My Time Dining and Tips

[dtenery]

Not to pick on you for this comment, but I always laugh when I see it. The "strangers" we are assigned to eat with end up being friends within minutes. Best way in the world to meet new folks and make new friends. We LOVE it.:D It's not like we eat with strangers for a week.

 

Not to pick on you for your response, but not everyone is comfortable making small talk with people they don't know for at least an hour. There are plenty of ways to make new friends. This particular way may be pleasant for you, but don't presume it is for everyone.

 

My favorite part of dinner is sitting with the people I already know and love and having private discussions about things that are meaningful to us without regard for entertaining or being entertained by people we've just met.

[Kurbanfan]

Not to pick on you for this comment, but I always laugh when I see it. The "strangers" we are assigned to eat with end up being friends within minutes. Best way in the world to meet new folks and make new friends. We LOVE it.:D It's not like we eat with strangers for a week.

 

I don't think so.......

It reminds me of going on a blind date:p

[SOOKIENY]

Been a fan of Freestyle Dining on NCL for a long time. One of the main reasons I sail with them. We will be on the Oasis in February and I was hesitant to book it due to the scheduled dining times. Glad to hear the option for MTD is available. We chose the late seating, so my question is, do I have to let them know before we sail that I want MTD instead?

[denamo]

You can set up MTD prior to cruising on the Oasis. Since it is such a large ship, I would probably do that. You will pre-pay your gratuities. I called our TA recently and had it switched. It shows online at RCCL that we are slated for MTD.

 

This will be our first experience with MTD. I'm looking forward to it.

[Case1096]

I was hoping to get some clarification for some friends of ours cruising the Voyager in July.

 

- TA said they would have to pre-pay the gratuities now and could not be charged to the onboard account, is that correct?

 

- TA said it was $10/pp/day for dining alone on MTD. That seems very high considering $10/pp/day typically includes the room steward as well.

 

- Can you sign up for MTD once onboard?

 

- Did they get rid of second seating on the Voyager?

[mar915]

We just booked it about 2 weeks ago and we leave in 2 weeks. When our TA called RCI they said they would just charge it to our OBC which she was suprised. It was about 9.50 per person per day but it included the all gratuities including the cabin steward. You can book on board but it could be booked so if you really want it you may want to book ahead.

[love2vacation]

I was hoping to get some clarification for some friends of ours cruising the Voyager in July.

 

- TA said they would have to pre-pay the gratuities now and could not be charged to the onboard account, is that correct?

 

- TA said it was $10/pp/day for dining alone on MTD. That seems very high considering $10/pp/day typically includes the room steward as well.

 

- Can you sign up for MTD once onboard?

 

- Did they get rid of second seating on the Voyager?

Answering some of your questons.

 

We had to pre-pay gratuities when we signed up for MTD with our TA.

 

The prepaid gratuities includes all gratuities - including the cabin steward.

 

You may be able to sign up if you go directly to the maitre d once on board but MTD fills up quickly and you mght be out of luck. (they only have a certain # of tables for MTD)

 

Don't know about the Voyager, sorry!

 

Enjoy year cruise.:D

[loeytalldog]

For My Time Dining do you still need to dress in formal wear on the formal nights?

[MellieInWI]

For My Time Dining do you still need to dress in formal wear on the formal nights?

 

YES. You're still in the main dining room with everyone else. You just come and go at your leisure vs. having a set dining time.

[hodok]

Hello,

our group has 7 people in 3 cabins. For now I already reserved first seating and linked our reservations, so that we can seat together. It worked fine on the previous cruises. The flexibility of MTD sounds attractive, but will we have to wait long for a table? Does MTD make more sense for 2-4 people? Anyone used MTD for a larger group and can share thoughts?

Thank you!

Guys, please, what about a group of 7 (4 adults, 3 kids - ages 8-12), does MTD make sense or should we just stick to traditional seating? The kids are generally well behaved, but long waiting time for a table ... The advice is greately appreciated.

[1st mate]

We just came off of Freedom, we did regular seating, but we could have signed up for MTD the first day. I was under the impression that you had to pre pay your tips on sea pass as a requirement to participate.

 

It seemed that there were several that chose this option, but we enjoy getting to know the wait staff at our table. IMO.

 

Was also led to believe that by prepay of tips the MTD waiters recieved pooled tips. Not much incentive to go above and beyond???

 

I must admit having not tried this option I cannot make a decision on MTD, but I am partial to the old style dinning.

[marci22]

Guys, please, what about a group of 7 (4 adults, 3 kids - ages 8-12), does MTD make sense or should we just stick to traditional seating? The kids are generally well behaved, but long waiting time for a table ... The advice is greately appreciated.

 

I was going to do MTD but I switched back again. We were still going to eat around the same time every day, so I figured I would rather have my table waiting for my party of 5 than risk waiting around so I could eat 15 minutes later some nights.

 

I was also concerned because people said it's limited to certain floors of the dining room and there were lots of couples dining. Plus it might throw things off if you want to see a show that is geared timewise for early/late dining. Just seemed harder than traditional once I thought about it!

[joannanwb]

Hi Hodok, something else to consider - I seem to remember reading on these boards about "Family MTD" whereby the children have dinner with you in the MTD section but their meal is expedited and they are collected by a member of staff from the kids club so that leaves you to enjoy the rest of your meal at your leisure. We are just off the Navigator and MTD only has 90 covers for 3,500 people, so might be best to prebook this if it is something that is important for your family. Good luck with whatever you choose.:)

[love2vacation]

We just came off of Freedom, we did regular seating, but we could have signed up for MTD the first day. I was under the impression that you had to pre pay your tips on sea pass as a requirement to participate.

 

It seemed that there were several that chose this option, but we enjoy getting to know the wait staff at our table. IMO.

 

Was also led to believe that by prepay of tips the MTD waiters recieved pooled tips. Not much incentive to go above and beyond???

 

I must admit having not tried this option I cannot make a decision on MTD, but I am partial to the old style dinning.

 

I believe that the tips to the wait staff are somewhat pooled anyway as they also go to the staff in the Windjammer.

 

MTD- You can make a standing reservation for a certain time each night and your table will be waiting for you. We did this and we never had to wait for our table. Because we had the same table on the night we dined with our group of 8 we also had the same waitstaff.