Oasis MDR Times

[Carlo16]

Just called for dining reservations for August 2nd sailing. The earliest time i could get for main dining room was 7pm. Does that sound right this far out? I'm traveling with a 6 and 11 year old. They told me to explain that late time with young kids when I board. I just see myself wasting time dealing with something on board that should be handled now. 

I guess my question is if its normal 150 days out for dining room to be booked up?

 

Thanks

[taglovestocruise]

1 hour ago, Carlo16 said:

Just called for dining reservations for August 2nd sailing. The earliest time i could get for main dining room was 7pm. Does that sound right this far out? I'm traveling with a 6 and 11 year old. They told me to explain that late time with young kids when I board. I just see myself wasting time dealing with something on board that should be handled now. 

I guess my question is if its normal 150 days out for dining room to be booked up?

 

Thanks

Is that MTD or Traditional,  If you are on MTD no need to worry as you can can just walk up anytime and be seated. If you have traditional you need to get onto the MTD waitlist. A lot of people book a year out or more, MTD and early traditional are first to fill up. Yes it is normal, I would guess several hundred are trying to change times or seating on boarding day. 

[blueridgemama]

11 minutes ago, taglovestocruise said:

Is that MTD or Traditional,  If you are on MTD no need to worry as you can can just walk up anytime and be seated. If you have traditional you need to get onto the MTD waitlist. A lot of people book a year out or more, MTD and early traditional are first to fill up. Yes it is normal, I would guess several hundred are trying to change times or seating on boarding day. 

I

Not true on the Oasis. My time dining reservations now starts at 6:45 so you can not show up at any time. There is a reservation line and a no reservation line. Even with reservations we waited in line for up to 10 minutes some nights.

[blueridgemama]

1 hour ago, Carlo16 said:

Just called for dining reservations for August 2nd sailing. The earliest time i could get for main dining room was 7pm. Does that sound right this far out? I'm traveling with a 6 and 11 year old. They told me to explain that late time with young kids when I board. I just see myself wasting time dealing with something on board that should be handled now. 

I guess my question is if its normal 150 days out for dining room to be booked up?

 

Thanks

 

You might want to change to early dining so that you don't have to wait to get a table.

[grouchomarx]

I was going to make a similar post, so I guess I'll just post my question in here.  There is a cruise I'm interested in but it says MTD is sold out.  Does anyone have knowledge of how likely it would be to be able to switch to MTD once on board, or would that be impossible?  I've never done traditional dining and worry it might not work for us.  Like, would we have to sit with others or are tables for 2 fairly easy to get?  We don't want to sit with strangers. 

[taglovestocruise]

1 minute ago, blueridgemama said:

I

Not true on the Oasis. My time dining reservations now starts at 6:45 so you can not show up at any time. 

Are you saying that there is no MTD seating before 6:45. I did read that Traditional seating was tacking place on deck 3 and MTD started as the deck cleared. 

[blueridgemama]

They are using all 3 decks for early traditional dining and then using Deck 3 for MTD starting at 6:45pm

I don't know if this is just on Oasis but we just got off of her and that was the policy.

[lovelife]

I'm on Oasis now. Here are the times.

 

[blueridgemama]

54 minutes ago, grouchomarx said:

I was going to make a similar post, so I guess I'll just post my question in here.  There is a cruise I'm interested in but it says MTD is sold out.  Does anyone have knowledge of how likely it would be to be able to switch to MTD once on board, or would that be impossible?  I've never done traditional dining and worry it might not work for us.  Like, would we have to sit with others or are tables for 2 fairly easy to get?  We don't want to sit with strangers. 

 

You can wait in the No Reservation line and they will seat you as tables become available. You can go to the dining room on the first day and make reservations for MTD

If you decide on traditional dining you can go to the dining room on day 1 and request a table for 2.

[grouchomarx]

34 minutes ago, lovelife said:

I'm on Oasis now. Here are the times.

 

So what happens if you don't make a reservation for MTD?  Are you denied entry to the dining room?  Since it says "required".

[lovelife]

25 minutes ago, grouchomarx said:

So what happens if you don't make a reservation for MTD?  Are you denied entry to the dining room?  Since it says "required".

 

Don't know, but it seems the point of MTD is to show up when you wish. Perhaps you can just make a res earlier in the day for that evening??

[blueridgemama]

36 minutes ago, grouchomarx said:

So what happens if you don't make a reservation for MTD?  Are you denied entry to the dining room?  Since it says "required".

 

See post #9

[blueridgemama]

9 minutes ago, lovelife said:

 

Don't know, but it seems the point of MTD is to show up when you wish. Perhaps you can just make a res earlier in the day for that evening??

I

See post #9

[lovelife]

6 minutes ago, blueridgemama said:

 

See post #9

 

Was posted while I was typing mine. Pardon any duplication.

[Nola93]

On 3/2/2020 at 1:07 PM, Carlo16 said:

Just called for dining reservations for August 2nd sailing. The earliest time i could get for main dining room was 7pm. Does that sound right this far out? I'm traveling with a 6 and 11 year old. They told me to explain that late time with young kids when I board. I just see myself wasting time dealing with something on board that should be handled now. 

I guess my question is if its normal 150 days out for dining room to be booked up?

 

Thanks

I understand your concern.  I was traveling with my 12 year old and 9 year old (as well as 2 grandmas), with everyone used to eating at 5:30 PM. My recent experience, as a first time cruiser, was this: when we first booked the cruise, we chose "My Time Dining," assuming that meant we could go when we wanted.  Shortly before embarkation, we finally made reservations, and the earliest we could get was 8:30 pm (8:45 pm the first night).  My mother-in-law, who has been on several cruises and is a member of the RC loyalty club, swore up and down that it was ok to go earlier.  Turned out she was right.  We showed up around 5:30 pm on Deck 3 MDR and waited in one of the lines--I can't even tell you which ("No Reservations" vs. "Reservations"), since we HAD reservations, just not for that time. It took a short time but it really was no problem, perhaps b/c of the kids, or maybe b/c of my MIL's Diamond Club status. We were seated at a lovely round table way in the back. We were also told that we could start showing up at 5:30 pm each night. The next morning there was a card on our door stating such, with a new table number. Because my 9 year old is picky, and my husband has many food sensitivities, we ended up eating at the Windjammer buffet the next night (where you can go any time they're open, though you may wait in line). The following night was formal night, and we all went back to the MDR. I didn't realize I was supposed to bring the card--I thought it was all in their computer system (though it was still showing up as 8:30 pm reservations on the app). It wasn't a big deal--it took a short time again, but they did seat us at a different table than the one that had been listed on the card. The following night we were back at the buffet (I think--it's all starting to blend!), and the next night my husband took the kids to the buffet while the 2 grandmas and I went to MDR.  This time I brought the card, and they seated us at the table # displayed. Which was fine that night, since there were only 3 of us--but it turned out to be a table for 4, and we had initially been a party of 6!  So it worked out, with a small amount of effort and patience.  To be honest, the MDR is all about the ambiance, which was elegant and lovely, but we found the food to be on par with the buffet food, with each venue having some items that were totally delicious and other items that were "meh."  And at every meal, even in MDR,  they gave us a hard sell trying to get us to buy a specialty dining package. So for the rest of the cruise (except the final night) my family of 4 went to the buffet. The grandmas wanted to be waited on, and stuck to MDR. Hope that helps!

[Jellal]

Does dinner take the entire two hours? I have MTD booked from 630-830pm on our upcoming May Oasis sailing. I just booked a few shows that start at 830pm so I was curious to know if we will be able to make them on time? 

[Nola93]

I would say average dinner in the MDR was about 90 mins, with apps, main course, and dessert.  If they're really busy, or it's a special night like lobster tail night, it could take 2 hours. You could try to get to the MDR 10 or 15 mins before your scheduled reservation time and perhaps they'll let you in early. The staff aims to please and if you tell them you have show reservations for 8:30 pm, they also might put in the extra effort to get you out on time.  We found that regardless of whether we had show reservations or not, we could have gotten into any of the shows we attended, as there were always empty seats (except the adult comedy show, which was in a small lounge that filled up quickly).  The difference is whether you want to be selective about where you sit.  So, even if you show up a few mins late, you'll likely get in, but won't get spend any time scoping out the good seats. You can always skip dessert if the clock is ticking! (Then pick up something after the show at the Windjammer). It's so nice that there's no waiting around to pay the check--that helps a lot!

[DrDani226]

On 3/2/2020 at 3:11 PM, blueridgemama said:

They are using all 3 decks for early traditional dining and then using Deck 3 for MTD starting at 6:45pm

I don't know if this is just on Oasis but we just got off of her and that was the policy.

Yes, this! We waited almost 30 minutes the last night and had reservations. 

[DrDani226]

9 hours ago, Nola93 said:

I understand your concern.  I was traveling with my 12 year old and 9 year old (as well as 2 grandmas), with everyone used to eating at 5:30 PM. My recent experience, as a first time cruiser, was this: when we first booked the cruise, we chose "My Time Dining," assuming that meant we could go when we wanted.  Shortly before embarkation, we finally made reservations, and the earliest we could get was 8:30 pm (8:45 pm the first night).  My mother-in-law, who has been on several cruises and is a member of the RC loyalty club, swore up and down that it was ok to go earlier.  Turned out she was right.  We showed up around 5:30 pm on Deck 3 MDR and waited in one of the lines--I can't even tell you which ("No Reservations" vs. "Reservations"), since we HAD reservations, just not for that time. It took a short time but it really was no problem, perhaps b/c of the kids, or maybe b/c of my MIL's Diamond Club status. We were seated at a lovely round table way in the back. We were also told that we could start showing up at 5:30 pm each night. The next morning there was a card on our door stating such, with a new table number. Because my 9 year old is picky, and my husband has many food sensitivities, we ended up eating at the Windjammer buffet the next night (where you can go any time they're open, though you may wait in line). The following night was formal night, and we all went back to the MDR. I didn't realize I was supposed to bring the card--I thought it was all in their computer system (though it was still showing up as 8:30 pm reservations on the app). It wasn't a big deal--it took a short time again, but they did seat us at a different table than the one that had been listed on the card. The following night we were back at the buffet (I think--it's all starting to blend!), and the next night my husband took the kids to the buffet while the 2 grandmas and I went to MDR.  This time I brought the card, and they seated us at the table # displayed. Which was fine that night, since there were only 3 of us--but it turned out to be a table for 4, and we had initially been a party of 6!  So it worked out, with a small amount of effort and patience.  To be honest, the MDR is all about the ambiance, which was elegant and lovely, but we found the food to be on par with the buffet food, with each venue having some items that were totally delicious and other items that were "meh."  And at every meal, even in MDR,  they gave us a hard sell trying to get us to buy a specialty dining package. So for the rest of the cruise (except the final night) my family of 4 went to the buffet. The grandmas wanted to be waited on, and stuck to MDR. Hope that helps!

Sounds like they switched you to the early seating for traditional dining. My Time Dining definitely didn’t start until 6:45 on Oasis. Glad it worked out for you though!

[blueridgemama]

18 hours ago, Jellal said:

Does dinner take the entire two hours? I have MTD booked from 630-830pm on our upcoming May Oasis sailing. I just booked a few shows that start at 830pm so I was curious to know if we will be able to make them on time? 

 

There were only two of us and we were able to eat and be out of the dining room in a little over 1 hour. If you have a large table to serve it will take longer.