MDR and When

[TM38Rob]

This poll is to see how many people eat dinner from the Main Dining Room Menu, and when they dine. Please pick the choice that usually applies to you on Royal Caribbean ships with a MDR. In addition to the main 3 choices (1st seating, 2nd seating, & My Time Dining), I've added one for guest who may dine in the CL and/or have a suite and eat meals from the MDR menu delivered to the suite. There's another choice for those who don't eat in the MDR, and don't pay attention or remember which seating they were assigned.

 

If you eat at the windjammer or any restaurant outside the MDR for 1 or 2 nights, please choose the seating you like to be assigned from the 3 main choices.

 

Also, for those who don't dine in the MDR (or only 1 or 2 meals for a certain items like lobster tails or whatever reason), please choose No MDR and the seating you are usually assigned.

 

With Dynamic Dining on the horizon, just curious to see what most passengers currently do for dinner (and/or have done in the past). Please feel free to post comments about eating all dinners in MDR, most dinners in MDR, take it back to room, avoid MDR whenever possible, etc. If you are looking forward to Dynamic Dining or not, please post those comments in the other thread. Thanks.

Edited August 25, 2014 by TM38Rob

[dancinman66]

I use mdr predominTely for 2nd seating

 

 

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[tillydog]

Normally Traditional 1st Sitting.

 

But next cruise, thought we'd go with Traditional 2nd sitting.

[TM38Rob]

Since the 3rd night of my first Royal Caribbean cruise, I have eaten dinner every night in the MDR Traditional 1st seating. The first night was a stormy sailaway. Ate diner at Johnny Rockets as I was drenched and didn't have time to get ready for dinner. The second night was formal night and didn't have any formal wear. My Stateroom Attendant told me that I could still dine in the MDR without formal wear, just wear a nice shirt and pants. Wish I had gone to dinner that night, but I had had a late lunch and ate dinner ashore in Nassau instead as we were in port until midnight. The 3rd night I finally ran out of excuses and went to the MDR. I met some great people and enjoyed some good food. I wished I had met them on the first night.

 

I enjoy meeting new people and getting to know them over the course of the cruise, from fellow passengers to the waitstaff. Gives me something to look forward to each night.

 

While the menus have changed recently, I do enjoy knowing I can get beef sliders and steak fries if nothing else looks good to me on the new menus on any night. From the old menu, I miss the cream of pumpkin soup.

Edited August 25, 2014 by TM38Rob

[rummenroman]

Done MTD since the initial Serenade test. Been a huge fan since!

[ReneeFLL]

We normally would eat Traditional 1st seating on RC. Our last cruise was on Celebrity and we tried the My Time dining. When we sail with RC again we will continue with the My Time dining. Loved the flexibility of it.

[bonox55]

Trad. Dining in mdr first sitting. Don't mind dressing up a bit for dinner.

 

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[Debinnova]

Have done traditional 1st seating but last cruise and cruise coming up, we chose MTD. Like the flexibility but miss sitting with and getting to know others.

 

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[swinny123]

MDR second sitting :-))

 

 

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[tip]

We became converts to ""My Time Dining" years ago and have never looked back. It certainly provides us with more flexibility on port days and even on sea days if we sleep in and have late breakfasts and lunches.

 

We enjoy a table for two as we enjoy each other's company and have no desire to make small talk with strangers. We also see no reason to, "Get to know our waiter."

[Lady Hudson]

Traditional - second seating. ( I was not able to vote in this poll.)

[beerman2]

Have only done Carnival, doing RCI in October but always do MDR 1st seating. If I ate 2nd seating it would be straight to bed. LOL

[woodyren]

MTD. We like to just go with the flow. Dynamic dinning sounds like another improvement again. We too love to meet people. There are many opportunities to do so outside of the traditional dining way. Rather than hope that you enjoy the company of your dinning companions MTD give you ample opportunity to dine with people of your choice that you meet on board without having to do a specialty restaurant or dinning in the buffet. If you take a larger table with MTD you can dine with others at random and if you really enjoy other peoples company you then can organise to dine together as often as you wish.

This chance to meet people with traditional dinning is put forward as the main or one of the main drivers of that choice by many. For us this argument holds no water.

What is great though is that in this modern style of cruising there is a lot of thought goes into planning and ship design so that there is as much choice as possible for each individuals preference.

I have commented previously about many things and often state and truly believe that while every dinning, drinking, activity, entertainment option etc may not suit me the fact that it will suit a number of other people keeps the passengers in general occupied and happy. Happy passengers make a happy cruise IMO.

[abridalmaven]

Traditional 2nd seating.

[Clarea]

Traditional early, with one or two dinners in Windjammer.

[FLACRUISER99]

Traditional 2nd Sitting/w Table for 2.

[tinyterrorsma]

Traditional 2nd seating every night bc kids loved it. But we did appetizers at 630 in WJ first.

 

 

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[wato1963]

WJ at 6.30 then 2nd seating at 8.30, then usually order room service at 11.30, [emoji6]

[SamFritz]

Traditional, first seating. One specialty each cruise. Prefer large tables to facilitate making new friends.

 

 

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Edited August 25, 2014 by SamFritz

[DonnaK]

We eat in the MDR every night on our cruises.

 

Traditional 1st seating (or 2nd seating, if 1st is not available) is our preference

 

We are very unhappy about the idea of Dynamic Dining because we enjoy the MDR experience.

Edited August 25, 2014 by DonnaK

[Goes Cruising]

Traditional, 1st seating is my preference, and I always ask for a large table.

 

I've tried MTD, both by choice and because of a lack of availability of the traditional timeslots. If I'm traveling with other family members (enough to fill a table), I'm ok with MTD but we end up reserving same time every night anyways.

 

I sometimes break up a longer cruise with a specialty restaurant or two, but for 7 days, I'm perfectly happy with the MDR every night.

[Beachammo]

1st seating (unless the port schedule makes us choose MTD) so that I have the whole night in front of me to have fun. Pick up a slice or two as we head back to the room at midnight.

[cruiseapril]

My Time Dining in the MDR early most evenings. Once in awhile we

eat in the Windjammer if we've had a late excursion.

[jules815]

Traditional, late seating, with one night in a specialty restaurant.

[avied9109]

MTD all the way. Our next cruise only had second time available and I am not looking forward to it. We are on the wait list for MTD, so hopefully it will get changed before the cruise. We love the flexibility of getting to chose when we eat. I might be starving by 6 one night, so I'll eat at 6. I might just want a snack at that point so I'll run up and grab some sushi before I want a "real" dinner around 9.

 

I have a hard time seeing why everyone wouldn't love that type of flexibility?? It's my vacation, I want to do things on my time. :)