My Time dining reservations

[Mousefan mom]

Hello, We sail the end of March on Odyssey of the Seas, and this is our first RCC. We booked the My Time dining, and just assumed that meant you could dine at any time. If I am beginning to understand it correctly, it means we must make a reservation, and the dining room often frequently fills up so you could be left with no dining room availability. So I went in to make reservations, but we know we want to check out the shows and we have no idea what time those are offered. The earliest dinner reservation I can get for our family each night is 8:15 PM, so I quickly booked these up for each night--we don't enjoy dining this late though, and I'm worried we will miss shows.

Can someone help me understand how this works?

 

[LoveDaisy]

I was on the Anthem in November and had my time dining. We were traveling with friends and I could not figure out how to connect us before the cruise to request a table for 4. When we boarded the ship I went to the dining room. A person there made our reservation for the week. We were able to get 6:45 (that is when my time dining begins) for every night. The person helping me told me they hold back reservations for people who don’t make them in advance.

There was also a line every night for people with no reservation. It seemed like if you got there at 6:45 there was rarely a wait. That line moved as quickly as ours for people with reservations. The only difference I noticed was we had the same table/dining team every night and those walking in seemed to get different tables/dining staff each night.

I was super stressed we didn’t have reservations before boarding. It turned out to be no big deal. If nothing earlier opens I’d just go when you board. Enjoy your cruise!

 

[starvenger]

Hello, We sail the end of March on Odyssey of the Seas, and this is our first RCC. We booked the My Time dining, and just assumed that meant you could dine at any time. If I am beginning to understand it correctly, it means we must make a reservation, and the dining room often frequently fills up so you could be left with no dining room availability. So I went in to make reservations, but we know we want to check out the shows and we have no idea what time those are offered. The earliest dinner reservation I can get for our family each night is 8:15 PM, so I quickly booked these up for each night--we don't enjoy dining this late though, and I'm worried we will miss shows.

Can someone help me understand how this works?

If it helps, Royal will usually schedule two performances of the same show that work around the standard early/late dining times. I think you entertainment schedule should come out soon, but don't be afraid to ask Royal's customer support about the entertainment schedule - they can often tell you who the headliner and comedians are as well.

Like @LoveDaisy mentioned, you should be able to adjust your dining time once you get on board the ship - probably the first thing you should do.

 

[FigmentSpark]

We were told that people sometimes don't show up for their early dinner reservations, so we should line up and after 15 minutes, if people are no-shows, they give away their table to people in line.

When you first get on the ship, go to the dining room (if it's open) on deck 3 (Odyssey). There should be someone there, but if not, try deck 4.

Anyway, explain your problem and ask if you can get seating earlier. They might tell you to just come back and line up, maybe at 6:45 when My Time dining begins, which means lining up (so get there a little early). But you could push (gently) for something earlier. We were eventually told about coming at 5:45 for those no-show tables, but in fact, we were able to get a solid (if small) table at 5:30, which was what we really wanted.

 

[Mousefan mom]

We were told that people sometimes don't show up for their early dinner reservations, so we should line up and after 15 minutes, if people are no-shows, they give away their table to people in line.

When you first get on the ship, go to the dining room (if it's open) on deck 3 (Odyssey). There should be someone there, but if not, try deck 4.

Anyway, explain your problem and ask if you can get seating earlier. They might tell you to just come back and line up, maybe at 6:45 when My Time dining begins, which means lining up (so get there a little early). But you could push (gently) for something earlier. We were eventually told about coming at 5:45 for those no-show tables, but in fact, we were able to get a solid (if small) table at 5:30, which was what we really wanted.

 

[Mousefan mom]

Do you guys remember the start times of the shows? Do you reserve those also before you get on the ship? If I remember correctly it said those should post on the first day of the month before sailing (I assuming 2/1 or 3/1, as I wasn't terribly clear on that part--but we sail end of March).

I went ahead and made the reservations for dining at 8:45 each night for now--thinking if they ran 2 shows, we could watch the first one (my TA seemed to think they do 6:30 and 9 shows) and be done with it in time to hit the dining room. It would be a later dinner for sure, but at least I knew I had something that way--I'll for sure head to the dining room as soon as we board. Thank you all for your answers and replies! Well appreciated.

 

[FigmentSpark]

I thought the 2 shows were at 8pm and 10pm.

If you have the chance to book anything right now, make sure to look for tickets to "The Book". They go fast. You can show up for "walk-in" if you don't have tickets, but the good seats will be gone by then.

All the shows were good, but that was their big performance. You might not care if you don't see the others.

Also, if there's a show you really want to see, you can always go to Windjammers for dinner. Like I said, though, see if you can get in to an earlier time once you get on the ship. Also, if you want to pay extra, you could try getting a seating at a premium restaurant that's earlier.

 

[supersnoop]

You can make a reservation or you can just show up. There's a line for people with reservations and a separate line for people without. On one cruise, it seemed like the no-reservation line was 45-minutes long, but on another cruise, there was no line at all.

The show times aren't consistent every night. I wouldn't plan around the shows, but rather eat when you want and go to whatever show is available before or after..