My time dining

[orville99]

48 minutes ago, MtnSeaGirl said:

Please confirm that my understanding is correct that at some point, we will be able to select a specific time for MTD ( reservation ). If this is correct, do we make it for every night or does the one selection secure our reservation for each evening of the cruise?  If we need to reserve a time for each evening, is it permissible for it to be different times?  Lastly, at what point do we make the reservations?

You need to make a reservation for each night of the cruise one night at a time. You used to be able to do all nights at one time, but they "enhanced" their system so you now have to go in to the reservation system 12 times for a 12 night cruise and select a time. You can reserve different times for each night if you want, and some times book up faster than others. You probably won't be able to book MTD reservations until later this year or after the 1st of the year for an April 2024 cruise. I just went out and checked our February 2024 cruises, and none of the dining options are available yet, but everything prior to New years is open.

[Another_Critic]

13 minutes ago, orville99 said:

You probably won't be able to book MTD reservations until later this year or after the 1st of the year for an April 2024 cruise. I just went out and checked our February 2024 cruises, and none of the dining options are available yet, but everything prior to New years is open.

 

As I posted previously ...

 

On 6/3/2023 at 12:48 PM, Another_Critic said:

I scheduled MTD on May 16, 2023 for my April 2024 and Nov. 2024 cruises.

 

[orville99]

3 minutes ago, Another_Critic said:

 

As I posted previously ...

 

 

Did you use the app or the website?

[Another_Critic]

Just now, orville99 said:

Did you use the app or the website?

I used the website on April 12, 2023 to book MTD for April 21, 2024 (I ended up cancelling this booking)

 

I used the app on May 16, 2023 to book MTD for April 21, 2004 (rebooked onboard) and Nov. 3, 2024.  

[orville99]

5 minutes ago, Another_Critic said:

I used the website on April 12, 2023 to book MTD for April 21, 2024 (I ended up cancelling this booking)

 

I used the app on May 16, 2023 to book MTD for April 21, 2004 (rebooked onboard) and Nov. 3, 2024.  

The ability to select a traditional or MTD dining option exists when you make the booking, so if that is what you are referencing, I fully understand. The ability to actually select specific times for MTD each day of the cruise (which is what I was referencing) is different, and does not become available until much closer to the cruise date. Those options are not available yet for any of our 2024 or 2025 cruises.

[Another_Critic]

11 minutes ago, orville99 said:

The ability to select a traditional or MTD dining option exists when you make the booking, so if that is what you are referencing, I fully understand. The ability to actually select specific times for MTD each day of the cruise (which is what I was referencing) is different, and does not become available until much closer to the cruise date. Those options are not available yet for any of our 2024 or 2025 cruises.

MTD was selected at booking on May 5 (4/2024 cruise) and May 8 (11/2024 cruise).

 

MTD reservations were made on May 16, 2023 for 6:45 PM for each night of the aforementioned sailings (April 21, 2024 and Nov. 3, 2024). 

 

P.S.  Specialty dining is also available to reserve on those sailings.

 

Edited June 4, 2023 by Another_Critic

[Giantfan13]

2 hours ago, MtnSeaGirl said:

I am late to this topic and have a question about MTD.  We only cruised Royal once, and we had traditional dining.  We recently cruised Carnival whose MTD involves having the app on your phone. You go to the app and request a table.  They then message you when your table is ready.  Usually the wait was short, and we did not have to dine at a set time each evening.  We recently booked a great 12 day on Royal and signed up for MTD.   Please confirm that my understanding is correct that at some point, we will be able to select a specific time for MTD ( reservation ). If this is correct, do we make it for every night or does the one selection secure our reservation for each evening of the cruise?  If we need to reserve a time for each evening, is it permissible for it to be different times?  Lastly, at what point do we make the reservations?  I  apologize for so many "dumb" questions.  I just want to get it right.  We don't sail until April, and I want to do what I need to do when I need to do it.  We booked online without the use of a TA or PVP like we did 5 yrs ago.  Maybe we should have utilized one. In the meantime, I appreciate your help.   

In the app or online, you need to make a reservation for each night of your cruise. You can do whatever time you want for each night. Say you will be ashore and want a later dining time that night, just put in whatever time you feel appropriate. You do have to do each night individually, but once you get the hang of it, it is a piece of cake. AND, say you make a reservation for 7:30 and you know the day or night before, you may want to eat earlier of later, just tell the reservation desk that you wish to change your reservation time, or just cancel it and show up when you want with no reservation. It is not that big a deal.

 

Cheers

Len

[LobsterStalker]

4 hours ago, orville99 said:

I believe you have me mistaken with someone else.

Nope , Comment wasn't directed to you 

[latebuyer]

I am happy as i was just able to get mytime dining reservations and get the times i wanted! I assume you can can cancel and rebook. Cruise is june 25 but it could be us canadians don’t know what we are doing.

[MtnSeaGirl]

Thanks to all who are helping answer the MTD reservation questions I had.  We went back into our Cruise Planner ( website, not app ), and when we select Dining it advises  "amazing experiences coming soon, please check back later ..... "  It is for our April 6, 2024 sail.  I see some of you may have already been able to make reservations.  As this will be only our second cruise with Royal, maybe some of you get to book a lot earlier.  If so, that is fair.   I do have one last question please:  what if you make a reservation for the MDR and decide that evening you really just want to hit the buffet instead ( Windjammer I believe is the correct name) - how does that work?  Does the buffet still require reservations as well?   I am really sorry for being so dumb here.  Royal just operates a bit diff than what we are used to.  And, we really want to get it right.  Thank you again.

[Tree_skier]

28 minutes ago, MtnSeaGirl said:

As this will be only our second cruise with Royal, maybe some of you get to book a lot earlier.  If so, that is fair.

That is not the case.  Your status with Royal doesn't play into it all.  For some inexplicable reason Royal releases the ability to book dining at different time without any regard for consistency. I have a cruise in Sept 2024 on Liberty with all my dining already wrapped up.  My Feb 2024 on adventure still has nothing available ("amazing experiences coming soon"). Just keep checking back eventually it will show up and you can book all your MTD reservations.

[orville99]

35 minutes ago, MtnSeaGirl said:

Thanks to all who are helping answer the MTD reservation questions I had.  We went back into our Cruise Planner ( website, not app ), and when we select Dining it advises  "amazing experiences coming soon, please check back later ..... "  It is for our April 6, 2024 sail.  I see some of you may have already been able to make reservations.  As this will be only our second cruise with Royal, maybe some of you get to book a lot earlier.  If so, that is fair.   I do have one last question please:  what if you make a reservation for the MDR and decide that evening you really just want to hit the buffet instead ( Windjammer I believe is the correct name) - how does that work?  Does the buffet still require reservations as well?   I am really sorry for being so dumb here.  Royal just operates a bit diff than what we are used to.  And, we really want to get it right.  Thank you again.

 

3 minutes ago, Tree_skier said:

That is not the case.  Your status with Royal doesn't play into it all.  For some inexplicable reason Royal releases the ability to book dining at different time without any regard for consistency. I have a cruise in Sept 2024 on Liberty with all my dining already wrapped up.  My Feb 2024 on adventure still has nothing available ("amazing experiences coming soon"). Just keep checking back eventually it will show up and you can book all your MTD reservations.

I am getting this strange feeling that RCL changed their protocols recently to block this capability. Prior to this month, I never had any difficulty making any dining reservations out as far as we had booked cruises, but when I go in now I get the check back later message. In May I was booking specialty dining through the end of the year, but when I went in this week to start booking for our first 2024 cruise (literally sailing 30 days after our final 2023 cruise sails) I am blocked.

[Tree_skier]

14 minutes ago, orville99 said:

 

I am getting this strange feeling that RCL changed their protocols recently to block this capability. Prior to this month, I never had any difficulty making any dining reservations out as far as we had booked cruises, but when I go in now I get the check back later message. In May I was booking specialty dining through the end of the year, but when I went in this week to start booking for our first 2024 cruise (literally sailing 30 days after our final 2023 cruise sails) I am blocked.

Mine is weirdly inconsistent.  Everything available for all cruises through the end of 2023.  Nothing available for cruise in Feb 2024.  But the everything is bookable for the balance of 2024. Then when I look at 2025 bookings we're back to nothing available.

Edited June 5, 2023 by Tree_skier

[akcruz]

1 hour ago, MtnSeaGirl said:

I do have one last question please:  what if you make a reservation for the MDR and decide that evening you really just want to hit the buffet instead ( Windjammer I believe is the correct name) - how does that work?  Does the buffet still require reservations as well?   I am really sorry for being so dumb here.  Royal just operates a bit diff than what we are used to.  And, we really want to get it right.  Thank you again.

 

Don't apologize for the questions, yes all lines operate differently and if you didn't ask how would you know.  Many of us here would have the same questions if we sailed on other lines.

 

To answer your question, no reservations necessary for the buffet.  If you find that you have a reservation for MTD that you aren't going to use, a call to the dining room stating so would be good as a courtesy.  We have done so in the past without issue.

[MtnSeaGirl]

1 hour ago, akcruz said:

 

Don't apologize for the questions, yes all lines operate differently and if you didn't ask how would you know.  Many of us here would have the same questions if we sailed on other lines.

 

To answer your question, no reservations necessary for the buffet.  If you find that you have a reservation for MTD that you aren't going to use, a call to the dining room stating so would be good as a courtesy.  We have done so in the past without issue.

Thank you so much!  We look forward to being on Royal again.  The ports being offered that sail from the East Coast of the US is pretty NICE!  

[latebuyer]

I assume you are not penalized if you don’t show up to a my time dining reservation? I want to keep one just in case, but i probably won’t go.

[rockmom]

17 minutes ago, latebuyer said:

I assume you are not penalized if you don’t show up to a my time dining reservation? I want to keep one just in case, but i probably won’t go.

you aren't 'penalized' but if you know you're not going to show up, please let them know. That way someone from the line waiting to get in will be seated sooner than later.  It's the nice, courteous thing to do.  

Edited June 5, 2023 by rockmom

[wpas1]

After reading this I am not sure if MTD is what I thought it was.  In the past we just went to the dining room and were seated.  Sometimes we had a 10-15 minute wait, but never anything longer.  We never made reservations, do we need to do that now?   

[rockmom]

1 minute ago, wpas1 said:

After reading this I am not sure if MTD is what I thought it was.  In the past we just went to the dining room and were seated.  Sometimes we had a 10-15 minute wait, but never anything longer.  We never made reservations, do we need to do that now?   

Since the return, post Covid, MyTime doesn't start until later--such as 6:45.  So those that don't want a late seating book their time using the Cruise Planner (at the bottom of the 'dining' tab).  Otherwise you can go get in the no reservations line--but again, My Time doesn't open until the early, fixed dining is finished and those guests have left.  We used to do My Time and would pre-book the 6 pm time for each night, but now with the later start time, we have opted to choose the early fixed dining time.  

[poocher]

You don’t HAVE to make MTD reservations but  your wait time may be longer than you expect without.  We made our reservations for a May 2023 Harmony cruise in August of 2022 through the Cruise Planner (last option under the specially dining options). One night we had a 10 minute wait for the table we had all week, walked right in to the table every other night.

Edited June 6, 2023 by poocher

[Giantfan13]

5 minutes ago, wpas1 said:

After reading this I am not sure if MTD is what I thought it was.  In the past we just went to the dining room and were seated.  Sometimes we had a 10-15 minute wait, but never anything longer.  We never made reservations, do we need to do that now?   

No you do not have to make a reservation. You still CAN just show up whenever you want and you will be seated as soon as something is available. Many of us, who use MTD and make a reservation, do so most times, so we can be seated in the same area each night with the same wait staff. If you go when you like, again, you will be seated but it will be where ever they have a table open so you may not see the same wait staff twice on your cruise. If that is no big deal then go when you like and enjoy your dinner.

 

Cheers

Len

[captainkurt]

After reading this thread, I made MTD reservations for our upcoming cruises on Odyssey (Thanksgiving) and Icon (Spring Break).  As has been mentioned by several posters above, the earliest reservation time was 6:45 PM.  I was able to secure a variety of times between 6:45 - 7:15 PM.  On days where I made a 7:15 PM reservation, could I show up earlier (6:30 - 6:45 PM) and request a table at that time?  Also, since I made reservations for two, does that guarantee we'll get a table for two?  Having a private table for two is our objective.  Otherwise, early dining would probably be a better choice for us.

[c-leg5]

On 6/4/2023 at 11:19 AM, buffet24 said:

You must have been special... because all of the people on the right-side line in this picture all got seated in MTD (no one being turned away) even without an MTD reservation (meaning they all had Traditional dining reservations)... 🤷‍♂️

 

 

On 6/4/2023 at 7:33 AM, orville99 said:

In more than 100 cruises on RCL on every class of ship, we have never been turned away from MTD if we went there regardless of where our dining was originally scheduled.

 

 

No wonder the MTD system is having problems.

[happytocruiseginny]

I have never gotten stuck with MTD reservations- always get early dining except for my Jan 2024 cruise.  I need to change it bec I  like early dining due to liking early shows.

[poocher]

3 post shutdown cruises with MTD.  Made reservations as soon as I could for 6:30-7 each night.  Have always gotten the same table (and they let me pick it out) and waitstaff and have never had to wait in a line.  Most nights just waved in.