Mytime dining question

[cusematt4]

Hi all - we traditionally do late seating dining but are going with my time to be able to dine at different times based on schedules.

 

Are we able to make my time dining reservations in advance if we know what time we would want to dine each night?  We have times in mind and would prefer not to put our names down and wait.

 

Thank you.

[Another_Critic]

Yes you can reserve MTD thru the app or cruise planner.  Note that you must be booked for MTD (not early or late seating) in order to utilize MTD regardless whether you have reservations or walk up. 

[travelberlin]

2 minutes ago, cusematt4 said:

Hi all - we traditionally do late seating dining but are going with my time to be able to dine at different times based on schedules.

 

Are we able to make my time dining reservations in advance if we know what time we would want to dine each night?  We have times in mind and would prefer not to put our names down and wait.

 

Thank you.

You are encouraged to make reservations in advance. I would recommend you search in this forum the experiences of fellow cruisers with my time dining. I had originally my time dining for my cruise but I have changed it for early sitting after reading the reviews.

[Another_Critic]

Just now, travelberlin said:

I would recommend you search in this forum the experiences of fellow cruisers with my time dining. I had originally my time dining for my cruise but I have changed it for early sitting after reading the reviews.

YMMV.  I've personally had MTD with 6:45 to 7:15 reservations for 9 cruises since restart (Oasis, Anthem x 5, Enchantment, Voyager, Liberty), and haven't really had anything but very minor issues.

[Mum2Mercury]

27 minutes ago, Another_Critic said:

Yes you can reserve MTD thru the app or cruise planner.  Note that you must be booked for MTD (not early or late seating) in order to utilize MTD regardless whether you have reservations or walk up. 

Note that you can make these reservations VERY FAR IN ADVANCE.  As soon as you've made your reservations and can see your cruise on the phone app, you can make reservations.  Since they cost nothing (I'm thinking of MDR ressies) and can be changed, reserving far in advance has no downside.  The better (which usually means earlier) reservations will fill up. 

 

We've had nothing but good luck with My Time Dining.  We rarely wait more than a few minutes before being ushered to our seats.  

[Another_Critic]

40 minutes ago, Mum2Mercury said:

Note that you can make these reservations VERY FAR IN ADVANCE.  As soon as you've made your reservations and can see your cruise on the phone app, you can make reservations.  Since they cost nothing (I'm thinking of MDR ressies) and can be changed, reserving far in advance has no downside.  The better (which usually means earlier) reservations will fill up. 

Yes, I reserve ASAP after booking.  Reserved for Nov. 2024 in May 2023.  🙂 

 

Edited December 17, 2023 by Another_Critic

[Starry Eyes]

There has been a lot of negativity about the  changes to MTD, and I am not a fan of the revamped MTD scheme.  That said, I think the new MTD scheme has more impact on people who tend to eat earlier and less impact on those who tend to dine later.

[SbbquilterUT]

I am a planner so make reservations in the 6:45 to 7:15 range each evening, then if we want to eat elsewhere we let our waiter know the prior evening.  Has worked great except on the mega ships where we ran into lines even in the line with reservations.  

[kenhem]

When can I expect the MTD bookings to open? I have a September 2025 booking on Independence and booking is not available yet.

[Mum2Mercury]

1 hour ago, Starry Eyes said:

There has been a lot of negativity about the  changes to MTD, and I am not a fan of the revamped MTD scheme.  That said, I think the new MTD scheme has more impact on people who tend to eat earlier and less impact on those who tend to dine later.

I don't understand any negativity.  We've had nothing but good experiences -- the most we've waited was maybe five minutes, and we sailed last month.  We tend to eat early.  

4 minutes ago, kenhem said:

When can I expect the MTD bookings to open? I have a September 2025 booking on Independence and booking is not available yet.

That doesn't sound right.  You're looking at the app on your phone?  Opening the Dining icon at the bottom of the screen ... then choosing Main Dining Room ... then My Time Dining ... and then scrolling down to where you see a blue box that says RESERVE?  

[Badatz2]

I was recently on the Serenade with MTD.  No problems whatsoever.  Had reservations for 7 and we came between 7-7:30 every night.  Never more than 2 minute wait. 

Those without reservations were usually seated between 5-10 minutes.

Very orderly and quick 

[kenhem]

19 minutes ago, Mum2Mercury said:

I don't understand any negativity.  We've had nothing but good experiences -- the most we've waited was maybe five minutes, and we sailed last month.  We tend to eat early.  

That doesn't sound right.  You're looking at the app on your phone?  Opening the Dining icon at the bottom of the screen ... then choosing Main Dining Room ... then My Time Dining ... and then scrolling down to where you see a blue box that says RESERVE?  

Yes, I'm looking at the app and there is no Reserve button. It's working fine on a 2024 reservation. 

[Starry Eyes]

7 minutes ago, Mum2Mercury said:

don't understand any negativity.  We've had nothing but good experiences -- the most we've waited was maybe five minutes, and we sailed last month.  We tend to eat early.

In the previous incarnation, MTD folks could dine from roughly 5-9 pm.  Now MTD does not open until about 6:30-6:45.  It does not take a rocket scientist to see why people previously liked going to MTD early (for example 5:30 or 6 pm, often with reservations) would feel the change impacted them negatively.  They were seated promptly under the old system.  Others probably just miss the flexibility of dining from very early until very late (MY time dining vs Royal time dining).  On some sailings there a long lines at MTD opening, especially if the kitchen is slow serving the early dining guests.

 

I realize some MTD folks report approaching the podium early in hopes of being seated before the official MTD start time.  That may or may not work out depending how many early diners attend, how many MTD use that stray and the size table needed.

I am glad your experience was fine; not everyone has had reported the same on every ship/sailing.

[Biker19]

54 minutes ago, Mum2Mercury said:

That doesn't sound right. 

Planner items, including MTD bookings, that far out not being available yet is not that unusual.

[travelberlin]

There are other threads about the MTD and most of the posters there are telling from long queues and waiting times even if one has a reservation. Apparently on this thread, some people have never had any negative experience with MTD. Good for them. In my case previous COVID, I also never had a negative impression of MTD, but apparently the organization of this option has changed and it is not anymore what it used to be. I am not willing to risk, so I have changed my previously booked MTD for early seating dining. The times suit me better. And once a table has been allocated, no need to wait on lines.

 

 

Edited December 18, 2023 by travelberlin

[Illbcruzn4life]

On 12/17/2023 at 3:42 PM, Mum2Mercury said:

Note that you can make these reservations VERY FAR IN ADVANCE.  As soon as you've made your reservations and can see your cruise on the phone app, you can make reservations.  Since they cost nothing (I'm thinking of MDR ressies) and can be changed, reserving far in advance has no downside.  The better (which usually means earlier) reservations will fill up. 

 

We've had nothing but good luck with My Time Dining.  We rarely wait more than a few minutes before being ushered to our seats.  

We booked in advance on our last Oasis cruise. The earliest we could get was 7:45pm. When we got on the ship they changed us to 8:30pm

[Another_Critic]

8 hours ago, Illbcruzn4life said:

We booked in advance on our last Oasis cruise. The earliest we could get was 7:45pm. When we got on the ship they changed us to 8:30pm

8:30 MTD or 8:30 Late Seating?

[karena1]

We have done MTD since it first started and will never go back to Traditional.  We love the flexibility to eat when we want.  We rarely make reservations, we just go when we want.  Never wait more than 10 to 15 minutes.  Only time we make reservations is if we are with a bigger group or if we have a show we need to make.  But we are also totally okay with eating late, which makes it much easier.  

[Illbcruzn4life]

1 hour ago, karena1 said:

We have done MTD since it first started and will never go back to Traditional.  We love the flexibility to eat when we want.  We rarely make reservations, we just go when we want.  Never wait more than 10 to 15 minutes.  Only time we make reservations is if we are with a bigger group or if we have a show we need to make.  But we are also totally okay with eating late, which makes it much easier.  

A lot of the flexiibility is  gone now. At least on some ships in the fleet. What time does my time start now 6:30pm ? If you don't have a reservation for 6:30pm be prepared to wait in line as the traditional diners are finishing up. It used to work well but they took something that wasn't broke and tried to fix it. This was on the Oasis in October.

[bundtkate]

Any experiences with MTD with a large group? My husband and I had no trouble with it on our last Oasis sailing and just showed up when we felt like it with no reservation, but I'm sailing with a group of 11 in February and was cautioning my mom about switching to MTD. With a group that large, I suspect reservations would be necessary. Given how close we are to sailing (almost check-in time!), I have my doubts about getting a reservation much earlier than the late traditional dining time we're currently assigned.