Royal Caribbean First-timer; SO confused about dining. Liberty of the Seas, May 13-20

[waughoo]

I'll be cruising with my wife and toddler daughter next month. We have done a few Carnival cruises, but this is our first Royal Caribbean.

 

We signed up for "My Time" dining because flexibility with a 3 year old is good. On Carnival, we always preferred dining in the dining room as opposed to the buffet; food was way better. You could choose an early or late seating.

 

But from what I'm reading now about Liberty of the Seas, I am confused.

 

I see "MDR" which I guess means "main dining room." Can we eat there with My Time Dining, or is that somewhere else? Do we truly just go whenever we want (within the dinner hours)?

Edited April 15, 2018 by waughoo
I found an answer to the second part of my question here: https://www.cruisecritic.com/reviews/review.cfm?ShipID=389&pgtype=d

[kweaver1968]

There is no need to be confused. Most the RC ships have two MDRs: one for Traditional Dining and one for Anytime Dining. Your Seapass cards will tell you which MDR to go to. You go anytime during the dining hours with Anytime Dining. I personally like to make all my reservation ahead of time via my Cruise Dashboard, but I tend to be an over-planner. I have come to like Anytime Dining because I can adjust our dining time day-to-day depending on the itinerary. I have noticed that people who do not make reservations sometimes wait in line for short time period, but cannot tell you how long. My advice would be to try to avoid peak hours if you did not make reservations.

 

It will all be great. You and your family will have a wonderful time.

[waughoo]

Thanks Ken and Cheryl! This helps a lot. I just was looking at our reservation and trying to do the time slot reservation as you (and others) suggested, but it says we are "not configured for mytime dining." so maybe I was wrong about that. I'm not seeing in our reservation what we ARE configured for. LOL I guess I will ask when we get there. I'm sure we will eat so it will be OK! I just know when we were assigned late dining (8:30) on carnival, that was too late for our little one and she was not the most pleasant co-diner for other guests in the dining room! :)

[Pstreet12]

Go to the dining room as soon as you board and make reservations for the time you think you will want. You can always change it later if you want, but you'll have the time reserved that you believe will work best for you. That way, you'll probably have the same table/wait staff each night.

[HicksRA]

Call RCI with your reservation # and verify that you are scheduled for My Time Dining. If not, tell them to change it. You should then be able to go into your cruise planner online and reserve times for each night. All are in the Main Dining Room, they just use the fourth floor for My Time. If you don’t have a reservation and they’re busy, they’ll give you one of those flashing led things like regular restaurants.