Sun Princess Reserve Dining Issues

[HomelessBear]

We were on Sun P for it's 2nd cruise 9th March. I'll do a full review when I get the time, but thought I'd mention a few issues we had with Reserve Dining.

According to Princess:

Reserve Collection Dining* is an exclusive dining area featuring expedited seating with no wait or reservations required. It also features additional menu options, dedicated waitstaff and unique-styled decor.

Not on Sun Princess!

On our 10 night cruise, we had a few minutes wait just twice. Wait times were usually 10-20 minutes, but we also had a number of evenings with a 30 minute wait. The worst one was a wait of 40 minutes!  We went at different times but it made little difference.

Also discovered that those in Reserve dining had LESS choices than the main dining room, especially for the main course. Fettucine alfredo (a favourite of lots of us) is also not available (but was in the main dining room). As the menus were on the TV, I compared them daily and felt a bit annoyed and short changed if I'm honest. The new Reserve dining room has its own kitchen, which is much smaller than the main dining room kitchen, hence the limited dishes available apparently.

 

The staff had only been working together for a few weeks, and clearly hadn't got team working or themselves into a routine. They were also using a new hand held computer system for ordering, which some appeared to be struggling with, as many resorted back to trusty pen and paper. There clearly weren't enough staff and dinner took around 2 hours most evenings, and that didn't include the wait time to get in.

Only occasionally did the waiter introduce themselves or give us menu recommendations, and on one particularly busy evening, they completely forgot one course of the menu, then brought it when we were having the main meal!

We were often told on arrival that there were "no tables available" when we could see ones set up and not being used. This was probably due to a lack of staff to service them, as I noticed that they kept us waiting then filled up a number of tables in the same section, so that the wait staff could do a number of orders at the same time. I can understand then doing that, but it's not what I've experienced in Reserve / Club Class dining on other cruises.

 

I totally appreciate that it takes time for staff to develop working together and its a new way of working on this ship, but there were a lot of disgruntled passengers who weren't getting from Princess what they'd signed up for..ie. no wait. We tried to be chilled and 'go with the flow', but must admit that it got a bit wearing not knowing what the dining experience was going to be like that day and how long we'd have to wait. Twice I was told they "don't have" decaf coffee or tea, often told they didn't have something that I'd had from the same breakfast menu many times before and regularly waited over 30 minutes between courses, which starts to irritate after a while. It was also a regular event that once the diners had left, the tables were not cleared. We often sat (as did many others) near to tables with dirty crockery, glasses and napkins. It was only after one man had some choice words with the restaurant manager that something was done for the next few evenimgs, and staff were brought in to clear tables, the left again. Few days later it was back to sitting by used tables.

I'm so sorry to sound negative and I tried my best to keep up beat, but it just got me down after a while. We've had great experiences before with Reserve / CC dining and were looking forward to the Sun Princess. Hopefully with time, they'll get into the swing of things and it'll be a much better experience.

 

 

[memoak]

Wow that is so different from what we experience on Grand or Royal class ships. We have never waited more tha 2 minutes for a table. The menu has always been exactly the same as MDR and the extra entree was announced verbally to us when we got our menus. I guess this is one more reason you will never see me on the Sun

[CanadianBurger]

I experienced much of the same on the same cruise. Probably saw you there!

[HomelessBear]

Glad it wasn't just us experiencing this then! Yep you look familiar 😊

[stevenr597]

Wow!!!!  We are booked, Reserve Class, Sun Princess, March, 2025.  Hope that they get these problems sorted out by them. 

[TxChick51]

We do not have any cruises scheduled at present, but I hope some of these service issues are solved soon. I’m afraid it is an issue all across the hospitality and travel industry.

 

We have experienced terrible, even rude customer service with a hotel chain we used to love.  I won’t mention the name, but even “elite” club members are not receiving basic club privileges like bottled water at check in.  One has to beg for fresh towels.  The rooms are either not ready, even if one checks in well past normal check in, poor maintenance,etc. if one complains at the front desk, a shrug is the usual answer or “ no, there is no manager on duty to speak with you.”  Yet, prices go up & the CEO is worried about the bottom line.  People are going to be less inclined to travel if the trend continues.

[Lcruiser5356]

We did a 6 day Pacific Coastal last Oct on the Discovery Princess. We booked reserve for the first time. There were 8 adults and 2 children. It was probably one of the best experiences we had had in a while on a cruise. We had no waits for the 10 of us. We just walked into the dining room and took our usual table. We had two dedicated servers and the help of the head waiter most evenings. We had the usual menus and extras told each night.

I'm sorry you had such an awful experience. It sounds terrible, and to have to have paid extra for it is a shame. I hope you complained to the proper people and got a refund for that part of it. If that is even an option these days.

[grandmomsdc]

I've had Reserved/Club Class on my past 3 cruises (Emerald and Sapphire). It was excellent which is why I've continued to book it. I'm not ready to sail on the new, much larger, Princess ships. I'll keep booking on the small-mid sized ships where they know what they are doing, and they do it well.