My Time Dining Questions

[mccasey]

Hi!

 

We're cruising on the Mariner on September 6th! I am wondering about My Time Dining? Who has done it? Can you call ahead and reserve or do you have to wait in line when you get to the dining room? My husband and I really would like a table for 2. Will we have a better chance at getting that if we do My Time Dining?

 

Thanks!

[rummenroman]

DO IT!!!

 

You can make a standing reservation. Make a reservation for the next night, or just show up. I have only heard of one occasion when someone had to wait more then a minute or two to get a table.

 

Your chances are better about getting a table for two. The host will ask if you want a group or a solo table, and then sit you accordingly. Of course if you make a reservation they will be all ready for you!

[cb at sea]

MTD allows you to show up in the dining room anytime during the hours of operation. You can either make a reservation for a set time, or just show up when you want. Tables for 2 are common. (You should give tablemates a try at some point...it really adds to the experience!!! Maybe you'll meet some folks at the pool or somewhere, so you'll have someone other than your spouse to converse with!)

Whether you have to 'wait in line" will depend on the time you pick to dine. The "line" should move fast, if there is one. And really, what else will you have to do? You're on vacation! A 5 min. wait isn't too bad! I doubt you'll even have to wait that long, tho!

If you do MTD, you will have to pre-pay all of your tips.

[Histrionix]

Hi!

 

We're cruising on the Mariner on September 6th! I am wondering about My Time Dining? Who has done it? Can you call ahead and reserve or do you have to wait in line when you get to the dining room? My husband and I really would like a table for 2. Will we have a better chance at getting that if we do My Time Dining?

 

Thanks!

 

We were just on the 8/16 Mariner cruise and, honestly, found MTD to be a bit chaotic. While you don't HAVE to make a reservation, it's strongly recommended and we did hear of several stories during the cruise of people having to wait much longer than 5 or 10 minutes.

 

Gary is the maitre d' of MTD and he is fantastic - make friends with him the first day and you're set. He really did take very good care of us, despite the issues. As he explained it to us (and I'm not going to get the numbers right), they've only allocated 200 or so seats for MTD (so one portion of Sound of Music DR on deck 5) and there were something like 800 people signed up for MTD who all want to eat at 6:15, 6:30, etc.

 

I'd really recommend making a standing reservation when you first get on the ship. We didn't because what's the point of it being "My Time." Subsequently we found later on that the only available times were 8:15, 8:30, etc.

 

Long story short, it's still got some kinks that need to be worked out, but the service was excellent and still a great experience. Others that we cruised with didn't have the same issues and if you're willing to share a table, you shouldn't have any problems just showing up.

[mccasey]

Thanks for the info guys! Something to consider. I don't mind waiting 5 or 10 minutes max but 15 or more minutes isn't really my thing. Unless of course there's a fun bar where we can sit and wait...

 

I guess if we do meet some cool people that we want to eat with we would. Just not big on the idea of being seated with people you don't know.

[transam84]

I recently had a bad experience with MTD on the Explorer. You can read my review of it. It could be a unique experience but I did not like MTD at all. The Maitre 'd of MTD on the Explorer was unacceptably rude to me IMO and I do not think it was handled well on this ship.

[star of county down]

Well, the only time we didn't enjoy the people we were placed at our table was the time that the couple that had been missing from our table all week showed up for the lobster. Six of us were all dressed for formal night, and this guy showed up wearing a baseball hat; I don't even remember what his wife was wearing. And he was talking about being able to read horses minds:eek:

 

Other than that, it's kind of fun to meet new people. It's not like being stuck in one of those Japanese steakhouse kind of places. But to each his own...

 

We were scheduled for the MTD but I changed it to 8:30. We like sitting at the same table every night. Now, if we ever got into a bad situation, we would simply request another table or now, due to available, switch over to the MTD.

[negc]

 

We were scheduled for the MTD but I changed it to 8:30. We like sitting at the same table every night. Now, if we ever got into a bad situation, we would simply request another table or now, due to available, switch over to the MTD.

 

If you start out in traditional dining and don't care for your tablemates, you should ask to be moved to another table. However, once you start out in traditional or MTD, you cannot, according to their policy, switch to the other. When we used MTD on Navigator of the Seas, we had the same wait staff but not necessarily the same table every night. We were favorably impressed and ate at different times on occasion and never experienced a wait. It is my understanding that they limit the number of guests permitted to use MTD and that number is related to the number of spaces set aside for My Time Dining. I doubt that the ratio would be as high as 800 guests for 200 spaces, even though we can be pretty sure that not all guests in MTD will be dining at the same time. It is not unlike the specialty restaurants where they never fill all the tables at one time so that they can accommodate people at various times during the evening.:)

[star of county down]

Oh...okay.

[karena1]

We love MTD. We found that after years of sitting at big tables, we actually loved being by ourselves. Tables are close enough you can say hi to your neighbors if you want. But with MTD you eat at YOUR pace, not everyone elses. I have nothing but fabulous things to say about it. We never make reservations, and only once did we wait a few minutes. We just went to Schooner's, had a drink and went back. Love the flexibility, the no rush to dinner, and just everything about it. Great, great, great;)

[mccasey]

Another question, how late can you go to dinner on MTD?

[Histrionix]

Another question, how late can you go to dinner on MTD?

 

They were seating up until 9:30 p.m. on Mariner.

[akcruz]

How MTD works truly seems to depend on what ship you are on. We did MTD on Freedom last year and it worked flawlessly. We never made a reservation and never had to wait when we showed up. We dined at different time each night and usually ended up at the same waiters table.

 

We just did MTD on Mariner last week and it had a few kinks. We did make a reservation the first night for 6:30 and when we showed up there was a HUGE line. It took a while to be seated and when we were we hated the table they gave us. The next morning I went and talked to the maitre d'. He explained that Mariner has a larger area of the dining room set aside for MTD and therefore reservations are more of a necessity. He said that a lot of people showed up about the same time without reservations causing the issue the night before. We made another 6:30 reservation and asked for a different table. Well, we found what we liked. We then made a standing reservation for 6:30 with the same wait staff. One night we needed to change and a quick call was all that was needed. Of course then on our last night we had our last hiccup. We had prebooked Portofinos then decided part way through the cruise to just stick with the main dining room. Unfortunately our reservation showed at MTD and they had seated someone else at our table when we got there. Again, we were seated at a not great table, but got decent service. The waiter we had the rest of the week heard about our change and stopped by to chat and apologize for the issue. Not his problem, but it was nice for him to stop by.

 

Bottom line, it is hit or miss. I would suggest making a standing reservation to ensure a time, then adjust as necessary. Also, ask about the experience on the specific ship if you want to know the real truth as they are all different.

[Sandy Sails]

Do you know what deck on the Mariner seats the MTD diners? Just want to make sure we show up at the right dining room!

 

Thanks! Sandy

[temple1]

Do you know what deck on the Mariner seats the MTD diners? Just want to make sure we show up at the right dining room!

 

Thanks! Sandy

 

It was well posted on Enchantment - so it shouldn't be a problem.

 

I think when you get on board, you should go by the MTD station and meet the host/ess so they will get to know you - so you're not just another face each night.

[phantom728]

We tried the MTD on the Serenade and found the same experience as others. It was chaotic and even with a evening reservation for 8pm ended up waiting about 10-15 minutes for a table for 4. They only allotted 1/2 of the 2nd floor dining room for the MTD. It just never seemed to flow that smoothly.

 

Don't think we'll be doing it again. We prefer the traditional seating and knowing who our wait staff is each night.

[andynlala]

So I see that waiting doesn't seem to be too much of a problem with a small party. Weare going on the Mariner in Oct., and we are a party of 9. Anyone have any experience with that?

[mccasey]

Hmmmm... Not sure what to do. We're only two and it would be nice to have the flexibility to be like ... not super hungry yet at 6:00, let's not go eat until later (or the opposite). But we're on the Marine and keep reading not such great reviews about MTD on the Mariner... Something to think about!

 

Sandy Sails - You're on the Mariner the week before we are. Let me know how MTD works for you!

 

Thanks!

[MAZANDSTEVE]

We were given a choice of 2 times for MTD.

[akcruz]

Do you know what deck on the Mariner seats the MTD diners? Just want to make sure we show up at the right dining room!

 

Thanks! Sandy

 

MTD is on Deck 5 of the Mariner.

[ThreeSisters]

We are considering MTD and understand you must prepay all gratuities. If we choose to eat at a specialty restaurant instead of the main dining, how does that affect the gratuities? Do we owe extra for the specialty dining?

[2ndtime20yrslater]

We just got off the Monarch and had switched our 8:30 traditional seating to MTD. We made a reservation everyday usually around 6:30, one night at 7:30. We had a different wait staff and different table every night. The service was ok. When we switched, we had to pre-pay all the tipping, including the steward. We ended up not tipping extra because there wasn't anything extraordinary about our service.

[Half Hitch]

Does anyone have experience with MTD on the Enchantment -- was there a lot of waiting or do you recommend making reservations?

[Kurbanfan]

My Time Dining on the Mariner is a joke......it should be called My Reservation Dining.......they encourage you to make a reservation every night.........defeats the whole purpose......

They really have alot of work to make it work like other cruiselines.......

We were extremely disappointed.....

[MsSoCalCruiser]

We are a party of three. Does anyone know how MTD is working on Radiance? I hope we can just show up when we want.