Early dining?

[MomtherOfDragons]

Hello.. I have a question (not sure if it's Vista specific).. We booked the Vista back in April for a cruise Nov 30.. So far early dining has not been an option. I asked our vacation planner and all he said was that it didn't appear to be available at the time but that he would keep checking. I find it a little odd that it would already be fully booked, out of 5 carnival cruises we've never had an issue doing early dining.. So.. I was wondering.. Did they get rid of the early dining? I checked today and late is no longer available but I didn't expect it to be this late in the booking.

 

It's not a huge deal, I'm just curious, I like early booking but I suppose I can *live* with "your time" 😉 

[bakersdozen12]

No, they did not do away with Early Dining. And yes, it is very possible that it was full when you booked in April of this year. I am also on the Nov 30th Vista sailing and I booked in April of 2018 (last year).  So April of this year wasn’t really early to book the cruise; 6 months out is actually kind of late. In any case, since you have YTD you can just go at 6 pm every night. Anyway, three more weeks from today! I hope you are as excited as I am. 😊
 

 

Edited November 9, 2019 by bakersdozen12

[Treyatl2006]

It sometimes happen that early. On the bright side... Anytime on Vista is ran really well and you can book your time using the Carnival app on your phone. Just make sure you book ahead of time each day.

[Djptcp]

You could go see the Maitre'D right after boarding and see if you can get the early dining. We did that several times in years past and were always accommodated. We only do YTD now since that started and love it. We go at 5:45 and get a table for two all the time. If YTD is still available select that and just go early.

[xitappers2bx]

You can have the exact same experience with YTD as with early dining.  When we get stuck with YTD we always go down to the dining room at the same time as the early seating, and we request the same server each night; usually after the first night of telling them you want the same table and server you do get them without having to ask.  

 

I booked my Christmas/Hanukkah cruise around the same time you did, and neither YTD or early dining were available.  We booked really late for the holiday season.  

[jimbo5544]

10 minutes ago, Djptcp said:

You could go see the Maitre'D right after boarding and see if you can get the early dining. We did that several times in years past and were always accommodated. We only do YTD now since that started and love it. We go at 5:45 and get a table for two all the time. If YTD is still available select that and just go early.

There are more and more people on the ship and all these will be assigned one of three options.  YTD ranks number one, followed up by Early than Late seating.  While there are other options, the for pay restaurants and of course Lido, all people need to be assigned.  Some are guaranteed their options and some either do not get what they want or it happens when they get on the ship.  We have seen more and more waitlisted on the more recent builds bigger capacity ships.

[MomtherOfDragons]

Its having the same table/servers every night that we love.. Are we able to make those requests (if we love our server?) on the hub app?

[MomtherOfDragons]

On 11/9/2019 at 8:36 AM, bakersdozen12 said:

No, they did not do away with Early Dining. And yes, it is very possible that it was full when you booked in April of this year. I am also on the Nov 30th Vista sailing and I booked in April of 2018 (last year).  So April of this year wasn’t really early to book the cruise; 6 months out is actually kind of late. In any case, since you have YTD you can just go at 6 pm every night. Anyway, three more weeks from today! I hope you are as excited as I am. 😊
 

 

 

we are sooooo excited! Its our first time on vista and my sister/her hubby’s first cruise! 

[simplelife]

One of the reasons we like to book far out is the get the cabin choice and dining choice that we prefer. 

 

[coevan]

30 minutes ago, MomtherOfDragons said:

Its having the same table/servers every night that we love.. Are we able to make those requests (if we love our server?) on the hub app?

 

 

you can only call ahead when you are ready to dine, table choice is not available

[jimbo5544]

48 minutes ago, simplelife said:

One of the reasons we like to book far out is the get the cabin choice and dining choice that we prefer. 

 

not to mention, the best pricing

[pacruise804]

On 11/10/2019 at 5:46 PM, MomtherOfDragons said:

Its having the same table/servers every night that we love.. Are we able to make those requests (if we love our server?) on the hub app?

As COEvan stated, you can't make a specific table/server request on the app.  There is also generally a check-in station and special requests can be made there (at least we could on Sunrise).