Pinnacle Dining and a little more

[doubleduty]

We are booked on the Zuiderdam for a 12 day sailing starting July 4, 2017. It will be me, my husband and 14 year old grandson. This is our fourth cruise on Holland America but the first one where we have two nights of free dinners for two at the Pinnacle. My questions: since we have our grandson, how much will it cost us to have him dine with us at the Pinnacle? Second, and I know the cruise is a long way out, do we make our reservations ahead of time or after we board? We usually like to eat late so we have more port time.

 

We have never sailed in this part of the world (Baltics); have done the Mediterranean 3 times and are looking for an area with cooler weather. Hoping we will have it on this cruise since we are limited to sailing during the summer months.

[niceguyneastbay]

We are booked on the Zuiderdam for a 12 day sailing starting July 4, 2017. It will be me, my husband and 14 year old grandson. This is our fourth cruise on Holland America but the first one where we have two nights of free dinners for two at the Pinnacle. My questions: since we have our grandson, how much will it cost us to have him dine with us at the Pinnacle? Second, and I know the cruise is a long way out, do we make our reservations ahead of time or after we board? We usually like to eat late so we have more port time.

 

We have never sailed in this part of the world (Baltics); have done the Mediterranean 3 times and are looking for an area with cooler weather. Hoping we will have it on this cruise since we are limited to sailing during the summer months.

 

Enjoy the Baltics. That was my first cruise with HAL and I loved it. I have heard that it is better to book your dinners and excursions onboard the ship as it goes towards your Onboard cruise day credits.

 

If you are in St. Petersburg, we used a company called Denrus Tours. We had 4 of us, private van, driver and local tour guide. It was a great tour as they showed some of the hidden things of St. Petersburg and got us around the town quickly. http://www.denrus.ru

[alwaysfrantic]

Dining reservations are open for next summer; at least on my summer 17 cruise. All are reserved and paid now to get the times I wanted.

[Crew News]

If your free dinners were part of a promotion offer, you cannot make reservations. Your reservations will be made at the time chosen by the ship. Some passengers have been able to negotiate a change with the PG Manger once on board.

 

Your grandson should have to pay the full price when dining with you. Make your reservation for him once you learn your your assigned time.

 

Something to try would be to online book reservations just for your grandson at the times you want to dine. That will reserve a table in the PG. When you board, tell the PG Manager that you want to use your free dinners and join your grandson at his reserved table. Should not be a problem.

Edited October 28, 2016 by Crew News

[doubleduty]

Thanks everyone. Yes, this was part of a promotion.

[oceanmom]

Any purchases you make on the HAL website for specialty dinners, excursions, indulgences, spa, etc. that you reserve and pay for before your cruise are included in the additional cruise day calculation. You cannot use OBC for reservations/purchases you make before boarding. We usually reserve and pay for dinners that we want on a specific night or for excursions that we don't want to miss.

[jhsocal]

As Crew News {and others} posted, the free PG dinner is usually assigned by ship personnel. For some reason on our July Alaska Westerdam cruise, the envelope for the dinner was in our cabin, no time was listed. Called immediately and secured day and time we wanted. PG manager acted like this was the norm.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Since your grandson is over the age of 12, he will have to be charged the adult price for the specialty dinners.

 

You can certainly pre-book those dinners before you cruise -- thus getting the times and dates you want.

 

Then once you are on the ship, you can talk to the managers of the specialty restaurants and tell them that you have those freebee dinners coming to you. The managers should refund you for the dinners you paid for. We have done that many times when we were entitled to free dinners.

[denatravels]

Come on and join our roll call, which will hopefully pick up at some point!!

July 4, 2017 12 day Baltic Adventure to St. Petersburg

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2353593

 

 

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