Dinner Reservations ? (can't seem to get a straight answer)

[no fuss travel]

At several of our dinners we shared a table with singles on our last cruise. We had some very enjoyable conversations while sharing the table each time.

[TERRIER1]

Greetings: in pre-booking Specialty restaurants on Oceania as a solo diner, within the requisite timelines, if I book as a solo diner will I be seared with others if I request that? And do I make that request when I pre-book or when I show up at the arranged date/time? Thanks for advice.

 

We have always had a table for two but I recall that when booking on line you can request how you want to be seate (ie. with others).

[LHT28]

Greetings: in pre-booking Specialty restaurants on Oceania as a solo diner, within the requisite timelines, if I book as a solo diner will I be seared with others if I request that? And do I make that request when I pre-book or when I show up at the arranged date/time? Thanks for advice.

 

When booking online it will ask if you want SHARING if you prefer to eat alone click on NO otherwise you will be seated with others

[suni]

So I am reading various opinions in this thread and really would like to understand the dining situation. This is my first trip on Oceania Nautica. We are three couples, all in PH Suites. I really would love to be more spontaneous about our dinners and book the day of or day before. Cant imagine making those choices now. Will be ok just waiting? We probably will want to dine at 8 pm most nights.

 

Thoughts?

[LHT28]

So I am reading various opinions in this thread and really would like to understand the dining situation. This is my first trip on Oceania Nautica. We are three couples, all in PH Suites. I really would love to be more spontaneous about our dinners and book the day of or day before. Cant imagine making those choices now. Will be ok just waiting? We probably will want to dine at 8 pm most nights.

 

Thoughts?

 

It may or may not work by waiting ...I would try to book something before you go just so you do manage to get a table

You might be able to get other reservations being spontaneous but the specialties are popular

[JimandStan]

So I am reading various opinions in this thread and really would like to understand the dining situation. This is my first trip on Oceania Nautica. We are three couples, all in PH Suites. I really would love to be more spontaneous about our dinners and book the day of or day before. Cant imagine making those choices now. Will be ok just waiting? We probably will want to dine at 8 pm most nights.

 

Thoughts?

 

Spontaneously was the way that the Oceania Brass had hoped that the Specialty Restaurants would be used when their business plan was first modeled; but for good or for bad those days are long gone.

 

The number of guaranteed visits to each Restaurant, which escalate in equal measure to the cost of ones' cabin, are seen as a serious benefit, as is the ability to book online in advance of the cruise.

 

If you don't pre-plan your Reservations, others farther down the food chain may well usurp the table size and time which you were hoping for.

 

Oceania holds back a certain number of tables so that the Restaurant Captains have something to work with during the cruise, but unless you are prepared to be very flexible with dates and times, I would not suggest waiting any later than the day that you board the ship to get your reservations in (that is, if you are married to the idea of a table for six.)

 

Oceania will accommodate you within reason, but the Specialty Restaurants are only so big.

 

On a related subject, as attractive as being extemporaneous sounds, when you get down to the nuts and bolts of making advanced reservations, you'll find that the dates when YOU want to dine in the restaurants (after the short port stay in Crete, for example, or on the evening of the first sea-day) will coincide with everyone else on the ship having the same idea.

 

Why not discuss your itinerary in detail with your friends, and see if you all don't know already when the best nights for those dinners will be?

[Aloha 1]

We are in a Oceania Suite for our upcoming Riviera cruise. I had my agent pay the final a day before it was due and can confirm that as soon as O had the $$, I was able to book dinner reservations. This despite the statement we saw before final payment that stated reservations would "open" for our category a day later than when we made them.

[JimandStan]

We are in a Oceania Suite for our upcoming Riviera cruise. I had my agent pay the final a day before it was due and can confirm that as soon as O had the $$, I was able to book dinner reservations. This despite the statement we saw before final payment that stated reservations would "open" for our category a day later than when we made them.

 

What you say is true, and we have been able to make Dinner Reservations as much as a year before the Cruise, always with the proviso that our final payment was made that much in advance, but that policy only applies to those Passengers who are booked into a Suite above the Penthouse Level.