Specialty dinner reservations between direct bookings and a TA booking

[belmontcrew]

I tried to book a dinner reservation for our group of six couples. Five are direct and one is with a big box TA. I have all reservations numbers. Royal CS only allowed me to make a reservation for 10 and a reservation for 2 at Chops. They said the reservation under the TA could not be added to make a party of 12 (they currently have room for 12) and that we would need to stop by Chops on the first day to make changes. I asked if the TA could call and add the the party of 2 to our party of 10 and was told no....needs to be done once onboard. 

 

Does this sound correct?  I am concerned that there is the possibility that once we get onboard, they will say they can’t accommodate a party of 12 any longer at which point we would want to cancel altogether. They have allowed me to book MTD (once linked) and shows for the full group, but the Specialty reservation is an issue for some reason. It should not be this difficult.  Any suggestions/help would be appreciated. 

[Ourusualbeach]

1 hour ago, belmontcrew said:

I tried to book a dinner reservation for our group of six couples. Five are direct and one is with a big box TA. I have all reservations numbers. Royal CS only allowed me to make a reservation for 10 and a reservation for 2 at Chops. They said the reservation under the TA could not be added to make a party of 12 (they currently have room for 12) and that we would need to stop by Chops on the first day to make changes. I asked if the TA could call and add the the party of 2 to our party of 10 and was told no....needs to be done once onboard. 

 

Does this sound correct?  I am concerned that there is the possibility that once we get onboard, they will say they can’t accommodate a party of 12 any longer at which point we would want to cancel altogether. They have allowed me to book MTD (once linked) and shows for the full group, but the Specialty reservation is an issue for some reason. It should not be this difficult.  Any suggestions/help would be appreciated. 

That is absolutely correct.  You  can only reserve for up to 10 guests.  Even if all 12 had been booked by the same person you could only book 10 of them together.  

[belmontcrew]

1 hour ago, Ourusualbeach said:

That is absolutely correct.  You  can only reserve for up to 10 guests.  Even if all 12 had been booked by the same person you could only book 10 of them together.  

 

The number of guests is not the issue in making the reservation. I was told we could get a table for 12. The issue is with the couple that booked through a TA. I was told they could not be added till we boarded. I would like to find someway to get them added before we arrive. 

[Ourusualbeach]

1 minute ago, belmontcrew said:

 

The number of guests is not the issue in making the reservation. I was told we could get a table for 12. The issue is with the couple that booked through a TA. I was told they could not be added till we boarded. I would like to find someway to get them added before we arrive. 

The number of guests is the issue in making the reservation in advance.  On board the ship you can get a table for 12.  In advance you can only make a reservation for up to 10 guests.  I know this because I have a group of 12 that I booked and I could only book them as a 10 and a 2 just like you had to do.  It must be combined on board.

[belmontcrew]

59 minutes ago, Ourusualbeach said:

The number of guests is the issue in making the reservation in advance.  On board the ship you can get a table for 12.  In advance you can only make a reservation for up to 10 guests.  I know this because I have a group of 12 that I booked and I could only book them as a 10 and a 2 just like you had to do.  It must be combined on board.

 

What I know is that when I asked if I could book a table for 12 the rep said yes. It was not till I gave the reservation number of the couple booked with the TA that she said I can’t add that one. I have since reached out to Royal on Twitter and they have informed me that the TA can call and add the couple. If I find out that this does not work because the limit is 10 I will report back. 

[Ourusualbeach]

13 minutes ago, belmontcrew said:

 

What I know is that when I asked if I could book a table for 12 the rep said yes. It was not till I gave the reservation number of the couple booked with the TA that she said I can’t add that one. I have since reached out to Royal on Twitter and they have informed me that the TA can call and add the couple. If I find out that this does not work because the limit is 10 I will report back. 

Like I said I just went through this yesterday. All 12 are in my group and I booked all 12. Initially tried through the cruise planner and it stopped me at 10. I called Royal and was told that was the max that it has to be changed on board. 

 

Good luck and please report back if you can do it. 

Edited August 29, 2019 by Ourusualbeach

[RedSails1968]

I tried to book 7 people for a Chops lunch on the Symphony in April and couldn’t do it either on line or on the phone. I was told it was too many people. She wanted to book us at 2 different tables but we just waited until we got onboard and had no trouble doing it then.

[belmontcrew]

It could be the rep used the TA reservation as an excuse that she could not book a table of 12. I will report back if the TA has any luck adding the other couple. If they can’t, that would mean the response on Twitter was incorrect which would be par for Royal...different reps giving different answers. 

[Ourusualbeach]

19 minutes ago, belmontcrew said:

It could be the rep used the TA reservation as an excuse that she could not book a table of 12. I will report back if the TA has any luck adding the other couple. If they can’t, that would mean the response on Twitter was incorrect which would be par for Royal...different reps giving different answers. 

I would suspect it was a newer rep that tried to add it, couldn’t and incorrectly assumed that it was because of guests 11 and 12 being from a TA as opposed to the 10 max.  There’s definitely room for confusion as on board you can book for 12.

[Merion_Mom]

1 hour ago, Ourusualbeach said:

I would suspect it was a newer rep that tried to add it, couldn’t and incorrectly assumed that it was because of guests 11 and 12 being from a TA as opposed to the 10 max.  There’s definitely room for confusion as on board you can book for 12.

 

It's Royal Caribbean. No matter how crowded things get, there is always room for confusion.  😉  😄