Tried "Your Time" dining on the Dream 11/20 - NEVER AGAIN! (Chef's Art letdown also)

[rsinj]

We did Your Time Dining on the Miracle in September and didn't experience any issues whatsoever. Nightly we were seated immediately and always at a table or booth of appropriate size for the three of us. First night we had a waiter who didn't work out for us. Second night we had a superstar and simply requested being in his area each night the remainder of the cruise.

 

Prior to our cruise, we did have an issue in the dining scheduling. Our booking was made 16 months in advance and YTD was chosen immediately. Online, it showed YTD the entire time and I had printouts of it. Upon the phone call confirmation after final payment, representative says "so you have Early Seating" which wife responded "No, we have YTD, correct it immediately". Later that evening I go online and find it was somehow changed to Early Seating. When I go to change it back, it then waitlists us. Calling to resolve it, I learn that being in a suite, you get your choice of dining as a perk (which I wasn't aware) and the issue was corrected for us - I would have been quite annoyed had we not been in a suite and so easily had it changed.

 

Though we had the booking issue getting it, YTD worked excellently for us and we didn't experience any of the issues described in the original post. Possibly the issues described were ship-specific or a result of lack of consistent implementation across the fleet? Or that they are letting more people choose YTD without adjusting the amount of space/tables/staff being set aside for it?

 

Howard

[Tantra1]

I have never used YTD and a few good points have been identified why it may not be the best choice for us. However, it is nice for Carnival to offer the option for those that prefer an alternative to a set schedule.

I haven't read all the post on the forum and although I have read some that deal with the Pros and Cons of YTD I haven't seen the same depth of discussion on traditional dining time. Other than inconvenience if your daily schedule changes what would some other disadvantages be for traditional dining time?

 

Cheers!

[rsinj]

1. Well for me/us inconvenience "if" your schedule changes is a big one. When we're on vacation we don't have a schedule and having a set time for dinner basically forces us to plan the rest of the day around it.

 

2. We prefer to dine by ourselves as a family and have no interest in being thrown in to a group of others for our dinner. Other people like that aspect and think it's just wonderful. Good for them, it's not for us. If you get seated with the Bundies and don't hit it off, good luck getting it changed - you've got them for the cruise.

 

3. Similar to getting tablemates who don't gel, maybe the waiter and staff at your assigned table is unacceptable to you - again, good luck getting it changed.

 

Bottom line, choice is always a good thing for the consumer. I don't see when/why if given the option of having a choice or being told what to do someone would choose not to have the flexibility. Maybe this is why most cruiselines have caught on, and followed NCL's lead offering a flexible dining option - because customers want it.

 

Howard

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

1. Well for me/us inconvenience "if" your schedule changes is a big one. When we're on vacation we don't have a schedule and having a set time for dinner basically forces us to plan the rest of the day around it.

 

2. We prefer to dine by ourselves as a family and have no interest in being thrown in to a group of others for our dinner. Other people like that aspect and think it's just wonderful. Good for them, it's not for us. If you get seated with the Bundies and don't hit it off, good luck getting it changed - you've got them for the cruise.

 

3. Similar to getting tablemates who don't gel, maybe the waiter and staff at your assigned table is unacceptable to you - again, good luck getting it changed.

 

Bottom line, choice is always a good thing for the consumer. I don't see when/why if given the option of having a choice or being told what to do someone would choose not to have the flexibility. Maybe this is why most cruiselines have caught on, and followed NCL's lead offering a flexible dining option - because customers want it.

 

Howard

 

After reading a fair bit about the MDR on NCL we opted for specialty restaurants on our first NCL sailing earlier this year (Sky). It had nothing to do with wait times, and everything to do with overall quality and choice of food. It was only a 3 night sailing so Cagney's and Le Bistro were our night 1 and 2 choices respectively. On the third night we ended up just eating buffalo wings and washing them down with Coronas in Longboards... oddly, that was our favorite meal of the cruise! I look forward to our February sailing on the Epic, and will likely go with specialty dining (check out ALL the choices!!) there as well. I think the general mindset with NCL is that given the mediocre MDR offerings many will opt for multiple specialty (pay) restaurants. Having said that, there are plenty of people who enjoy the MDR on NCL. I know, up front, that I won't be bringing my tux along on that sailing!

 

Tom

[guxu]

I think the problem is Carnival cut the service too thin, not the dinning time. We had traditional fixed time dinning in our last cruise (several months ago). On some nights, we had to wait for about an hour before we could get our appetizers. One night we waited 45 minutes just for water. Yes, we seated immediately without waiting. But so what?

[Tantra1]

2. We prefer to dine by ourselves as a family and have no interest in being thrown in to a group of others for our dinner. Other people like that aspect and think it's just wonderful. Good for them, it's not for us. If you get seated with the Bundies and don't hit it off, good luck getting it changed - you've got them for the cruise.

Howard

 

:D

 

I can see how this could make anyone a believer in YTD. Thanks for the good points.

 

Cheers!

[pianogal83]

We just returned from the Liberty. Your Time Dining worked perfectly for us.

We ate in the Golden Dining Room every night. Only 1 night did we not get seated immediately. That night we chose to wait about 15 minutes to get our choice of dining staff. We got a table for 2 each night, got the best dining staff every on the second night and were able to keep them for the remainder of the cruise. We never waited on anything. Almost as soon as we were seated, we were offered drinks, bread was brought to the table, water was poured. About 5 minutes later our order was taken. Appetizers appeared within 5-10 minutes and our staff was amazing. We never felt rushed, but as soon as we completed a course, the next course was there within minutes. Coffee was on the table with dessert after the 1st night when they knew we liked coffee with dessert. They called us by our names from the very first night. By the end of the cruise, we felt like family.

 

The Your Time Dining experience was one of the best things about our cruise.:D

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

:D

 

I can see how this could make anyone a believer in YTD. Thanks for the good points.

 

Cheers!

 

Not that we are anti-social, but anytime we dine (breakfast/lunch/dinner) we have our own table. Early on (30-40 cruises ago) we met some nice people, and a couple NOT so nice people, at dinner. Ever since then we have requested a private table. Many enjoy meeting new people, as do we - though we don't desire that to occur at dinner!

 

Tom

[GlendaleCruiser]

I think the problem is Carnival cut the service too thin, not the dinning time. We had traditional fixed time dinning in our last cruise (several months ago). On some nights, we had to wait for about an hour before we could get our appetizers. One night we waited 45 minutes just for water. Yes, we seated immediately without waiting. But so what?

You must have been there until midnight if you had the late seating. Or, if you had the early seating did they have to wait for you to finish for late seating?

[guxu]

You must have been there until midnight if you had the late seating. Or, if you had the early seating did they have to wait for you to finish for late seating?

We were in early seating. It was just so slow to get things started. But when they started, they were moving normally. It was not like we had to wait 45 minutes for each course. So in the slowest nights, we seated around 5:45pm, started eating around 7:00pm :eek:, finished dinner around 8:00pm. I guess they still had time to prepare table for late seating.

[idiebabe]

I agree with you, Tom. We tried YTD and it is not for us as well. We actually did it on NCL and never would do it again!

 

We just did two cruises on two different ships since September and both times had Late Seating. We had no problem with the flow of the food and waits on the courses.

[Lib0007]

After reading a fair bit about the MDR on NCL we opted for specialty restaurants on our first NCL sailing earlier this year (Sky). It had nothing to do with wait times, and everything to do with overall quality and choice of food. It was only a 3 night sailing so Cagney's and Le Bistro were our night 1 and 2 choices respectively. On the third night we ended up just eating buffalo wings and washing them down with Coronas in Longboards... oddly, that was our favorite meal of the cruise! I look forward to our February sailing on the Epic, and will likely go with specialty dining (check out ALL the choices!!) there as well. I think the general mindset with NCL is that given the mediocre MDR offerings many will opt for multiple specialty (pay) restaurants. Having said that, there are plenty of people who enjoy the MDR on NCL. I know, up front, that I won't be bringing my tux along on that sailing!

 

Tom

 

 

 

Hi Tom, on our NCL sailings, we hit every specialty restaurant also - the variety was nice and the price was fairly minimal. The MDR meals were very mediocre - ok but nothing special - and the same menu each night except I think 2 daily specials. I liked their buffet (for breakfast and lunch) better than Carnival's. Make sure you see the shows on the Epic . . . we have found NCL's production shows to be fantastic.

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

Hi Tom, on our NCL sailings, we hit every specialty restaurant also - the variety was nice and the price was fairly minimal. The MDR meals were very mediocre - ok but nothing special - and the same menu each night except I think 2 daily specials. I liked their buffet (for breakfast and lunch) better than Carnival's. Make sure you see the shows on the Epic . . . we have found NCL's production shows to be fantastic.

 

Thanks for helping to confirm what else I had read.

 

Yes, I have my calendar marked for making both dinner and show reservations. :D

 

Looking forward to it!!

 

Tom

[Tantra1]

Not that we are anti-social, but anytime we dine (breakfast/lunch/dinner) we have our own table. Early on (30-40 cruises ago) we met some nice people, and a couple NOT so nice people, at dinner. Ever since then we have requested a private table. Many enjoy meeting new people, as do we - though we don't desire that to occur at dinner!

 

Tom

 

My wife and I requested private tables on the last few cruises because we wanted some time for just the two of us during dinner. Prior to that we sat at larger tables to enjoy the company of others. But like you say it doesn't always work out the way you hope. We also enjoy getting dressed for the more formal nights (her in a new dress and me in a tux) for some nice memory pictures since we don't get the opportunity very often. We then make a point of meeting new folks in the dining room during breakfast.

It gives us a nice balance.

 

Cheers!

[paleskin]

Is it possible the service is worse on YTD because the waiters assume your not going to leave them an extra tip like you would have with assigned dining for the week??? Just a thought? I found YTD to be a problem,but mostly the waiters just didn't seem to care and waited until our table was full to even offer us rolls. I felt like we were a bother to the waitstaff which was switching from the 6:15 seating and preparing for the late. seating

[klmorg]

Is it possible the service is worse on YTD because the waiters assume your not going to leave them an extra tip like you would have with assigned dining for the week??? Just a thought? I found YTD to be a problem,but mostly the waiters just didn't seem to care and waited until our table was full to even offer us rolls. I felt like we were a bother to the waitstaff which was switching from the 6:15 seating and preparing for the late. seating

 

Not in our case on the last two cruises... the service was actually BETTER with YTD than we ever had with traditional. We loved everything about YTD, especially the flexibility of going to eat when we were ready and when we were hungry with no schedule at all. It might not be for everyone, but it's the only way we'll do from now on. :)