Dining with a large family group

[smalltimecruiser100]

Our family, consisting of about 25 people are travelling on the Rhapsody of the Seas in November and wanted to eat one meal together. Is there anyone we could contact at Royal ahead of time to arrange for this?

[brillohead]

Do you all have the same dining time?  Early Traditional, Late Traditional, or My Time?

Do you want to be in a specialty restaurant?  

Do you have a specific night that you want the group dinner to take place?

[schmeed]

You might be able to get the same time, but don't count on being at side-by-side tables.  This will be a challenge.

 

Email your request to rcldining@rccl.com

[gerif]

Unless you are planning to do this in a specialty restaurant, you would ALL need to have the same type of dining (e.g., early or late traditional or MTD). Since you only want to do this once, I’d suggest that you all do MTD. Arrange a reservation for the date and time you all want to eat together when you get on the ship. They will do their best to accommodate you. 

[Florida_cruisers]

Make sure your reservations are linked and like others mentioned have the same time picked for dinner, either early/traditional or late dining. Email RCL about 4 weeks before you go and to double check, when you board go straight to the dining room and talk to the maitre d’ to confirm or fix any issues. 

[smalltimecruiser100]

MTD I think would be the easiest to conform. Will have to check with others as to which have the most,  early or late and go from there as everyone booked their own cruise instead of doing a group booking which would have made more sense. We were looking at the main dining room but if there is a conference room on the Rhapsody we could eat in might be the best arrangement. 

Thanks everyone for your suggestions. Will email to rcldining@rccl.com.

Edited April 24, 2019 by smalltimecruiser100

[lola2013]

I tried to make dinner reservations for our group of 12 for our upcoming JOTS cruise.  We are anytime dining so I called and spoke with someone in the "group" department.  I had all the booking #s and requested just two nights to be together in the MDR.  I provided the rep with both the dates and times we wanted.   "No problem", I was told.  Soon after, I received an email confirmation...didn't register until later that only my name was on the email.  I immediately called back and was told:  1.  the times I requested are not available.  2.  they cannot accommodate 12 people unless it's an "event."

Not sure what the confirmation actually confirmed...certainly not what I requested.

I plan to visit the MDR and speak with the maître 'd as soon as I board and hope for the best!

[brillohead]

10 hours ago, lola2013 said:

I tried to make dinner reservations for our group of 12 for our upcoming JOTS cruise.  We are anytime dining so I called and spoke with someone in the "group" department.  I had all the booking #s and requested just two nights to be together in the MDR.  I provided the rep with both the dates and times we wanted.   "No problem", I was told.  Soon after, I received an email confirmation...didn't register until later that only my name was on the email.  I immediately called back and was told:  1.  the times I requested are not available.  2.  they cannot accommodate 12 people unless it's an "event."

Not sure what the confirmation actually confirmed...certainly not what I requested.

I plan to visit the MDR and speak with the maître 'd as soon as I board and hope for the best!

I cruised a few years ago with a group of 12 (it was a group for a wedding, although the wedding took place just prior to boarding, not part of the RCL wedding on board stuff).  

The reservations were all linked, with everyone having the same dining time (Late Traditional), and we were all seated at a table for 12.  

 

 

[smalltimecruiser100]

still thinking about the conference room just off the MDR. Wondering if that was ever used for dinner of large groups if available?

[TravisP]

We had a group of 26 last week on HOTS. We had all our cruise reservations linked together and one person over getting thing quarnated with RCI. We has 3 long table in a row set ups for us each night. We were part of the late dining time. 

[johnjen]

16 hours ago, smalltimecruiser100 said:

MTD I think would be the easiest to conform. Will have to check with others as to which have the most,  early or late and go from there as everyone booked their own cruise instead of doing a group booking which would have made more sense. We were looking at the main dining room but if there is a conference room on the Rhapsody we could eat in might be the best arrangement. 

Thanks everyone for your suggestions. Will email to rcldining@rccl.com.

Also include mprieto1@rccl.com in your email. She was extremely helpful and friendly if she is still with RCL.

[smalltimecruiser100]

5 minutes ago, johnjen said:

Also include mprieto1@rccl.com in your email. She was extremely helpful and friendly if she is still with RCL.

How long ago did you email her?

[johnjen]

On 4/25/2019 at 7:22 AM, smalltimecruiser100 said:

How long ago did you email her?

It's been two years. Not a bad idea to test and just ask if she's still there. Very helpful source.

[johnjen]

All we want for our dining is a large table with ten or more people we haven't met and as multi-national as possible, and a table by the window. We have met so many great and interesting friends that way. Our worst dining situation has been on Anthem and also Carnival Glory where we were tossed to side tables for two and the service was horrific. Tables for two do not get as good treatment as the larger tables. I'll contact Marlene and/or dining at least three weeks ahead of cruising. The larger tables are one of the highlights for us on cruises.

[spookwife]

On 4/24/2019 at 12:30 AM, smalltimecruiser100 said:

Our family, consisting of about 25 people are travelling on the Rhapsody of the Seas in November and wanted to eat one meal together. Is there anyone we could contact at Royal ahead of time to arrange for this?

 

 

are you talking  MDR or a specialty restaurant?  if MDR, you all need to be on the same  dining time( and all your accounts linked) :  Early, Late or  MTD.  with MDR you will probably need to  split up to about 3-4 tables but they will try and get them close together.

 

for a Specialty, you might have to make do with  one restaurant and one time( no negotiating)  in order to fit you all in there at the same time.  you would   do that as soon as you board and head to a specialty dining venue to  take care of that.  ( they can usually handle all the options at one location so you may head to chops but be booked into  Giovannis)  

 

all you can do prior to boarding is make a request, which may or may not be  taken care of

 

if someone is in a suite, you MIGHT be able to ask the concierge for assistance