First day on ship??

Plan is to eat lunch in the dining room.

We are doing anytime dining. Should we make our reservations once we board? Could we do this while eating lunch in the MDR? Can we make the same reservation time for the entire week on that first day? Getting so excited, only 32 days to go!

Thank you!

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Call DINE Line. Happily, they can make your reservations in specialty restaurants for the entire sailing. :)

LuLu

While you can make reservations for AD, we never have. We just go to the dining room when we are ready and nver had a real wait. We have never been given a pager.

Reservations are usually only before 6pm, and after 8pm

Our experience has been that i, if you want reservations, you will have to call each morning.

Our experience has been that i, if you want reservations, you will have to call each morning.

Agree for Anytime when you want to change your timing each night ... But NOT for booking specialty restaurants which can be booked for the entire sailing the first day. :)

LuLu

I understood the question to be about anytime dining.

Many of the any time diners I have met book a table and time for the entire week.

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Many of the any time diners I have met book a table and time for the entire week.

 

 

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Yes, and I'm learning on this board that there seems to be a lot of folks who ended up with Anytime Dining who would have preferred to have Traditional but couldn't get it, while there are a some traditional dining folks who then randomly decide they want to eat at a different time and show up at the Anytime Dining Room expecting to get a table at a moments notice.

Go figure! :confused:

Plan is to eat lunch in the dining room.

We are doing anytime dining. Should we make our reservations once we board? Could we do this while eating lunch in the MDR? Can we make the same reservation time for the entire week on that first day? Getting so excited, only 32 days to go!

Thank you!

 

 

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I read this as you want to make reservations for lunch in the MDR. No such thing as ressies for lunch. You just show up at the dining room that serves lunch during the time that will be listed in your Patter. And, unless things have changed back in the past couple of years, the MDR will not be open for lunch on port days.

ATD, some random thoughts

*On some ships res. for ATD are not accepted for the first evening. Call the DINE line once on board. *You are able to get the same table at the same time each evening by speaking to the Head Waiter at the entrance. Usually when you have a set table and time passengers will inform the waiter if they intend to dine elsewhere, such as one of the surcharge restaurants. Extra tips are normally provided in the set table case. *Tables to share are easier to get than tables for two. *On cruises I have been on, there have always been lots of tables available if you like to dine 7:30 or later. Tables are more limited in the 6pm range. *ATD reservations are usually limited to specific times such as 5:30, 5:45, 7:45, 8:00. This is not exactly the same on all ships. If you want to dine at 7 you would just have to walk in. *The advantage of ATD is that you can plan your evening activities/shows and then dine around them.

We have done ATD on our four cruises. Once we had dinner with three other couples on night three of a seven night cruise,none of the couples knew each other prior to that night; we got along so well together that the head waiter allowed us to reserve the table for eight for the remaining nights of the cruise. Other than that one time we have always gone early without a reservation, are willing to share any size table, and have not had a wait.

Plan is to eat lunch in the dining room.

We are doing anytime dining. Should we make our reservations once we board? Could we do this while eating lunch in the MDR? Can we make the same reservation time for the entire week on that first day? Getting so excited, only 32 days to go!

Thank you!

 

 

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If this is your first cruise, I would recommend having your first food experience at the Buffet (Horizon). It will be at your pace, less formal and you can enjoy the variety of foods. Then plan for a Dining Room experience later on the same evening. After the Buffet lunch, we then explore the ship and do our specialty dining room bookings at each dining room.

By the time we have lunch and explored, our luggage will be in our stateroom and we unpack before Muster.

Just a suggestion.

If this is your first cruise, I would recommend having your first food experience at the Buffet (Horizon). It will be at your pace, less formal and you can enjoy the variety of foods. Then plan for a Dining Room experience later on the same evening. After the Buffet lunch, we then explore the ship and do our specialty dining room bookings at each dining room.

 

By the time we have lunch and explored, our luggage will be in our stateroom and we unpack before Muster.

 

Just a suggestion.

If it's a ship (such as the Grand) with an Alfredo's I'd rather have lunch there than the buffet. A bazillion people will know about the buffet but far fewer will be at Alfredo's. :)

Each MD/Headwaiter has their own form of operations. On the Royal last week, reservations were only from 6:30 to 8:30 and had to be called in daily. If you arrived by 5:30 there was no wait, but from 5:30 to 6:30 the wait could be extensive as everyone arriving at 5:30 was still eating.

We usually have early dining. On one cruise, we couldn't get "early" and had to take "anytime" dining. I called everyday for a 6:15 pm reservation. On about the 4 th call, the lady asked if I would like to be put down for 6:15 for the remainder of the cruise. I said Yes, and never had to call again.

If you have a balcony I highly recommend doing the balcony dinner. Do it at sunset a day you are in port. Best birthday I ever had. First class one on one service. A huge meal cooked just for us. What an amazing experience!