How is My Time Dining on Serenade?

[Big_G]

We were on Serenade last month without a reservation. If the lines were bad we went to the Jammer. We did 3 nights in specialties and 3 nights in the Jammer and 1 night in MTD. The one night in MTD was a surprise because we got right in at 6:45. It was at the end of the cruise so maybe people tired of standing in line all week.

[watertraveler]

8 hours ago, island lady said:

The line WITH reservations was twice as long as the "without reservations" line.  

Wow!  Go figure.  

[strathcona]

On 12/20/2022 at 10:22 AM, island lady said:

Just disembarked Serenade on Saturday.  Sooo happy we have changed our usual MTD from the past years to traditional first going forward.  

 

The new system fleet wide is awful (IMHO).   Now MTD does not start until 6:45-7 pm.  Why?  Because it is now a "fill in" as the first traditional diners finish up their meals and leave.    

 

This is the same on Serenade.  Deck 4 is first dining and MTD only (no late traditional).  The line starts to form at the door...even early at 6 pm.... and then continues out the hallway and out past the elevators at times.  The longest line was....the line WITH reservations.  Getting seated is now dependent on how fast the first diners finish up right away...or linger over dessert and coffee/drinks.   

 

Deck 5 is Early and Late traditional dining...no MTD.   Was so happy to be moved for our 2nd leg from early traditional on deck 4...to deck 5.   Far less noisy and packed up like sardines.  

 

IMHO...the MTD system is a fail.  

yes, we just did Serenade, Jewel, Wonder and Oasis, seem the fleet wide crew shortage has forced them to do MTD in between the traditional dining seating. That forces the wait staff to run their feet off with at least three to four seatings per night. Just crazy long line if the early seating do not leave on time to get the tables ready for MTD. 

 

The line for people with reservation was longer than people without on the Serenade. On the Oasis, they had rope off area for each time. 

 

We had a chat with the head waiter, just not enough staff returning after COVID. So not a ship problem but fleet and industry wide. He even said, crews now pick and choose contracts based on sailing location and ship size. 

 

[island lady]

53 minutes ago, strathcona said:

yes, we just did Serenade, Jewel, Wonder and Oasis, seem the fleet wide crew shortage has forced them to do MTD in between the traditional dining seating. That forces the wait staff to run their feet off with at least three to four seatings per night. Just crazy long line if the early seating do not leave on time to get the tables ready for MTD. 

 

The line for people with reservation was longer than people without on the Serenade. On the Oasis, they had rope off area for each time. 

 

We had a chat with the head waiter, just not enough staff returning after COVID. So not a ship problem but fleet and industry wide. He even said, crews now pick and choose contracts based on sailing location and ship size. 

 

 

Indeed...exactly what we experienced.   

 

Very happy to stick with early traditional now on the smaller ships.  

[strathcona]

7 minutes ago, island lady said:

 

Indeed...exactly what we experienced.   

 

Very happy to stick with early traditional now on the smaller ships.  

here is the head waiter explanation,  too many people are booking MTD, especially table for two, they had to squeeze as many in. Harder to serve 6 table for two than one table for 12. Some large groups are using MTD for groups of 10 or 12 and waiting for people to arrive. Therefore, they had to move the early dinner timing to 530pm so to fit as many MTD in between. More people are now doing the early traditional and the long meal time has push the MTD wait time. 

 

He thinks the new menu starting next year fleet wide will help solve some of the problems. It will not solve the staff shortage and all the newbie on their first contract. 

 

His suggestion, get the early traditional timing, set table or the first MTD time which is 645pm to avoid the lines. In our experience the line still moves pretty fast (depending on which ship, on the Jewel to Alaska, we waited on average 30 to 45 mins each night)  but definitely not like before COVID sailing.