MSC dining times vary by market

[marktwothousand]

Trying to book a cruise out of the UK and checked the Canadian, US and UK sites. All three have two selections available for dining…”early” and “late”. However, each website describes the time range differently. I assume this is just some irritating inconsistency, not unlike others on their websites. If I select late on the US site, it simply describes it as “9:30”. The other sites had a range (can’t remember but it was something like 7:30-9:30).

 

Does late mean anytime in the late “Range” or does it really mean 9:30 ONLY? 

Edited July 16 by marktwothousand

[alserrod]

You can book any time, never mind where you live.

 

For which ship are you looking for?

[tofubeast]

If you are booked in a Fantastica and Bella cabin, then you have to pick either early or late seating. Only the higher up cabins such as Aurea or moving into yacht club lets you pick what time you want to eat.
 

Some ships have two seatings within the early seating block. For example, I know Meraviglia, Seashore, and Seascape have seatings in the 5 o’clock and 7 o’clock hours, and both are considered early seating.  But you will be assigned one of those times if you pick early seating. You can’t choose.  Late seating on those ships means you won’t be having dinner till about 9pm. When I’ve been on the Divina, there has been only one early seating time and then the later seating. I assume that’s because it is a smaller ship. 
 

If you are on a ship that happens to have two time periods in the early seating block, and you get the time you are not happy with, you can always check with the restaurant to see if they can move you.  

[Morgsmom]

11 hours ago, marktwothousand said:

Does late mean anytime in the late “Range” or does it really mean 9:30 ONLY? 

Unless you are YC or Aurea, there is no "range" so you would be assigned a seating.  Late could be 9:30 (or 9:45 on some So American and Med sailings).  Once assigned you have a 15 minute grace period; after that you can be denied entry to main dining room and asked to dine elsewhere.

[ray98]

Late for the US cruises is usually 9:30.  Early will get assigned either 5:00 or 7:15.

[CruisingFox27]

As posted by Morgsmum, there's no range of dining time unless you're Aurea or YC. You'll be assigned a time if Bella and can request a preference if Fantastica. Any requests to change are subject to availability. 

The fixed dining time do vary by region, it's not an anomaly on the website. We just sailed Grandiosa in the med, there were 3 dining times, late seating was 9.45pm. Our med sailing on Lirica last year had 2 dining times, late was 9pm. 

If you're sailing from the UK on Virtuosa, there are a few review threads which should give the dining times. 

[Nunagoras]

21 hours ago, Morgsmom said:

Unless you are YC or Aurea, there is no "range" so you would be assigned a seating.  Late could be 9:30 (or 9:45 on some So American and Med sailings).  Once assigned you have a 15 minute grace period; after that you can be denied entry to main dining room and asked to dine elsewhere.

Thanks, but I believe this is not the OP's query. His query is regarding ACTUAL dinner time within same sitting, then yes, MSC works differently by the market each cruise is primarily serving. They have a time sheet for the Med, another for US sailings, another for South America and so on. Things can even to vary sailing by sailing on the same region given the actual sailing's demographics. In some of the most recent ships like the World Europa they have even restaurants with different dinner time settings and they'll adjust you according to your purchasing market point: For example purchasing from Portugal I'd receive 1st sitting at 19:00 while from the US market I'd receive 1st sitting at 18:30 at another restaurant.

[MyriamS]

2 hours ago, Nunagoras said:

Thanks, but I believe this is not the OP's query. His query is regarding ACTUAL dinner time within same sitting, then yes, MSC works differently by the market each cruise is primarily serving. They have a time sheet for the Med, another for US sailings, another for South America and so on. Things can even to vary sailing by sailing on the same region given the actual sailing's demographics. In some of the most recent ships like the World Europa they have even restaurants with different dinner time settings and they'll adjust you according to your purchasing market point: For example purchasing from Portugal I'd receive 1st sitting at 19:00 while from the US market I'd receive 1st sitting at 18:30 at another restaurant.

It's interesting because my (booked through MSC Germany) World Europa booking says: Bevorzugte Tischzeit Frühe Tischzeit 17:30 Uhr - 19:30 Uhr

 

I assumed I would get assigned a dining time within these two hours, dependent upon the ship and itinerary, but I didn't think my assignment would have anything to do with the market I booked the cruise from. Since Germans have earlier diners than Spaniards and Italians and I tend to eat early as well, this could work in my favour (I'm hoping to get assigned a time between 17:30 and 18:30).

[Nunagoras]

20 minutes ago, MyriamS said:

It's interesting because my (booked through MSC Germany) World Europa booking says: Bevorzugte Tischzeit Frühe Tischzeit 17:30 Uhr - 19:30 Uhr

 

I assumed I would get assigned a dining time within these two hours, dependent upon the ship and itinerary, but I didn't think my assignment would have anything to do with the market I booked the cruise from. Since Germans have earlier diners than Spaniards and Italians and I tend to eat early as well, this could work in my favour (I'm hoping to get assigned a time between 17:30 and 18:30).

If you're Aurea guest you can go anytime. If you're Bella/Fantastica you'll have an as early as 17:30 and as late as 19:30 set. I believe they'll try to assign you on an as early as possible slot, preferably on a table with other German guests like you because that used to be their practice.

[MyriamS]

1 minute ago, Nunagoras said:

If you're Aurea guest you can go anytime. If you're Bella/Fantastica you'll have an as early as 17:30 and as late as 19:30 set. I believe they'll try to assign you on an as early as possible slot, preferably on a table with other German guests like you because that used to be their practice.

I'm not German! I just live in Germany. Hopefully we can get a table for two: nothing against sharing in principle, but we eat rather fast so it would be uncomfortable to be assigned to a table with slow eaters.

[Nunagoras]

On 7/17/2024 at 3:36 PM, MyriamS said:

I'm not German! I just live in Germany. Hopefully we can get a table for two: nothing against sharing in principle, but we eat rather fast so it would be uncomfortable to be assigned to a table with slow eaters.

Depending on ship, the older the more frequent, MSC tends to run MDR's the large tables way. You might to be lucky with a 2 tops but expect a regular 8 tops.

[sealynx]

On 7/17/2024 at 4:02 PM, MyriamS said:

It's interesting because my (booked through MSC Germany) World Europa booking says: Bevorzugte Tischzeit Frühe Tischzeit 17:30 Uhr - 19:30 Uhr

 

I assumed I would get assigned a dining time within these two hours

My experience is you don't get a starting time assigned within those hours, but your starting time is 17:30. As someone mentioned, arriving late might get you to eat at the buffet that night. Between the first seating and the second, the restaurant is cleared and cleaned completely (except for the MyTimeDining-area).

 

On several bigger ships they often have three seatings. The restaurants on these ships are a bit too small for the number of passengers, when many cabins have more then double occupancy.

 

My experience is also that on Med-cruises the early seating is the least popular. I don't know (but I'm curious to it) about cruises in Northern Europe.

[kad56]

I've always assumed they vary by ship size as well. Smaller ships have two seatings, larger ships have one.

[marktwothousand]

If I ask to get seated with a larger table, will MSC allow me to have a 2-person table on the odd night I feel like not being with the crowd, or will I be told to go to the buffet?

 

I fear being assigned to a large table but with no option to have a 2-person table on the occasional night if I want one. If I still show up for my assigned TIME of course 

Edited July 20 by marktwothousand

[kad56]

35 minutes ago, marktwothousand said:

If I ask to get seated with a larger table, will MSC allow me to have a 2-person table on the odd night I feel like not being with the crowd, or will I be told to go to the buffet?

 

I fear being assigned to a large table but with no option to have a 2-person table on the occasional night if I want one. If I still show up for my assigned TIME of course 

 

They told me to go to the buffet. I didn't want to argue so I ate at the buffet. I talked to another passenger who complained much more vigorously than I did, and got a 2 top. I've also seen reports of changes here, but I didn't have a great experience changing tables. Cruise was great, but I ate a lot of pizza....

[marktwothousand]

16 minutes ago, kad56 said:

 

They told me to go to the buffet. I didn't want to argue so I ate at the buffet. I talked to another passenger who complained much more vigorously than I did, and got a 2 top. I've also seen reports of changes here, but I didn't have a great experience changing tables. Cruise was great, but I ate a lot of pizza....

Let’s talk about that. How did you enjoy the pizza and what was your favourite kind? Did you ever do any midnight pizza and if so how did you like it?

 

I liked getting midnight pizza but it was awfully presented, fell apart, tongs weren’t clean, too hot…

 

all in all: good proper pizza experience, poor midnight pizza

[marktwothousand]

Here’s an interesting take. Let’s say strangers have a dispute or argument at a table. THEN could you ask to be moved? LOL.

[CruisingFox27]

5 hours ago, marktwothousand said:

If I ask to get seated with a larger table, will MSC allow me to have a 2-person table on the odd night I feel like not being with the crowd, or will I be told to go to the buffet?

 

I fear being assigned to a large table but with no option to have a 2-person table on the occasional night if I want one. If I still show up for my assigned TIME of course 

You're assigned a table for your cruise and that's your table for the entire cruise. You don't get assigned to or request different tables each night. 

[ray98]

9 hours ago, marktwothousand said:

If I ask to get seated with a larger table, will MSC allow me to have a 2-person table on the odd night I feel like not being with the crowd, or will I be told to go to the buffet?

 

I fear being assigned to a large table but with no option to have a 2-person table on the occasional night if I want one. If I still show up for my assigned TIME of course 

 

That isn't going to happen.  Getting an assignment changed to a 2 top is not always successful, much less trying to fluctuate on a daily basis.