MTD Chaos

[cinnamon]

We have witnessed and heard reports from others currently onboard with us that MTD is chaotic. An 'officer' told us it was because there are approximately 360 seats available and well over 900 people have been given MTD.

 

To expect the staff to cope with 3 'sittings' on at least half the tables is just very unfair on them.

 

Does this happen often?

[GUT2407]

We have witnessed and heard reports from others currently onboard with us that MTD is chaotic. An 'officer' told us it was because there are approximately 360 seats available and well over 900 people have been given MTD.

 

To expect the staff to cope with 3 'sittings' on at least half the tables is just very unfair on them.

 

Does this happen often?

 

Never had an issue, no idea how many sittings they expect them to get through but on land a lot of restaurants get through three a night.

[jgiblin]

We have witnessed and heard reports from others currently onboard with us that MTD is chaotic. An 'officer' told us it was because there are approximately 360 seats available and well over 900 people have been given MTD.

 

To expect the staff to cope with 3 'sittings' on at least half the tables is just very unfair on them.

 

Does this happen often?

 

What is MTD? Please define an acronym on its first use.

 

 

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[constable145]

What is MTD? Please define an acronym on its first use.

 

 

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My time Dining- a pretty common acronym around here...

[hapster85]

On what ship?

[cinnamon]

Rhapsody

[hellsop]

Rhapsody

 

Got off Rhapsody right before she crossed back to Europe and no, no way would the MTD manage to flip tables three times a night. Part of that, I'm sure, was due to the South American preference for dining late, but every dinner was at least 90 minutes, even foregoing dessert. There simply didn't seem to be staff to move things through faster, and a certain ... flexibility about reservation times seemed to be necessary if diners really wanted the same section.

 

I think part of it came around from the seating of the dining room in kind of a wave pattern rather than filling evenly. The earliest arriving would get seated at tables near the entrance and as time went on, rolled toward the back of the dining room. That means the front sections all want to order about at the same time, then all their orders are ready at about the same time, etc, which meant the staff had alternate periods of waiting for guests, then really busy, then everyone lingering over coffee and cake, then it starting up again, with occasional rush tables clearing out and being able to be filled in from.

[KEN31VA]

We just finished a cruise on the Serenade. Even though we had "reservations" for 6:30 with MTD, the wait was over an hour. I later switched to late seating. Waiting in line, especially to eat, is not my idea of a vacation.

[billsgal]

Was on as errands for 24 nights and had MTD. Can only think of one night that we had a wait of about 10 minutes. E Rey other night once we reached the podium we were seated within a minute or two.

 

 

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[riclop]

We have witnessed and heard reports from others currently onboard with us that MTD is chaotic. An 'officer' told us it was because theNever had an issue.re are approximately 360 seats available and well over 900 people have been given MTD.

 

To expect the staff to cope with 3 'sittings' on at least half the tables is just very unfair on them.

 

Does this happen often?

 

Never had an issue.

[reedl]

On majesty last week, we had MTD and with a party of 8 we always got the time we wanted without issue.

 

I think that the bigger parties are easier since they have the larger tables and want to use them.

 

I am going on Serenade from Boston to FLL at the end of Oct and have MTD. I made standing reservations for 7:30 each night, so we will see. But since I am in a GS, we might order in and eat dinner on the balcony or room a few nights.

[cot427]

I really don't understand why Royal can't make MTD or Dynamic for that matter work. I just sailed NCL's biggest ship and had absolutely no problem with their freestyle system. They have perfected it and the service is 10x better than what I've experienced with Royal's traditional dining these last few years. It really makes you wonder.

 

I would never expect them to have 3 seatings, that's just ridiculous on the part of the staff. But maybe they need to look at what numbers work and what doesn't and then make a system that works!

[Biker19]

I would never expect them to have 3 seatings, that's just ridiculous on the part of the staff.

Why not? Most folks at a table for 2 can finish dinner in about an hour, so 3 seatings is certainly doable.

[pandvsmith]

Have never experienced a problem. At the most have waited a few minutes.

[subtchr]

On Navigator in June, we walked up and walked right in for every meal using MTD, and were seated at the same lovely table by the window with excellent servers. We did always eat early, close to when the dining room opened, so that might have helped.

[bogofman]

we always have MTD or select on celebrity, we tend to eat after 8.30

 

as do a lot of Europeans and never really had more than a few minutes to wait

it helps if you book a table when leaving for the next night, that way when you turn up you get preference over the ones in line who have not booked.

 

On our only NCL cruise, there were more lines, they gave us a pager and a token each for a free drink at a bar,

 

we were most disappointed when we didn't get a pager and tokens and were seated straight way some nights :rolleyes:

[Big_G]

Like anything else, MTD popularity varies from ship to ship and itinerary to itinerary. Except for once on Allure, we've never waited for MTD. Even on Allure it was only 20 minutes.

[fletch1027]

We have done MTD 3 times over the past few years (Freedom 2x and Allure). We have always made "reservations" online before boarding and have never had an issue. In all three trips (based on advice from here on CC), we have gone to the MTD desk the morning of Day 2 and asked that a note be put on our reservations that we wanted the same staff each night. We have always been a small party of 2 or 3.

 

In all cases but one dinner, we have always gotten the same wait staff, and the one exception was because of a mix-up between the desk person and the "runner" that takes you to the table, but 20 out of 21 seatings is a pretty good ratio.

 

That being said, we usually prefer to eat early in order to have time to do stuff in the evenings. Most of our MTD reservations are somewhere between 5:30 & 6:30, so that may be part of our good experience in that it is easier to accommodate us when we are in the "1st wave" of seatings.

 

What I can't comprehend is the folks that walk up and wait in a standby line for MTD seating. When we are leaving, there is always a large queue of them. If you attempt MTD without an advance time, that will definitely remove the "My Time" from the acronym, and you will have plenty of time to study the scale ship model that is usually on display at the entrance... :)

[eaglesfaninfl]

We do MTD on every cruise (taken five on three different classes of ships, with three more in the pipeline) and have never had a problem. We reserve our preferred times online before the cruise based on ship's itinerary and, if we want to make a change, we stop by the hostess desk or call and have never had a problem. In fact, most of the ships have a "reservation" line for people like us and a "wait" line for those who just walk up. Really no different from restaurants on land who accept reservations and try to also accommodate walk-in business

[Biker19]

Really no different from restaurants on land who accept reservations and try to also accommodate walk-in business

 

That, apparently, did not sit well with enough cruisers that RCI decided to kill Dynamic Dining. Apparently, traditional cruisers want nothing to do with life on land when at sea.

[cloud_nine]

We were on the Jewel on 28th August and heard a lot of complaints about MTD. One couple even joined our table in traditional late dining because the queue for MTD did not move and they didn't eat one night until gone 10. That may have had to do with the amount of Italians on board though, because they tend to enjoy a long dinner (our table took about 2 hours in late dining and as we were leaving noticed the tables of Italians, also in late dining, still had their main courses in front of them). Probably all depends on where the ship leaves from as I've never heard of so many problems with MTD as I heard about on the Jewel.

[Cel_cruise]

I think that it's perfectly reasonable to expect 3 settings at MTD, but the waiters need to be trained differently on how to service their sections.

 

I believe many run their sections LIKE it is a traditional dining area and wait for everyone to be at the same place with their meal. Also, I don't think they take advantage of the fact that many actually prefer to eat faster instead of slower. That's one of the reasons we select MTD over Traditional!

 

 

A 5:30/6pm seating, a 7pm seating, and an 8:30 seating should be achievable at 60-75% of the tables I would think!!

 

I also agree that they cannot seat in 'Waves' and must evenly distribute arrivals. This should ensure that each waiter has a few minutes to work on a new table being seated before another arrives.

 

We thought MTD worked great on navigator. Hopefully these smaller ships can make it work also!!

 

 

 

 

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[davekathy]

We're doing a B2B Cruise on the Jewel April 2017. We've never done MTD before. So we've decided to do MTD on both legs. I've made our reservations on line and they show up in our calendar. When going to the dining room is there one or two lines to wait in to get in? One for reservations and the other for walk-ins? Not that it matters but we have 5:30 PM for all the evenings.

Edited October 8, 2016 by davekathy

[troykahack]

We just finished a cruise on the Serenade. Even though we had "reservations" for 6:30 with MTD, the wait was over an hour. I later switched to late seating. Waiting in line, especially to eat, is not my idea of a vacation.

 

I hope not... we have MTD for 630 over the Thanksgiving Cruise.....There is a group of us, 12 people with 630 MTD

[Cel_cruise]

I hope not... we have MTD for 630 over the Thanksgiving Cruise.....There is a group of us, 12 people with 630 MTD

 

 

My parents are on the Serenade now (disembark tomorrow) and had 6:30 MTD reservations. I will ask them for a report.

 

On our Navigator cruise - they did not allow 6:30 as a booking time ahead. You could only reserve up til 6:15 and then not again until 7:15. They reserved those times for walk ups with no guarantees section.

 

I think that 6:30 reservations are part of the problem!

 

 

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