Issues booking Speciality Restaurants in Medallion App

[maximusas]

Hi there,

We are due to sail on Regal Princess in 11 days and every time we try to book via the medallion app over past few months, we are presented with a message saying please try again closer to cruise.  
 

We have paid balance off in full since January and can book MDR via app and shore excursions via website.  

 

On previous Princess cruises, we were able to book a couple of months in advance.  Starting to get worried it will be a mad rush in embarkation to get our usual 1st and last day bookings in.  I have also tried ringing Princess a few times but gave up after being held in queue for ages.

 

Is anyone aware of any issues booking speciality dining via the medallion app - or having similar issues themselves?… and if so we’re you able to get it resolved somehow?  
 

Thanks in advance. 

[Potstech]

This close to departure I usually mention to not worry about it and go the the SR when you get on the ship. We have never had a problem getting the dates and times we want on the first day even before going to eat lunch. Drop off luggage then set up times then eat. This is just our way of doing it.

[1emerald1]

I too had issues booking a res on the app.  Just got off the Discovery and had no problems getting a res by going directly to the dining room.

[Marauder]

The exact same thing was happening to me.  I updated the app to the latest version and it started working   Your mileage may vary but that is one thing you could try if you are not on the latest version of the app.

[RJAM3]

I am using latest software and I still get the same message…try again closer to cruise date. I can use all the other settings except dine my way specialty dining.

[Steelers36]

2 hours ago, maximusas said:

Hi there,

We are due to sail on Regal Princess in 11 days and every time we try to book via the medallion app over past few months, we are presented with a message saying please try again closer to cruise.  
 

We have paid balance off in full since January and can book MDR via app and shore excursions via website.  

 

On previous Princess cruises, we were able to book a couple of months in advance.  Starting to get worried it will be a mad rush in embarkation to get our usual 1st and last day bookings in.  I have also tried ringing Princess a few times but gave up after being held in queue for ages.

 

Is anyone aware of any issues booking speciality dining via the medallion app - or having similar issues themselves?… and if so we’re you able to get it resolved somehow?  
 

Thanks in advance. 

All possible dining spaces for SD are NOT released to DMW for pre-booking.

[cvpends]

I had lots of trouble also for my upcoming California Coastal on Ruby, even though I had no trouble for my recent Panama Canal on the same ship.  I did a whole bunch of stuff: uninstalled and reinstalled the app, deleted and reentered my credit card info, deleted and reentered all my personal information, double checked for spaces that Princess likes to add after fields in the app, and on and on and on.  Nothing helped; still couldn't reserve the specialty restaurants.  Then, magically, the next day the app let me make my reservations.

[maximusas]

Thanks all… I tried similar technical steps as suggested above before posting.  It’s a weird one as on previous cruises speciality was always available after final payment.  I’ll take the advise of some and try to book as soon as on board.

[justafem]

I've never had a problem getting the date or time I wanted for specialty dining.  I go directly to the specialty restaurant, talk to the hostess or the Maître d'.  Normally the hostess calls the Maître d'.  Never takes more than a couple mins.  I've made same day resies and advance.  

 

Even pre-covid, I had the same experience.   

[hapster85]

I was having a problem getting into the dining on the Medallion app period until I re-installed the app. Just finished making reservations for main dining and one specialty (with credit applied) without problem.

 

Every few times I open the app, it asks me to log in again, but backing out and launching again has fixed the problem every time  so far. The app is definitely glitchy.

[Fa-Li]

Did anyone ever figure out the issue when this happens? 

 

I'm all paid up, green-laned for boarding, for our February 2023 cruise.  People on my facebook group have had no issues booking dining.  But everything I click in the app related to any kind of dining - explore options, add reservation, view menu - all lead to the "check back closer to cruise" screen.  

 

I've deleted app and reinstalled, signed in and out, restarted phone.  So frustrated.

[NownZen]

40 minutes ago, Fa-Li said:

Did anyone ever figure out the issue when this happens? 

 

I'm all paid up, green-laned for boarding, for our February 2023 cruise.  People on my facebook group have had no issues booking dining.  But everything I click in the app related to any kind of dining - explore options, add reservation, view menu - all lead to the "check back closer to cruise" screen.  

 

I've deleted app and reinstalled, signed in and out, restarted phone.  So frustrated.

This has nothing to do with the app on your phone. All the data is kept on the Princess web server.

 

If there are no reservations available, I get a message saying "We could not find any reservations at this time. Please check back later." On our cruise next week, there seem to be no specialty restaurant reservations available.

[Guest ldtr]

One thing  that you can try is to empty the memory cache for the app.

 

The app is pretty resource intensive.  There are several things that can cause issue especially if one has an older phone that is CPU or memory limited.  If you have poor internet connections it can also cause problems.   

[worldtraveller]

I had a similar issue - just called Princess and they booked me

[Tough]

If Princess is having so many problems booking speciality dining over the medallion. Then what good is it. The cruise line needs to either fix it or remove it from the medallion.

[Fa-Li]

I finally found an answer on a thread on the UK cruise critic that suggested using the web-based version of the app https://www.princess.com/plan/oceanready/  I was able to see dining options and make reservations in that way. 

 

A few days later, my regular app on my iPhone seemed to unglitch a little.  It still shows "check back closer" if I click explore dining options, but day-by-day it allows me to make reservations. 

 

It must be hard to keep the app running smoothly when everyone has such different experiences using it.  One person's totally useless is another person's it worked just fine.  Anyway, thanks for the suggestions and let's hope this is the worst thing that happens for the whole cruise 😜

 

 

[t&atravel]

3 hours ago, Fa-Li said:

A few days later, my regular app on my iPhone seemed to unglitch a little.  It still shows "check back closer" if I click explore dining options, but day-by-day it allows me to make reservations. 

@Fa-Li Do not click “explore dining options”, that is only available once on the ship to see menus and such.  Choose “view or book individual daily reservations”, then pick a day and choose “add reservation”. This will then bring up two choices “mdr” and “specialty dining”.

[Fa-Li]

1 hour ago, t&atravel said:

@Fa-Li Do not click “explore dining options”, that is only available once on the ship to see menus and such.  Choose “view or book individual daily reservations”, then pick a day and choose “add reservation”. This will then bring up two choices “mdr” and “specialty dining”.

Thank you!  This is helpful.  I originally was getting the same message of check back later with "view or book daily reservations" but that has gone away now.  It's a ten day cruise, so I'll probably figure everything out by about day 8 lol