Can Someone Splain This In The Wonky App?

[SargassoPirate]

SWMBO has deigned to join me on an upcoming cruise and she wants traditional-style dining with a set time each evening.

 

I went into the app and tried to book the same time, say 8:00 PM,  for the entire cruise and I kept getting error messages.   However, being a bit persistent and always looking for a workaround, I was able to book the same time, 8:00 PM in the same dining room by booking one day at a time for the entire cruise.  It's a long cruise, so it took a bit of time, but it looks like we are set.

 

Same venue, same time for the entire cruise - couldn't do it.

 

Same venue, same time booking one day at a time - it worked.

 

Now keeping my fingers crossed the dining reservations don't disappear like some of our excursions and room preferences seem to have.

 

[PacnGoNow]

5 minutes ago, SargassoPirate said:

SWMBO has deigned to join me on an upcoming cruise and she wants traditional-style dining with a set time each evening.

 

I went into the app and tried to book the same time, say 8:00 PM,  for the entire cruise and I kept getting error messages.   However, being a bit persistent and always looking for a workaround, I was able to book the same time, 8:00 PM in the same dining room by booking one day at a time for the entire cruise.  It's a long cruise, so it took a bit of time, but it looks like we are set.

 

Same venue, same time for the entire cruise - couldn't do it.

 

Same venue, same time booking one day at a time - it worked.

 

Now keeping my fingers crossed the dining reservations don't disappear like some of our excursions and room preferences seem to have.

 

It has been that way for quite a while.  Some programming error a while back.  It is a pain to do one day at a time, but I discovered a while ago, it works.

Yes, I do check it every once in a while to make sure it’s still in there.  It is.

My cruises are all long ones too, and it is a PITA.  

Happy that SMWBO is joining you, she’ll keep you in line. 🤣

Edited September 26, 2023 by PacnGoNow

[Steelers36]

7 minutes ago, SargassoPirate said:

SWMBO has deigned to join me on an upcoming cruise and she wants traditional-style dining with a set time each evening.

 

I went into the app and tried to book the same time, say 8:00 PM,  for the entire cruise and I kept getting error messages.   However, being a bit persistent and always looking for a workaround, I was able to book the same time, 8:00 PM in the same dining room by booking one day at a time for the entire cruise.  It's a long cruise, so it took a bit of time, but it looks like we are set.

 

Same venue, same time for the entire cruise - couldn't do it.

 

Same venue, same time booking one day at a time - it worked.

 

Now keeping my fingers crossed the dining reservations don't disappear like some of our excursions and room preferences seem to have.

 

 

The reserve for entire voyage option is really just a user shortcut for having to do individual days.  (By that, I mean that DMW does not block a guest into same table and waiters for entire voyage). 

 

I have read various reports of that not working for folks and them having to go the single day route.  I did that once for a 25-night B2B2B.  PITA for sure.  I can only guess the software runs into problems trying to block off the same size table for the same location and time.  No idea.  Perhaps it times out at times.  No idea.

 

Regardless of which way you do it, the end result means nothing in terms of the TD experience - which I presume you realize as a regular member and active participant in this Forum.

 

You will need to get with your DR Mgr or DR Host on Day 1 and request to block same table with same wait staff for the duration.  Note that they may recommend placing you in a different DR in order to get your desired set table.  That said, since you are going for 8:00pm, it should be pretty flexible for them to place you anywhere.  If you get any pushback (shouldn't happen), just remind them that Princess still promises the TD experience.

 

Edited September 26, 2023 by Steelers36

[JerrySueW]

This is just my theory - no evidence for it. I've had the same experience in the past but recently reached Platinum level and was able to book several months earlier than usual and got the same time each night for the whole cruise. I suspect there are a certain number of these reservations that are allowed by the system and when those have been claimed, only individual nights can be booked. I've heard folks say that if you ask at the dining room on the first night, they can reserve the whole cruise for you, possibly same table even.

[PacnGoNow]

3 minutes ago, JerrySueW said:

This is just my theory - no evidence for it. I've had the same experience in the past but recently reached Platinum level and was able to book several months earlier than usual and got the same time each night for the whole cruise. I suspect there are a certain number of these reservations that are allowed by the system and when those have been claimed, only individual nights can be booked. I've heard folks say that if you ask at the dining room on the first night, they can reserve the whole cruise for you, possibly same table even.

Good theory but…I have some that are 1 and 2 years ahead, Elite and still can’t do it, only 1 day at a time.  
 

Yes, you can ask at your MDR for the same table each night, we’ve done it every time after the restart.

They put in in their computer system.

 

 

 

[SargassoPirate]

6 hours ago, PacnGoNow said:

It has been that way for quite a while.  Some programming error a while back.  It is a pain to do one day at a time, but I discovered a while ago, it works.

Yes, I do check it every once in a while to make sure it’s still in there.  It is.

My cruises are all long ones too, and it is a PITA.  

Happy that SMWBO is joining you, she’ll keep you in line. 🤣

Yes, she keeps me in line, as well she should.  It does require committee decisions wherein when I cruise solo I can do what I want, when I want. 

 

I'll be keeping an eye on the dining reservations until we board and then hustle on down to the venue to double check when we board.

 

When I cruise solo, I don't eat dinner in the MDR, so this will be a change for me.

 

 

[Lady Arwen]

Just did dining for Enchanted 2024.  Had to do one day at a time and it is a pain.  My loyalty level did not help at all.

[MissP22]

1 hour ago, SargassoPirate said:

I was able to book the same time, 8:00 PM in the same dining room by booking one day at a time for the entire cruise. 

That's what I had to do for our cruise also. 

[Musky Ike]

Yup, our only option was shared table for our upcoming cruise. Ever time I checked it seems some venue and time options changed but not that.  I booked it that way but will check onboard to get a private table.  

[CaptainPedantic]

I managed to do this for our last cruise on Island Princess via the web link available through cruise personaliser instead of the app - booking a "dining plan" worked just fine with one reservation made resulting in a reservation for each of the 16 days.

[Martha1974]

I have found that the web-site version of DMW will let me do things that I can’t do in the app version, (like booking Speciality dining with Princess Premier credits and not charging my

 credit card!) but as we don’t do ‘TD-style’ dining I haven’t tried to do same time / same MDR for the whole cruise. 
 

sorry @CaptainPedantic - looks like we cross-posted!

Edited September 26, 2023 by Martha1974

[cruisinsince75]

Looks like all your DMW reservations MUST be done using the app now instead of the website.  Is that correct?

[BabySarge]

Best explanation is there is no explanation for DMW!

[Torfamm]

8 hours ago, cruisinsince75 said:

Looks like all your DMW reservations MUST be done using the app now instead of the website.  Is that correct?

Yes, dining reservations are all made in the app

[Steelers36]

9 hours ago, cruisinsince75 said:

Looks like all your DMW reservations MUST be done using the app now instead of the website.  Is that correct?

 

1 hour ago, Torfamm said:

Yes, dining reservations are all made in the app

You can use the web version of the Princess Medallion App.  But you cannot do anything with dining on on Princess.com.

[CaptainPedantic]

I can't check this out personally since I don't have a future cruise booked with Princess at the moment, but this link should be available on the web when you access your booking: https://oceanready-personalinfo-ui.prod.ocean.com/ and that's how I managed to book a dining "plan" for my last Princess cruise.

[valantine80]

3 hours ago, CaptainPedantic said:

I can't check this out personally since I don't have a future cruise booked with Princess at the moment, but this link should be available on the web when you access your booking: https://oceanready-personalinfo-ui.prod.ocean.com/ and that's how I managed to book a dining "plan" for my last Princess cruise.

That is what I used to book my preferred dining times but had to do each day separately. There was not the option to do it all at once. This was  five months in advance, then last week I got emails saying they have changed the times on three of the nights. Not real happy with that.

[PescadoAmarillo]

22 hours ago, MissP22 said:

That's what I had to do for our cruise also. 

I’ve done that also, and then had the reservations for several individual nights changed to a shared table, even though a private table is still available. And then I’ve had to make the change back for each of those many nights. It’s a gem, DMW is. 

[consmarci]

Can anyone tell me where I can go to "confirm" that I actually got the reservations that I made for each day?

[leck57]

9 minutes ago, consmarci said:

Can anyone tell me where I can go to "confirm" that I actually got the reservations that I made for each day?

 

Yes. Go to the App and your voyage should appear. Scroll down to ocean Now and select Dine My Way. It will open a page "Personalize Your Dining Experience" - select "view or Book individual daily reservations" and at the top of the next page has a tab for each day of your cruise. Open these to see what you have booked for that day.

There may be somewhere that lists all of your bookings without having to check each day but I haven't found it. Hope this helps.

[consmarci]

43 minutes ago, leck57 said:

 

Yes. Go to the App and your voyage should appear. Scroll down to ocean Now and select Dine My Way. It will open a page "Personalize Your Dining Experience" - select "view or Book individual daily reservations" and at the top of the next page has a tab for each day of your cruise. Open these to see what you have booked for that day.

There may be somewhere that lists all of your bookings without having to check each day but I haven't found it. Hope this helps.

Wow! Why couldn't I figure that out? Thank you so much! All there and now I'm done!

[lovevacadays]

I haven’t cruised Princess in quite a long time.  Do you have to reserve dining reservations in advance now?  

[PacnGoNow]

41 minutes ago, lovevacadays said:

I haven’t cruised Princess in quite a long time.  Do you have to reserve dining reservations in advance now?  

You don’t have to, but we do.  You can show up at any time without a reservation, but you may have to wait a little.  Similar to Anytime Dining.

We like to book for a time that is convenient for us, same time and a private table.  If you want to change or cancel once OB,

you can do that one day at a time on the App. 

The nice part is, you can choose which MDR you want.  Maybe the one closer to your cabin would be nice.  2 midship MDR or 1 Aft MDR.  If they are available.

 

Now that ships are getting full again, I think it is a good idea to book something and just change it if you need to.

 

It’s called Dine my way (DMW) now and you’ll find it on the App or on the website version of the App.

[Qextor]

1 hour ago, lovevacadays said:

I haven’t cruised Princess in quite a long time.  Do you have to reserve dining reservations in advance now?  

Yes, you do.  On my last cruise, in September on the Majestic, people without reservations were being turned away from the Concerto restaurant, and even with a res, we waited 10-20 minutes or so to get a table. Reservations are important.

Edited October 8, 2023 by Qextor

[PacnGoNow]

8 minutes ago, Qextor said:

Yes, you do.  On my last cruise, in September on the Majestic, people without reservations were being turned away from the Concerto restaurant, and even with a res, we waited 10-20 minutes or so to get a table. Reservations are important.

Doesn’t seem they have managed  this very well.  

Did you have to wait like that “every night?  
 

We only waited the first couple of nights on any of the ships we’ve sailed since the restart.  Once we were assigned our table, we just checked in and went straight to the table every night. 
 

We have not sailed the Majestic though.  That’s too bad they’ve not gotten it organized by now.