My Time dining and tipping

[tikipeople]

I have been on 15 cruises including RCI, Celebrity, Windstar, Carnival and Princess. The first time we cruised Princess we fell in love with the anytime dining. On the Coral Princess this year, we had the best service ever with the anytime dining. The servers were wonderful, going as far as delivering our special raspberry creme brulee to our stateroom so we wouldn't be late for the show. I love RCI and am very happy to hear about the My Time Dining. I will no longer sail on a ship that only offers traditional dining. Just my opinion, but since I have experienced both numerous times, I thought I would throw my two cents in. :p

[Slowboat2]

That is because you never experienced Traditional Dining and have nothing to compare to.

 

Do you know how many cruises the OP has taken? Maybe they have a lot more experience than you.

 

That quote on the bottom of your signature, are you speaking from personnel knowledge.

[Ohunion Cruzers]

Do you know how many cruises the OP has taken? Maybe they have a lot more experience than you.

 

That quote on the bottom of your signature, are you speaking from personnel knowledge.

 

Yep, 4 Princess and an RCI coming up. Nope, 11 RCI.

 

Sort of, Just an observation of a some people I have seen.

[rubrrick]

A simple request for me to elaborate on this remark would suffice. If my post is confusing to you then say so. I believe you've just flamed me and totally unecessary. I did not start this thread to p... people off then why are you doing that to me.

 

 

HMSDingy............If you think that someone flamed you.........try looking at my post again........and try to understand what someone is saying........that has actually tried MTD.

 

Either you are a troll..............or someone wanting a conforntation.

 

Rick

[UTAH]

I am firmly in the traditional dining camp. I need the structure of it or I would never make it to any shows or make it to dinner at a reasonable time. Late seating is my favorite as I don't have to rush to get back to the ship from ports so I can get ready for the evening. I have friends who swear by anytime dining and others who prefer early seating. To each his, or her, own. DW of U

[HMSDingy]

HMSDingy............If you think that someone flamed you.........try looking at my post again........and try to understand what someone is saying........that has actually tried MTD.

 

Either you are a troll..............or someone wanting a conforntation.

 

Rick

 

 

I am not a troll....nor am I looking for a confontation...where the heck do you see that in my post!!! This was my interpretation of his remark. I thought it was rather rude...again IMHO. If by this post you think I am confrontational...heck its your opinion that of which you are entitled to.

[mgmigs]

my only my time dining experience was on norweigan. the service was incredibly horrible. the staff seemed overworked, were completely inatentive, got food wrong, brought out foods at the wrong time, couldn't be found to correct mistakes or get something like milk for my cereal???? and behaved like they could care less.

[HMSDingy]

It seems to me that the general consensus with regards to tipping is that the service will suffer because the gratuities are pre-paid. This will be our first cruise onboard an RCI ship and I don't understand the problem. We have always had Anytime Dining sailing with Princess and we have never noticed the service to suffer because of prepaid gratuities. Comments and or past experiences?:confused: ?

 

 

Before someone again acuses me of either being a troll or wanting to start something (both of which I am not and will not do), let me clear up some misconceptions, The quote hi-lighted in red, should read..."I don't understand WHY this should be a problem". As for the green hi-light this also was taken out of context. Or it seems to be that way. All I wanted was a feedback by those who have had both. It was never my intention to insult anyone and/or make dubious remarks and/or false statements. I apologize to all.

[Tucker in Texas]

my only my time dining experience was on norweigan. the service was incredibly horrible. the staff seemed overworked, were completely inatentive, got food wrong, brought out foods at the wrong time, couldn't be found to correct mistakes or get something like milk for my cereal???? and behaved like they could care less.

 

Same experience here with NCL. Even if you found one and asked to correct the mistakes, they would tell you it would take 1/2 an hour or 45 minutes. I agree they were understaffed but I don't think those that were there "hurried" themselves because you couldn't find them anywhere even if you got up and walked around. If you asked another waiter for butter, bread, etc. they would tell you that it wasn't their section and they would tell your waiter.

 

However, on Princess (first and only cruise on Princess) it was o.k. Not the greatest service I have ever had but far from the worse. On par with traditional dining where you have great ones, good ones, average ones, and NCL. I would say they were good ones and we were not unhappy at all with the experience.

 

Haven't had the opportunity to personally do MTD on RCI but they rolled it out as an experiment on our Freedom cruise last October. Ours was the second cruise they did it on and I didn't hear any complaints at all about it. I halfway expected some because it was a brand new concept which always has things that need to be tweaked when put into practice.

 

Tucker in Texas

[LynneL]

I used MTD for the first time on the Serenade a couple of weeks ago - in fact the first time using it at all on any line - and was very happy with it. I had called RCI when I heard that it was being extended to our cruise (orig. just instituted on a trial basis until June) and they arranged for it. Tips were immediately billed to my credit card.

 

The first night we had a time listed on our cruise card, which was too early for us. We phoned the MTD # and no problem getting a later time. We had a wonderful waiter (named Jon Voight) and a young woman as our efficient, though less personable, assistant waiter. We told the head waiter we would like the same waiter and to be seated at one of the similar tables for 2 by the window each night. We never had a problem with that. Had to adjust our dining time here or there to be sure the table open, but that is to be expected.

 

Comparing this MTD service experience to our previous RCI cruise on the Explorer where we had tradtional dining, the service on Seranade MTD was better beyond compare. The head waiter came around every night to say Hello and ask about what time we wanted our reservation for the next night...and he was also pre-paid tips. All in all service was very good.

[Cruiser42]

Since we split our time between NCL and RCL, we are thrilled to see

My Time Dining ! The "dine when you like" atmosphere on NCL is wonderful,

and we have always had excellent service !

In fact, of the over 30 cruises I've taken, I've only had bad or even mediocre

service on ONE cruise - Celebrity out of NY to Bermuda. The waiter was in love

with looking at himself in the mirror behind our booth (a long time ago!) I asked

our table mates if they would join me in turning around and placing our order in

the mirror, too, so we would at least get some eye contact, but they wouldnt do it!

:(

We love dining when we are ready to, and will do it every chance we get!