Pre-paid Pinnacle Grill

[ASue]

Just thought I'd let anyone who has pre-paid for a dinner at the Pinnacle Grill for a upcoming cruise that you need to book your reservation the first day you get on the ship. The lines are long but if you want to be assured you will get a reservation it will be worth the wait. We had 2 pre-paid dinners and waited til the 2nd day to make a reservation. The place was totally booked and we were put on a waiting list. We got the credit on our bill the last day of the cruise as we didn't get to eat there. On the second day they had over 800 guest reservations.

[Wayneair]

Thanks for the heads up. I prepaid and assumed the requested time gave me priority.

[Pete Jackson]

Was this the cruise that was testing the idea of giving McDonald's the dining room franchise?

 

:p:eek::o

[sail7seas]

Thank you for sharing.

When you were trying to make your reservation, did they know you had pre-paid prior to coming to the ship? When you pre-paid, did you make a specific reservation time with Ship Services or did you leave it open?

 

Also, were you pre-reserved for $20 or $30 pp?

 

Sorry for all the questions but am curious for more details about this.

 

Thank you for sharing the 'heads up'.

 

[Davofayvo]

I'll have to ask my wife when she gets home, but we pre-paid (party of 6) and she told me that we had reso for Tuesday night Nov.14th 2006, 8:30pm, everything all set, we just have to show up. Do we have to make reso again once we are on the ship?:confused:

[European_CruiseGirl]

Just thought I'd let anyone who has pre-paid for a dinner at the Pinnacle Grill for a upcoming cruise that you need to book your reservation the first day you get on the ship.

 

You can also book the Pinnacle before you even board the ship! I made a reservation last February 3 weeks before our cruise to Pinnacle Grill. Just called the HAL Ship Services and said that I want to pre-book a table for a specific night and time.

 

First night of the cruise we went with DH to the Pinnacle and asked if our reservation was ok (we were told to double check when we get onboard). There were no problems - our reservation was there just the way we wanted. :) Don't know what would have happened if we would not have confirmed it with the Pinnacle staff - perhaps they would have called us and asked if we still wanted the reservation. I assume that they would not have cancelled it without any notice.

[ASue]

My mom booked the pre-pay in Sept when she was reading the threads about the $20.00. When she called she was told she COULD NOT make a reservation until we boarded the ship. As there were no openings they put us on a waitlist for the week. If we did not receive a call by the night before the last sea day that we would get a credit on our bill for the $80.00 (which we did)

 

Just didn't want anyone else to miss a wonderful dinner. We heard it was excellent !!!!

 

 

 

McDonald's LOL I will admit though I was a little disappointed in the Dinning Room menu.

[Ventura]

I have been trying desperately to book the Pinnacle for the upcoming Christmas Holiday Cruise. We are a large group celebrating my parent's 50th Anniversary, and we were planning a special evening to officially mark the occasion. When I contacted Holland America I was told that normally the Pinnacle could be pre-booked, however, for Holiday sailings, they do not allow you to book ahead of time. Personally, I don't understand this policy, and will obviously be extremely disappointed if we cannot be accommodated once we get on board.

 

Ventura

[SnorkelBear]

I prepaid at the end of Sept. for our Noordam sailing next week. They put us down for a particular night but could not give a specific time. It seems it is a different policy for each sailing.

[cruisen cracker]

Does anyone have the telephone number to call to make a pre-cruise reservation ?

 

Thanks

[sail7seas]

Call Ships Services at 800-541-1576

 

 

[WNYCRUISER]

I have been trying desperately to book the Pinnacle for the upcoming Christmas Holiday Cruise. We are a large group celebrating my parent's 50th Anniversary, and we were planning a special evening to officially mark the occasion. When I contacted Holland America I was told that normally the Pinnacle could be pre-booked, however, for Holiday sailings, they do not allow you to book ahead of time. Personally, I don't understand this policy, and will obviously be extremely disappointed if we cannot be accommodated once we get on board.

 

Ventura

 

I believe that the inability to book the Pinnacle is only for certain nights. I believe they will not take reservations for Christmas Eve or Christmas. Other than that, I think they will accept them. We are sailing on the Noordam, and had no problem booking dinner for the 23rd through Ship Services.

[JABTPS]

Our cruise on the Volendam had no such demand and you could book almost any night. Late night is the most in demand.

 

There's going to be alot of disappointed people......

[jtl513]

I just posted this warning on the OTHER thread started by the same OP with the same title:

 

When you get your envelope in your cabin with the P.G. "invitation", be sure there as many cards as you have pre-paid. We pre-paid for two people, but oddly the Visa card was billed twice for $20, not once for $40. (This was a year ago.) I thought that was a little strange but did nothing.

 

When we got on the ship there was only one "invite" in the envelope. Again I did nothing, because this was our first visit to P.G. and didn't suspect any problem.

 

We went to the Maitre d' and made a reservation for two for the 2nd night on board. (When we had called Seattle we were told that we could NOT pick a specific date/time, as that was up to the Matre d' to set.) When we arrived there with our one "invite" card we were told insistently that only one had been pre-paid, a "gift" from DW to me. Not having thought to bring along a copy of the Visa bill, I had no proof otherwise. If we both wanted to dine there that night we were told that we have to pay another $20 and get it corrected later at the front desk. We agreed.

 

After dinner I went to the front desk and explained everything. They said they would check with Seattle and get back to me. About two days later I got a call saying we had another dinner "coming" to us, but not agreeing that I should get $20 back.

 

When we got home we wrote to Seattle with transaction numbers from the Visa bill and a copy of the ship bill showing that we were billed a 3rd time.

 

In about 4 > 5 weeks we got a letter saying that our Visa acoount had been credited, and it had, but this should have been corrected before we disembarked.

[Schplinky]

We pre-paid and were given a 6:30 reservation. We were told (since we would have preferred 7 or so) to go and see if we could switch once onboard. To my mind, this means we have a confirmed reservation for 6:30.