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Dining Times


Chuck586

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We prefer to dine at "normal" dinner times regardless of dining location... 5:30-6:30 PM. It seems the ship tends to disembark most ports between 4:00-6:00 PM and we always get back an hour or so earlier giving us time to change, etc. We adjust and play it by ear when the ship is in port longer. By dining at the earlier/"normal" dining times, we tend to go to the 8:00 PM and later entertainment/activities. Just our personal preference.

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 I normally don't eat breakfast until after 8am and lunch around 1ish. With snacks and drinks, I am usually hungry much later. I prefer later dining between 8 and 8:15. I like the option of either going to an early show or attending a late one. I have caught a 7pm show, headed to dinner and then was able to catch a 9/10 showing, so I can cap my night of at the casino.

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We've been doing early dining in MDR and specialty dining (as early after opening as possible) for a while now. More convenient for us in how we plan our evenings.  We've done late seating in MDR but that's just too late for us. We'd end up drinking more/longer during the day and wouldn't feel like eating a big meal so late.

Also late dining made it harder for us to get late night pizza, snacks and dessert. 😁

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I always go for a late dinner - just in case our shore excursion runs late or the ship has a long port time.  This way, we don't have to rush back.  But when we eat at a speciality dining, we try for a more 'normal' time - like 6:30pm.  We are usually doing these on sea days.

 

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We usually do Any Time Dining at whatever venue we choose. We like to dine around 7 PM sea day or not. We have not been on RCL since 2008 preferring HAL. We are on Anthem OTS in October 2023. Breakfast is usually at the buffet around 9 AM after I do my morning exercises (so I CAN EAT). Lunch is usually between 1 PM and 2 PM at a burger or sandwich place. Love Johnny Rockets. First discovered the chain in Salt Lake City about 35 years ago.

Jim

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On 5/10/2022 at 12:33 PM, Chuck586 said:

What time do you prefer to dine and why?  In other words, when do you prefer to dine in the specialty restaurants???

 

Thanks!!

It really all depends on what type of activities we are interested in. As far as the MDR, we always choose My Time Dining. This always us the ability to adjust what time we eat. Eat earlier if there is a show we want to see. Eat later if we are coming back from an on-shore excursion. Even though you need to select a time ahead of time, you can change it easily once you are on board to suit your needs. Or just show up at what ever time you want and wait for the next table available, like a traditional restaurant. We've done this multiple times with a very short wait.

 

Happy Cruising!

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 6/2/2022 at 11:15 AM, BlueTroop said:

We have the early traditional dining for our upcoming cruise on HOTS. If we can't make our time due to being in port or doing something else on board are we able to go to the MDR later in the evening?

No. once you are assigned a traditional dinning time that is your time for the rest of the cruise. if you can not go to the dinning room during your assigned dinning time you will need to go somewhere else for dinner like the buffet

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On 6/2/2022 at 11:15 AM, BlueTroop said:

We have the early traditional dining for our upcoming cruise on HOTS. If we can't make our time due to being in port or doing something else on board are we able to go to the MDR later in the evening?

If you aren't too late, you can still make your seating time.  We once had an excursion that returned late, I stopped by MDR at 5:30 to say we needed 15 minutes to change clothes, and we were accommodated.  Now if you are 45 minutes or more, I don't know if they would seat you.  We were at a group table, so folks tended to arrive at different times.  We saw people who routinely arrived 30 minutes late.

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True preference - whatever time is appropriate for the activities of the day/evening in combination with when we're hungry.

That's not an option onboard unless you stick with the buffet.

Early seating at 5:00 or 5:15 is (usually) too early. Late seating at 8:15 or 8:30 is (usually) too late. MTD as it currently exists doesn't meet the need, either.

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I prefer the flexibility of MTD.  WRT OP about specialty dining times, I use the same strategy I do for MTD.

I'm a planner.. I'l look at past cruise compass for our cruise. 1. Check show times and days offered., 2. Port departure times,

3. Formal/ Dress your best nights.. I'll make MTD to allow time to get to show, later reservation if later departure, and if we are "dressing our best' select a specialty restaurant or Chefs table in most cases. This works well for us YMMV

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On 6/15/2022 at 2:42 PM, Scatmanjack said:

our 5:30 Dinner got moved to 5pm last week Liberty.   Lunch pretty much got cancelled all week and a few excursion days got shortened.  We complained in the survey...

What? There was no lunch offered on the ship?

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3 hours ago, RogerC1 said:

When did they notify you of the timing change? On the cruise?

We literally had a voice mail on our cabin phone informing us... 

No other notification...

Other passengers had 5:30 crossed out on their seapass card with 5:00 handwritten in marker...

 

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  • 1 month later...
On 6/2/2022 at 8:15 AM, BlueTroop said:

We have the early traditional dining for our upcoming cruise on HOTS. If we can't make our time due to being in port or doing something else on board are we able to go to the MDR later in the evening?

Hi, BlueTroop,

You will not go hungry. If you miss your assigned time because of an activity, you may still go to the MDR to the NON-RESERVATION LINE. 

 

Jim

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