MTD - no reservation experiences

On our recent cruise, we ate in the main dining room less than we usually do because sometimes there were things we wanted to do at @6pm and it conflicted with dinner.

We're thinking of doing MTD next cruise, but I'd really rather treat it like a traditional restaurant and go to dinner when we are ready to go on that particular day - not make standing or even "night before" reservations.

I know that the general consensus is that there might be a wait without a reservation, but I'm wondering how long of a wait we are talking about. We are a family of 5, so would need a 6 person table (we would not like to share).

Can anyone who has gone "reservation free" give me their experiences with wait times?

We didn't exactly do "reservations free" on the Liberty last fall, but we did call at the last minute to change the reservations we made 2 out of the 5 nights and never had a problem getting whatever time we wanted. It was our first experience with MTD.

We've ended up with MTD again on our upcoming Radiance trip (waitlisted for early traditional, which we prefer). If we don't get it I think we will try what you're suggesting and just go when we go - no reservations at all and may even try dropping in to the speciality places and see what happens.

One thing to think about, if it matters to you, is that if you make reservations at MTD they will seat you at the same table every night. We actually DIDN'T like this as we didn't love the waitstaff and would have preferred to have a shared table, which we really missed.

I have NEVER had a booking for dinner in all my cruises. I just turn up when we want to eat.

Longest I have ever waited is about 20 minutes - That was in Scandinavia and they brought ut champagne to calm the wild masses down! :D

Usually its about 5 minutes.

Raina

I've done My Time or its equivalent on a number of lines. The only time I ever made a reservation was during a holiday sailing at the suggestion of the dining room staff. Otherwise, I've always just shown up. While I've had to wait on other lines during the rush, usually 6:30-7:30, it was never more than 20 minutes and usually less. On the Jewel in January, we never made a reservation and never had to wait for a table whether it was for two of us or three of us, but we tended to eat earlier on this cruise. But even when we went later in the evening as a couple, we were still seated immediately.