What time to show up for dinner?

[Minnie368]

We have second seating on the Wish next month. We would like to avoid the long line to get in to dinner, so what time should we arrive if we don't want to be "late", but we want to miss the rush and be able to walk in pretty close to the time we get there?

 

[MichelleCanada]

From when we were on the Wish last summer we found that they opened the doors at almost exactly the time you have been given (8:15?? I cannot remember). It takes about 5-8 minutes for everyone to get inside the MDR. I hope that helps.

 

[auntlynne]

We don’t get there before scheduled time - or stand in a line. Arrive a minute or two late and be seated - It’s not even “fashionably late.“

 

[Ralph&Pam]

Our experience has been that the MDR doors usually open right on time. On occasion they may start letting diners in a couple of minutes early, but not much more than that. Arrive within 5 minutes after the scheduled door opening and the line will be gone.

 

[71 Truck]

On the first three nights someone will escort you to your table so you know where it is, this was on the Fantasy 7 night cruises. After that, once you arrive at a restaurant you should have already eaten at you should be on your own, at least thats whet we have seen in the past.
My wife and I usually arrive around five minutes after the doors were supposed to open. By then most of the crowd is in the doors and seated.

 

[RedHead0186]

Show up right at your scheduled dining time or a minute or two after. By then the line should have died down. If there is a line, it should move pretty quickly once the doors are open.

I will say when I sailed the Wish in April, I had Arendelle the first night, and something caused them to be late with second seating. I showed up right on time and had to stand in a long line that was all the way out to the 'center' part (where the shop is). We all stood for a while, then it finally started moving about 5-10 minutes late. Not sure why that happened. But you wouldn't know ahead of time that was going to occur, so best bet is to arrive right on time or right after.

 

[RedHead0186]

On the first three nights someone will escort you to your table so you know where it is, this was on the Fantasy 7 night cruises. After that, once you arrive at a restaurant you should have already eaten at you should be on your own, at least thats whet we have seen in the past.
My wife and I usually arrive around five minutes after the doors were supposed to open. By then most of the crowd is in the doors and seated.

When I was on a 7-night Fantasy, they escorted us to our tables every night. We could have walked to our own tables after the first night, but each night we came in and they asked our table number so we told them. Usually our server or assistant server would see us walk in and come over to escort us (before a 'random' member of the dining team did).

We usually arrived right with the crowd, though, so maybe it's different if you arrive a few minutes late?

 

[FastPasser.]

We don’t get there before scheduled time - or stand in a line.

We don’t stand in line either. I don’t quite understand why some people arrive as early as they do just to stand in a long-ish line. They have a reserved table,

 

[RedHead0186]

We don’t stand in line either. I don’t quite understand why some people arrive as early as they do just to stand in a long-ish line. They have a reserved table,

I think there's just a mentality of "I have to get there first!" You're right, there's no benefit, since we all have reserved tables. I'm not even sure if it's a conscious decision on some peoples' parts or just ingrained in how they think. They just want to be first in line.

 

[Calantha]

I think there's just a mentality of "I have to get there first!" You're right, there's no benefit, since we all have reserved tables. I'm not even sure if it's a conscious decision on some peoples' parts or just ingrained in how they think. They just want to be first in line.

The early bird gets the worm? I like to be there right when it opens because that gives you a jump on talking to the waiter and getting your orders in (especially with a veteran group who generally knows what they're ordering). Also, if we have a larger group, I don't want to be closing down the restaurant every night.

 

[71 Truck]

We don’t stand in line either. I don’t quite understand why some people arrive as early as they do just to stand in a long-ish line. They have a reserved table,

They could have other activity's planned like tastings, a movie or something going on in one of the lounge areas like a singer they want to see.
On our last cruise my wife and I were part of a group of 12 on the cruise fore someones birthday. We had the second seating and after dinner one of the bars was offering drink deals at a certain time of the night people were interested in.

 

[71 Truck]

The early bird gets the worm? I like to be there right when it opens because that gives you a jump on talking to the waiter and getting your orders in (especially with a veteran group who generally knows what they're ordering). Also, if we have a larger group, I don't want to be closing down the restaurant every night.

My wife and I usually show up about 5 minutes after the doors open and we get a table for two when it is just us. My idea is we are not waiting for others or others are waiting for us. I do not like leaving a table when we are finished with our meal but others are still eating.

We also always say we are going to eat then leave so the staff can start getting ready for the morning breakfast seating. That works most of the time unless it is cast members we have had as our servers in the past, mostly our head server because we like to spend a little time catching up with them on how they have been doing.

 

[Mango7100]

On our cruise last month on the Wish the lines to get into MDR were ridiculously long. We passed by sometimes and people would be starting a line 20-30 minutes before seating which makes zero sense to me. We would show up 5-10 minutes after the seating time and still had to wait in line to get in every single time. Speed of of service and finishing our meal was not affected, our serving team had all the tables in their section on the same time frame mostly

 

[OpieDoodle]

We show up right on time, there is a line but doors generally open exactly at your dinner time. There are many cast members there escorting people to their tables. Within about 5 minutes I think everyone is seated. It's really a well oiled process and very painless.

We didn't mind waiting it gave us a chance to check out the art in the hallway leading to the restaurant. On the way to animators for example my kids were all about finding their favorite characters on the wall.

I wouldn't even consider showing up 20 minutes early just to be first ones seated lol.

 

[motherdaughtercruisers]

We do anything to avoid a line too! I didn’t even know “rope dropping” was a thing until a few days ago.

 

[rainbowredpanda]

We order our food the night before as we have allergy needs so we usually arrive 5-10 minutes after our 'time' and by then, everyone is seated and we can walk right in. We also always have a solo table so no one else is waiting on us

 

[Lizardgi]

Agreed with others here that showing up a few minutes past your time is ideal. I never understood why folks want to waste a half hour of their cruise standing in a hallway in line to be seated at a reserved table. If you show up 5 minutes past your time, you'll typically waltz right in and sit down. If you happen to be in a rush and want a quicker meal just let your server know.

 

[DCLMP]

The early bird gets the worm? I like to be there right when it opens because that gives you a jump on talking to the waiter and getting your orders in (especially with a veteran group who generally knows what they're ordering). Also, if we have a larger group, I don't want to be closing down the restaurant every night.

So you stand in line to get a 2 minute jump on ordering over someone who just shows up on time. Sounds fun.