A Couple of Questions New to RCCL

[Disneyof3]

Have only been on x2 cruises(DCL) and am really thinking of doing a RCCL cruise next Feb 2015 out of Ft.L on the Independence. I just have a few questions.

1. My time dining - you pick what time you want to go and can be different everynight but gratitutes are pd inadvance?
2. Set dining - you go at either this time(early) or this time(late) and gratitutes are pd at the end of your cruise.?
3. Go when ever you want - when ever your family is hungry go to the dining room and eat. Gratitutes are pd at the end of the cruise?
4. Sailing away party- It is inside in the theatre and it's at night not at sailing away time?
Thanks inadvance

 

[Disneyof3]

Anyone.......

 

[bumbershoot]

1 and 3 are both referring to My Time. With that you pay tips ahead with the cruise fare. You can make reservations with it or not. The one exception is My Family Time, which seats at 5:30. Tips were paid with shipboard account, not with cruise fare.

 

[bumbershoot]

I don't think 4 is correct. Where did you read that? Curious.

 

[bobbiwoz]

We were on that cruise ship, Independence for a 6 night cruise earlier this month, and loved the My Time Dining. We made reservations for the whole cruise at one time, we had the same servers, same area which we had requested and had excellent service. Yes, we prepaid the gratuities.

It was a great cruise!

 

[Mrsjvb]

Have only been on x2 cruises(DCL) and am really thinking of doing a RCCL cruise next Feb 2015 out of Ft.L on the Independence. I just have a few questions.

1. My time dining - you pick what time you want to go and can be different everynight but gratitutes are pd inadvance? correct
2. Set dining - you go at either this time(early) or this time(late) and gratitutes are pd at the end of your cruise.? you are not required to pre pay but you may choose to do so.
3. Go when ever you want - when ever your family is hungry go to the dining room and eat. Gratitutes are pd at the end of the cruise? this IS MTD or if you choose to eat in the Buffet,park cafe or other promenade locales that are not specialty restaurants. you would pre pay Grats under any scenario that does not have you assigned to a specific seating and table in the Main Dining room
4. Sailing away party- It is inside in the theatre and it's at night not at sailing away time? every ship will do it differently and weather can have a lot to do with it. if the weather sucks it is far more likely that it will be held in the Centrum, NOT the Theater. there will be a separate show at Night that welcomes you aboard. there will eb ONE show on embarkation day. every other night there will be two 2, one for early seating and one for late seating guests
Thanks inadvance

the Centrum is the center of the ship and encompasses several decks,

keep in mind that the gratuities covers ALL your meals not just those in the MDR( that are not in a specialty restaurant that incurs a fee). so whether you eat int he buffet, park Cafe, poolside or the MDR for any meal.. the gratuities covers that( as well as your cabin attendant)

 

[Disneyof3]

Thank you everyone for responding. I have been reading other people's reviews and getting confused when one is writing one thing and someone else is writing something else. That is why I'm trying to figure out before hand.
I don't mind paying gratituties, the last x2 cruises I've actually added more because of the service we got. I've just heard that some service has gone down hill because the tips are already pd. for. I have never pd. gratituties ahead of sailing.

The party inside, I have been reading again reviews and someone said the sailing away party was at night in the theatre and it ran late and they were late for dinner but the dining room knew and there was no problems. That gave me the impression that the party was inside at night and not on deck when they sail!!

Also does my family dining change per ship? I've heard range from early dining is 5-6 and late is 7-9

 

[bumbershoot]

On our recent Freedom cruise the sailaway party was at 4:45 on Deck 11 poolside.

My FAMILY Time's seating was at 5:30. My Time starts a little later.


When reading reviews, it's important to know that most people only know their own cruise and don't necessarily know what's different or odd. It's possible the sailaway you were reading about was when the ship was delayed leaving, or it was storming, etc etc, thereby causing things to be delayed. If they aren't offering that info, assuming it's a recent review, you can always ask them what the problem/reason was.

 

[ampc3]

sorry to jump on board.. we are thinking of our first family cruise for next year.. could someone tell me the difference b/tw My family time and My time dining?? TIA

 

[bumbershoot]

sorry to jump on board.. we are thinking of our first family cruise for next year.. could someone tell me the difference b/tw My family time and My time dining?? TIA

Mft seats at 5:30. The point of it is to get kids fed and to the kids clubs. That didn't happen with us. We just never thought of DS leaving during dinner. Same thing happened with "dine and play" on dcl.

My time means you go when you want.

With MT you pay tips with fare. With MFT you don't.

 

[woody73]

. . . The party inside, I have been reading again reviews and someone said the sailing away party was at night in the theatre and it ran late and they were late for dinner but the dining room knew and there was no problems. That gave me the impression that the party was inside at night and not on deck when they sail!!

I've been on several RCI cruises, and all of the sail away parties were outside.

The inside party you mention reminds me of a cruise we took on the Disney Magic. They scheduled a dance demo one evening on the upper deck. It rained that evening, so they moved it to the Walt Disney Theatre.

Woody