Anybody had success with changes to dining on embarkation day?

[G_Girl]

We are sailing on the Carnival Horizon on Jan 19.  There are 4 adult couples but we all booked our trips separately.  We all wanted to do the 8:15 seated dining, but ended up waitlisted for it.  Our intent was if we all got it that once we all had it, I'd call and get our reservations linked for dining so we'd be seated together.  Unfortunately only 3 of the 4 couples wait list has come through so far and we are just a bit over 2 weeks from sailing.  So, I think that just leaves us an option to try and get to the Maitre d' on sailing day and see if they could do anything for us.

 

I'm wondering if anybody else has done that with success.  If not, any success at that point in the 3 who got the late dining to be able to drop it and switch to Your Time Dining so we could all just show up at the same time and get seated together.  Thanks for any experiences or advice.

[klfrodo]

Yes

[skrufy]

27 minutes ago, G_Girl said:

We are sailing on the Carnival Horizon on Jan 19.  There are 4 adult couples but we all booked our trips separately.  We all wanted to do the 8:15 seated dining, but ended up waitlisted for it.  Our intent was if we all got it that once we all had it, I'd call and get our reservations linked for dining so we'd be seated together.  Unfortunately only 3 of the 4 couples wait list has come through so far and we are just a bit over 2 weeks from sailing.  So, I think that just leaves us an option to try and get to the Maitre d' on sailing day and see if they could do anything for us.

 

I'm wondering if anybody else has done that with success.  If not, any success at that point in the 3 who got the late dining to be able to drop it and switch to Your Time Dining so we could all just show up at the same time and get seated together.  Thanks for any experiences or advice.

Late dining is the least popular, so you most likely will get people trying to switch to the most popular, early dining. The YTD is a good backup. 

[Banditswife]

we've had success going to MDR on Embarkation day.  Like skrufy says- late dining is least popular, they should be able to accomodate

[Organized Chaos]

You can also email the Maitre D to make the request. For Horizon, it's: HZmaitred@carnival.com

 

You may or may not get a reply back, even if they make the change. If they don't reply, you'll see your assigned dining on embarkation day. If you request the change on embarkation day and it's granted, they probably won't be able to officially reassign you until the second night.

[jbethel11]

We had Late Dining, as Early Dining and YTD was unavailable for our prior cruise, so we asked the maitre'd for YTD, as we've never had it before. He simply told us to come down to the MDR whenever we wanted to eat, and they would seat us.

[G_Girl]

Thanks so much everyone.  I'm feeling encouraged.

[mojavetex]

1 hour ago, Organized Chaos said:

You can also email the Maitre D to make the request. For Horizon, it's: HZmaitred@carnival.com

 

You may or may not get a reply back, even if they make the change. If they don't reply, you'll see your assigned dining on embarkation day. If you request the change on embarkation day and it's granted, they probably won't be able to officially reassign you until the second night.

That is what I have always done but John Heald said not to do that but contact him. Not sure how to do that. 

[Schoifmom]

Don't wait to link your reservations.  They do take into consideration if linked reservations all have the same dining time when clearing waitlists.

[rukkian]

1 hour ago, Schoifmom said:

Don't wait to link your reservations.  They do take into consideration if linked reservations all have the same dining time when clearing waitlists.

This exactly, having them linked will have a much better chance of having the change happen, as they will try to keep you together.

[amydresh]

We were able to get switched from YTD to early on embarkation.  We got a postcard in our mailbox the next day saying that we were switched for that night.  There were only 5 of us though and we had FTTF, so I don't know if that mattered or not.

[MT_Sea_Cruisers]

We have never had a problem adjusting dining times.  We've have 4 sailings where we were traveling with other people and not all of us had the same dining time.    Each time Carnival worked with us to make sure we had the same time and were all seated together.

[grandmarnnurse]

2 hours ago, mojavetex said:

That is what I have always done but John Heald said not to do that but contact him. Not sure how to do that. 

John Heald has a Facebook page. Just ask him a question on that. I do it all the time.

[grandmarnnurse]

I may be wanting to change my Early Dining to YTD for my April 11 cruise on the Magic. It is a B2B, as we get on April 5, and have YTD for the first leg. We planned for early in case family booked to join us to celebrate (it’s our 50th Anniversary), but only one son booked, and it’s doubtful he’ll come, so I may need to change this.

[2wheelin]

5 hours ago, mojavetex said:

That is what I have always done but John Heald said not to do that but contact him. Not sure how to do that. 

Nephew emailed maitre’d last night for our sailing on Jan 5 (four days off) and received reply that his family of four is changed from late to YTD. 

I would email but also get reservations linked so that you can be together. Mention that in the email also.

[ontheweb]

On our first Carnival cruise we were assigned late when we had requested early. This was actually before YTD existed on Carnival. There was a long line of people wanting switches including at least one who had not even been assigned a dining time. We did get our change, but it was not in place until the second day of the cruise.

[PlanoDebbie]

Since you're wanting to move your group to the least favorite option, you shouldn't have any problems.  YTD is the most popular, followed by early dining.  It may not happen on the first night with such a large group.  Have patience.  They will deliver a card to your room with you changed time and tables.

 

I really wish Carnival would also allow folks to choose Lido as their dining option, knowing they would have to make a reservation for the dining room.  Sadly, there are so many empty seats in the dining room because folks selected early dinng, but only show up on formal nights.

 

[grandmarnnurse]

2 hours ago, PlanoDebbie said:

Since you're wanting to move your group to the least favorite option, you shouldn't have any problems.  YTD is the most popular, followed by early dining.  It may not happen on the first night with such a large group.  Have patience.  They will deliver a card to your room with you changed time and tables.

 

I really wish Carnival would also allow folks to choose Lido as their dining option, knowing they would have to make a reservation for the dining room.  Sadly, there are so many empty seats in the dining room because folks selected early dinng, but only show up on formal nights.

 

I really don’t know what you mean, “wish Carnival would allow folks to chose Lido as their dining option”? Anybody can go to Lido buffet for dinner, if they choose. It doesn’t have to be approved by Carnival. You just don’t go to the MDR. My problem is that you have to get approval for any time you choose for MDR. This business of not get your choice is not a good option. By making the MDR totally YTD, everyone could go when they choose to go, even if it’s every single night at the same exact time, like assigned dining. You only need to ask to sit in the same section as your preferred waiter. We did that on our last cruise, and we had our same waiter every night. We did not always have the exact table, but we were in our preferred waiter’s section. You are free to go to the Lido buffet if that’s your choice, PlanoDebbie. Carnival isn’t going to tell you that you can’t. (Off subject—-are you from Plano, TX? My son lives in Wylie.) I think that Carnival IS looking at going totally flexible dining, as NCL did several years ago. NCL found that Freestyle Cruising concept was a HUGE success. But there was so much about Carnival that we preferred, so we returned to them once they started YTD, as assigned dining, ESPECIALLY with being seated with strangers, was not for us.

[RWolver672]

3 hours ago, PlanoDebbie said:

 

I really wish Carnival would also allow folks to choose Lido as their dining option, knowing they would have to make a reservation for the dining room.  Sadly, there are so many empty seats in the dining room because folks selected early dinng, but only show up on formal nights.

 

 

1 hour ago, grandmarnnurse said:

I really don’t know what you mean, “wish Carnival would allow folks to chose Lido as their dining option”? 

 

I think that she meant that if they knew they weren't going to be eating in the MDR, why not have an option to choose neither Early, Late or ATD.  In theory, she's right.  Why take up a slot if you know ahead of time that you aren't going to use it.  That way someone else can have that slot that wants it and couldn't get it.

[ontheweb]

42 minutes ago, RWolver672 said:

 

 

I think that she meant that if they knew they weren't going to be eating in the MDR, why not have an option to choose neither Early, Late or ATD.  In theory, she's right.  Why take up a slot if you know ahead of time that you aren't going to use it.  That way someone else can have that slot that wants it and couldn't get it.

Correct, it seems unfair that someone should be shut out of what they want because someone else who has no intention of using it has chosen it because they have to make a choice when they intend to do something different that is allowed but not one of the choices offered.

[grandmarnnurse]

3 hours ago, ontheweb said:

Correct, it seems unfair that someone should be shut out of what they want because someone else who has no intention of using it has chosen it because they have to make a choice when they intend to do something different that is allowed but not one of the choices offered.

A problem that wouldn’t even exist if it was all YTD.

[2wheelin]

2 hours ago, grandmarnnurse said:

A problem that wouldn’t even exist if it was all YTD.

I think if it were all YTD it would create a problem of too many wanting to go at the same time. Some people do want to know that they can go at a specific time and walk right in and have the same table. But as mentioned, you should be able to not choose anything and free up space for requests.

[G_Girl]

Thank you so much everyone for the replies.  I'm going to try and get the reservations linked and then email the contacts mentioned above to see if we can do something ahead of sailing.  If not, we'll just hit up the maitre d on embarkation day.

[summersigh]

My DH and I sailed the Sunshine in December.  We always use late fixed dining.  I emailed the maitre'd 5 days before our cruise (it was on an 11 day journeys cruise at that time) I asked for a large table in the aft dining room because we enjoy meeting people and we eat in the MDR every night  I asked for the aft dining room because DH has mobility issues.  I also asked JH to put my request in as well. 

We boarded and I went to check ... we were assigned a table for 2 in the mid-ship dining room.  I went to the assigned location for the maitre'd to see about a change - best he said he could do was a table for 2 in the upper aft dining room which was also fixed dining. 

That shot down our idea of fun group dining so we ended up eating in the Lido the last 3 nights with made to order deli sandwiches, the salad bar and desert. 

Disappointing.

[G_Girl]

Just following up on this with an update and a big thanks to all of you

 

We linked all our reservations and I emailed the maitre'd today with the request.  He responded within 30 minutes and had all of us seated together for the late dining.  I appreciate all your tips on getting this accomplished and now we don't have to worry about doing it on embarkation day.