My Time Dining.......but not really?

[rg123]

We are on a 13 day cruise in October and would like early dining. At this time we are waitlisted leaving us with My Time Dining which begins at 6:45. However, the earliest time available is 7:30 every night which I know many people may like. However, this is rather late for us and really isn't "our time" and isn't the best due to a medical condition. Our time could be anywhere between 5:00-6:30. We wouldn't mind eating in the WJ upon occasion, but not every evening. What are the chances that early dining may open up or that we could make alternate arrangements once on board?

[1025cruise]

Because of the popularity of early dining, MTD sometimes doesn't start until after early dining is completed.

[Biker19]

2 hours ago, rg123 said:

What are the chances that early dining may open up or that we could make alternate arrangements once on board?

Pretty good - see the MDR host as soon as you board.

[Loracpin2]

At my suggestion, at Daughter changed our reservations from My Time to Early when our group increased from 6 to 8 for our June Oasis sailing.  She did question why the change and I told her that I very much doubted we'd have a table for 8 before 7:30/8:00 and none of our group wanted to eat that late.   

[rg123]

19 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

Pretty good - see the MDR host as soon as you board.

Thank you!

[poocher]

3 hours ago, Loracpin2 said:

At my suggestion, at Daughter changed our reservations from My Time to Early when our group increased from 6 to 8 for our June Oasis sailing.  She did question why the change and I told her that I very much doubted we'd have a table for 8 before 7:30/8:00 and none of our group wanted to eat that late.   

Can I ask why you feel this way?

[Loracpin2]

1 minute ago, poocher said:

Can I ask why you feel this way?

Because the ship holds 5400 passengers, is almost completely sold out and resrvations for 8 in MyTime were no longer available. Sitting at 7:30/8:00 means we're probably not eating the first course for at least another 20 minutes. Our Daughter and Family respected the fact that eating that late is not good for my diabetic husband.  

[joeyancho]

MTD is anything but. Royal cannot figure this out for the life of them. It is so broken. Just show up a bit before you would like to eat and hope for the best. It is a real clown show. 

Edited March 18, 2023 by joeyancho

[poocher]

9 minutes ago, Loracpin2 said:

Because the ship holds 5400 passengers, is almost completely sold out and resrvations for 8 in MyTime were no longer available. Sitting at 7:30/8:00 means we're probably not eating the first course for at least another 20 minutes. Our Daughter and Family respected the fact that eating that late is not good for my diabetic husband.  

Thanks, we have 7 people but I made 6:45 MTD reservations for each night as soon as they were available.  Early traditional is too early & late is too late so I always choose the earliest MTD available. 

[Loracpin2]

17 minutes ago, poocher said:

Thanks, we have 7 people but I made 6:45 MTD reservations for each night as soon as they were available.  Early traditional is too early & late is too late so I always choose the earliest MTD available. 

I believe our Daughter & Family and another Couple (son-in-law's brother) originally had that time for MyTime before we decided to join them. Once the number changed to 8, 6:45 was no longer available and our FANTASTIC Daughter said Early would be fine.   

[Loracpin2]

30 minutes ago, joeyancho said:

MTD is anything but. Royal cannot figure this out for the life of them. It is so broken. Just show up a bit before you would like to eat and hope for the best. It is a real clown show. 

I completely agree. If you can't get a set time reservation, you're SOL.😂 

[gail-s]

Coming back to RCI after a long time of not cruising.  Can someone explain MTD?  I was under the assumption you could dine when you wanted to like on Norwegian.  Yes, sometimes you had to wait, but normally it wasn't bad.  How long before your trip can you sign up for the times?  And what happens if you want to change them?  My thought was to do it because I may want to eat early one night but later another and make the decision on the fly.  

[taglovestocruise]

6 minutes ago, gail-s said:

Coming back to RCI after a long time of not cruising.  Can someone explain MTD?  I was under the assumption you could dine when you wanted to like on Norwegian.  Yes, sometimes you had to wait, but normally it wasn't bad.  How long before your trip can you sign up for the times?  And what happens if you want to change them?  My thought was to do it because I may want to eat early one night but later another and make the decision on the fly.  

Show up when you want. There is a line for no reservations and a line for those with reservations. May have a slight wait when the doors open at 6:45 but not unusual to have no wait time after 8pm.

[HappyTexan44]

Just an idea, since there is a medical reason 8pm won't work, email the ... I forget the name, where you email if you have a CPAP for example and will need distilled water and an extension cord.  Maybe if you explain why 8pm won't work, they will squeeze you into early dining.  

[S.A.M.J.R.]

On 3/18/2023 at 6:12 PM, joeyancho said:

MTD is anything but. Royal cannot figure this out for the life of them. It is so broken. Just show up a bit before you would like to eat and hope for the best. It is a real clown show. 

I don't understand why this is so difficult for them to figure out.  There are (generally?  all ships?) three floors for dining.  Dedicate one to traditional.  Dedicate one to MTD.  The other, split appropriately based on requests.  It can either be all traditional, all MTD, or a mixture.  It can even be all traditional for early seating and all MTD after.  

 

If traditional fills two floors (or maxes out w/MTD), then it's filled.  If MTD fills two floors, than it's filled.  MTD should be open from the beginning of early seating until the end of late seating.  That's the entire point.

 

Now, if they don't have enough staff to serve that, that's another story.

[monorail81]

Pre-COVID, MTD was fantastic. They started seating people at the same time as the first seating. After the reopen, they started MTD later to accommodate traditional dining’s distancing. They’ve never gone back. I’m rationalizing in my mind it has to do with a lack of staffing. Maybe one day they’ll go back to earlier MTD. 

[HappyTexan44]

17 minutes ago, S.A.M.J.R. said:

I don't understand why this is so difficult for them to figure out.  There are (generally?  all ships?) three floors for dining.  Dedicate one to traditional.  Dedicate one to MTD.  The other, split appropriately based on requests.  It can either be all traditional, all MTD, or a mixture.  It can even be all traditional for early seating and all MTD after.  

 

If traditional fills two floors (or maxes out w/MTD), then it's filled.  If MTD fills two floors, than it's filled.  MTD should be open from the beginning of early seating until the end of late seating.  That's the entire point.

 

Now, if they don't have enough staff to serve that, that's another story.

 

They have enough people wanting Early dining to fill all three floors.   Royal seems to be squeezing MTD in the middle.  They do one floor (I forget which) where early dining starts a little earlier than the other two floors.  That is where they start seating MTD as those early diners leave.  

I'm not a Royal cheerleader, but I understand what they are doing.   How often have you read people saying that early started too early, and late started too late?   

 

 

 

[gail-s]

1 hour ago, taglovestocruise said:

Show up when you want. There is a line for no reservations and a line for those with reservations. May have a slight wait when the doors open at 6:45 but not unusual to have no wait time after 8pm.

Thank you!  

[Liljo22]

We were on a sold out Oasis cruise and I was worried about MTD so I made reservations for every night.  The first night was a mess with a long line for both reservation and non-reservations.  After that, there would only be a few parties in each line every night.  We went at different times and it was the same.  

[LobsterStalker]

1 hour ago, S.A.M.J.R. said:

I don't understand why this is so difficult for them to figure out.  There are (generally?  all ships?) three floors for dining.  Dedicate one to traditional.  Dedicate one to MTD.  The other, split appropriately based on requests.  It can either be all traditional, all MTD, or a mixture.  It can even be all traditional for early seating and all MTD after.  

 

If traditional fills two floors (or maxes out w/MTD), then it's filled.  If MTD fills two floors, than it's filled.  MTD should be open from the beginning of early seating until the end of late seating.  That's the entire point.

 

Now, if they don't have enough staff to serve that, that's another story.

You made it sound simple at least ...

I believe the problem is trying to compete with Norwegian but not commiting to an all out freestyle dining is not as easy as it sounded . I have only been on 1 Norwegian sailing (11 night in 2018) and thought I was really going to miss the traditional style , but after all was said and done we probably preferred it over all.When we returned for our first post Covid cruise for b2b last fall I originally booked MTD for both sailings . After hearing many horror stories about what a disaster it seemed like we decided to change back to TD. Most foolish thing about MTD is that on our 2 sailings the earliest possible options were 6:45 and 7 PM...Might as well rename to midtime dining

 

Cheers

[LobsterStalker]

49 minutes ago, HappyTexan44 said:

 

They have enough people wanting Early dining to fill all three floors.   Royal seems to be squeezing MTD in the middle.  They do one floor (I forget which) where early dining starts a little earlier than the other two floors.  That is where they start seating MTD as those early diners leave.  

I'm not a Royal cheerleader, but I understand what they are doing.   How often have you read people saying that early started too early, and late started too late?   

 

 

 

Early at 5:45 just about right 

Early at 5:00 as on wonder last month , Definitely too early 

 

 

[luckyinpa]

i tried MTD last 2 oasis trips and even having a suite doesnt help. earliest they said was 645. i was told it just doesnt exist before then. i did go early one nite and was seated though.  they really should rename it because people who dont read forums do research will think they can walk up at 5 and just eat.

[S.A.M.J.R.]

59 minutes ago, HappyTexan44 said:

 

They have enough people wanting Early dining to fill all three floors.   Royal seems to be squeezing MTD in the middle.  They do one floor (I forget which) where early dining starts a little earlier than the other two floors.  That is where they start seating MTD as those early diners leave.  

I'm not a Royal cheerleader, but I understand what they are doing.   How often have you read people saying that early started too early, and late started too late?   

 

 

 

Just my opinion, but if they have enough people wanting Early for all three floors, dedicate two floors to Early, and the 3rd to MTD.  Once all of the seats on the two floors are filled "no more early dining".  Either have people select MTD or late.  Then, MTD (on the 3rd floor) starts at 5:30 (whatever time Early starts).  

[ONECRUISER]

2 minutes ago, HappyTexan44 said:

 

They have enough people wanting Early dining to fill all three floors.   Royal seems to be squeezing MTD in the middle.  They do one floor (I forget which) where early dining starts a little earlier than the other two floors.  That is where they start seating MTD as those early diners leave.  

I'm not a Royal cheerleader, but I understand what they are doing.   How often have you read people saying that early started too early, and late started too late?   

 

 

 

 

9 minutes ago, LobsterStalker said:

You made it sound simple at least ...

I believe the problem is trying to compete with Norwegian but not commiting to an all out freestyle dining is not as easy as it sounded . I have only been on 1 Norwegian sailing (11 night in 2018) and thought I was really going to miss the traditional style , but after all was said and done we probably preferred it over all.When we returned for our first post Covid cruise for b2b last fall I originally booked MTD for both sailings . After hearing many horror stories about what a disaster it seemed like we decided to change back to TD. Most foolish thing about MTD is that on our 2 sailings the earliest possible options were 6:45 and 7 PM...Might as well rename to midtime dining

 

Cheers

First did Freestyle on NCL 23+ yrs ago. My next Cruises on Royal have 6:45pm for MTD as usual, Early Main Dining at 5pm and 5:30pm

[LobsterStalker]

2 minutes ago, S.A.M.J.R. said:

Just my opinion, but if they have enough people wanting Early for all three floors, dedicate two floors to Early, and the 3rd to MTD.  Once all of the seats on the two floors are filled "no more early dining".  Either have people select MTD or late.  Then, MTD (on the 3rd floor) starts at 5:30 (whatever time Early starts).  

Problem is that it seems early is far and above peoples first preference . If they cannot offer enough early dining slots (which clearly never used to be a concern) , then they need to consider how to fix the issue .To make this much much worse they are also overpromising and confirming way too many people for early than they can accomodate. I did consecutive in the fall (Symphony/Explorer) and Wonder last month , and all 3 I had confirmed Early dining ( 2 of the 3 I had Email confirmations from RCL dining , with table numbers) .All 3 I showed up , headed straight to dining room to check my table only to find out I had none..... 

.... Embarassing the way things are being run at present . Hope they get their act together soon 1 way or another !

 

Cheers