Specialty restaurants question

[lilybug]

I believe dinner begins at 7. When and where do you go to make the dinner reservations for Toscana and Polo? Can you make all your reservations at the same time? Thanks!

[ridolphi]

My recollection is that the first day, there will be a notice in the daily program in your cabin of where and when you can go and make reservations at Toscana and Polo. THe number of reservations you can make will depend on your cabin category. PH and above get two in each, I think everyone else gets one to start. Each day, one of the Maitre'd's will be available in the morning at the Terrace cafe for additional reservations for that night. If you make a reservation for more than two, you will need names of those joining you, otherwise they will seat you at a table with others, which is a nice way of meeting others, or you can request a table for two.

[lcand1923]

On our last cruise, the first day dinner reservations were made in the Library. I have read on these boards that the Library has been the standard location for quite some time, now.

[LHT28]

Deck 7 & above you get 2 in each

Your Butler (if you have one)can make the reservations for you

 

Deck 6 & below go to Horizons on embarkation day other go to the Restaurants Polo or Toscana

At least that is how it was on our cruise in Feb/Mar

You can also make reservations at the Terrace(port side entrance)

[pacmom]

On Regatta, in Jan, reservations were made in Horizons. Guess it just depends on where they want to do it. Pat. We'll see on Mon where it is this time.

[hondorner]

I love short answers generally, but they often miss detail. On the other hand, Betsy says I provide too much detail. Judge for yourselves.

 

Categories B and below (C, D, etc) are guaranteed one reservation in each of the specialty restaurants (Toscana and Polo). Categories A and above (PH, VS, OS) are guaranteed 2 reservations in each of the alternate restaurants. While some have disparaged the color of the Oceania World Cards as a "class system", the easy way to tell how many reservations you are guaranteed is by color -- white cards get one each, silver and gold cards get two each.

 

If you feel the need to immediately make reservations on a specific day, such as for a special occasion or because you are worried you'll get cheated out of some desirable opportunity, you can make your reservations on the day of embarkation. If you are really concerned, you can go to the area for the reservations immediately upon boarding. There will be staff greeting you as you board, ask them where the reservations are being taken.

 

Generally, there are two areas for making the reservations. The areas will depend on the circumstances (cleaning, etc), or staff preference. They may use one of the lounges and/or the library; the one time I signed up on the first day, they were using the maitre 'd station in Polo for silver and gold, and the maitre'd station in Toscana for white.

 

My travel agent, who has sailed frequently with Oceania and has extensive knowledge, advised me not to worry or panic about the reservations. The system is managed on networked laptop computers, and you will NOT be cheated out of your guaranteed number of reservations. She advised me that circumstances often change during the cruise, passengers often make new friends and wish to dine with them, One may be more tired than one predicted, etc., and it maybe more convenient to make the decisions about reservations later in the cruise. (Thanks, Jan)

 

I partially took her advice on our first Oceania cruise, and at least had a leisurely lunch on the Terrace before making my way up to Polo to make the reservations. At lunch on that first day, we met another couple with whom we struck up an instant rapport. They had already reserved their four evenings, and asked us to reserve at their table. We easily did do -- the staff are really willing to accomodate almost any requests.

 

On our second Oceania cruise, we never did make first day reservations; we just made the reservations in the morning whenever the mood struck us. Every morning, during the buffet breakfast hours, at the entrance to the Terrace buffet on the Port side near the bar, there will be a restaurant representative with a laptop computer on a podium taking reservations.

 

We made reservations for the same day, and we made reservations for future evenings, at that buffet station. We were "silver" on our first cruise and were guaranteed a total of 4 evenings; we actually ate in the alternate restaurants 10 times, 5 times in each (it was a 26 day cruise). We were "white" on our second cruise and were guaranteed a total of 2 evenings, we actually dined 6 times, 3 in each restaurant (15 day cruise). We were NEVER turned down for any evening we requested.

 

Here is the number 1 tip for getting as many reservations as you want -- always offer to share a table, or better yet, come to the reservations desk with the names of specific people with who you want to dine. We never dined alone in the specialty restaurants; we always put together a party of 4, 6, 7 or 8.

 

Our pattern was simple -- in the Grand Dining Room or on the Terrace, we generally showed up alone, but asked to share a table. We met many exciting folks that way. When we made some friends with who we wanted to dine again, we would get together on a date and make reservations in Polo or Toscana.

 

What makes the best evenings for which to make a reservation? That's going to take a different answer for different folks, but here are my observations:

 

On European cruises, they are so port intensive that you will be rushing every day to get back to the ship and get ready for dinner. On transAtlantic, Caribbean and South American cruises, there are usually enough sea days that many folks will prefer their reservations on those more relaxed days. It may be more difficult to get a table for two on those sea days if you wait too long (we never had difficulty in setting it up to share a table).

 

By the way, a couple of times we did see a situation where so many people were in line to go into the Grand Dining Room, that staff was offering an immediate opportunity to go to either of the alternate restaurants. It makes sense that if the GDR is full, there are probably vacancies in the specialty restaurants.

[merryecho]

Deck 7 & above you get 2 in each

Your Butler (if you have one)can make the reservations for you

 

Except that deck 7 doesn't have butlers. You can get in the gold card line to make your reservation for 2 nights, but you have to do it yourself.

[momoforthodoc]

hondorner, loved your detailed response. we will be sailing on the regatta in nov. 09 and while it's a long way off knowing this info is very helpful and i didn't think over done! it's our first oceania cruise and i'd like to know as much as i can well before the sailing. thanks!

jeralyn ;)

[LHT28]

I believe dinner begins at 7.

 

forgot to mention

Dinner opens at 6:30 pm in all venues

[ChatKat in Ca.]

We had the butler do it last year and we got very late reservations on days other than requested and didn't have a response for two days. Do it yourself when you board if you want specific days and times because we got what was left and several nights were completely booked.