bevandmark

Thank you for finding the time to reply, that info is really useful.

I think we are doing the same itinerary as you on 6th May so your comments have been really interesting. If you have a minute to answer . . . . . Do you know if there are shuttle busses at Bilbao and La Rochelle? I think the ports are a little way from the towns. And, have you been able to book speciality dining on the ship rather than in advance on the app? All the times i can get are either way too early or late. Many thanks.

Thanks for your replies everyone. I think we'll book (and maybe try all the main dining rooms). I guess then we can cancel if we change our minds.

We are sailing from Southampton on the 6th of May on what looks like a very full cruise. I have just managed to get a couple of reservations in Sabatinis as there is virtually no availability (a month out) in the other specialty dining rooms at sensible times (before 9.30 which is far too late for us). We’ll be eating in one of the main dining rooms for the rest of the evenings. Do you think it’s worth booking these in advance? We usually eat at around 7.30. Also, if we do have to book this far in advance, do you have any thoughts about differences between the dining rooms? This will be our first cruise since 2019 and it seems a lot has changed. Last time we were able to just turn up at the restaurant and were given a pager if a table wasn’t available. Thanks in advance for any advice.

We booked before the bank holiday announcement too, in fact using some credit from a covid cancelled booking. I really hope it's not too busy on board.

Interesting, kcl491. I've managed to get 2 reservations in Sabbatini's. We would like to have eaten in either Crown Grill or Bistro Sur La Mere, but the occasional available slots at 5.30 or after 9pm really don't work for us. I am surprised that a month out we are struggling to book things we want on the ship and really hope this isn't going to be indicative of the general experience. We are occasional cruisers and Sky will be the biggest vessel we have been on. I've spent a lot of time faffing with the (pretty awful) app today and the whole thing isn't a great start to the cruise. I will ask about a waitlist when we board and will keep an eye to see how busy the speciality restaurants are.

We're travelling on Sky from 6th May for 1 week and have a couple of speciality restaurant meals included in our booking. I've started to look in the medallion app and on most dates there seems to be very limited availability - many timeslots do not show up, and for those that do, Crown Grill is hardly ever available. See attached screenshot showing only 4 timeslots on one evening). Does this mean we have `missed the boat` (sorry!) or do Princess hold back slots for on-board booking? Many thanks.