My time dining question.

[caneable]

Maybe I’m being a bit simplistic here, but I’ve just copied this from the RC website

 

“Choose My Time Dining and eat when you want each night between 6pm - 9.30pm. Just reserve a table in our main restaurant beforehand – the earlier the better. For parents, choose My Family Dining and let us serve your children (aged 3-11) swiftly before whisking them away for fun and games - leaving you to finish your meal at your leisure. A pre-paid gratuity will automatically be added to your reservation for My Time Dining or My Family Time Dining. Times vary from ship to ship.”

 

So does the last sentence mean that if I want to choose My Time Dining, will I be charged an automatic gratuity charge even though I’m dining in the general dining room, or is that only for families wishing to have their kids whisked away?😱

[spookwife]

That’s old news.  Royal no longer requires people who are on MTD to pre pay the gratuity charge.

 

MFTD is actually early seating because the crew that staff the kids clubs will pick them up 45 minutes after  early seating begins at the entrance of the MDR

[caneable]

Thanks spookwife, and am I right in assuming I can book in any time for any night?

[Clarea]

2 minutes ago, caneable said:

Thanks spookwife, and am I right in assuming I can book in any time for any night?

 

Not sure I understand the question, but if you are asking about making reservations for MTD, you do this through the Cruise Planner on Royal's website.  Reports indicate that many times only early and late times are showing available in the Cruise Planner.

[caneable]

51 minutes ago, Host Clarea said:

 

Not sure I understand the question, but if you are asking about making reservations for MTD, you do this through the Cruise Planner on Royal's website.  Reports indicate that many times only early and late times are showing available in the Cruise Planner.

 

If in on MTD, can I book a separate time in the main dining room for each evening of the cruise?

[grapau27]

1 hour ago, caneable said:

Maybe I’m being a bit simplistic here, but I’ve just copied this from the RC website

 

“Choose My Time Dining and eat when you want each night between 6pm - 9.30pm. Just reserve a table in our main restaurant beforehand – the earlier the better. For parents, choose My Family Dining and let us serve your children (aged 3-11) swiftly before whisking them away for fun and games - leaving you to finish your meal at your leisure. A pre-paid gratuity will automatically be added to your reservation for My Time Dining or My Family Time Dining. Times vary from ship to ship.”

 

So does the last sentence mean that if I want to choose My Time Dining, will I be charged an automatic gratuity charge even though I’m dining in the general dining room, or is that only for families wishing to have their kids whisked away?😱

That used to be the case in the UK if you wanted MTD you had to pre-pay gratuities.

This is no longer the case but RC always ask our TA if we want to still pre-pay gratuities.

We always pre-pay gratuities still because it is convenient and done in our currency £sterling.

[grapau27]

14 minutes ago, caneable said:

 

If in on MTD, can I book a separate time in the main dining room for each evening of the cruise?

Yes you need to process each night in your basket on the cruise planner.

I always print a copy of MTD times and take it with me the first night we go to MTD.

[biomedbob]

The concept of MTD is walk in when you want, be seated when available.  Now they are selling reservations in the terminal before you get on the ship.   I've taken this up often with the staff at the dining room entrance and have this argument that I needed to have a reservation.  Gone to a higher level person and gotten seated.  I think MTD is when I want on board, not 2 months in advance.

 

[grapau27]

10 minutes ago, biomedbob said:

The concept of MTD is walk in when you want, be seated when available.  Now they are selling reservations in the terminal before you get on the ship.   I've taken this up often with the staff at the dining room entrance and have this argument that I needed to have a reservation.  Gone to a higher level person and gotten seated.  I think MTD is when I want on board, not 2 months in advance.

 

The selling in the terminal must be for speciallity restaurants only.

MTD has 2 lines.

1- booked reservations.

2- no reservations.

[Rogerandsue]

On ‎5‎/‎4‎/‎2019 at 11:07 PM, grapau27 said:

The selling in the terminal must be for speciallity restaurants only.

MTD has 2 lines.

1- booked reservations.

2- no reservations.

We have always booked MTD and never made any reservations, we like the freedom to just turn up when we are ready and join the no reservations queue, very rarely had to wait more then a few minutes to get seated, usually just grab a drink from one of the bars on the way and sip it in line as it can take a while to get a drink once seated.

 

On our last Indy cruise they even had a wine waiter at the entrance to the MDR serving drinks which was quite cool.

[grapau27]

5 minutes ago, Rogerandsue said:

We have always booked MTD and never made any reservations, we like the freedom to just turn up when we are ready and join the no reservations queue, very rarely had to wait more then a few minutes to get seated, usually just grab a drink from one of the bars on the way and sip it in line as it can take a while to get a drink once seated.

 

On our last Indy cruise they even had a wine waiter at the entrance to the MDR serving drinks which was quite cool.

As long as you have MTD on your reservation you can turn up at anytime.

We saw the no reservations line moving constantly especially for people who didn't mind sharing tables with strangers and only people wanting tables for 2 having to wait longer.

On other cruiselines like P&O their freedom dining is like MTD but they give you buzzers and tell you to come back when the buzzer goes off.If like us you want a table for 2 you can wait from 15 minutes to over 1 hour.

[Artemus]

I only do mtd dining now to guarantee myself a table for two the entire cruise. I always do reservations in my cruise planner long before my cruise. There is usually a line for Those with Reservations and No Reservations and both lines can be pretty long sometimes.

I must say though that making reservations online is a pain having to do each night separately. Seems like they could fix having to reserve one night at a time.

Edited May 9, 2019 by Artemus

[caneable]

Thanks all for taking the time to reply.  We’re very familiar with NCL Freestyle dining but suspected that there might be significant differences.  Like that RC includes shared table options as that’s usually the fun way to go.

[scuddles]

I have booked our party of 9 on the Cruise Planner for MTD but I have a question about the kids club. There will be 3 kids, 7, 10 and 11, with us. Will they be picked up and if so what time frame? We aren't familiar with RCCL Kids club. 

[Mr. Candyman]

6 minutes ago, scuddles said:

I have booked our party of 9 on the Cruise Planner for MTD but I have a question about the kids club. There will be 3 kids, 7, 10 and 11, with us. Will they be picked up and if so what time frame? We aren't familiar with RCCL Kids club. 

From my understanding you have to have the early Traditional seating time, and I believe they pickup the kids at the entrance around 6:30pm (check onboard with Adventure Ocean for the exact time).  Also doesn't start until the second night of the cruise.  

[scuddles]

On 5/11/2019 at 10:11 AM, Mr. Candyman said:

From my understanding you have to have the early Traditional seating time, and I believe they pickup the kids at the entrance around 6:30pm (check onboard with Adventure Ocean for the exact time).  Also doesn't start until the second night of the cruise.  

Thank you! 

[cruise luvr]

can someone tell me if my time dining is the only choice or are there still 2 seatings for dinner?  if so do you now the times?  I can't find on our reservation what was booked by our travel agent.

[Clarea]

6 minutes ago, cruise luvr said:

can someone tell me if my time dining is the only choice or are there still 2 seatings for dinner?  if so do you now the times?  I can't find on our reservation what was booked by our travel agent.

 

Royal still offers traditional (two fixed times) dining.

 

The two fixed times vary.  I've seen 6pm/8:30pm and 530pm/8pm, and other combinations.  Your travel agent should be able to give you this info for your sailing.  Also ask your agent for Royal's Guest Copy of your booking confirmation.

[wwjd1947]

On 5/11/2019 at 12:00 PM, scuddles said:

I have booked our party of 9 on the Cruise Planner for MTD but I have a question about the kids club. There will be 3 kids, 7, 10 and 11, with us. Will they be picked up and if so what time frame? We aren't familiar with RCCL Kids club. 

I want to book a party of 10 for MTD and can't figure out how to do it on the Cruise Planner.  All I see is planning for the Speciality Dining packages.  Where do I look to make reservations for MTD or traditional dining?  Thanks in advance for any help offered.

[Missymo]

13 minutes ago, wwjd1947 said:

I want to book a party of 10 for MTD and can't figure out how to do it on the Cruise Planner.  All I see is planning for the Speciality Dining packages.  Where do I look to make reservations for MTD or traditional dining?  Thanks in advance for any help offered.

Whenever we are a small group,I get all their booking numbers, call RCCL and have them book it for me. RCCL will email  you the confirmations.

Edited May 19, 2019 by Missymo

[Mr. Candyman]

2 minutes ago, Missymo said:

Whenever we are a small group,I get all their booking numbers, call RCCL and have them book it for me. Royal will email  you the confirmations.

Even after that you should still make sure the reservations are linked so that if you choose any excursions or shows you'll be able to book everyone together.  

[Mr. Candyman]

33 minutes ago, wwjd1947 said:

I want to book a party of 10 for MTD and can't figure out how to do it on the Cruise Planner.  All I see is planning for the Speciality Dining packages.  Where do I look to make reservations for MTD or traditional dining?  Thanks in advance for any help offered.

if you hover the mouse over Dining it should be listed on the drop down menu under Izumi Hibachi Experience.  But if you clicked on Dining it's going be all the way at the bottom of the page.  If you still don't see it (just throwing this out there) maybe your reservation is set for Tradition and not MTD.   

[BekkaW]

On 5/5/2019 at 7:55 AM, biomedbob said:

The concept of MTD is walk in when you want, be seated when available.  Now they are selling reservations in the terminal before you get on the ship.   I've taken this up often with the staff at the dining room entrance and have this argument that I needed to have a reservation.  Gone to a higher level person and gotten seated.  I think MTD is when I want on board, not 2 months in advance.

 

 

I disagree. The concept of MTD is that you can eat at a time that isn’t traditional early or late seating. This enables the possibility of walking in when you want, but it isn’t just for that. Making reservations isn’t antithetical to MTD.

 

Also, given that MTD can’t be ‘sold’ I think you may have seen the specialty restaurant desk. 

[travelplus]

On 5/9/2019 at 9:04 AM, Artemus said:

I only do mtd dining now to guarantee myself a table for two the entire cruise. I always do reservations in my cruise planner long before my cruise. There is usually a line for Those with Reservations and No Reservations and both lines can be pretty long sometimes.

I must say though that making reservations online is a pain having to do each night separately. Seems like they could fix having to reserve one night at a time.

Don't even get me started with having to select each bloody night online to make MTD reservations. Someone at IT could just make an Outlook Calendar where you see all the dates of the cruise and you can say "Apply for all nights: or go down the list and choose different times.

Why make it as if you are purchasing an item each bloody time you make a MTD reservation in the Cruise Planner. I think MTD reservations should have their own place on the Royal Website just like our Cruise Critic Meet and Mingle  sign up page.  Its so simple just enter in your reservation@# select passengers and Day and time.  Also have the option for not sharing the table, special requests like food allergies etc.

 

It takes me 20 minutes per cruise to go through the stupid rigamarol of selecting the passengers, selecting the time and purchasing a non chargeable item. Then if I forget what time I have schedule on Day 1. Oh and when you book a Shore Excursion it should automatically fix the conflict and give you a suggested time!  They could even load in show times to the calendar so that way MTD can make the shows.

 

 

[biomedbob]

I didn't know there was such a word as antithetical.  Thanks...I added that to my limited Tennessee vocabulary.  Travelplus:Thanks.  On our last cruise we were confronted in the terminal by an old crew member friend trying to get to commit to a set time MTD.  Heck I don't know what time is lunch or dinner today let alone some occasion in December.