Do I need to prebook my MDR dinner reservations before my cruise or can I just book day by day once on board?

[korky1]

I am an Australian doing two  cruises on Majestic Princess while she is here for our Summer.  I know I have the option of going on the medallion app and booking all out MDR reservations now but would prefer once onboard to just book each morning for that  evening.  Has this worked out OK for you?

[JimmyVWine]

There is no disadvantage to pre-booking. Pick the time or times that you think will be best for you and grab those slots now. If plans change while on board, it is easy to cancel or change. The slots available that you can change to will be the same irrespective of whether you prefer-booked or not. For example, if you pre-booked 7:00 and decide you want something different you go to the app to see what is available. The slots that are available may not be better for you than what you already have. But by pre-booking you have two slots to choose from—the one you already booked plus the one that shows as available. If you don’t pre-book, you only have one slot available—the one that shows up on the app. There is never a time when one choice is better than two. 

[PacnGoNow]

22 minutes ago, korky1 said:

I am an Australian doing two  cruises on Majestic Princess while she is here for our Summer.  I know I have the option of going on the medallion app and booking all out MDR reservations now but would prefer once onboard to just book each morning for that  evening.  Has this worked out OK for you?

I totally agree with @JimmyVWineabout prebooking.  I would just add, if your ship is sailing full or close to it, then even more reason to prebook.  You can always cancel or rebook as you go along,

[korky1]

Thank you both for your words of wisdom.  Totally makes sense so I have now made our dinner reservations for each night of our 13 night cruise. 

[Mike45LC]

Jimmy V is correct, and his advise is good.  but to answer your question, you do not need to pre-book.  In fact, you can just walk up with no reservations at all.  You might have to wait though.  

[JoRoy218]

I had similar thoughts. We’ll be on the Regal 12/26 and looks like a pretty full ship. We tend to plan our dinner time around evening events. Hate to commit and not use the reserv, so we’ll just have to take our chances.

Appreciate the above input though. 

[Wishing on a star]

If the sailing Is close to capacity, then pre-booking might save a lot of waiting!

Just saw that on Discovery, which just came off the full booked Love Boat Cruise, it seemed that with lack of more staffing, even reservations had a real wait.

 

Having supper early when the dining rooms open might not be a problem, or dining late.

 

Unless you really want the totally casual, go when you decide, whatever, kind of vibe - then you might want to go ahead and book so you can get the most desired times  I would say the seven o'clock hour would book up pretty fast.   

[RKSue]

I would pre book. Take a look at what time the ship leaves ports and figure time to get cleaned up. You don't have to do the same time each night. Ive seen the lines.  It's something that I prefer not to be in for dinner. Anything from 6:30  to 8 will be a wait and it could be a long wait.