Reservations

[Eurocruiser2010]

We are booked on the Jade later this year for a 7 day West. Med cruise. Would you reccomend making reservations for our dinners each night? I have been reading these wonderful boards and some people say that there have been long waits. I was on a 10 day NCL cruise a few years ago, and we never had to wait ... We even ate in the main dining rooms every night (no speciality restaurants.) Has something changed?

 

Your thoughts?

 

Thanks!

[njhorseman]

We are booked on the Jade later this year for a 7 day West. Med cruise. Would you reccomend making reservations for our dinners each night? I have been reading these wonderful boards and some people say that there have been long waits. I was on a 10 day NCL cruise a few years ago, and we never had to wait ... We even ate in the main dining rooms every night (no speciality restaurants.) Has something changed?

 

Your thoughts?

 

Thanks!

 

Waiting times can vary greatly based on the cruise you're on ( how full the ship is, passenger demographics, whether the itinerary is port intensive, etc.). We sometimes adjust our dining time slightly to avoid what we observe to be the peak hours on a particular ship.

 

In our experience, unless you are a suite passenger or VIP, you can only make MDR reservations for off-peak times...perhaps before 6pm or after 8pm. During peak hours it has been first-come-first-served seating.

[dalgirl]

If there is a special occasion (such as an anniversary) in a specialty restaurant, we make a reservation. Otherwise, no we don't. We were on the Med cruise last year on the GEM and the 2 times we waited, we were issued a beeper with 1/2 off our drinks in the nearby bar. By the time the drink can, the beeper went off, so we were very pleased with our wait:D In fact, I accused DH of waiting for the line to back up so he could get the beeper. If you are not very picky about when you eat, I would not worry about it.

[johnql]

I'm not saying long waits don't occur, but I do believe they are the exception to the rule. On 9 NCL cruises, I have rarely had to wait. Once or twice, I have waited 5-10 minutes, never more. YMMV

[uppitycats]

We never had to wait more than 10 minutes for dinner in the main dining room, and that was just once. We never made reservations for the specialty restaurants, either -- just walked up and were seated.