My time dining

[Leroyr55]

For some reason my cruise planner will not let me choose my time dining. It says I’m not a flex time diner? Sail on May7th on SOS. Called Royal no real answer and they can’t change anything. It has our dining time at 5:30 way to early. 

[Pooch]

What’s on your invoice?  Did you request MTD when you booked?  I think early/late is the default unless you choose MTD.

[teddy]

When we've done My Time Dining, we chose it when we initially booked the cruise.  You may be able to find a customer service rep who will change it, however you also may have to call a few times to find one who not only is willing to do it, but knows how.  I suspect there are a lot of newer (ie less trained) employees working the phones right now.

[Leroyr55]

Not sure why but my invoice shows 5:30. Emailed my TA to try and change. Person I talked to at Royal said he couldn’t change it. 

[Pooch]

Did you tell your TA you wanted MTD?

[Templecruiser]

1 hour ago, Leroyr55 said:

Not sure why but my invoice shows 5:30. Emailed my TA to try and change. Person I talked to at Royal said he couldn’t change it. 

5:30 is early seating for dinner, so it looks like you don’t have MTD. MTD can get full and no more aloud, so the only way you may be able to change it, is going to dining room attendant right at the start of the cruise and see if you can switch.

[FoxboroCruiser]

We tried to switch to My Time and got waitlisted… guessing the ship on April 17th is going to be fuller than what we’re hearing things are like currently.

[BigMac3001]

Ran into the same issue for our June 4 Symphony sailing. No MTD available when we booked last month with our TA. I'm guessing I'll just make a dash to the dinning room when we get on to try to get switched. 

Unless anyone has any super secret ways to do so. 

[Atlantix2000]

On 3/5/2022 at 11:52 AM, Leroyr55 said:

Not sure why but my invoice shows 5:30. Emailed my TA to try and change. Person I talked to at Royal said he couldn’t change it. 

Royal can't change your dining type because you have a TA.  Your TA has to request this change.  Same thing if you wanted to change the date, ship, or room, or cancel the trip.  You can't make those changes unless you booked directly with Royal (in other words, if you are your own TA).

Anything else you can book through Cruise Planner (excursions, dining, etc) you can do yourself and call Royal for help no matter how you booked.

[KevinJ]

I had the opposite problem. I prefer the early seating. Had 530 listed on my invoice. When I got my sea pass card it showed MTD. Just went to the MDR and asked to be changed. I was solo and they placed me at a table for 8, two couples and three other solos. Funny thing was that the other three solos had the same problem I had, wanted early seating but got MTD. We had a great group at the table.

[Shane D]

New to Royal, our booking is for “Open Dining” which I believe is Any Time Dining?  Is that correct?  Do we just go to the dining area whenever we want?

Thanks

[luiiismdo]

5 hours ago, Shane D said:

New to Royal, our booking is for “Open Dining” which I believe is Any Time Dining?  Is that correct?  Do we just go to the dining area whenever we want?

Thanks

you gotta get on the cruise planner
click on dining
scroll all the way down you'll see "my time dining"
click reserve
select your guests
you can then select different days & see what times are available

if you don't see it yet, it might be bc your sailing is too far out & the times aren't open yet
hope this helps
 

[luiiismdo]

5 hours ago, Shane D said:

New to Royal, our booking is for “Open Dining” which I believe is Any Time Dining?  Is that correct?  Do we just go to the dining area whenever we want?

Thanks

if you don't wanna reserve a time in advance, then you can just show up, but be advised that you'll have to wait. the bigger your party, the longer the wait.

[Shane D]

5 hours ago, luiiismdo said:

you gotta get on the cruise planner
click on dining
scroll all the way down you'll see "my time dining"
click reserve
select your guests
you can then select different days & see what times are available

if you don't see it yet, it might be bc your sailing is too far out & the times aren't open yet
hope this helps
 

Thanks for this, we sail the 1st of May, I’ve found the cruise planner to be very lacking to date, that or I’m not using it properly. 
 

Lots of options still don’t appear available (uploading docs etc). I can see the Main Room Dining options but no option to book anything.

Thanks for your assistance though

[luiiismdo]

15 hours ago, Shane D said:

Thanks for this, we sail the 1st of May, I’ve found the cruise planner to be very lacking to date, that or I’m not using it properly. 
 

Lots of options still don’t appear available (uploading docs etc). I can see the Main Room Dining options but no option to book anything.

Thanks for your assistance though

hmmm that's interesting. we sail the 28th of May & i was able to schedule my times last week. make sure you're doing it while online, not from the app. the only other thing that might have happened is that you booked too close to the date & are waitlisted, meaning your  "my time dining" isnt confirmed yet.

Did you book through RC directly or through a travel agent?

[Shane D]

21 hours ago, luiiismdo said:

hmmm that's interesting. we sail the 28th of May & i was able to schedule my times last week. make sure you're doing it while online, not from the app. the only other thing that might have happened is that you booked too close to the date & are waitlisted, meaning your  "my time dining" isnt confirmed yet.

Did you book through RC directly or through a travel agent?

Just tried by looking online and I can see it there now, but has been using the app previously (I assumed they would be the same )

We booked through a large booking company, so I assume that’s the same as a travel agent.

I’d love to see some of the drink packages come up for sale though

[barjpoe]

there is a sale running right now

Not sure how good the prices are , though

[luiiismdo]

4 hours ago, Shane D said:

Just tried by looking online and I can see it there now, but has been using the app previously (I assumed they would be the same )

We booked through a large booking company, so I assume that’s the same as a travel agent.

I’d love to see some of the drink packages come up for sale though

there's a buy 1 get 1 1/2 off deal going on right now on the drink packages..

[FionaMG]

16 minutes ago, luiiismdo said:

there's a buy 1 get 1 1/2 off deal going on right now on the drink packages..

Don't fall for this marketing hype. Royal always do this, along with percentages off undisclosed amounts. When purchasing anything on the Cruise Planner look only at the bottom line.

[Shane D]

16 hours ago, luiiismdo said:

there's a buy 1 get 1 1/2 off deal going on right now on the drink packages..

Can someone send me a link for this please?  My drinks package has actually gone up
 

I must be missing something somewhere

[FionaMG]

1 hour ago, Shane D said:

Can someone send me a link for this please?  My drinks package has actually gone up
 

I must be missing something somewhere

You're not missing anything. Royal practises "dynamic pricing" which means that prices can just as easily go up as down on any given sailing. So while one sailing might have the drinks package at $50, another could have it at $80. It's all down to supply and demand. The more people purchasing any item, the higher the price goes.

What you have to do is be obsessive about checking your cruise planner because prices can and do fluctuate not only during sales but also when there are no sales on. If you check once a day (it only takes a couple of minutes) you may be lucky and snag a bargain. 

[Shane D]

2 hours ago, FionaMG said:

You're not missing anything. Royal practises "dynamic pricing" which means that prices can just as easily go up as down on any given sailing. So while one sailing might have the drinks package at $50, another could have it at $80. It's all down to supply and demand. The more people purchasing any item, the higher the price goes.

What you have to do is be obsessive about checking your cruise planner because prices can and do fluctuate not only during sales but also when there are no sales on. If you check once a day (it only takes a couple of minutes) you may be lucky and snag a bargain. 

Thanks for this, I’m checking the pricing multiple times a day in hope.

The link request was for the buy 1 get one 1/2 off as I’ve never seen a sale advertised for such things.

This is my first time with Royal so wondering if I’m looking in the right place. 

[luiiismdo]

49 minutes ago, Shane D said:

Thanks for this, I’m checking the pricing multiple times a day in hope.

The link request was for the buy 1 get one 1/2 off as I’ve never seen a sale advertised for such things.

This is my first time with Royal so wondering if I’m looking in the right place. 

yeah so what she's explaining is that even though my sailing might currently show a buy 1 get 1 1/2 off deal, you're on a different sailing & pricing might be different for yours. I'm sorry I forgot to share that part of it. You just gotta keep checking it like a hawk & hope something pops up between now & sailing

[Shane D]

Ah yes, ok I see what’s happening, I thought everyone was referring to all sailings!

[KevinJ]

It's also easy to cancel and then repurchase if you see a better sale. If you have used On Board Credit for a purchase it is immediately returned. If a credit card, it can take some time to be credited. I recently repurchased our beverage packages. It only took two days to get the credit card refund. I think they've gotten better at this as last year it could have taken weeks.

[Shane D]

13 minutes ago, KevinJ said:

It's also easy to cancel and then repurchase if you see a better sale. If you have used On Board Credit for a purchase it is immediately returned. If a credit card, it can take some time to be credited. I recently repurchased our beverage packages. It only took two days to get the credit card refund. I think they've gotten better at this as last year it could have taken weeks.

I have to be careful doing that though, being an Aussie and buying multiple times on the credit card, even after refunds, the poor exchange rate and bank fees really add up quickly.

In regards to refunds, I’m still waiting for my St. Petersburg canceled tour refund to come through….

[FionaMG]

1 hour ago, Shane D said:

I have to be careful doing that though, being an Aussie and buying multiple times on the credit card, even after refunds, the poor exchange rate and bank fees really add up quickly.

This is so true. I have that issue too. I have a Voom package that I booked in error and rather than cancelling it and losing out on the exchange rate and transaction fee for the second time, I'm waiting to cancel it on board so it goes to OBC, giving me the full USD value. Obviously that doesn't work with most cruise planner purchases but it's something you might want to bear in mind for the few times when it does.

[jbmakingmemories]

On 3/5/2022 at 10:38 AM, Leroyr55 said:

For some reason my cruise planner will not let me choose my time dining. It says I’m not a flex time diner? Sail on May7th on SOS. Called Royal no real answer and they can’t change anything. It has our dining time at 5:30 way to early. 

My wife and I will also be on this sailing and are having a similar issue. I chose MTD two weeks ago when booking the cruise, but the 5:30PM time showed up in the cruise planner. It appears there are no more MTD slots available. I sent customer service an email on Monday, but haven't heard back yet.