New to RCCL - Anytime dining reservations

[elh1]

Hi all, Planning for our first RCCL cruise in December.  We are anytime dining, when I try to book a reservation they start at 7:15, will earlier reservations open up at a later date?  I really would like to eat earlier, but don't want to wait too long to reserve if the times ~7 will be booked.  Or do we just show up when we want and wait for a table?

[Ourusualbeach]

21 minutes ago, elh1 said:

Hi all, Planning for our first RCCL cruise in December.  We are anytime dining, when I try to book a reservation they start at 7:15, will earlier reservations open up at a later date?  I really would like to eat earlier, but don't want to wait too long to reserve if the times ~7 will be booked.  Or do we just show up when we want and wait for a table?

Typically the earliest is 6:45 or 7:00.  There won't be anything earlier as all 3 restaurants are used for early seating.  Once those people leave is when MTD starts. 

[elh1]

3 minutes ago, Ourusualbeach said:

Typically the earliest is 6:45 or 7:00.  There won't be anything earlier as all 3 restaurants are used for early seating.  Once those people leave is when MTD starts. 

We are going on Harmony which I thought had a dedicated restaurant for fixed dining. So not sure.

 

[Ourusualbeach]

Just now, elh1 said:

We are going on Harmony which I thought had a dedicated restaurant for fixed dining. So not sure.

 

Nope. They used to.  All ships changed.  No mtd reservations prior to about 6:45. 

[elh1]

Thanks for clearing this up.  So not really “My” time dining then 🤨

[taglovestocruise]

1 hour ago, elh1 said:

We are going on Harmony which I thought had a dedicated restaurant for fixed dining. So not sure.

 

Main dining room is three decks. All decks are for early traditional dining starting at  5:15.  Once early dining is finished and cleared deck three becomes MTD 6:45 until 9pm. Decks 4 and 5 then have late seating at 7:45. MTD room is pretty empty from 8:00 to 9. There are 5 seatings for traditional and 1 open seating for MT. Some Oasis Class ships use deck 4 instead of deck 3 for MT.  MTD is truly anytime you choose as long as you choose what's available.  Like Henry Ford said.. Any color you want as long as you want black. 

Edited September 30, 2023 by taglovestocruise

[Ourusualbeach]

52 minutes ago, elh1 said:

Thanks for clearing this up.  So not really “My” time dining then 🤨

Yeah, they should rename it to late or later

[budmeister]

I have found in the past that if you go right at 5:30, there usually is not a line, even without reservations. At the dining podium I was able to make 5:30 reservations. This was this past Jan., so my experiences may not be currently true. 

 

I don't know how much you have cruised, and created your own habits and experiences, but we have found that we prefer the later dining times. We usually enjoy a snack in the afternoon, after completing a daytime activity, and then a rest. So, we are not hungry for the early dinner as expected. 

 

Also, at the earlier times you miss the first show and then have to wait a while for second one, so it is not like an early dinner ends your evening early.  A 6:45 dinner gets you done in time to change and get to the show in time for good seating choices. But it is much harder to get a table for two at this time away from the crowd, at 5:30 it is easy.

[budmeister]

56 minutes ago, taglovestocruise said:

Main dining room is three decks. All decks are for early traditional dining starting at  5:15.  Once early dining is finished and cleared deck three becomes MTD 6:45 until 9pm. Decks 4 and 5 then have late seating at 7:45. MTD room is pretty empty from 8:00 to 9. There are 5 seatings for traditional and 1 open seating for MT. Some Oasis Class ships use deck 4 instead of deck 3 for MT.  MTD is truly anytime you choose as long as you choose what's available.  Like Henry Ford said.. Any color you want as long as you want black. 

I am curious about when this changed. I thought main dining was 6 or 8 and I did 5:30 MTD this past January. It was on the Explorer.

[loman]

We had 6 :45 time on Harmony for MTD on deck 3 a couple weeks ago.

We would show up around 6 pm and no lines .

The guy at the door would check with other floors if any tables were free from no shows .

We always got a two top right away on other decks .

As long as you dont mind different waiters ( we dont ) it worked out very well for us .

We were able to catch the 8 oclock shows rather than the late shows too.

[GTO-Girl]

1 hour ago, budmeister said:

I am curious about when this changed. I thought main dining was 6 or 8 and I did 5:30 MTD this past January. It was on the Explorer.

Just off the Wonder and the Mariner……early dining started at 5:15-5:30

[taglovestocruise]

3 hours ago, budmeister said:

I am curious about when this changed. I thought main dining was 6 or 8 and I did 5:30 MTD this past January. It was on the Explorer.

According to the Jan 15th cruise compass MTD was deck 3 at 6:45.  Decks 3,4, and 5 were early traditional at 5:15, but things do change.

[crzndeb]

You don’t need to make reservations. If you are just a party of 2, the wait will be minimal. Just off the Jewel, and I don’t eat in MDR, but friends were told they start releasing Early Traditional tables at about 6:15. They never made reservations. It really depends on how many open tables they have open from the early seating. So I would go and check earlier than when they actually say MTD starts. My daughter and granddaughter were on the Wonder in July and also did not make reservations. Never had to wait more than 10 or 15 mins.

Of course different ships could do different things, but it doesn’t hurt to check.

[willing292]

My time dining is a misnomer. On our recent cruise, it was not unusual to see a minimum of 100 people waiting in line, some with reservations and some without.  We would just leave and order room service to our cabin.  

[Giladj]

We are new to RCCL and learning a new cruise line is interesting. We are booked on a TA in November with lots of days at sea and repeat ports for us. We would really like to have dinner at/near 6:00 pm each evening. Early seating is too early if it is 5:15. MTD start is too late at 6:45 when trying to get to the 8 pm show. Figuring I will make 6:45 reservations and show up early (6:00 - 6:15) and hope for the best.

 

Any problems with this plan?

[loman]

3 hours ago, Giladj said:

We are new to RCCL and learning a new cruise line is interesting. We are booked on a TA in November with lots of days at sea and repeat ports for us. We would really like to have dinner at/near 6:00 pm each evening. Early seating is too early if it is 5:15. MTD start is too late at 6:45 when trying to get to the 8 pm show. Figuring I will make 6:45 reservations and show up early (6:00 - 6:15) and hope for the best.

 

Any problems with this plan?

No problems at all , this is what i did and worked for me every day .

Enjoy your cruise