forty-two

Sailed the Escape a couple months ago... They had a breakfast and lunch buffet, I remember breakfast being larger, and it was located in the Haven Restaurant. If was all grab and go items. We had a cappuccino every morning in the Haven restaurant and often delivered to us poolside if we skipped breakfast. FYI, both lunch and dinner in the Haven was significantly better than anywhere else on ship (we did all the specialty dining but Cagney's). Lunch was the underrated champ here, get the fish sandwich!

Ha, thanks for the reality check. I like your approach and this is going to be the plan.

Yeah, that does put my mind a little at least. From past experience only Chops was ever "fully booked" the entire trip; most other restaurants had vacancies at none-peak hours.

This is what happened on my Odyssey cruise. Oddly enough they notified us of this only a couple days in advanced so we weren't able to change our travel plans.

Gave them a call, sounds like it varies port to port (which explains why there is so much conflicting information out there). Go figure right. At least with Port Canaveral, they said (RCI call rep) to arrive as early as possible and to go to the Key line and we can to board regardless of our assigned check-in time. I asked out of curiosity, and it sounds like smaller ports are much stricter here and don't give this leeway, but due to Port Canaveral's size it doesn't impact them as much.

Thanks, I guess I'm just making myself more confused haha. We have a 12:30 check-in time reserved, but also have The Key and a Junior Suite. Should we still aim to show up at 10:30 [because we have the key] or am I just wasting my time. It's one of those "gotta make a call now". Those specialty dining reservations are our main reason for booking the Wonder, so if they are at risk I might as well book them individually now while they are available easily (and pay by the booking).

So what you're saying is my check-in time remains 12:30, but I get priority boarding at check-in? If that's the case I'm going to be in trouble booking dining reservations, I might be better served buying individual reservations in advance.

I'm pretty sure its still the same for Wonder, I remember seeing it when we picked out our room. Could be something they do away with on the Icon class, but that's not something I'm aware of.

phew, well that's a relief. So get there by 10:30, wait out star and pinnacles, and then get on the ship and book those dining reservations.

Gotcha. Still, I was under the assumption the Key got us an early boarding. If that's not the case I might be in trouble with dining since our time currently is 12:30.

Thanks, that's what I thought. Its been a while since I sailed with RCI, but I thought I remember that suite guests don't really have "boarding times" and show up, along with Key buyers, as early as they like.

Good to know. I believe because we're in a junior suite we can ignore our noon boarding time and get in line early for the 10:30 entry. That should save us some headache.

Thank you for the insight! Luckily for us Hibachi is the one (well, two, we're not going to do Wonderland again) place we don't plan on eating at. Sounds like there is a window before noon that is easy to work with.

Our time is noon, but I believe because we're in a junior suite (and have The Key) when can arrive at the first boarding time of 10:30.

Thankfully, since the hibachi books up fast, that's the one restaurant we don't intend to eat at. We'll try Izumi for lunch one day, but I've heard that's a much easier reservation to get.

Haha, you and me both! Had the exact same experience with Homecomin. We went there late one night during the "off" season so we were only one of a few seated (it was almost 10pm), so we had the chance to chat with the restaurant manager. Apparently they only reserve a low number of seats to encourage walk-ups; which makes sense with it being a "southern" restaurant. Unless you're going during peak hours, like 7:00pm on a Saturday, it never takes more than an hour to get a seat. Oddly enough, I think because people are so used to needing a reservation at Disney Springs that they just don't even both with a walk-up. We were like you one time, got there at 5pm and they wanted to immediately seat us. We had to do a few laps just to eat at 5:30.

Thanks for the advice! Out of curiosity, how much of a line has already formed by 9:45? It's funny, we've long been Walt Disney World folks, cruising is still relatively new to us, but we are used to (unfortunately) the madness that comes with booking stuff since WDW is infamous for it. Like, waking up at 5am to book a dining reservation infamous.

The shows! Going to be super specific, Choir of Man, maybe the best show (cruise or on land) that I've seen since I saw Hamilton years ago. So good we went twice.

Thanks! We double dipped a bit, so we have The Key and we're in a Junior Suite (so we'll get the early boarding perk). We figured we'd just arrive at 10:00am and wait in line to board as we should be in one of the first groups. Honestly, my only bit of hesitancy is the fact that it's Memorial Day Weekend, so I'm expecting a full house of travels. I'm actually contemplating arriving at the parking deck at 9:30, but I'm wondering if that's just unreasonably too early.

Thanks for the heads up, we used the Celebrity offer earlier in the year. The points bonus "paid" for one of our plane flights.

Long story short, we got a bit burned on our last Quantum Class ship waiting until noon booking specialty dining (Unlimited Package) and couldn't eat at all the restaurants (still got to eat at most). Taking the blame on this one a bit since we toured the ship and had lunch in the buffet first. I caulk it up to just not knowing better. We're sailing the Wonder in a couple weeks (Memorial Day) and really want to make sure to dine at all the specialty restaurants, especially the ones we missed last time. That said, I'm a bit worried about how quickly reservations book up on embarkment day. I've seen a lot of sad reports of missing out on almost all the spots. So, and tips would be greatly appreciated! I've opted to get The Key to ensure an early boarding time (our "default" time is noon), so I imagine it will be of benefit to get on the ship as early as possible. Would you try through the app or just bee-line it to one of the restaurants? I'm also fine waiting outside the port 30-60 minutes if it gets us on the ship sooner. The food is really our favorite part of cruising, so we are laser focused on getting reservations for every night this time (so much so that we thought about just buying all the restaurants individually, but that seems like a waste). Thank you!