Steelers36

The first booking probably used up available dining credits. Five used; three left. The second booking results in needing to charge two people. If it decided to charge 1 adult and 1 child, the cost is $35 + $17.50 = $52.50. (IDK where you got your SD pricing from, but is wrong AFAIK). Princess has recently increased pricing with all SD. They kept list price the same, but removed the included gratuity and now charge 18% on top. I am not sure when booking if the 18% is added on, or if you are billed on board at time of dining. If using a package SD (Premier), then there is no extra gratuity charge. Sabi's should be $35 + 18% = $35 + $6.30 = $41.30. A qualifying child would be 50% of that. I would say you were not being charged the extra 18% in DMW. ETA: No, DMW did not use any OBC since it is not eligible to cover advance reservations - only on board.

Glad you got the needed help, but it is a bad idea for three couples to book separate SD reservations. It ties up inventory as you mentioned and would not have you seated together. Still needs fixing - probably not until on board unless taking your action and then a needed large table might not be available.

So do I. I basically use my TA(s) as order takers. I don't need them to find me a cruise and make arrangements.

@Jetswdo, I agree. If you are not going to engage with an independent/third-party TA (preferably one that offers fare discounts), then by all means you should work with a Princess CVP (an internal TA) and not the horrid offshore service.

In my case, it's for much less cost as well.

There will be a variable number of days you can select prior to voyage start and same thing after voyage end. I have found through some experience that the number of days is not a set thing and can vary depending on destinations and perhaps even time of year. You can get a sense of how much time you have by shopping a similar voyage on Princess.com that is already open for flight booking. Use the Flights tab while shopping and you can check into EZair offerings. Chances are, if the pre-cruise time span is 14 days (example), it will be the same when your date opens.

With you 100% - no interest in table sharing. We dine alone or with our friends if sailing together.

Thanks for more info. I understand your situation better now. Parents booking note: I am aware of situation where DMW will not work if there is an issue with the booking. It could be your parents booking had or has some corrupt data. Just a guess, but seen it happen before newest App released. It does appear you were suffering from some App issue and not simple availability since the App found something, but never confirmed it for four of you. The issue I mentioned above also affects trying to book the same guests as part of a party by another person. I had this very issue for a period of time with a previous voyage. It was the previous App version of course, but DMW may not have change all that much when the new App was released (the "new" App was more about design changes AFAIK and not guts or coding issues). If you were actually speaking with DMW team who can alter and make DR reservations, then they were possibly running into the same issues as you were. No one probably knew to investigate potential data issues or why your parents could not make a res. I presume they were paid in full at least for most of the time you were working on this. Again, hard to know exactly what was going on and what the available inventory was, but I do agree that DMW will only show available times and will indicate if what you are looking for is not available. Not saving/booking what you have selected is another issue and likely a bug.

I believe part of your problem was misusing DMW. You had a 2-top booked under your own booking. Your parents had a 2-top booked under their booking. Now you are trying to book for 4 people Private (a 4-top) on your booking, but the other two already have existing booking. IMO, you should have cleaned out at least the parent bookings and then worked on a party-of-4 booking. Your personal 2-top booking would stay until you accepted a new booking for 4. I am also not positive DMW will remove/replace your 2-top booking when confirming the group 4-top booking. (Since it is not replacing like-for-like). It wasn't clear to me the exact steps you used. I also don't know how far out your voyage is to when you began to make reservations. It is possible that inventory of 4-tops is gone at your desired time. If you call into Princess and listen to the phone tree options, there is (or was) one for DMW inquiries. I have also read reports where that team has made res for guests having issues with the App. That said, they won't be able to book you if there isn't the desired availability. If all else fails, the advice to get with a DR Host for DR Mgr as soon as possible after boarding should result in success for you and parents dining together. ETA: Post #2650 by @t&atravel is an excellent point. Once the pre-existing reservations are cleaned out for future voyages beyond Sep 14, it will be a clean slate to get back in there and book fresh. Mark your calendar! ETA 2: I just read your post #2651 above and this: "Cruise starts on the 22nd of May to Alaska. Everyting seemed to be going somewhat smoothly in the App, and then it just totally seemed to take a nose dive. And unfortunately all customer support could do was pretty much say "Sorry, nothing we can do to help".". IDK when you began to make DMW res, but I can certainly believe at this point that desired times and table type could be gone from the provided inventory. I am sure you will be taken care of on board if you act promptly and ask nicely.

If this were the case on any particular voyage, DR Mgmt can shift some of the walk-up line to the other DR (up or down at mid-ship).

My bet would be PCL will setup the aft DR's for TD. The capacity is generally less, IIRC, and they will anticipate slightly less than 1/3 demand. They will also be able to accommodate any extra TD-style requests in one of the mid-ship DR's as they have been doing - for the most part - since the intro of DMW. Princess promised from the outset that guests could still have a TD experience, but the DMW software could never possibly deliver on that on its own without human intervention on the ships. Princess and/or DRO's may have the option to change the planned use of a particular DR if demand swells for one type of dining arrangement over another. We shall have to wait and see how it all unfolds.

No doubt. Personally, I would prefer to not be in the aft DR, but will go wherever I need to in order to have same wait staff and table every day.

TD is not just table sharing. Sure, that is the "tradition" of traditional, but lots of TD folks dine at private tables for their party size. We have done TD all through the DMW period (not that many voyages, but both our friends and us have had NP with this on a variety of ships. To me, TD simply means I get the same table and wait staff for the entire voyage.

Must be who you spoke with. Had no issue on Regal in the past and have read reports of success on the other ships. It will all change for the good soon enough.

Hi. I am catching up on this thread after several weeks and it looks like your question was bypassed. The immediate answer would have been that you will find out on board which DR is the best to head to as a walk-up. If not published in the Patter, the DR Hosts will suggest where to go for the shortest wait. The newest answer is that Princess is formally dividing up the three DR's into purpose-usage locales. One DR will be for TD (two "set" times per evening); One DR will be for advance reservations for random available times; and one DR will be for walk-ups. This scheme should accommodate the main desires of guests who generally approach evening dining in one of these three ways. It will also allow the DRO (Director Restaurant Operations) to make adjustments and utilize space if one DR is under-used and there is more demand for one of the other options. I don't know when your voyage is, but I suspect this new scheme has been going on informally on at least some of the ships.