Early Dining/My Time

[Steph2024]

My husband just booked us a cruise for June with our 3 kids, ages 10, 6 and 2. I thought we booked far enough in advance but he said there was no availability for early dining. On our app, the earliest reservation daily for MDR is 7:00pm. That is already late with a 2 year old but also means we might not see any shows. Is there a way to somehow still get early dining time or earlier than 7 at least?

Also, we would rather not do specialty dining with the kids so this is just for MDR.

[butterfly4108]

We just show up, they'll get you in.  Our last cruise had only 8:45 available and due to medications I can't eat that late.  We showed up at 5:30 and never had a wait, happy cruising! 😄  

[leaveitallbehind]

You don't mention which cruise line but with most you can also waitlist your preferred dining time and it may open up prior to your sailing.  In many cases, there are always some spots reserved for on board assignments and as @butterfly4108 indicates, you can usually just arrive at your preferred time with My Time and they should be able to seat you.  I'm sure it will work out as there always is an intended line for non-reserved My Time dining each night on board.  I'm sure you will also be able to manage your show times accordingly.

 

And just for future reference many cruises are booked 12- 18 months in advance and although it may seem as though you would have booked far enough in advance, 6 months prior to sailing is actually a rather short booking window.  It is not uncommon for desired dining times to be booked by then.

 

Enjoy your cruise!

Edited January 15 by leaveitallbehind

[Steph2024]

Oops sorry! Forgot to mention it will be on Royal Carribean’s Allure of the Seas. We have actually cruised before but we were without kids on a Carnival ship. We didn’t mind the late dining then! 😊

[leaveitallbehind]

43 minutes ago, Steph2024 said:

Oops sorry! Forgot to mention it will be on Royal Carribean’s Allure of the Seas. We have actually cruised before but we were without kids on a Carnival ship. We didn’t mind the late dining then! 😊

At one time there was an email that you could use to make requests relative to dining on RCCL ships.  I believe it was dining@rccl.com.  If you email them with your ship, sailing date, booking number, and your dining request they may be able to help. (If you booked through a TA they should be able to assist).  Perhaps others can confirm if that is still a valid email for this.  May be worth a try.

[1025cruise]

It's been reported on RCL that they don't allow earlier reservations for MTD due to the popularity of early dining. 

[lenquixote66]

3 hours ago, butterfly4108 said:

We just show up, they'll get you in.  Our last cruise had only 8:45 available and due to medications I can't eat that late.  We showed up at 5:30 and never had a wait, happy cruising! 😄  

The same for us.We never had a problem showing up at our preferred time of 5 :30.Enjoy your cruise.We last cruised in 2019;and things may have changed.

Edited January 15 by lenquixote66

[leaveitallbehind]

1 hour ago, 1025cruise said:

It's been reported on RCL that they don't allow earlier reservations for MTD due to the popularity of early dining. 

Not sure how true that is as we have made early dining reservations with MTD in the past. (6:15 / 6:30)

 

And if early fixed is booked out then why would they not allow similar reservations with MTD?  They typically are in different dining rooms.

 

But to be fair we typically eat in the specialty restaurants v the MDR, so we don't have too much recent experience with MTD in the MDR.

Edited January 15 by leaveitallbehind

[LobsterStalker]

On 1/15/2024 at 1:56 PM, leaveitallbehind said:

Not sure how true that is as we have made early dining reservations with MTD in the past. (6:15 / 6:30)

 

And if early fixed is booked out then why would they not allow similar reservations with MTD?  They typically are in different dining rooms.

 

But to be fair we typically eat in the specialty restaurants v the MDR, so we don't have too much recent experience with MTD in the MDR.

MTD is no longer in different dining rooms hence the ridiculously late start times for earliest seatings ( usually 6:45). If you go to the dining room immediately when you board and wait in line with the hundreds of other disgruntled diners ... they MAY be able to accommodate you with a traditional early spot... I have witnessed tears and tantrums often help the outcome

# OhSoSad

 

Gl

[akcruz]

Try to get on the waitlist f9r early dining, chances are you will clear before sailing, but if not go to the dining room as soon as you board and see what can be done. 

 

As others have mentioned MTD doesn't officially start until 6:45 but many have been seated earlier in the stand by line.  If all else fails do that the first night and go from there.  

[shofer]

23 minutes ago, LobsterStalker said:

MTD is no longer in different dining rooms hence the ridiculously late start times for earliest seatings ( usually 6:45). If you go to the dining room immediately when you board and wait in line with the hundreds of other disgruntled diners ... they MAY be able to accommodate you with a traditional early spot... I have witnessed tears and tantrums often help the outcome

# OhSoSad

 

Gl

On one of our first cruises (they still had set dining then) we were given early seating instead of our preferred late time.  Went right to maitre'd line and experienced a very rude/obnoxious passenger demanding a time change.  The maitre'd took his name and said he would put that person on a list.  The couple huffed away and DH commented on the rude behavior and I remarked how horrified I was that the maitre'd had to deal with such behavior.  DH apologetically requested a time change, if possible and we were accommodated immediately.  So, tears maybe, but tantrums, never.

 

[LobsterStalker]

2 minutes ago, shofer said:

On one of our first cruises (they still had set dining then) we were given early seating instead of our preferred late time.  Went right to maitre'd line and experienced a very rude/obnoxious passenger demanding a time change.  The maitre'd took his name and said he would put that person on a list.  The couple huffed away and DH commented on the rude behavior and I remarked how horrified I was that the maitre'd had to deal with such behavior.  DH apologetically requested a time change, if possible and we were accommodated immediately.  So, tears maybe, but tantrums, never.

 

On our last cruise the Mom of a 10 year old girl was "consoled"by her daughter as she cried at the concept of not getting what she wanted . "It's ok Mommy " we heard over and over again as the 10 year old was more of an adult than the Mom !

I REALLY want an eary dining slot too but I mean Really ?

Whatever works I guess

 

Cheers