Dining Questions

[vacationlover16]

Hello! We are currently assigned to MTD on a 4 night cruise in October on Independence. However, based on recent reports of long lines  even with reservations and the fact that we were only able to obtain 7:45 reservations, I am thinking of calling to see if we can switch to 8:00 fixed dining. The questions I have are as follows:

 

Are the long lines earlier in the evening when MTD first opens or is it the entire time MTD is open?

Is Royal seating different parties together during fixed dining or are they seating parties separately?

 

Our 8 and 10 year old children will be sailing with us and we don't usually eat this late. However, 5:30 is too early as we don't want to have to rush from port and want to be able to take our time getting ready for dinner or let the kids enjoy the pools, slides, etc. after getting back onboard. Ideally 6:45/7:00 would be the sweet spot but I am sure that is the desired time for many in MTD and why we were only able to snag 7:45 reservations.

Thank you in advance for your help!

[cruisegirl1]

We recently sailed Independence.  There was a line when we entered, 7:00, but a longer line when we left around 8PM.  I don't know if the line remained long the entire hour. 

 

Spoke to several with traditional dining and they were NOT seated with others who were not in their traveling party.

 

You can visit the Maitre d desk on embarkation afternoon to try to get dinner earlier than 7:45.  They are set up just to address dinner reservations. 

 

Good luck.

M

 

[alaska2023]

43 minutes ago, cruisegirl1 said:

We recently sailed Independence.  There was a line when we entered, 7:00, but a longer line when we left around 8PM.  I don't know if the line remained long the entire hour. 

 

Spoke to several with traditional dining and they were NOT seated with others who were not in their traveling party.

 

You can visit the Maitre d desk on embarkation afternoon to try to get dinner earlier than 7:45.  They are set up just to address dinner reservations. 

 

Good luck.

M

 

Did you have 7pm reservations, and you were seated pretty quickly after you arrived? Or did you have earlier reservations/no reservation, and you had to wait? (I'm asking because my mom and I are sailing Independence in a few months and we have 7pm MTD reservations for 3 of the 4 nights. Wondering if we might be actually seated at/close to 7pm, or if we should still expect to wait a substantial amount of time (more than ~30 mins)?

[BirdTravels]

3 hours ago, vacationlover16 said:

Is Royal seating different parties together during fixed dining or are they seating parties separately?

When the ship capacities were low, they could provide separate tables. And, in fact, tables that were actually socially distant. Now, as capacities have grown back, the "do not use" tables have disappeared and the dining rooms are full. 

[brillohead]

8 hours ago, vacationlover16 said:

Is Royal seating different parties together during fixed dining or are they seating parties separately?

It depends what you requested at the time of the booking.  My TA knows to put me at a shared table, so that's always noted on my reservation. 

[vacationlover16]

8 hours ago, cruisegirl1 said:

We recently sailed Independence.  There was a line when we entered, 7:00, but a longer line when we left around 8PM.  I don't know if the line remained long the entire hour. 

 

Spoke to several with traditional dining and they were NOT seated with others who were not in their traveling party.

 

You can visit the Maitre d desk on embarkation afternoon to try to get dinner earlier than 7:45.  They are set up just to address dinner reservations. 

 

Good luck.

M

 

Thank you very much! Would we miss entertainment offerings having the late assigned dining?

[vacationlover16]

1 hour ago, brillohead said:

It depends what you requested at the time of the booking.  My TA knows to put me at a shared table, so that's always noted on my reservation. 

Thank you. I have only cruised Royal once using MTD and we were seated alone but I didn't put a note when booking. So I didn't do anything differently this time when choosing MTD on the reservation.

[vacationlover16]

7 hours ago, alaska2023 said:

Did you have 7pm reservations, and you were seated pretty quickly after you arrived? Or did you have earlier reservations/no reservation, and you had to wait? (I'm asking because my mom and I are sailing Independence in a few months and we have 7pm MTD reservations for 3 of the 4 nights. Wondering if we might be actually seated at/close to 7pm, or if we should still expect to wait a substantial amount of time (more than ~30 mins)?

Great question. I would like to know the same. If I have a 7:45 reservation but still have to wait to be seated we could do the 8:00 traditional dining and go straight to the table.

[brillohead]

8 minutes ago, vacationlover16 said:

Thank you very much! Would we miss entertainment offerings having the late assigned dining?

Shows are typically offered twice per night.

[KeroTravel]

Due to the horror stories as of late of people waiting too long for MTD, we switched to traditional.  Our sailing (West.Med on Symphony) traditional times are 6:30 & 8:30.  We opted for 6:30, as most of the MTD reservations we had booked for around 7-7:30. 

We also asked our TA to make sure our reservation said that we wanted to sit on our own (don't think anyone but us would be interested in dining with our 3 year old anyway)  

[vacationlover16]

Thanks everyone, I am thinking we will switch to traditional as well.

 

[Guest moe46]

We have MTD. I tried to book reservations online and it said  I am not a “flex dining guest”. Any idea what that means?

[wallyj]

1 hour ago, moe46 said:

We have MTD. I tried to book reservations online and it said  I am not a “flex dining guest”. Any idea what that means?

Probably whoever booked your cruise selected Traditional, early or late dining. If you use a travel agent they need to fix, if you booked direct, call Royal to verify, but almost certain, that error message means you are hooked in Traditional, not MTD.