Having a HORRIBLE time trying to reserve MTD & show times on Royal's website

[vacation_junkie]

I'm on Allure for New Years & I got an email from RCI yesterday to pre-book MTD.

 

I went into my booking late at night ( after 10 pm ) & was able to access my booking easily & pre-book MTD.

 

This just confirms that there is no rhyme or reason to the MTD booking process on the Allure ;) We are on the Allure but not until February and I booked our MTD meals 2 weeks ago (@145 days away from departure). I didn't receive an email or anything I just popped on and saw I could book them.

[Big_G]

Not to worry. If you board and have not been able to reserve acceptable dining times, there will be ample pay restaurants available for your dining pleasure.;)

 

You're slowly becoming jaded. :D

[Clarea]

You're slowly becoming jaded. :D

Probably. But not without lots of help from some folks in Miami.

[IngramTXcruisers]

I made all our show reservations for our 12/7 Allure cruise months ago, and just made reservations for Chefs Table this week. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to when reservations can be made.

Can you tell me what the shows are on tha Allure. I can't find that.

[Clarea]

Can you tell me what the shows are on tha Allure. I can't find that.

This is the most recent show listing Royal has on their website:

 

http://media.royalcaribbean.com/content/en_US/pdf/showtimes/showtimes_AL.pdf

[slowpoke58]

Honestly this seems to be the most buggy, convoluted, error-prone reservation system I've ever seen.

 

Been trying to make reservations for the 3 of us (in 2 cabins) since 6:30pm tonight (i.e. for 5 hrs straight, without stopping).

 

Error after error after error, with Royal's standard apologetic error msg when the website times out. Or sometimes, "Items in your cart are no longer available" (even when there are zero reservations in my cart). Or "That reservation cannot be found" (when trying to add the guests I'm traveling with...some days it finds them, some days they don't exist.)

 

I feel like I made a huge mistake choosing Allure.

 

We will be on the Oasis in January and we also had a hard time, so I ended up calling them and got it all straight.

[Desert Cruizers]

I was surprised to see Excursiones open for our cruising when we were 13 months out. We are on the SOS Quebec to FT Laud for Oct 2015.

[Shekim]

We are 166 days out and MTD reservations just opened up. But as usual the prime times aren't available...ALREADY. I think they block those times. For us it's either 6:46 or 8:00 and it opened up in the last couple of days!

[chanat]

We will be on the Oasis in January and we also had a hard time, so I ended up calling them and got it all straight.

 

We are also sailing Oasis in Jan. (3rd - 10th) and I was able to book two shows for our three rooms then couldn't book anymore. I called RC and asked for help and the customer serv guy did it for me. It didn't take him long at all.

[agentcorona]

[twomoons]

Finally was able to book dining online for Dec 13 Oasis. Looks like they got the bugs worked out.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

[styxfire]

We are 166 days out and MTD reservations just opened up. But as usual the prime times aren't available...ALREADY. I think they block those times. For us it's either 6:46 or 8:00 and it opened up in the last couple of days!

I DID have to call Royal to accomplish the dining reservations. The representative was able to accomplish what I couldn't online, ALTHOUGH the dinner times he offered me were less desirable than the times available online through Royal's "Cruise Planner". (and yet, the "Cruise Planner" failed ever time, while the representative at least was able to complete the reservation.)

 

Our cruise has now sailed. We had MTD and I was confused and disappointed by the way they assigned us to tables. Night 1 we had a head waiter & his assistant. Nights 2 & 3 we had a different head waiter, whose assistant changed each night. Nights 4/5/6 we had a 3rd head waiter & assistant. Night 7 we requested the head waiter from 2/3 but we ended up in the section belonging to head-waiter 4/5/6 but instead were serviced by a 4th head-waiter.

 

Ultimately, MTD sucked. Our start times ranged from 6pm to 9pm and we were shifted when we didn't want to be, and assigned to specific waiters when we didn't want to be.

 

I loved my time on the ship, but all the scheduling is very counter to having a relaxing vacation. After many conversations with passengers, I'm considering Princess for the next vacation. Very glad I got to experience Allure, but I'm just too tired for all the hassle a repeat Allure cruise would require.

 

Royal Caribbean is all about the bottom line, and it was evident every second of every minute of all 7 days.

Edited October 23, 2014 by styxfire

[KansasK]

I managed to book entertainment for our Feb. 21 and Feb. 28, 2015 Oasis cruise. I did this on the weekend and had a lot of trouble with the site processing the reservations. The confirmation e-mails I received would say the reservations were cancelled and an e-mail sent the exact same minute in time would be sent saying the reservation were confirmed. It is like they sent them at the same time. I checked the site and it shows I reserved them. I then got a popup saying it was too soon to reserve entertainment and to do it later or on the ship. I think it is reserved, though.

 

I think RCI puts its money into building ships and not into hiring enough programmers.