I think there has been a quiet shift in their practices this year. It used to be our waitlist always came through and the past two sailings we were on that was not the case. One I was able to change in the app through diligent checking shortly before the cruise when a spot opened up. On the other one I queued up an hour before the dining changes opened and was first in line for changes. They couldn’t move me the first night (a disaster meltdown for my autistic DS) but we did get moved the next night thankfully. I think they are just running the ships more full, or perhaps the increase in private tables is reducing the capacity in main seating. Either way, I really wish they would realize this is becoming a problem for a lot of people and do something—either use Cabanas as a flex time dining like they used to or move the seatings 30 mins earlier.
Currently, we have two connecting rooms (me and one kid and one with husband and our twins), and one is early dining one is late. Curious if they will really leave it like that and tell us to split up. Something is really weird with how this process works.