My Time Dining vs Traditional

[piggybabymcpig]

We are booked for MTD on Allure of the seas - I have noticed that gratuities are to be added - is this the same for Traditional dining? Also we have already prepaid gratuities so how does this work?

[Cruising89143]

With MTD you must pre pay your gratuities up front. If you choose traditional dining, then you will receive envelopes in your cabin to tip your room steward and wait staff with cash. Since you have pre paid your gratuities, you will receive vouchers in your cabin the on last day to pass out to your room steward and wait staff.

[CRUISING FROM SC]

We just had to change from Allure in June to Allure in April due to our first grandchild being due to arrive. :D Of course we are very excited, but also a little sad as this was to be a family trip with both our sons and daughter in law. Now it is just DH and myself. We usually do early seating for dining, but that is not available so I have gone in and schedule us for MTD at 6:15 every night. Is this going to be a big difference from what we are accustomed to - wait time, interaction with wait staff, etc.?

[waterbug123]

We usually do early seating for dining, but that is not available so I have gone in and schedule us for MTD at 6:15 every night. Is this going to be a big difference from what we are accustomed to - wait time, interaction with wait staff, etc.?

 

Since you have a reservation for each night, you should not have to wait. You can ask for the same table and/or same wait staff each night and your request will be accommodated if possible, but don't count on it. Unless your reservation each night is specifically for a table for two, your dining companions will likely change from night to night as well.

[dougp26364]

We've done MTD twice now and really enjoy it. It's the most flexable way and, with all the shows et... on Allure, you'll really want the flexablity.

 

Our first time with MTD was on Voyager in the Med. We typically made reservations depending on our itenary and sat at a different table every night with different wait staff most nights. On our second go round with MTD on Allure, we never made reservations and just went to the MDR when it was convenient based on the entertainment plans we had that night. By about the 3rd night we had made friends with another couple and sat with them every night but, there were also different couple seated with us. The wait staff was pretty much the same for us every night as we settled in to an early dining time of 5:30. One night we were seated at a table for 2 which worked well because we needed service speeded up a bit so we could make a show time.

 

RCI is pretty flexable with MTD and they do a good job of crafting it to meet your needs. If you want to sit with the same group every night, that might not be possible unless everyone agrees to show up approx. the same time. If you want to sit by yourself you might have to wait a little while for a table for two to open up depending upon what time you show up for dinner. You can show up early or show up late. You can tell them you need service speeded up to make a show or, you can tell them you want to linger a little bit. You can ask to be seated with large groups or small groups. You can tell them you want to be seated with a group that will be served at the same time or, you can tell them you don't care and your table mates might be on their main course when you're seated. Really it's EXTREMELY flexable.

 

We sometimes miss sitting with the same group and having the same wait staff but, on Oasis or Allure, there are just so many things to do that having the option to vary your dining time helps a lot when there's so much to do in only 7 nights. I doubt that we'd ever consider traditional dining times on one of these ships unless we were going to spend more time in the other dining venues than in the MDR.

 

This time around, we plan on taking 3 out of 7 dinners in alternate venues. We'll still go with MTD as we prefer an ultra early dining time around 5:30 so that we have the rest of the night to ourselves. We'll base our dining time around the showtimes we've choosen. It works out great for us.

[kevink]

I'm considering MTD for my upcoming Allure cruise because 70 days out we are still waitlisted for early seating, and I can't handle eating as late as the late seating.

 

We are a family of three and I don't like sitting at a large table, dinner is "family time" for us. Do they have tables for 3-4 available for MTD? Someone mentioned they have some tables for two.

[Yvie]

Yes, there are tables that seat 4 people for MTD. We are a family of three and were seated at a table for 4. I did not choose times for MTD prior to boarding, so the first day we planned to eat in the dining room, I called to make a reservation time and they told me we could just come when we were ready, that I didn't have to call and reserve a time each day. We only had to wait a few minutes before being seated. We ended up eating in the dining room only once during our cruise though. There were a lot of other options we wanted to try.

[compman9]

My Time Dining is an excellent concept. Sadly it didn't work on the Allure

 

We made all our timed reservations prior to departure, but every day we were simply in a great long line of people

 

When you do get in, the staff are under incredible pressure and it's all a bit of a mess really. You won't get the same waiter twice, and it's not pleasant to see how hard they have to work. The wait times for food or service were too long and the food came cold twice.

 

I am sure they will sort it out, but it was the seventh week, so I would have hoped they had ironed out the problems by now

[irun5k]

It seems backwards to me, if anything, that MTD has prepaid tips and traditional does not.

 

Maybe I'm looking at it the wrong way but with the number of alternate venues on board, it seems like many folks might eat in the MDR less and less. If I knew there was a chance I'd only eat in the MDR once, I'd probably do MTD over traditional. Traditional seems more geared toward folks that will be warming a chair in the MDR almost every evening.

 

Of course, I'm also unclear on how the gratuity works these days. Do tips get split among all the dining establishments onboard or just the MDR?

[compman9]

I think there are just three places to eat dinner that are not paid for:

Dining Room

Sorrento's Pizza

Windjammer

[setsail]

http://www.creative.rccl.com/Sales/Royal/General_Info/Flyers/10020614_Allure_Specialty_Restaurant_Flyer.pdf

[compman9]

setsail...

I have just read that list and it is not true. The Park Cafe Shuts at 6pm and none of the eateries on the Boardwalk are open past this time either

 

The three places I listed are the only ones open for dinner that you do not have to pay for

[setsail]

Interesting, thanks for the input. I think they should post the times also. How about the wipeout cafe? And, I am assuming room service is still open for dinner.

[RaiderFaninNM]

setsail...

I have just read that list and it is not true. The Park Cafe Shuts at 6pm and none of the eateries on the Boardwalk are open past this time either

 

The three places I listed are the only ones open for dinner that you do not have to pay for

 

WOW, with this big of a ship and thats it after 6??? :confused: :eek:

[compman9]

Yes, it is isn't great, as you will see from my review, this is the nearest a cruise line has got to charging for everything on board. The 'free' dining options were the worst of any cruise ship I have been on by a very very long way

[Yvie]

Interesting, thanks for the input. I think they should post the times also. How about the wipeout cafe? And, I am assuming room service is still open for dinner.

 

As the other poster said, that list is not accurate. The Dining Room, Windjammer, and Sorrento's Pizza are open. Room service is available and the Boardwalk Dog House was open until 7 p.m. the first day, otherwise it was closed at 6 p.m. Cafe Promenade is open 24 hours, but I never went there in the evening - my guess would be it offers the same small sandwiches they offer at lunch and during the afternoon.

 

Our one experience in the dining room wasn't that great.

 

The Wipeout Cafe was usually open from 11:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m. but from 12:30 - 1:30 it was reserved for Kid's Lunch. It wasn't open at all the days we were in St. Thomas and St. Martin (it wasn't listed in the Cruise Compass as being open).

[Mrs.setsail]

Thanks for posting this. I'm compiling a list of open times;will be fun to see how/if times change during the year. Do you have any feedback regarding venues you ate in?;)

[Yvie]

The best experience we had was at the Chef's Table; I described it in more detail on another thread here. All the food was delicious and perfectly prepared. I have only eaten duck once before, it is not something I would normally order off a menu given other choices, but I really liked it. I'm also not into wine as much as my husband is and generally don't like wines with a lot of tannins or acidity. All of the wines served were nicely balanced and I enjoyed them all.

 

We also had a good experience at chops. I had the filet, my son had the strip steak, and my husband had the ribeye. They were all prepared just as we ordered. The strip steak was especially flavorful I thought. The sides were also very good. One dish that stood out was the potato dish (similar to a gratin with cubed potatoes) with prosciutto, cream, and Parmesan cheese. I am going to try to replicate that dish at home. The dessert was very good.

 

We ate at Giovanni's Table twice. I really liked the fontina cheese and spinach souffle. The veal scaloppine and chicken stuffed with ricotta cheese were very good. We also had the crab ravioli. The Tiramisu was excellent.

 

Izumi was a good experience (very good sushi) with the exception of the hot rock option which I chose. It just doesn't work well in my opinion. Everyone else was finished with their meal by the time I was done cooking on the hot rock!

 

I wasn't all that impressed with Samba Grill. We have been to Brazilian steakhouses before and I thought some of the choices of meats a bit odd - pork link sausages, short ribs, and lamb with the bone in among them. I thought the buffet salad/side choices were just ok. It was not even half full of diners the night we went there.

 

The above are my subjective opinions. We do a lot of cooking at home and so are not as easily pleased as others might be.