Open Dining

[venecia]

We are cruising HAL Veendam and are trying open dining the first time. Can we make reservations or do we just show up?

[CruiserBruce]

You can make reservations for the first 30 to 45 minutes, and the last hour or so the dining room is open. You can't make reservations for the peak times...like between 6 and 7. These hours vary a little by ship. 

[Essiesmom]

Best source of info about Holland America is the forum here for them:  boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/103-holland-america-line/

[Krazy Kruizers]

Once you get on the ship, you can go and see the maitre'd and make reservations for the Open Seating.   You can make them for 3 days at a time and for any size table you want.

[lenquixote66]

15 hours ago, CruiserBruce said:

You can make reservations for the first 30 to 45 minutes, and the last hour or so the dining room is open. You can't make reservations for the peak times...like between 6 and 7. These hours vary a little by ship. 

We always make 6:30 reservations on HAL cruises.

[CruiserBruce]

23 minutes ago, lenquixote66 said:

We always make 6:30 reservations on HAL cruises.

As mentioned, this varies a little by ship. I have not seen reservations as late as 6:30, but the staff has been pretty flexible on this topic.

[lenquixote66]

8 minutes ago, CruiserBruce said:

As mentioned, this varies a little by ship. I have not seen reservations as late as 6:30, but the staff has been pretty flexible on this topic.

I have found that nothing is “written in stone” on some cruise ships with regard to dining times.

[Floridiana]

Why would you choose open dining if you want to make reservations? Wouldn't it make more sense to choose traditional dining right from the beginning? But maybe it wasn't available when you booked, had filled up already.