MYTIME Dining

[2ndtime20yrslater]

My family of 4 did MTD on the Monarch in Sept. We signed up the day we boarded and pre-paid the tips. We were "encouraged" to make reservations ahead of time, which we did. We sat by ourselves, as requested. That worked out fine.

However, we had different waiter everynight. It was wierd with the tipping. Of course, we pre-paid our tips when we signed up, but they still gave us the vouchers. Since we had a different waiter everynight, I felt strange giving the envelope to the staff member on that last night when he wasn't the waiter all week.

I also felt that at times we didn't get such a great table. My other problem with most cruise dining is that the tables are so on top of each other, that you're basically sharing your meal with the table next to you whether you want to or not.

My DH and I cruised on Azamara when it first started, (9/07 to Bermuda), pretty much their shake down sailings. They don't offer traditional dining at all. Different waiter everynight, but it was fine.. again, pre-paid tips.. takes the guess work out of it.

[TheWog]

It should not be difficult but with a party of your size I think that you can make things easier by making advance reservations so that they can have a table of the appropriate size available when you arrive. That does not preclude you from dining at a different time each evening and once you have dined there you may find that they can accommodate you in short measure even if you arrive with no advance reservations or notice. Based on our experiences they will do everything that they can in order to accommodate you.:)

 

Thank you. Not sure if we will know what time we want to dine, but will take that into conisderation. Thanks again.

[antsnanny]

We chose MTD on the Indy and it didn't work well for us. The first night even though we made reservations in the morning for 7 PM, when we got there we were told to come back in 15 minutes which was no problem but when we came back it was close to a half an hour wait. Our menue's came in French and we speak English, not once, not twice but three times before they got it right.

 

Having said all of that I would still give the ship an A plus because everything else was perfect.

[julianne74]

Hi Jules! Hi Rick!

 

The host actually told us it is something you have to expect occasionally when using MTD when we tried to discuss it with him.:eek::eek:

 

.

 

Hi Martha! :) *wave*

 

Yep, see, the "you should expect this occasionally" thing just doesn't compute with me. Maybe it's specific to the Radiance or to full sailings.... or to the people who were working that cruise....?

[Grampy]

Hi Martha! :) *wave*

 

Yep, see, the "you should expect this occasionally" thing just doesn't compute with me. Maybe it's specific to the Radiance or to full sailings.... or to the people who were working that cruise....?

 

Having just gotten off the Radiance can concur their handling of MTD is flawed. It was explained to us as the only thing that can be guaranteed is early or late.

 

One night we arrived at 7:15 and were told nothing was available until after 9:00. Tried several nights at various times without any luck. After that, we were first in line at 6 when the doors opened. We had no problem getting immediate service as long as we stuck with the six o'clock time. Early dining is what we usually go with but thought we would give MTD a try.

 

Our daughter was on the Radiance last fall and had the same problem. I think it is ship to ship and most likely works much better on the larger ships where they have more flexibility.

[peabody99]

I love it. We did it both times on RCL cruises. I think we have had as good , or even the best service, of any cruise. I like deciding mid afternoon when we want to eat, always getting a table for 2, and even getting seated in the same waiter station (not always same table though). I cannot think of one reason why we would do fixed seating. Both trips our waiter and asst. called us by our names from night one. I hardly think it is needed, but it was charming. we never did try just showing up. I know you can do that, but I liked having the reservation. We never had to wait. the host on Granduer, Raushmann (sp?) is outstanding.

[willysgrandma]

DW & I are booked for the Mariner in August. We are Diamond and have been loyal to RCCL but, we just took the NCL Spirit out of New Orleans last month (since the Voyager was charging $599 3rd person and NCL was charging $149 3rd person for our 3 yo we gave them a try). We really liked the flexibility of their Freestyle Dining but, the service ranked from OK to holy crap! how do you still have a job. Anyway, we are considering doing MTD on Mariner but, don't want the dissappointment of poor service especially since the dinners are so important to DW's cruise memories. So, can you elaborate on your experience?

 

And if anyone else can chime in, about your experience on any of the ships, that would be great.:)

 

NCL was the first line that started Freestyle Dining. I also think that they handle it the worst of all the cruise lines - but that is just my opinion. It has gotten better on NCL now that they have the screens showing what restaurants are available, but their service just isn't on a par with the way Princess does it.

 

I can't see how RCCL can be worse than NCL. So go with an open mind and think you will have a better experience. I will be trying it myself in October - so let me know how it goes.

[andrzej5914]

However, we had different waiter everynight. It was wierd with the tipping. Of course, we pre-paid our tips when we signed up, but they still gave us the vouchers. Since we had a different waiter everynight, I felt strange giving the envelope to the staff member on that last night when he wasn't the waiter all week.

 

Unless you wanted to add extra cash with the envelope, there is no need to hand out vouchers. The waiters and room attendant know you're pre-paid. In the future just toss the vouchers.

[marys350]

We just did it on Serenade and it was great. Worked for us! 7:15 dining worked better than 6 or 8:30. Enjoy your cruise!

 

I'm thinking of making a reservation for 7:00 for our party of 12 on Serenade. When you had a reservation for 7:15 were you finished eating in time to go to the shows? I looked at some daily compasses for Serenade from 2009 and it looked like many of the shows were at 9:00 for main seating and either 7:15 or 10:45 for second seating. Do you remember when the show times were?

 

Thanks,

Mary

[PSCruiser]

This year we are going on the Oasis, can't wait to find out how their MTD is going to work!

 

We have had good experiences with MTD in the past, on the Indy, also on NCL and Princess. However, recently off the Oasis, and we were not pleased:

1. lines of 20-30 people waiting to be seated at peak times, AND, it didn't matter if you had a reservation!

2. one night we agreed to share a table, and were promptly seated - with a couple that were already eating entrees!

3. on more than one occasion, two courses - soup/salad and appetizer, arrived together

4. they would not even take reservations until the 3rd night.

Oasis really needs to get their act together for MTD.

[Kellie Poodle]

I think the MTD works if it's just 2-4 of you. However, I was on NCL with 10 of us and if we wanted to make reservations, the only time we could was for 5:30pm or 9:30pm. Groups weren't allowed to make reservations inbetween, which was VERY frustrating. Groups weren't allowed to call for reservations either, we had to walk down to the reservations desk the morning of the meal. We didn't go in the MDR at all because of this. For this reason, I'm hesitant to try it at all. I saw the boards- the MDRs had waits of 45min-1:15. The last thing I want to do on a vacation is wait for a table... But again, this was on NCL.

 

I find this really strange. On our last (forever) NCL cruise they would not let us make a reservation for 2 people. They said they only did it for groups.

 

I wonder if they allow reservations at all.

[Gingee]

We did NCL last year and am in the process of cancelling the one in May and going with Royal. Anyway, I didn't like the MYD because you really didn't get to meet other people and we finally gave up and went to the buffet after one or two nights. Of course now that MTD is offered, maybe many people won't do the traditional dinning.

[John Henry on CC]

We did NCL last year and am in the process of cancelling the one in May and going with Royal. Anyway, I didn't like the MYD because you really didn't get to meet other people and we finally gave up and went to the buffet after one or two nights. Of course now that MTD is offered, maybe many people won't do the traditional dinning.

So far, traditional dining is still very popular on RC.

[teacherkim]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong: but I think the wait staff in MTD get tipped PER PERSON they serve, so the more people they serve, the more tips they make. They keep track at the podium entrance as to who and what cabin, goes to which table.

 

So, it seems to me it's in the staff's best financial interest to serve as many people as possible each evening. They make more money that way.

 

As I've stated before, arriving at the 15 and the 45 after the hour gets you in sooner. Arriving on the hour or half hour makes for a wait, and 8 to 8:30 is really crowded.

 

PCUR, I asked our waiter about the tip situation because I was curious if there was preference among the staff for mtd vs traditional and he said that the mtd staff pooled all of the pre-paid tips and split them. He claimed that you could go to guest relations and reduce the tip if you were unsatisfied and that is what kept the service good (not sure how many would bother to do this...but I guess there are always some who would) He also told me that a lot of the waiters prefered the mtd because the work was spread out instead of hundreds being seated at once and that made for a better work environment and more time to talk to the diners so there was a vested interest in all the staff to keep mtd service the same as the mdr so that it would continue.

[rjnewbie]

I have signed up for MTD for our very first cruise in Oct. My question is do we have to make a reservation for dinner or can we just show up any time during serving hours and just expect a little wait for a table?

[teacherkim]

You can show up but the wait time is unpredictable and it is usually very busy between 7 and 9 pm

[lala1978]

What is the fee for My Time Dining?

[Coralc]

What is the fee for My Time Dining?

 

Welcome to Cruise Critic! :D There is no fee. You just have to pre-pay your tips for the cruise. :)

[lala1978]

Oh.. thank you and thank you. :)

[negc]

You can show up but the wait time is unpredictable and it is usually very busy between 7 and 9 pm

 

I can only say that never when we showed up between 7 and 8 pm, and that was without having made a reservation, we never experienced a wait of measurable length.:) We, and others we know, complained that on Princess they were often handed a beeper because the wait would be lengthy.:(

[negc]

So far, traditional dining is still very popular on RC.

 

I am sure it is and am pleased that both options are available. I was a very strong proponent of traditional dining and was very skeptical that both options could be offered successfully but based on our experience with MTD on Navigator and Jewel of the Seas, and from what I have read on CC, it appears that it works much better than many anticipated. Of course they still limit participation in MTD which may be one of the reasons it seems to work so well. At least no one is forced into it the way that so many complain that they are forced into Anytime Dining on Princess. We are not fans of Freestyle dining on NCL based on our experience with it during a week long cruise on the otherwise very nice NCL Spirit from Boston to Bermuda:)

[negc]

We did not like My Time Dining.

 

It's not Your time, it's THEIR time. If you want to just show up, you might wait 45 minutes. You either have to be there before 6 pm or you're not going to get seated til 8 pm.

 

Also, everything gets messed up if you eat in a specialty restaurant one night. When you call the next day, you will probably find out that there are no spots until 8:15.

 

The only good thing about this was that you get to sit with lots of interesting people. The very bad thing is that some of the wait staff didn't bother to work for tips because they were getting prepaid gratuities. And yes, it's always in one area of the dining room.

 

If there was a way to make each night's reservation online or ahead of time, fine.... but no more for us.

This is completely contrary to our experiences and most of those that have posted their accounts of their My Time Dining experience. Never did we have a forty five minute wait for a table regardless of when we showed up in the dining room and most of the time we did so without having made an advance reservation. I'm sorry that you had such a terrible time, but I have a difficult time reconciling your account with what I have seen with my own eyes. As far as some of the wait staff delivering poor service because they know that they are already getting a tip, I think that is a rare instance and that most of the servers in the My Time Dining section are there because their professionalism and history of providing excellent service have gained them those positions. A negative comment in the cruise comment card would be the best way to deal with any such slackers and I think that they are well aware of the effects of good or bad comments about them can have on their career.

[teacherkim]

I can only say that never when we showed up between 7 and 8 pm, and that was without having made a reservation, we never experienced a wait of measurable length.:) We, and others we know, complained that on Princess they were often handed a beeper because the wait would be lengthy.:(

 

 

Good to know! That was only what we observed on ONE cruise of course! Upon thinking about it, the busiest times will probably depend a lot on how big the ship is, what the port was that day, the ship departure time, etc, etc. I think you have a good point about it working so well because it is limited to a reasonable number.

[Bellfree Bat]

We did MTD on the Liberty in December and it worked out okay. We showed up aound 7:30-8:00 and did not have to wait long for a table. We had tables for 2 but they were so close together that we ended up conversing with other tables for 2 next to us. The service was good most of the time and only 1 night not so great. Not sure if we will do it again. Our next cruise is on X and we decided to do the traditional dining...

[UKBayern]

We did MTD in November on the Splendour OTS and were over the moon with it. Now, I have to say that we are flexible and we did make reservations after breakfast or in the afternoon for various dinner times (anything from 6 to 8.45), and always wanted the biggest possible table (8 or 10) for maximum contact with other passengers. We met so many people and service was always very friendly. It was a pool of 6-8 waiters, so we would not always have exactly the same waiter every night, but we saw a lot of the same staff over and over who were all very competent and friendly. And no, we were not in an undesirable area, and no, the tables were not cramped together.

 

Constantin, our Romanian waiter with his clipboard who made the reservations, knew absolutely all the MTD-guests by name and cabin number by the second day. He knew what preferences were and did his best to rotate the guests of the large tables around so we had a different crowd every night, and he even tried to put guests together he thought might enjoy each others company. He also knew exactly when the show times were on or what time "all aboard" was after a day in port and would give excellent advice. On one night we reserved for 8.30, but by 6 pm we were so hungry that he fitted us in without any problem. One other night we found out that we were going to be on a table with really awful people we sat with before and discretely talked to him and he put us on another table.

 

I think that if you want a table for two every night at an absolute certain time, and then show up without a reservation MTD might not work out for you. Sometimes we wanted to reserve let's say 7 pm and they only had 7.15 or 7.30 left. It is a bit of give and take, you have to stay realistic. These guys really try hard to make everybody happy, but it is not the restaurant you went to for Valentines Day with 5 tables and 10 guests. MTD is really meant for being able to eat at a different time with different people on your table every night, so you're not stuck with the same dining time with the same crowd on your table ever night. They just can't give everybody a table for 2 on a ship with a couple of thousand people.