Long Time Cruiser - New to VV

[RollWave]

We have been very loyal to RCL & Celebrity. Giving VV a try. A few questions...

 

1- Trying to make reservations for dinner. I am not able to get into two of the restaurants we really want to try.

    Since they seem to be booked - is there any chance of being a walk up?

2- Are reservations needed for breakfast & lunch?

3- The whole reservation concept is stressing me out a bit (what is I change my mind / what is we dont want to eat at that time etc..)

     For those who have sailed with VV - does it all work out? I have not ever heard of anyone starving on a cruise but at the same time

     I would like to know we can try the restaurants that we want.

[cantgetin]

They open more reservations after boarding, and yes, you can do a walk up.  We had no trouble with walk up dinners and never waited more than 10 minutes.

 

Reservations are needed for breakfast/brunch at Razzle Dazzle or The Wake.  These can only be booked after boarding.  Breakfast or lunch at other locations do not need reservations.

 

3. We had no trouble changing our reservations after boarding, even at the "last minute."  You can go on the app and see what is available to change to and then decide whether to keep your booking, change it, or chance a walk up.  
4. Since you can do brunch at RD or The Wake, those are some you might want to skip at breakfast....just a thought.  We did a 14 night cruise, so ate at each restaurant multiple times. 

[jon81uk]

As above really, more reservations open once onboard.

walk ups for dinner depend on how many passengers are onboard, once it gets over 2000 it seems to be much harder.

full service breakfast/brunch can be reserved but often easy to get into as a walk up, The Galley food court doesn’t need reservations.

I’ve never had a major issue although have eaten at 6pm once to try and get to a show as there was a lot we wanted to fit in one the last night.

[aqlollipop]

I think what everybody is saying is correct. I'll just add my own experiences to the mix. On our first VV we were able  to change up one of our reservations easily after we decided we wanted to revisit one we really liked and skip one neither of us were excited about. That experience lead me to be more casual about how I made my reservations on our 2nd VV. I didn't even reserve a restaurant on our last night because we couldn't decide ahead of time what we wanted! I figured I'd be able to reserve once we figured it out on board.

 

Well, by the time we decided there were no openings at the one we wanted, I admit, I was a little stressed. But we decided to just go with the flow and do a walk up, because worst case, we'd be eating pizza, and I honestly wouldn't have been mad about that! Since we were walking up we decided to head over early around 6 or so right after they open, and sure enough, we were seated right away! The caveat is our voyage was not full (I think 1500 on that one), but even so, I would still feel comfortable doing walk-up anywhere and just be prepared to wait like you might at a land restaurant on a busy night.

 

Some restaurants are more popular, I think Pink Agave and Extra Virgin, and I would make sure to arrive on the early side if I wanted to make sure I got in with minimal wait. But I think they do hold back space for walk ups so the key is just relax and be on vacation and everything will work out!

[super_grover]

We had booked test kitchen for the last night but decided we wanted to repeat extra virgin instead so the night before I dropped by the host stand to ask what time window the following night I had the best chance at a walk up and he said before 630 so we showed up at 620 and got right in and had a super relaxed slow paced dinner with the best Extra Virgin wait staff team of Norrys and Paula (on Scarlet - they are a treat!) 

 

Don't stress - there's always pizza, the galley, room service or heavy apps at the dock! 

[jon81uk]

1 minute ago, super_grover said:

Don't stress - there's always pizza, the galley, room service or heavy apps at the dock! 

Just a minor thing, The Dock generally only does afternoon service not evenings. Social Club (hot dogs and wings) goes into the evenings. 
Also pizza stops between 6 and 9pm.