Specialty Dining Reservations and the Concierge

[snyderc635]

Has anyone who has sailed either in a Neptune or a Pinnacle suite waited until boarding to request specialty dining reservations through the concierge?  I'm wondering if securing the times and/or dates you want becomes an issue, or if there are reservations left open for this reason?  Thank you!

[kazu]

31 minutes ago, snyderc635 said:

Has anyone who has sailed either in a Neptune or a Pinnacle suite waited until boarding to request specialty dining reservations through the concierge?  I'm wondering if securing the times and/or dates you want becomes an issue, or if there are reservations left open for this reason?  Thank you!

 

My experiences are B.C. (Before Covid) and back then “have it all” was not as frequent but in answer to your question…

 

In my experience there are usually a few slots saved for Neptune/Pinnacle Suite passengers which the concierge has access to.

 

But, if there is high demand, they will be gone quickly.  Best example - a sailing on the Prinsendam whose Pinnacle Grill has always been good.  By the second night the only options were a 9 pm dining on 2 nights.  The rest were fully booked.

 

My philosophy - if the date and time matters, I will pre-book and then if I want more, will try on board.

 

I have found the Canaletto is usually easy to get into in the past.  Not sure how the Have it All will play with that, though.

[zgscl]

Based on our August 14th sailing Canaletto was no issue to get in if you were flexible on day/time. Pinnacle/Sal de Mar was sold out before noon on the first full day onboard. For my upcoming Koningsdam cruise I have now pre booked all my specialty dining and will deal with credit for my mariner discount onboard or after if it does not happen automatically. 

[Torquer]

We never made specialty dining reservations on HAL before the cruise (pre-covid) and the concierge always took care of us, even some same-day changes in dining.  But we have also been fortunate to be able to be in a PS on every cruise, so maybe that makes a difference here.

[kazu]

12 minutes ago, Torquer said:

We never made specialty dining reservations on HAL before the cruise (pre-covid) and the concierge always took care of us, even some same-day changes in dining.  But we have also been fortunate to be able to be in a PS on every cruise, so maybe that makes a difference here.

 

A PS helps for sure 😉 but if there are no openings, there are no openings.

If you made them as soon as you were on board B.C. (Before Covid) then you were probably good.  But, I can tell you that it doesn’t matter what category you are in once the PG is fully booked.

 

We’ve been on a couple of times when the PG was fully booked unless you wanted to eat at 9 pm (and that was only available for 2 nights).  We were in S & PS both times.  We had pre-booked the PG but it was so impressive we wanted to do more.  The PG manager apologized profusely and gave us the bad news.  We were glad we had pre-booked.  The concierge had no space to give us.

 

There were a lot of 5* Mariners on those cruises that were not happy campers as they did not pre-book.

 

There are a lot of HIA (Have It All) packages out there and that is going to tie up specialty dining.  My intention is to pre-book and then get my OBC back on board. 😉 

[zgscl]

9 hours ago, kazu said:

 

A PS helps for sure 😉 but if there are no openings, there are no openings.

If you made them as soon as you were on board B.C. (Before Covid) then you were probably good.  But, I can tell you that it doesn’t matter what category you are in once the PG is fully booked.

 

We’ve been on a couple of times when the PG was fully booked unless you wanted to eat at 9 pm (and that was only available for 2 nights).  We were in S & PS both times.  We had pre-booked the PG but it was so impressive we wanted to do more.  The PG manager apologized profusely and gave us the bad news.  We were glad we had pre-booked.  The concierge had no space to give us.

 

There were a lot of 5* Mariners on those cruises that were not happy campers as they did not pre-book.

 

There are a lot of HIA (Have It All) packages out there and that is going to tie up specialty dining.  My intention is to pre-book and then get my OBC back on board. 😉 

I wonder how the packages will be handled - if you don't pre book theoretically they should assign you a time (I think I remember reading this somewhere) but you very well may not like that time and then be stuck. I am curious what percent of folks are actually booking the HIA vs the best price.

[Cruise Suzy]

5 hours ago, zgscl said:

I wonder how the packages will be handled - if you don't pre book theoretically they should assign you a time (I think I remember reading this somewhere) but you very well may not like that time and then be stuck.

 

The dining package aren't being sold anymore. I have one per cruise from my TA and on two cruises from a previous promo. All were changed to Complimentary Dining on my Itinerary (which is how the new HIA dines are listed). I was able to pre-book all the meals for my November cruise last month. I assume the ones for my future cruises will also be available to pre-book. And yes, the current HIA (Best Value) option description indicates times will be assigned if not pre-booked.

[kazu]

6 hours ago, zgscl said:

. I am curious what percent of folks are actually booking the HIA vs the best price.

 

There is a 3rd option beside best price and HIA - the Advantage fare.  That fare is still refundable unlike the Best Price and not much more than Best Price and also “bare bones”.

 

Hard to say what the percentage is.  I have a TA booked with HIA as the price for HIA was reasonable when I compared and a 28 day with Advantage fare after I compared.  

[zgscl]

17 hours ago, kazu said:

 

There is a 3rd option beside best price and HIA - the Advantage fare.  That fare is still refundable unlike the Best Price and not much more than Best Price and also “bare bones”.

 

Hard to say what the percentage is.  I have a TA booked with HIA as the price for HIA was reasonable when I compared and a 28 day with Advantage fare after I compared.  

I go back and forth on whether or not the HIA is worth it. We are not big drinkers so it doesn't always make sense. Depending on my mood when booking and whether or not the $350 pushes the trip over the next thousand mark I will book it or not - totally silly I know but it makes me feel better 🤣. I think it is roughly a break even for with not drinking much. If we drank more than 1-2 alcoholic beverages I would probably always take the HIA.

 

I would guess (but I could be totally wrong) that the third tier is not booked as much as you can only get it when calling or through your TA, but maybe some of the third party websites display it. 

[kazu]

6 hours ago, zgscl said:

I would guess (but I could be totally wrong) that the third tier is not booked as much as you can only get it when calling or through your TA, but maybe some of the third party websites display it. 

 

I have no idea how often it is booked, but I would honk any decent TA or PCC would offer it if a person called hemming and hawing on the HIA.

My TA always uses it to compare the cost of the HIA for me.  I would think others would as well but who knows?

[NCTribeFan]

I only booked the HIA for my December cruise because I was apply 3 (not huge) FCCs.  I typically do not purchase a drink package.  I always purchased a wine package and have a couple of beers during the day.

 

My November cruise is a casino freebie that includes drinks in the casino but I'll purchase the smallest wine package anyway.  I think I'll pre-book Sel de Mer and Tamarind.  I may have lunch in the PG (if they're still doing lunch) but will wait until my December cruise (when friends are joining for one segment).

 

I purchased Club Orange for November on Eurodam.  The listed benefits indicate "dedicated concierge hotline access" as well as "priority access to specialty restaurant reservations."  But it definitely sounds like I should just go ahead and book now.

 

Would be nice to know which nights are Gala.  Our itinerary was just shortened and is now:

 

HMC

2 sea days

Panama Canal partial/Colon

Costa Rica

2 sea days

 

I'm guessing the first sea day will be the first Gala and the 2nd will be the sea day after Costa Rica.  Does that sound likely?

 

Nope.  Sel de Mer is offered on the 1st sea day, so I have no idea when the first Gala will be.  We depart HMC at 3 pm, so it may be that night.  I'm used to it being the first night (not counting embarkation) but I'm not used to having a port stop on the first day.

 

In any case, I think I'd best not wait to book.

[kazu]

19 minutes ago, NCTribeFan said:

I only booked the HIA for my December cruise because I was apply 3 (not huge) FCCs.  I typically do not purchase a drink package.  I always purchased a wine package and have a couple of beers during the day.

 

My November cruise is a casino freebie that includes drinks in the casino but I'll purchase the smallest wine package anyway.  I think I'll pre-book Sel de Mer and Tamarind.  I may have lunch in the PG (if they're still doing lunch) but will wait until my December cruise (when friends are joining for one segment).

 

I purchased Club Orange for November on Eurodam.  The listed benefits indicate "dedicated concierge hotline access" as well as "priority access to specialty restaurant reservations."  But it definitely sounds like I should just go ahead and book now.

 

Would be nice to know which nights are Gala.  Our itinerary was just shortened and is now:

 

HMC

2 sea days

Panama Canal partial/Colon

Costa Rica

2 sea days

 

I'm guessing the first sea day will be the first Gala and the 2nd will be the sea day after Costa Rica.  Does that sound likely?

 

Nope.  Sel de Mer is offered on the 1st sea day, so I have no idea when the first Gala will be.  We depart HMC at 3 pm, so it may be that night.  I'm used to it being the first night (not counting embarkation) but I'm not used to having a port stop on the first day.

 

In any case, I think I'd best not wait to book.

 

the first sea day has always been Gala night on every cruise I have taken.  Sel de Mer does not interfere with Gala night.  I went to one Sel de Mer and was sad that the escargots were being missed.  A plate magically appeared for me 😉 

 

Your second last sea day is always a Gala night in my experience.  It’s never the last night since they know people are packing 😉 

[iceman93]

On 9/22/2021 at 12:39 PM, kazu said:

 

A PS helps for sure 😉 but if there are no openings, there are no openings.

If you made them as soon as you were on board B.C. (Before Covid) then you were probably good.  But, I can tell you that it doesn’t matter what category you are in once the PG is fully booked.

 

We’ve been on a couple of times when the PG was fully booked unless you wanted to eat at 9 pm (and that was only available for 2 nights).  We were in S & PS both times.  We had pre-booked the PG but it was so impressive we wanted to do more.  The PG manager apologized profusely and gave us the bad news.  We were glad we had pre-booked.  The concierge had no space to give us.

This is not always the case.  Even on those nights when the PG was "fully booked", I'm sure you were able to look around and see plenty of empty tables.  That is done to make it easier to sequence arrival of diners, and to enhance the ambiance by neither having it all full and boisterous, nor making servers have to run around like crazy.

 

But the PG manager can (and does!) fill one of those empty tables if they want to.  Sailing in the PS probably helps, but more important is establishing a rapport with the PG staff and manager.  My family has never been denied a table in the PG, even when just walking up on supposedly "fully booked" evenings.

[HollDoll]

I am fifty some days out from my cruise and can’t access dining reservations online.  I am finding lots of difficulty with HAL website and Navigator app is worse.  How many days out from cruise should I be able to make dining reservations? 

[kazu]

1 hour ago, iceman93 said:

This is not always the case.  Even on those nights when the PG was "fully booked", I'm sure you were able to look around and see plenty of empty tables.  That is done to make it easier to sequence arrival of diners, and to enhance the ambiance by neither having it all full and boisterous, nor making servers have to run around like crazy.

 

But the PG manager can (and does!) fill one of those empty tables if they want to.  Sailing in the PS probably helps, but more important is establishing a rapport with the PG staff and manager.  My family has never been denied a table in the PG, even when just walking up on supposedly "fully booked" evenings.

 

Yes,  you can potentially look around and see empty tables but it doesn’t mean they are available

 

those tables are often empty because there are other reservations coming.  They can only service so many tables at a time.

I am glad it worked for you.  I can assure you on the cruise I referenced it did not.  Oh, and for what it’s worth - on that sailing I was in a PS.