My Time Dining Question...?

[OnTheJourney]

5 minutes ago, taglovestocruise said:

Serving close to 7000 on a Oasis Class is a little more challenging.

Boggles the mind. Everytime we're in a cruise ship dining room I'm just amazed at the scope of such an operation. 

 

8 minutes ago, taglovestocruise said:

Serving 900 passengers on a Viking ship may be a little difficult.

Just looked it up - 465 crew on a Viking ocean ship, so basically 2 passengers for every crew member. 

[davekathy]

5 hours ago, LobsterStalker said:

Did you switch on the ship or ahead of time?

I switch approximately 30 days prior to our sail date. Called RC. Can't do the switch on RC website. 

[Marie51]

17 hours ago, LobsterStalker said:

Were you able to switch once onboard , or ahead of time ?

We switched ahead of time, my travel agent did it for us.

[happy cruzer]

So we have reserved 6:45 each night.  Will we have the same table each night?  Will they assign us to a large table or table for two?  Anyone care to share their experience with the MTD experience?

[Biker19]

3 hours ago, happy cruzer said:

Will we have the same table each night?

If not the same table, likely the same area. Sharing tables is up to you. 

[Ourusualbeach]

This change to early dining in all dining rooms and having MTD now starting at 6:45 has really affected MTD.  They should change the name of MTD to late or later dining.

 

I know many people who took MTD so that they could have options.  They generally like to eat early however there may be a few days depending on the port/excursion where they wanted a later dinning time.  With this change they are now forced into eating at a specialty restaurant or the buffet.

 

Personally I think that Royal should just scrap early and late and go exclusively to MTD and adding options to the website to select table size and if the same time dining is booked for the week then they get assigned to the same table.

 

 

This new system that they have started clearly is not working.

[lovesthebeach2]

Before the shutdown we preferred MTD over TD because we liked to go to dinner around 6 and I would book that time for every night. I did find it a bit cumbersome to have to go into each night separately, especially when. Adding friends from other reservations. It would have been so much easier if we could just put the time we wanted for each night and submit once. 
Since the restart I noticed MTD didn’t start earlier than 6:45. For most of those cruises I booked each night for 6:45. It started to become an issue as passenger counts went up and we were eating dinner way to late and started to miss the shows.

I’ve now changed all remaining cruises back to Early dinner and will for now on.

 

I like having the same table and servers because they get to know us and our likes, and we get to know them better. It’s part of the cruise experience for me, I learn more about them and their life. We have met so many wonderful crew members over the years. Some we’ve kept in touch with through social media. 

[poocher]

8 hours ago, happy cruzer said:

So we have reserved 6:45 each night.  Will we have the same table each night?  Will they assign us to a large table or table for two?  Anyone care to share their experience with the MTD experience?

We had the same table and waitstaff every night and did not share a table with anyone else.  By night 3, we didn’t even get in line.  They just waved us in.

[TheHawk1]

On 8/24/2022 at 6:27 PM, taglovestocruise said:

Two weeks out, you are right in the sweet spot, email royal and ask for a table size to fit your party.  Give them your name, reservation number, ship and cabin number.

rcldining@rccl.com

In the past, I've usually gone to the MDR on embarkation day and asked to speak to the manager about the MTD table I've been assigned and the location. I don't like two top tables that are six inches away from other tables, because it feels like I'm dining with those people.  Your suggestion is very helpful, so I will try this approach for my upcoming cruise in two weeks and see if it works.

[OnTheJourney]

21 minutes ago, TheHawk1 said:

because it feels like I'm dining with those people. 

Agree completely. Table right at the window is more separate (at least was on the Enchantment) 

 

5 hours ago, poocher said:

By night 3, we didn’t even get in line.  They just waved us in.

Exactly our experience back in March. 

[Starry Eyes]

27 minutes ago, TheHawk1 said:

In the past, I've usually gone to the MDR on embarkation day and asked to speak to the manager about the MTD table I've been assigned and the location. I don't like two top tables that are six inches away from other tables, because it feels like I'm dining with those people.  Your suggestion is very helpful, so I will try this approach for my upcoming cruise in two weeks and see if it works.

I’ve used that email for table size and location requests for traditional dining but never for MTD.  Let us know if it works for MTD, too.

[TheHawk1]

Well that was a bust!  I emailed RCL Dining with my table request and received this prompt response:

 

Please be advised that My Time Dining is “open” dining where  we are not able to accommodate  table requests pre Cruise. A table will be assigned upon check in for dinner based on availability in the dining room at the time. Once onboard please contact the dining room Host on embarkation day with your  table request.

 

Perhaps this works for Diamond or Pinnacle status, but as a lowly Platinum, I don't seem to have any pull 😁

[Starry Eyes]

1 minute ago, TheHawk1 said:

Well that was a bust!  I emailed RCL Dining with my table request and received this prompt response:

 

Please be advised that My Time Dining is “open” dining where  we are not able to accommodate  table requests pre Cruise. A table will be assigned upon check in for dinner based on availability in the dining room at the time. Once onboard please contact the dining room Host on embarkation day with your  table request.

 

Perhaps this works for Diamond or Pinnacle status, but as a lowly Platinum, I don't seem to have any pull 😁

I doubt higher C&A status would have helped if the also were MTD guests😁. I think the personnel at that email addy only plan the seating arrangements for traditional dining.

[mitz18]

14 hours ago, happy cruzer said:

So we have reserved 6:45 each night.  Will we have the same table each night?  Will they assign us to a large table or table for two?  Anyone care to share their experience with the MTD experience?

 

Took a cruise in June and had reservations every night for My Time Dining.  Problem was there was only one line for MTD so reservations & non-reservations were lined up together.  What was the point of making a reservations?  It use to be one line for folks w/reservations & one line for those w/out reservations.  Worked much better - the new 1-line system does not work (at least not for those with a reservation).

[poocher]

There were 2 lines in March 🤷‍♀️.

[mitz18]

3 minutes ago, poocher said:

There were 2 lines in March 🤷‍♀️.

that's the way it should be.  Maybe it varies ship-x-ship (although it shouldn't)

[Starry Eyes]

53 minutes ago, mitz18 said:

 

Took a cruise in June and had reservations every night for My Time Dining.  Problem was there was only one line for MTD so reservations & non-reservations were lined up together.  What was the point of making a reservations?  It use to be one line for folks w/reservations & one line for those w/out reservations.  Worked much better - the new 1-line system does not work (at least not for those with a reservation).

Hmmm, two lines makes the situation transparent whereas one doesn’t know who has reservations if there is a single line.  I can imagine resins the staff might not like transparency.  I can imagine complaints from some people with reservations if they wait a significant amount of time for a table while watching people from the no-reservations-line taken to seats.  Likewise people in the no reservations line may complain that either (a) they did not know reservations were available or (b) that the spirit of MTD implies reservations should not be needed.

[mitz18]

1 hour ago, Starry Eyes said:

Hmmm, two lines makes the situation transparent whereas one doesn’t know who has reservations if there is a single line.  I can imagine resins the staff might not like transparency.  I can imagine complaints from some people with reservations if they wait a significant amount of time for a table while watching people from the no-reservations-line taken to seats.  Likewise people in the no reservations line may complain that either (a) they did not know reservations were available or (b) that the spirit of MTD implies reservations should not be needed.

Well I don’t see a prob with transparency but under your scenario they should either not allow reservations for MTD or require reservations from everyone.  Personally I like the 2 lines or separate entrances. Keeps things easy.

[Starry Eyes]

21 minutes ago, mitz18 said:

Well I don’t see a prob with transparency but under your scenario they should either not allow reservations for MTD or require reservations from everyone.  Personally I like the 2 lines or separate entrances. Keeps things easy.

Oh, if I had MTD I personally would also like two lines (and transparency).  

My guess was about how the people at the podiums (who have input about the lines) might feel…not that they’d share their feelings with guests (they should not)….and of course my guess could be totally wrong.

[taglovestocruise]

Just looking a numbers I see that each dining room on Oasis Class seats about  900.  Three dining room seatings for early traditional  and two dining room seating for late traditional .  That is close to 4500 chooseing traditional.  Maybe 1500 picking My Time. If they change anything they should get rid of My Time or limit it to no more then they can easily seat. 

Edited August 27, 2022 by taglovestocruise

[blueslily]

6 hours ago, TheHawk1 said:

Well that was a bust!  I emailed RCL Dining with my table request and received this prompt response:

 

Please be advised that My Time Dining is “open” dining where  we are not able to accommodate  table requests pre Cruise. A table will be assigned upon check in for dinner based on availability in the dining room at the time. Once onboard please contact the dining room Host on embarkation day with your  table request.

 

Perhaps this works for Diamond or Pinnacle status, but as a lowly Platinum, I don't seem to have any pull 😁

 

I usually am able to ssuccessfully and easily take care of it the  first day of the cruise. 

[TheHawk1]

2 hours ago, blueslily said:

 

I usually am able to ssuccessfully and easily take care of it the  first day of the cruise. 

That’s what I’ve done in the past and they are usually quite accommodating. More so than the people on the other end of that email address.

[Shone216]

We reserved dining times a few weeks ago but I’ve noticed the option is no longer available for Sept 15 sailing 

[brillohead]

On 8/24/2022 at 5:46 PM, aubreyc1988 said:

I booked after final payment for my upcoming sailing on Sept 4th on Liberty and was automatically given first seating (5:30) traditional dining.

 

It's been years since I have sailed Royal Caribbean so I was a little nervous about doing the traditional dining/sitting with other people based on my last experience with traditional dining on Royal Caribbean (the family we were sat with talked about how they went to Russia in the dead of night with a large bag of cash and bought their child...)

 

I am hoping to not be at a table with others, but the risk of going to MTD and having the HUGE waits reported on here is too great, I will just hope I'm not sat next to people who buy children...

I've tried responding to this three times now... if you end up with three similar responses, it's Cruise Critic, not me, promise!!!

Anyway, if you're ever again at a table with unsuitable tablemates, just stop at the podium and ask to be assigned to a different table.  They get this request EVERY cruise.  No sense suffering through every dinner when a solution exists.  

[TwoWestAussies]

Just been reading this thread, how do I go about changing from My time Dining to Time dining, as we are cuising in March 2023 and noticed my time dining starts at 6:45, which in my opinion is way to late to sit down to eat, I expect to be seated at a bar at this time 🙂

 

Can I do it myself or do I need to contact Royal Caribbean (we booked direct)

 

Thank You