Grab Those Dining Reservations...

[Host Jazzbeau]

1 hour ago, Mackdogmolly said:

Viking guarantees everyone at least one reservation to their (included) specialty restaurant and their (included) chef’s table restaurant. Then, the higher your cabin category, the more reservations you can make. All before you board. Once on the ship, you can make as many reservations as are available.

This would be a good idea for Azamara – maybe even 2 for each specialty – but it would require a major website upgrade to include this capability.  

[gotcha3]

On 11/24/2023 at 2:54 PM, uktog said:

Trouble is when they do that you end up eating with some right riff raff 😂😂

I'm going to assume that is some sort of joke?

 

[uktog]

4 hours ago, gotcha3 said:

I'm going to assume that is some sort of joke?

 

It is hence the emojis 

[lahore]

Ok. So I paid for four pre-cruise. We will not eat late, rather not go. If we can't get a time we want can we get refund, does anyone know? 

[john1970]

13 hours ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

This would be a good idea for Azamara – maybe even 2 for each specialty – but it would require a major website upgrade to include this capability.  

I'm not sure another website upgrade would be a good idea!

[hamrag]

On 12/4/2023 at 12:30 AM, Traveling Fools said:

You can pre-book, but must wait until aboard to make reservations.  Contrary what others told me, it isn't the breeze they suggested!  We were some of the first to board and were told the only place to book reservations was on Deck 10 at Aquilina. I dumped my bag in the suite and hustled up to Deck 10 where there was one couple in front of me.  I pulled up a chair and waited my turn and could sense other shipmates lining up behind me.  When I finished making the reservations and turned around to leave, the line extended out to the elevator. 

Interesting....on our Quest cruise 9 November the booking process took approximately 15 minutes of our time which included 10 minutes waiting. We had no issue getting the times we desired for our 4 specialty dining package. For us, the whole process was truly a breeze!

 

Our first specialty booking was the day following a rough nights sailing....as seasoned cruisers we ought to have remembered that the area from Lisbon, south of the med entrance point down to Funchal in Madeira is notoriously choppy, so that was definitely a schoolboy error on my part. We both felt queasy at breakfast, and decided to cancel to afford the opportunity to others who may have been looking to book that night. In the event we were feeling absolutely fine by late morning.

 

We enjoyed the cruise so much that we forgot to rebook for our 4th visit until the day before final night. Nothing was available, so we were wait listed with 7 ahead of us! On final day I kept checking...nothing available. When we were almost ready for dinner about 6.45pm, I snuck out the cabin and decided to go to the restaurant desk at Aqualina, fully booked nothing doing! Then went into Prime C more in desperate hope than expectation....after a discussion between the restaurant host and presumably the maitre d, they said if you come ASAP and before 7.30 we are in. We thought that was incredibly facilitating, as we could see how busy they were when we arrived at 7.15 or thereabouts. 

 

The cruise was 9 nights, so we hade 4 MDR and the White Night in addition to the specialties. I have said following our previous 3 Az cruises that we do not find the MDR to be very good, and that was the case once more so I wont labour the point other than to say it's been the same now on 4 cruises. The other, and more problematic issue was the engine vibration throughout 75% of the MDR area which seemed more problematic on the Quest. It really felt like the engine was labouring, so we asked to be moved to the area closest to the welcome desk, where it wasn't too bad but still noticeable. Perhaps an engine upgrade will be included in the next dry dock, as it is intolerable for us and many others around us said the same and had requested the area we used for all our MDRs!

[Host Jazzbeau]

4 hours ago, hamrag said:

The other, and more problematic issue was the engine vibration throughout 75% of the MDR area which seemed more problematic on the Quest. It really felt like the engine was labouring, so we asked to be moved to the area closest to the welcome desk, where it wasn't too bad but still noticeable. Perhaps an engine upgrade will be included in the next dry dock, as it is intolerable for us and many others around us said the same and had requested the area we used for all our MDRs!

We have found that in the MDR on all R-ships, when the Captain puts the pedal to the metal, which it sounds like your itinerary involved.

[Traveling Fools]

7 hours ago, hamrag said:

on our Quest cruise 9 November the booking process took approximately 15 minutes of our time which included 10 minutes waiting.

 

On our cruise they only had 1 (one) table handling dinning reservations.  When I got there there was only one couple in front of me and they were in the booking process.  I too had to wait 10 minutes and then it took less than 15 minutes to make the reservations.  HOWEVER, when I left the line stretched out of the dinning room back to the elevator.  You do the math.  15 minutes for each guest to book their reservations x how many guests are waiting x you place in line.  A breeze for you and me, but not for those in line behind us.

[hamrag]

45 minutes ago, Traveling Fools said:

 

On our cruise they only had 1 (one) table handling dinning reservations.  When I got there there was only one couple in front of me and they were in the booking process.  I too had to wait 10 minutes and then it took less than 15 minutes to make the reservations.  HOWEVER, when I left the line stretched out of the dinning room back to the elevator.  You do the math.  15 minutes for each guest to book their reservations x how many guests are waiting x you place in line.  A breeze for you and me, but not for those in line behind us.

Not sure why it would take anyone15 minutes to book, it took us less than 5.

[hamrag]

4 hours ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

We have found that in the MDR on all R-ships, when the Captain puts the pedal to the metal, which it sounds like your itinerary involved.

OK, our other Az cruises were port cruises so that might explain why the vibration was so bad on a transatlantic cruise!

Thanks.

[Ethel6666]

Has anyone done a longer cruise and know whether there’s a need to hustle for bookings for those? We are doing a 21 night cruise and was hoping buy the 3 night package and to just book occasionally as we felt like it as the cruise progressed. I’m not sure how full the cruise is (or how to work that out). I probably won’t do it at all if I have to queue up and hustle on the first day and we are boarding late.

[hamrag]

5 minutes ago, Ethel6666 said:

Has anyone done a longer cruise and know whether there’s a need to hustle for bookings for those? We are doing a 21 night cruise and was hoping buy the 3 night package and to just book occasionally as we felt like it as the cruise progressed. I’m not sure how full the cruise is (or how to work that out). I probably won’t do it at all if I have to queue up and hustle on the first day and we are boarding late.

The restaurant host right in front of you for specialty dining, when you enter windows cafe port side, for brekkie or lunch is your go to friend