Specialty Dining

[JLBellaCC]

I am sure this question has been asked many times before but I'll be darned if I can find it. Is it a better deal to wait until onboard to purchase and reserve specialty dining? Or are the reservations difficult to obtain at that point?

 

Thank you!

[cabinluvn]

We have always made our ahead of time. You may be able to make reservations once on board, but your choices of days and times will be more limited

 

 

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[Alberta Quilter]

If your cruise is one that had promotions like Explore4 or Dine Around packages, then pre-book (and pay) for your specialty dining. The promotional dinners are fitted around the pre-paid reservations. If lots of people have promotional dinners, it will be very challenging to get a dinner reservation once onboard.

[Krazy Kruizers]

We pre-book specialty dinners.

One time we forgot and when we got on the ship, there was a group who had booked every night and all times.

[galensgrl]

On our cruise on the Veendam last May I had prebooked only one dinner at the Canaleto Italian restaurant. We liked it so much I tried all week to get another reservation for dinner, with no luck whatsoever. I even said we had no time preference - early, late - and we still couldn't get a second reservation. They were booked solid for the entire cruise. I heard it was the same for the Pinnacle Grill.

 

I learned from that and we have booked a few dinners ahead for our upcoming cruise in April.

 

Lorie

[SJSULIBRARIAN]

We generally pre-book Specialty Restaurants to get the days and times we want. Have also been able to book once on board but since we eat at 5:30 we have not had a problem - probably just lucky. A lot depends on what groups are on board I suspect.

[Mtn2Sea]

Slightly off topic, but last month we were on the Zuiderdam and had pre-booked three dinners in the Pinnacle a couple of weeks before the cruise. Another couple who had joined us on this cruise also independently booked the three dinners for the same time. Prior to boarding, I called Ship Services about associating these reservations since we wanted to sit together and was told we had to wait until we were aboard the ship to do this. Having read about some people having issues with getting Pinnacle reservations, the four of us went to the Pinnacle right after the embarkation lunch to make sure we could sit together. We were told that it was a good thing we had dropped by so early to make this change since they were pretty close to being booked up. I think it also helped that we had 5:30 reservations.

[sherryf]

If your cruise is one that had promotions like Explore4 or Dine Around packages, then pre-book (and pay) for your specialty dining. The promotional dinners are fitted around the pre-paid reservations. If lots of people have promotional dinners, it will be very challenging to get a dinner reservation once onboard.

 

We booked with Explore4. Will our time be assigned or do we get to choose it? If assigned, is it possible to change or are we stuck with it?

[dakrewser]

We booked with Explore4. Will our time be assigned or do we get to choose it? If assigned, is it possible to change or are we stuck with it?

 

When you board you will find a note in your cabin with the day and time you've been assigned. If it's not to your liking, go immediately and get it changed.

[djhsolara]

Just off NA with the Dine Around package. All of the reservations were assigned to us but we just went to the reservations stand to change them to what we wanted. We did this right after boarding and had no issue with any time that we wanted.

[Alberta Quilter]

We booked with Explore4. Will our time be assigned or do we get to choose it? If assigned, is it possible to change or are we stuck with it?

 

When you board you will find a note in your cabin with the day and time you've been assigned. If it's not to your liking, go immediately and get it changed.

 

It's possible that you won't receive a note; we didn't on our last cruise. I checked with the PG and they had record of the promo dinner. We were able to make it for the time of our choosing. We do tend to reserve no later than 6 pm though.