Large Group Switching to MTD On board

[jrmama496]

We are sailing on the Allure with a family of 12. We originally chose late seating just because we like having the same waiters and table every night. Now that it's almost time to sail, we realized that some of us with small children would be missing out on a lot of activities that start at 10 or 10:30 because we would be just finishing up dinner and would then have to go get the kids ready for bed and put them to sleep with grandma (the designated babysitter.)

 

We tried to switch to MTD and get reservations a little earlier but there are no reservations available after 5:30 and before 9.

 

What are the chances that they will let us switch to MTD once we are on the ship? I there anyone on board that we can email ahead of time? Is this something that the Diamond Concierge could help with since one person in our party is a diamond member?

[Biker19]

I would leave it alone, go a a little early to the MDR and on the days you need to leave early tell your waiter. If you don't delay in ordering, you can finish dinner in a bit over an hour.

 

You can try switching to MTD, but getting a table for 12 might not be easy. You can also try e-mailing rccldining@rccl.com about two weeks before the cruise.

[Clarea]

... You can also try e-mailing rccldining@rccl.com about two weeks before the cruise.

Email is rcldining@rccl.com.:)

[cb at sea]

You can't "go early" when you have traditional seating.

 

I would use the e-mail address above, and see about getting changed to EARLY/Main seating, rather than MTD....Main seating works best with kids.

[jimmyzwei]

You can't "go early" when you have traditional seating.

 

I would use the e-mail address above, and see about getting changed to EARLY/Main seating, rather than MTD....Main seating works best with kids.

 

My observation has been large groups that want to sit together present real problems for not only the staff at MTD but also for the other dinners.

 

Large groups sitting together are best suited for traditional dining either early or late. JMHO others may view it differently

[Russ Lomas]

We tried MTD for the first time this past March and for the most part loved it. We had early seating and switched to MTD for our group of 24 people. We wanted reservations for around 7pm on most evenings but they could not be booked online, so we booked for 5:45pm, the latest time prior to 8:30 that we could book. We went immediately to the dining room upon boarding and requested 7pm. We were told that we could do walk up at that time but it was VERY unlikely that we could get tables close together. We had young children with us and did not want an 8:30 dinner. They ended up making a standing reservation time for us at 5:45 at three 8 person tables next to each other, all served by the same wait staff. The best thing was that we were able to pick which of the 3 tables we wanted to sit at each night. We mixed things up. Sat with our direct family some nights, with cousins another night, adults only tables some nights. The freedom of choice was great. We had our two favourite servers we had ever had as well and will request them when we sail the same ship next year. They were very accommodating.

 

We were also told that as long as we were to show up by 6:30, or 6:45 at the latest, they would hold our 3 tables for us. So if we were running late or decided to do something prior to our 5:45 reservation, it would not be a problem, as long as we were out of the dining room by 8:15 so they could get others in at those tables.

 

We were told that even though it is called MTD, they basically run it as a two separate dining sittings still - early (prior to 6:45) and late (after 8:15). That is why you cannot BOOK times between those times. You can still show up and try to get a table if one happens to be open, but you take your chances and likely will not be seated together. Sounds like those who show at 7pm will get one of the tables where somebody has not shown up for the earlier seating time, and they hold that table til around 6:45 before giving it to somebody else.

 

If you were willing to eat early (which some people do not like to do) then what I described above could work very well for you.

[Biker19]

You can't "go early" when you have traditional seating.

 

My experience has been that folks were able to get in around 8:15 for traditional 8:30 sittings. With dinner taking 1 to 1 1/4 hrs, making a 10 PM event should not be an issue.