Loyal My Time Diner changed to late dining

[island lady]

18 hours ago, Luckynana said:

Absolutely, Pat!  I remember when MTD started years ago, I was on a wait list for MTD prior to a cruise.   From then on, I made sure our TA set us up for MTD as soon as we booked a cruise.  They should've kept it that way...so many passengers for so many slots, if full, you do traditional time.  If it ain't broke, don't fix it.  Unfortunately, it is now broken..☹️

 

Agree....the system has failed....IMHO.   🤕

[island lady]

17 hours ago, karena1 said:

We have had that also, just have no desire to go back to Traditional.  We love MTD and will never switch back, service is quicker and we can get in/out without 2-3 hours of sitting there.

 

 

We are always done within an hour or 1.5 hours....unless something major happened in the kitchen.  We rarely linger when finished.  

[Starry Eyes]

18 hours ago, karena1 said:

That is the issue, we have no desire to eat at 6.  We like to go to dinner when we feel like it, not on a scheduled time. We typically go eat around 7:30ish when we travel.

I think timing is the crux of this issue.

 

For people who tend to eat on the later side, I suspect MTD still works fine.  And late traditional dinging works for others who like to eat later.  The later diners are covered, and that is terrific.  Happy as others are for the late diners, it does not solve the issue for the other people.

 

For people who wish to dine early (personal preference, show schedules, young kiddos, whatever reason), the Royal’s altered MTD system just cannot work well (as  MTD does not even open until 6:30-7:00).  For example, if ideally we’d like to dine at 6pm, our pre cruise options on a certain ship might be (1) traditional dining at 5-5:15 or (2) MTD which opens at 7:00 (3) just plan to use other venues (Windjammer or UDP). My hubby “must” eat early, so we select early dining; MTD opens too late for him. 

[clan]

Those of you who do late traditional dining, are you always able to get a two top if that is what you request?

[2chiefs]

35 minutes ago, clan said:

Those of you who do late traditional dining, are you always able to get a two top if that is what you request?

We never do a two-top as we like socializing and meeting new people (we do two-top quite often at home LOL). However, we did see a lot of two-tops not being utilized during the late seating on our Mariner cruise last month. I'm not sure if that's because less people are late seating folks or if space is still spread out for covid.

[Norwich Cruiser]

5 hours ago, clan said:

Those of you who do late traditional dining, are you always able to get a two top if that is what you request?

We’ve never had any problems when cruising alone in getting a two top.

[Norwich Cruiser]

9 hours ago, Starry Eyes said:

I think timing is the crux of this issue.

 

For people who tend to eat on the later side, I suspect MTD still works fine.  And late traditional dinging works for others who like to eat later.  The later diners are covered, and that is terrific.  Happy as others are for the late diners, it does not solve the issue for the other people.

 

For people who wish to dine early (personal preference, show schedules, young kiddos, whatever reason), the Royal’s altered MTD system just cannot work well (as  MTD does not even open until 6:30-7:00).  For example, if ideally we’d like to dine at 6pm, our pre cruise options on a certain ship might be (1) traditional dining at 5-5:15 or (2) MTD which opens at 7:00 (3) just plan to use other venues (Windjammer or UDP). My hubby “must” eat early, so we select early dining; MTD opens too late for him. 

MTD doesn’t work fine for people who want to eat late on “ O “ class ships in the Mediterranean as folks are arriving back late from excursions.

[lenquixote66]

On 6/19/2022 at 4:51 PM, motheroftwocats814 said:

We ALWAYS do my time dining. Not this time, I decided to change to 8pm dining. 

With all the issues I have been seeing on these boards about long waits (even with reservations) and the MTD issues, it was a no brainer to change it to 8pm.

I will deal with eating that late.

Happy cruising everyone.

We never did late dining ,but friends who only do late dining asked us to join them and we were happy that we did so.

[StarSeven7]

On 6/20/2022 at 9:43 AM, island lady said:

 

I went in and changed all my future cruises to early traditional dining since it worked so well on our cruise with you.   

 

Funny thing is, used to be a waitlist for MTD....but now seems a wait list on some cruises for traditional dining.   I don't think we are alone.  😉 

Are you able to change this online or did you have to call?

[island lady]

30 minutes ago, StarSeven7 said:

Are you able to change this online or did you have to call?

 

I called.  Had 12 of them to change.   

[Jerseygirl1416]

I switch from MTD to early TD dining on our upcoming cruise. We used to love MTD when it was exactly that. It would be open during both TD times. Now on our upcoming Oasis cruise MTD doesn’t open until 6:45.

[S.A.M.J.R.]

1 hour ago, Jerseygirl1416 said:

I switch from MTD to early TD dining on our upcoming cruise. We used to love MTD when it was exactly that. It would be open during both TD times. Now on our upcoming Oasis cruise MTD doesn’t open until 6:45.

We did the same thing.  We've had no issues with MTD in the past and even had same table/servers for the cruise, so we signed up for MTD for our next cruise.  After reading all of horror stories, I had our TA switch us to early TD.  

 

I thought they had a decent set up on our past cruises... TD on Decks 3 & 4 and MTD on deck 5.  If there's too many using MTD, then start claiming some of either deck 3 or 4 in addition to 5. 

[turtle1947]

Why not just have three traditional times 5:30, 6:45 and 8:00 ? And do away  with MTD.

[Biker19]

1 hour ago, turtle1947 said:

Why not just have three traditional times 5:30, 6:45 and 8:00 ? And do away  with MTD.

That was sorta the idea behind Dynamic Dining, turn over the tables at least three times per night - didn't work out so well.

[davekathy]

3 hours ago, turtle1947 said:

Why not just have three traditional times 5:30, 6:45 and 8:00 ? And do away  with MTD.

MTD shouldn't be done away with. Why change something that worked pre-covid. Continue with Early and late TD. MTD started when TD started and continue with reservations and non -reservations for MTD. Based on the current cluster, we will continue with early TD. Agree with @Biker19 DD didn't work. 

Edited June 22, 2022 by davekathy

[cmerun]

Trying MTD as a solo cruiser -

My late husband and I preferred it.

If it doesn’t work, I’ll just find another option.

Anyone tried MTD as a solo cruiser?

[StarSeven7]

On 6/22/2022 at 8:26 AM, island lady said:

 

I called.  Had 12 of them to change.   

Thanks!

[hotsauce126]

On Odyssey we only had to wait for MTD if we went right when the dining room opened

[ReneeFLL]

On 6/19/2022 at 7:46 PM, taglovestocruise said:

They need to give up on MTD, that is what is not working.  Early or late TD is a breeze.  

Absolutely not! Not everyone likes to be constrained to eating at a certain time. I don’t always eat at a set time at home so why would I want to on a cruise?

 

On 6/20/2022 at 9:43 AM, island lady said:

…Funny thing is, used to be a waitlist for MTD....but now seems a wait list on some cruises for traditional dining.   I don't think we are alone.  😉 

Unfortunately there is a waitlist for MTD on Allure in a couple of weeks. We were assigned to early dining, but as soon as we get on board we will be changing it. We did just book the cruise last week so I’m sure that’s part of the problem also.
 

On 6/22/2022 at 11:00 PM, cmerun said:

Trying MTD as a solo cruiser -

My late husband and I preferred it.

If it doesn’t work, I’ll just find another option.

Anyone tried MTD as a solo cruiser?

I have cruised solo a few times and do MTD or the WJ. I normally end up waiting about 5 minutes or so unless it’s formal nights. There can be a longer wait for those. I will always do MTD whether by myself or with DH. With DH we tend to eat more in the WJ.

[dsvd79]

We switched to early from MTD for our next cruise.  I love playing the music trivia's and game shows.  I've found on my last few cruises I missed them all because of MTD.  

[DukeASUGirl]

On 6/20/2022 at 7:10 AM, karena1 said:

We also could care less if we have the same waitstaff every night or the same table.  That makes it much easier to get seated.

 

I've never understood the whole "I want to same waitstaff so they know my preferences." Maybe I'm just low maintenance, but what preferences are we talking about? Can't you just tell the new waiter your preferences? Why is it so important they know it in advance?

[DukeASUGirl]

On 6/20/2022 at 7:28 AM, Starry Eyes said:

In all likelihood some of those MTD in line for 6:30 probably wanted their time to be 6:00.  Or maybe 5 or 5:30, as they wanted to catch an early show. But as 5:00, 5:30, and 6:00 were not options (MTD was not open then), they lined up along with the people who wanted to eat at 6:30.  Oh, and perhaps some of the people who wanted to eat closer to 7:00 saw that long line forming, so they joined, too, wanting to be sure they’d get served at a reasonable time.           So, it seems unlikely all those passengers really wanted 6:30; that rush of passengers was created by Royal’s MTD structure.  They could structure MTD differently with different results.

 

Yes! I understand it all has to do with staff shortages, but it would be great if they'd use one floor of the MDR for MTD throughout the full hours of like 5 to 9 pm. Waiting until 6:30 or 6:45 (depending on the ship) will always result in a backlog of folks wanting to eat at 6:30. 5 is often too early for many, but there is an hour and a half or hour 45 minutes between when Early Seating and MTD opens, so you have 90 minutes worth of diners trying to get in

[DukeASUGirl]

On 6/20/2022 at 7:39 AM, S.A.M.J.R. said:

 

Looking at the app, early seating is showing 5:30p-6:30p and late seating is 8p-9p (except Dining room 3 shows 6:45p-9p)

 

 

 

I'd always thought it meant that you must arrive at Early Seating at 5:30, but does this mean you have a range to arrive for that seating? 

[davekathy]

26 minutes ago, DukeASUGirl said:

 

I've never understood the whole "I want to same waitstaff so they know my preferences." Maybe I'm just low maintenance, but what preferences are we talking about? Can't you just tell the new waiter your preferences? Why is it so important they know it in advance?

For us knowing our personal preferences has nothing to do with it. We'd rather tell the staff each time rather them assume. For us it's all about a team that works good together, and knows their jobs. Personal interaction is nice but not the priority. Table location is a huge must for us as there are a lot of tables in different locations of the MDR (TD or MTD) that down right suck! That's why we always scope out a table location for two when we first board the ship and request that table for the entire cruise (even B2B cruises).  

[Starry Eyes]

49 minutes ago, DukeASUGirl said:

 

Yes! I understand it all has to do with staff shortages, but it would be great if they'd use one floor of the MDR for MTD throughout the full hours of like 5 to 9 pm. Waiting until 6:30 or 6:45 (depending on the ship) will always result in a backlog of folks wanting to eat at 6:30. 5 is often too early for many, but there is an hour and a half or hour 45 minutes between when Early Seating and MTD opens, so you have 90 minutes worth of diners trying to get in

I do not think it is due to staff shortages, (though some may use that as an excuse right now).  I say that because I know some ships were using the re-vamped MTD system Before the shutdown, before covid,  thus before these staff shortages.  If enough guests will sign up for early traditional dining to fill all the seats, the ship maximizes use of the seats in the main dining room starting right from the opening of the MDR (rather than trickling in at desired time for MTD).