So confused by Oasis Dining.

[VeroBeachGirl]

Help! We booked a last minute Spring Break cruise on the Oasis of the Seas. I've been on 10 Disney Cruises, but never a RC. I don't understand the dining at all! We are assigned to the tradtional dining at 8pm and are waitlisted for the early dining. Here are some questions I have:
1. With traditional dining, will we be eating in the same restaurant for 7 nights in a row?
2. If we switch to "my time" dining, can I make reservations at the free restaurants online beforehand?

If anyone can point me to a good web site or blog for planning advice and tips for the Oasis that would be great.

 

[Mushu's Twin]

Yes, with traditional dining you eat at the same table, in the same restaurant. Although all 3 floors are different restaurant names in the Main Dining Room, the menu is the same for all 3 floors that night. Like Disney's dining you do have the same dining servers with traditional dining. The menu does change nightly, so you're eating in the same place, but different food.


In my opinion, my time dining is very misleading. It makes it sound as if you can show up at any time to the MDR and be seated. You still have to make reservations online beforehand, they just don’t have to be at the same time each night. For example, if one nght you want to eat at 7:00pm but eat at 8:30 the next night you can. You just have to make the reservations beforehand. There is a line if you don’t have a reservation, and it can get pretty long sometimes. If you want to do a lot of specialty dining, I recommend my time. Just because your specialty dining reservations most likely won’t be at the same time, it allows you to make a more custom dining schedule. Out of the 14 nights I’ve spent on RC ships, I’ve eaten in the MDR 4 times. RC’s specialty dining is great. However I realize that that’s not in the budget for some.

 

[msjprincess]

We always do MTD and usually just show up at the MDR without reservations. I've only encountered a long wait once. It was the second formal night (lobster night) and we showed up at around 7pm. The wait was over 30 minutes, they gave us a beeper and we went to the Champagne bar for a drink while waiting. All other times we waited less than 10 minutes.

You can also make reservations online and then change them once you get onboard if you choose.

 

[VeroBeachGirl]

Thanks for the advice. I'm reading/researching more so I'm starting to understand a little better.

 

[martikus]

I don't think Oasis has another free dining room that works under traditional or MTD? They have other free spaces you can eat, such as buffet, their café, etc, but they aren't sit down restaurants with a menu, etc.

They also have specialty dining if you want to pay (we never do).

We have never minded the fact you don't move dining rooms like you do on disney. The menus are different every night. And it is nice having the same waiters. We've had good luck under MTD that if we come the same time each night we've been able to have the same servers. We have also had luck changing to early dining by making a fast beeline to dining room as soon as we board. I expect though with a spring break cruise there may not be as much success, but you will never know unless you ask.

A tip - Johnny Rockets serves a free breakfast (it is pay for lunch/dinner) that a lot of folks don't know about. We went with our then 6 year old so we did a lot of buffet, but the café & pizza place are also good for quick bites and a change from buffet.

Have fun! We love exploring new ships. We've ended up on Royal more than any other due to price and timing, and never had a bad cruise.

 

[VeroBeachGirl]

Have fun! We love exploring new ships. We've ended up on Royal more than any other due to price and timing, and never had a bad cruise.

I was drawn to all the activities and the price! I booked about 27 days before the cruise in two side by side oceanviews. I'm paying $5400 for the 5 of us during Spring Break! If I attempted that on the Fantasy (if it were even available) it would be at least $20K!

 

[DnA2010]

We loved Oasis! our DD was 9 on Oasis and 10 on Fantasy and loved each cruise equally! Our Fantasy cruise was twice the price too, and that was a VGT rate in May!
Honestly, we loved all the bells and whistles of the big ship and it didn't feel crowded to us. Maybe when a show got out but that's about it. We were a large group so did My Time Dining based on what activities everyone was doing. My DH and I have also cruised on Freedom of the Seas and did My Time- both times we had the same waiters no matter what time we dined.
Can't comment on the specialty dining really- we did the Japanese place once- it was good, other than that we found the MDR food just fine. We actually preferred it to the Fantasy.

 

[John VN]

We had early MTD reservations on Oasis and showed up 20 minutes before doors opened and it was crazy crowded, noisy and confusing. Finally saw a sign indicating that those with dining time reservations line up to the left of entrance. Showed our key card, requested a table for 2, was escorted to the table and seated. The following nights we simply walked past the crowd line up and walked to our table. Same server, remembered our preferred drinks and dining began. Much smoother than DCL. Since we had an upgrade to a Junior Suite Sea Class, we went to Coastal Kitchen one night to experience the difference. Our November cruise is in a Grand Suite Sky Class so we now access to Coastal

 

[Mrsjvb]

Help! We booked a last minute Spring Break cruise on the Oasis of the Seas. I've been on 10 Disney Cruises, but never a RC. I don't understand the dining at all! We are assigned to the tradtional dining at 8pm and are waitlisted for the early dining. Here are some questions I have:
1. With traditional dining, will we be eating in the same restaurant for 7 nights in a row?
2. If we switch to "my time" dining, can I make reservations at the free restaurants online beforehand?

If anyone can point me to a good web site or blog for planning advice and tips for the Oasis that would be great.

1: Oasis only has one MDR. so yes, the same table and waitstaff every night. Quantum class has the multiple venues included in the fare ( they tried something called Dynamic dining which failed utterly so now all of those restaurants have the same menu)
2: again only one restaurant. MTD is seated on a different floor than traditional dining.

with MTD reservations are not required , however, the most popular dining times ( between 6-730) there may be a wait if you do not, or if you have a large party( more than 6)

FTR we hated Disney's dining concept. the forced rotation was very annoying since I never seemed to be in the mood for whatever the menu was that night.

 

[VeroBeachGirl]

Thanks everyone, I get it now. I contacted RC and made sure we were moved to early dining (little kids) and had a table for just our family of 5. (Not antisocial, just like talking to our kids and not wasting our time together with stranger small talk).