Too Much Dining Space Given to My Time?

[bogofman]

We try to get in MTD when we book, on a couple of occasions it was already full and we had to have traditional, both times we ended up having an 8 place table to ourselves. One time we were on a table with a couple and 3 teenagers, who prefered the buffet to the MDR

[Clarea]

We try to get in MTD when we book, on a couple of occasions it was already full and we had to have traditional, both times we ended up having an 8 place table to ourselves. One time we were on a table with a couple and 3 teenagers, who prefered the buffet to the MDR

Same thing has happened to us, but luckily they put some others at the table about day 3.

[bogofman]

What happens to the waiters tips in this case, I assume they get reduced income with many empty seats in traditional.

 

On one occasion we almost had our own waiters for the whole two weeks:rolleyes:

 

Queues for MTD were down the coridors :eek:

Edited April 3, 2016 by bogofman

[Beachammo]

What happens to the waiters tips in this case, I assume they get reduced income with many empty seats in traditional.

 

On one occasion we almost had our own waiters for the whole two weeks:rolleyes:

 

Queues for MTD were down the coridors :eek:

 

As long as the table pays their gratuities to Royal....the get paid.

[LMaxwell]

When gratuities were mandatory with MTD I could not get a traditional dining time come hell or highwater no matter how advanced my booking was. Now they offer me early, late, or traditional no problem now that prepayment of gratuities is not the policy.

 

I think they have to keep SOME traditional dining because ships simply could not handle entirely MTD if everyone showed up in a tighter time frame, say 7:00PM to 8:00PM. So they might flop the space for traditional to my time and vice versa.

[LMaxwell]

Well that rule is usually followed...Unless your luck is up.

 

It was not fun.

 

have had that startup; I cut it off with dirty jokes.

[Clarea]

... I think they have to keep SOME traditional dining because ships simply could not handle entirely MTD if everyone showed up in a tighter time frame, say 7:00PM to 8:00PM. So they might flop the space for traditional to my time and vice versa.

I hope you are correct.:)

[Beachammo]

have had that startup; i cut it off with dirty jokes.

 

like!!

[SamFritz]

have had that startup; I cut it off with dirty jokes.

 

 

 

That was a good laugh to go to sleep on. Thanks[emoji106]

[BonTexasNY]

My impression is that many folks just don't want to eat with strangers anymore.

 

Plus, from what I've read, you're in and out quicker with MTD than traditional dining.

[Clarea]

Plus, from what I've read, you're in and out quicker with MTD than traditional dining.

True, but I don't know if that is due to anything different about MTD, or just the predominance of smaller tables in MTD.

[BobnJac]

We prefer MTD but it always seems an imposition on the first night or on boarding to be able to secure a table for 2 around 7.30 to 8.00.

Never been forced to go to Main as we prefer to sit and dine together, if not available we go to either a speciality or windjammer.

The choices are there, nobody forces anybody.

Like to spend time in the D Lounge if there is room on the TA coming up suppose they will provide an overflow.

[BobnJac]

Can't think of anything worse than sitting across the table from my hubby every night. I can stay at home and do that! :D

 

 

Don't take this the wrong way, but has it occurred to you that he may think the same and wishes you had?[emoji23][emoji23][emoji23][emoji23][emoji23][emoji23]

[ReneeFLL]

My experience is different to those who have posted so far. I love the flexibility of MTD but also speaking to people at dinner. As a solo traveler I turn up and generally end up at a table with others. So I end up speaking with and getting to know so many more people than if I did traditional dining.

 

Exactly. I don't like the traditional dining because I don't want to be stuck eating at the same time everyday. We did it on our first 2 cruises, but have changed to MTD since then. There were days we would be on a long hiking excursion or something else and would be very tired when we got back. Had the early seating so there was no time to relax before dinner. Get back, shower, change and then go straight to dinner. Not very relaxing to me. I liked sitting at the same table with the same people, but flexibility has won us over. Our last cruise we were usually seated at the same table and with most of the same diners. There were a few diners that would come and go. We met more people this way. Several times we also wanted to be seated just by ourselves. It is nice to also just enjoy each other's company. He is a pilot so he is gone about 1/3 of the time. We enjoy all the together time we can get.

 

I think RC should figure out a good way to keep traditional and MTD. Some prefer to always eat with the same people at the same time and others don't. There are also people who are introverted as someone else said on here. They should not be made to sit with others if they don't want to and are uncomfortable doing so. I can't imagine being like that as I am outgoing, but I also can't imagine being forced to eat with others if I really don't want to. That must be horribe if they are uncomfortable. I would dread every minute of it. There all kinds of people with different reasons why they would or wouldn't want to share a table. Hopefully everyone can be accommodated.

 

have had that startup; I cut it off with dirty jokes.

We haven't had that happen to us before. I suck at any kind of jokes, but I will have to learn some just in case this happens. I would have loved to see someone's face when you told a dirty joke and they were talking religion. :D

[tserface]

I like this idea. It seems pragmatic.

 

Tom

 

The only thing that comes to mind is the number of empty tables I see in traditional, most every night. Those tables cannot typically be used by folks in MTD waiting for tables, so the space goes wasted.

 

I don't think the current system (traditional and MTD) can last with the way it's currently implemented. I think they either go to an all MTD system, or give the traditional folks some set amount of time to get to their table, after which they lose that spot for the night and have to go to MTD if they still want to eat in the MDR.

[tserface]

I'm not sure that's true. We always do MTD now and we almost always eat with strangers. In fact, we're eating with mostly different strangers every night. We also often eat with strangers at breakfast and lunch. It's one of the things we really love about cruising.

 

For example, you wouldn't likely walk up to someone in a hotel restaurant and ask to sit at their table, but on cruises it's kind of expected. It's a great community thing.

 

We do MTD because we like the flexibility of going to dinner when we want to depending on what else is going on during the afternoon and evening, and we like not having to show up if we want to go elsewhere.

 

When we want to eat alone we go to a specialty restaurant.

 

Tom

 

My impression is that many folks just don't want to eat with strangers anymore.

[tserface]

That makes me sad. I think meeting new people (on rollcalls, trivia, meals, games, whatever) is one of the great pleasures of cruising. We love meeting people from all over the world including those who are staff on the ship.

 

I know that each person has their own preference, but I hope cruise lines don't force us into isolationism...

 

Tom

 

I have zero desire to eat and converse with strangers.

[tserface]

Yeah, it is kind of hit and miss sometimes. We've had way more good experiences than bad. One time a couple at our table had to spend dinner time telling about all the exercising they did at the gym and classes they took that day. I would have rather talked about religion :)

 

That said, we've met some facinating people and many of them we are still friends with and hope to see again on future cruises.

 

Tom

 

I guess you could say that...

 

Until you get put with a rather strange couple that choose to try and push their religious beliefs upon us, while questioning ours.

[BonTexasNY]

Is there a way to find out the percentage of passengers on any given cruise that does MTD? It does seem like it would be quite a number. Just curious. Like Clarea, I too, noticed quite a few empty tables in the Traditional section. I don't mind sitting with strangers for dinner but I draw the line at making small talk during breakfast. The seating hostess always tries to place us at a large table but never succeeds :p

[Dinkachu]

After a disastrous experience with MTD on Allure, we tried to book traditional dining for our next 3 cruises: Dec 2016, March 2017 and Nov 2017, only to find that we could not get any set dining and were forced to sign up for MTD for all 3 cruises.

 

We booked onboard through the loyalty desk and were told there was no other choice.

 

Our friends are diamond plus and book a full suite and they too were assigned to MTD for 2 of these cruises, all booked Dec. 2015.

 

We are seriously considering switching cruise lines just to get away from MTD.

[KKMurphy2]

True, but I don't know if that is due to anything different about MTD, or just the predominance of smaller tables in MTD.

 

We have cruised over 25 times and did MTD only once. It was such a rushed experience and definitely not enjoyable. I felt like they wanted us in and out to turn over the table.

[woodyren]

Has anyone been denied My a Time and was forced into Traditional?

 

 

My experience on our last few cruises out of Australia on both RCL and Celebrity have been that yes this occurs regularly. There has been a much higher demand for MTD than the available places with large lines on embarkation day trying to get a change to MTD.

 

Normally late traditional is always available but seems unpopular with many and certainly is for us.

 

We prefer MTD with early traditional as our backup. We cant always get that pre cruise (as our Aussie cruises are often booked late). Our booking only has late traditional by this time but as we board as early as possible and I know the game I am near always the head of the line to change and we have been lucky enough to get away from late every time although we do not always get MTD and have ended up once or twice with early traditional. I have noticed quite a few others, particularly those who have a larger group been turned down with their change to MTD requests.

Edited April 3, 2016 by woodyren

[msmayor]

Plus, from what I've read, you're in and out quicker with MTD than traditional dining.

 

Not sure that's a valid statement. With the exception of the first night out (which always seems to be a tough long night for the dining room) we would sit down at 8pm and be finished by 9:15. That's for all three courses...

 

Our servers paced our meals very well and we never felt rushed or felt we sat too long.

[DragonOfTheSeas]

Have never see many empty spots except for maybe 2 when people go to specialty dining. It is very hard in fact to get a MDR spot unless you book a year or so out. If not early booking you go on a waiting list.

 

You must eat on the earlier seating. We eat on the late seating and there are always full empty tables--not just seats.

 

After a disastrous experience with MTD on Allure, we tried to book traditional dining for our next 3 cruises: Dec 2016, March 2017 and Nov 2017, only to find that we could not get any set dining and were forced to sign up for MTD for all 3 cruises.

 

We have been assigned MTD and put on a waitlist for traditional seating on our last few cruises [even while booking soon after bookings open] However, we have cleared the waitlist each time and gotten the traditional late seating.

 

The exception is our Harmony TA next fall. It seems everyone wanted the DD classic when the cruise first opened and I had to take DD .[i took the waitlist for DD classic late] When DD was cancelled we were all moved into MTD. I decided to book MTD at the same time each night for the time of late seating. :rolleyes: this will be my first MTD experience. I will see how it is. Don't knock it until you try it, right. :D

[Wanderista]

I'm new to all of this but I can see the benefits of both styles and I hope that Royal keeps the options. On this cruise, MTD was waitlisted. While I might have originally picked that as a new cruiser, I thought about it and decided that I actually want late traditional seating. I'll be very happy to either sit at a shared table or a table for two depending on what the availability is.

 

Funnily enough, I think the one I wouldn't usually want is early traditional because I don't want to have to hurry back from an excursion or eat in the WJ. For this cruise, we have booked a long excursion for one of the days that runs past the early seating. I wouldn't want a late seating at like 9 but 8 pm is fine. If we catch a show, that's great but we aren't going to plan around them. We will plan around maximizing time sightseeing.

 

I am traveling with a friend in this case. It will be great to catch up with her and also to meet any others. My boyfriend is very skeptical about cruising. (He has never tried it). If I do get him on a cruise, I still think I'll be ok with either MTD or Traditional and I will like having the ability to choose between either option depending on itinerary or availability for a sailing.

 

I'm somewhere in the middle between introvert and extravert. I don't blame others for being particular about one option or the other. I think it is good that the choice exists. Also maybe I would try NCL sometime but I don't think Royal needs to be NCL. I should add that I do have one food allergy (to mangoes, not gluten or peanuts or dairy fortunately). I am kind of glad that I'm doing traditional dining for that reason and I will alert my staff who will know me.