Specialty Restaurants on Oasis

[Luvmypups]

Should I book specialty restaurant reservations before my cruise or will I be able to reserve once on board without difficulty? Thanks :)

[CrabbyQ]

For what it's worth: We pre-booked 150 Central but when we were there, it was not at capacity. We also booked Giovanni's the day we ate there.

[Luvmypups]

Thanks for the info Crabby! I would prefer to wait until on board to make reservations, but I don't want everything to be booked.

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

We are going to wait till we are on the ship ..

[Erik101]

Should I book specialty restaurant reservations before my cruise or will I be able to reserve once on board without difficulty? Thanks :)

 

It will depend on the reservation capacity and if there is enough empty reservations/tables throughout the week. On embarkation, we went to Giovanni's without a reservation and were able to get in without issues. That Friday, we had reservations for 150 Central Park and people without reservations were turned away because it was full. It's up to you as to what you want to do but I don't see any advantages from booking before or on board.

[Luvmypups]

Does anyone have any opinions regarding which specialty restaurant they liked best also?? Thanks or all opinions! :p

[mjane1999]

Should I book specialty restaurant reservations before my cruise or will I be able to reserve once on board without difficulty? Thanks :)

We just got off Oasis and we purchased the Central park dining package on our first day. Which included 3 restaraunts for $65 per person which I thought was a good deal.

We were required to eat at Giovanni's the first night but could not get in at our desired time. So we proceeded to book all 3 and got the times we wanted. Later in the week we wanted to do Chops and Giovanni's again, our concierge booked them and not sure if she was able to pull some strings and was able to get us in. It was earlier around 5:30 - 6:00 than we wanted but it was all she could get. But a plus as it was empty, nice and quite eating outside on their patio. Very nice!!

[OCruisers]

We waited to book our reservations on a 7 day Oasis until we got on the ship with no problems and had dinner in speciality restaurants 6 of the 7 nights.

 

Giovanni's - 3 nights

Chops - 2 nights

150 Central Park - 1 night

 

We LOVED Giovanni's! Our favorite! :)

Next time, we'll book 150 Central Park twice.. so quite and relaxing.

 

LuLu

[Luvmypups]

Thanks everyone for your input. I look forward to trying several of them!!:cool:

[joeski27]

I can actually offer another perspective on the whole reservation topic for specialty restaurants on Oasis/Allure. We were on Oasis about a month ago (early June) and I we had made reservations for Chops about 3 months before our cruise. They happened to be for 7pm on a given night, and we arrive at about 6:55. Well apparently when we arrived, the only tables that they had were outdoor tables. Now please keep in mind, that this was early June in the middle of the Caribbean, so to say it was balmy and steamy outside would be a massive understatement. So, needless to say, we told them we'd prefer to wait until an interior table was available. Also as it turned out, at that same time another party (family of 5) also had 7pm reservations and were told the same thing. Fortunately for us, after about a 20 minute wait, they finally seated us indoors. About 5-10 minutes after that, we happened to see that family of 5 walking away from the restaurant through Central Park, and (rightfully so) they looked very, very upset, and I can only hope that they either made reservations for another night or were able to get their money back. I noted this story in a review I posted a few weeks ago, but be warned that RCI clearly has some work to do with their seating policies in their specialty restaurants. Now I can understand if one simply showed up (no reservation) and the only seating available was outside. But to make reservation-holding passengers, who (after a long day in the surf/sun, are now clean and well-dressed) sit out in the sweltering heat at one of your finest dining establishments is a real slap in the face. Hopefully this wouldn't happen to you, but just tossin' it out there as a possibility ;)

[Luvmypups]

I can actually offer another perspective on the whole reservation topic for specialty restaurants on Oasis/Allure. We were on Oasis about a month ago (early June) and I we had made reservations for Chops about 3 months before our cruise. They happened to be for 7pm on a given night, and we arrive at about 6:55. Well apparently when we arrived, the only tables that they had were outdoor tables. Now please keep in mind, that this was early June in the middle of the Caribbean, so to say it was balmy and steamy outside would be a massive understatement. So, needless to say, we told them we'd prefer to wait until an interior table was available. Also as it turned out, at that same time another party (family of 5) also had 7pm reservations and were told the same thing. Fortunately for us, after about a 20 minute wait, they finally seated us indoors. About 5-10 minutes after that, we happened to see that family of 5 walking away from the restaurant through Central Park, and (rightfully so) they looked very, very upset, and I can only hope that they either made reservations for another night or were able to get their money back. I noted this story in a review I posted a few weeks ago, but be warned that RCI clearly has some work to do with their seating policies in their specialty restaurants. Now I can understand if one simply showed up (no reservation) and the only seating available was outside. But to make reservation-holding passengers, who (after a long day in the surf/sun, are now clean and well-dressed) sit out in the sweltering heat at one of your finest dining establishments is a real slap in the face. Hopefully this wouldn't happen to you, but just tossin' it out there as a possibility ;)

 

 

Wow! That's great to know and definitely a different perspective. Thanks for the information!!

[mommamd]

Yikes that has never happened to us in many years of reservations at the specialties. we loved Giovannis table on allure, as well as Samba Grill. EXcellent.