Paying for Specialty Restaurant

[bigeagle12]

If I book a specialty restaurant online before the cruise do I pay for it online or onboard the ship?

[Steelers36]

10 minutes ago, bigeagle12 said:

If I book a specialty restaurant online before the cruise do I pay for it online or onboard the ship?

At this time, "online" means via the MC App on a suitable device.  No way to book "online" if you mean the website.  Perhaps when Princess releases a new version of Cruise Personalizer.

 

So, yes, you pay to credit card at time of booking.  If you have a dining credit, then DMW should recognize that, apply the credit and charge you $0.

Edited January 28, 2022 by Steelers36

[Astro Flyer]

1 hour ago, Steelers36 said:

If you have a dining credit, then DMW should recognize that, apply the credit and charge you $0.

Unfortunately for my cruise in 2 months we cannot use our free specialty dinner credit using the app’s DMW.

[DavidsNana]

Same with me,  unable to use the free specialty dinner credit using the app's DMW for our cruise on 27 Feb.  Was told on the Princess chat a few weeks ago that this is a known problem and to just wait until I get onboard.  Hope they have the night and time we want for the Crown Grill when we get there.

[Steelers36]

46 minutes ago, Astro Flyer said:

Unfortunately for my cruise in 2 months we cannot use our free specialty dinner credit using the app’s DMW.

It used to recognize ours, but after a recent DMW update, it is random recognizing 0, 1, or 2 credits.  I won't bother with the permutations, but did document and send to the OCEAN team.

[Mt Lassen]

Delete

Edited January 28, 2022 by Mt Lassen
Delete

[Baxter68]

Same problem. Thought I could book our special dining for restaurant and time and use the credit. It charged to my card. So I just canceled the res, card was refunded quickly and I’ll book once onboard. The DMW on the app has worked flawlessly for me ahead of cruise, picking dining rooms, table size, and times. This was the only hiccup I’ve had.

[suzyed]

2 hours ago, Steelers36 said:

It used to recognize ours, but after a recent DMW update, it is random recognizing 0, 1, or 2 credits.  I won't bother with the permutations, but did document and send to the OCEAN team.

It didn't for our last cruise.

 

[Buckeye10640]

2 hours ago, DavidsNana said:

Same with me,  unable to use the free specialty dinner credit using the app's DMW for our cruise on 27 Feb.  Was told on the Princess chat a few weeks ago that this is a known problem and to just wait until I get onboard.  Hope they have the night and time we want for the Crown Grill when we get there.

Worked in November and let me use my credit.  Has not worked for the last month. I keep checking periodically....

[Steelers36]

5 hours ago, Buckeye10640 said:

Worked in November and let me use my credit.  Has not worked for the last month. I keep checking periodically....

I believe - in their typical fashion - that the OCEAN IT team broke something in DMW while they were fixing something else in DMW.  Obviously, their testing and QA is useless.  They probably only tested the thing they were focused on and did not do any regression testing to make sure everything else still worked.  Sorry, but these idiots probably don't even know what it means.

 

Edited January 29, 2022 by Steelers36

[IRHJ]

I have 2 specialty dining nights included with my cruise fare.  On the Medallion app, I can make the reservation but it wants to charge $29 per guest.  Any idea how I can make the reservations without this charge.  Princess Chat wasn't helpful.  They said, if I made the reservations and was charged the amount, once on board I would get an On Board Credit.  The problem is, I don't want an On Board Credit.  Ugh!!   Any suggestions?

[Mike45LC]

I made a Specialty Restaurant Reservation on DMW before the cruise.  It listed the price as $29 x two, but then applied the credit and zeroed out the charge.  So my credit card was not charged.  (Later, my account was charged an additional $10 for the Surf and Turf upgrade, which I was expecting and was fine with.  My wife loved the lobster tail add-on.)

 

[Astro Flyer]

2 hours ago, IRHJ said:

I have 2 specialty dining nights included with my cruise fare.  On the Medallion app, I can make the reservation but it wants to charge $29 per guest.  Any idea how I can make the reservations without this charge.  Princess Chat wasn't helpful.  They said, if I made the reservations and was charged the amount, once on board I would get an On Board Credit.  The problem is, I don't want an On Board Credit.  Ugh!!   Any suggestions?

I boarded Discovery on Sunday & could only reserve a specialty restaurant in advance by paying & did not receive a credit for our included dinner for two.
 

Unlike Mike45LC never had the option to use our $29/pp credit for dinner…just another inconsistency in their app. Went to Guest Services on the first day & they said my c/c would be credited $58 within two weeks. We disembark in two weeks & if not there will contact GS again & if not credited will dispute the charge with my c/c company. Unfortunately that wouldn’t be the first time I’ve had to dispute a Princess charge that was supposed to be credited.

 

Edited March 29, 2022 by Astro Flyer

[Buckeye10640]

4 hours ago, IRHJ said:

I have 2 specialty dining nights included with my cruise fare.  On the Medallion app, I can make the reservation but it wants to charge $29 per guest.  Any idea how I can make the reservations without this charge.  Princess Chat wasn't helpful.  They said, if I made the reservations and was charged the amount, once on board I would get an On Board Credit.  The problem is, I don't want an On Board Credit.  Ugh!!   Any suggestions?

Sadly no suggestion, but I am in the same situation. I considered contacting chat but fear I will get the same response as you.  You are not alone in this issue!  

[Steelers36]

3 hours ago, Astro Flyer said:

I boarded Discovery on Sunday & could only reserve a specialty restaurant in advance by paying & did not receive a credit for our included dinner for two.
 

Unlike Mike45LC never had the option to use our $29/pp credit for dinner…just another inconsistency in their app. Went to Guest Services on the first day & they said my c/c would be credited $58 within two weeks. We disembark in two weeks & if not there will contact GS again & if not credited will dispute the charge with my c/c company. Unfortunately that wouldn’t be the first time I’ve had to dispute a Princess charge that was supposed to be credited.

 

A lot of businesses give that as a standard answer.  But if they process it, refunds appear right away these days on all of our CC's.

[cruisingram1]

2 hours ago, Buckeye10640 said:

Sadly no suggestion, but I am in the same situation. I considered contacting chat but fear I will get the same response as you.  You are not alone in this issue!  

I was able to use my dining credit AND the credit of our traveling companions for a specialty dining reservation. CS talked me through. The trick was to scroll down past where the initial total is and you will see a line showing a dining credit. In my case it was $116 because there is four of us. We have separate accounts, but they are linked with us for dining and the reservation included all four of us. I was actually surprised the app was smart enough to find our companions credits. I clicked submit with a $0 balance. Let's hope that's the case. CS suggested I check to make sure when we board that there is no charge. CS had explained that when the free meal comes from a TA it might not be loaded until you actually board, but in our case it was there. Don't know when it posted. Might not have been there for very long.  I did not look for it and would not have seen it had CS agent not told me to scroll down. It's not intuitive as there was already a balance so did not expect to see credit.

[Astro Flyer]

1 hour ago, Steelers36 said:

A lot of businesses give that as a standard answer.  But if they process it, refunds appear right away these days on all of our CC's.

Thanks…that’s what I thought.
 

I don’t check finances on unsecured Wi-Fi but will check during turnaround in San Pedro using my cell phone’s data. If not will dispute the charge to get it removed.

[suzyed]

5 hours ago, Buckeye10640 said:

Sadly no suggestion, but I am in the same situation. I considered contacting chat but fear I will get the same response as you.  You are not alone in this issue!  

We're all in this together!

 

[Buckeye10640]

7 hours ago, cruisingram1 said:

I was able to use my dining credit AND the credit of our traveling companions for a specialty dining reservation. CS talked me through. The trick was to scroll down past where the initial total is and you will see a line showing a dining credit. In my case it was $116 because there is four of us. We have separate accounts, but they are linked with us for dining and the reservation included all four of us. I was actually surprised the app was smart enough to find our companions credits. I clicked submit with a $0 balance. Let's hope that's the case. CS suggested I check to make sure when we board that there is no charge. CS had explained that when the free meal comes from a TA it might not be loaded until you actually board, but in our case it was there. Don't know when it posted. Might not have been there for very long.  I did not look for it and would not have seen it had CS agent not told me to scroll down. It's not intuitive as there was already a balance so did not expect to see credit.

Thanks for that detailed account of how you got it to work. I hope it helps some folks, unfortunately no amount of scrolling is making the dining credit appear!  And my end goal was exactly what you did, book 4 people across 2 cabins, all with free dining from the booking promo. 

[IRHJ]

Yeah, scrolling didn't work for me either.  Ugh!

[ssawjo]

Question:  I have a lot of OBC and to avoid not getting decent specialty dining times, I went ahead and booked reservations.  Will GS on Discovery credit the credit card for the dinners from my OBC?  Or should I just cancel the reservations and book onboard and hope we get the times we want?

 

It is ashame you can't reserve specialty dining with OBC ahead of time.  

 

Bill