No 530 Dining 12 months out?

[alyspins]

Hi! It's been a while since I've cruised with Royal Caribbean, so I'm hoping someone can help me out...

 

We booked an Alaskan cruise with RC for August 23-30 2018 on Ovation of the Seas. We were hoping for a 530 MDR seating, but it's sold out! Is it possible that they've just held some back for higher levels? I was shocked to see it was unavailable 13 months in advance! We called and they said there wasn't even a waiting list.

 

We are cruising with my daughter who will be 20 months at the time, so I was hoping for an earlier dinner time for her... any insight into the option of getting at 530 MDR or are we out of luck?

 

Thanks!

[Clarea]

Contact whoever booked your cruise and ask to be put on the wait list for 5:30pm dining. This far out, you would be likely to clear the wait list if they can add you.

[island lady]

If your reservation does not clear on the waiting list...simply go straight to the MDR desk when you board and speak to the host there. They might be able to help you change to that time.

[little britain]

Why not do My Time Dining and then go and dine at 5.30p?

[alyspins]

Contact whoever booked your cruise and ask to be put on the wait list for 5:30pm dining. This far out, you would be likely to clear the wait list if they can add you.

 

We booked our cruise through the RC website. My husband called and they said there was no waitlist or that they weren't taking names for the waitlist...but maybe we should try again?

[GalwayGirl03]

We did my time dining last year on Oasis with our 20 month old and we got a reservation on the first day of the cruise for 5pm. The host was awesome and just placed a reservation for us! go early the day explain you have a young child and they will help you out!

[Clarea]

We booked our cruise through the RC website. My husband called and they said there was no waitlist or that they weren't taking names for the waitlist...but maybe we should try again?

Odd that the wait list is full this far out.

 

The only thing you can do at this point is to get on My Time dining and try to make a 5:30pm reservation.

 

 

As others have mentioned, try changing to traditional once you get onboard. If that does not work, there's always Windjammer.

[ONECRUISER]

We booked our cruise through the RC website. My husband called and they said there was no waitlist or that they weren't taking names for the waitlist...but maybe we should try again?

Agree. In 30yrs I've never not got time I wanted. Had to be on wait list at times, but this far out you should be ok

[alyspins]

For those who have done MTD, what are my odds to have the same waitstaff the whole time? That's one of our favorite parts of a cruise!

[little britain]

For those who have done MTD, what are my odds to have the same waitstaff the whole time? That's one of our favorite parts of a cruise!

Recently I have noticed they always try and seat you in the same area with the same waiters. Sometimes this is not a good thing.

We had the most miserable table neighbours on our recent Jewel cruise and we didn't particularly want to be anywhere near them... but every night we were lead to the same table until we asked to be seated elsewhere. Then the waiters got upset as they were lovely and wanted to know why we weren't in their area ......:o

[Clarea]

For those who have done MTD, what are my odds to have the same waitstaff the whole time? That's one of our favorite parts of a cruise!

Decent odds if you can make a reservation for the same (or close to the same) time each night.

[savermom23]

We did exactly that - I booked our April 2019 cruise about 11 months in advance and there was no option to select the early dining seating. So I chose My Time Dining and just reserved each night for 6:15 pm.

[boubear360]

For those who have done MTD, what are my odds to have the same waitstaff the whole time? That's one of our favorite parts of a cruise!

 

 

 

i went with a group of 8 and set up my time res for every night like 11 months out. we got same wait staff every night.

 

 

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[island lady]

Recently I have noticed they always try and seat you in the same area with the same waiters. Sometimes this is not a good thing.

We had the most miserable table neighbours on our recent Jewel cruise and we didn't particularly want to be anywhere near them... but every night we were lead to the same table until we asked to be seated elsewhere. Then the waiters got upset as they were lovely and wanted to know why we weren't in their area ......:o

 

Agree. I find it annoying that you choose MTD (supposed to be dining on your time) and they insist on running it like traditional dining with a different time. If the table they insist you reuse each time still has pax at the table who are lingering or got there late, they will make you wait for that table rather than put you at one of the many empty tables we see when we finally go in.

 

I really don't know why they don't run it like breakfast and lunch. Seat you at the first available table....like a restaurant.

 

This is one of the reasons we are starting to enjoy the WJ. ;)

[LeeW]

Had 5:30 Mytime reservations and went to the dining room hostess on the first day to verify. She suggested coming earlier since they actually opened up at 5:00 and changed our reservation to an earlier time that wasn't available online. Since she had access to the full dining reservation system she could have put us in early fixed dining if we had wanted that (there was space available) but we prefer Mytime, same table/waiters/time each night.

[kathimac123]

We had MTD on the Oasis. Really enjoyed our waitstaff, so the second morning, we requested to be seated every night in the same place with them. Not a problem.