Adventure of the Seas My Time Dining Nightmare.

[coffeebean]

15 hours ago, BirdTravels said:

Have you ever gone to a land-based restaurant? Just saying. 

Hubby and I do not wait longer than 15 minutes for a table. We head out to another restaurant. Same on a cruise ship for us.

[coffeebean]

8 hours ago, HelenaCruiser2012 said:

I thought MTD was so we could have dinner whenever we wanted to without being locked into a time?  That's how we've been looking at it, like going to any restaurant.  I saw online that we could make MTD reservations but we didn't really understand why people would do that.  We were so happy they had the MTD option this time around, it worked well for us on our last two cruises on Norwegian.  Are we wrong thinking that we can be this flexible with dinner?  Thanks.

NCL started this "My Time Dining" concept with their "Freestyle Dining". NCL does not have traditional dining on any of their ships and their execution of their  concept works very well on their ships. We have never had to wait more than five minutes to be seated in any of their main restaurants but we usually eat late, after the first main theater show. We have done MTD on Royal ships but because we dine late, never have a wait for a table.

[coffeebean]

6 hours ago, broadwaybaby123 said:

We had a similar experience on NCL Bliss. The way Norwegian has things set up includes NOBODY having the option to sign up for Traditional Dining. We had to make reservations the day before.

 

We had my niece with us, who was then 7. One day, we went on a tour to Kennedy Space Center and opted to take the later dining time (around 8PM) as we weren't sure our tour would be back in time for early dining. We got back around 6 and she was starving. So we called the MDR and asked if we could move our reservation up. We were told no, since the dining rooms were already open, however we were advised to visit several dining rooms and WAIT IN LINE on the off-chance one of them could take us. Try telling that to a starving 7 year old! Ultimately, we went to the buffet. 

 

On the nights we were in the MDR, we had to wait NO LESS THAN 2 hours for our food because of staff shortages and the MTD people!

 

Since then, we've never gone on NCL and don't plan to. They were so disorganized it was ridiculous. We also won't be signing up for MTD.

Oh my goodness. Sounds like NCL is a victim of not enough staffing. This is not what we have ever experienced on them but it has been months since we cruised on NCL. I just told my husband, this is not a good time to cruise. We will not wait on long lines and it seems that is inevitable during these trying times.

[cello56]

Here is a thought .... if RCI cannot secure enough staff to adequately provide the cruise experience people are paying for, then perhaps they should not be increasing their capacity until they can? Cruise prices are back to normal. You cannot sell a full price experience and expect people to just excuse major staffing issues. I totally understand WHY they are short staffed, but that is not the paying guests problem. Fill your ships to the level you have staff hired and give your guests the experience they expect. 

[loman]

Wow , i took MTD for at least the last 6-7 cruises and strolled in the dining room at 6 pm every day , never a line up . This was oasis class ships.

I snagged a half price deal last September  on a suite so i get costal kitchen for my upcoming cruise . Seems i dodged a bullet . 

Hope this get this mess fixed soon. I wont wait in line .

I will consider early fixed seating in the dining room next time .

[FionaMG]

47 minutes ago, coffeebean said:

Is there also a problem with MTD for a later time to dine, such as 8:30 PM or is it just the earlier times?

We had no issues with a standing 8 pm reservation on Odyssey last month.

[davekathy]

11 minutes ago, loman said:

Wow , i took MTD for at least the last 6-7 cruises and strolled in the dining room at 6 pm every day , never a line up . This was oasis class ships.

I snagged a half price deal last September  on a suite so i get costal kitchen for my upcoming cruise . Seems i dodged a bullet . 

Hope this get this mess fixed soon. I wont wait in line .

I will consider early fixed seating in the dining room next time .

Agree. On the Explorer (March) MTD changed from 6:00 PM to 7:15. That change is why we went back to early TD. No issues. Great service and table location. Like always we picked the table location when we first boarded the ship. 

[loman]

1 minute ago, davekathy said:

Agree. On the Explorer (March) MTD changed from 6:00 PM to 7:15. That change is why we went back to early TD. No issues. Great service and table location. Like always we picked the table location when we first boarded the ship. 

Good idea to pick your table . I never did when we went with early TD on our first cruises . We just took whatever they gave us . It worked out well as we met some great people to dine with . We then went with MTD as we didnt want to wait for others before we started dining. Those tables are so close together it was like a table for 6 as we always chatted with either table next to us, but didnt have to wait for them to be served. It was typically the same people too.

[Norwich Cruiser]

23 hours ago, taglovestocruise said:

That was when ships were sailing at 50% or less. Now kids are out of school and cruising is picking up faster than they can hire crew. Add to that the effect of most MTD wanting to eat as early as possible , MTD room is pretty empty at 8:30..

 

We’ve nearly always booked 8.30 MTD and always had problems when sailing on any  “  o “ class ship in Europe.

 

I think the problem is folks coming back late from excursions especially when visiting Cinque Terre Rome and Florence.

 

They’ve maybe had earlier bookings but the tours arrive back after there pre booked dining times.

[davekathy]

1 minute ago, loman said:

Good idea to pick your table . I never did when we went with early TD on our first cruises . We just took whatever they gave us . It worked out well as we met some great people to dine with . We then went with MTD as we didnt want to wait for others before we started dining. Those tables are so close together it was like a table for 6 as we always chatted with either table next to us, but didnt have to wait for them to be served. It was typically the same people too.

For us we've never had an issue with MTD tables. We always got a table for two (and we always have and still do even with TD). Some were next to each other, others not. Most of the tables were set up as a table for two and some for a table for four. But those settings were taken away when we were seated. TD or MTD. What we like is we eat at our pace, not others and engage with others when we want. We've had some very interesting conversations with the tables next to us but when the food starts arriving I'll say Bon Appetit and the conversations stop. Then it's our time. 

[Biker19]

1 hour ago, loman said:

Seems i dodged a bullet .

Not really - mostly the critics post here, the silent majority don’t. 

[the wandering two]

1 hour ago, loman said:

Wow , i took MTD for at least the last 6-7 cruises and strolled in the dining room at 6 pm every day , never a line up . This was oasis class ships.

I snagged a half price deal last September  on a suite so i get costal kitchen for my upcoming cruise . Seems i dodged a bullet . 

Hope this get this mess fixed soon. I wont wait in line .

I will consider early fixed seating in the dining room next time .

6pm? On our last Royal cruise, Mariner April  '22, earliest MTD was 6.45 because they now use MTD dining room for a 5.30 first sitting too. That's what's causing the problems. 

[the wandering two]

As I have just posted, we were on Mariner April  `22. For whatever reason when booking we couldn't pick MTD only early or late options. Went for late, but even prior to dining on the first night realised that was too late for us. Changed to MTD onboard but by then no pre 8pm tables available,  so joined the no reservations line.

We waited 30 mins most nights but the queue for folks with reserved times was as long.

We're back on Royal in Sept, have booked MTD for 7pm every evening,  so if we turn up at the dining room at say 6.55 & there are another 40 people already in the "with reservations" queue, what do we do, join it, walk past everyone else?

They can't check what time you've booked until you're at the podium? 

[Joseph2017China]

They should just go back to having 4 dining times, like not too long ago, and the issue will be solved.  

[publicpersona]

6 hours ago, alfaeric said:

So when 1000 people want to occupy 500 tables, they should all be able to? 

 

Perhaps they could use a computer to take "reservations" so that only those that can be accommodated at that time will have a reservation.

[the wandering two]

7 minutes ago, publicpersona said:

 

Perhaps they could use a computer to take "reservations" so that only those that can be accommodated at that time will have a reservation.

Have used virtual queues with an app on P&O in the UK, works really well. At least if there is a long wait you can join it whilst getting ready or enjoying another venue on the ship.

[Crusin Cindy]

Same problem on Brilliance in March. They didn’t even have separate lines for those with or without reservations. I asked the guy who was taking names what was the sense in having a reservation. He actually got smart with me.

[loman]

1 hour ago, the wandering two said:

6pm? On our last Royal cruise, Mariner April  '22, earliest MTD was 6.45 because they now use MTD dining room for a 5.30 first sitting too. That's what's causing the problems. 

This was pre-covid . Couple of years ago was my last cruise . 

My error for not putting a timeline .