Roll Call: Independence of the Seas Transatlantic Nov. 23, 2009

[pdxcruzer]

How does my time dining work? Do you just wander in when you're ready to eat? How does it work on the formal nights? Do they section off the restaurants for my time dining customers?

[pdxcruzer]

Hi Doug and Dan,

Welcome to the group! :)

 

James

[LtDang]

How does my time dining work? Do you just wander in when you're ready to eat? How does it work on the formal nights? Do they section off the restaurants for my time dining customers?

 

Hello, I am Dan. Just finally decided to register my name with cruise critic. I am married to trickie Dickie ... I call him Richard btw.

 

Anyways this is how my time dining worked on Voyager of The Seas.

 

They had a section on the highest level of the dining main dining room reservered for my time dining. They also used pretty much the same waiters and assistants to serve the tables.

 

We would be able to eat there anytime between the start of the first seating and midway of the last seating.

 

We had to register for my time dining. I guess this way they have a feal for how much tables and staff they need for this service.

 

There seems to be just enough tables and staff for those registered. Therefore it was best to make a reservation the night before, so we did not show up all at the same time.

 

The benefits we enjoyed are:

 

- Dinner lasted from 45 min to an hour instead of 1h30 to 2hrs.

 

- We could make our dinner reservation time to accomodate other events during the night, or allow us to visit with fellow passengers at certain times. Basically this was making our evenings more flexible. Another example, perhaps on port days we ate a little later rather than earlier.

 

- We ate at a table for two all the time, it was intimate. But there were larger tables so we could have found other my time dining guests and made a reservation on a table for 4 or 6 etc.

 

That's about it!

btw..

I am Dan age 42..married to Trickie Dickie (Richard) age 45.

We are from Winnipeg Canada.

This will be our 4th cruise.

[dananddoug]

I think we will change to my time dining, that way we can eat with others if we meet people or by ourself if not.

[Trickie Dickie]

Don't forget Daniel, Age 42, :) You have to prepay your tips when signing up for my time dining. You can do it either online before your trip or as I prefer to do it on the ship, that way you are not charged until the end of your trip.

 

You don't have to reserve for my time, but be prepared to wait a bit during the busy times if you don't. We actually got to know quite a few people in the my time section along with most of the my time staff.

 

We got to be social in the mornings by having breakfast in the main dining room. They sat us at various size tables so we could meet new folks. Only social people eat in the main dining room for breakfast so making new friends was easy!

 

Also with the dining flexibility we could go to either the late show or the early one if we were tired. The freedom is worth it. No more 2 hour meals! No feeling guilty if you aren't in the dining room for dinner leaving your assigned table mates alone! We will be doing chops at some point as well!

 

We will all have to exchange emails before the cruise so we can meet up!

 

Have a great summer! Looking forward to the Fall already!

 

Dickie, Age 44!!!! not 45! don't rush me Daniel, Age 42! :) heheh.

 

Can you tell we're married yet? snickers! :D

[pdxcruzer]

Thanks for the info. That sounds like a really interesting option. They didn't have my time dining on my last cruise.

I agree ... we should definitely exchange contact information. I've got the countdown going already!

James (44) & Marcio (34)

[LtDang]

I was just looking at this youtube video made from the current cruise director of Independance.

 

 

Watching it brought me to thinking about potential problems in the hallways.

 

Do we walk on the left side all the time, being that the cruise began in England? And even worse, when do we switch back to the right side! lol

 

Dan

[Roger&Martin]

Hello Boys and Girl...HOLA FROM MIAMI!:cool:

 

Martin-29 and I [Roger-34]...will be joining Voyagers TA in Nov. We've been on it several times and it's great! We also have a large group of people we met on others cruises joining as well...FOD's and NON-FOD's.

 

YIPPIE! :D

 

Any Diamond/Diamond Plus queens here? Our group is meeting at the Lounge daily for DRINKS, DRINKS and more DRINKS....ok, maybe a piece of cheese too.:eek:

[LtDang]

Hello Boys and Girl...HOLA FROM MIAMI!:cool:

 

Martin-29 and I [Roger-34]...will be joining Voyagers TA in Nov. We've been on it several times and it's great! We also have a large group of people we met on others cruises joining as well...FOD's and NON-FOD's.

 

YIPPIE! :D

 

Any Diamond/Diamond Plus queens here? Our group is meeting at the Lounge daily for DRINKS, DRINKS and more DRINKS....ok, maybe a piece of cheese too.:eek:

 

 

Wow you guys have done a lot of cruising. You are so young to be diamond members. My husband and I too are kinda cruise fanatics. Having started cruising a year ago, we have already been on three and two more booked. We are not diamond members yet, but soon will be.

 

One thing though, are you coming on Independance ta in November...or Voyager TA? In your post your say Voyager, and this is an Independance thread. Also who is the girl?

 

Dan

[LtDang]

What you have planned for Cherbourg? I would love a tour of d-day beaches. Should we get a few couples together and organize a private tour?

 

the following is from another cruise critic message...

 

"We booked a private exclusive tour with Overlord Tours. From Cherbourg, their fee was 580 Euros (including everything) for one to eight people. We had no problem finding people in our Meet & Mingle group that were interested in going. We will have 8 people which ends up pretty cheap per person. Don't know when you're going but below is a link to their website. They come highly recommended by Cruise Critic people that have used them."

 

http://OVERLORDTOUR.com

[pdxcruzer]

Hi Dan,

 

I was torn between D-Day beaches and Mont St. Michel. We opted for Mont St. Michel instead ...

 

James

[jcbatc]

Hey guys,

 

We are also planning on going on this cruise.

Great to see other people will be taking the long haul sailing from the UK to States. We live in Tampa, FL and have never been on a transatlantic cruise... but to this date, the Independence is our favorite ship. Was on last year on the first US sail to the Caribbean - had a blast!

 

Hope we can all meet and hang out.

John

[dananddoug]

We are arriving in London on Saturday Nov. 21 for 2 nights. I can see that a number of others in this group are planing the same thing. I was wondering if any one is interested in sharing a large mini van with driver to the port. It would cost 195£ but it can hold 6 so the cost per person would not be that bad. let me know if you are interested.

 

Dan and Doug

[Trickie Dickie]

We are just 3 months away! Time to plan and think about packing! :)

[jcbatc01]

Hey guys,

 

Just wondering here... Does anyone know how many nights are 'formal' in our transatlantic cruise?

 

John & Alex

[LtDang]

This has been discussed on the "royal caribbean" forum. Unfortunetely I don't remember what was written. My guess.... hmmm 2 or 3 or 4...

 

Ok we are getting close to the cruise... not many of use on this cruise it appears.

[PCBtchr]

Hey guys,

 

Just wondering here... Does anyone know how many nights are 'formal' in our transatlantic cruise?

 

John & Alex

 

Hi Guys,

My dad and I took this TA last Nov. 2008. We had three formal nights. Days 2, 7, and 10.

The trip was great so we decided to book it again. This year my partner will be joining us.

Looking forward to meeting on board.

Gary, Bruce and Jack (dad)

[dananddoug]

THe RCCL web site list 2 formal night on a 13 night cruise. That's plenty for me.

[Trickie Dickie]

Only 80 more sleeps till this cruise! It's getting close :D !

[Trickie Dickie]

:D Wakey Wakey!

 

Looks like our cruise is in only 1 month and 20 days!

 

Since we have chatted last, the Hubby and I have done a few things :) We booked "Paris on our own" and "D Day beaches" for excursions. We also signed up for "my time dining" through our Travel Agent. We had to prepay the tips to do this. One less worry for us to deal with! :D

 

We have not received our travel documents yet as we booked the entire package through RCCL. So I have not a clue when our flights are yet and it's only about 7 weeks to go. Ugh! :confused:

 

We booked another cruise as you may have noticed from my tickers! A big part of the cost of cruising for Central Canadian Prairie Boyz like us is the airfare. So we optimized our March vacation dollar by adding a Celebrity Solstice cruise the day after we get off of our Oasis cruise. BTW Celebrity also has their version of my time dining now called Celebrity Select dining. Of course we signed up for it already :cool:

 

Anyhoo back on track here. It's time to start thinking about Independence of the Seas and our plans to meet up and make some awesome memories!!! Please reply and touch base!

 

Happy Sailings! :D

[dananddoug]

Doug and i have rebooked on a Panama canal cruise 15days and lower cost. Have fun on your trans atlantic.

[jcbatc01]

Hey guys,

 

We just booked the Mont St Michel and Santiago De la Compostela tours, should be fun. We are not sure what we will be doing in the day we are supposed to hit Paris. We were there last year and we wanted to do something else... We are inclined to the the d-day beaches tour instead.

 

Any thoughts or recommendation?

Can't wait here to meet you all!!! :)

[tnt10]

Hi Guys,

My dad and I took this TA last Nov. 2008. We had three formal nights. Days 2, 7, and 10.

The trip was great so we decided to book it again. This year my partner will be joining us.

Looking forward to meeting on board.

Gary, Bruce and Jack (dad)

 

 

Thanks for the info in the formal nights. Are you sure about the days "2, 7 and 10?" Are you counting day 1 as the day be embark?

Day 2 we are in Le Havre, 0700 to 2100, many people will be on long shore excursions. Something seems not right about this day.

Is this schedule the same as your last trip?

Day 7 is Funchal. Earlier departing, but still not as convenient as a sea day.

Seems that the Formal nights could all be set for days at sea, since there are so many on this trip!

Happy Cruising,

TnT

[PCBtchr]

tnt10,

The dates I listed for formal nights were last years cruise. Not sure what the dates will be this year. I noticed it was discussed on the main board.

[tnt10]

tnt10,

The dates I listed for formal nights were last years cruise. Not sure what the dates will be this year. I noticed it was discussed on the main board.

 

 

Right!

At least we know it's 3 nights though....

Tnt