My time dining - recurring booking for larger group

[Vanessa77]

Hi all,

I’ll be sailing this December with my partner, parents, siblings etc. all together we are 10, possibly 11. 

We all have My Time dining, and as it is a Christmas cruise I’ve gone ahead and pre booked dinner for us all together in the main dining room for 3 nights of the 9 night cruise (one of which is Christmas night, plus night 1 and night 9).

Now that our cruise has started to get closer, we’ve been talking about schedules, meeting up, how to stay in touch. And my mum has mentioned that she wants to just make a MTD booking in the MDR for every night of the cruise for all 10 of us for the same time each night as a standing booking. While I have heard others doing this and rocommending booking your MTD for the week as soon as you can, I have a few issues with this. 

- We don’t really know what time shows are, and what time we should book for. 

- My sister is bringing her 3 kids, and I can’t imagine them wanting to even eat in the MDR every night. She has already said she wants no part in formal night

- We are a large group. If we make the booking for 10, and they reserve it as such, but only 5 of us show up, this just feels kinda rude. I know this isn’t an odd thing for traditional dining, but when MTD is a supply and demand thing, I just feel uncomfortable doing this. 

Does anyone have some thoughts or advice for me on this situation?

Thanks in advance! 

[KJones]

Personally, I would go ahead and make the standing reservations. You can always cancel/ reschedule onboard as necessary. Plus, if you do end up being only a group of 5 or so, they could seat you at a smaller table. Or perhaps put a separate 2-person party at the end of the 10 person table.

Also take a look at old cruise compasses, there might be one similar to your sailing where you can get an idea of what shows are on which nights/ what times.

[PG Cruiser]

Do the standing booking.  When you are sure that certain members of your group are not coming for a particular night, let your waiter know as soon as you can so they can release the table to the guests queued at the entrance.

As for timing, I booked for 5:30 each night so I got to go to the shows and parties I liked. The only time I missed it was when we got back late from the excursion.

[ChrisK2793]

Most shows are 830 and 1030.  Book MTD times now!  I’m currently on Symphony and I’ve noticed the MTD line for people without reservations is HUGE every night.