Speciality Restaurants - online booking & availability?

[Boo Boo]

Just been online to pre-book the speciality restaurants and was surprised by the lack of availability... (cruise is end of September).

 

...Portifinos appears not to be available AT ALL on the first night of the cruise. This seems odd - since the first night of the cruise tends to be the EASIEST to get into the speciality restaurants (as many want to settle in at the dining room...). Maybe Portifino happens to be closed for some reason (a private party perhaps?)?

 

I managed to book Chops for the first night and Portifino for the Wednesday, but for both restaurants the only times available were 6.30pm or 9pm... I was a little surprised to not be able to get 7pm/7.30pm: I can see that those time slots would be popular, BUT....

 

So my question is, does the ship "hold back" tables (i.e. only a proportion are available for pre-booking?)? Could we have been better waiting to book on board?

 

It is a bit mute, because I grabbed reservations whilst I saw them (6.30pm at Chops on the first night and 6.30pm at Portifino on the Wednesday) - a bird in the hand... BUT I am curious! Am also xcurious about why Portifino isn't taking any reservatiosn for that first night.

 

Boo

[Sue L]

On our sailing the first night in Portofino there was a wedding reception. They took up the whole place.

[Retired LEO]

It's probably the same as shore excursions. They keep a certain amount for on board booking.

[vtxriders]

I just booked our reservations online for our trip mid September and did not see any time that was not available on either of the nights I looked at.

 

I would not be surprised if the first night wasn't booked for a wedding reception. I haven't been on a cruise yet where there was not at least one wedding before sailing.

[Crazy Flying Fish]

Just been online to pre-book the speciality restaurants and was surprised by the lack of availability... (cruise is end of September).

 

...Portifinos appears not to be available AT ALL on the first night of the cruise. This seems odd - since the first night of the cruise tends to be the EASIEST to get into the speciality restaurants (as many want to settle in at the dining room...). Maybe Portifino happens to be closed for some reason (a private party perhaps?)?

 

I managed to book Chops for the first night and Portifino for the Wednesday, but for both restaurants the only times available were 6.30pm or 9pm... I was a little surprised to not be able to get 7pm/7.30pm: I can see that those time slots would be popular, BUT....

 

So my question is, does the ship "hold back" tables (i.e. only a proportion are available for pre-booking?)? Could we have been better waiting to book on board?

 

It is a bit mute, because I grabbed reservations whilst I saw them (6.30pm at Chops on the first night and 6.30pm at Portifino on the Wednesday) - a bird in the hand... BUT I am curious! Am also xcurious about why Portifino isn't taking any reservatiosn for that first night.

 

Boo

We were able to book on line for Chops on a port day. Maybe they are slower and have more space available then?! We were able to get a 7:00pm reservation on a port day at San Juan on the IOS sailing on August 30 2008. Some of our Meet and Mingle group also got reservations the same day for Portifino at 8:00pm.

I'm not sure about them holding back reservations for the restaurants. I have read they hold back 20-30% for shore excursions but I can't confirm that.

I may not have answered the question appropriately but maybe it has something to do with the sailing dates, ie. June is Honeymoon month etc.

[Javalava]

Don't give up on Portofino. It seems they're having a problem with their booking system. This is the response I just posted to someone else who also had a problem.

 

We will be on the Mariner in November. I made my reservation for Chops on Monday but got the same message you did when I tried Portofino. I tried several times then gave up. When the same thing happened on Tuesday, I called.

 

I was told that there was a "glitch" in the system. The customer service agent was getting the same result from their computers, so she took all my information and said she would try to get a supervisor to make the reservation and would call me back if successful. I did get a call back and our reservation for Portofino was made for the day and time we wanted. :)

[Oville]

I'm on a cruise in late October on the Jewel and was told tonight they wouldn't offer speciality restaurants until they open excursions in mid-August. I'll just keep checking back but it seems odd you can make reservations for November but not October. If anyone has been able to make reservations for the Jewel repo on October 28, please let me know. Thanks.