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Oasis main dining room?


RCIfan1912

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We are Oasis for the first time right now and the ship is absolutely amazing. Nothing can prepare you for the size and everything there is too do. It's beyond our expectations already. 

One thing we are having a very big issue with is main dining room availability. We boarded early at around 10:30 yesterday. By the time we did the safety drill, made reservations at 3 specifically restaurants all the good slots for the main dining room were basically gone for the entire cruise. Normally we wouldn't care because of my time dining. Every ship we have been on was no problem getting in for my time dining. Last night we literally couldn't even get in, we ended up leaving for the Windjammer which I don't like to do the buffet for dinner. Now admittedly we doing so much we were late getting to the main dining room at 8 o'clock. But like I said we couldn't even get in. 

Is this typical of Oasis? If we head to the main dining room at say 5:00/5:30 will it be better luck getting in? Adventure just a few weeks ago was absolutely no issue getting into the main dining room. Any advice would be great here, thanks. 

 

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1 hour ago, RCIfan1912 said:

We are Oasis for the first time right now and the ship is absolutely amazing. Nothing can prepare you for the size and everything there is too do. It's beyond our expectations already. 

One thing we are having a very big issue with is main dining room availability. We boarded early at around 10:30 yesterday. By the time we did the safety drill, made reservations at 3 specifically restaurants all the good slots for the main dining room were basically gone for the entire cruise. Normally we wouldn't care because of my time dining. Every ship we have been on was no problem getting in for my time dining. Last night we literally couldn't even get in, we ended up leaving for the Windjammer which I don't like to do the buffet for dinner. Now admittedly we doing so much we were late getting to the main dining room at 8 o'clock. But like I said we couldn't even get in. 

Is this typical of Oasis? If we head to the main dining room at say 5:00/5:30 will it be better luck getting in? Adventure just a few weeks ago was absolutely no issue getting into the main dining room. Any advice would be great here, thanks. 

 

That's interesting to hear... We are going in September (end of) for the first ever time on Oasis and went for the 8pm dining everyday.  Is that a better option than the MyTime dining? 

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1 hour ago, djandyb said:

That's interesting to hear... We are going in September (end of) for the first ever time on Oasis and went for the 8pm dining everyday.  Is that a better option than the MyTime dining? 

That's what we are thinking at this moment but we'll see how the rest of the cruise goes. If it's as chaotic and crazy as last night we will switch our dining to a set time for our next cruise on Oasis next May. At the moment it looks to be like you made the right move. 

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45 minutes ago, ChessE4 said:

To get the My Time Dining reservation times we wanted, we had to book them in the Cruise Planner several months in advance. 

I honestly didn't know you could do that. I thought reservations didn't begin till on board. I will check the app. for our next cruise on Oasis in May.

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You can go to the MDR and tell them your concerns and desires and perhaps they can work with you to check for availability for fixed dining or they can give advise as to what is the best time to show up for MTD.  I always take the early seating.  I have noticed extremely long lines on the first night and my last sailing in June it seemed those long lines got shorter as the week went on, except for lobster night (night 6) that night the lines were very long.  You mentioned making reservations for specialty dining, so if you have 3 of those schedule for dinner you don't have many nights left to deal with for the MDR.

 

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And in theory, MTD should mean you can show up & eat when you want within a reasonable time like a land based restaurant.  In reality, you still need to make reservations in advance for each night.  MTD just gives you the flexibility to choose a different time each night as opposed to Traditional Dining which locks you into the same time each night.  Maybe that’s what they meant all along?🤷‍♀️😄

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5 hours ago, RCIfan1912 said:

I honestly didn't know you could do that. I thought reservations didn't begin till on board. I will check the app. for our next cruise on Oasis in May.

We just sailed on Oasis for 9 nights returning yesterday.  The MDR lineups were excessive each time we went there.  We did book times for all 9 nights in advance (which you now know you can do) and then we cancelled as we opted to dine elsewhere certain nights.  As people do cancel, definitely check for reservations through the app as your week goes on.  With reservations, we found we waited about 10 minutes to be seated as opposed to people who were waiting 45 minutes without reservations.  I would suggest Playmakers and Port Side BBQ as options on a few of the nights where you don't have other specialty dining booked.   We had a terrific week and found the crew to be spectacular.  I hope you have a great vacation!

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I was not a my time dining fan in terms of the seating...pre-covid the tables were super on top of each other on allure but there is so much variety.  Right now, it seems like my time is kind of a train wreck.  Definitely check your planner ahead of time and MAKE RESERVATIONS!!!!.  We have chosen to do traditional 500/530 dining (can't remember exactly what time) on our December Harmony cruise just to avoid any chaos.  I always feel really guilty about this as we also have the 3 night dining pkg.  I find specialty dining totally messes up seating in the MDR.  If you get put at a big table and the others have specially dining, you can end up sitting at a 10 person table with 2 people... Which I totally hate!!!   I'm hoping to check the seating after we get on and try to switch to a 2 person table if we aren't in one.  I enjoy meeting people but I just don't like sitting at a big table all alone!  Jane

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4 hours ago, Pooch said:

And in theory, MTD should mean you can show up & eat when you want within a reasonable time like a land based restaurant.  In reality, you still need to make reservations in advance for each night.  MTD just gives you the flexibility to choose a different time each night as opposed to Traditional Dining which locks you into the same time each night.  Maybe that’s what they meant all along?🤷‍♀️😄

I think my main complaint and why we didn't do it this time is that you can't reserve times earlier than 6:45.  I want flexibility to do early on some nights and later on others and by having then all on or after 6:45 just doesn't work.  So I ended up just doing traditional at 5:30.  MTD would work much better if they went back t one dedicated dining room for MTD.  The more would do that who have specialty reservations which would help the lines too.

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Well night 2 was completely opposite and thank goodness for that. We got to the main dining room at a little before 6 and were seated right away, no line at all. The guy at the front set us up for 5:30 each night. That was a relief actually. By the way, food was excellent, just excellent. 

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47 minutes ago, RCIfan1912 said:

Well night 2 was completely opposite and thank goodness for that. We got to the main dining room at a little before 6 and were seated right away, no line at all. The guy at the front set us up for 5:30 each night. That was a relief actually. By the way, food was excellent, just excellent. 

Sounds like they are now even allowing earlier reservations than 6:45 once on board.  That's a good thing.  Now just need to return to a dedicated dining room.

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10 hours ago, smokeybandit said:

The idea of MTD is great, but it seems RC accepts way to many of those.

They have a limit on how many MTD they allow.  The problem stem from the Covid reduced hours and lack of a dedicated dinning room.  Plus the fact that I'd bet IT did not tweak that formula to account for reduced hours.

Pre-Covid MTD almost always seemed to fill up and cut off from selection pre-cruise.  Next would be early traditional, at least for Caribbean sailings

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33 minutes ago, CruiseGus said:

Sounds like they are now even allowing earlier reservations than 6:45 once on board.  That's a good thing.  Now just need to return to a dedicated dining room.

In June on Oasis they announced in the dining room that if you were not seated by 5:45 for your 5:30 seating they would give your table away.  They also had announced that you could enter as early as 5:00pm for your 5:30 seating.  I think all of this was to alleviate the wait times for the MTD people.  Additionally it would address the issue of people who book specialty dining and forget to tell their waiter they won't be at dinner the following night.

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I have to say we were just so confused last night expecting the same thing as night 1 but pleasantly surprised. That couldn't have worked out any better. 

By the way Anthem was my favorite ship and she is still amazing and will sail her again but this ship might be my favorite now. The beauty of Central Park cannot be underestimated, especially at night. 

Anthem still has one of the coolest spaces at sea, 270. We just love that space. Oasis though is just so big that's it's a bit tough to navigate, a bit hard to find things and tough to get from one place to another just because it could be a long jou in of itself. Love this ship though. 

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With additional passengers and training up some additional staff members, I do expect MTD to have issues. Personally for me we always do the earlier set dining time as this allows us to get out to see the shows. Plus it still frees us up to snack on Sorento's later in the evening. We also had a hard time getting the specialty dining reservations. But that was mainly due to the fact that we had such a large party (17 of us).  

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Well last night we are at 150 Central Park and we have a new absolute favorite restaurant! Holy cow that was amazing, so amazing we booked it again for Thursday. We have the 3 night dining package but hadn't scheduled a 3rd restaurant because we were between a few. 

We were thinking of Port side but that's not my thing at all. That's a la carte so that to me would be a waste with the dining package. Do you agree with that? 

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50 minutes ago, RCIfan1912 said:

Well last night we are at 150 Central Park and we have a new absolute favorite restaurant! Holy cow that was amazing, so amazing we booked it again for Thursday. We have the 3 night dining package but hadn't scheduled a 3rd restaurant because we were between a few. 

We were thinking of Port side but that's not my thing at all. That's a la carte so that to me would be a waste with the dining package. Do you agree with that? 

Yes, 150 CP is my favorite specialty restaurant for the bread alone. When I do the 3N I only use on specialty restaurants that are courses. Playmakers, Portside, JR are cheap enough that I can just pay out of pocket.

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3 hours ago, Ampurp85 said:

Yes, 150 CP is my favorite specialty restaurant for the bread alone. When I do the 3N I only use on specialty restaurants that are courses. Playmakers, Portside, JR are cheap enough that I can just pay out of pocket.

Yes to all of this! The bread is fantastic! The food from apps, to main course to dessert is incredible. It's our favorite now. 

To be the dining package would have been a waste on port side and playmakers is really so inexpensive it makes no sense at all to waste on that. 

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3 hours ago, RCIfan1912 said:

Well last night we are at 150 Central Park and we have a new absolute favorite restaurant! Holy cow that was amazing, so amazing we booked it again for Thursday. We have the 3 night dining package but hadn't scheduled a 3rd restaurant because we were between a few. 

We were thinking of Port side but that's not my thing at all. That's a la carte so that to me would be a waste with the dining package. Do you agree with that? 

Yes - Portside BBQ is only $10-14pp so definitely not worth it to use your dining package.  Should you wish to try it, just pay a la carte.

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My wife and I normally book traditional dining for 8pm however on our cruise on Oasis mid October we have 5.30 traditional due to having our 6 year old Granddaughter with us as this will fit into planning shows etc and not having to wait to eat later. We are so looking forward to this cruise as it is the first time we have been on Oasis. 

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On 8/17/2022 at 8:23 AM, RCIfan1912 said:

Well last night we are at 150 Central Park and we have a new absolute favorite restaurant! Holy cow that was amazing, so amazing we booked it again for Thursday. We have the 3 night dining package but hadn't scheduled a 3rd restaurant because we were between a few. 

We were thinking of Port side but that's not my thing at all. That's a la carte so that to me would be a waste with the dining package. Do you agree with that? 

@RCIfan1912 What turned the tide to make 150 your favorite?  Have Harmony in Nov and was thinking of booking 150. 

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9 minutes ago, JustMeJoe said:

@RCIfan1912 What turned the tide to make 150 your favorite?  Have Harmony in Nov and was thinking of booking 150. 

I mean just the obvious, the food is delicious. The room and atmosphere is very nice also. Excellent staff here on Oasis, so nice and friendly. 

The bread is amazing by the way, amazing. 

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13 minutes ago, RCIfan1912 said:

I mean just the obvious, the food is delicious. The room and atmosphere is very nice also. Excellent staff here on Oasis, so nice and friendly. 

The bread is amazing by the way, amazing. 

That bread is the best bread I have had anywhere with the exception of some I had in Nice, France. I dream of both, every time I have mediocre bread. 

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1 hour ago, RCIfan1912 said:

I mean just the obvious, the food is delicious. The room and atmosphere is very nice also. Excellent staff here on Oasis, so nice and friendly. 

The bread is amazing by the way, amazing. 

I’m on Harmony in Dec and have been back and forth on 150. I have two 14 year old boys who will be with me. Would they be out of place? It seems a little more fancy than I’m willing to bet that they would want to do. If it was just my wife and I, it would be a no brainer decision. What’s your thought?

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2 hours ago, Ryan79 said:

I’m on Harmony in Dec and have been back and forth on 150. I have two 14 year old boys who will be with me. Would they be out of place? It seems a little more fancy than I’m willing to bet that they would want to do. If it was just my wife and I, it would be a no brainer decision. What’s your thought?

I saw younger children dining when I was there. If your 14 y/o boys are well-behaved and like steak and bread, it's an amazing choice. The food is fancy in that you feel fancy but not so fancy that it doesn't taste amazing, even to those with less discernible palates. 

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10 hours ago, Ryan79 said:

I’m on Harmony in Dec and have been back and forth on 150. I have two 14 year old boys who will be with me. Would they be out of place? It seems a little more fancy than I’m willing to bet that they would want to do. If it was just my wife and I, it would be a no brainer decision. What’s your thought?

I have a 9 year old that let's just say isn't exactly sophisticated. 🤣 And a 7 month old and it was just fine. Staff was amazing with both and all of us. It seems a bit fancy but it's not stuffy in there at all. We love it, we are going back there in May when we are back on Oasis. We are doing 150 Central Park and Izumi Hibachi. We are gonna get the 3 night dining package again because those 2 specialty restaurants alone make the 3 night dining package worth it. Honestly we will probably do 150 Central Park 2 times again with the package. 

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On 8/15/2022 at 7:19 AM, RCIfan1912 said:

I honestly didn't know you could do that. I thought reservations didn't begin till on board. I will check the app. for our next cruise on Oasis in May.

I had to purchase each night separately, although it is a 0 charge because it is complimentary.  You will be prompted to select guests, etc., like you were purchasing an excursion.  One quirk, we noted that although MTD isn't supposed to begin until 6:45 PM on most ships, we were sometimes offered an earlier time.  That is a apparently a glitch in the system as we were told on the Mariner in June.

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1 hour ago, MadKru said:

I did MTD for our Oasis cruise in October for 7:00 PM each night. I'm confused, do we need to make a reservation on top of the MTD? Or is the MTD our reservation? 

If you went into the Cruise Planner and made the reservations for 7pm each night, then that's your reservation. 

If you have MTD and haven't made the reservations for each individual night, you won't have a reservation when you board and you can either make them via the app, at the Dining Room or stand in the no reservations line.

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1 hour ago, MadKru said:

I did MTD for our Oasis cruise in October for 7:00 PM each night. I'm confused, do we need to make a reservation on top of the MTD? Or is the MTD our reservation? 

If you made a 7:00 PM reservation for each night , you should be all set. In the cruise planner you can select your MTD reservation but you have to do it for every night.

If you just made it for night 1, it does not carry through for the whole week. There will be two lines for MTD, one for those with reservations and one for those that don't.

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33 minutes ago, michaelp1446 said:

If you made a 7:00 PM reservation for each night , you should be all set. In the cruise planner you can select your MTD reservation but you have to do it for every night.

If you just made it for night 1, it does not carry through for the whole week. There will be two lines for MTD, one for those with reservations and one for those that don't.

Gotcha - thanks for the clarification!

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On 8/15/2022 at 3:32 AM, RCIfan1912 said:

We are Oasis for the first time right now and the ship is absolutely amazing. Nothing can prepare you for the size and everything there is too do. It's beyond our expectations already. 

One thing we are having a very big issue with is main dining room availability. We boarded early at around 10:30 yesterday. By the time we did the safety drill, made reservations at 3 specifically restaurants all the good slots for the main dining room were basically gone for the entire cruise. Normally we wouldn't care because of my time dining. Every ship we have been on was no problem getting in for my time dining. Last night we literally couldn't even get in, we ended up leaving for the Windjammer which I don't like to do the buffet for dinner. Now admittedly we doing so much we were late getting to the main dining room at 8 o'clock. But like I said we couldn't even get in. 

Is this typical of Oasis? If we head to the main dining room at say 5:00/5:30 will it be better luck getting in? Adventure just a few weeks ago was absolutely no issue getting into the main dining room. Any advice would be great here, thanks. 

 

Weird, but on the 16th we ate at the MDR, and got there at about 8 pm with no reservation with My Time Dining, and we got a table pretty quickly, rather than setting the steps for a reservation and waiting.

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