MTD Reservations

[ElizaSTN]

Hi all - we chose My Time Dining for our upcoming cruise on EoS.  While it says MTD is open 5:30-9:30, reservations are only available starting at 7:45.  Does this mean earlier time slots are all taken?  How long is the wait likely to be without reservations at 5:30 or 6:00?

 

TIA!

[Starry Eyes]

By EoS do you mean Enchantment or Explorer?

[GTO-Girl]

24 minutes ago, ElizaSTN said:

Hi all - we chose My Time Dining for our upcoming cruise on EoS.  While it says MTD is open 5:30-9:30, reservations are only available starting at 7:45.  Does this mean earlier time slots are all taken?  How long is the wait likely to be without reservations at 5:30 or 6:00?

 

TIA!

We stopped doing My Time Dining several years ago on the Oasis class ships because it turned into a mess and the earliest reservations we could get was 6:45-7:00.  
 

So we went back to fixed Traditional….
 

 

[ElizaSTN]

38 minutes ago, Starry Eyes said:

By EoS do you mean Enchantment or Explorer?

Sorry, Enchantment.  

[BirdTravels]

54 minutes ago, ElizaSTN said:

Hi all - we chose My Time Dining for our upcoming cruise on EoS.  While it says MTD is open 5:30-9:30, reservations are only available starting at 7:45.  Does this mean earlier time slots are all taken?  How long is the wait likely to be without reservations at 5:30 or 6:00?

 

TIA!

That is the first bookable time. They confirm reservations after early dining vacate their tables. 

[ElizaSTN]

1 minute ago, BirdTravels said:

That is the first bookable time. They confirm reservations after early dining vacate their tables. 

Now I’m confused.  I thought there was a specific dining room on the Enchantment just for My Time.
 

So you can’t be seated for MTD until early dining is done, or you just can’t book reservations?  

 

Thanks for the help - first time on Royal, it’s last minute and I didn’t do any of the planning.  😂

[DallasGuy75219]

2 minutes ago, ElizaSTN said:

Now I’m confused.  I thought there was a specific dining room on the Enchantment just for My Time.
 

So you can’t be seated for MTD until early dining is done, or you just can’t book reservations?  

 

Thanks for the help - first time on Royal, it’s last minute and I didn’t do any of the planning.  😂

(At least some) ships use the MTD dining room for early seating dinner. They'll seat walkups if there are empty tables from no-shows, but otherwise the first available reservations are for when they expect tables to be turned over after early seating.

[ONECRUISER]

2 hours ago, GTO-Girl said:

We stopped doing My Time Dining several years ago on the Oasis class ships because it turned into a mess and the earliest reservations we could get was 6:45-7:00.  
 

So we went back to fixed Traditional….
 

 

Same, pretty consistent now, 10 Cruises on 3 Ships in 2022 and earliest to book MTD was 6:45pm. 

Edited January 2, 2023 by ONECRUISER

[Biker19]

3 hours ago, ONECRUISER said:

Same, pretty consistent now, 10 Cruises on 3 Ships in 2022 and earliest to book MTD was 6:45pm. 

Enchantment is different- they do have MTD slots that early. 

[Biker19]

5 hours ago, ElizaSTN said:

I thought there was a specific dining room on the Enchantment just for My Time.

Yes, usually deck four but there will likely be some early traditional customers seated there.  

Edited January 2, 2023 by Biker19

[Cutigerlady]

I think the first reservations are at 6:45. You can try emailing the dining department to request an earlier reservation  (include your sailing date, ship, last name, number of people). The email address is rcldining@rccl.com.  You can also make the request on board by stopping by the dining room, but the line can be long!  

[Starry Eyes]

From the discussion you see why we needed to know which ship you are cruising.  While nearly all ships have changed to a new MTD system. Enchantment might be using the old (and better, IMHO) system….I just don’t know as I have not sailed her recently.

 

An aside: From another post, I gather you are sailing with a large family group.  Are you all hoping to dine together fairly early most nights?  If so, everyone might wish to try to switch early traditional dining with linked reservation numbers, and request a large table (or multiple big tables if it’s an even larger group😀) by emailing rcldining@rccl.com about 2 weeks before the cruise.  Just a thought…please quickly reject it if it is unworkable or does not suit your group.

 

If you are sticking to MTD, hopefully somebody who has sailed Enchantment recently will pipe up.    If you are able to edit your thread title to include the ship name, it might help attract the posters you need. Those on board very recently can’t tell you how MTD is being handled and, if they do still open MTD early on En, how long the lines were recently.

 

I hope you have a great cruise.  Remember En is one of the classics ships.  To see Royal Caribbean’s more innovative ship designs you’ll need to plan another cruise😀

Edited January 2, 2023 by Starry Eyes

[ElizaSTN]

3 hours ago, Starry Eyes said:

From the discussion you see why we needed to know which ship you are cruising.  While nearly all ships have changed to a new MTD system. Enchantment might be using the old (and better, IMHO) system….I just don’t know as I have not sailed her recently.

😀

 

Thanks for your response!  Yes, we’re part of a larger group (13 total.)  DH and I booked late and we’re surprising the rest of the group.  I *believe* that traditional dining was unavailable when the group originally booked.  The problem is that I’m usually the one doing the obsessive researching/planning for family vacations so being out of the loop is killing me 😁.

I understand that all sitting together probably won’t be possible.  Just hoping to avoid super long waits.  We’ll investigate onboard and make the best of it!  

 

[Exuma Girl]

We never make reservations for my time dining , and always get a seat whenever we show up. 
 

[davekathy]

Switched back to early TD  before our B2B March Explorer cruise. Glad we did. MTD start times are too late for us. The crowds were extremely long for MTD for those with and without reservations on our March Explorer cruise.  

[island lady]

8 minutes ago, davekathy said:

Switched back to early TD  before our B2B March Explorer cruise. Glad we did. MTD start times are too late for us. The crowds were extremely long for MTD for those with and without reservations on our March Explorer cruise.  

 

It was horrible on Serenade a couple of weeks ago.  

 

Deck 4 was for early traditional and MTD only...no late seating (that was on 5 only).  Lines were terrible for MTD...down the hallway, out to the elevators...and the longest line was the one WITH reservations!  😮  Fitting the MTD pax in at the whim of early diners leaving...which was no time set for that.  

 

I am so glad we switched like you when we ran into that cluster on the EX last year.  Have been early traditional ever since.

 

[island lady]

19 minutes ago, Exuma Girl said:

We never make reservations for my time dining , and always get a seat whenever we show up. 
 

 

When was the last time you cruised?  

[Starry Eyes]

1 hour ago, ElizaSTN said:

 

Thanks for your response!  Yes, we’re part of a larger group (13 total.)  DH and I booked late and we’re surprising the rest of the group.  I *believe* that traditional dining was unavailable when the group originally booked.  The problem is that I’m usually the one doing the obsessive researching/planning for family vacations so being out of the loop is killing me 😁.

I understand that all sitting together probably won’t be possible.  Just hoping to avoid super long waits.  We’ll investigate onboard and make the best of it!  

 

Ah, it would indeed be hard to maintain the surprise and also do lots of the planning🤣.  The cruise does sounds like great fun.

 

In that case, I’d visit the MTD reservation desk soon after boarding.  Hopefully they will work with you to accommodate your large group as well as possible.  Do not give up entirely on the possibility of sitting together.  They might manage to accommodate you if you go to the MTD desk with all the cabin numbers.