Suite perks.. dining reservations - when to reserve?

[SamboniMan]

Hi,

 

We are sailing in a suite next March for the first time and newcomers to NCL (my two NCL cruises were charters).

 

I read here that dining reservations can be made 90 days head of time but I also read about the concierge making dining reservations for suite guests. Which is the best way to go? In advance or with the concierge? It's a little confusing. We will have the UDP and most likely take advantage of it for dinner each and every night.

 

Thank you!

[LrgPizza]

Suite guests can make reservations online 100 days ahead of time, and 90 days for all others. (I can't answer the rest, but wanted to clarify that part.)

[sc2011]

Hi,

 

We are sailing in a suite next March for the first time and newcomers to NCL (my two NCL cruises were charters).

 

I read here that dining reservations can be made 90 days head of time but I also read about the concierge making dining reservations for suite guests. Which is the best way to go? In advance or with the concierge? It's a little confusing. We will have the UDP and most likely take advantage of it for dinner each and every night.

 

Thank you!

 

It's really your preference. However, when you embark, the concierge (or sometimes your butler) will come to you with a form to fill out of all the dinner reservations you want - restaurant and time - and then they make it happen. Or, you can tell them daily what reservations you want. I wait until I get on the ship. That works for me.

[brookie848]

If you want Teppanyaki reservations, you might want to book as soon as the site opens for you. Since seating is limited, that is generally the most difficult reservation to get.

 

If you have your heart set on a certain restaurant/time/night, you might want to book early as well. You can do that online or by calling the pre-cruise concierge number.

 

Our only experience is on the Epic and we had our concierge make all dinner reservations for us. However, we were not asking to be seated at the most popular times when we ate at specialty restaurants.

[watchdiva]

We prebook certain restaurants (Teppanyaki, LeBistro for first and last nights of the cruise) and then give the concierge a list for the remaining reservations.

[Pamster]

We filled out the form that the Concierge gave us at the beginning of the cruise, and reserved for every night of the cruise. If there are a lot of people on the cruise with UDP it's a really good idea to get your reservations as early as possible. We talked to several who couldn't get into Tappanyaki or Moderno because they waited until the second day of the cruise to make a reservation. Even the concierge couldn't help them because the restaurants were both fully booked for the rest of the cruise.

[Loucat]

We booked for every night 90 days out.

When we boarded, we changed many of our planned times and venues through the concierge.

Teppanyaki was wonderful but too much salt for me so we switched.

I would rather know we picked our chosen times so I would do this again.

The concierge can certainly book everything for you so it is your choice.

[zonap]

If there are certain restaurants you know you want to try on a certain day, then do go ahead and book them online ahead of time. Otherwise, the concierge is your friend! Our concierge last week really helped us with a lot of restaurant reservations as we waited until boarding to make any of our reservations. With UDP being so prevalent now, we found that specialty restaurant reservations really filled up quickly, so it was worth it having the concierge on our sailing. If we didn't have that suite perk, I doubt we'd have eaten at many specialty restaurants due to our dining time preference/requirement (we have a young child so we eat early).

[sverigecruiser]

It's really your preference. However, when you embark, the concierge (or sometimes your butler) will come to you with a form to fill out of all the dinner reservations you want - restaurant and time - and then they make it happen. Or, you can tell them daily what reservations you want. I wait until I get on the ship. That works for me.

 

I have not seen that form.

 

On our recent Breakaway cruise we changed our first LeBistro booking from Monday to Tuesday because of the strong wind (we felt that we shouldn't really enjoy the dinner on Monday). No problem to change it but we couldn't get the time we wanted.

 

The best thing is to book in advance and change during the cruise if necessary.

[Carnac767]

We don't book early because we like to be flexible. Once we see the next day's Freestyle and decide what we want to do, I contact the concierge to book a restaurant. I've never had a problem doing this. Even if you do book early, though, and then have a scheduling conflict (like an invitation to a cocktail party or something) it's easy to have the concierge change your rezzie for you.

[SamboniMan]

Thank you so much! All of your comments have been so helpful.

 

Much appreciated.

 

Happy cruising!