"Anytime dining" on the Serenade of the Seas

[itsanita]

We have anytime dining and have already made reservations for 7:15 pm each night.  But I am hearing that even with reservations the line is long and there is still quite a wait to have dinner.   Is this still true?  Has anyone had any recent experience with anytime dining?

 

I believe traditional dining times are 5:30pm, and late seating 8:00pm.  Those times are a bit early and a little late for us!  

 

 

[Biker19]

2 hours ago, itsanita said:

Those times are a bit early and a little late for us!  

Go at 6:30 and see what they can do to accommodate you.

[Bocker3]

I have never waited more than a few minutes for MTD, when I have a reservation.  There are generally only 1-3 parties ahead of us in the MTD Reservations line (the line for those without reservations, is another story).  I think the worst we've waited is 15 mins.

Though, we generally eat later - almost never before 7:30, so that might account for some of our good fortune for lines.

[Sunshine3601]

I'll be on Serenade in Sept and on past sailings on her the 1st seating for traditional dining was 5 to 5:15 so if you go at 630ish the 1st seating should be clearing out around 630ish

[reallyitsmema]

2 hours ago, itsanita said:

We have anytime dining and have already made reservations for 7:15 pm each night.  But I am hearing that even with reservations the line is long and there is still quite a wait to have dinner.   Is this still true?  Has anyone had any recent experience with anytime dining?

 

I believe traditional dining times are 5:30pm, and late seating 8:00pm.  Those times are a bit early and a little late for us!  

 

 

 

We also were scheduled for my time dining on Serenade but we recently cleared the waitlist and now have 5:30pm main seating.  We prefer a little later but don't want to be stuck in the long reservation line as we have in the past.  You can try to make reservations for a different time once you board but that is still going to have you in line, waiting to be seated.  We booked late and could not get MTD reservations earlier than 7:30pm.

[KeywestK]

We had My Time Dining on Serenade in April.  We went into the dining room around 5:45 to 6 pm each night and were seated immediately.  We will be on her again in 2 weeks, and expect to have no problems with being seated at similar times.

[itsanita]

On 8/12/2023 at 4:29 PM, reallyitsmema said:

 

We also were scheduled for my time dining on Serenade but we recently cleared the waitlist and now have 5:30pm main seating.  We prefer a little later but don't want to be stuck in the long reservation line as we have in the past.  You can try to make reservations for a different time once you board but that is still going to have you in line, waiting to be seated.  We booked late and could not get MTD reservations earlier than 7:30pm.

We already have our reservations.  I was just wondering if they are honored for that time, or if you still had to wait in a long line to be seated.   

[island lady]

19 hours ago, KeywestK said:

We had My Time Dining on Serenade in April.  We went into the dining room around 5:45 to 6 pm each night and were seated immediately.  We will be on her again in 2 weeks, and expect to have no problems with being seated at similar times.

 

 

🤣😂

[green snakes]

We did Visions of the Seas in May & found both the MDR & MTD were a mess.  Long lines at both from 5-8.  It felt like some ppl were using the MDR as a MTD & were up to 30 min. late getting to their table.  We were told if you book MTD you must pay your gratuities in advance. We were very surprised how much the dining experience had changed since our previous cruise in Jan.  Large crowds, fewer waiters & fewer meal choices made the dining experience pretty horrible. RCCL seems to want ppl to buy the dining "specialty" package but the food wasn't any better in those restaurants.  I have also been told that the smaller ships are really showing a lack of service b/c Royal needs more employees on the bigger ships. 😔

[Biker19]

42 minutes ago, green snakes said:

We were told if you book MTD you must pay your gratuities in advance.

Not true for US market bookings.

[green snakes]

hummmm my TA has told me this is the case & we are Diamond Plus with over 60 RCCL cruises.  Anyone else had to pre-pay for MTD or is this just a scam from my TA?  I have used him many years & he always seemed to look after our best interests but maybe not.🤷‍♀️

[ONECRUISER]

On 8/12/2023 at 12:06 PM, itsanita said:

We have anytime dining and have already made reservations for 7:15 pm each night.  But I am hearing that even with reservations the line is long and there is still quite a wait to have dinner.   Is this still true?  Has anyone had any recent experience with anytime dining?

 

I believe traditional dining times are 5:30pm, and late seating 8:00pm.  Those times are a bit early and a little late for us!  

 

 

Think yours is early, I have multiple Cruises on Serenade with different times of 5pm for Early Main Dining inc 3 sailings next month

[mafig]

We were on Serenade in April and had Traditional Dining (early).

It was 5:00 PM.

 

We thought it was early but had read about all the problems with Anytime.

We got used to it and sort of ended up liking it.

 

 

[Rob-Bob]

I just booked MTD for one night on our cruise leaving 11-14-24 on Explorer.  I can't believe they let me book that far out.  It shows a charge of $0.00 and does not say anything about prepaid gratuities.  We have not prepaid.

[island lady]

1 hour ago, ONECRUISER said:

Think yours is early, I have multiple Cruises on Serenade with different times of 5pm for Early Main Dining inc 3 sailings next month

 

Serenade WC...they would not give me a choice.  Stuck with MTD  ☹️

[ONECRUISER]

47 minutes ago, island lady said:

 

Serenade WC...they would not give me a choice.  Stuck with MTD  ☹️

Bummer, Sorry...

[island lady]

20 minutes ago, ONECRUISER said:

Bummer, Sorry...

 

Yeah, not looking forward to that total fail...which is what I call the "new and improved" set up with MTD.  

[sgmn]

1 hour ago, island lady said:

 

Serenade WC...they would not give me a choice.  Stuck with MTD  ☹️

Have you been able to book specific times?  They've given us early set dining for the WC segment BCN to Southampton.  

I would rather eat between 7.00 and 8pm 

 

I'm tempted to ask for MTD, but I would think all the full World cruisers would of booked all the reasonable times by now

Edited August 14, 2023 by sgmn

[ONECRUISER]

On 8/14/2023 at 6:04 AM, green snakes said:

I have also been told that the smaller ships are really showing a lack of service b/c Royal needs more employees on the bigger ships. 😔

Though some that has been common for Decades. Royal started building new larger Ships in late 90's they'd take a percent of highly rated best of older Ships to send to the new Flag Ship. Even couple yrs before CV they were short Riggers and removed Aerial shows from Radiance Class sending them to Oasis Class. Sad but same everywhere inc on other lines...

[zimmerman]

We were on Serenade last summer and didn’t have any reservations.

 

i doubt we ever waited more than 5-10 mins (maybe once was it 15 mins).

 

the queue for reservations was always much shorter than no reservations.

[island lady]

On 8/14/2023 at 12:50 PM, sgmn said:

Have you been able to book specific times?  They've given us early set dining for the WC segment BCN to Southampton.  

I would rather eat between 7.00 and 8pm 

 

I'm tempted to ask for MTD, but I would think all the full World cruisers would of booked all the reasonable times by now

 

Have tried with NC when I was able to book the first segment within hours of releasing those bookings, and then have tried on the phone with reps...all say the same thing.  "Only MTD available".   Of course I  know that not to be true from posts here.  Somethings fishy...and it's not coming from the sea.  😡

[Loracpin2]

On 8/12/2023 at 2:06 PM, itsanita said:

We have anytime dining and have already made reservations for 7:15 pm each night.  But I am hearing that even with reservations the line is long and there is still quite a wait to have dinner.   Is this still true?  Has anyone had any recent experience with anytime dining?

 

I believe traditional dining times are 5:30pm, and late seating 8:00pm.  Those times are a bit early and a little late for us!  

 

 

Early dining in our June Oasis sailing was changed to 5:00. Doors were closed at 5:15. Needless to say we were not happy since we didn't know about the change until we boarded. 

[island lady]

9 hours ago, Loracpin2 said:

Early dining in our June Oasis sailing was changed to 5:00. Doors were closed at 5:15. Needless to say we were not happy since we didn't know about the change until we boarded. 

 

They do that (and much earlier than the old traditional of 5:45 used to be) to facilitate their failed MTD system.  In previous years, the top floor was MTD only, and pretty much could arrive whenever you liked, as in breakfast and lunch in the MDR.  

 

Now...they pull in MTD diners well after 6 pm, and seat them only as the first traditional diners leave.  So if you have people that like to linger over dessert, coffee, chit chat...those tables don't become available right away.  Trying to get first traditional diners to finish up early, they make them start early.  On many ships, if you do not show up by 5:30, they give your table away.  

 

IMHO..the MTD system is a total fail with this change.  And is the reason we switched to early dining.  We just get used to the early meal, skipping the "happy-tisers" during cocktail hour.  It actually makes it easier for us to hit the early shows.  We simply adjust to the timing...much like jet lag.    

[crusnbee]

We only eat MTD and honestly have never had to wait more than a few minutes for a table. We normally choose 6:30-6:45. We normally find good staff and then keep with them the rest of the time. Many times they wait for us at the entrance and we just go with them.

 

Been on 4 RC cruises in the past year, so it wasn't just a one time thing.

[RogerDodger247]

Just off Serenade (Aug. 12-17 2023) and can confirm the 5:00 pm main seating and 7:45 second seating seems to be here to stay.

 

I tried MTD for this first time and did not pre-reserve in the cruise planner.  What's the point of "My Time" if you have to plan everything in advance?  As soon as I got on board, I checked the app and the only MTD times available to reserve, for the whole week, were 8:15pm and later.  Useless.  Luckily, I eat late (7:30 or later) and the No Reservations line generally only took a few minutes to get seated except on night 1 when it took about 15.

 

Back to fixed dining next time.... but that 5pm early time.  Ugh.