How would you improve MTD?

[LeesSummitCruiser1]

My family generally dislikes the concept of my time dinning. To us it feels to much like going to a local resturant. While the service is a little better it feels to much like Applebees at sea. We like the late regular dinner. We hope that MTD does not become so popular that RCI switches like NCL to only MTD. Especially on our med cruise the people we met at the late dinner were so wonderful we stayed and talked until they asked us to leave and I dont think you could have that freedom in MTD watching the line of people waiting for a seat. Traditional seating forces you to meet people that you would not otherwise and to us this is one of the most important benefits of cruising. In MTD even if your table mates are great, you have an hour the first night to figure out if you want to ask to dine togeather for the rest of the cruise, with traditional dinning you dont have to do this assessment and asking, the decision is made for you.

[lakette3]

We had MTD on last two cruises and loved it. We never had to wait. While we told them each night what time we would be there the following night, we also had an extension to call if we wanted to change it. We had a window each time and same team.

 

We are booked on the Enchantment this October and hopefully we will have the same experience. However, while I booked MTD for Oasis, I am going to wait for reviews to see how it works with a lot more people on the ship as a lot more people wanting to try it.

[lappy22]

To improve MTD I would-

 

-send a few employees from Royal Caribbean to board a Princess or Carnival ship to see how it should be done.

 

-staff the MTD front desk with more then one person. There should be someone planted at the front desk taking names and answering the phone. One or two seaters were needed to get parties in faster and not overload the waiters with 4-5 tables all seated at once.

 

-add a Maitre d' just for MTD. On our last Carnival cruise, their anytime dining only took up 1/3 of the dining room, but they had a Maitre d' just for that side. He would greet and seat passengers, ask us each night how dinner was, and even saw him help clean a couple tables. The lack of a Maitre d' for MTD on RCCL showed as the service each night was very inconsistent and poor.

 

-do a better job of seperating the MTD from the traditional passengers.

 

I sure have read alot on these boards about making reservations and everything will be great. I don't remember if Princess or Carnival took a standing reservation because we didn't ask. Having a reservation should not get you better service and I think it defeats the purpose of My Time Dining. According to Royal Caribbean, "Guest choosing My Time Dining will not have a preassigned table, but will be seated in the main dining room; order from the same-dinner menu: and enjoy the same impeccable Gold Anchor Service."

 

I would hate to see what their Silver Anchor Service is.

[OV8]

 

-add a Maitre d' just for MTD. On our last Carnival cruise, their anytime dining only took up 1/3 of the dining room, but they had a Maitre d' just for that side. He would greet and seat passengers, ask us each night how dinner was, and even saw him help clean a couple tables. The lack of a Maitre d' for MTD on RCCL showed as the service each night was very inconsistent and poor.

 

To counter this gross broad generalization - on my recent FOS MTD experience, there WAS a MD for just MTD guests AND the person did all the above.

 

If anything, RCL's procedures need to be standardize up & down the line.

As is the case of ice show tickets it seems they sometimes do it & other times don't.

 

Consistency is the key because the components are there already.

[lappy22]

To counter this gross broad generalization - on my recent FOS MTD experience, there WAS a MD for just MTD guests AND the person did all the above.

 

If anything, RCL's procedures need to be standardize up & down the line.

As is the case of ice show tickets it seems they sometimes do it & other times don't.

 

Consistency is the key because the components are there already.

 

Well if the Mariner had one, he was not in the dining room. And it really showed!!!!

[Karroons]

So far on AOS, no issues. First night (9/13), we had to make a reservation and were seated immediately when we showed up at the dining room. Second night, we just showed up (that was the proces to follow) and were immediately shown a table. So two nights so far for dining on AOS and no issues. We are keeping our fingers crossed that this pattern continues for the week. We'll see.

 

Karen

 

P.S. Great ship.

[Driftwoodgal]

Lappy22,

 

Sorry you didn't have a MD on your sailing for your area. We did our 14 night Serendade cruise in May. He did check with our table each and every night. I know what you are talking about having a MD missing in action. We had one on the Brilliance regular dining that was the pits. Hopefully they are getting more consistant on the ships.

[missygirl]

Call it what it is "My Reservations Dining" advertise it a such and sell it as such............

 

We are back on Monarch...upon checking in we were told that so many had chosen MTD and that we needed to set a time at Claude's dining room...so we did and they suggested to do it for the entire cruise. We did but not my idea of MTD but whatever...I felt like it was the same as traditional dining because they put us with the same waiters every night.

 

We recently cruised on Princess and MTD was exactly MTD. We arrived when we wanted and if we had to wait it was never more than 20 mins....I really liked it since we were in Alaska and it stays light for so long and were able to arrive later.

 

Missygirl

[BroncosFan2010]

I have not tried MTD yet, but am considering it for our next cruise. I don't really like the idea that we have to pre-pay all gratuities. I think it would be great if we could only pre-pay the dining room gratuities and leave the others up to us. We always tip very generously, but if we were to run into problems with service, we would want to avoid the hassle of having the amounts changed.

[swmichigan cruiser]

We have done have MTD 4 times so far. Twice on the Freedom and it was excellent both times. Once on the Jewel and it was bad and once on Liberty and it was fine. Realizing even people on the same cruise may have different opinions so take this with a grain of salt. In my opinion the area for MTD was to small on the Jewel. The tables for two were so close to each other I think if I dropped my fork it would never hit the ground just land on the table beside us. The service was the worse we have ever had on any ship and maybe having the area so confining it effected the service. So in my opinion make the area larger or reduce the number of people that can use MTD.