Waitlisted for early dinner

[cctimmom]

Back in August, I booked my next cruise for April. I was told that the main/early dinner was not available and that I HAD to choose My Time Dining, and that I was put on the waitlist for my preference.

 

Is RCCL trying to promote MTD more? It's hard to believe that the main and later seatings were already booked/waitlisted... I know someone else that this has happened to, but didn't know if this was now common practice?

 

We really want the seating time because we like having the same waitstaff the entire trip....

[buzzandjulie]

Ask when you get on the ship they will most likely have a place for you, we have had to do this twice, never a problem

[MonaCK]

It depends on how large your group is. Be glad you were able to get my time dining... we ended up being forced into doing late dining on our last cruise (the one last January) and because we were a group of 10, they couldn't move us into early seating.

 

If you are sailing from Baltimore or NJ, the maitre de told us for some reason, early dining ALWAYS books out early on those sailings.

[DragonOfTheSeas]

We eat earlier at home--but, we ask for late seating on the cruise ships. We were forced into it on our first cruise and found it works well on port days and there is faster service.

 

As for early seating from Baltimore. Yes--it is ALWAYS full. A number of people ask/beg/cajole the staff to add them to early seating. What happens is that it is very crowded. The service becomes slower and the seating for the shows fills up 1/2 hour before they begin. (since way more than 1/2 of the ship has the early seating). The late seating has empty seats or whole empty tables.

[DonnaK]

This happened to us on our last three cruises, and we cleared the waiting list around the time of final payment (once we cleared, we called RCI to have the prepaid tips removed from the final bill because we prefer to have it added to our onboard account so we can use our onboard credit to pay for it).

 

Hopefully, this trend will continue and you will clear it too as people cancel before final payment is due. If not, just speak to the maitre-d upon boarding and he will likely accomodate you. As a last resort, just use MTD as a simulated early traditional. Eat at the same time every night and ask for the same table and wait team.

[DragonOfTheSeas]

Sorry I forgot to add this.

 

On our last cruise we "talked" with varous members of CC on the roll call for our cruise. We made arrangements to eat with 3 other couples. You could do this to have a "traditional" dining experience on MTD.

[DrD]

Back in August, I booked my next cruise for April. I was told that the main/early dinner was not available and that I HAD to choose My Time Dining, and that I was put on the waitlist for my preference.

 

Is RCCL trying to promote MTD more? It's hard to believe that the main and later seatings were already booked/waitlisted... I know someone else that this has happened to, but didn't know if this was now common practice?

 

We really want the seating time because we like having the same waitstaff the entire trip....

 

We had the exact same experience, going first week of April.

 

I suspect it has to do with it being spring break. Alot of kids = alot of early dining.

 

And school calendars out a year in advance = alot of early bookings. We booked in July I think.

 

It's ok for us though as we're on mountain time so 8:30 Eastern is a good time to eat!

[jennmaybe]

We booked 2 cruises this year. One in May for December and the other in June for next April. We were forced to book MTD for both cruises. They claimed the reserved seating times were full, which is a load of crap considering we booked MONTHS ahead of time. It's not like we booked it last minute.

 

We think MTD will work for us this time-around though. Hubby really likes the thought of not having to be ready by a certain time to be in the MDR to eat every night.

[cctimmom]

I probably should have clarified that neither seating was available, ONLY MTD. I would have taken either of the set times.

 

But it sounds like I can keep trying...

[BillOh]

Back in August, I booked my next cruise for April. I was told that the main/early dinner was not available and that I HAD to choose My Time Dining, and that I was put on the waitlist for my preference.

 

Is RCCL trying to promote MTD more? It's hard to believe that the main and later seatings were already booked/waitlisted... I know someone else that this has happened to, but didn't know if this was now common practice?

 

We really want the seating time because we like having the same waitstaff the entire trip....

 

My casual observation says you may get several responses that differ, but all maybe correct. Trying to put logic to it may be difficult and the procedure may vary from one ship to another. Call Crown and Anchor again every month or so and see if you can change. Thg only time this happened to me I booked a 3 day on Majesty with short notice and was put on a wait list for 2nd seating, but I never bothered. Once on board, the dining room was 1/2 full for both seatings on that cruise. Trying to rationalize it may be maddening. But it is not unheard of for large groups to change their booking suddenly opening up, or taking large blocks of seatings.

[dmdicato]

When this happened to us, we were wait-listed for the early seating. I ended up calling once a week for about 6 weeks and they finally gave us an early seating assignment. Persistence pays off!

[spookwife]

I probably should have clarified that neither seating was available, ONLY MTD. I would have taken either of the set times.

 

But it sounds like I can keep trying...

 

you know, when we booked our 22 December cruise back in September only MTD was an option.

 

but after final payment, I find that I can waitlist early or choose late.

 

we are keeping MTD( and have made standing ressies for the same time each night) just to try it. early is TOO early for us, but we found that we were just ready to fall straight into bed after late seating. I am hoping this is a happy medium for us.

 

when we booked our 19 September cruise on board we kept Late dining. we figure if we end up preferring MTD, we can always change.

[BillOh]

you know, when we booked our 22 December cruise back in September only MTD was an option.

 

.

 

 

Been hearing that frequently lately. The OP pondered if RC wants to send peope to MTD. I have no clue, but at least when I book a year in advance I get what I want in terms of seating.