Izumi Hibachi reservations at embarkment

[nanseev]

Going on Wonder and have the 3-day dining package.  I really want to dine at the hibachi, as that’s the one speciality I’ve never had.  I know the first thing I have to do as soon as I’m on the ship is to make my dining reservations - can I book hibachi at the kiosk, or am I better off going immediately to the the Izumi location?  I’ve read conflicting information/responses.

[Biker19]

15 minutes ago, nanseev said:

can I book hibachi at the kiosk, or am I better off going immediately to the the Izumi location?

Either should work, though Izumi may have fewer customers at that time.

[leaveitallbehind]

At the first convenient opportunity after boarding we always go directly to any one of the specialty restaurants and talk directly to the maître d who then books all of our restaurant reservations for the week.  Typically takes about 10-15 minutes but all is completed and confirmed by them at that time. Our preference with this versus the kiosk is dealing with an individual who can confirm our choices. In this case, perhaps go to Izumi / Hibachi on deck 4 portside to have this taken care of.

Edited March 29 by leaveitallbehind

[ticketsunlimited]

1 hour ago, leaveitallbehind said:

At the first convenient opportunity after boarding we always go directly to any one of the specialty restaurants and talk directly to the maître d who then books all of our restaurant reservations for the week.  Typically takes about 10-15 minutes but all is completed and confirmed by them at that time. Our preference with this versus the kiosk is dealing with an individual who can confirm our choices. In this case, perhaps go to Izumi / Hibachi on deck 4 portside to have this taken care of.

We just got off Wonder 3/10.  We went to Chops immediately to book all of our Specialty reservations.  They stated they are not longer doing hibachi reservations at the other restaurants.  They made us go to Izumi directly.  At 11:25 AM there were 30 people in line out into the hallway already.  We waited about 40 minutes and by noon time the only thing they had available was at 9:15 at night.  We booked it anyways.

As we all know every experience is different depending on many variables but that was our experience just a couple weeks ago.

I will say there was 3 in front of me that were Pinnacles and they were not at all happy that they could not provide anything earlier for them.  There was no better options for higher status under these circumstances anyway.  

[leaveitallbehind]

19 minutes ago, ticketsunlimited said:

We just got off Wonder 3/10.  We went to Chops immediately to book all of our Specialty reservations.  They stated they are not longer doing hibachi reservations at the other restaurants.  They made us go to Izumi directly.  At 11:25 AM there were 30 people in line out into the hallway already.  We waited about 40 minutes and by noon time the only thing they had available was at 9:15 at night.  We booked it anyways.

As we all know every experience is different depending on many variables but that was our experience just a couple weeks ago.

I appreciate that update.  On our NYE Oasis this year we were able to book Izumi through the 150 Central Park maître d, but obviously things can vary by ship. 

 

And you are absolutely correct that Izumi (and Hibachi) are very popular and book rapidly.  We have had similar experiences as you indicated on other ships where different maître d's suggested going in person where we experienced the long lines and limited times. 

 

My suggestion, based on your update, would be for the OP to go directly to Izumi after boarding for the best results with reservations.

 

We have also had success with assistance from the Crown Lounge Concierge, but that is only of value if one has access to them or the Suite Lounge Concierge.

[Tlbecker1]

1 hour ago, ticketsunlimited said:

We just got off Wonder 3/10.  We went to Chops immediately to book all of our Specialty reservations.  They stated they are not longer doing hibachi reservations at the other restaurants.  They made us go to Izumi directly.  At 11:25 AM there were 30 people in line out into the hallway already.  We waited about 40 minutes and by noon time the only thing they had available was at 9:15 at night.  We booked it anyways.

As we all know every experience is different depending on many variables but that was our experience just a couple weeks ago.

I will say there was 3 in front of me that were Pinnacles and they were not at all happy that they could not provide anything earlier for them.  There was no better options for higher status under these circumstances anyway.  

I feel very lucky now because I booked Izumi hibachi for lunch about six months ago, for our upcoming transatlantic on the Oasis.  It seems like it’s becoming harder and harder to get earlier bookings.

[barbeyg]

Last year on Harmony, reservation requests for Izumi hibachi had to be made at Izumi.  I got in line at the kiosk for the rest, and hubby at Izumi.  We coordinated by phone. 🙂

[George C]

We had UDP and we’re in a suite and best time we could get was 9:30 , it wasn’t that hard in the past.

[nanseev]

Thanks for all of the replies - based on your feedback, I’ll go straight to Izumi once I’m on the ship.  Crossing my fingers we are able to.  My home port ship is Navigator so I’m a “frequent flyer” of Chops and Jamie’s and hoping to have a different experience for this trip.

[taglovestocruise]

1 hour ago, nanseev said:

Thanks for all of the replies - based on your feedback, I’ll go straight to Izumi once I’m on the ship.  Crossing my fingers we are able to.  My home port ship is Navigator so I’m a “frequent flyer” of Chops and Jamie’s and hoping to have a different experience for this trip.

It is our go to place soon as we board to make all our reservations for the week, never book Izumi as my wife is allergic to sea food, but there is rarely a line.