speciality restaurants showing only late night available

[catspaw1]

Hi all, we just received a huge OBC for our upcoming June cruise do to a price drop. Can we reserve selections now waiting for the funds to be deposited in our account? Celebrity said that could take 14 days which takes it only a few weeks to departure. I looked to book a speciality dining  package but the only times that free was at 9pm. My husband is diabetic  & can't eat that late. Any suggestions on how to get earlier times? Do they free up more times when we get onboard? Or do we just use OBC elsewhere? Our cruise is on the Summit. Thanks for your help.

[mfs2k]

4 minutes ago, catspaw1 said:

Hi all, we just received a huge OBC for our upcoming June cruise do to a price drop. Can we reserve selections now waiting for the funds to be deposited in our account? Celebrity said that could take 14 days which takes it only a few weeks to departure. I looked to book a speciality dining  package but the only times that free was at 9pm. My husband is diabetic  & can't eat that late. Any suggestions on how to get earlier times? Do they free up more times when we get onboard? Or do we just use OBC elsewhere? Our cruise is on the Summit. Thanks for your help.

They only take advance reservations for some of the tables. My suggestion: Buy the package when your OBC is available and make your reservations as soon as you get on board. There will be more availability then. 

[catspaw1]

43 minutes ago, mfs2k said:

They only take advance reservations for some of the tables. My suggestion: Buy the package when your OBC is available and make your reservations as soon as you get on board. There will be more availability then. 

Thanks. Where onboard do we do that? We are in the first group to board so will do that immediately upon boarding.

[cruzzzinma]

Go to any restaurant to make reservations. If times you desire are not available, you can cancel the package.

[mfs2k]

28 minutes ago, catspaw1 said:

Thanks. Where onboard do we do that? We are in the first group to board so will do that immediately upon boarding.

Just ask anyone as soon as you board. Trust me, they want to upsell specialty restaurants because it's more revenue.  They'll find you if you can't find them. 

[Mimiya11]

There seems to be a disconnect between the pre-cruise specialty dining on-line reservation system and the actual availability.  We tried to book the Lawn Grill in advance of a Reflection cruise in March and we also saw only late dining times. 

 

As soon as we got on board, we easily booked the time we wanted.   When we arrived at the restaurant it was dead!   And was dead, the entire time we were there.    Needless to say there was a major glitch in the pre-cruise reservation system and the Maitre D was pretty disappointed.    As others suggested, go to any specialty restaurant when you board and they will make the reservation for you.   

 

      

[Dar & Bob]

We sailed the Edge in April, we booked our specialty restaurants in advance by calling Celebrity. We were told if we bought the package we couldn't book until onboard.  You might try calling since the time is very important to you.  You don't get the discounted price but to us it was worth it to get the restaurants at the time we wanted.

[mfs2k]

2 minutes ago, Mimiya11 said:

There seems to be a disconnect between the pre-cruise specialty dining on-line reservation system and the actual availability. 

 

Your example at the Lawn Club seems like a glitch, but perhaps there's much less demand for the Lawn Club.   Personally, this restaurant doesn't seem to be worth extra money to me.  

 

But I don't think the disconnect you refer to is a mistake.  I believe Celebrity only allows about 40-50% of the tables to be pre-booked online prior to sailing.  Imagine how upset guests would be if all of the tables were reserved upon embarkation and they didn't know they were supposed to prebook online?  It would turn into a chair hog situation. 

 

The current system allows the early birds a chance to pre-reserve, but doesn't exclude those who failed to book early.  It also leaves some table availability for suite guests, who, as a perk, can get priority dining reservations at the last minute.

 

Imagine if celebrity only allowed 40% of the pool lounge chairs to be saved by chair hogs at 7am with their books and towels, and the other chairs were left empty for those arriving to the pool deck later.  This system might solve the chair problem also. 

[Mimiya11]

Hi M - agree with you 100% on all counts, including that the Lawn Club was a big disappointment.  That's another thread 😉

.  

 

[Pinboy]

This was discussed a few times recently.

So far nobody has mentioned anything about  " Thanks for your help" ( $$ ).

Here's how the " system " works:

As soon as you get on board, go to the Specialty restaurant(s ) of your choice.

When ( it will happen ) the Maitre'd tells you " Sorry , we can't accommodate you at your desired time " ,

give him/her your cabin number and ask him to call you if there is a cancellation. 

I've indicated --- " I know how to say Thank You ( $$ )" , and it worked every time .

( Some CCers were quite vocal against that approach and accused me of bribing the Maitre'd ).

What bribe ??, That's how the " system " works--- even up here in Canada.

[Bo1953]

10 minutes ago, Pinboy said:

This was discussed a few times recently.

So far nobody has mentioned anything about  " Thanks for your help" ( $$ ).

Here's how the " system " works:

As soon as you get on board, go to the Specialty restaurant(s ) of your choice.

When ( it will happen ) the Maitre'd tells you " Sorry , we can't accommodate you at your desired time " ,

give him/her your cabin number and ask him to call you if there is a cancellation. 

I've indicated --- " I know how to say Thank You ( $$ )" , and it worked every time .

( Some CCers were quite vocal against that approach and accused me of bribing the Maitre'd ).

What bribe ??, That's how the " system " works--- even up here in Canada.

You are in NA, right??? LOL

 

bon voyage

[Jeremiah1212]

1 hour ago, Mimiya11 said:

There seems to be a disconnect between the pre-cruise specialty dining on-line reservation system and the actual availability.  We tried to book the Lawn Grill in advance of a Reflection cruise in March and we also saw only late dining times. 

 

As soon as we got on board, we easily booked the time we wanted.   When we arrived at the restaurant it was dead!   And was dead, the entire time we were there.    Needless to say there was a major glitch in the pre-cruise reservation system and the Maitre D was pretty disappointed.    As others suggested, go to any specialty restaurant when you board and they will make the reservation for you.   

 

      

 

It's not a glitch. All tables are not open for prebooked online reservations. They have to hold some back for onboard bookings. They may still be having some staffing issues and can't accommodate filling every single table either. 

[Pinboy]

1 minute ago, Bo1953 said:

You are in NA, right??? LOL

 

bon voyage

NA as in " not available " ??

Correct--- I don't need " nobody " chasin me down to tell me who their favorite Captain is , or tell me I'm bribin the Maitre'd ( What the h--l do ya think he's workin for --- Christmas cakes, a t shirt from XX , a framed picture you took with him on your last cruise, etc etc ) ??

Maybe we will meet someday, but, it will not be in the " Remove your Gratuities here " line !!

 

[phoenix_dream]

All that being said, these days specialty restaurants are selling out fast.  People tend to have more OBC due to upgrading to Elevate and so on.  On our recent cruise on Equinox Murano was fully booked and we never were able to get reservations, and that is with the ship 2/3 full.

[jelayne]

2 hours ago, Mimiya11 said:

There seems to be a disconnect between the pre-cruise specialty dining on-line reservation system and the actual availability.  We tried to book the Lawn Grill in advance of a Reflection cruise in March and we also saw only late dining times. 

 

As soon as we got on board, we easily booked the time we wanted.   When we arrived at the restaurant it was dead!   And was dead, the entire time we were there.    Needless to say there was a major glitch in the pre-cruise reservation system and the Maitre D was pretty disappointed.    As others suggested, go to any specialty restaurant when you board and they will make the reservation for you.   

 

      

We also found the Lawn grill to not be anywhere near full although we could not get a decent time on line.  We ended up going 2 nights at 8 (our preferred time). In talking to the staff reservations were limited as the restaurant was not staffed to be able to handle even 50% capacity.  When I looked around it was clear they had a very small staff.

[5waldos]

4 hours ago, catspaw1 said:

Hi all, we just received a huge OBC for our upcoming June cruise do to a price drop. Can we reserve selections now waiting for the funds to be deposited in our account? Celebrity said that could take 14 days which takes it only a few weeks to departure. I looked to book a speciality dining  package but the only times that free was at 9pm. My husband is diabetic  & can't eat that late. Any suggestions on how to get earlier times? Do they free up more times when we get onboard? Or do we just use OBC elsewhere? Our cruise is on the Summit. Thanks for your help.

No idea about dining but a note on OBC- we were also told that it would take 14 days but when we went to book a restaurant, there was the OBC, only 2 days after we put in for the price drop. 

[catspaw1]

7 hours ago, Pinboy said:

This was discussed a few times recently.

So far nobody has mentioned anything about  " Thanks for your help" ( $$ ).

Here's how the " system " works:

As soon as you get on board, go to the Specialty restaurant(s ) of your choice.

When ( it will happen ) the Maitre'd tells you " Sorry , we can't accommodate you at your desired time " ,

give him/her your cabin number and ask him to call you if there is a cancellation. 

I've indicated --- " I know how to say Thank You ( $$ )" , and it worked every time .

( Some CCers were quite vocal against that approach and accused me of bribing the Maitre'd ).

What bribe ??, That's how the " system " works--- even up here in Canada.

I guess you did not read my original post that clearly says thank you in the last sentence. 

[Pinboy]

1 hour ago, catspaw1 said:

I guess you did not read my original post that clearly says thank you in the last sentence. 

I don’t understand what you mean.

I did read your post where you ask for suggestions as to how to get earlier times.

 I believe I answered that by explaining how the “ system “ ( $$ ) works.

Try it— You will like it.

 

 

[catspaw1]

2 hours ago, Pinboy said:

I don’t understand what you mean.

I did read your post where you ask for suggestions as to how to get earlier times.

 I believe I answered that by explaining how the “ system “ ( $$ ) works.

Try it— You will like it.

 

 

Sorry I did not understand your post. Now I understand- the squeaky wheel turns greasing the palm a little. How much? I thought you meant I didn't say thank you.

[Pinboy]

9 minutes ago, catspaw1 said:

Sorry I did not understand your post. Now I understand- the squeaky wheel turns greasing the palm a little. How much? I thought you meant I didn't say thank 

No problem —all understood.

LOL- whatever I would suggest, there will be some CCers  that think it’s fair, others will say  too much  or too little.

It’s very easy to spend someone else’s money.

Whatever you do, I’m sure will be appreciated .