Set dining time or "Your Time" dining

[Softservekid1]

Traveling on the Jubilee. We are all over 70 years young. We booked your time on the suggestion from another friend who cruises Carnival a lot. BUT she has not been on Jubilee yet. SO, I've heard on a few places (YouTube) the lines and wait times at Your Time are frustrating. Those Jubilee cruisers on the forum, what say you?

[luvs2beachit]

1 hour ago, Softservekid1 said:

Traveling on the Jubilee. We are all over 70 years young. We booked your time on the suggestion from another friend who cruises Carnival a lot. BUT she has not been on Jubilee yet. SO, I've heard on a few places (YouTube) the lines and wait times at Your Time are frustrating. Those Jubilee cruisers on the forum, what say you?

We like any time dining as it allows us to make our own plans and schedule.  Have done set time dining for years and enjoyed that experience as it allowed us to meet new people but now we like the freedom of any time.  We eat when we are hungry.  Bottom line, it's really a personal choice.  Neither venue is better then the other.

[shof515]

the only thing i dont like your time dinning is the estimate time in the hub app can be wayyyyy offf. it will say under 10 minute wait. then when i get the notification a table is ready, it can be like 30-40 minutes later 

[bar1068]

1 hour ago, Softservekid1 said:

Traveling on the Jubilee. We are all over 70 years young. We booked your time on the suggestion from another friend who cruises Carnival a lot. BUT she has not been on Jubilee yet. SO, I've heard on a few places (YouTube) the lines and wait times at Your Time are frustrating. Those Jubilee cruisers on the forum, what say you?

Wait times for Your Time Dining can be "frustrating" on almost all of Carnivals ships, but we will book anything but YTD, we just sort of have learned to work around the frustrations.

 

However, YTD works just a bit differently on the Excel class of ships, which the Jubilee is one of, if you're not aware. We've sailed all 3 Excel ships, Jubilee of course being one, and our "frustrations" were minimal. Some times are more popular than others, particularly on the "elegant" nights....earlier times seem more popular, like 5:30-6:30 seems to be the longest waits. Also, with YTD on Jubilee, you can also go to Cucina, Chibang and Guys Pig and Anchor barbecue at no additional cost, at least while in her Jubilee's inaugural season. After her inaugural season, that may change, but she's sailing her first year of service, so depending when you're sailing, that may not matter. 

[Softservekid1]

33 minutes ago, bar1068 said:

Wait times for Your Time Dining can be "frustrating" on almost all of Carnivals ships, but we will book anything but YTD, we just sort of have learned to work around the frustrations.

 

However, YTD works just a bit differently on the Excel class of ships, which the Jubilee is one of, if you're not aware. We've sailed all 3 Excel ships, Jubilee of course being one, and our "frustrations" were minimal. Some times are more popular than others, particularly on the "elegant" nights....earlier times seem more popular, like 5:30-6:30 seems to be the longest waits. Also, with YTD on Jubilee, you can also go to Cucina, Chibang and Guys Pig and Anchor barbecue at no additional cost, at least while in her Jubilee's inaugural season. After her inaugural season, that may change, but she's sailing her first year of service, so depending when you're sailing, that may not matter. 

Great info thanks

[1025cruise]

One thing to keep in mind on these new ships. Cucina and Chibang are used as an extension of YTD. So, if you have set dining, you won't be seated in these restaurants until after 7:30. 

[weezal]

if you're willing to use the carnival hub app, to join the wait list for dinner, should be fine.

[Drazil65]

We only do YTD and have never waited more than 10 minutes, we are early eaters though and go when they open.  We find on the bigger newer ships we dont dine in MDR as often but use YTD to book into the optional venues to eat.  Gives us much more flexibility for planning our evening schedule.  

[staceyglow]

5 hours ago, shof515 said:

the only thing i dont like your time dinning is the estimate time in the hub app can be wayyyyy offf. it will say under 10 minute wait. then when i get the notification a table is ready, it can be like 30-40 minutes later 

It can also be the opposite. 

[Frank12]

1 hour ago, staceyglow said:

It can also be the opposite. 

YES!! On Mardi Gras recently we had a 30-40 minute wait so we went to Alchemy for a drink. Before we got served (less than 10 minutes) our table was ready.

[kdr69]

If you dont go till your app notifies you that your table is ready im not sure how there will be a line?  At least ive never encountered one. The line occurs when everyone who is checking in stands outside until they do get a notice. Why do that when you could be sitting somewhere enjoying a drink or entertainment or just chatting with your group which is why Your time is so great.

[lesters]

Exactly this! There is no reason for congregating.  
 

The app makes it so easy  we watch the wait times before checking in as well.  I will never cruise (unless just not available) with anything but YTD.  

1 hour ago, kdr69 said:

If you dont go till your app notifies you that your table is ready im not sure how there will be a line?  At least ive never encountered one. The line occurs when everyone who is checking in stands outside until they do get a notice. Why do that when you could be sitting somewhere enjoying a drink or entertainment or just chatting with your group which is why Your time is so great.

 

[mfs2k]

We're more traditional after 40 years of cruising and like set time timing.  We like the possibility of meeting interesting people at our table and dining with them each night.  Sometimes it's not so great but overall we've had good experiences and made friends. 

[teknoge3k]

My reasoning for always choosing Anytime Dining, is because at home we do not eat at the exact same time each night. One night we may eat at 5pm, the next night we may eat at 8pm. It's when we get hungry. On vacation I do not want to change that, and be forced into a schedule. We eat when we get hungry. We're also not rushed back from port to get ready for dinner, or rushed from dinner to see a show. I prefer flexibility. We still have the same wait staff every night, we still have the same menu, we still get to see the little song and dance routine they do, just with flexibility. If we wanted to eat at "early dining", we could still eat at the time with ATD. If we wanted to eat "late dining", we could still eat at that time as well. We have never waited more than 10 minutes at the most for a table, on any ship. 

[StephPS79]

We have and will always do Anytime Dining.  We didn't have any problem on Celebration.  I've never had it really go over the time given by more than a few minutes on any ship, but it's definitely been quicker than the time given.  Some nights the wait time was 40 minutes or so.  As mentioned, there will be no reason to wait in a line if you don't go to the restaurant until you get notified your table is ready.  Just start looking a little before you want to be seated at a table to see what the wait time looks like.  Then, enjoy cruising like normal while you wait for your notification.  It's really pretty easy.

[mz-s]

And often, the buffet will be serving the same food as the MDR anyway...

[moviegal]

We love it, but when we travel with our extended family, some of the older members of our party hate it because they want stick with a set meal time that they're used to. The best tip I have is this: check in on the dining app at least 30 minutes BEFORE you are ready to eat, or try to plan your meals at "off" times. If you want to be seated at peak dinner times, you will need to be prepared to wait.

[CTCruisers]

We always choose YTD. But we tend to be one of the first diners in the late afternoon, so we do not have any real waiting times.  We prefer to go to see shows and listen to music than have dinner after 6 pm.

[MtnSeaGirl]

We were on the Horizon with My Time Dining last year.  We loved it. Now, I will be honest and say most evenings we were ready to eat early.  We never waited more than 15 to 20 minutes with most of the time being 10 minutes.  Maybe we were just lucky.  We cruised on Royal earlier this year and booked MTD not realizing it was totally different than Carnival.  Fortunately, we were able to change to Early Dining once on board.  We have done MTD on Carnival many times, but I will say that the Carnival App on my phone makes it super easy.  I was not looking forward to using the app as I don't like technology on vaca.  It was pretty flawless. Happy Cruising!

[teknoge3k]

11 hours ago, MtnSeaGirl said:

We cruised on Royal earlier this year and booked MTD not realizing it was totally different than Carnival. 

 

MTD on Royal is horrible! Carnival and Norwegian are organized when it comes to their dining. Royal is a hot mess. 

[Pyxie]

I've been cruising for 10 years and have not once done set time dining. I'm YTD all the way. At first, this was mostly because we are not interested in being seated with strangers and there is really no way to guarantee a table for 2 with set dining. But over the years, we've enjoyed the flexibility and have rarely had extremely long waits. I can remember maybe 2 times the wait was 30 minutes or more, but now that you can check in on the app from anywhere on the ship, this is no longer a problem. And as said, on the Excel class, YTD is really the way to go so you can choose to eat dinner in one of the included specialty restaurants without waiting until after 7:30pm. If you have late dining anyway, this may not be a big deal, but could be annoying if you are used to eating at 6pm.

Edited July 15 by Pyxie

[ray98]

YTD is the greatest cruise advancement in the last 20 years.  I am allowed to eat when I am hungry just like the real world.

[vwrestler171]

YTS all the way.  I can still get the same waitstaff if I want, I can easily have a different waitstaff if I didn't like them.  Plus if we are in port late, I can just go to dinner later and not have to rush to get ready.  

[jimbo5544]

On 7/11/2024 at 7:38 AM, kdr69 said:

If you dont go till your app notifies you that your table is ready im not sure how there will be a line?  At least ive never encountered one. The line occurs when everyone who is checking in stands outside until they do get a notice. Why do that when you could be sitting somewhere enjoying a drink or entertainment or just chatting with your group which is why Your time is so great.

It is head scratching material but people are creatures of habit.

[cgladin]

We like early dining on the older classes of ships and we always choose YTD if we are on the excel class of ships since there are more dining options.