTD, and each day we decide where to eat and and then make a reservation for around 7pm. When we choose the MDR, there has not been much of a line, and we are seated at a table for two. This is where the chaos begins.

 

There is the one aisle from the kitchen to the waiters station in the middle and the other one at the end. If we get seated too near that aisle it is very obvious, and very chaotic. We have not really noticed it as long as we are three or more seats from this aisle. The wait staff is constantly running back and forth, often pushing carts with plates full of food, sometimes racks from the dishwasher or carts full of dirty dishes. There are head waiters with walkie talkies walking by talking and trying to expedite the seating. It is constant, I don't know how they keep up the pace for hours. One night last week we were seated towards the back, near the aisle and I was also facing the waiters station. They set the carts of food outside the waiters station, while others were dealing with the dirty dishes inside, all of them rushing back into the kitchen. Then there were those coming from the kitchen to the other waiters station, all of them running back and forth. It was just too much rushing around, and noise.

 

We finally gave up and ate at the Windjammer for dinner for the first time we had dinner there three evenings. Much larger selection of food choices, and it was quiet and relaxing. They played soft music you could hear, you cannot hear any music in the dining room. After sitting down with our plates the waitstaff were asking if we wanted something to drink or needed anything.

 

This is a recent development. I am not sure what is behind it. . . Some have mentioned that the Radiance class has had additional cabins added in the last few years, around 100 more guests. It is making the MDR busier trying to accommodate all the extra people ?

 

After reading here it seems not everyone is have this experience, but I think enough are. Anyone else know what is behind it ???

Your definition of CHAOS in the dining room seems like the normal wonderful work of the waiters and assistant waiters. Have never ever experienced the "CHAOS" that you seem to think is going on....K.O.

[Shone216]

My Time dining on Harmony was totally disorganised a few weeks ago. We pre booked times ..... the queue for this was bigger than guests who didn't book and who were frequently seated before us. We never sat a the same table and were always asked to share even though we requested a table for two. Then there were the guests who ignored everyone and walked straight in...

Much nicer dining experience with traditional on Oasis, same table and same waiter who had our drinks waiting on the table for us each night.

[CalieK]

My Time dining on Harmony was totally disorganised a few weeks ago. We pre booked times ..... the queue for this was bigger than guests who didn't book and who were frequently seated before us. We never sat a the same table and were always asked to share even though we requested a table for two. Then there were the guests who ignored everyone and walked straight in...

Much nicer dining experience with traditional on Oasis, same table and same waiter who had our drinks waiting on the table for us each night.

 

 

Its funny you say that. We experienced the same thing on the Oasis in May. Our first 3 cruises 2013 on allure, 2014 on allure, and 2015 on the Indy we did MTD never made a reservation, never waited more the 5-10 min for a seating of 2. On one occasion we met some people on the cruise that had Traditional dining and they joined with us, again with no reservation, no more then a 15-20 min wait. We also ask to be joined to a table vs having a private table, this may speed us up. 5 of the 7 days we were automatically placed with in the same waiters tables. We never requested it, but it was nice since they knew what we liked.

 

On the Oasis this past May the line for reservations was typically longer then no reservations and would extend out past the entrance to the MDR on some nights it was wrapped all the way to the stair cases. 30-40min wait. They were offering free dinners in the Specialty dining restaurants to lighten the line. I saw at least 15 people accept. When we got into the dining room there was so many empty tables. Some remained empty through our entire meal. I dont know what changed but it isnt working.

 

We are very laid back people and while disappointing we dont let it get to us and ruin our cruise or be loud and boisterous and effect other peoples cruise . I hope they find whats not working and make the adjustment.

 

We have a cruise this saturday on the Brilliance I am interested to see how this cruise will be