1st Night Suite Comp dinner

Do call from your room and not from lobby phones. Your suite number appears on the DINE line...usually they will answer the call.

They didn't answer our call on April 1. They had a recording on that basically said, "We're busy, call back tomorrow." That obviously wouldn't work for dinner "tonight."

Good luck, Betti. I'm sure you will have a great cruise.

 

I am going to dispute this comment, though.

 

 

As I said in the previous post they DON'T answer the dine line number. It can ring off the hook.

 

I cannot dispute your experience, but when you make such unequivocal statements on Cruise Critics, there are people that actually believe it. After all, they read it on the internet. So, it must be true.

 

I have never had that experience. We often make dining reservations from our cabin for embarkation evening--and, usually, while I'm on the phone I make one for the other restaurant for the next evening. I have had cases where I had to listen to some awful music, but there has always been an answer. If, I am on hold for a few minutes. it's really no big deal. Mrs. XBGuy is usually futzing around the cabin. So, I'm waiting for her anyway. I will confess, that there was one occasion where I think I held for, perhaps, 10 minutes. My life was fine.

 

One thing that is consistent about the dining experience at Princess is that it is inconsistent. So, yes, perhaps on the ships that you were on, and the staff that were on those ships, and, unfortunately, your experience was poor.

 

Here is another thing. Many people here on Cruise Critic report that they just go to the Specialty Restaurants on embarkation day and make reservations. I have, in fact, done that, also. However, I have also visited them, found a person standing at the desk, and, when I asked if I could make a dinner reservation, I was told to call the DINE line.

 

There have been times when I've walked by a restaurant on embarkation afternoon, and there was nobody there.

 

I once asked a person at the desk of the Crown Grill on embarkation day if I could make a reservation for the next day. The answer was that I couldn't because they were all booked up. I called the DINE line and made a reservation. No problem,

 

It's unfortunate that passengers' Princess experience is so inconsistent. We all like the prices of the mass market cruise lines. Those kinds of inconsistencies are one of the trade-offs.

Yes, I will agree with you, service is inconsistent, most of the time it fine, obviously we are not on Silver Seas, or any one of the high end lines. I do think they have cut down on the personnel/staff, could be just my imagination, but that is the way I felt the last time we cruised. But all and all Princess is Princess and you know exactly what to expect, as at least all of the older ships are very similar.

The good thing about having a suite on the Royal was letting the concierge make the reservations for us. I don't know if he has a special number to call other than the regular Dine Line, but he got through right away.

 

This has been our experience on the Regal and Royal too.....no problem and concierge handles everything....:)

I can only speak from our own experiences, as only stayed in four suites the past two years. Twice on the Coral, once on the Emerald and most previously the Caribbean. We usually are on board right around noon, and unpacking for the next hour or so. Every time, they have called us while we were in the room, and booked our reservations for that night, along with wanting to know if there are any other nights we would like to book at the same time.

 

 

We use to see someone standing outside the restaurants on our first couple of cruises and did book once or twice, although I have not seen that on the last couple of cruises.

Best experience ever. Just walked into my cabin. Somebody called me to ask when I would like (suite) dinner reservations for. Never happened again.

 

Do call from your room and not from lobby phones. Your suite number appears on the DINE line...usually they will answer the call.

Yes. We have had this happen and we have also had our reservations listed on a piece of paper for us. One of the first things we do after our Steward leaves is we call the dine line and change our reservation to a different night. Could that be an option for you? As many other people mentioned, the coupon book make that night very busy. I know their intention is never to fill up the restaurant but there is always a ton of tables available.

 

On our last cruise we did not end up in the main dining room till the 3rd night because we had a terrible chest cold that we got during the land portion of our vacation. So we got pizza and then the next night went to the crown Grill. and they were super confused of where we had been LOL. So this year I'm going to make sure we are there on the first night. But we love the crown Grill so much that we sometimes pay for it a second night even though we get it free one time. That makes me want to use that coupon on the first night and then our complimentary night a different one. The crown Grill is so good!

Last year Princess did not allow booking specialty restaurants in advance, so there was no way it could have been full before you boarded back then.

 

Caribill, isn't first night in Crown Grill reserved just for suite guests and those who received a perk from their travel agent or Princess?

Caribill, isn't first night in Crown Grill reserved just for suite guests and those who received a perk from their travel agent or Princess?

I don't think it is reserved "just for" those people. Those people do get a comp or discounted rate on the first night and are basically promised a reservation. When we were in the Crown Grill on night 1, there were only 4 tables occupied...unless there were a lot of tables that we couldn't see. There were many empty tables. Our time was 7:30.

 

People in suites or with a perk do need to make a time reservation, so the CG will have an idea as to how many spots might be open. I don't see why open tables wouldn't be made available to others.

There is some confusion to my original comment. When I went to Crown Grill after boarding the Matre'D said dining times were wide open; to me this meant we could have any time slot we wanted; not that there were no one dining on first night. Sorry for any confusion.