My Time Dining and shows

[MaiseyM]

For those that have used MTD, I am wondering if there is a strategy to use with making reservations to shows. I currently am booked with MTD, but I'm a little worried that if I go to eat at XYZ time (in order to make the show later that night) that everyone will be up there at the same time, which would cause me to be seated later and thus missing the show.

 

Do you have any feedback about how to do this well? I don't want to miss out on shows and now I'm wondering if I should just do the scheduled dining.

[MagicNMe]

'Book' your dinner times with the MDR host/hostess running MTD each morning, take your compass downstairs with you, and circle the showtimes you're interested in making.

 

These folks definitely know the flow of dinner schedule and your waitstaff better than anybody, and should be able to find the perfect time to accomodate you.

 

Let your wait staff know when you're seating that night you're trying to make the X:XXpm show, and they've in my experience been really good about keeping dinner to just the right pace.

 

:) Hope that helps!

[MaiseyM]

Thank you! I wasn't aware that there is someone you book with in the morning.

[Hawaiifrank]

I've had MTD only once and we managed to reserve before the cruise for 6:30-7:30 pm nearly every day so we could get to the shows. We had tried to get early traditional, but it was full 1 yr in advance.

We seldom found good seats for the 9 pm show because we finished dinner 8:30 or 8:45. Without having made reservations, how long is the typical wait at say, 6:30 or 8 pm? If so many of these MTD folks want to eat at 6:30 and 8 pm, why don't they just sign up for early or late traditional dining?

 

If the ship has 2 performances of the show, usually ~7 and ~9 PM, you'll need to try to eat very near to either the early or late traditional dining. Unfortunately, these are peak times for MTD also and these reservations soon fill up forcing one to eat later. You either leave early from the first show or go late to the second one. Or miss the show entirely.

 

With the lower quality of the shows on my last cruise (Feb 14, Explorer OTS), I guess it wouldn't be such a big deal to miss some of them. On the first night and one other, I believe, there was only 1 show. It was "standing room only" for those 8 pm shows so you had to get there very early, 45 min prior or so.

 

My next RCCL cruise is on the Oasis and we have early traditional, for now at lesst. Dynamic Dining is coming they say so we'll see what happens if Oasis starts that and how it will work.

 

I suppose if one went to the show first and ate after, there's no time constraint for finishing dinner so it wouldn't matter if you had to wait awhile to be seated. Is that what most MTD folks do?

[BillB48]

If there is not someone at the MTD area to take reservations, there is usually a phone number to call starting around 8AM

[Migoal]

I just wrote down all of my shows and the times they were available on a sheet of paper, then I wrote the dates down the shows were playing. I added in the factor of the shore excursions and when we would be back from those, and planted the dining times around those. We know we don't actually HAVE to eat in the dining room each night, even if we have that reservation. we can always cancel or change the reservation each day if something better comes along. We know that they book up fast. We didn't want to take the left overs.The formal nights are day 2 and day 5 for us, so we will be sure to be there for that. Its better to have them already and change them than have to worry with them each morning for me.