Freestyle Question

[comfixit]

I am going to be sailing on POA. I have heard that your best bet is to make reservations day 1 as most things are completely booked by end of day 2.

 

My family is very particular proffering to dine early. The 5:30 reservations are perfect. Our original plan was to get on the ship when it boards, run to the booth and reserve 5:30 times across the board for all the days (except maybe day 1).

 

Now we are thinking we may try to hit the Arizona before checking in later in the evening. Perhaps as late as 5PM.

 

From those experienced cruisers is 5:30 a popular time for reservations? Does anyone think that I may have trouble getting 5:30 reservation times at the specialty restaurants if we wait till 5PM on the first night to book our weeks reservations?

[2travelers]

Hi Comfixit: We traveled on the Jewel last August and we also prefer to dine early. We generally eat at about 6pm. We had no problems getting reservations at that hour. People usually had problems with the 8-8:30 hour. We made reservations the day of, or the day before. No problems. We decided to make al of our reservations for the entire trip on the third day because the line to make reservations was so long, that it was just easier to do it all at once. Eating at the 5:30 hour should be no problem at all. Enjoy. Only 10 more months to our next cruise. Can't wait :)

[comfixit]

How long did you happen to see the line to make reservations get?

[KeystoneCruiser]

When we were on the POA in August of 2004, we too tried to eat early. Since I refuse to go to pay restaurants on the ships, it left us with the two main dining rooms, the Palace and the Crossings, which don't take reservations. We found however that if we were there by 5:45 or earlier, there would be no wait for a table. We never had to wait and we were easily seated within minutes of arriving.

 

Another word of caution: if you plan on going to the Arizona memorial before your cruise, I would arrive at the Arizona no later than 8:00-8:15 a.m.. The later you wait to arrive, the later in the day your launch tickets will be for and if you would happen to get an afternoon launch, you would be pushing it to make the ship. The Arizona tickets go fast and on most days they are all handed out by 10:30 or 11:00 a.m. When we went in 2004, we arrived at 7:30 a.m. and they had already handed out the early launch tickets. (Launches start at 8:00 a.m.) Our tickets were for the 9:45 a.m. launch. By the time we were getting in line for our launch, they said they were already up to 3:00 p.m. launches. Get there EARLY!!!

[2travelers]

Hi Comfixit: When we went to the reservation desk before 10am there was just one person taking reservations. Some people just can't make up their minds and spent 10-15 minutes trying to decide when and where to eat. Several people gave up and left. After 10am there are two NCL staff taking reservations, so the line moves a bit quicker. After we stoos on line for about 15-20 minutes, we decided to make reservations for the rest of the cruise. Check to boards, I think that you might be able to make reservations right off you TV screen now. We had no problems making reservations in the main dining rooms as well, although I have seen people on this board say that NCL would not do it. Either way, I don't think you will have a problem dining at an early hour.