Reserving Specialty Restaurants And Explore 4

[Saphire]

We will receive a Pinnacle Grille dinner through Explore 4. I am purchasing online reservations for a few other restaurants.  Once on board, I know we will find out what day and time we were assigned to the Pinnacle. Is it possible it will conflict with a previous reservation, or does the system prevent the double booking? TIA

[a.madruga]

You can call guest service and have it changed or a concierge if your in a suite

[ellieanne]

You may not find a card with your reservation once you board. I did not when I had the Pinnacle Grill meal as part of Explore4. So we made reservations at our convenience (which was difficult enough because we were a group of 6 and all wanted to enjoy the meal together) and had our meal. The next day, the meal appeared at full cost on our bill. It took several visits to the Front Desk and Pinnacle Grill Manager (we're steerage dwellers, no concierge for us) to it worked out and the full amount credited. And I am convinced we only got the credit because I had the original booking paperwork that indicated the meal was complimentary as part of the Explore4 package.

 

If you have a particular date you want you Pinnacle Grill meal on, I would go ahead and pre-book it, but take copies of all your paperwork and be prepared to talk to the Pinnacle Grill Manager and Front Desk to get the credit on your account.

[oceanmom]

We had pre-paid some PG reservations, and knew we'd have a free one with Explore 4. The system (last year) did not recognize that the E4 assigned one at 5:30 was on the same day as a prepaid reservation for 7 PM. We were in a Neptune and the concierge changed the E4 one to another day.

[Krazy Kruizers]

1 hour ago, Saphire said:

We will receive a Pinnacle Grille dinner through Explore 4. I am purchasing online reservations for a few other restaurants.  Once on board, I know we will find out what day and time we were assigned to the Pinnacle. Is it possible it will conflict with a previous reservation, or does the system prevent the double booking? TIA

 

There system doesn't prevent the double booking.

 

It has happened to us several times.  

 

You can either call the Pinnacle Grill and try to straighten it out or go and see the manager.  When it has happened to us, we just stop by the Pinnacle Grill on the first day and get things changed.  We usually sail in either a Pinnacle Suite or the Neptune Suites and the concierges can do it for us -- but usually the lines are so long on day 1, they will just take down your name and deal with the problem later.

[cruisin'mama]

We will have the Explore4 on our cruise but our son will be in the cabin with us and we will have to pay for his PG dinner. Can I prepay for his and book a time then transfer our PG reservation to ‘join ‘ him? Or how does that work?

[ellieanne]

When my brother had a Pinnacle Grill dinner and I did not, he booked a time for us to go together and the charge for me appeared on his bill (I paid him for my meal rather than deal with getting it moved to my account). I think you can make the reservations for as many as you want to have the meal with you, give the room numbers and then let the Pinnacle Grill Manager know that your meal is complimentary, while you are paying for X number of other diners. Might take a few visits to the Pinnacle Grill Manager/Front Desk, but I'm sure it can be worked out.

[SeaBands]

as 5* and X4 we get 3 Pinnacle dinners on our 21 day cruise. Sure don't want the 5:30 booking they usually try to force on us.

[Greysandy]

Our first stop when we board a cruise is always to the Pinnacle Grill to book lunch reservations and re-arrange our Pinnacle reservations for either Explore 4 or the free dinner we usually get from booking through AAA. If we REALLY want a particular time and date (like on our upcoming Christmas cruise), then we book ahead and then have the front desk adjust the bill and give us back our "loyalty" discount.

[POA1]

I pre-booked and paid for ours since my wife's dad is cruising with us and I wanted a table for 3 and our Explore 4 will only be a 2 person reservation.  We've always done this in the past because we're almost always traveling with other people and we want to be seated together. Also, we're a planning people and I like to have everything scheduled in advance.

 

One of my first stops is the Pinnacle Grill to confirm my reservations and to tell them that we'd like to move our complimentary dinner to the time slot we have reserved. We have yet to have a problem getting our pre-paid reservations credited back to our account as OBC and we've been doing this since online PG reservations were available. The account gets credited after you dine, just like it does for 4* and 5* mariners.

 

The reason you want to take care of this early is so that the PG can have the time slot back.  And, while you're there, make your PG lunch reservations. They tend to fill up once word gets out.

[Nashna]

Do you need to go to each restaurant to make your reservations or is there one place to go that can handle it all?  

[POA1]

2 hours ago, Nashna said:

Do you need to go to each restaurant to make your reservations or is there one place to go that can handle it all?  

 

On our last two sailings (Nieuw Amsterdam & Eurodam) they had a central dining reservation set-up in the Pinnacle Bar on embarkation day.  From there, you could change, make or confirm everything: MDR, Canaletto, Pinnacle Grill, and Tamarind.  However, I always to directly to the Pinnacle Grill to tell them that we'd like too use our paid reservation slot in place of the complimentary one. (Up until jut recently, there was a complimentary pG dinner from Aermican Express Platunum, so we had to deal with that regardless of any other promotion.)

 

The comp'd dinners were not always pre-booked by the ship, but they were more often than not.

 

One of my first tasks after boarding is to confirm all the dining reservations we have, including our MDR table. I'd rather get that out of the way than be surprised later in the cruise.

[Nashna]

Thank you for your quick response.  I also like to have everything arranged right from the start.   I am pre-booking my two comp Pinnacle reservations to make sure we have the time and date we want.  I will need to have those reservations changed from pre-paid to complimentary.  We also have a comp dinner at Canaletto.  I am going to wait until we board to make that one as it appears to be available most nights.   This is our first HAL cruise in 19 years.  It is amazing how much cruising has changed.  We have been on four different cruise lines in three years and each one has it's own formats.

[SeaBands]

If you don't pre book you will be assigned 5:30 for your Pinnacle dinner. Just go to the desk there and change it. Don't call as they are not helpful.