Booking restaurants onboard

[Jammy Bun]

Just booked first Saga cruise (SoA Canaries, next month).  How do we make bookings for the speciality restaurants?  It says ‘once onboard’… so does this mean joining a queue, or are we able to do it on the tv in the cabin?  Or even on an App?    I presume with an older demographic it’ll be easier to eat later…

[twotravellersLondon]

We just picked up the phone in the cabin when we arrived and booked the first three. A few days later we booked the next three. During the three week cruise with the ship at over 80% capacity we only had one occasion when the particular restaurant that we wanted the evening was full... and then we were offered an alternative. There were no virtual or actual queues no stress, none of the inconvenience experience on some bigger ships. And the food was as good as many well known up-market restaurants here in the UK.

 

Earlier slots are more popular because there is a lot of entertainment freely availably with no need to book. There's a show in the Playhouse every night and something else in the Britannia Lounge. 

 

Many of the fabled SAGA "older demographic" tend to be late birds and some are still dancing the night away come midnight. 

 

We're away with SAGA in February and we're very much looking forward to it.

 

Have a great time.

[ighten]

Easiest way is just to ring when on board

Edited January 5, 2023 by ighten

[FatBoy20]

On the first day you can also go to the restaurant of your choice from around 4pm & book in person.

[arlowood]

I don't know if it's true but when we were on our first Saga cruise last year on SoD, we were told that we would be limited to one booking initially in the three specialty restaurants to allow everyone an opportunity to get a table. We were advised to check again in a few days when the initial booking rush had subsided to see if other bookings could be made.

 

We were not sure about booking over the phone so we went down to the Promenade deck where the three restaurants are located (The Club, Coast to Coast and East to West). We noticed that there was a fairly big queue at The Club reception so carried on to book Coast to Coast where there were only two people in the queue. We overheard one of these people booking Coast to Coast but also making a booking at East to West. So it appears that the reception staff at each restaurant have access to the booking system for any of the three. If there is a queue at the Club, try going to one of the other two to make your bookings.

Edited January 5, 2023 by arlowood

[Jammy Bun]

Thank you everyone - I would never have thought of picking up the phone!  I presume the TVs aren't interactive for any type of bookings then?  

 

[Kohima]

No!

[Denarius]

23 hours ago, Jammy Bun said:

Thank you everyone - I would never have thought of picking up the phone!  I presume the TVs aren't interactive for any type of bookings then?  

 

Not to my knowledge, you have to ring the bookng line or go down to the restaurant as advised in the previous post. But the menus for all the restaurants including the specialities are available on the TV, so you can see what is on the menu before you book. The menus for the main restaurants change daily, but the speciality ones appear to be fixed for the duration of the cruise - probably to dissuade multiple bookings in line with Saga's avowed intention of giving all passengers an opportunity to dine there.

Edited January 6, 2023 by Denarius

[Windsurfboy]

On our Eastern Mediterranean cruise, multiple people including ourselves , told the restaurants manager , speciality menus must change after two weeks. Which he did.