Have 5:30 dining...Could we eat later in MDR if we miss that time?

[levib2]

We are scheduled to sail on Serenade at 5  PM from Tampa.  Really would love to be on deck to see ship go under Skyway Bridge.  However, if the ship leaves much later than 5, we may not have enough time to finish our dinner in time to see this.

Would it be possible to dine in master dining room at later time without having My Time Dining that day?  

[twangster]

You can try but they may turn you away.  You are supposed to eat at your assigned time and once they ask for your cabin number they'll see you don't have My Time dining.

It takes a good hour to reach the bridge.  The channel through Tampa Bay is narrow and ships go slow.  If there is another ship leaving and they get out first you may not actually leave at 5pm.  The channel can only have one ship in it at a time in case a ship has a problem.  The channel is very narrow, ships can't pass each other, so only one ship anywhere in the channel at a time.  The channel is also used by other shipping such as cargo and tankers so there are many reasons why you might not depart exactly at 5pm.

[wordell1]

3 hours ago, levib2 said:

We are scheduled to sail on Serenade at 5  PM from Tampa.  Really would love to be on deck to see ship go under Skyway Bridge.  However, if the ship leaves much later than 5, we may not have enough time to finish our dinner in time to see this.

Would it be possible to dine in master dining room at later time without having My Time Dining that day?  

Usually, MTD is very chaotic on Day 1 so I wouldn't plan on it.  If it were me, I would book a specialty restaurant for night 1 at a later time.

[twangster]

Nautical chart of Tampa Bay here:

https://charts.noaa.gov/PDFs/11416.pdf

The cruise terminal is located in the upper right corner of this chart, Ybor Channel to the left of McKay Bay.

When sailing through Tampa Bay it looks like it's a big bay and you might think that ships could sail anywhere in the bay but it's very shallow and ships have to stay within the channel which is very narrow in places.  Consequently they go slow and take their time.  

[_Quinn_]

I sailed out of Tampa on October 25, and the metadata tells me this photo was taken at 7:25 pm. There are a ton of variables, obviously, but here's one data point. And for what it's worth, dinner in the MDR never took more than about an hour for us (two of us).

Oh! I almost forgot. We had selected late dining, but when we got our SeaPass cards, they had My Time Dining on them. We went to the MDR to clear it up, but they told us that everybody was on My Time Dining, they weren't using traditional seatings. We were able to make reservations at the same time every night and had the same waiter and table, but I missed the traditional experience. Our waiter just seemed much more harried than usual because all his tables were in different stages of dining. I understand this is just normal for most restaurants, but I'm hoping our cruise on Enchantment (in 12 days!) is back to traditional dining.

But aside from that we had a fabulous time on Serenade--enjoy!

[twangster]

Another Skyway Bridge fact:

May 1980 a storm blinded freighter struck the bridge support causing one span to fall into the bay.  Thirty five lives were lost from vehicles falling 150' into the water.

https://www.tampabay.com/news/2020/05/06/the-sunshine-skyway-bridge-plunged-into-tampa-bay-40-years-ago/

They take weather very seriously there and they don't hesitate to close the port to vessel traffic when conditions are not good.

[Pooch]

3 hours ago, _Quinn_ said:

I sailed out of Tampa on October 25, and the metadata tells me this photo was taken at 7:25 pm. There are a ton of variables, obviously, but here's one data point. And for what it's worth, dinner in the MDR never took more than about an hour for us (two of us).

Oh! I almost forgot. We had selected late dining, but when we got our SeaPass cards, they had My Time Dining on them. We went to the MDR to clear it up, but they told us that everybody was on My Time Dining, they weren't using traditional seatings. We were able to make reservations at the same time every night and had the same waiter and table, but I missed the traditional experience. Our waiter just seemed much more harried than usual because all his tables were in different stages of dining. I understand this is just normal for most restaurants, but I'm hoping our cruise on Enchantment (in 12 days!) is back to traditional dining.

But aside from that we had a fabulous time on Serenade--enjoy!

And at what time did you set sail?

[_Quinn_]

1 hour ago, Pooch said:

And at what time did you set sail?

Hmm, couldn't say exactly. I looked at the Cruise Compass and our scheduled departure was 5:00 pm. I think we probably left before that though (by 10 minutes or so). I have a vague memory of being in the stateroom and my wife surprisedly saying, "Oh, we're moving!"

[Pooch]

So close to 2 1/2 hours to the bridge?

[_Quinn_]

17 minutes ago, Pooch said:

So close to 2 1/2 hours to the bridge?

Yep, seems about right for that particular trip. Beautiful clear weather as we sailed away.

[twangster]

1 hour ago, Pooch said:

So close to 2 1/2 hours to the bridge?

It depends on other ship traffic.  Even a cargo ship arriving into Tampa can delay a cruise ship departing.  

There are a lot of rules in place and cruise ships are given a bit of priority but ship happens.

[Pooch]

Yes, I was looking purely at the time span _Quinn_ noted for his sailing.

[Reigert2008]

In my opinion you should eat in the MDR on day 1 if you plan to eat there most nights.  Night 1 gives your staff the ability to meet you and you can let them know your plans for the week and if you will miss any nights. You can also let them know that you want to see the bridge and they could “box up” any courses should the time come.

however you also need to determine which is more important and do the vacation how you want.  
 

Maybe you step into the MDR and do an appetizer and entrée, taking dessert to go?  

 

good luck!