Recent Virgin cruisers - dining reservations?

[chicail16]

Just tried to make dining reservations on app but only a few restaurants were listed.  Is it possible to make reservations onboard?

 

Thanks.

[imahistorygeek]

3 hours ago, chicail16 said:

Just tried to make dining reservations on app but only a few restaurants were listed.  Is it possible to make reservations onboard?

 

Thanks.

I spoke with a rep a couple of days ago and she said yes, you can make reservations while on board.  They also set aside some walkups as well. 

[HerkFE]

4 hours ago, chicail16 said:

Just tried to make dining reservations on app but only a few restaurants were listed.  Is it possible to make reservations onboard?

 

Thanks.

The app wasn't working for me so I called in yesterday and was able to get reservations for dinner for my cruise in december. The rep said she could only do dinners and I got a notification in my app for them once we were off the phone. All total it was about 30 minutes and the rep was really helpful I do hate that everything is in this app that they just can't seem to get working right. 

[chicail16]

Thanks all!  I will try calling to make reservations.

[Nap3025]

Book as much as you can on the app before you board. Ship was only half full when we boarded but were unable to get a 2nd reservation at the Italian restaurant. Disappointing as only pizza and they galley were open unless we wanted Gumbai.  

[walkmypanda]

6 hours ago, Nap3025 said:

Book as much as you can on the app before you board. Ship was only half full when we boarded but were unable to get a 2nd reservation at the Italian restaurant. Disappointing as only pizza and they galley were open unless we wanted Gumbai.  

You can only make 1 reservation per restaurant. 

[Nap3025]

Yes but once onboard supposedly you can book a second reservation; however we could not.  We were told there was no space even tho the ship was half full. You can only make one reservation at each venue in advance and what I meant is make sure you do that as you may have a problem getting in once onboard 

[pa-annie]

18 hours ago, Nap3025 said:

Book as much as you can on the app before you board. Ship was only half full when we boarded but were unable to get a 2nd reservation at the Italian restaurant. Disappointing as only pizza and they galley were open unless we wanted Gumbai.  

Isn't there a way to book reservations online, or you have to use the app or call?

[walkmypanda]

25 minutes ago, pa-annie said:

Isn't there a way to book reservations online, or you have to use the app or call?

You can call them. They offered to book our reservations for us when we called to setup our prepaid bar tab.

 

Note: you're not going to be able to make your dining reservations until very near to your cruise. For us it was actually 11 days or so before, not the 15 that we were told (and I think 30-45 days if you're in a suite). I'm sure it's an issue with the app.

 

...Folks, this what happens when you try to get stuff developed on the cheap.

[PiperHolliday]

I cruise on December 5th and was able to make dinner reservations for every night of my cruise via the app without any issues. Every bookable restaurant had availability. It also let me add a friend from a different booking to our dinner reservations. However, when I tried to change our first night's reservation, the app had an error and told me to call to do it. 

[_tacocat_]

23 hours ago, Nap3025 said:

Yes but once onboard supposedly you can book a second reservation; however we could not.  We were told there was no space even tho the ship was half full. You can only make one reservation at each venue in advance and what I meant is make sure you do that as you may have a problem getting in once onboard 

The way I interpreted it, it sounded like you could basically get on a wait list to jump ahead of walk ins vs. actually make a second reservation.

[sippican]

On 11/11/2021 at 9:42 PM, Nap3025 said:

Yes but once onboard supposedly you can book a second reservation; however we could not.  We were told there was no space even tho the ship was half full. You can only make one reservation at each venue in advance and what I meant is make sure you do that as you may have a problem getting in once onboard 

 If you’ve already made one reservation for a specific restaurant, you can jump into the virtual queue for a second reservation onboard. 

[sellwingri]

I’m sailing on Scarlet Lady in January and this has me very confused.  I’m Diamond Plus on Royal and am used to eating in the MDR most of the time. After looking at the available restaurants, nothing really appeals to me except the Italian and steak places.  If I can only reserve each of these once, where do I eat the rest of the time?  How do I know where to make reservations?  

[ociana]

We just cruised this week and have a few suggestions for making reservations. Watch them to load in the app by 15 days out at midnight EST. Take a screenshot of your bookings, ours and many others had them disappear and we had to rebook once on board. Finally, there were new same day openings all week so keep looking if you didn't get them - worth the effort because they were all amazing!

[Nap3025]

There was no virtual queue. We went to the Italian restaurant 3 times … 630 pm, 730 pm and 845 pm and they said there was no space.  We were not a fan of no main dining room backup as not all the restaurants are everyone’s taste!  It was impossible to get a second reservation in the Italian restaurant at any time the final evening of our 5

night cruise and other open options are limited.  We tried Virgin but it wasn’t our cup of tea for many reasons and the lack of MDR is one of them.   Dining in the galley in the evening is not appealing.  

[AtSeaWithChris]

We made our reservations in the app for each night using the app last week. It said that you can use the virtual queue to get a second dining in any restaurant. 

[Nap3025]

Yes the app does say use the virtual queue but there wasn’t one. May be that’s been fixed?  The hostess at the Italian restaurant confirmed there was no virtual queue and told us to keep checking back which we did

[chrisa2711]

I'm booked on the 11/26 sailing and got an email a couple of days ago saying that reservations were open to me but the app only showed 3 dining venues that were bookable.

 

Also no way in the app to add Voyage Protection, which I thought I'd added during my original booking but it's not there now.

 

Lastly, is there some way to find out (and maybe even book) the prices of the shore excursions ahead of time?

 

[sid_9169]

3 hours ago, chrisa2711 said:

I'm booked on the 11/26 sailing and got an email a couple of days ago saying that reservations were open to me but the app only showed 3 dining venues that were bookable.

 

Also no way in the app to add Voyage Protection, which I thought I'd added during my original booking but it's not there now.

 

Lastly, is there some way to find out (and maybe even book) the prices of the shore excursions ahead of time?

 

You should be able to book shore excursions on the app under "discover", then click "ports" and swipe to watch different port to see the available excursions... 

[chrisa2711]

On 11/15/2021 at 7:37 PM, sid_9169 said:

You should be able to book shore excursions on the app under "discover", then click "ports" and swipe to watch different port to see the available excursions... 

Thanks, for some reason the app wasn't showing me the prices before, but it is now! 

[Lurdes777]

We only have 4 night cruise for new years. Since new years eve program is unknown at this point, which restaurants do you recommend we book for dinners for each of the 4 nights?  Please list your top 4!

[ociana]

58 minutes ago, Lurdes777 said:

We only have 4 night cruise for new years. Since new years eve program is unknown at this point, which restaurants do you recommend we book for dinners for each of the 4 nights?  Please list your top 4!

 

The Wake - steak, roasted garlic and the side of mushrooms.

Test Kitchen - everything!

Pink Agave - the pork dish and try the cocktails

Gunbae - kimchi pork belly stew. I need to learn to make this and I considered ordering a second bowl for dessert.

 

From the reviews I have seen online, a lot of others would put Extra Virgin at the top of their list but that one just did not rank for us. We ordered all the things that were recommended, and there were some tasty standouts (meatballs and gnocchi) but the other meals were just that much better.  I will also note that we are adventurous eaters, so our tastes may not match yours. Read the menus to get a feel for what sounds most delicious to you.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Lurdes777]

Thanks!  We are adventerous foodies so we are up for anything.  

 

 

 

[Lurdes777]

So after 3 hours on hold, I as able to talk to a nice agent and he answered my questions. Now in terms of dining reservations - I was able to make dinner reservations for 3 out of 4 nights. 

 

Day 1 - The Wake

Day 2 - Ganbae

 Day 3 - Extra virgin

Day 4 i wanted to do Test Kitchen but it is not available.. I will try again later or I will have to re-arrange other days...

 

Question about breakfast - I love good breakfast.  What are the options for eat?  I read Razzle Dazzle has brunch?  I also see The Wake coming up with being available in the morning - what do they serve?

[Lurdes777]

If I already booked The Wake for dinner that means I wont be able to book it for Brunch for other day?