Meal Times

[court1683]

We will be embarking on our honeymoon 10/10/10 on the Liberty of Seas and I had a few questions regarding dinner times.

-We have a seating reservation for 6PM, but I feel like that may be too early...does anyone have any other suggestions as to what is the best time.

-Are the formal nights each cruise? If so which nights are the formal nights on the Liberty of the Seas?

Thanks, I look forward to your responses.

 

-The Future Mrs.

[Langley Cruisers]

Congratulations on your upcoming wedding and honeymoon. :)

 

You may choose "My Time Dining", which means you can have dinner at the time you choose to, and it can even be at a different time each night. Or you can make a "standing reservation" for a specific time each night, since you feeo 6 pm is too early. The thing with MTD is that your tips must be prepaid; they will be added to your final bill before you leave home.

 

And on a 7 night cruise, you will have two Formal Nights; these are usually the second and fifth or sixth nights, but it is subject to change and itinerary. It is not always a sea day (I can tell you this from experience), but it tends to be.

 

Have fun. Liberty is a great ship. :)

[matj2000]

Do the 8:30 dining. Usually the 6:00 are for all the older people..

[njmomof2]

We had 6 PM dining and we are a family with kids...I think you see a lot of that at the early seating, rather than "old" people. The kids want to get to the evening kids activities.

 

I also recommend you try My Time Dining. If it were not for the kids, we'd do that no problem. I don't like eating at 6 PM...prefer between 6:30 and 7.

 

You can do a standing reservation and if you like a particular wait team, can ask for them if possible your entire cruise.

 

Congratulations on your upcoming wedding.

[galavant3]

Congratulations!!

 

We prefer the late seating. We don't want to be rushed when we return from port and we love sunset on the pool deck. The band is usually playing and it is less crowded.

 

I do think the older passengers and families with young children prefer the early seating.

 

For your itinerary, I think formal nights are 2 and 5.

[Queen of Oakville]

When we cruise with kids; we take early seating. When we cruise on our own we take the late seating.

 

I prefer the late seating as we are not "rushed" to get to dinner. With late seating you have the opporutinity to partake in high tea (do they still do that?) afternoon snacks, pre-dinner drinks etc. We don't retire early so we have plenty of time to enjoy the evening.

 

One of my favourite things about fixed seating (which you wont' get with MTD unless it is specifically requested) is that you get to meet and dine with the same people. On our very first crusie (3nt on Sovereign) we were seated at a table of 4 and made lasting friends. We get in touch a few times each year via mail or email, and have met twice visiting each other's cities.

[cb at sea]

Whichever you choose, you will not have to "rush"...you will have ample time to get ready for dinner...all day long, in fact!

We prefer late seating since we eat late at home, and a large table, because we LOVE having tablemates....they just make dinner sooooo much more fun, than just sitting there, eating! Conversation, laughter and good talk....the waiters seem to prefer the larger, fun tables, too!

[RetireeWannabee]

I'm a fan of open seating as it's simply more convenient for us to have dinner when we're hungry. Maybe that's at 6 one night and 8 another. Doesn't matter.

[karena1]

My opinion - do MYTIME! We love it. We always get a table for 2, we go eat when we feel like it, we always have the same waitstaff. It is absolutely the best thing they have come out with.

 

We thought we would miss the "big" table, meeting other people, but not in the least. We meet so many people on the ship anyway. MyTime gives us a chance to be alone, talk about the day, etc. Best part, is going to eat when we feel like it, not at a schedule time.

[court1683]

We just switched our time to 8:30PM. Thanks for all of your responses.

[Tomahaha]

Let me take the opposite side of this, My wife and I much prefer the 6PM dining time. We enjoy assigned dining times as you get to meet new people and get to know them over the cruise. The my time diners were always lined up waiting for a table each night as well. If I had to wait until 9pm to eat, good lord, I would be so damned hungry no doubt I would have ended up going to the lido deck food and ruined my appetite/ate too much. And by the time you are done eating, it's LATE. Another reason, I prefer my meal and then a show. If you have the later time, then it's show first and that just seems odd to me and I would (again) be hungry while watching the show. Oh, and "My time" dining doesn't fit real well with the shows either. I say go for 6PM, no question about it! Oh, our table, while not "young" wasn't all that old all of us around 40-50 Yes many of the families with youngsters were at this time and plenty of older people as well but hardly noticeable.

[5thR]

I have to agree with Tomahaha -- I am in my late 30's and I prefer the early dining. We ususally do active excursions while in port, and frankly I get worn out. We eat an early dinner, go to the early show, stop for a drink or two and then off to bed at a reasonable time so we can get up early, get off the ship, and start all over again. If we had to wait around until 8:30 for dinner, we would probably fall asleep and miss it all together :)