Let's talk My Time Dining

[Scoular]

Hi All,

My family and I have just booked to go on the Odyssey of the Seas in October 2022. We always go with My Time dining and I usually book it on The Cruise Planner.  I can't remember where I found it last time we cruised.  I know the timeslots go quickly and as there are 6 of us I want to ensure we get in on the time we want.  As it was probably 2 or so years since we last booked one, I can't remember where to find it or whether I am actually looking in the right place and it's just not available yet.  I remember a lot of things aren't available until about 120-90 days before but I felt My Time dining was available to choose sooner, but I could well be wrong. 

Any advice is really appreciated.  It could save me checking back every day for the next year or so! 

[NC State]

I'm going to give this a bump. We are now booked for our first RC cruise and we have a lot of questions about this. We were thinking we could just show up any time.  I had no idea we still needed to RSVP.

[CGTLH]

16 minutes ago, NC State said:

I'm going to give this a bump. We are now booked for our first RC cruise and we have a lot of questions about this. We were thinking we could just show up any time.  I had no idea we still needed to RSVP.

You can show up any time with My Time dining. However you might experience a line and additional wait in order to be seated. Having a reservation is normally a different, typically shorter, line and the wait for a table isn't too long.

[Atlantix2000]

1 hour ago, NC State said:

I'm going to give this a bump. We are now booked for our first RC cruise and we have a lot of questions about this. We were thinking we could just show up any time.  I had no idea we still needed to RSVP.

Think of it like any restaurant on land.  You can show up and be added to the current wait list (which could be short or long depending on the time and size of your party) or you can make a reservation so they know when to expect you.

[twangster]

One of the issues I had with Carnival and their version was very long wait times most of the time.  On some ships I'd get a beeper like device and sit in the bar waiting, for a long, long time.  Since they don't offer reservations for the "Any Time" version everyone arrives in mass at times creating super long wait times.

I liked the idea because with so much going on and different times in different ports, fixed time dining didn't work well for me. 

The benefit of Royal's MTD is the flexibility to eat at different times on different days but also so that you can reserve those different times in advance if you want to.   This allows more flexibility to work around times in port or productions shows and activities on different days but you avoid the long times associated with not having a reservation. 

You don't have to make reservations but you risk longer wait times during popular dinner times.

[cruisellama]

On 2/26/2021 at 5:12 AM, Scoular said:

Hi All,

My family and I have just booked to go on the Odyssey of the Seas in October 2022. We always go with My Time dining and I usually book it on The Cruise Planner.  I can't remember where I found it last time we cruised.  I know the timeslots go quickly and as there are 6 of us I want to ensure we get in on the time we want.  As it was probably 2 or so years since we last booked one, I can't remember where to find it or whether I am actually looking in the right place and it's just not available yet.  I remember a lot of things aren't available until about 120-90 days before but I felt My Time dining was available to choose sooner, but I could well be wrong. 

Any advice is really appreciated.  It could save me checking back every day for the next year or so! 

We use it all the time.  Its about timing - the dining surges are largely driven by entertainment schedules (early and late theater shows).  Just take that into account and you can figure out where the best queue-up windows might be.  

[FManke]

As others have stated, you can eat when you want. We generally have a set time, usually 6:30, daily. I would say if you like to eat at the busier times, make a reservation for that time. That will assure that with the shortest amount of wait, you can eat when you want. If you want to deviate from this time, you just show up when you want and wait your turn. It's always a good idea though, if you have a set reservation and deviate from that, that you give a courtesy call to the dining room and let them know that you won't be using that reservation. That will open up your spot and have it available for someone else.

 

Happy Cruising!

[wordell1]

I prefer MTD because I prefer not to eat with strangers.  We have had both good and bad experiences in normal dining but most of my cruises these days have been with my son and I just prefer the family dynamic.

 

We usually make reservations for the same time all week (I do it in advance in the cruise planner) and if we like the waiter on the first day, we request to keep the same waiter/table.  I like having the same waiter because they will learn your preferences.  

[Vanessa77]

I’ve only experienced MTD so far, however I would say that my experience was actually closer to traditional dining in the end. We had a family group of 11 sailing together, and we did not choose traditional as neither of the times were amenable to us. So MTD is was. I booked us in advance as I knew that with such a large group we couldn’t just rock up. I had to personally contact RC to do so as through the planner you can only do 10ppl. I initially requested a variety of times depending on the day, however when boarding it appeared that they had amended our booking to just be at 7pm every night. We had the same table and same wait staff each night so I think they just amended our times to suit the schedule for such a large party (hence why I say it was actually more like traditional). We enjoyed the group atmosphere and having the same staff so much that we’ve selected traditional on our next cruise on which we’ll be taking without anyone else. 
It’s a gamble as we don’t know who we’ll be seated with, but I’m hoping it will pay off and we’ll have great wait staff each night too. 

[KathyC]

On 2/26/2021 at 6:12 AM, Scoular said:

Hi All,

My family and I have just booked to go on the Odyssey of the Seas in October 2022. We always go with My Time dining and I usually book it on The Cruise Planner.  I can't remember where I found it last time we cruised.  I know the timeslots go quickly and as there are 6 of us I want to ensure we get in on the time we want.  As it was probably 2 or so years since we last booked one, I can't remember where to find it or whether I am actually looking in the right place and it's just not available yet.  I remember a lot of things aren't available until about 120-90 days before but I felt My Time dining was available to choose sooner, but I could well be wrong. 

Any advice is really appreciated.  It could save me checking back every day for the next year or so! 

To answer your question, log into your cruise planner & click on the sailing.  Hover over DINING, and click on ALL DINING.

Scroll down past the "ads" (LOL) and you will see two options: Make a Reservation and Plan All Cruise Dining.  Click on "Plan All".

Select your guests, add in others from the other reservations, and check the box for SAME guest each night.  The next screen will have your guests pre-populated for you; for day 1 click on Select Restaurant and Time.  Scroll down until you see the My Time Dining option.

 

 

Choose your time from the options listed; once you click on a time the screen will refresh to show your selection.  Do the same for the other nights.  Once you are down, click on "Checkout Now".  It will make you go through the process but not ask for any credit card information.  You should get an email confirming your "purchase".  I don't remember if the other parties will get one too, or if it only comes to you.