My time dining ??

[CMM]

Do they have a beeper system or waiting area on the EOS?

[orville99]

Do they have a beeper system or waiting area on the EOS?

 

Never had to wait more than 5 minutes. People just congregate in the MTD lobby.

 

Some really impressive efficiency "tricks" on FOS: All the MTD waitstaff have cell phones linked to the Maitre' D's podium, so as soon as a table's reset, it can be filled without any lag. When a MTD guest arrives, Maitre' D books them in on the computer, which flags the head waiter to come to the front and escort them to their table. Very smooth operation.:)

[negc]

Do they have a beeper system or waiting area on the EOS?

Can't speak directly about EOS (Enchantment, Explorer?) but I have never seen beepers in MTD, unlike on Princess, and have never had a wait of more than a couple of minutes. There are a few chairs near the podium at the entrance to the MTD section that I guess might qualify as a waiting area. Even when we chose to dine at peak times and arrived without making reservations, we were seated and served promptly.:)

[negc]

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

Sometimes the first show is at 9 and the second at 10:30 or 10:45. Be sure to check your daily Cruise Compass for the correct times each day.:)

[katiel53]

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.

 

What you paid was the tip for the cruise. If you tipped the minimum amount, it would be the same for MTD as dining in the MDR. The difference is that you prepay your tips with MTD. Tips for children/babies/adults are all the same amount. So, unless you didn't plan to tip the daily suggested amount, you weren't charged anything for using MTD.

 

We were on Freedom in April and had tried to get 7PM reservations, but as mentioned previously, none were available, so we decided on 7:30. We made them in advance. When we went to the dining room the first night, we had to wait a while. I was ok with that. The next night there was another group of 5 ahead of us and they were seated immediately (no reservation as I heard the woman tell the hostess.) We were told we had to wait for a table for 5 (really a 6 top as there are no tables for 5).

 

I asked the hostess what was the point of having reservations if someone with no reservations was able to be seated and we had reservations and had to wait. I told her that we were told by Royal Caribbean to make reservations and we followed instructions. She said that was the way things were and if we would like to speak to the MTD manager, she would be to have him come talk to us. I told her it wasn't necessary, but thanks.

 

A few minutes later we were seated and the manager came to our table. I re-asked my question about reservations vs non-reservations and explained that we had wanted 7PM and weren't able to get those reservations, so thought we would have a table nightly at 7:30. He said he agreed that those with reservations should be seated at the time of the reservation and asked if we could go nightly at 6:45PM. We told him we could so he said he was arranging for us to have the same table nightly at 6:45. We thanked him and expected to be at dinner for 6:45PM.

 

As we were leaving the dining room, the hostess stopped us and said I know you would like 7PM so I will have your table ready for 7PM nightly. We thanked her and left. The next night we stood in line to get to the hostess and when we got to her, she then told us it was NOT necessary for us to stand in line, just go to "our" table. I was shocked! The rest of the week we just went to dinner at 7PM.

 

I'm sure we were given this arrangement because of my chat with the dining room manager. We were totally pleased of course and when we did the comment card we gave him and her high praises. He also came to our table nightly!! I wish he were one to be tipped, as we would have tipped him a good amount.

 

Our headwaiter only came around to our area of the MTD room once in the whole week and I really believe it was because of the pre-pay for MTD as we heard people sitting near us asking who the headwaiter was that they had to tip. Several people asked our waiter on the last night who he was also. He never showed up the last night.