MTD - Is it always a problem for large groups? Any tips for smoother sailing?

[kyriecat]

Last week I sailed on Liberty with extended family. When we sailed together a couple years ago, we had early fixed seating, which we found to be too early. Since we had children with us and didn't want to wait until 8 to eat, we selected MTD and I made reservations online for 6:45 each night for our group of 9. I’ve used MTD previously, but only with 2 or 4 people. I was not expecting so many issues when dining with a larger group!

 

The first night we were told that there was a mix-up and our table wasn't ready. We were given a pager and had to wait about 30 minutes for a table. We figured it was a boarding day glitch and went with the flow.

 

The second night we arrived about 5 minutes early and were told that they thought we weren't coming and had given our table away. Our reservation was in the system and the hostess couldn't explain why she thought we weren't coming. We again had to wait about 30 minutes for a table. We were frustrated, but we waited.

 

The third night I got a phone call at 6:15 asking why we were late for our reservation. We rushed to get to the dining room, thinking I had made a mistake about the reservation time. When we arrived, I found out the dining room hostess had moved our reservation to 6. She claimed she was doing us a favor because we had complained about having to wait for a table so she moved our reservation to earlier. She neglected to inform us of the change so we thought our reservation was still 6:45, as shown on my confirmation email. She then told us that because we were late, even though we did not know she had changed our reservation, they could not accommodate us that night. I’m generally not a “status” person, but I admit to mentioning being D+ C&A and having never previously experienced this type of problem with MTD. I was haughtily informed that as a D+ C&A member, I should have known that MTD was not for large groups and my party would be better accommodated in Windjammer. I just as haughtily informed her that was unacceptable. If she had an issue with large groups in the dining room, she needed to take it up with the corporate office and not blame me. Furthermore, she needed to find us a table, change the remainder of my reservations back to 6:45, and not make any other changes without my approval. I could tell I had angered her by not backing down. I think in retribution, she squashed our group of 9 at a table designed for 6 even though there were empty tables for 8 and 10 nearby. She said those were saved for people who showed up on time for their reservations.

 

The fourth night we decided to eat at Giovanni's. I stopped by the dining room around noon to let them know we would not be eating there that night. Giovanni's was wonderful! We had a very nice dinner at an appropriately-sized table that was ready for us when we arrived at our reserved time.

 

The fifth night we arrived at the dining room at 6:45 to be told that we didn’t have a reservation and would have to wait about an hour for a table. The hostess claimed that when I cancelled the reservation for the previous night, I requested to cancel all our reservations. My aunt and husband who were with me the previous day, both said I had been very clear that I only wanted to cancel the reservation for night four and none of the others. The hostess was adamant that I had cancelled all the reservations and she would not seat us. We asked to speak to her supervisor and were told he was busy and we would have to make an appointment to speak to him. We’d had a long day in port, the kids were tired and hungry, and we didn’t want to deal with further frustration so we decided to go to JR’s that night. Before we left I insisted that our reservations get re-instated for the next two nights.

 

The sixth day I stopped by the dining room around 10 to confirm that we had a reservation for 6:45 that night. I was told yes, no problem. When we left the ice show around 3, I noticed someone else was at the hostess stand so I stopped by again to confirm that we had a 6:45 reservation. Again, no problem. When we showed up at 6:45, we were told that we didn’t have a reservation and because it was lobster night, the dining room was overbooked so we would have to wait 60 – 90 minutes for a table. I asked why our reservation had been cancelled after I had confirmed it with her that morning and with someone else that afternoon. She claimed that I had cancelled it, which I denied. My husband had enough and asked to speak with her supervisor. She said that he was still too busy to see us and we needed an appointment to speak with him. My husband requested again to speak with her supervisor. He raised his voice a little, but he did not shout, use foul language, make any threats, or stand any closer than 3 feet from her. All he said was, ”Ma’am, you are not listening to me. I don’t want an appointment to speak to him later. I want to speak to him now.” However, the hostess said she felt that she was in danger and would call security if he did not leave immediately. Fortunately, my uncle realized the situation was not going well and had gone into the dining room to locate the manager himself. They came out as the hostess was calling for security. After hearing our problem, the manager seated us at what he claimed was normally the Captain’s table. I don’t know if that was true, but it was sized to accommodate 10 people. We had to wait for the staff to set the table since it appeared they did not expect it to be used that night, but we weren’t squashed together, which was nice. The manager said he would make sure that we had a table the next night. The couple who were in line behind us and heard the conversation at the hostess stand stopped by to let us know security showed up but the couple didn’t hear what the hostess told them. They could tell we were frustrated with the hostess but they didn’t think my husband was a threat to anybody. They thought the hostess had overreacted.

 

The seventh day I stopped by the dining room around 1 to confirm that we had a reservation for 6:45 that night. The hostess told me yes and that I needed to keep my husband away from her. He didn’t want to be near her either so I didn’t see that being an issue. I went to the dining room at 6:30 to re-confirm we had a reservation and that we would have a table on time. When the rest of my group arrived, the manager escorted us to a table in an alcove in the very back of the dining room away from the other diners. I didn’t like the location, but I was happy that they finally got us an appropriately sized table at our reserved dining time.

 

Forgive the long post, but is this the normal experience? I know large groups can be difficult to accommodate, but are there any tips or tricks to make dining smoother, other than eating in Windjammer every night? It seemed pointless to make reservations when we only got to eat at our reserved time once. Is it better to not make reservations and just send someone to the dining room around 6 or 6:30 to pick up a pager for the group?

 

Of course, we might be banned from sailing with RC because of the hostess. No one from security ever spoke with us so I don’t know whether we will have a problem booking in the future or not.

[camreesmom]

I'm sorry that happened to your group. I'm interested to see if other groups have had the same issues. We were on the same cruise with a group of 23. We had late seating dinner so no problems in the MDR.

[TXNewlyweds]

We were on Liberty of the Seas May 28 - June 4 with our family of 10 and have to say our experience was exactly the opposite of yours. We too had MTD because we didn't want late dining for the kids but wanted a little more time than standard early dining. I made reservations online before boarding for each day at either 6 or 6:15 depending on whether it was a sea day or shore day.

 

The first evening seemed to be a bit confused as when we arrived at the dining room there was a long line for "Reservations and Suite" guests. When we finally got to the front of the line, we were promptly seated at a table for 10 in corner near the front by a window, which we thought was great. After dinner we all agreed that we liked our table location and waitstaff so we talked to the hostess and requested that we have the same table and waitstaff for the remainder of the week. She said she would try to make that happen but could not guarantee it.

 

 

The 2nd evening was formal night so there was a bit of a wait again, but not as bad. We were quickly seated at the same table with the same waitstaff.

 

The rest of the week went smoothly. (I confess I took a look at their reservation system earlier on day 3 and saw we had the same table)

When we arrived at the dining room each evening we were recognized and told we could be seated at our usual table. On the 2nd to last day, we stopped after dinner and asked if we could move our reservation earlier some because we wanted to be sure to get seats for the Saturday Night Fever show. No problem. They moved our reservation to 5:15.

 

I'm sorry to hear you had so many issues. We were really pleased with how smoothly everything went. The one thing we were worried about was missing having the same waitstaff with MTD and we were able to overcome that easily. I also noticed that there were several other tables in our area that were the same each evening.

 

I will say we had an awful experience at the Character Breakfast. There was no table set large enough for our group even though we had made reservations online months earlier. The waitstaff was awful! We didn't get food or drinks that we requested repeatedly. One of our granddaughters order was not taken and we had to go track down the waiter to make that happen. Later in the day we went to guest services and complained. After speaking to the dining room manager, she promptly credited our account for the $100 extra we had paid for the character breakfast. We felt that was very fair and appreciated their approach to dealing with the situation.

[cruzinlisa]

Wow. It sounds like you had a very bad experience. I would have went to Guest Services. We had a small group (3) and a couple hiccups with reservations, but nothing too bad. I made reservations for both formal nights but none of the others. The first night we were told it would be an hour wait. I pointed out (again) that we had a reservation. She looked again and found us. The second formal night she said we did not have a reservation. Then looked again and found it, but said it was for a different time (15 minutes later). I had an email back in my room with the time on it, also had made the reservations for the same time. I figured we would just wait a few minutes, but they came up with a table for us. I would expect MTD could be an issue with larger groups, but the reservations should have assisted with those issues.

[Merion_Mom]

Last week I sailed on Liberty with extended family. When we sailed together a couple years ago, we had early fixed seating, which we found to be too early. Since we had children with us and didn't want to wait until 8 to eat, we selected MTD and I made reservations online for 6:45 each night for our group of 9. I’ve used MTD previously, but only with 2 or 4 people. I was not expecting so many issues when dining with a larger group!

 

The first night we were told that there was a mix-up and our table wasn't ready. We were given a pager and had to wait about 30 minutes for a table. We figured it was a boarding day glitch and went with the flow.

 

The second night we arrived about 5 minutes early and were told that they thought we weren't coming and had given our table away. Our reservation was in the system and the hostess couldn't explain why she thought we weren't coming. We again had to wait about 30 minutes for a table. We were frustrated, but we waited.

 

The third night I got a phone call at 6:15 asking why we were late for our reservation. We rushed to get to the dining room, thinking I had made a mistake about the reservation time. When we arrived, I found out the dining room hostess had moved our reservation to 6. She claimed she was doing us a favor because we had complained about having to wait for a table so she moved our reservation to earlier. She neglected to inform us of the change so we thought our reservation was still 6:45, as shown on my confirmation email. She then told us that because we were late, even though we did not know she had changed our reservation, they could not accommodate us that night. I’m generally not a “status” person, but I admit to mentioning being D+ C&A and having never previously experienced this type of problem with MTD. I was haughtily informed that as a D+ C&A member, I should have known that MTD was not for large groups and my party would be better accommodated in Windjammer. I just as haughtily informed her that was unacceptable. If she had an issue with large groups in the dining room, she needed to take it up with the corporate office and not blame me. Furthermore, she needed to find us a table, change the remainder of my reservations back to 6:45, and not make any other changes without my approval. I could tell I had angered her by not backing down. I think in retribution, she squashed our group of 9 at a table designed for 6 even though there were empty tables for 8 and 10 nearby. She said those were saved for people who showed up on time for their reservations.

 

The fourth night we decided to eat at Giovanni's. I stopped by the dining room around noon to let them know we would not be eating there that night. Giovanni's was wonderful! We had a very nice dinner at an appropriately-sized table that was ready for us when we arrived at our reserved time.

 

The fifth night we arrived at the dining room at 6:45 to be told that we didn’t have a reservation and would have to wait about an hour for a table. The hostess claimed that when I cancelled the reservation for the previous night, I requested to cancel all our reservations. My aunt and husband who were with me the previous day, both said I had been very clear that I only wanted to cancel the reservation for night four and none of the others. The hostess was adamant that I had cancelled all the reservations and she would not seat us. We asked to speak to her supervisor and were told he was busy and we would have to make an appointment to speak to him. We’d had a long day in port, the kids were tired and hungry, and we didn’t want to deal with further frustration so we decided to go to JR’s that night. Before we left I insisted that our reservations get re-instated for the next two nights.

 

The sixth day I stopped by the dining room around 10 to confirm that we had a reservation for 6:45 that night. I was told yes, no problem. When we left the ice show around 3, I noticed someone else was at the hostess stand so I stopped by again to confirm that we had a 6:45 reservation. Again, no problem. When we showed up at 6:45, we were told that we didn’t have a reservation and because it was lobster night, the dining room was overbooked so we would have to wait 60 – 90 minutes for a table. I asked why our reservation had been cancelled after I had confirmed it with her that morning and with someone else that afternoon. She claimed that I had cancelled it, which I denied. My husband had enough and asked to speak with her supervisor. She said that he was still too busy to see us and we needed an appointment to speak with him. My husband requested again to speak with her supervisor. He raised his voice a little, but he did not shout, use foul language, make any threats, or stand any closer than 3 feet from her. All he said was, ”Ma’am, you are not listening to me. I don’t want an appointment to speak to him later. I want to speak to him now.” However, the hostess said she felt that she was in danger and would call security if he did not leave immediately. Fortunately, my uncle realized the situation was not going well and had gone into the dining room to locate the manager himself. They came out as the hostess was calling for security. After hearing our problem, the manager seated us at what he claimed was normally the Captain’s table. I don’t know if that was true, but it was sized to accommodate 10 people. We had to wait for the staff to set the table since it appeared they did not expect it to be used that night, but we weren’t squashed together, which was nice. The manager said he would make sure that we had a table the next night. The couple who were in line behind us and heard the conversation at the hostess stand stopped by to let us know security showed up but the couple didn’t hear what the hostess told them. They could tell we were frustrated with the hostess but they didn’t think my husband was a threat to anybody. They thought the hostess had overreacted.

 

The seventh day I stopped by the dining room around 1 to confirm that we had a reservation for 6:45 that night. The hostess told me yes and that I needed to keep my husband away from her. He didn’t want to be near her either so I didn’t see that being an issue. I went to the dining room at 6:30 to re-confirm we had a reservation and that we would have a table on time. When the rest of my group arrived, the manager escorted us to a table in an alcove in the very back of the dining room away from the other diners. I didn’t like the location, but I was happy that they finally got us an appropriately sized table at our reserved dining time.

 

Forgive the long post, but is this the normal experience? I know large groups can be difficult to accommodate, but are there any tips or tricks to make dining smoother, other than eating in Windjammer every night? It seemed pointless to make reservations when we only got to eat at our reserved time once. Is it better to not make reservations and just send someone to the dining room around 6 or 6:30 to pick up a pager for the group?

 

Of course, we might be banned from sailing with RC because of the hostess. No one from security ever spoke with us so I don’t know whether we will have a problem booking in the future or not.

 

I read this situation as a person in her position (hostess) who needs MAJOR training. She clearly should not be in this job if she cannot do it properly and courteously.

 

No, your experience is not "normal". I would have been seething if I had been in your shoes. My response would have been to speak with the MDR manager, and if s/he wouldn't see me, escalate to the Food & Beverage director.

 

I know that it's "monday morning quarterbacking", but next time, be prepared to escalate beyond such a person, who clearly isn't doing her job properly.

[KelJ]

I'm sorry that happened to your group. I'm interested to see if other groups have had the same issues. We were on the same cruise with a group of 23. We had late seating dinner so no problems in the MDR.

 

For this large of a group, what were your table arrangements?

[my3pies]

How soon before you board do you make your MTD reservations?

[kyriecat]

How soon before you board do you make your MTD reservations?

I made mine Feb. 6 for June 4 sail date.

[my3pies]

We are already reserved with MTD. But how do I let them know I want 6:45 pm reservations every night for our party of 14.

[kyriecat]

We are already reserved with MTD. But how do I let them know I want 6:45 pm reservations every night for our party of 14.

Do you know how to get to your reservation on RC's website? If so, there is a tab on your reservation page that says "Cruise Planner." One of the options in the cruise planner is Dining. You can make reservation for MTD from there.

 

You will need last names and booking numbers for all the people in your party to make the reservation together. When you make the reservation, there is an option to add guests from another booking.

 

Once you have all your party listed, you can select from the list of available times. If 6:45 isn't available, you will have to make another choice. You have to make reservations for each day separately.

 

Hopefully you have better luck on board than I did!

[KG1924]

OP-you're way nicer than I am!!! :p I like to think that we are "go with the flow" kind of people while on vacation and it would really take a lot for me to complain to management. That said, I would have 100% been complaining to anyone that would listen if I had the issues you had!

 

No, this is not normal for MTD. We had a group of 8 on the Allure with no set reservations for most nights. Granted, we were going a little later than you, more around 8ish so not as much of a prime time but we were always accommodated w/in 15 mins max. After the first couple nights we had a standing reservation w/ a particular set of waiters without actually having a reservation if that makes sense. Different ships, but it shouldn't matter.

 

Our last trip was on the Liberty and we had a group of 17, so we opted to do standard late seating. Even that was a little bit of a headache because we had a couple decide to join us after we had made the dinner reservations before the trip. We went right to the MDR after we boarded and were told there was no way to accommodate the extra 2 without splitting up. That was completely untrue as they had the original group of 15 at 2 tables next to each other with extra seats at both. The whole thing was a communication error, but it took 4 adults from our group and 3 MDR staff members to finally get it set. The kicker of it all was that the section we sat in was almost completely empty the entire cruise. We could have each had our own table ;p

 

Hind sight is 20/20, but if you ever encounter that many issues w/ MTD again, especially with set reservations, I would have escalated it while on the ship (I know you guys tried....this really seems to be an issue with that particular hostess not doing her job correctly) 9 people is a large group, but it's not that crazy. We had over 50 for our wedding cruise! BTW, we had set dining for that as well, thankfully had an entire section of the dining room to ourselves.

[ljcofy]

I saw a previous post that said there was a line at MTD for reservations and Suite Guests. Do you not need a reservation for MTD if sailing in a suite? We will be on Allure in a few weeks but the only MTD times left were really early or really late. Would be great if we were able to just walk up.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[Merion_Mom]

I saw a previous post that said there was a line at MTD for reservations and Suite Guests. Do you not need a reservation for MTD if sailing in a suite? We will be on Allure in a few weeks but the only MTD times left were really early or really late. Would be great if we were able to just walk up.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Make it the best of both worlds. Have the concierge make your reservations for you, then just walk up. :)

[nyroadrunner]

Last week I sailed on Liberty with extended family. When we sailed together a couple years ago, we had early fixed seating, which we found to be too early. Since we had children with us and didn't want to wait until 8 to eat, we selected MTD and I made reservations online for 6:45 each night for our group of 9. I’ve used MTD previously, but only with 2 or 4 people. I was not expecting so many issues when dining with a larger group!

 

The first night we were told that there was a mix-up and our table wasn't ready. We were given a pager and had to wait about 30 minutes for a table. We figured it was a boarding day glitch and went with the flow.

 

The second night we arrived about 5 minutes early and were told that they thought we weren't coming and had given our table away. Our reservation was in the system and the hostess couldn't explain why she thought we weren't coming. We again had to wait about 30 minutes for a table. We were frustrated, but we waited.

 

The third night I got a phone call at 6:15 asking why we were late for our reservation. We rushed to get to the dining room, thinking I had made a mistake about the reservation time. When we arrived, I found out the dining room hostess had moved our reservation to 6. She claimed she was doing us a favor because we had complained about having to wait for a table so she moved our reservation to earlier. She neglected to inform us of the change so we thought our reservation was still 6:45, as shown on my confirmation email. She then told us that because we were late, even though we did not know she had changed our reservation, they could not accommodate us that night. I’m generally not a “status” person, but I admit to mentioning being D+ C&A and having never previously experienced this type of problem with MTD. I was haughtily informed that as a D+ C&A member, I should have known that MTD was not for large groups and my party would be better accommodated in Windjammer. I just as haughtily informed her that was unacceptable. If she had an issue with large groups in the dining room, she needed to take it up with the corporate office and not blame me. Furthermore, she needed to find us a table, change the remainder of my reservations back to 6:45, and not make any other changes without my approval. I could tell I had angered her by not backing down. I think in retribution, she squashed our group of 9 at a table designed for 6 even though there were empty tables for 8 and 10 nearby. She said those were saved for people who showed up on time for their reservations.

 

The fourth night we decided to eat at Giovanni's. I stopped by the dining room around noon to let them know we would not be eating there that night. Giovanni's was wonderful! We had a very nice dinner at an appropriately-sized table that was ready for us when we arrived at our reserved time.

 

The fifth night we arrived at the dining room at 6:45 to be told that we didn’t have a reservation and would have to wait about an hour for a table. The hostess claimed that when I cancelled the reservation for the previous night, I requested to cancel all our reservations. My aunt and husband who were with me the previous day, both said I had been very clear that I only wanted to cancel the reservation for night four and none of the others. The hostess was adamant that I had cancelled all the reservations and she would not seat us. We asked to speak to her supervisor and were told he was busy and we would have to make an appointment to speak to him. We’d had a long day in port, the kids were tired and hungry, and we didn’t want to deal with further frustration so we decided to go to JR’s that night. Before we left I insisted that our reservations get re-instated for the next two nights.

 

The sixth day I stopped by the dining room around 10 to confirm that we had a reservation for 6:45 that night. I was told yes, no problem. When we left the ice show around 3, I noticed someone else was at the hostess stand so I stopped by again to confirm that we had a 6:45 reservation. Again, no problem. When we showed up at 6:45, we were told that we didn’t have a reservation and because it was lobster night, the dining room was overbooked so we would have to wait 60 – 90 minutes for a table. I asked why our reservation had been cancelled after I had confirmed it with her that morning and with someone else that afternoon. She claimed that I had cancelled it, which I denied. My husband had enough and asked to speak with her supervisor. She said that he was still too busy to see us and we needed an appointment to speak with him. My husband requested again to speak with her supervisor. He raised his voice a little, but he did not shout, use foul language, make any threats, or stand any closer than 3 feet from her. All he said was, ”Ma’am, you are not listening to me. I don’t want an appointment to speak to him later. I want to speak to him now.” However, the hostess said she felt that she was in danger and would call security if he did not leave immediately. Fortunately, my uncle realized the situation was not going well and had gone into the dining room to locate the manager himself. They came out as the hostess was calling for security. After hearing our problem, the manager seated us at what he claimed was normally the Captain’s table. I don’t know if that was true, but it was sized to accommodate 10 people. We had to wait for the staff to set the table since it appeared they did not expect it to be used that night, but we weren’t squashed together, which was nice. The manager said he would make sure that we had a table the next night. The couple who were in line behind us and heard the conversation at the hostess stand stopped by to let us know security showed up but the couple didn’t hear what the hostess told them. They could tell we were frustrated with the hostess but they didn’t think my husband was a threat to anybody. They thought the hostess had overreacted.

 

The seventh day I stopped by the dining room around 1 to confirm that we had a reservation for 6:45 that night. The hostess told me yes and that I needed to keep my husband away from her. He didn’t want to be near her either so I didn’t see that being an issue. I went to the dining room at 6:30 to re-confirm we had a reservation and that we would have a table on time. When the rest of my group arrived, the manager escorted us to a table in an alcove in the very back of the dining room away from the other diners. I didn’t like the location, but I was happy that they finally got us an appropriately sized table at our reserved dining time.

 

Forgive the long post, but is this the normal experience? I know large groups can be difficult to accommodate, but are there any tips or tricks to make dining smoother, other than eating in Windjammer every night? It seemed pointless to make reservations when we only got to eat at our reserved time once. Is it better to not make reservations and just send someone to the dining room around 6 or 6:30 to pick up a pager for the group?

 

Of course, we might be banned from sailing with RC because of the hostess. No one from security ever spoke with us so I don’t know whether we will have a problem booking in the future or not.

 

I am STEAMING reading this. I wish you would have gone to Guest Services and given them a piece of your mind. Something was wrong with that hostess, and she needs to be replaced! Please reach out to Royal's Customer Service with her name and your story- it's not ok, and I'm so sorry it happened to you guys. INSANE!!!

[kyriecat]

I described my issues with MTD and mentioned the hostess by name when I submitted the online survey form that RC emailed to me.

 

The first day is always chaotic so I could blow that off if it was the only problem. I should have requested an appointment with the dining room manager after the hostess changed our reservation the third night, but I had hoped that we wouldn't have further problems. The hostess made it seem like the problems were initiated by me: I should have booked fixed seating not MTD for our group. I complained about having to wait for a table and when she tried to do us a favor by giving us an earlier dining time, I wasn't appreciative. I must have cancelled the reservations because they don't just disappear.

 

I'm a little worried about the the hostess calling security about my husband. I have no idea what she told them. In hindsight, I really should have found out before we left the ship while we had witnesses besides our party available. My husband and I have a cruise with RC booked for January. I would hate to arrive and find out that we cannot board, but I'm not sure who to call to see if there was an incident report.

[LeesSummitCruiser1]

First I don't think 9 is a large group. Your experience was horrible, and sadly starting to show up a little more often (poor customer service).

 

We usually sail with 15 or 20 so its normal to have groups for us. We usually feed the kids early at wind jammer and send them to AO. After about age 6 they have wanted to eat in the MDR with us and we get late seating. I always work the rccldining to get my group tables set up at late seating. Last cruise we had a group of 50 on Liberty and we had a nice corner in the MDR for our group. Tables were great. Service was not so great because we moved around a lot within the area and the waiters were understaffed. Thankfully we had to assistant waiters that filled in for the head waiters. Royal has cut the wait staff in my opinion and they need to add a few back. I wonder what the guest to waiter staff is? Do they staff on a nightly prediction of attendance (lots for lobster night, not so many for a night after a long shore day).

 

Royal is trying to do both MTD and traditional I wish they would pick one and focus on it. I personally don't like MTD but if that is what they choose then fine. As long as they try to do both they will do nether well.

[LeesSummitCruiser1]

I described my issues with MTD and mentioned the hostess by name when I submitted the online survey form that RC emailed to me.

 

The first day is always chaotic so I could blow that off if it was the only problem. I should have requested an appointment with the dining room manager after the hostess changed our reservation the third night, but I had hoped that we wouldn't have further problems. The hostess made it seem like the problems were initiated by me: I should have booked fixed seating not MTD for our group. I complained about having to wait for a table and when she tried to do us a favor by giving us an earlier dining time, I wasn't appreciative. I must have cancelled the reservations because they don't just disappear.

 

I'm a little worried about the the hostess calling security about my husband. I have no idea what she told them. In hindsight, I really should have found out before we left the ship while we had witnesses besides our party available. My husband and I have a cruise with RC booked for January. I would hate to arrive and find out that we cannot board, but I'm not sure who to call to see if there was an incident report.

 

 

Some friends of ours were kicked off the Radiance once in Antigua (teenager issues) in March. They were able to board the Brilliance in Barcelona the next January. You should not have any trouble.

[Baron Barracuda]

OP - sorry for your troubles. That hostess needs to be reminded that she works for a service business and her primary responsibility is to keep her customers happy. 99% do, unfortunately you drew a lemon.

 

Your original question, was "is mtd a problem for large groups". To me, any group that can fit at one table is not "large", but if you require two or more tables you belong in traditional dining, not mtd.

 

Sailed Liberty two years ago in group of 23 with mtd. Big mistake. Group leader visited mdr on day one and arranged 8pm reservations every night with same tables and waiters. Problem was there were different folks dining ahead of us at those tables each night with varied reservation times. None of us were allowed into mdr until all three of our tables had been cleared and reset, so if one table lingered over coffee it held our entire group up. Waiter hustled, but he was covering three large tables. End result was that dinner always took 2+ hours and by the time coffee arrived mdr was almost empty, the house lights were on and cleanup well underway. Situation would been better if we had booked earlier dining time, but then why not just take early traditional.

 

On another recent sailing with group of 20 we had early traditional dining. Walked right up to our tables as doors opened at 6pm and dinner always went smoothly.

[kyriecat]

I was getting the oil changed in my truck this morning and ran into a guy who recognized me from the Liberty sailing. We chatted while waiting on our vehicles. He had been onboard with 11 members of his family to celebrate his parents' 40th anniversary. They also made reservations for MTD, but theirs were a little earlier than ours. They had the same problems that we did for the first couple of nights. He said his dad asked to speak with the maitre d' when they were told there was a problem with their reservation again on the second night and they would have to wait for a table. The hostess told them that the maitre d' was unavailable and they would have to make an appointment. The dad got around that by waiting until they were seated then asking the waiter to request that the maitre d' stop by their table. He said the maitre d' came by every night after that to check on them. The only other time they had problems was on lobster night. When the dad told the maitre d' they had to wait, they were given bottles of wine and a large platter of lobster tails for the inconvenience.

 

It sounds like there are some ongoing issues on Liberty with reservations for parties larger than 6 in MTD. I don't know if the issue is the hostess or the reservation system. It seems like the only way to correct it is to go above the hostess.

[Mcolema7]

I'm upset for you just reading this! I'd call the C&A number and speak to someone in customer service there. This shouldn't have happened and is really unacceptable. It sounds like your group was so much more patient than most would be and were treated so poorly.

[cruisinfanatic]

Last week I sailed on Liberty with extended family. When we sailed together a couple years ago, we had early fixed seating, which we found to be too early. Since we had children with us and didn't want to wait until 8 to eat, we selected MTD and I made reservations online for 6:45 each night for our group of 9. I’ve used MTD previously, but only with 2 or 4 people. I was not expecting so many issues when dining with a larger group!

 

The first night we were told that there was a mix-up and our table wasn't ready. We were given a pager and had to wait about 30 minutes for a table. We figured it was a boarding day glitch and went with the flow.

 

The second night we arrived about 5 minutes early and were told that they thought we weren't coming and had given our table away. Our reservation was in the system and the hostess couldn't explain why she thought we weren't coming. We again had to wait about 30 minutes for a table. We were frustrated, but we waited.

 

The third night I got a phone call at 6:15 asking why we were late for our reservation. We rushed to get to the dining room, thinking I had made a mistake about the reservation time. When we arrived, I found out the dining room hostess had moved our reservation to 6. She claimed she was doing us a favor because we had complained about having to wait for a table so she moved our reservation to earlier. She neglected to inform us of the change so we thought our reservation was still 6:45, as shown on my confirmation email. She then told us that because we were late, even though we did not know she had changed our reservation, they could not accommodate us that night. I’m generally not a “status” person, but I admit to mentioning being D+ C&A and having never previously experienced this type of problem with MTD. I was haughtily informed that as a D+ C&A member, I should have known that MTD was not for large groups and my party would be better accommodated in Windjammer. I just as haughtily informed her that was unacceptable. If she had an issue with large groups in the dining room, she needed to take it up with the corporate office and not blame me. Furthermore, she needed to find us a table, change the remainder of my reservations back to 6:45, and not make any other changes without my approval. I could tell I had angered her by not backing down. I think in retribution, she squashed our group of 9 at a table designed for 6 even though there were empty tables for 8 and 10 nearby. She said those were saved for people who showed up on time for their reservations.

 

The fourth night we decided to eat at Giovanni's. I stopped by the dining room around noon to let them know we would not be eating there that night. Giovanni's was wonderful! We had a very nice dinner at an appropriately-sized table that was ready for us when we arrived at our reserved time.

 

The fifth night we arrived at the dining room at 6:45 to be told that we didn’t have a reservation and would have to wait about an hour for a table. The hostess claimed that when I cancelled the reservation for the previous night, I requested to cancel all our reservations. My aunt and husband who were with me the previous day, both said I had been very clear that I only wanted to cancel the reservation for night four and none of the others. The hostess was adamant that I had cancelled all the reservations and she would not seat us. We asked to speak to her supervisor and were told he was busy and we would have to make an appointment to speak to him. We’d had a long day in port, the kids were tired and hungry, and we didn’t want to deal with further frustration so we decided to go to JR’s that night. Before we left I insisted that our reservations get re-instated for the next two nights.

 

The sixth day I stopped by the dining room around 10 to confirm that we had a reservation for 6:45 that night. I was told yes, no problem. When we left the ice show around 3, I noticed someone else was at the hostess stand so I stopped by again to confirm that we had a 6:45 reservation. Again, no problem. When we showed up at 6:45, we were told that we didn’t have a reservation and because it was lobster night, the dining room was overbooked so we would have to wait 60 – 90 minutes for a table. I asked why our reservation had been cancelled after I had confirmed it with her that morning and with someone else that afternoon. She claimed that I had cancelled it, which I denied. My husband had enough and asked to speak with her supervisor. She said that he was still too busy to see us and we needed an appointment to speak with him. My husband requested again to speak with her supervisor. He raised his voice a little, but he did not shout, use foul language, make any threats, or stand any closer than 3 feet from her. All he said was, ”Ma’am, you are not listening to me. I don’t want an appointment to speak to him later. I want to speak to him now.” However, the hostess said she felt that she was in danger and would call security if he did not leave immediately. Fortunately, my uncle realized the situation was not going well and had gone into the dining room to locate the manager himself. They came out as the hostess was calling for security. After hearing our problem, the manager seated us at what he claimed was normally the Captain’s table. I don’t know if that was true, but it was sized to accommodate 10 people. We had to wait for the staff to set the table since it appeared they did not expect it to be used that night, but we weren’t squashed together, which was nice. The manager said he would make sure that we had a table the next night. The couple who were in line behind us and heard the conversation at the hostess stand stopped by to let us know security showed up but the couple didn’t hear what the hostess told them. They could tell we were frustrated with the hostess but they didn’t think my husband was a threat to anybody. They thought the hostess had overreacted.

 

The seventh day I stopped by the dining room around 1 to confirm that we had a reservation for 6:45 that night. The hostess told me yes and that I needed to keep my husband away from her. He didn’t want to be near her either so I didn’t see that being an issue. I went to the dining room at 6:30 to re-confirm we had a reservation and that we would have a table on time. When the rest of my group arrived, the manager escorted us to a table in an alcove in the very back of the dining room away from the other diners. I didn’t like the location, but I was happy that they finally got us an appropriately sized table at our reserved dining time.

 

Forgive the long post, but is this the normal experience? I know large groups can be difficult to accommodate, but are there any tips or tricks to make dining smoother, other than eating in Windjammer every night? It seemed pointless to make reservations when we only got to eat at our reserved time once. Is it better to not make reservations and just send someone to the dining room around 6 or 6:30 to pick up a pager for the group?

 

Of course, we might be banned from sailing with RC because of the hostess. No one from security ever spoke with us so I don’t know whether we will have a problem booking in the future or not.

All that because you didn't want to eat at 6, but 6:45 was ok?

[Mcolema7]

All that because you didn't want to eat at 6, but 6:45 was ok?

 

 

How do you figure? Isn't early traditional 5:30pm now?

 

Regardless, it seems RC shouldn't offer MTD reservations if they can't accommodate them. The bigger issue here is changing and cancelling reservations without notification.

[camreesmom]

For this large of a group, what were your table arrangements?

 

We were seated at 3 tables adjacent to each other. A 10-top, an 8-top and a 6-top.

 

In all fairness, my husband and I were on the same cruise May 7-14. We spoke with the head waiter and were actually able to pick the exact 3 tables that we wanted for our group on the June 4-11 cruise. I didn't know this previously but the wait staff doesn't work in the same area of the dining room or even with the same team (waiter & asst waiter) each cruise. So we ended up with different servers but still had amazing service.

 

I'm going to post a review later because the service that we received on this cruise was over and beyond our expectations.

[camreesmom]

Last week I sailed on Liberty with extended family. When we sailed together a couple years ago, we had early fixed seating, which we found to be too early. Since we had children with us and didn't want to wait until 8 to eat, we selected MTD and I made reservations online for 6:45 each night for our group of 9. I’ve used MTD previously, but only with 2 or 4 people. I was not expecting so many issues when dining with a larger group!

 

The first night we were told that there was a mix-up and our table wasn't ready. We were given a pager and had to wait about 30 minutes for a table. We figured it was a boarding day glitch and went with the flow.

 

The second night we arrived about 5 minutes early and were told that they thought we weren't coming and had given our table away. Our reservation was in the system and the hostess couldn't explain why she thought we weren't coming. We again had to wait about 30 minutes for a table. We were frustrated, but we waited.

 

The third night I got a phone call at 6:15 asking why we were late for our reservation. We rushed to get to the dining room, thinking I had made a mistake about the reservation time. When we arrived, I found out the dining room hostess had moved our reservation to 6. She claimed she was doing us a favor because we had complained about having to wait for a table so she moved our reservation to earlier. She neglected to inform us of the change so we thought our reservation was still 6:45, as shown on my confirmation email. She then told us that because we were late, even though we did not know she had changed our reservation, they could not accommodate us that night. I’m generally not a “status” person, but I admit to mentioning being D+ C&A and having never previously experienced this type of problem with MTD. I was haughtily informed that as a D+ C&A member, I should have known that MTD was not for large groups and my party would be better accommodated in Windjammer. I just as haughtily informed her that was unacceptable. If she had an issue with large groups in the dining room, she needed to take it up with the corporate office and not blame me. Furthermore, she needed to find us a table, change the remainder of my reservations back to 6:45, and not make any other changes without my approval. I could tell I had angered her by not backing down. I think in retribution, she squashed our group of 9 at a table designed for 6 even though there were empty tables for 8 and 10 nearby. She said those were saved for people who showed up on time for their reservations.

 

The fourth night we decided to eat at Giovanni's. I stopped by the dining room around noon to let them know we would not be eating there that night. Giovanni's was wonderful! We had a very nice dinner at an appropriately-sized table that was ready for us when we arrived at our reserved time.

 

The fifth night we arrived at the dining room at 6:45 to be told that we didn’t have a reservation and would have to wait about an hour for a table. The hostess claimed that when I cancelled the reservation for the previous night, I requested to cancel all our reservations. My aunt and husband who were with me the previous day, both said I had been very clear that I only wanted to cancel the reservation for night four and none of the others. The hostess was adamant that I had cancelled all the reservations and she would not seat us. We asked to speak to her supervisor and were told he was busy and we would have to make an appointment to speak to him. We’d had a long day in port, the kids were tired and hungry, and we didn’t want to deal with further frustration so we decided to go to JR’s that night. Before we left I insisted that our reservations get re-instated for the next two nights.

 

The sixth day I stopped by the dining room around 10 to confirm that we had a reservation for 6:45 that night. I was told yes, no problem. When we left the ice show around 3, I noticed someone else was at the hostess stand so I stopped by again to confirm that we had a 6:45 reservation. Again, no problem. When we showed up at 6:45, we were told that we didn’t have a reservation and because it was lobster night, the dining room was overbooked so we would have to wait 60 – 90 minutes for a table. I asked why our reservation had been cancelled after I had confirmed it with her that morning and with someone else that afternoon. She claimed that I had cancelled it, which I denied. My husband had enough and asked to speak with her supervisor. She said that he was still too busy to see us and we needed an appointment to speak with him. My husband requested again to speak with her supervisor. He raised his voice a little, but he did not shout, use foul language, make any threats, or stand any closer than 3 feet from her. All he said was, ”Ma’am, you are not listening to me. I don’t want an appointment to speak to him later. I want to speak to him now.” However, the hostess said she felt that she was in danger and would call security if he did not leave immediately. Fortunately, my uncle realized the situation was not going well and had gone into the dining room to locate the manager himself. They came out as the hostess was calling for security. After hearing our problem, the manager seated us at what he claimed was normally the Captain’s table. I don’t know if that was true, but it was sized to accommodate 10 people. We had to wait for the staff to set the table since it appeared they did not expect it to be used that night, but we weren’t squashed together, which was nice. The manager said he would make sure that we had a table the next night. The couple who were in line behind us and heard the conversation at the hostess stand stopped by to let us know security showed up but the couple didn’t hear what the hostess told them. They could tell we were frustrated with the hostess but they didn’t think my husband was a threat to anybody. They thought the hostess had overreacted.

 

The seventh day I stopped by the dining room around 1 to confirm that we had a reservation for 6:45 that night. The hostess told me yes and that I needed to keep my husband away from her. He didn’t want to be near her either so I didn’t see that being an issue. I went to the dining room at 6:30 to re-confirm we had a reservation and that we would have a table on time. When the rest of my group arrived, the manager escorted us to a table in an alcove in the very back of the dining room away from the other diners. I didn’t like the location, but I was happy that they finally got us an appropriately sized table at our reserved dining time.

 

Forgive the long post, but is this the normal experience? I know large groups can be difficult to accommodate, but are there any tips or tricks to make dining smoother, other than eating in Windjammer every night? It seemed pointless to make reservations when we only got to eat at our reserved time once. Is it better to not make reservations and just send someone to the dining room around 6 or 6:30 to pick up a pager for the group?

 

Of course, we might be banned from sailing with RC because of the hostess. No one from security ever spoke with us so I don’t know whether we will have a problem booking in the future or not.

 

Like they say, hindsight is 20/20 but I just thought of something else. Since you are diamond/diamond +, did you ever mention anything to the Diamond Concierge? We had a small issue and the Diamond Concierge (Anas) took care of it for us.

 

I'm just sorry that you had to deal with that, especially at the end of every day.

Edited June 16, 2017 by camreesmom
add add'l comments

[Russ Lomas]

A couple of things that I would like to share regarding what happened to you and if anyone else has had similar problems using MTD for large groups...

 

1 - Our past two cruises have been MTD for groups of 24-29 people on the Freedom and our experiences were fantastic. I am not sure if this is all true, but what I am about to mention that we were told may provide some insight as to why you had problems (if true).

 

I was told that basically MTD is still basically a 2 seating (early and late) dining idea. The block of time in the middle (6:45 to 7:45) cannot be pre-booked prior to your cruise online). I was told that guests reserved early are expected to be done and out by about 7:45, so that another group can use that same table. People who want to eat in the 6:45 to 7:45 time slot mess things up because it means the people seated at the table earlier have to rush or a group wanting a later time need to wait for that group eating later to leave so they can be seated. This seems to align with your issue of having a 6:45 dining reservation and why you had to wait usually since the people before you were still at the table.

 

2 - We set a dining time every day for 6 pm with MTD for our entire group seated at 3 tables beside each other. Our fantastic waiter, Leo, told us that as long as we show up before 6:30, the tables would be held for us. We always told him the night before if we thought we were going to be arriving a bit later than 6:00 (due to a late excursion and arriving back at the ship later) to be curious to the wait staff.

 

3 - Other people say why not just book traditional seating at 5:30? Well first of all, 5:30 is too early for us some days when we are in port late and have excursions planned til 5:30 before we board the ship. I do not intend to pay to go to a pay restaurant and we like the MDR and not the buffet. The late seating is too late for many children in our families, so MTD is the best option where your dining time is more flexible. A few cruises ago when we had 5:30 seating, we were told off one night for arriving late since they say it throws them off (we arrived closer to 6:00 because our tour got back late). We were told we should be booking MTD if we intended to be late again....so our next cruise we did and we have done so ever since!

 

4 - A few posters have mentioned going to Guest Services. That may be good on some cruises but on our first trip on the Freedom, it was the Guest Services staff that WERE the problem. Not saying this is the case on cruises that the Guest Services staff are useless, but it was what we encountered on our 2016 cruise on the Freedom. It took an email post-cruise detailing our issues to RCCL corporate to have our issues resolved adequately. (Sidebar: we traveled on the Freedom this year, I did not notice a single person working the Guest Services desk as the previous year. The staff on the desk for our 2017 cruise were amazing).

 

I know this response is long, but I hope it can help those who book MTD with a larger group. Advice - book a time around 6 or 6:15 and ask for the same waiters each night. Develop a relationship with them and they will do their best to accommodate you if you arrive a bit early or late. While at your table, when the head waiter stops by to say "Hello, how are things?" - tell them if you are having issues and they will do everything to make things better (including calling over the Maitre'd if needed). This should have been done early in your cruise to deal with the hostess at the door who kept causing you grief.

 

Sorry to hear about your experience in the MDR and I hope your next cruise experience goes much smoother.