New to Royal Caribbean, Dinning question

[Casavecchia]

Hello,

We are new to Royal, I was wondering if someone would be able to answer a question for me.

We will have 7 people. What happens if we decided to eat at another place instead of the main dinning room and we have the traditional dinning picked with specific time in the main dinning room.

Is there some sort of penalty? I know we have the my dinning option, but with the large group we want to make sure we are all together at the same time.

I just do not want to cause any issues.

 

Thank in advance for any input.

[Celialeah98]

No penalty, but it would be polite to let your waitstaff know if you know beforehand that you will not be dining in the main dining room on a particular night. Ie you have early traditional dining but you have a long tour on day 5 and will not be eating in the dining room on day 5. 

 

We usually like to eat in the steak house on our first night and have arrived in the main dining room on day 2 to find the table assigned to us no longer available. In those cases we got moved to a much better table location. Otherwise we let our waitstaff know when we will not be eating in the dining room. If you order wine and do not finish it the dining staff will hold it for you and even transfer wine between the restaurants. 

[BirdTravels]

15 hours ago, Casavecchia said:

Hello,

We are new to Royal, I was wondering if someone would be able to answer a question for me.

We will have 7 people. What happens if we decided to eat at another place instead of the main dinning room and we have the traditional dinning picked with specific time in the main dinning room.

Is there some sort of penalty? I know we have the my dinning option, but with the large group we want to make sure we are all together at the same time.

I just do not want to cause any issues.

 

Thank in advance for any input.

You can eat anywhere you want any day and any time. Totally normal for folks to eat somewhere other than the MDR. No penalty. No need to tell anyone. 

 

Observation: Once upon a time, families and groups would want to eat together every night. Today, most people want to try different things and eat when they are hungry, not necessarily to punch a time clock to eat in a group. People need to want to eat together, versus dreading eating together.

 

Nowadays, we just let folks know what our plans are (the old folks),,,, and if they show up fine. And if us old folks want to just grab a quick bite at the Windjammer, we tell folks that we're eating on our own. Yeah,,, we try to plan one group dinner,,, but not much more than that. 

[rudeney]

It seems that recently  I heard someone mention that the dining room head waiters were releasing unoccupied TD seats to MTD if the guests did not show within 30 minutes of the scheduled time.  Did I just imagine that or did someone post about it? 

 

[taglovestocruise]

4 hours ago, rudeney said:

It seems that recently  I heard someone mention that the dining room head waiters were releasing unoccupied TD seats to MTD if the guests did not show within 30 minutes of the scheduled time.  Did I just imagine that or did someone post about it? 

 

I hope that would be for a empty table and not just fill seats 30 minutes into a family already eating.

[rudeney]

4 hours ago, taglovestocruise said:

I hope that would be for a empty table and not just fill seats 30 minutes into a family already eating.

 

Agreed!  And like I said, I am not sure where I heard that, so I could be wrong.

[la_croisiere_s'amuse]

52 minutes ago, rudeney said:

 

Agreed!  And like I said, I am not sure where I heard that, so I could be wrong.

Pretty sure I recently read that as well. So either we're both hallucinating, or it actually happens sometimes. 😉 But yes, as I recall it was a couple/family who showed up late and their table had been given away. The waiter was extremely apologetic and found them another table nearby.

[rudeney]

4 minutes ago, la_croisiere_s'amuse said:

Pretty sure I recently read that as well. So either we're both hallucinating, or it actually happens sometimes. 😉 But yes, as I recall it was a couple/family who showed up late and their table had been given away. The waiter was extremely apologetic and found them another table nearby.

 

That story does ring a bell, so maybe I'm not as senile as I thought!  

[ARandomTraveler]

I have the unlimited dining plan and don't foresee eating in the dining room at all. Will the wait staff be able to see if people have a reservation at a specialty restaurant so that they don't end up waiting around to see if we'll show up on the first night?

[Merion_Mom]

4 minutes ago, ARandomTraveler said:

I have the unlimited dining plan and don't foresee eating in the dining room at all. Will the wait staff be able to see if people have a reservation at a specialty restaurant so that they don't end up waiting around to see if we'll show up on the first night?

 

No one cared when I never showed up at my assigned table last week on the Adventure.

 

The cruise before, when I went 3 times, I had different neighbors each time, even though this was "early traditional dining".

[Roybthered]

9 hours ago, ARandomTraveler said:

I have the unlimited dining plan and don't foresee eating in the dining room at all. Will the wait staff be able to see if people have a reservation at a specialty restaurant so that they don't end up waiting around to see if we'll show up on the first night?

We have been on 2 cruises this last year and have had the UDP on both, we had a call asking why we did not go the the MDR. After telling them we had the UDP they left us alone. We have Oasis booked for Mid October and have a 3 night Dining package so will only be in the MDR on 4 nights.

[soapbxking]

22 hours ago, rudeney said:

It seems that recently  I heard someone mention that the dining room head waiters were releasing unoccupied TD seats to MTD if the guests did not show within 30 minutes of the scheduled time.  Did I just imagine that or did someone post about it? 

 

unsure to be honest, but they should for sure

[Casavecchia]

Thanks all, will make sure that if we decide to eat elsewhere we let them know. I would not want to have the seats held up.

 

[rudeney]

1 hour ago, Roybthered said:

We have been on 2 cruises this last year and have had the UDP on both, we had a call asking why we did not go the the MDR. After telling them we had the UDP they left us alone. We have Oasis booked for Mid October and have a 3 night Dining package so will only be in the MDR on 4 nights.

 

We booked 5:30 TD, but also bought the UDP and likely won't go in the MDR at all.  I probably should have booked MTD.  I may see about changing it as that would make things easier for the MDR crew.