Changes to My Time Dining

[pdobrynski]

We are currently on the Oasis. We have My Time Dining.  When booking on line the earliest time we could choose was 6:30, which was strange.  The first night our group (5) ate at Solarium Bistro, because the first night at My Time can be a mess.  Day 2 we went to the main dining room on Deck 3 and tried to check in, one of the couples reservations didn’t show up so they sent our party over to the “no reservation line”.  We got seated at 6:30 got out at 9:00.

I had noticed in the Cruise Compass it listed MTD as 6:45-9:00 “reservations required”.  On day 3 I asked the Diamond Host what time MTD started and he said 5:15, I showed him the Cruise Compass and he said that was a mistake. So that night our group went to dinner at 5:30.  When we got there the hostess said the Diamond Host was wrong and that MTD started at 6:45.  I asked when did this change and way.  She said it was being tried on the Oasis to see how it would work, she tried to explain the reasonings behind the change but no one in our group really understood her answer.  She did set us up with a set dining time of 6:00 at the same table for the rest of the cruise.  We just go to the same table every night and do not need to stand in line to check in.

sounds like they are trying to do away with MTD.

[GTO-Girl]

5 minutes ago, pdobrynski said:

We are currently on the Oasis. We have My Time Dining.  When booking on line the earliest time we could choose was 6:30, which was strange.  The first night our group (5) ate at Solarium Bistro, because the first night at My Time can be a mess.  Day 2 we went to the main dining room on Deck 3 and tried to check in, one of the couples reservations didn’t show up so they sent our party over to the “no reservation line”.  We got seated at 6:30 got out at 9:00.

I had noticed in the Cruise Compass it listed MTD as 6:45-9:00 “reservations required”.  On day 3 I asked the Diamond Host what time MTD started and he said 5:15, I showed him the Cruise Compass and he said that was a mistake. So that night our group went to dinner at 5:30.  When we got there the hostess said the Diamond Host was wrong and that MTD started at 6:45.  I asked when did this change and way.  She said it was being tried on the Oasis to see how it would work, she tried to explain the reasonings behind the change but no one in our group really understood her answer.  She did set us up with a set dining time of 6:00 at the same table for the rest of the cruise.  We just go to the same table every night and do not need to stand in line to check in.

sounds like they are trying to do away with MTD.

Our first experience with this was when they moved the Harmony to Canaveral.  You could not make MTD reservations any earlier than 6:30 and it was a royal mess!!!  

They now use the MTD dining room from 5:00-6:30 to seat Traditional early dining.  This means all those who liked to eat early on MTD now have to wait until 6:30 along with all the other people who normally would be eating at that time.  It created a huge crowd and bottleneck of people trying to eat around 6:30!! 
 

We did MTD for a long time, but with this chaos we have gone back to Traditional.  Much calmer and less rushed.  I don’t know who came up with this idea but it is NOT working!!

[ubarpants]

It's a bit frustrating because it's also a self-fulfilling situation. They moved MTD so that it starts later than many would prefer. This leads some guests to switch to early dining (my family did so on our upcoming cruise on Harmony, even though we don't love the idea of eating at 5pm).  This switching then makes RCL think that early dining is so popular that they need to continue holding back room and keep MTD starting so late.  We would much prefer to eat around 6 but that's simply not an option in the MDR.

[Sunny AZ Girl]

We have used MTD for several years and never have had a problem.  We choose 6:30 as our preferred time anyway.  Many times we have a set group and table, so it works like traditional dining, but at a better time for us than early or late Traditional.  Other times we just check in at 6:30 or a little later and never have had a problem.  

[CH5220]

3 hours ago, pdobrynski said:

The first night our group (5) ate at Solarium Bistro

 

Did you need to go to Solarium Bistro earlier that day and make a reservation, or did your group just show up and got seated?

[GTO-Girl]

5 minutes ago, CH5220 said:

 

Did you need to go to Solarium Bistro earlier that day and make a reservation, or did your group just show up and got seated?

you can book it online.....book it on your stateroom TV......or go there and make reservations 

[pdobrynski]

Three of us had made reservations on line, the other couple didn’t, no problem in getting seated.