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Anytime dining: the ease of being seated with other people?


mlbcruiser
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When Royal Caribbean first started having any time dining, we tried it twice within a couple of years. Ended up switching back to our second seating both times. We had sailed on Princess we initially tried anytime dining. That was prior to our attempting it on Royal Caribbean, and found that Princess always encouraged diners to share a table with others. We enjoy that and think it’s fun to meet new people. However on Royal Caribbean, we were always shown to a table and seated by ourselves. It’s not like we were weird or dressed inappropriately or had body odor or something! Actually we seemed to have people sll around us who were sailing together and came in together to be seated or were families. So after two sailings, we never tried again on Royal Caribbean. ( Except for the time we were sailing with friends we had met on a cruise and sometimes sale with periodically. We did my time dining then because all of us more or less had to based upon our showtime reservations on the Oasis. )

 

Just wondering how that goes at present? Have you generally been asked if you would like to be seated with others, or automatically shown to a table with others? Did you feel it was a bothered to ask to be seated with others or did it seem to be encouraged?

 

 

Thanks for any experienced info!

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We were asked on both Day 1 and Day 2 on the Indy last month if we wanted to share and accepted both times. We were seated at the same table both nights, though with different people each night. Unfortunately, it was a table that had been added to a waiter’s assignment and service was so slow that my companion refused to return. It was his first cruise and very important to me that he enjoyed it, but the MDR added nothing positive to his experience.

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If we want to be seated with others, we tell MTD host/hostess when we get to the podium. Our experience is that they rarely ask, they just assume we want to sit alone if we don't say anything.

 

 

 

We have asked and still they brought us to a table for two. On Grandeur and Anthem. Basically ignoring our request.

They keep trying to bring us back to the same waiter all the time. I realize the fix is in for hopes of extra tipping, if we stay with the same waiter the whole cruise. When we move around we don't get attached to any one waiter group.

 

 

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We will never do My Time Dining again. We enjoy eating at a table with others and enjoy the conversation and meeting others. With my time dining they always put us by ourselves and never gave us an option. Plus I don't think the service is as good. We prefer early seating with a group. I wish they would do away with my time dining. "my time" suggest you can eat whenever you want but they always ask that you make reservations. You can just take a chance and wait in line but you never know how long you may have to wait. Even when we tried to make reservations they tell us the only time available is 8 pm. Not a fan of "my time"

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We have asked and still they brought us to a table for two. On Grandeur and Anthem. Basically ignoring our request.

They keep trying to bring us back to the same waiter all the time. I realize the fix is in for hopes of extra tipping, if we stay with the same waiter the whole cruise. When we move around we don't get attached to any one waiter group.

If that was us, I'd tell them we would be happy to wait for a table with others, and go back to the entrance.

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We will never do My Time Dining again. We enjoy eating at a table with others and enjoy the conversation and meeting others. With my time dining they always put us by ourselves and never gave us an option. Plus I don't think the service is as good. We prefer early seating with a group. I wish they would do away with my time dining. "my time" suggest you can eat whenever you want but they always ask that you make reservations. You can just take a chance and wait in line but you never know how long you may have to wait. Even when we tried to make reservations they tell us the only time available is 8 pm. Not a fan of "my time"

 

I understand if you don't want to do it, but why get rid of it? Plenty of people obviously like it. We never had to wait, whether we had reservations or not, but we always went fairly early, and if my wife was running behind, we never made others wait for us.

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We will never do My Time Dining again. We enjoy eating at a table with others and enjoy the conversation and meeting others. With my time dining they always put us by ourselves and never gave us an option. Plus I don't think the service is as good. We prefer early seating with a group. I wish they would do away with my time dining. "my time" suggest you can eat whenever you want but they always ask that you make reservations. You can just take a chance and wait in line but you never know how long you may have to wait. Even when we tried to make reservations they tell us the only time available is 8 pm. Not a fan of "my time"

 

 

We NEVER would do TRADITIONAL. Would rather get room service. We don't eat by a clock at home thus we don't eat by a clock when we travel.

 

I tell host/hostess where we want to sit and if we would enjoy eating with others. As Bob said, you tell them what you want. Don't ever let them make the decision of where or with whom you eat your meals. We also do not enjoy eating near a service station where they are banging dishes, thus refuse those tables. I intend to enjoy my dining experience as much as possible. Speak up and be pro active.

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We have found that we LOVE eating alone! We talk to so many people during the day as we are very outgoing and get to know so many people on a cruise. So for dinner, we enjoy just being on our time schedule, talking about the day, talking about the next day, etc. If people are sitting next to us we may chat a bit, but we really enjoy just having dinner alone.

 

Makes the dinner much shorter, we are usually in/out within a hour to an hour and one-half. So for us MTD works fantastic.

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We will never do My Time Dining again. We enjoy eating at a table with others and enjoy the conversation and meeting others. With my time dining they always put us by ourselves and never gave us an option. Plus I don't think the service is as good. We prefer early seating with a group. I wish they would do away with my time dining. "my time" suggest you can eat whenever you want but they always ask that you make reservations. You can just take a chance and wait in line but you never know how long you may have to wait. Even when we tried to make reservations they tell us the only time available is 8 pm. Not a fan of "my time"

 

Sounds like early traditional is definitely for you. Not a big deal. Enjoy.

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I understand if you don't want to do it, but why get rid of it? Plenty of people obviously like it. We never had to wait, whether we had reservations or not....

 

Like you, we prefer MTD and find it works well for us. Early MDR is too early for us, and when we have done late MDR, we find we are often just killing time after the theatre show, waiting for it to be dinner time.

 

Typically we make reservations pre-cruise for MTD 8pm each night ( to be just after the early show time), mainly to be able to go to the 'Have a Reservation' table, and then turn up around that time each night. Rarely have to wait, usually have a table for 2, and if we enjoy our wait-staff that first night, normally get the same table, or section at least, each night.

 

Long live MTD!!!

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Another traditional main dining room fan. My mother and I sat with 2 other couples and we hit it off so much that we still keep in touch via FB. We even beach trips together : ) It took my mother a long time to get ready for dinner so some of the table would meet me in the bar for a drink first.

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I think MTD works well for people who want to eat alone, at a table for two. If you want to share, you may end up sitting a while by yourselves waiting for another group to join you. Sort of like being picked last on the team in gym class...who wants to go through high school again?:D

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Thans for the replies. Interesting that many posters’ replies were not to my original question but instead to how much they like to be seated alone. Different strokes for different folks is fine. However i was interested in finding out if it is still somewhat difficult to be with others when asking to share. From the responses, it still is. Interesting that it is easy on Princess as your choice is more essily honored either way. Of course its nice to dine at whatever time we happen to want on any given day. Yet my time doesnt always work out as hoped. The only reason we were considering it this time was due to show time scheduling. Guess we will stick with late seating and make other arrangements the one night a show will interfere with that. Thanks again!

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Thans for the replies. Interesting that many posters’ replies were not to my original question but instead to how much they like to be seated alone. Different strokes for different folks is fine. However i was interested in finding out if it is still somewhat difficult to be with others when asking to share. From the responses, it still is. Interesting that it is easy on Princess as your choice is more essily honored either way. Of course its nice to dine at whatever time we happen to want on any given day. Yet my time doesnt always work out as hoped. The only reason we were considering it this time was due to show time scheduling. Guess we will stick with late seating and make other arrangements the one night a show will interfere with that. Thanks again!

 

They will be happy to accommodate, but unless somebody else wants to, it may take quite some.

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I, too, have enjoyed MTD on Princess better than on RCCL. What might be a good idea for you is on the first night in particular, since the lines are generally long, strike up a conversation with the people around you. It willquickly become apparent if they are people you'd enjoy dining with and then when you get close to the front, ask if they'd like to share a table with you. Often larger parties are seated faster.

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unless we make friends outside of dinner and meet for dinner, we typically (adult and two kids) get seated by ourselves. We are MTD people all the way. I would have no objection to eating with others, as i am very social, but i wouldnt want to wait for them to get there. If they had an 8 top and sat us all at once, i would be ok with that. As it is, I tend to make friends with the tables around me anyway.

 

we are from the club med background, where they only had 8 tops and you were always eating with other guests and GO's - made some very good friends back then.

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WE started cruising with NCL quite a while ago when they first introduced Free Style dining. Since then, just about every other cruise line adopted it and they all do something along the same line. I would NEVER have it any other way. Not since my time in the service, 50 years ago, when I was told when I had to eat, sleep and pee, would anyone ever tell me I had to eat at 6;00 or else don't eat there. Phooey.

Now to answer the OP's question. We have only sailed RCI twice, once a month or so ago on a TA. We usually go to dinner about 7ish and every night they asked if we want to share a table. Usually, if you want to eat alone, you have a better chance of having to wait. If you are willing to share you are usually taken right away. I understand people have been relaying their experiences, but never were we seated at a table for 2 after we told them we wanted to share a table. If that happened, I would speak to the maître D' about it.

If others want to be forced to eat at the exact same time every nite, good for them, it just doesn't work for us. We met so many interesting people, from all over the world, so every nite is an adventure.

Cheers

Len

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Len, I WISH they would ask everyone if they'd like to share a table on ALL RCCL ships every night. Things vary a bit from ship to ship even w/in the same line. Might have something to do w/who is the capt, or who is in charge of the dining rooms, perhaps. Like you mentioned, people have reported their experience and the opinion leader so far is that it's likely a bit more difficult to dine with others in RCCL's my time dining rooms. At any rate, I can't say we've ever felt forced to dine at a certain time. There are always alternatives.

 

We've sailed RCCL over twice as much as Princess and will likely continue to, but ideally the plan I'd like best would be to skip over to my time dining on nights it suited us. We did do that on Princess. Dined with another couple from our roll call twice, but most nights reported to 2nd seating. I can see it might present problems for the dining rooms, but then people skip their assigned seating time any time they want to go to an alternative restaurant or eat at the dinner buffet, so I don't see what the big issue would be in doing that. (Although I am sure there likely is one.)

 

mary_228's idea is good, however those times we were in line for my time dining it did seem like most people were couples, groups of friends, or family groups, which kind of narrowed the field. Guess we just hit it at an unlucky time.

 

Thanks for the input.

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Len, I WISH they would ask everyone if they'd like to share a table on ALL RCCL ships every night. Things vary a bit from ship to ship even w/in the same line. Might have something to do w/who is the capt, or who is in charge of the dining rooms, perhaps. Like you mentioned, people have reported their experience and the opinion leader so far is that it's likely a bit more difficult to dine with others in RCCL's my time dining rooms. At any rate, I can't say we've ever felt forced to dine at a certain time. There are always alternatives.

 

We've sailed RCCL over twice as much as Princess and will likely continue to, but ideally the plan I'd like best would be to skip over to my time dining on nights it suited us. We did do that on Princess. Dined with another couple from our roll call twice, but most nights reported to 2nd seating. I can see it might present problems for the dining rooms, but then people skip their assigned seating time any time they want to go to an alternative restaurant or eat at the dinner buffet, so I don't see what the big issue would be in doing that. (Although I am sure there likely is one.)

 

mary_228's idea is good, however those times we were in line for my time dining it did seem like most people were couples, groups of friends, or family groups, which kind of narrowed the field. Guess we just hit it at an unlucky time.

 

Thanks for the input.

I think it depends when you go. If you go early, which we almost always did on our last cruise, we were never asked, but went later (7) once and was asked.

 

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