Is it essential to have reservations for "My Time Dining"?

[Bluewake]

We are booked for My Time Dining on an upcoming Royal cruise.  Unfortunately, I was busy doing other things and forgot to make dinner reservations. By the time I realized it, the only times available to reserve were much later than we'd prefer.  With My Time, is it possible to simply show up when the dining room opens and wait for a table or must one have a reservation for a specific time?  I called RCCL with this question and was told that it's possible the dining room would not be able to accommodate "walk-ins" if there have been too many reservations.  Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[ryarger]

Not too long ago someone in the same situation posted and what they ended up doing was this:

* Get in the no reservation line early the first not. They got in within 15 minutes.

* At the end of the meal, talk to the waiter about how you have no reservations but enjoyed their service (assuming you did) and would like to have them the rest of the cruise. A little tip at this point might help things, also.

 

The waiter may then be able to arrange you have a table in their section each night.

[JJK2008]

19 minutes ago, Bluewake said:

We are booked for My Time Dining on an upcoming Royal cruise.  Unfortunately, I was busy doing other things and forgot to make dinner reservations. By the time I realized it, the only times available to reserve were much later than we'd prefer.  With My Time, is it possible to simply show up when the dining room opens and wait for a table or must one have a reservation for a specific time?  I called RCCL with this question and was told that it's possible the dining room would not be able to accommodate "walk-ins" if there have been too many reservations.  Any suggestions would be appreciated.

It is on a first come first served basis. We just did exactly that. The main seating was at 5:30. We would arrive before that and put our name in. At 5:45 they would then start seating in the dining room to replace the "no-shows" We had a party of 6 and got seated together every night. It is on an availability basis. We would have gotten seating every night no problem, but not necessarily all together, we were lucky.      

[crzndeb]

Both my daughter and friends had no reservations and went to MDR about 6, and were seated within 10 mins. There were only 2 in each of their parties. As mentioned, they start backfilling open tables with no shows, and this has happened before they say MTD actually starts.

[Armac]

We had reservations every night on our recent Odyssey cruise. People with reservations lined up on the left, no reservations on the right. The no reservation line seemed to move almost as fast as the reservation line. The only time I observed a long wait was large groups.   

[Donsyb]

I’ve never heard of anyone without reservations NOT getting into eat with MTD so think it’s extremely unlikely. 

[mets07]

We always do MTD and never make reservations. We prefer the flexibility. We know we may have a wait, depending on what time we arrive. Majority of waits have been less than 15 minutes.

[Bluewake]

Thank you all so much for your comments and suggestions. Hearing from others who've been able to be seated after only a relatively short wait is very encouraging. Maybe we aren't going to have to eat in the buffet every night after all !!  

[willing292]

We’ve had to wait anywhere from ten minutes to an hour.  One night after waiting for 20 minutes without moving, we left and ordered room service.
On another ship, on the first night we were asked if we were happy with our table and server, and when we said yes, we were told to seat ourselves every night after that at that table and time.  Hence, no waiting, and trust me, the lines were long!  
I’m  mystified as to why Royal doesn’t know what they are doing on some ships, and on others, they are perfect!   

[CruisingWalter]

Royal Caribbean is the one cruise line we recommend set time dining. They really don't do "my time dining" well at all. I've seen massive lines on multiple ships for the my time experience. I honestly don't understand why it's so hard. Carnival actually does it best with their Hub app. You simply tell the dining room you're ready for dinner and the app will notify you when your table is ready. No need to wait in line, we were usually enjoying a lounge or some music while waiting for our table.  I've never understood why Royal hasn't incorporated something like this into their app. 

[smokeybandit]

45 minutes ago, CruisingWalter said:

I honestly don't understand why it's so hard.

It's not hard. It worked great in the beginning. Just now they let too many people pick a MTD slot and it can cause bottlenecks.

[Donsyb]

4 hours ago, CruisingWalter said:

Royal Caribbean is the one cruise line we recommend set time dining. They really don't do "my time dining" well at all. I've seen massive lines on multiple ships for the my time experience. I honestly don't understand why it's so hard. Carnival actually does it best with their Hub app. You simply tell the dining room you're ready for dinner and the app will notify you when your table is ready. No need to wait in line, we were usually enjoying a lounge or some music while waiting for our table.  I've never understood why Royal hasn't incorporated something like this into their app. 

Whilst I have read of issues on here, it’s worked great whenever we’ve done it. Longest we’ve had to wait is 10 minutes.