margaritajeff Posted December 17, 2016 Report Share Posted December 17, 2016 Family of 4 booked on 10 day holiday cruise starting Dec 23 on Allure. Tried to book times for MTD and several specialty restaurants but no matter which day I choose, or which restaurant, there is nothing available at "normal" dining times (i.e. 6:00 - 8:00pm). Will I experience long waits if I show up at MDR at 7:30? What will wait times be like if I show up at a specialty restaurant during this time? Can I leave my name on a waitlist at a restaurant, go get a drink (or two) and come back at a specified time? Are we destined to eat at odd times, or pay the price of standing in long lines since nothing is booked? Thank you in advance for sharing experiences or suggesting strategies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DocLC Posted December 17, 2016 Report Share Posted December 17, 2016 Family of 4 booked on 10 day holiday cruise starting Dec 23 on Allure. Tried to book times for MTD and several specialty restaurants but no matter which day I choose, or which restaurant, there is nothing available at "normal" dining times (i.e. 6:00 - 8:00pm). Will I experience long waits if I show up at MDR at 7:30? What will wait times be like if I show up at a specialty restaurant during this time? Can I leave my name on a waitlist at a restaurant, go get a drink (or two) and come back at a specified time? Are we destined to eat at odd times, or pay the price of standing in long lines since nothing is booked? Thank you in advance for sharing experiences or suggesting strategies. While I don't know for sure, I think Royal make block out a lot of these times for MTD. You'll likely be able to secure a reservation once onboard. For what it's worth, we've never made vreservations for MTD and only had a significant wait (20 minutes) once. Of course, you'll have better luck going closer to 6 or closer to 8 as 6:30-7:30 seems the busiest. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Posted December 19, 2016 Report Share Posted December 19, 2016 In my experience, there will be spots once you get onboard. The pre-cruise booking system is great, but it's not the end all, be all of reservations available. If the Cruise Planner site is not getting what you want, go to the restaurants on embarkation day and make reservations for what you do want. I think you will find there to be many more options. Of course, keep checking back on the Cruise Planner site in case something changes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WAAAYTOOO Posted December 19, 2016 Report Share Posted December 19, 2016 You can also try sending an email to rcldining@rccl.com Not sure if it will help but they do handle such requests. Matt 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
margaritajeff Posted January 3, 2017 Author Report Share Posted January 3, 2017 Just thought that I would provide an update on my MTD experience since I made the original post. Once we got on ship we made a reservation in the dining room for the first 2 nights. Not all times were available, but it wasn't hard to get a time that we were happy with. We really enjoyed the table and service we received on night 1 so we decided to continue to make reservations a day or two in advance and always requested the same table. It worked out great! We got the same table (beside a window) almost every night, the times were to our liking (always between 6:00 and 7:30) and we had the same servers. We were always at (or very near) table 306 which is in a room just off the main dining room. It was much quieter than the MDR and had more of a "specialty restaurant" feel. The food was generally very good ( only a few misses) so we didn't feel it was necessary to book (and pay) for any specialty restaurants for dinner. (We did eat at Giovanni's for Christmas Day lunch which was excellent). On the last night they assigned us to a table in the same room but not at the window - our waiter stepped in and moved us back to our "usual" table - it can pay off to have the same serving staff each night! On some nights, especially Christmas night, the lineups for the people without reservations looked quite long (out to the elevators) but I can't comment on how long they waited for a table. Bottom line: making dinner reservations each day, for a day or two ahead was easy, and worked very well for us. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Posted January 3, 2017 Report Share Posted January 3, 2017 Thank you so much for sharing your experience with us, margaritajeff. I know others were probably wondering the same thing! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DocLC Posted January 4, 2017 Report Share Posted January 4, 2017 On holiday sailings, it's probably best to have reservations for MTD. Otherwise, reservations are not as necessary in my experience. Thanks for the detailed review. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.