second thoughts about Any Time Dining

[Organized Chaos]

15 hours ago, will88 said:

Just finished Glory Dec 22 7-night trip. I must say YTD was NOT very good for at least 2 nights. The first night right after safety drill there was an incredibly long line for YTD and early dining. 2nd day YTD still took a while. Later days were fine. When having fixed dining, I never had lines as long on any ship. So clearly how well YTD works is YMMV.

 

That was due to extenuating circumstances. It's because that cruise was the first one after the accident. Glory's Platinum MDR was closed on the first night while they were patching things up and getting everything in order. On the first night, everyone was diverted to the Golden MDR, which is used for YTD, so that's why you saw long lines. By the second night, they reopened the Platinum MDR and dining schedules were returned to normal, but I can imagine they were still trying to get their feet under them on that second night, after everything that happened. So everything you experienced, especially on the first two nights, cannot be blamed on YTD itself.

[PrincessArlena'sDad]

9 minutes ago, ibarrio said:

I think FTTF works the same as YTD but you can set reservations with FTTF. Maybe I read it wrong. From the Carnival website regarding FTTF. I probably won't bother changing it 

 

"Dining Reservations

Priority Main Dining Room and Specialty Restaurant reservations (excluding Your Time Dining)."

FTTF gets you priority in making your MDR preference (early, late, or YTD).  In other words, if you get wait listed for your choice of dining, the FTTF folks get bumped to the top of the list.  However, there is no FTTF benefit for seating with YTD.  When you show up, your wait will be the same as everyone else's who shows up at that time (if there is a wait at that particular moment).

 

FTTF does get priority in specialty restaurant reservations (like the steak house).  I'm not sure how this priority works, exactly.

 

Personally, we prefer early seating:

1. We like just walking into the MDR when it's time to eat, and having the same table.  Having our own personal table just feels extra special to us.

 

2. The same wait staff.  Often, by Day 2, they'll have our preferred drinks on the table waiting for us (for me, that's an iced tea with lemon).  For DW, it's coffee with half and half.  Also, if you have an allergy in the party, having the same wait staff is a HUGE benefit.

 

3. We hope to get good table mates.  Some of our best memories are the conversations we've had with our table mates. 

 

4. We like having a set dining time.  It really works well for the show schedule.  If you want to see the main show, chances are you'll either show up at 6 pm or 8 pm anyway. 

 

5. It also works well for Camp Ocean. They have a set dining time at 6 pm.  Kids can eat with camp, or with the adults in the MDR and then join camp post dinner for their evening activities.

 

6. This is itinerary specific, but, at least for the cruises we've taken, all aboard time is between 4:30 and 5:30.   Which means, there is very little time between showering/freshening up and early seating. If we're going to be heading out to dinner around 6 pm, might as well use the plusses of main dining.

[outatouch0]

Wow, this thing really blew up into something. I want to thank all of you for your time and input. I believe I will let the YTD stand. I think the greatest likelihood is we will constantly be late getting to our assigned time.

[Ellaleah]

Going on my 10th cruise.  I have had YTD on 4 (not Carnival).  Going back to traditional as I don’t like to eat late and we were encourage to make reservations with YTD on RCL.

[grandmarnnurse]

5 minutes ago, Ellaleah said:

Going on my 10th cruise.  I have had YTD on 4 (not Carnival).  Going back to traditional as I don’t like to eat late and we were encourage to make reservations with YTD on RCL.

No need to do this on Carnival. No reservations needed for MDR, even with YTD, or shows. I really disliked that on RCCL.

[TerReuv]

On 12/30/2019 at 8:55 AM, Joebucks said:

I don't really care for being on a schedule either, but I hate waiting around even more. Because of schedules, we want to be out of dinner by 7-7:30. love my 6 pm dining. Your table of 6 will always be ready, and you will have a better relationship with your wait team than with YTD.

 

That's not necessarily true.  We have always had YTD and always asked and had the same wait staff each night.  We certainly had as good a relationship with our wait team as someone with reserved seating.

[IDKaren]

On 12/30/2019 at 11:51 AM, Organized Chaos said:

 

We always do Your Time Dining. Mainly for the flexibility. We don't know when we'll want dinner from night to night. Depending on the activities we want to attend, we might want to go earlier or later. Not to mention the fact that we may not be hungry for early dining, what with the possibility of having a late lunch or snacking during the day. YTD works out so much better for us.

 

There's usually 3 or 4 of us and a vast majority of the time we get seated right away. A few years ago, we were part of a party of 5 and had the same experience...we were almost always seated right away. Once in a while, we'd have a 5-10 min. wait. With that said, our longest waits almost always fall on the last night of the cruise and they're usually about 30 minutes. Everyone seems to want to get one last MDR meal in, so it's busy.

 

Dinner usually lasts an hour to an hour and a half. With the reduction in wait staff in the last year or two, sometimes they feel like they can drag on too long. We missed one of the early Playlist shows last year because they took forever. Earlier this month, the same thing almost happened. We skipped dessert to make the show.

 

If you're on a ship that allows you to check in for YTD through the HUB app, and at least one of your uses a smartphone, you can do that. That way you don't have to wait at the MDR, it'll alert you when a table is ready and you have, I think, 10 minutes to get there.

What is the HUB app please??

[Joe817]

26 minutes ago, IDKaren said:

What is the HUB app please??

 Here you are. It's really a neat feature.

 

https://www.carnival.com/shipboard/funhub/funhub-landing

[Organized Chaos]

2 hours ago, IDKaren said:

What is the HUB app please??

 

Use the link Joe posted to read about it. Before your cruise, it isn't good for much except a countdown clock to your cruise and it'll redirect you to your Carnival account. Its primary features won't activate until you get on the ship and connect to their Wifi. Keep in mind, you do not need to buy one of the internet plans to use the Hub app. Most of the features are free. The only thing that costs is the chat feature that allows you to chat with members in your group or others on the ship who've also purchased the chat feature. That's $5 per device for the entire cruise.

 

The feature that allows Your Time Diners to check in from the Hub app isn't available on every ship yet. For instance, it wasn't available on the Valor last month. But it's still a very useful app.

[theeddie]

I prefer to have the same waiter every night.  after the first seating he always has my wine, apps waiting.  

 

[ray98]

I guess I am just not that regimented.  I don't know what I am going to order until I am sitting there with the menu in front of me.  I don't see any benefit of having anything 'waiting for me'.

[biomedbob]

There are some on here that need to know what time they will eat, what they will eat, with whom they will eat 7 months or more in the future!

[coevan]

20 hours ago, theeddie said:

I prefer to have the same waiter every night.  after the first seating he always has my wine, apps waiting.  

 

 

 

so do we and with YTD we always do. By the 3rd night the host knew what server we wanted. I also agree with Ray. who knows what app you want. He did know we drank Cabernet every night with dinner.