My time dining?????

[loloteaches]

We are on the allure right now.  We tried to make reservations 7 months ago for a party of 12. Guess it didnt happen so we chose my time dining but there are t really reservations when we want b/c they say others reserved it. Im not understanding and not really happy to be stressed that we can eat together. We cruise together to be together and that includes dinner. Can someone tell me what im missing????? Im about to switch to norweigan

[Oliver]

It’s very difficult to have 12 people together for My Time Dining. I don’t know what happened when you tried to make reservations ahead of time. May I suggest you get two tables of 6 next to each other and maybe rotate the people around. Try to enjoy your cruise and not stress. Even if you aren’t all together at a table at least you are on vacation together 

[WAAAYTOOO]

From experience I can tell you that it’s a fool’s errand to try and coordinate a big group for dinner.  Traditional dining is the best bet so it’s a shame you weren’t able to get that scheduled.  Since that didn’t happen I would just show up with whatever group is there and get as many seated together as you can.  You may have to wait a bit for a big table but I have learned to just let everyone do their own thing. It’s a nightmare trying to coordinate everyone. I never  do it anymore.

[melski94]

It sounds to me as if you tried to get Traditional dining but couldn't and so you were placed in My Time Dining.

Did you make reservations for My Time Dining?  It doesn't sound like it and you could have done it in the cruise planner 6+ months ago.  I have made reservations for a large group for MTD that way. Just think that if you went to a land based restaurant with your party of 12 and tried to be seated right away as it is no different on a cruise ship.  It can be challenging with such a large group and I'm sure there are many large extended family groups on this cruise.  I'm sorry this isn't working out like you hoped.

To make the best of it, make reservations for small groups for most nights with the time you want and choose 1 or 2 nights with a late dining time of around 8:30 to eat together.  They probably could accommodate everyone later in the evening.  Everyone could have a hearty snack pre dinner at 5ish.  

If that won't work then chose Windjammer for dinner. 

You need to decide if the time, place or being all together is the most important and work towards that.

Good luck and I hope that you don't allow this to ruin your cruise.

  

[bhageerah]

1 hour ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

From experience I can tell you that it’s a fool’s errand to try and coordinate a big group for dinner.  Traditional dining is the best bet so it’s a shame you weren’t able to get that scheduled.  Since that didn’t happen I would just show up with whatever group is there and get as many seated together as you can.  You may have to wait a bit for a big table but I have learned to just let everyone do their own thing. It’s a nightmare trying to coordinate everyone. I never  do it anymore.

I concur with @WAAAYTOOO we did MTD once with a group and it was extremely aggravating to try and get a group of 8 together at the same time, you may be able to talk with someone and schedule a time where you may be able to get all of you in at one table.  My advice is next time your best bet will be traditional dining, it did make a world of difference when we made our plans. Good luck!