Kwevans Posted February 19, 2019 Report Share Posted February 19, 2019 We just booked our first cruise (Mariner for 3 nights) for June. Our 10yr old son will be coming with us. I’m trying to debate early versus late dining times. What are some pros and cons for each? Any advise will be appreciated!! We want to make the most of our short cruise!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KathyC Posted February 19, 2019 Report Share Posted February 19, 2019 Think about what time you normally eat at home - which is closer to your norm? Look at the days you are in port - what time do you need to be back on the ship? If 2 of your 3 nights are later ports, then you'll either have to leave port early or skip dinner in the MDR and eat in the Windjammer. If you feel like you've chosen wrong, you can always get extra snacks/meal in the Windjammer to either tide you over or have that late night snack. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JLMoran Posted February 20, 2019 Report Share Posted February 20, 2019 Hi @Kwevans, welcome to the forums! And congratulations on booking your first cruise, you're in for a great time. Figure that early dining will have more young children present, since parents may not want them staying up too late even on vacation. If you want your son to have a chance at some table mates his own age to talk with, you might have better chances in this time slot. The down side of this time slot, based on what I've read from others who've posted about it, is that it seems the level of service and the quality of the food served has gone down a lot due to servers and the kitchen having a lot of passengers to manage in both traditional and My Time Dining at this hour. Reports of slow service, cold or incorrectly prepared food, and wait staff that never seemed to get to know you seem far more common in this time slot. With later dining, which is what I did with my family, you won't be as likely to see that many pre-teens and younger. I wasn't really looking for them when we were there, but I honestly can't recall seeing any; and we ate in the main dining room every night. Plenty of teens and twenty-somethings, but not any kids clearly under 12 that I'm remembering. The plus side of this dining slot, at least based on my experience and anecdotally from a few others, is that the level of service and quality of the food are in line with what people remember "from back when". Our food was always hot and well-prepared, our servers remembered our drink preferences and were always attentive, we even got some extra staff helping to deliver drink orders more promptly after the first night. Hope this helps! SpeedNoodles 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DRLPP Posted February 20, 2019 Report Share Posted February 20, 2019 When I travel with the kids, age 10 and 8, we often do late dinning. We take the kids to the windjammer and let them eat what they want (often I will dab a little into the buffet as well), then it is off to the children's area for drop off. Then we go and have a nice long dinner for ourselves. KLA and JLMoran 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monctonguy Posted February 20, 2019 Report Share Posted February 20, 2019 Early for sure....Late is late imho.....and takes 90 mins or more to eat normally... plus if you want to take in any evening activities..if you do the late dining, don't plan on hitting anything much before 10pm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HeWhoWaits Posted February 21, 2019 Report Share Posted February 21, 2019 Early is too early vs. our norm and late is too late vs. our norm. MTD would be the way to go for me but my wife doesn't like the idea. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kwevans Posted February 21, 2019 Author Report Share Posted February 21, 2019 42 minutes ago, HeWhoWaits said: Early is too early vs. our norm and late is too late vs. our norm. MTD would be the way to go for me but my wife doesn't like the idea. Can I ask why she doesn't like the idea of MTD? I've been looking into that as well and I just don't know much about the difference in dining options. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HeWhoWaits Posted February 21, 2019 Report Share Posted February 21, 2019 29 minutes ago, Kwevans said: Can I ask why she doesn't like the idea of MTD? I've been looking into that as well and I just don't know much about the difference in dining options. It's all about control - even though you can reserve MTD at the same time and request to be seated with the same wait staff every evening, the lack of certainty would drive her crazy. Kwevans 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Posted February 21, 2019 Report Share Posted February 21, 2019 30 minutes ago, Kwevans said: I've been looking into that as well and I just don't know much about the difference in dining options. Here's a good breakdown of the choices: https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2018/09/05/royal-caribbean-my-time-dining-versus-traditional-dining SpeedNoodles 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jolly Ogre Posted February 21, 2019 Report Share Posted February 21, 2019 On 2/19/2019 at 7:31 PM, JLMoran said: The down side of this time slot, based on what I've read from others who've posted about it, is that it seems the level of service and the quality of the food served has gone down a lot due to servers and the kitchen having a lot of passengers to manage in both traditional and My Time Dining at this hour. Reports of slow service, cold or incorrectly prepared food, and wait staff that never seemed to get to know you seem far more common in this time slot. The plus side of this dining slot, at least based on my experience and anecdotally from a few others, is that the level of service and quality of the food are in line with what people remember "from back when". Our food was always hot and well-prepared, our servers remembered our drink preferences and were always attentive, we even got some extra staff helping to deliver drink orders more promptly after the first night. We did MTD on the Allure last month and made reservations for 5:45 and showed up from 5:30-6:15 and had no issues at all. When you go in the 1st night and you like the wait staff you can request to be seated at that table and time slot every night and they will get to know you. I even got to know the head waiter Sergii, when I asked for savory bites. He made a big deal of how I knew of such things on my 1st Royal cruise and that how dare I demand such things...lol it was all in good fun. SpeedNoodles and JLMoran 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HeWhoWaits Posted February 22, 2019 Report Share Posted February 22, 2019 22 hours ago, Jolly Ogre said: I even got to know the head waiter Sergii, when I asked for savory bites. He made a big deal of how I knew of such things on my 1st Royal cruise and that how dare I demand such things...lol it was all in good fun. Blame it on the Blog! Matt and SpeedNoodles 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JennyB Posted March 12, 2019 Report Share Posted March 12, 2019 On 2/21/2019 at 2:08 PM, Jolly Ogre said: when I asked for savory bites. He made a big deal of how I knew of such things on my 1st Royal cruise and that how dare I demand such things...lol it was all in good fun. wait...WHAT? we can ask for them!! OHMYGOSH!!! I missed them on our most recent cruise in December! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HeWhoWaits Posted March 12, 2019 Report Share Posted March 12, 2019 1 hour ago, JennyB said: wait...WHAT? we can ask for them!! OHMYGOSH!!! I missed them on our most recent cruise in December! Grandeur in October - asked waiter about them at dinner the first night - he had no clue what I was talking about. Head waiter came over - she knew about them and promised to have them starting night two. Every dinner for the rest of the cruise included a basket of at least 15 of the little gems - including the night that we arranged to come at early seating instead of our scheduled late seating. JennyB and Jolly Ogre 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JerseyJoe Posted March 13, 2019 Report Share Posted March 13, 2019 On 2/21/2019 at 2:08 PM, Jolly Ogre said: We did MTD on the Allure last month and made reservations for 5:45 and showed up from 5:30-6:15 and had no issues at all. When you go in the 1st night and you like the wait staff you can request to be seated at that table and time slot every night and they will get to know you. I even got to know the head waiter Sergii, when I asked for savory bites. He made a big deal of how I knew of such things on my 1st Royal cruise and that how dare I demand such things...lol it was all in good fun. Ok, now I have to ask - what are savory bites? JennyB 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jolly Ogre Posted March 13, 2019 Report Share Posted March 13, 2019 They are delicious. Savory bites are a potato based, seasoned bread like crouton. I open them up and spread butter on them and use them as a bread substitute. That is the best I can explain them. Ask for them on your next cruise. JerseyJoe 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Posted March 13, 2019 Report Share Posted March 13, 2019 11 minutes ago, JerseyJoe said: Ok, now I have to ask - what are savory bites? https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2013/12/12/royal-caribbean-classic-savory-bites JerseyJoe and JennyB 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevendom57 Posted March 13, 2019 Report Share Posted March 13, 2019 Are savory bites gluten free? @Jolly Ogre says they are potato base, so there is hope. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevendom57 Posted March 13, 2019 Report Share Posted March 13, 2019 In November, on Mariner, I went with MTD but selected the same time every night. We were seated at the same table, with the same waitstaff each night. The people at our table were the same but on some nights they were gone, doing other things. I guess that is why they chose MTD. One night my DW and I were by ourselves on an 8 top. I wonder what we missed out on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jolly Ogre Posted March 13, 2019 Report Share Posted March 13, 2019 29 minutes ago, stevendom57 said: Are savory bites gluten free? @Jolly Ogre says they are potato base, so there is hope. Well check out @Matt he has the all the answers. They told me on the Allure that they were potato based, however looking at the recipe they are not. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HeWhoWaits Posted March 13, 2019 Report Share Posted March 13, 2019 2 hours ago, JerseyJoe said: Ok, now I have to ask - what are savory bites? Only THE best reason to go to the MDR every night! JennyB 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JerseyJoe Posted March 13, 2019 Report Share Posted March 13, 2019 1 hour ago, Jolly Ogre said: Well check out @Matt he has the all the answers. They told me on the Allure that they were potato based, however looking at the recipe they are not. Recipe says potato flour. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevendom57 Posted March 13, 2019 Report Share Posted March 13, 2019 Potato flour is ok for gluten free. The only concern is what "Savory Base" is. Is it Colonel Sanders 13 herbs and spices? JennyB 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JennyB Posted March 14, 2019 Report Share Posted March 14, 2019 22 hours ago, stevendom57 said: what "Savory Base" is. Is it Colonel Sanders 13 herbs and spices? "the world may never know"... LOL HeWhoWaits 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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