My time dining ??

[peisahm]

Has anyone sailed RCCL and used the My Time Dining? Just wondering if you actually have to make a daily reservation or can you really go on 'my time' whenever you wish?

[Randijo]

Reservations are not required, but are recommended.

[negc]

Has anyone sailed RCCL and used the My Time Dining? Just wondering if you actually have to make a daily reservation or can you really go on 'my time' whenever you wish?

 

We have done both -just showed up more often than made reservations -and they both seemed to work equally well. Having a reservation may make you feel a bit more confident especially if your evening schedule is such that you don't want to experience any delay when arriving in the dining room, but we never experienced any significant wait even when we chose to eat at what many would consider a popular time. :)

[akcruz]

Tends to depend on this ship which way you need to go. We did MTD on Freedom and never made a reservation and was always seated promptly. We then did MTD on Mariner and they STRONGLY suggested reservations. We did end up making a standing reservation and had no issues. Those without seemed to have to wait a bit. Have heard on some other ships you really need them.

[libertylover]

I'm pretty certain you can make your reservations online prior to boarding.

[spammie]

I thought the idea of My Time Dining was so you didn't have to make a reservation. We did MTD on Indy in March and LOVED it. We never made a reservation. We just walked up like you do at a land based restaurant and we were seated immediately. We ate anywhere between 6:45pm and 8:00pm. We loved not being on a "feeding schedule" and just showing up when we were done our pre-dinner cocktails. Have a great cruise!

[cannonball]

Does anyone know how far in advance online reservations open up? Thanks.

[Mysticks1]

Does anyone know how far in advance online reservations open up? Thanks.

 

I was told by an RCI customer service rep that it is approximately 6 months before your cruise date.

[negc]

I thought the idea of My Time Dining was so you didn't have to make a reservation. We did MTD on Indy in March and LOVED it. We never made a reservation. We just walked up like you do at a land based restaurant and we were seated immediately. We ate anywhere between 6:45pm and 8:00pm. We loved not being on a "feeding schedule" and just showing up when we were done our pre-dinner cocktails. Have a great cruise!

The idea is to allow you total flexibility to choose the time you want to dine and you can do so either by reserving specific times (either the same time or a different time) for each evening, or by just showing up. We have used both methods but more often than not we have just shown up. Never have we experienced a wait of more than a minute or two. The absence of beepers would seem to indicate that our experience is fairly typical.:)

[orville99]

Has anyone sailed RCCL and used the My Time Dining? Just wondering if you actually have to make a daily reservation or can you really go on 'my time' whenever you wish?

 

 

Just got off the FOS and tried MTD for the first time. Absolutely loved it. We pre-made reservations on line for 7:30 each night, just to lock in a table, but once we got on the ship, we were able to change any night's time to a different time if we wanted. Good thing about a standing reservation - we always got the same table and waitstaff. Good thing about the 7:30 time slot - most nights we showed up 10-15 minutes early and got seated immediately (there's no 7PM time slot). even better was that we were done eating - at a liesurely pace, BTW - and out by 8:30 each night, so we could catch the second shows (the ones for the 6PM seating folks) instead of having to do the shows before dinner.

[peisahm]

Thanks everyone for the helpful information.

[cakesnjammom]

sailing FOS in 2011 what time are the shows?

[lady_cruiser]

We used it on our last Royal Caribbean cruise and loved it. While it isn't required that you let them know every day what time you will be eating it is encouraged. We eat at the same time every night, whether on a cruise ship or at home so we had no problem with letting everyone know that we would be showing up at a certain time. And if you are running 10 or 15 minutes late I am sure they understand.

[marci22]

You can book online, I just did it for a July cruise, but 7pm to 7:30pm was blocked out. I could request 6:45pm (and earlier) and 7:45pm (and later)but nothing in between.

[deej696]

We just booked the Radiance for December and were considering My Time Dining. My question is, do you still get paired with other people, or are the tables done by party size? Its just my wife and I, and we just had a 2 top on Carnival and it was nice...

[negc]

We just booked the Radiance for December and were considering My Time Dining. My question is, do you still get paired with other people, or are the tables done by party size? Its just my wife and I, and we just had a 2 top on Carnival and it was nice...

 

You and your wife can request a table for two or you can ask to sit with others. We did some of each in March on Navigator and it worked out quite well. You can even request that you have the same servers for the entire cruise and they will try their best to accommodate you. :)

[VioletF]

Be prepared to pay $9.75 per person per day to exercise the My Time dining option. I didn't read the fine print and wasn't very happy to find out that I was paying for it. Especially considering we were paying it for our 6 month old who doesn't even eat adult food. We went in April and they asked us to give them a time and to call them that day if we needed to change the time. It was a convenient option but you will pay extra for it.

[amyphil]

What ship were you on where you had to pay extra for MTD? We're going on the FOS, in July, and when I made a reservation for our first night, the RC agent never mentioned anything about this.

I haven't heard about this from other MTD posters....

Amy

[InsideCruiser]

$9.75/pp prepays your gratuities to the wait staff and cabin stewards.

 

Prepaid gratuities are mandatory if you want to choose My Time Dining.

[negc]

Be prepared to pay $9.75 per person per day to exercise the My Time dining option. I didn't read the fine print and wasn't very happy to find out that I was paying for it. Especially considering we were paying it for our 6 month old who doesn't even eat adult food. We went in April and they asked us to give them a time and to call them that day if we needed to change the time. It was a convenient option but you will pay extra for it.

 

The $9.75 per day represented your tips both for your room steward and your dining room wait staff. It was exactly the same amount that you would have paid if you took traditional dining and followed the tipping guidelines. You didn't pay extra for it.:rolleyes:

RCI requires you to pay the gratuities up front because you may not have the same wait staff every evening so to insure that the staff get treated fairly, the tips from MTD diners are pooled and distributed in the proper proportions to the wait staff who are assigned to My Time Dining. If you bothered to investigate things more carefully you would have understood that and unless you otherwise would have stiffed your wait staff and your room steward you would have paid exactly the same daily amount whether you took MTD or traditional dining. The suggested tip amounts are for all guests, including your 6 month old. Whether or not thesh ould be less for infants is a different matter and can be debated, but you should get your facts straight before you post.:rolleyes:

[amyphil]

Thanks guys, for the clarification concerning MTD. I almost had a heart attack when I read that we had to pay extra. Yes, we paid our tips in advance. I should have realized that it was for tips when I saw the figure $9.75. I'm happy to pay in advance, one more thing I don't have to worry about. Of course, additional tips will be in order for good service.

Thanks again,

Amy

[househunter]

Be prepared to pay $9.75 per person per day to exercise the My Time dining option. I didn't read the fine print and wasn't very happy to find out that I was paying for it. Especially considering we were paying it for our 6 month old who doesn't even eat adult food. We went in April and they asked us to give them a time and to call them that day if we needed to change the time. It was a convenient option but you will pay extra for it.

 

You are not paying for MTD. You are just pre-paying for all of your tips.

[orville99]

You can book online, I just did it for a July cruise, but 7pm to 7:30pm was blocked out. I could request 6:45pm (and earlier) and 7:45pm (and later)but nothing in between.

 

 

They use the time between 7-7:30 to reset the MDR and get it ready for the second seating. It can get a little noisy so they shut down to avoid annoying dinner guests. The MTD slots re-open at 7:30, but we usually got there 10-15 minutes early and they never balked at seating us.

[orville99]

sailing FOS in 2011 what time are the shows?

 

 

Second show is at 9PM. I think the first show is at 7.

[Nebr.cruiser]

We used MTD on our recent Navigator cruise and really liked it. We never made a reservation, just showed up when we were ready, usually around 8, give or take a few minutes. We were always seated within a minute or so.

 

Apparently there weren't many (we heard 260 or so) MT diners, so we often got the same waiters and ate with many of the same people. We could also have a table for two whenever we wanted it. It was great to get to know the waiters much like in traditional dining, and to get to know other cruisers better as well.

 

The service was superb, much better than similar programs on other ships--probably because of the few MT diners.

 

On our ship the show times varied from night to night, so don't count on always having the shows at the same time.