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Reservations for specialty dining on embarkation day


raahc

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Dining for 2 from our TA:

For our last cruise (eons ago), I remember we went to Chops Grille shortly after we were on board.  We must have been super lucky in getting a reservation for night 2, because I'm looking back at our photos and drooling over our filet mignon!

How are they able to accommodate so many people's reservations, both on embarkation day, and then all the guests that are able to book online? 

Is there a chance we might not get a reservation at all?

Thanks in advance.

 

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It depends on the ship.  Even with The Key people I have always been allowed to book lunch at Chops on embarkation day EXCEPT on Navigator.  Even trying to enlist the assistance of the Suites Concierge I was denied.  We were able to eat at Jamie's but they had reserved the Chops ONLY for Key people.  So far, at least, I have always been able to get into Chops on every other ship if I had the UDP.  But there might be other ships, like Navigator, that will deny reservations at Chops for embarkation lunch.  NAV is the only one I know of personally, though.

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We have found that lately the specialty restaurants aren't that busy, in fact they seem to have people roaming the ship offering discounts to get more people to them....

It will depend more on the time you want to eat....it really depends on each sailing...they only way you can be 100% sure is to book online.

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15 hours ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

It depends on the ship.  Even with The Key people I have always been allowed to book lunch at Chops on embarkation day EXCEPT on Navigator.  Even trying to enlist the assistance of the Suites Concierge I was denied.  We were able to eat at Jamie's but they had reserved the Chops ONLY for Key people.  So far, at least, I have always been able to get into Chops on every other ship if I had the UDP.  But there might be other ships, like Navigator, that will deny reservations at Chops for embarkation lunch.  NAV is the only one I know of personally, though.

Thanks for sharing your experience regarding the Navigator.  We'll be on Harmony ?

12 hours ago, Rob&Ana said:

We have found that lately the specialty restaurants aren't that busy, in fact they seem to have people roaming the ship offering discounts to get more people to them....

It will depend more on the time you want to eat....it really depends on each sailing...they only way you can be 100% sure is to book online.

Oh wow, I thought a lot of seasoned cruisers would book the specialty restaurants (from all the reviews I've been reading). 

I don't think we can book online because we have a "dinner for 2" from our TA.  If I booked online, I would be charged, and I think it would be a nightmare to try and fix it later ...

We'll go the restaurant of our choice on embarkation day and keep our fingers crossed (I'll have to come up with an alternate date just in case ?)

Thanks for responding!

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There are quite a number of people that book cruises that don't do ANY planning ahead of time.  So the ship has a lot of reservation times available when you board.  All of the dining packages require you to wait until you get on the ship to book your dining times as that is the trade-off for the lower price.  As long as you are flexible and take care of the dining reservations immediately when you get on board you shouldn't have an issue getting into the dining.  Go to either Giovannis or Chops in Central Park as soon as you get onboard Harmony and make your reservation for that evening.  Even if you aren't going to eat at that particular restaurant they can make the reservation for you at any of the specialty restaurants.  Usually they're a lot less busy than the reservations kiosk on the Promenade.

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Maybe it depends on the ship, but when we sailed on Symphony last October, we tried to make reservations a couple of days into the cruise.  We couldn't get into any of the specialty restaurants!  This time, I plan to book them in advance.  It's the only thing we've never taken advantage of before.

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4 hours ago, AshleyDillo said:

There are quite a number of people that book cruises that don't do ANY planning ahead of time.  So the ship has a lot of reservation times available when you board.  All of the dining packages require you to wait until you get on the ship to book your dining times as that is the trade-off for the lower price.  As long as you are flexible and take care of the dining reservations immediately when you get on board you shouldn't have an issue getting into the dining.  Go to either Giovannis or Chops in Central Park as soon as you get onboard Harmony and make your reservation for that evening.  Even if you aren't going to eat at that particular restaurant they can make the reservation for you at any of the specialty restaurants.  Usually they're a lot less busy than the reservations kiosk on the Promenade.

That's good to know!  Our specialty dining for 2 is courtesy of our TA.  I believe they have Jamie's instead of Giovanni's on Harmony, although I did hear Giovanni's is much better.

I didn't know we can book any restaurant at any specialty dining restaurant!  Thank you for pointing that out.  I thought if we don't get lucky at Chops, we'd walk over to another one, but not necessary now!  You've been very helpful ? Thank you!

21 minutes ago, Stephanie said:

Maybe it depends on the ship, but when we sailed on Symphony last October, we tried to make reservations a couple of days into the cruise.  We couldn't get into any of the specialty restaurants!  This time, I plan to book them in advance.  It's the only thing we've never taken advantage of before.

Oh, I'm so sorry to hear that, what a disappointment for you!  We can't book in advance since it's a free dinner for 2.  I mentioned above that we got lucky on Day 1 because we went straight to Chops as soon as we boarded, and plan to do the same this time.  Which specialty dining are you interested in?  Good luck!

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