My Time Dining/ Dining room

[Bases5]

I see people talking about making reservations.  Do you have to make them or can you just show up. ( I understand if you have to wait)

Do you make them days in advance or can you make reservations day of on the ship.

 

Also is the dining room adequate food wise.  I read so much talk about specialty restaurants and really don't want to spend extra on food

 

[Clarea]

You can make reservations or just show up, your choice.  You can make them in advance or on the ship, again your choice.

[klfrodo]

Just off the Symphony. You can do either/or, or both. Can’t say either was faster. One night was reserved for 7:15PM. We waited in line about 10 minutes. Last night we just showed up around 6:30PM and waited about 5 min.

MDR food and selections are fine.

[Bases5]

28 minutes ago, klfrodo said:

Just off the Symphony. You can do either/or, or both. Can’t say either was faster. One night was reserved for 7:15PM. We waited in line about 10 minutes. Last night we just showed up around 6:30PM and waited about 5 min.

MDR food and selections are fine.

Thanks   Do they give you buzzers if you have to wait?

[klfrodo]

24 minutes ago, Bases5 said:

Thanks   Do they give you buzzers if you have to wait?

Nope, you just stand in line until a table opens up and is assigned to you. Then you are escorted to your table.

[LeeW]

On the Oasis-class ships there is a large bar area at the dining room entrance where people wait.  We prefer to make reservations but from recent lines I would say 60% go with no reservation.  Even with a reservation you might wait a few minutes.

 

In around 50 cruises we have gone to a specialty restaurant once.  We like the variety of the regular dining room.  Lately we have had one or two nights a cruise where we would rather have steak than the listed main course, so just ordered the Chops steak.  Have had that priced anywhere between $8 and $16 on various ships (and some nights on Anthem they offered it for half price).  And if you want different salads or veggies or breads they do this all the time.  Last cruise on Navigator they even made up the warm chocolate cookie just for us (headwaiter knew it was our favorite and he arranged with the chef without telling us).

[karena1]

7 hours ago, Bases5 said:

I see people talking about making reservations.  Do you have to make them or can you just show up. ( I understand if you have to wait)

Do you make them days in advance or can you make reservations day of on the ship.

 

Also is the dining room adequate food wise.  I read so much talk about specialty restaurants and really don't want to spend extra on food

 

We do MTD all the time. Rarely do we make reservations.  The beauty of MTD is the flexibility to go and eat when we feel like it.  Hardly ever do we wait more than 5 minutes for a table, but we are also not picky about have the same wait staff every night.  Yes, you can make reservations, but you do not have to.  Food is the same at the set dining.  My husband thinks it is just fine, we never eat at specialty restaurants.   If you want to make reservations, you can do it online, or on the ship.  We have been doing MTD since it came out and we absolutely love it.  We always get a table for 2 and totally enjoy being alone, no more 3 hour dinners.  Works perfect for us.

[Bases5]

5 minutes ago, karena1 said:

We do MTD all the time. Rarely do we make reservations.  The beauty of MTD is the flexibility to go and eat when we feel like it.  Hardly ever do we wait more than 5 minutes for a table, but we are also not picky about have the same wait staff every night.  Yes, you can make reservations, but you do not have to.  Food is the same at the set dining.  My husband thinks it is just fine, we never eat at specialty restaurants.   If you want to make reservations, you can do it online, or on the ship.  We have been doing MTD since it came out and we absolutely love it.  We always get a table for 2 and totally enjoy being alone, no more 3 hour dinners.  Works perfect for us.

Thanks.  We do MTD with other lines and love it also. But other lines don’t offer reservations. My love about MTD is the flexibility,  and thought reservations kind of did away with the flexibility 

[Illbcruzn4life]

11 hours ago, Bases5 said:

I see people talking about making reservations.  Do you have to make them or can you just show up. ( I understand if you have to wait)

Do you make them days in advance or can you make reservations day of on the ship.

 

Also is the dining room adequate food wise.  I read so much talk about specialty restaurants and really don't want to spend extra on food

 

 

dining room food is always satisfying to me. Even the buffet works for me. I have never not gained weight.

 

I don't know what ship you are going on but the MTD on Harmony I am not too fond of right now.

[snaefell]

Just off Quantums repo cruise from China to Singapore which,because of its very nature may have affected things on board.

I booked Chops for the first night & the MDR for the remaining 11 nights.

Chops was OK,great service,not sure it is worth the extra,MDR(American Icon) on second night,seperate line for those with reservations , we were within 10 minutes of our booked time,lovely room decor,too noisy,wrong food,cold food,mediocre food,end result still hungry afterwards & so headed for Windjammer,liked it so much we ate there every night,just loved the outside area overlooking the stern!

[Iamcruzin]

23 hours ago, Bases5 said:

I see people talking about making reservations.  Do you have to make them or can you just show up. ( I understand if you have to wait)

Do you make them days in advance or can you make reservations day of on the ship.

 

Also is the dining room adequate food wise.  I read so much talk about specialty restaurants and really don't want to spend extra on food

 

I found the food in the MDR to be very good. The lobster tail is always hit or miss on any cruise line. Order two entrees that night.  Those who eat in specialty restaurants tend to be those who sail the same cruise line over and over. The menu does get redundant after a while. Even the specialty restaurants can become mundane if you cruise a lot.

We made reservations pre cruise so we were able to plan our evening. For example one of the main shows was playing during our normal dinner time so we made reservations that night for a later time. We found by having reservations we were able to make the most of the night and didn't have to wait on line for a long period of time.