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My Time Dining - Not Good

RedLightVegas

By RedLightVegas,
in Royal Caribbean International

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RedLightVegas

RedLightVegas

Posted
Posted

Just thought I'd throw in a quick tidbit of info on what happened with my experience on the my time dining. I just got off Navigator of the Seas on Feb 7th.

Booked the cruise 45 or so days out. Picked MTD, prepaid the gratuties. About 3 weeks before the cruise I got online and made a reservation for the MTD, 7pm, on all four nights of the cruise.

First night of the cruise we didn't go to the dining room because we were dead tired. Second night (formal night) we show up to the dining room, only to be told "No you're not on MyTime, you're on traditional, at the 6pm seating," (and here it is 7pm). So I showed my SeaPass card where it said MYTIME for the dining arrangement, and was directed to go to the first floor.

Down we go, I have no table #. I only know I'm at the 6pm dining. We stand there for probably 15 minutes before the Matire'D walks by, I address my issue with him and he says "Well, it's almost 7:30, you're on the 6pm dining, we have another seating at 8PM coming in, I'm not sure I can seat you. But hang on."

Out he searches then finds us a table for two and tells the waiters for the table to just "Take care of it."

So ...bam, bam, bam we we're rushed as fast as possible through our meal because there was someone assigned to the table we were at for the 8pm seating. We were in and out in less than 30 minutes. As we were eating the starters, they were taking our dinner order, as we ate dinner, they were taking a dessert order.

We didn't eat in the main dining room after this. We had no seat assignment, and no one knew what dining we were supposed to be on.

 

I go to the guest relations desk, they can't do anything because I've "pre paid" my gratuties and guest relations kept arguing that I was on MyTimeDining. They give me a card to call customer service when I get back.

This morning I finally called customer service and Royal Caribbean did refund three nights of gratuties for the cruise since we didn't eat in the MDR.

But I just wanted to throw a warning out there, MyTimeDining may be a nightmare.

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RedLightVegas

RedLightVegas

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We did have guest relations call the "MyTime" dining room and they said they had no idea what was going on, it just showed 6pm traditional for me. So then guest relations called the traditional dining room and the Matire'D wasn't there. Someone was supposed to get back with me. So the last night of the cruise around 4pm I go to inquire about eating in the main dining room that night and the lady pulls my reservation and says I'm on the 6pm dining, with no table assignment. She called the Maitre'D again, who was there this time, and he said so we could go down there at 6pm but they would sit us wherever they had room.

The whole thing just left a bad taste in my mouth so we ate at Johnny Rockets on the last night instead.

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Langley Cruisers

Langley Cruisers

Posted
Posted

So sorry to hear MTD was not all it should have been for you. Please let me just say that all MTD experiences are not like yours, and yours was not typical - it was the exception, not the rule. Our MTD experience on Mariner was absolutely superb. It is not a fleet-wide badly run program; it seems to vary from ship to ship. As stated, on Mariner it was wonderfully run, managed to perfection.

 

Again, I'm sorry your experience was not a good one. :(

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Alexis

Alexis

Posted
Posted
So sorry to hear MTD was not all it should have been for you. Please let me just say that all MTD experiences are not like yours, and yours was not typical - it was the exception, not the rule. Our MTD experience on Mariner was absolutely superb. It is not a fleet-wide badly run program; it seems to vary from ship to ship. As stated, on Mariner it was wonderfully run, managed to perfection.

 

Again, I'm sorry your experience was not a good one. :(

 

I agree with Langley Cruisers and her experience. That is what we had too.

We have had the MTD for the first time on the Adventure for our two week B2B cruises. We loved it.

We also booked it on the Mariner for our cruise on that ship. Again it was run perfect. It was run very smoothly each night and we found out that was our choice from now on in dining.

We have already paid our tips and have requested MTD on the Serenade for our next two cruises on her in December.

Do not give up on the MTD. It was not like that on our last 3 cruises.

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Buckeye060

Buckeye060

Posted
Posted
Just thought I'd throw in a quick tidbit of info on what happened with my experience on the my time dining. I just got off Navigator of the Seas on Feb 7th.

Booked the cruise 45 or so days out. Picked MTD, prepaid the gratuties. About 3 weeks before the cruise I got online and made a reservation for the MTD, 7pm, on all four nights of the cruise.

First night of the cruise we didn't go to the dining room because we were dead tired. Second night (formal night) we show up to the dining room, only to be told "No you're not on MyTime, you're on traditional, at the 6pm seating," (and here it is 7pm). So I showed my SeaPass card where it said MYTIME for the dining arrangement, and was directed to go to the first floor.

Down we go, I have no table #. I only know I'm at the 6pm dining. We stand there for probably 15 minutes before the Matire'D walks by, I address my issue with him and he says "Well, it's almost 7:30, you're on the 6pm dining, we have another seating at 8PM coming in, I'm not sure I can seat you. But hang on."

Out he searches then finds us a table for two and tells the waiters for the table to just "Take care of it."

So ...bam, bam, bam we we're rushed as fast as possible through our meal because there was someone assigned to the table we were at for the 8pm seating. We were in and out in less than 30 minutes. As we were eating the starters, they were taking our dinner order, as we ate dinner, they were taking a dessert order.

We didn't eat in the main dining room after this. We had no seat assignment, and no one knew what dining we were supposed to be on.

 

I go to the guest relations desk, they can't do anything because I've "pre paid" my gratuties and guest relations kept arguing that I was on MyTimeDining. They give me a card to call customer service when I get back.

This morning I finally called customer service and Royal Caribbean did refund three nights of gratuties for the cruise since we didn't eat in the MDR.

But I just wanted to throw a warning out there, MyTimeDining may be a nightmare.

Maybe it had something to do with you not showing up on your first scheduled night.

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KimberleyFL

KimberleyFL

Posted
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I don't care what is in their computer, I don't have access to it. My assignment is on my card.

 

If it said mytime dining on my room card, I would have stood there and insisted that it be taken care of right then. After dinner, I would have talked to all parties needed and had it fixed that night.

 

There is no reason they couldn't have seated you in mytime dining (even if you had to wait a few mins) that 2nd night, then had it fixed in the computer for the remainder of the cruise.

 

I guess I'm just a little more persistant :D P.S. I love MTD or whatever it is called on other cruise lines.

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cricketgal

cricketgal

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We also did MTD for the first time and had a great experience with it. Considering how many people sometimes showed up at once, they have it very well organized. We were warmly greeted by the lovely hostess Suad each night on Liberty and promptly seated in the same section each night at a good table for 2 and served wonderfully by Ronolio and Mark.

 

A few things I noticed:

 

It seemed that they seated people in sections according to type (ie families in one area, quiet/older people in another, party types in another). Not sure if this was just coincidence or not.

 

There were some tables for 2 that were basically just tables for 4 or 6 and then separated by 4 to 6 inches, so that you were still practically eating with your neighbours. Luckily we weren't seated at these, as I would not have liked it. Wondered if perhaps they give the better tables to Platinum and up passengers like ourselves? Would be curious to know if this is the case if anyone knows the answer to that?

 

Busiest times with longest waits for tables were after one of the shows let out. If you don't want to wait, you might be better to go for a quick drink somewhere first.

 

Section at the very front (near the entrance) of the dining room never seemed to have anyone sitting there. Don't know why though.

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land lover

land lover

Posted
Posted

OP..how unfortunate, for you.

 

Our recent experiences:

Last Nov., 4th time with MTD on the same ship.....right when we boarded staff asked if we had MTD we said yes they asked us to go to the 5th floor to confirm..once there I am like why am I here? MTD staff told me I needed to confirm.

I have already made my nightly reservations on-line, I thought reserving on -line would eliminate this, not so.

 

Last month, I am on the same ship this time with my family no one told us at boarding to confirm, however I still went to do so....and was told I had traditional..and of course the rest of my family had MTD they took care of it then and there.

 

OP,I think you got lost in the shuffle because you were not there the first night...and when you showed up the second night, the person at the reservation desk did not do his job to accomidate you...this is when you need to use the words WHY NOT!!!!!!

 

AS I have mentioend before on other threads it all depends on how many people have booked MTD on your cruise as each of our experiences have been very, very different.

Some much better than others. But I still will not go back to traditional...

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land lover

land lover

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I don't care what is in their computer, I don't have access to it. My assignment is on my card.

 

If it said mytime dining on my room card, I would have stood there and insisted that it be taken care of right then. After dinner, I would have talked to all parties needed and had it fixed that night.

 

There is no reason they couldn't have seated you in mytime dining (even if you had to wait a few mins) that 2nd night, then had it fixed in the computer for the remainder of the cruise.

 

I guess I'm just a little more persistent :D P.S. I love MTD or whatever it is called on other cruise lines.

 

I agree with you but as you know some of those MDs(actually just a waiter at MTD reservations after the first night) can be pretty persistent too...those of us who have experienced MTD have seen the progression or regression;) new comers would not have a clue.

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cricketgal

cricketgal

Posted
Posted
MTD Question--Say I've made my MTD reservations in advance for 645p but one night I decide to eat in the Windjammer. Do I go to the MTD dining room to cancel for that night or just not show up?

 

 

When we went to Chops, we just told the hostess at the entrance to MTD that we would not be there that night but would return at the same time the following night and had no problems.

 

Alternatively, I think there is a number that you can call from your room to advise them.

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Sunkissed Mommy

Sunkissed Mommy

Posted
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We've used MTD 4 times. Three times were very successful and enjoyable.

 

Only once did I have an issue (on the Grandeur) and it was very quickly resolved. We even received some chocolate covered strawberries in our cabin the next day with a note from the Head Waiter apologizing for the inconvenience.

 

Sorry to hear about the poor service you had. Hopefully this won't discourage you from trying it again!

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Alan13

Alan13

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When we went to Chops, we just told the hostess at the entrance to MTD that we would not be there that night but would return at the same time the following night and had no problems.

 

Alternatively, I think there is a number that you can call from your room to advise them.

 

Thanks so much for the information! I'm a solo cruiser and it will be my 1st time doing MTD.

 

Alan

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stewpapa

stewpapa

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I don't care what is in their computer, I don't have access to it. My assignment is on my card.

 

If it said mytime dining on my room card, I would have stood there and insisted that it be taken care of right then. After dinner, I would have talked to all parties needed and had it fixed that night.

 

There is no reason they couldn't have seated you in mytime dining (even if you had to wait a few mins) that 2nd night, then had it fixed in the computer for the remainder of the cruise.

 

I guess I'm just a little more persistant :D P.S. I love MTD or whatever it is called on other cruise lines.

 

I completely agree !!

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Wmass_mom

Wmass_mom

Posted
Posted
Has anyone done MTD on Explorer? We are booked for it and do not want to have any issues as we usually do Traditional and love it. Just thought that MTD would be a little flexable (hope so).

 

Sharon

 

Yes, we did it on our 9 night Jan 28th sailing. No problems at all! They do recommend reservations, which we made after the first night as we preferred a table for 2.

 

We didn't make reservations or eat in the dining room for a few nights in a row as we wanted to eat elsewhere. Customer service called *us* to make sure it wasn't because of any problems with the food or staff. How's that for service? :)

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CruiseKeeper

CruiseKeeper

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There were some tables for 2 that were basically just tables for 4 or 6 and then separated by 4 to 6 inches, so that you were still practically eating with your neighbours. Luckily we weren't seated at these, as I would not have liked it. Wondered if perhaps they give the better tables to Platinum and up passengers like ourselves? Would be curious to know if this is the case if anyone knows the answer to that?

 

We are D+ and have been seated at the tables for 2 with inches in between us and the next table. We still spoke cordially with our neighbors but it was enough of a distance that we didn't feel obligated to have continuous conversations with them. I don't think C&A status has anything to do with table placement.

 

We are usually seated in the same general area every night, some nights we had more personal space, at other times not so much. We have 2 more MTD's booked and I intend to speak up before we are seated if I see a more desirable and private available table.

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rubrrick

rubrrick

Posted
Posted

We have had MTD probably close to 2 dozen times, and sometimes we use it, and sometimes we will eat in alternative dining venues.

 

So far, knock on wood, there has never been a problem for us.

 

Maybe that is whey MTD has grown from such a small place on the ship to taking up a very good amount of space on a floor.:)

 

Just like anything else on a ship, there are mistakes made by the staff. The easiest way to get those corrected, is to stand your ground, and continue up the ladder till you get a satisfactory answer.

 

Rick

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