Your Time Dining

[thomasale]

A long time since I've been on Carnival (10 years). 4 of us are going on the Mardi Gras 4/29 Western Carib sailing. We're looking forward to it. Most of our recent sailing has been aboard RCCL and Celebrity but we're looking for a little more fun and you couldn't beat the Fun Ships for that in the past. We like to eat earlier than 8:30 so only option was to go with Your Time dining. The early seating didn't even offer a wait list. We haven't had good experiences with that Any Time on Royal but think it's their fault more than anything else. Any tips you frequent Carnival Cruisers can give for "Your Time" on the Mardi Gras?

[clackey]

We did the Valor last month and had anytime dining.   With the new app you can click that you are ready to dine and they will notify you when your table is ready.  We found it best not to dine as soon as the dining room opened.  We went early one time and had to wait at least 30 minutes for a table and another 30 before they took our orders.  It was Chaos!  It got better as we adjusted our time.

[Knights on the Beach]

If you like to eat early, you definitely want YTD on Mardi Gras. Cucina and Chibang are also used as main dining rooms. With YTD, you may check in on the app when they open. Those with set dining times have to wait until 7:30 or 7:45 to request tables in those two dining rooms. Pig & Anchor is walk up so you don't have to check in on the app for that one. We've been on MG 4 times and found the wait times much shorter the earlier we checked in.

[Mic101680]

I will say that the wait times quoted on the app are pretty close to accurate. Wait times will depend on party size (larger parties have longer waits generally) and when you check in, just like a land based restaurant. I have a tendency to check in right when the dining room opens or shortly after, and on all my post-covid cruises, I haven't usually had to wait more than 15-20 minutes for a table (for 2 people).

Based on my experiences, service can sometimes feel rushed or a little lacking, but that seems to be from a shortage of dining staff more than anything else.

[Guest BasicSailor]

YTD was nice when it first came out. Now everybody chooses it. I can only imagine the mob on the MG.

[StephPS79]

Carnival does anytime dining a lot better than RCI, in my opinion.  You just click in the app when you are ready, and get a notification when your table is ready.   Usually not much of a wait, but sometimes.  But you can see what the wait is before you request the table, so just plan ahead, and you don't have to be there waiting while you wait.

[Lee Cruiser]

We love YTD!  We typically go as soon as the dining room opens. We were also on Valor last month and going early wasn't any problem for us.  Keep in mind that check in on the app starts about 10 minutes or so before the actual start of dining, which is listed as 5:30 on most ships, so check in starts about 5:20.  If you check in then, you should have a table ready as soon as the dining room opens.  We've done that on several cruises since they started using the app and we've never had to wait on a table when we checked in like that.

On Mardi Gras last year, the dining room opened 30 minutes earlier (5:00) on the first elegant night than the other six nights.  Also, on Mardi Gras with YTD you have the option to dine in the dining room, Cucina del Capitano, Chibang, and Pig and Anchor.  For Pig and Anchor you just show up, but you check in on the app for the others.

[Lee Cruiser]

7 minutes ago, BasicSailor said:

YTD was nice when it first came out. Now everybody chooses it. I can only imagine the mob on the MG.

Really wasn't that bad last year.  A lot of that is because they offer the different options for dining other than just the dining room.

[Lee Cruiser]

40 minutes ago, clackey said:

We did the Valor last month and had anytime dining.   With the new app you can click that you are ready to dine and they will notify you when your table is ready.  We found it best not to dine as soon as the dining room opened.  We went early one time and had to wait at least 30 minutes for a table and another 30 before they took our orders.  It was Chaos!  It got better as we adjusted our time.

We were on Valor last month and checked in all five nights at 5:20 and our table was ready every night when the dining room opened at 5:30.  We always check in as soon as it becomes available on the app and have never had to wait on a table that we can recall.

[Guest BasicSailor]

1 minute ago, Lee Cruiser said:

Really wasn't that bad last year.  A lot of that is because they offer the different options for dining other than just the dining room.

Thats great news. for some reason our phones never stated your table is ready on a few ships. Only until I closed the app and restarted it after a 30 to 40 minute wait. now I out of habit I just restart the app and boom there it is. But yet still a 30 to 40 minute wait. 

[mmtska]

We did YTD on the Mardi Gras last year and it worked great! We had to wait a max of 30 minutes on elegant night, but that's because I accidentally canceled and redid it. I still don't know what I did, but whatever it was-it messed everything up. When I looked into it on Royal, I was annoyed that I had to book a time ahead of time anyway. I'd rather just have early or late dining at that point. This way I can eat when I'm hungry, and really didn't have to wait a long time. 

[kelkel2]

I like how carnival handles anytime dining compared to how they did when it first started. It’s really nice. There’s an app, you just click on the restaurant and put in that you’re ready for a table and the app notifies you whenever your table is ready. You have 10 minutes to get there while they hold your table for you. On the Mardi Gras with anytime it also works on the “other” restaurants other than the main dining room.  You can also request a private or shared table too. 

[Drazil65]

We always do YTD and we were on MG in December.  We go when it opens as we like to have our evening for shows etc. (we are not late eaters anyway).  Never had an issue getting a table for 3 when it opened and also enjoyed having some of the other venues available on the app to choose from if desired.  

[thomasale]

Thanks for all your replies and I'm looking forward to the experience!

[ngrund]

On Mardi Gras you can also play "restaurant roulette"

 

-instead of just choosing main dining room, Cucina, or Chibang when checking in, you can select "first available", and you can get either of the three

[staceyglow]

On 2/24/2023 at 8:31 PM, BasicSailor said:

YTD was nice when it first came out. Now everybody chooses it. I can only imagine the mob on the MG.

No, not everyone chooses it because they have a limit, just like they have a certain number of early and late seatings for fixed time dining. And whether it is crowded early depends on the type of cruise. 

 

It has been my experience cruises that skew older have way more people wanting to eat at 5:30. 

 

On a recent Journeys cruise, I waited up to an hour when checking in at 5:30. On my current 5 day cruise on the Sunrise which is full of kids and young adults, I walked right in at the same time and the dining room was empty. 

 

 

[EngIceDave]

"Your Time Dining" does not mean "Now."

 

When you're ready and check in on the HUB App, there's a wait time. When I was on Celebration a couple weeks ago I realized the specialty places were almost always an hour wait if not right when they open and the MDR could be 10-30 minutes wait.

 

Plan when you want to eat or book before you get hungry. If you wait until hungry, you'll become hangry and no one wants that.

[trummy]

On our Magic cruise in February our waiting times were 40 - 50 minutes each time. We usually checked in around 6 - 7 pm.

 

I liked it better before the app for two reasons. 1. I don't want to deal with a phone on a cruise.     2. Before the app we would just walk up and request a table and never had to wait more than 10 minutes.

Edited April 6 by trummy

[dsfitz]

Definitely think YTD is the way to go on Mardi Gras   we normally prefer the early seating but on Mardi Gras the MDR was not good.  Very slow service and cold food   as others have said with YTD you can try the other restaurants which were much better

[mz-s]

19 hours ago, trummy said:

On our Magic cruise in February our waiting times were 40 - 50 minutes each time. We usually checked in around 6 - 7 pm.

 

I liked it better before the app for two reasons. 1. I don't want to deal with a phone on a cruise.     2. Before the app we would just walk up and request a table and never had to wait more than 10 minutes.

 

My wife and I used to be "put the phone away" cruisers too and we still don't buy the wifi so we don't really use our phones much during the cruise. But the hub app is the way of life now and the convenience of seeing menus requesting tables etc is nice to have for sure.