Premier-Unlimited Specialty dining?

[voljeep]

1 minute ago, Cruisemeister2002 said:

I would imagine that even being Elite if you don't have the Premium Package your ability to book Speciality dining will be harder to get. As Arizonaperson says you can't make an exact judgement on how it will work. If you have a ship where vast numbers want an early, mid or late sitting in a certain venue seeing as the capacity is much smaller than an MDR then there will be problems booking. But like everything else people will go off the idea either because they cannot get in, or they are fed up with steaks, fish or whatever every night throughout a cruise. Just like I sometimes cannot wait to get back to normal eating after a few weeks away where I long for a piece of cheese on toast,  Baked beans on toast or just a bowls of pasta with some tuna and mayonnaise.

Cheetos ... 😉

[Lady Arwen]

8 minutes ago, memoak said:

Suite concierges and casino hosts can work miracles. Especially on embarkation day suites are guaranteed specialty dining and we book those when we board

I agree that guests with the premier package, casino bookings and suite guests will be able to secure reservations.  Anyone else is probably out of luck.  A shame really.  We have a lot of unhappy folks this sailing because no SD available.  Next week will much much worse.

[voljeep]

1 minute ago, Lady Arwen said:

premier package, casino bookings and suite guests

in what order?  

 

i know, i know - eat late, never, longer, 

[memoak]

2 minutes ago, Lady Arwen said:

I agree that guests with the premier package, casino bookings and suite guests will be able to secure reservations.  Anyone else is probably out of luck.  A shame really.  We have a lot of unhappy folks this sailing because no SD available.  Next week will much much worse.

We are sailing on the Majestic late September and will see right now all restaurants are wide open

[Lady Arwen]

4 minutes ago, voljeep said:

in what order?  

 

i know, i know - eat late, never, longer, 

You got it!

[jimd909]

Just checked for Sabatini's on Discovery during Christmas this year and nothing is available.  In a suite, have Premiere, and Platinum.

 

But, I can book every day for the Crown Grill.

Edited August 27 by jimd909

[grimace95120]

This is going to be a classic only time will tell scenario. We may get out first peek into this on Saturday When the Enchanted goes live. 

[Lady Arwen]

4 minutes ago, memoak said:

We are sailing on the Majestic late September and will see right now all restaurants are wide open

If I were you I’d get your choices booked right away, just to be safe,

[grimace95120]

SD reservations are going to be harder to get than Taylor Swift tickets !

Edited August 27 by grimace95120
spelling

[Thrak]

I feel sorry for all who will pay for the privilege and then not be able to use it.

Edited August 27 by Thrak

[memoak]

1 minute ago, Lady Arwen said:

If I were you I’d get your choices booked right away, just to be safe,

My embarkation dinner is a guaranteed one and I do not like to pay for these in advance. Plus I don’t really like the menu at Harmony, my wife is allergic to many white fish and not having Sabatini’s is a downer. If the concierge cannot help out I would be very surprised 

[Thrak]

16 minutes ago, voljeep said:

Cheetos ... 😉

 

Yep. 😁

[gvre]

19 minutes ago, Cruisemeister2002 said:

I would imagine that even being Elite if you don't have the Premium Package your ability to book Speciality dining will be harder to get. As Arizonaperson says you can't make an exact judgement on how it will work. If you have a ship where vast numbers want an early, mid or late sitting in a certain venue seeing as the capacity is much smaller than an MDR then there will be problems booking. But like everything else people will go off the idea either because they cannot get in, or they are fed up with steaks, fish or whatever every night throughout a cruise. Just like I sometimes cannot wait to get back to normal eating after a few weeks away where I long for a piece of cheese on toast,  Baked beans on toast or just a bowls of pasta with some tuna and mayonnaise.

Last cruise on the Emerald Solar Cruise there was almost 1000 elites on board.

 I doubt that will help.

[Lady Arwen]

Just spoke to one of our Sanctuary attendants about this.  He said the waitstaff of every SD is concerned that there is just not enough staff to deal with over bookings.  This week is bad enough with zero availability.  However, I believe that next week will not be as bad because the kids will be back in school and basically the last week of summer.   We shall see.

[Lady Arwen]

11 minutes ago, memoak said:

My embarkation dinner is a guaranteed one and I do not like to pay for these in advance. Plus I don’t really like the menu at Harmony, my wife is allergic to many white fish and not having Sabatini’s is a downer. If the concierge cannot help out I would be very surprised 

I’m sure exceptions will be made for guests such as yourself.  Other guests may be very disappointed.  

[startedwithamouse]

Sounds like if you don't have Premier, you'll be completely shut out of SD in the future. 

 

Longer voyages, which tend to attract older standard fare cruisers, with a very small minority choosing Premier, you should have a chance at booking SD. 

[t&atravel]

20 minutes ago, memoak said:

My embarkation dinner is a guaranteed one and I do not like to pay for these in advance

My one and only time in a suite was last August and I was able to book my first night SD in the app with no charge.  Of course I have never had any of the app issues everyone else seems to have.  Not one. 🤷‍♀️ 

[phabric]

I was on a Holland cruise, with a perk that everyone on the ship got a specialty dinner.  Holland choose the time for you, there was no changing time as there was no tables available  

[Kay S]

1 hour ago, TomBaker said:

If I'm Elite and solo with the Premier+ package would it be wrong of me to book all my speciality restaurant bookings before I depart and take up a table for two when I will be dining alone?

Maybe you will make a new friend to invite.  Or maybe you will take pity on some other solo who can't get a reservation.  But you paid for it, so you are entitled to that seat.

 

I'm looking forward to the stories about this new harebrained idea of the Princess suits after the chaos breaks. 🙂

[Lady Arwen]

4 minutes ago, phabric said:

I was on a Holland cruise, with a perk that everyone on the ship got a specialty dinner.  Holland choose the time for you, there was no changing time as there was no tables available  

Yes, us too.  We got a reservation card in our cabin stating the time and date.We called to request a change.  Nope!  This or nothing, take it or leave it.  This was on Koningsdam.

[memoak]

35 minutes ago, Thrak said:

I feel sorry for all who will pay for the privilege and then not be able to use it.

If they can’t get tables I would expect the guest services to be handling lots of complaints and passing out lots of OBC

[canadarocks]

We’re Platinum and sailing on the Enchanted in February. Don’t pay anything until November and I’ve booked all of our Specialty Dining already. There’s a lot of them and I had no issue with choice of time or restaurant. But I’m sure that’s because I did it early! 

[Retired-N-Happy]

2 hours ago, arizonaperson said:

No definitive answer to that question. Too subjective. I think it will depend on what ship and how far out from your voyage that you make a reservation in specialty dining and I’m assuming for a few passengers like casino perks and other officers perks for passengers that they will always hold a few reservations open. But getting the exact time that you want Every evening that you want specialty -maybe -maybe not.

Too many variables in this type of question.
Do you have a cruise booked with the unlimited specialty dining ? and if you do -go ahead and book it ,that way you will find out if the time that you desire is available. And if you don’t have a cruise booked -then book it and then start booking your specialty reservations.

Until this unlimited specialty dining ( premier) starts rolling out, I don’t think you’ll really know what the answer is until people start posting that it’s not a problem or it is a problem, but have to give it time on that one.

But the problem comes into play when Princess will not allow OBC to be used to pay for the Premier upgrade until you get on board.  We have 400 in OBC which we were planning to use towards our 560 in upgrade costs.  Of course will the 10.00 pp increase, the cost is now 840, but it's frustrating that we can spend it on an excursion but not an upgrade.

[voljeep]

30 minutes ago, Lady Arwen said:

Yes, us too.  We got a reservation card in our cabin stating the time and date.We called to request a change.  Nope!  This or nothing, take it or leave it.  This was on Koningsdam.

read the fine print ... Princess has the similar language 

[ldubs]

3 hours ago, phabric said:

With the new Premier having unlimited specialty dining, do think there will be any tables available at decent times?

 

I cannot help but think it will be more difficult to get tables during any of the prime times.