Specialty Dining Booking 90 days Out

[Belci]

Hi,

 

I will be paying my cruise in full as I will be 90 days out and now want to book my dining. We plan on booking 2 specialty dining nights, but, not sure of menu in the main dining room in order to slot out dinners accordingly. We want to make sure we go to the specialty dinners the nights of less favorite menus.

 

Any suggestions on best way to achieve that 90 days out? We are on Sky Princess Jan.21...

 

Thanks for any advice

[startedwithamouse]

4 minutes ago, Belci said:

Hi,

 

I will be paying my cruise in full as I will be 90 days out and now want to book my dining. We plan on booking 2 specialty dining nights, but, not sure of menu in the main dining room in order to slot out dinners accordingly. We want to make sure we go to the specialty dinners the nights of less favorite menus.

 

Any suggestions on best way to achieve that 90 days out? We are on Sky Princess Jan.21...

 

Thanks for any advice

Find a cruise before yours with your exact itinerary (without Thanksgiving/Christmas/New Years), and you can ask guests what their menus were on certain nights. 

 

Edited October 20, 2022 by startedwithamouse

[travelin.sisters]

you should be able to switch days once you are onboard...we have in the past...you can look on the daily menus in the app (which will be more or less accurate) or possibly ask to see the menus in the MDR once you are on board

 

if you are thinking about formal nights they should not be on port days

[Belci]

Great ideas.. Thanks..

[JimmyVWine]

As a general rule, I find the last night's menu the most lacking, but we usually tough it out so that we can bid farewell to our servers.  Our strategy is to avoid the Specialty Restaurants on the first and last nights, (on the first night we want to strike up a rapport with the MDR staff and on the last night we want to say our farewells); avoid the Specialty Restaurants on the Formal or Dress to Impress nights, and then not sweat the details of the other nights.  

[MTNest93]

9 minutes ago, JimmyVWine said:

As a general rule, I find the last night's menu the most lacking, but we usually tough it out so that we can bid farewell to our servers.  Our strategy is to avoid the Specialty Restaurants on the first and last nights, (on the first night we want to strike up a rapport with the MDR staff and on the last night we want to say our farewells); avoid the Specialty Restaurants on the Formal or Dress to Impress nights, and then not sweat the details of the other nights.  

Curious why you say to avoid specialty dining on formal nights.  We've never cruised before so we have no experience.  

[JimmyVWine]

4 minutes ago, MTNest93 said:

Curious why you say to avoid specialty dining on formal nights.  We've never cruised before so we have no experience.  

Because the menus in the Main Dining Rooms are kicked up several notches on those nights and we find no reason to skip the very best offerings that are already paid for in favor of paying a premium for very similar offerings.

Edited October 21, 2022 by JimmyVWine

[MTNest93]

Just now, JimmyVWine said:

Because the menus in the Main Dining Rooms is kicked up several notches on those nights and we find no reason to skip the very best offerings that already paid for in favor of paying a premium for very similar offerings.

Ahhh.......makes sense.  Excuse me while I go change our 2 specialty dining reservations, lol

 

[bjkTX]

13 hours ago, MTNest93 said:

Ahhh.......makes sense.  Excuse me while I go change our 2 specialty dining reservations, lol

 

We hope you aren't disappointed.  Our experience has been that the meals on formal night are not that different than any other night.  We just got off a British Isles cruise and did the steak house the first formal night and went to the MDR on the second formal night - and wished we had done pizza instead.  Years ago we felt the formal night meals were a notch above, but not any more.  But again - everyone has their own experiences.  Have fun!!!!

[Californian]

We sail in December and want to make reservations for an ultimate balcony dinner.  I am having trouble in figuring out how to do it on the app. I hit the order button on the bottom and it tells me “Please connect your phone to the internet….…to Order Food.  Drink. Retail. Service.  I am on the internet at home, but it doesn't work.  What am I doing wrong?  Do I need to wait until I'm on board?

[d9704011]

7 minutes ago, Californian said:

We sail in December and want to make reservations for an ultimate balcony dinner.  I am having trouble in figuring out how to do it on the app. I hit the order button on the bottom and it tells me “Please connect your phone to the internet….…to Order Food.  Drink. Retail. Service.  I am on the internet at home, but it doesn't work.  What am I doing wrong?  Do I need to wait until I'm on board?

I tried a test run.  Looks like the ultimate balcony dinner is a form of room service and you'll have to wait until you're onboard.  I guess that makes sense, it's not like you're booking a table in one of the restaurants.

[Californian]

3 minutes ago, d9704011 said:

I tried a test run.  Looks like the ultimate balcony dinner is a form of room service and you'll have to wait until you're onboard.  I guess that makes sense, it's not like you're booking a table in one of the restaurants.

Thanks so much for doing the test run!  What steps did you take though?  Where on the the app did you go to do the test run?  I guess I'm a little computer challenged.  If I wanted to make a reservation for Sabatini’s, how would I do that?  Thanks very much in advance.

[Californian]

29 minutes ago, Californian said:

Thanks so much for doing the test run!  What steps did you take though?  Where on the the app did you go to do the test run?  I guess I'm a little computer challenged.  If I wanted to make a reservation for Sabatini’s, how would I do that?  Thanks very much in advance.

 

40 minutes ago, d9704011 said:

I tried a test run.  Looks like the ultimate balcony dinner is a form of room service and you'll have to wait until you're onboard.  I guess that makes sense, it's not like you're booking a table in one of the restaurants.

d9704011:  Disregard my reply.  I was able to find what you did.  “Dine My Way”, then “View or book individual daily reservations”, then “+ Add Reservation,” then “Contiinue,” and select specialty restaurant.  Your help was much appreciated.

[Californian]

On 10/26/2022 at 1:50 AM, Californian said:

We sail in December and want to make reservations for an ultimate balcony dinner.  I am having trouble in figuring out how to do it on the app. I hit the order button on the bottom and it tells me “Please connect your phone to the internet….…to Order Food.  Drink. Retail. Service.  I am on the internet at home, but it doesn't work.  What am I doing wrong?  Do I need to wait until I'm on board?

 

I was able to book the Ultimate Balcony Dining on the website by going to Manage This Booking, then, Onboard Services, Food & Beverage Experiences, and then Ultimate Balcony Dinner.  I paid for the dinner reservation and I hope we will be able to have it on the requested date.  

[JoRoy218]

We sail in a few weeks and would like to make a reservation at Sabatini’s.

thought I read somewhere you could make it through the Medallion app.

Anyone succeed in this? I looked around and saw no mention of the specialty places. Thanks for any hints! 

[Shelly97060]

6 hours ago, JoRoy218 said:

We sail in a few weeks and would like to make a reservation at Sabatini’s.

thought I read somewhere you could make it through the Medallion app.

Anyone succeed in this? I looked around and saw no mention of the specialty places. Thanks for any hints! 

In Medallion app go to Dine My Way, then view of book daily options,  select add reservation, select Specialty Restaurant and then you can pick times and location from available spots.

[JoRoy218]

1 hour ago, Shelly97060 said:

In Medallion app go to Dine My Way, then view of book daily options,  select add reservation, select Specialty Restaurant and then you can pick times and location from available spots.

Thanks very much, got it.

[shubsens]

We just got off Discovery 7night.

 

Pre-cruise I didn't want to pre-book anything as I had on-board credit waiting for me and were worried from all the posts about being booked full.

 

Ends up we walked up each night we did specialty and didn't wait more than 5 minutes for a seat, it was great. Our first Princess cruise so we have no special ranking.

 

First night Sabatini's, then next night Crown Grill, then 2 nights at Bistro Sur La Mer and One Gastro Salty Pub.

 

[Steelers36]

8 minutes ago, shubsens said:

We just got off Discovery 7night.

 

Pre-cruise I didn't want to pre-book anything as I had on-board credit waiting for me and were worried from all the posts about being booked full.

 

Ends up we walked up each night we did specialty and didn't wait more than 5 minutes for a seat, it was great. Our first Princess cruise so we have no special ranking.

 

First night Sabatini's, then next night Crown Grill, then 2 nights at Bistro Sur La Mer and One Gastro Salty Pub.

 

Lucky you!