MTD and specialty dining questions

[MJB03]

DH and I are going on Enchantment of the Seas for a 4-night cruise out of Galveston with friends (total 8 people). I am platinum on DCL, but this is my first RCCL cruise, so I'm feeling pretty clueless. However, since many in the group have never cruised at all, I volunteered to do the MTD and specialty dining (one evening at Chops).

The reservations are linked, and I know that I just need to add their reservation numbers in the Cruise Planner in order to make a MTD reservation for all of us. When can I start making those reservations online?

And I know that you have to prepay your specialty dining fee. But is there a way for me to make a reservation for the group of 8 without having to pay everyone’s fees? Can everyone go into their cruise planner and prepay the fee, and then I make a reservation for everyone? Or should we book Chops reservations by cabin, and then have them combine the reservations into one large table afterwards? And if we do that, can I call in advance or do we need to wait until we are onboard to request combining into a table for 8? I know that we’ve done that with Palo reservations, just not sure what the tricks are on RCCL.

Any tips are greatly appreciated!

 

[acpalmer]

The reservations are linked, and I know that I just need to add their reservation numbers in the Cruise Planner in order to make a MTD reservation for all of us. When can I start making those reservations online?

I can't answer for the Chops reservation, as I've never done specialty. As for MTD, we are cruising at New Year's and I was able to make our MTD last October/November, so that was about 14 months out. For a June cruise that we did, we were able to book MTD as soon as we booked the cruise, which was about a year out. I don't know when your cruise is, but you can start looking for MTD reservations right now probably.

 

[gregorykicks]

DH and I are going on Enchantment of the Seas for a 4-night cruise out of Galveston with friends (total 8 people). I am platinum on DCL, but this is my first RCCL cruise, so I'm feeling pretty clueless. However, since many in the group have never cruised at all, I volunteered to do the MTD and specialty dining (one evening at Chops).

The reservations are linked, and I know that I just need to add their reservation numbers in the Cruise Planner in order to make a MTD reservation for all of us. When can I start making those reservations online?

And I know that you have to prepay your specialty dining fee. But is there a way for me to make a reservation for the group of 8 without having to pay everyone’s fees? Can everyone go into their cruise planner and prepay the fee, and then I make a reservation for everyone? Or should we book Chops reservations by cabin, and then have them combine the reservations into one large table afterwards? And if we do that, can I call in advance or do we need to wait until we are onboard to request combining into a table for 8? I know that we’ve done that with Palo reservations, just not sure what the tricks are on RCCL.

Any tips are greatly appreciated!

In order for each couple to pay separately for Chops they would need to book it themselves through their cruise planner. If you're linked and you all book the same time and day I would just go to the restaurant once on ship and let them know that you want to be seated as a group and they will gladly set that up.

Your other option would be for you to book them all together and then have each couple pay you.

Hope you all enjoy Enchantment! She's a classic cruise feel compared to Royal's newest mega-ships with all the activities. We did Rhapsody recently (a sister ship) and had a great, relaxing cruise.