RCL: My Time Dining vs First Seating

[chiguypaul]

I have a 4 and 8 year old son. Trying to figure out if it would be better to go with MTD vs First Seating. Seems like it would be nice to have MTD for the flexibility. Would appreciate any thoughts.

[cb at sea]

If they will be partaking of AO in the evening, then main seating will work just fine....everything is scheduled around the 2 traditional seating times. Shows, activities....

If you do MTD, you'll still be eating at about the same time as traditional if you want to see shows or take the kids to AO.

[crusinmama06]

There is also My Time Family Dining where the AO counselors come and pick the kids up at the main dining room. I haven't tried that one, but I am just throwing out another option. ;)

[crzgrl66]

There is also My Time Family Dining where the AO counselors come and pick the kids up at the main dining room. I haven't tried that one, but I am just throwing out another option. ;)

 

We just did the My Time Family Dining on LOS in July and it didn't work out. You have to choose traditional dining early seating in order to sign your children up. The way that it is supposed to work, is that you have dinner at 6:00. At 6:40 the AO counselors pick up the children at the entrance to the dining room and take them to the AO club. Unfortunately for us, our children's food never arrived until 6:30 and 10 minutes to eat was not enough.

[bluesharpie]

Just wanted to add that even though we didn't sign up for My family time dining, our kids dinners were handled that way. By the second night, our kids appetizers were set down right after we arrived and their entrees came with our appetizers. Our waiter did a fantastic job of getting our orders in quickly and if we skipped dessert, we were done most nights by 7 or 7:15. That said, we had a table for 4 so we didn't have to worry about other tablemates who might not want to be rushed.

[harryfat1]

We booked our December cruise on the Mariner of the Seas back in June and the main seating was already full and we were wait listed. We wanted main seating as our two boys (ages 6 and 8 at the time) were falling asleep eating the late seating on Celebrity cruise last year when they were serving desserts at 10:15.

 

After two months of being wait listed and reading on the board s that my time dining (MTD) could be closed as well due to overwhelming demand, I switched over to MTD. Then I went online to book the 6:15 dinner for all 7 nights. From what I understand based on various posts, once you board the ship, you can request the same table/same wait staff if you have the similar time every night. Effectively we have mimic the main dining in terms of schedule.

 

One advantage I see in MTD is on several nights, we may want to dine later, e.g. may need more time to be ready for the two formal nights as well or trying to catch the early ice show at 5. On those nights, we may change the dining time to 7 instead. So having MTD gives you the flexibility you may need with kids.

 

One final quirk about RCI’s MTD is that you will prepay your tips at time of final payment prior to your sailing. RCI does not automatically add the tips to your ship board account at the end of the cruise, so if you have the traditional dining, you will either request that they charge to your shipboard account once you board or tip everyone in cash on the last day.