SantaFe1 Posted October 23, 2023 #101 Share Posted October 23, 2023 16 minutes ago, longterm said: I guess I'm mistaken; I could've sworn we always got reservations for the Restaurant on our last ocean cruise, but that was 15 months ago, so perhaps things have changed. During Covid, reservations were required, or at least could be made in advance for the Restaurant. This was for maybe a year, ‘21-22. It was very cumbersome. You made The Restaurant rez before you could book the other restaurants, and then had to roll the dice and cancel a Restaurant rez before you could make reservations for Manfredis or CT on a given night. If that night wasn’t available, then you had no reservations. We ate in World Cafe a lot during that time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
millybess Posted October 23, 2023 #102 Share Posted October 23, 2023 21 minutes ago, longterm said: I guess I'm mistaken; I could've sworn we always got reservations for the Restaurant on our last ocean cruise, but that was 15 months ago, so perhaps things have changed. @longterm You aren't mistaken. Post Covid you could make reservations on MVJ for the Restaurant before the date you could make reservations for Chef's Table or Manfredi's. But if you used up all of your allotted reservations on the Restaurant then you had zero available reservations left when it came time to book the specialty restaurants. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
millybess Posted October 23, 2023 #103 Share Posted October 23, 2023 3 minutes ago, SantaFe1 said: During Covid, reservations were required, or at least could be made in advance for the Restaurant. This was for maybe a year, ‘21-22. It was very cumbersome. You made The Restaurant rez before you could book the other restaurants, and then had to roll the dice and cancel a Restaurant rez before you could make reservations for Manfredis or CT on a given night. If that night wasn’t available, then you had no reservations. We ate in World Cafe a lot during that time. 👍 you beat me to it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare CCWineLover Posted October 24, 2023 #104 Share Posted October 24, 2023 4 hours ago, millybess said: @longterm You aren't mistaken. Post Covid you could make reservations on MVJ for the Restaurant before the date you could make reservations for Chef's Table or Manfredi's. But if you used up all of your allotted reservations on the Restaurant then you had zero available reservations left when it came time to book the specialty restaurants. Yes you could, but they ignored those reservations. It didn't make any difference 🙂 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SantaFe1 Posted October 24, 2023 #105 Share Posted October 24, 2023 You are right. I remember that too. Eating in theWC is not a hardship. We really don’t like the restaurant. On the World Cruise, if we ate there ten times in 18 weeks, I would be surprised. We love Viking, but feel,the food is their Achilles heel. But tastes vary. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare CCWineLover Posted October 24, 2023 #106 Share Posted October 24, 2023 (edited) 10 minutes ago, SantaFe1 said: You are right. I remember that too. Eating in theWC is not a hardship. We really don’t like the restaurant. On the World Cruise, if we ate there ten times in 18 weeks, I would be surprised. We love Viking, but feel,the food is their Achilles heel. But tastes vary. We are same as you! We thoroughly enjoy the atmosphere of the WC - so relaxing. We take our time and just "graze". We try lots of different items. We pick up small portions and if we like something we go get more. We really liked the Asian station in the back !! The Restaurant for us was TOO slow, TOO noisy, and more like a large boisterous restaurant back home (which we used to enjoy but now that we've aged, not so much anymore. We like a nice quite, relaxing environment these days!. ) Edited October 24, 2023 by CCWineLover 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
millybess Posted October 24, 2023 #107 Share Posted October 24, 2023 17 minutes ago, CCWineLover said: Yes you could, but they ignored those reservations. It didn't make any difference 🙂 That I didn't know. I read so many posts here on CC by people who had made reservations at the restaurant and then couldn't make their specialty reservations. I didn't realize that their original reservations were ignored. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SantaFe1 Posted October 24, 2023 #108 Share Posted October 24, 2023 49 minutes ago, CCWineLover said: We are same as you! We thoroughly enjoy the atmosphere of the WC - so relaxing. We take our time and just "graze". We try lots of different items. We pick up small portions and if we like something we go get more. We really liked the Asian station in the back !! The Restaurant for us was TOO slow, TOO noisy, and more like a large boisterous restaurant back home (which we used to enjoy but now that we've aged, not so much anymore. We like a nice quite, relaxing environment these days!. ) Yes! Agree with all you say. 👍 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare longterm Posted October 24, 2023 #109 Share Posted October 24, 2023 11 hours ago, CCWineLover said: The Restaurant for us was TOO slow, TOO noisy, and more like a large boisterous restaurant back home... Our experience was different; we always enjoyed The Restaurant, and I can't recall ever thinking that it was noisy or boisterous. Preferences vary; I've read some posts where they said Chef's Table was their favorite--it was our least favorite and we rarely ate there and will probably eat there perhaps once or twice on our upcoming British Isles cruise. As to whether the staff "ignored" our reservations, I can't speak to that, only to say that when we arrived and referenced our reservations, we were always immediately seated at our table of choice (port side rear corner). 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare CDNPolar Posted October 24, 2023 #110 Share Posted October 24, 2023 3 hours ago, longterm said: Our experience was different; we always enjoyed The Restaurant, and I can't recall ever thinking that it was noisy or boisterous. Preferences vary; I've read some posts where they said Chef's Table was their favorite--it was our least favorite and we rarely ate there and will probably eat there perhaps once or twice on our upcoming British Isles cruise. As to whether the staff "ignored" our reservations, I can't speak to that, only to say that when we arrived and referenced our reservations, we were always immediately seated at our table of choice (port side rear corner). We love almost every venue that Viking has on the Ocean ships and I will rank in order of preference: Dinner Big Number One!!! The Chef's Table (Every menu change) The Restaurant (In between menu changes for Chef's Table) Manfredi's (Once, perhaps twice on a cruise - our least popular) The World Cafe. (When the menu in the restaurant does not excite us) Lunch The World Cafe. (Not sure we have ever eaten lunch anywhere else - we just like the selection and help yourself) Breakfast The World Cafe. (Not sure we have eaten anywhere else - we just like the selection and help yourself) Never Eaten At: The Pool Bar - menu does not interest us Mamsens - menu does not interest us other than the Success Cake, so I guess we have eaten from Mamsens. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duquephart Posted October 24, 2023 #111 Share Posted October 24, 2023 2 minutes ago, CDNPolar said: We love almost every venue that Viking has on the Ocean ships and I will rank in order of preference: Dinner Big Number One!!! The Chef's Table (Every menu change) The Restaurant (In between menu changes for Chef's Table) Manfredi's (Once, perhaps twice on a cruise - our least popular) The World Cafe. (When the menu in the restaurant does not excite us) Lunch The World Cafe. (Not sure we have ever eaten lunch anywhere else - we just like the selection and help yourself) Breakfast The World Cafe. (Not sure we have eaten anywhere else - we just like the selection and help yourself) Never Eaten At: The Pool Bar - menu does not interest us Mamsens - menu does not interest us other than the Success Cake, so I guess we have eaten from Mamsens. Too bad about Pool Bar menu. The food there is always quite good. Check out the salad table some time just for grins. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare CDNPolar Posted October 24, 2023 #112 Share Posted October 24, 2023 18 minutes ago, duquephart said: Too bad about Pool Bar menu. The food there is always quite good. Check out the salad table some time just for grins. We are just not burger / hotdog folks... we want to eat things that we have either never eaten before or are not on our regular diet. Fully understand the "comfort" of the burger and they do look good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hobson1754 Posted October 24, 2023 #113 Share Posted October 24, 2023 1 hour ago, CDNPolar said: We are just not burger / hotdog folks... we want to eat things that we have either never eaten before or are not on our regular diet. Fully understand the "comfort" of the burger and they do look good. The onion rings in the pool bar are delicious. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Clay Clayton Posted October 24, 2023 #114 Share Posted October 24, 2023 1 hour ago, duquephart said: Too bad about Pool Bar menu. The food there is always quite good. Check out the salad table some time just for grins. 1 hour ago, CDNPolar said: We are just not burger / hotdog folks... we want to eat things that we have either never eaten before or are not on our regular diet. Fully understand the "comfort" of the burger and they do look good. 1 minute ago, Hobson1754 said: The onion rings in the pool bar are delicious. We like to have order seared tuna to put on top of a salad we make in the WC. ...usually with an order of onion rings on the side. Can't just eat healthy😂 4 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare CCWineLover Posted October 24, 2023 #115 Share Posted October 24, 2023 (edited) 3 hours ago, CDNPolar said: We are just not burger / hotdog folks... we want to eat things that we have either never eaten before or are not on our regular diet. Fully understand the "comfort" of the burger and they do look good. We love the pool grill and are not burger and hot dog folks. We always get the grilled Ahi steak. Sometimes we ask for a bun and sometimes not. AND we always fill the plate up not with fries but the really good salads they have at the Pool Grill. And sometimes, like the other poster, we have put that Ahi on top of the green salad that we make. Really tasty lunch and environment (and don't have to eat hot dogs - but of course we love Ahi!) Edited October 24, 2023 by CCWineLover 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
millybess Posted October 24, 2023 #116 Share Posted October 24, 2023 40 minutes ago, CCWineLover said: We love the pool grill and are not burger and hot dog folks. We always get the grilled Ahi steak. Sometimes we ask for a bun and sometimes not. AND we always fill the plate up not with fries but the really good salads they have at the Pool Grill. And sometimes, like the other poster, we have put that Ahi on top of the green salad that we make. Really tasty lunch and environment (and don't have to eat hot dogs - but of course we love Ahi!) And the wings! They often switch up the flavours from day to day: hot, Korean, etc. The Pool Grill is our first stop after we board. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare May B Posted October 24, 2023 #117 Share Posted October 24, 2023 (edited) 6 hours ago, CDNPolar said: We are just not burger / hotdog folks... we want to eat things that we have either never eaten before or are not on our regular diet. Fully understand the "comfort" of the burger and they do look good. If you are fish eaters, I think you’ve missed out on something truly outstanding, the chargrilled tuna. Now I see several others beat me to it! Edited October 24, 2023 by May B 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare CCWineLover Posted October 25, 2023 #118 Share Posted October 25, 2023 2 hours ago, May B said: If you are fish eaters, I think you’ve missed out on something truly outstanding, the chargrilled tuna. Now I see several others beat me to it! Yes indeed! On our last cruise a few weeks ago we were the only people wa saw order the Ahi. EVERYONE else had hot dogs hamburgers and more. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare wine-wine-wine Posted October 25, 2023 #119 Share Posted October 25, 2023 I like the Norwegian hotdog. The accompanying shrimp salad is quite nice if unusual. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare CDNPolar Posted October 25, 2023 #120 Share Posted October 25, 2023 Ok... so you all have convinced us that we need to look more closely at the Pool Bar menu. Our next scheduled Ocean is a bit away, but we will look at this menu with a new eyes. I am sad to say however that several of you have mentioned the onion rings, as I consider myself a connoisseur of onion rings and there are very few that I give a seal of approval. I had no idea the Pool menu had onion rings of considerable mention. This may be the death of me on my next ocean cruise if they are truly good. You will find me there at breakfast begging them to fire up the deep fryer! 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duquephart Posted October 25, 2023 #121 Share Posted October 25, 2023 Actually only one person mentioned onion rings but try them anyway. And I highly recommend that you at least pass by the salad table a few times and check it out - there's always something well worth your while there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
millybess Posted October 25, 2023 #122 Share Posted October 25, 2023 2 hours ago, CDNPolar said: Ok... so you all have convinced us that we need to look more closely at the Pool Bar menu. Our next scheduled Ocean is a bit away, but we will look at this menu with a new eyes. I am sad to say however that several of you have mentioned the onion rings, as I consider myself a connoisseur of onion rings and there are very few that I give a seal of approval. I had no idea the Pool menu had onion rings of considerable mention. This may be the death of me on my next ocean cruise if they are truly good. You will find me there at breakfast begging them to fire up the deep fryer! It better be a late breakfast. I don't think it opens 'til 11:30. It's really a nice place to go when you return from a morning excursion. On a sunny day, we have found it quite hot to sit at some of the tables at the Pool Grill so we take our food out to a shady Aquavit table. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare CDNPolar Posted October 25, 2023 #123 Share Posted October 25, 2023 24 minutes ago, millybess said: It better be a late breakfast. I don't think it opens 'til 11:30. It's really a nice place to go when you return from a morning excursion. On a sunny day, we have found it quite hot to sit at some of the tables at the Pool Grill so we take our food out to a shady Aquavit table. The heat, and or the humidity may be one thing that keeps me from the pool area. I often find it too warm or too humid in that deck around the pool, but there is nothing stopping us from taking the food into the WC or the Aquavit. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare CCWineLover Posted October 25, 2023 #124 Share Posted October 25, 2023 1 hour ago, CDNPolar said: The heat, and or the humidity may be one thing that keeps me from the pool area. I often find it too warm or too humid in that deck around the pool, but there is nothing stopping us from taking the food into the WC or the Aquavit. I agree except that on the 3 new ships they now can open the windows along the sides!! (Mars, Saturn, Neptune only). Makes a HUGE difference!! 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Clay Clayton Posted October 25, 2023 #125 Share Posted October 25, 2023 1 hour ago, CCWineLover said: I agree except that on the 3 new ships they now can open the windows along the sides!! (Mars, Saturn, Neptune only). Makes a HUGE difference!! Agreed. Wish they could retro fit the other ships. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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