Pre-booking specialty restaurants

[AnnaNicole]

If I pre-book and prepay specialty dining reservations, are they refundable up to sailing?   After sailing?   The verbiage indicates they are not refundable, but I believe that is after sailing.  Can someone confirm the policy, please?  TIA

[Arizona Wildcat]

1 hour ago, AnnaNicole said:

If I pre-book and prepay specialty dining reservations, are they refundable up to sailing?   After sailing?   The verbiage indicates they are not refundable, but I believe that is after sailing.  Can someone confirm the policy, please?  TIA

Up to 48 hours before sailing you can cancel.

[jelayne]

We have cancelled a specialty dinner reservation after boarding, however it was a reservation for night 7 of 12 day cruise and we cancelled on day 2.  We had  paid with non-refundable OBC and it was returned to our account as non-refundable OBC.

[wineoclock]

Anyone know if we cancel before sailing how easy it is to get a reservation at the speciality restaurants please? 

[LB_NJ]

1 hour ago, wineoclock said:

Anyone know if we cancel before sailing how easy it is to get a reservation at the speciality restaurants please? 

 

It is hard to tell in advance how easy it is to get a reservation once onboard.  If you are flexible with both time and date it should be possible to get once you are onboard.  However, some things, like chefs table, have limited availability.

[Arizona Wildcat]

1 hour ago, wineoclock said:

Anyone know if we cancel before sailing how easy it is to get a reservation at the speciality restaurants please? 

Impossible to tell except Chef's Table will be sold out.   Never was good at predicting the future.  On our recent Summit cruise there were opening every night for 8pm or later. 

[ISABELLA]

2 hours ago, LB_NJ said:

 

It is hard to tell in advance how easy it is to get a reservation once onboard.  If you are flexible with both time and date it should be possible to get once you are onboard.  However, some things, like chefs table, have limited availability.

I couldn't do any advance reservation in Murano 60 days before the cruise. Nothing was available before 9pm. Most of days no time slots were available. 

[LB_NJ]

8 hours ago, ISABELLA said:

I couldn't do any advance reservation in Murano 60 days before the cruise. Nothing was available before 9pm. Most of days no time slots were available. 

So, some of the days 9PM was available?

[wineoclock]

Thank you 

 

We will keep Our  reservations & if we need to change times due to shows will see if we can.  Have been in PH before & not been told no. Next times in Aqua & CS so doubt we will have that flexibility. 
 

Small worries. I’ll be cruising & not cooking so I’ll be happy! 

[chemmo]

1 hour ago, wineoclock said:

Thank you 

 

We will keep Our  reservations & if we need to change times due to shows will see if we can.  Have been in PH before & not been told no. Next times in Aqua & CS so doubt we will have that flexibility. 
 

Small worries. I’ll be cruising & not cooking so I’ll be happy! 

If you are adjusting a booking the M’Ds always try to accommodate all guests regardless of room category.
 

Murano, in our experience, is usually the only restaurant that can be hard to get exact preferred time for if you want to change a time especially towards the end of the cruise.

 

If you check showtimes, special events etc on boarding and adjust you will probably have no issues. If you try to adjust last minute the restaurants will try their best for you but may only be able to offer very early or very late options or an alternative day.
 

As you say cruising not cooking is enough to make us all smile!

 

 

Edited October 7, 2022 by chemmo

[chemmo]

13 hours ago, ISABELLA said:

I couldn't do any advance reservation in Murano 60 days before the cruise. Nothing was available before 9pm. Most of days no time slots were available. 

Some spaces are reserved for upper suite guests who have unlimited speciality dining and guests with dining packages.
 

Suite guests make their reservations about 2/3 weeks out. We have always managed to get the exact times we want. Guests with dining packages will usually make their reservations on boarding. Not all withheld times will be used by the above groups so on boarding if you head for Murano the M’D will most likely be able to offer you the time or near to want, especially if you are flexible with day/date.

 

 

Edited October 7, 2022 by chemmo

[wineoclock]

50 minutes ago, chemmo said:

If you are adjusting a booking the M’Ds always try to accommodate all guests regardless of room category.
 

Murano, in our experience, is usually the only restaurant that can be hard to get exact preferred time for if you want to change a time especially towards the end of the cruise.

 

If you check showtimes, special events etc on boarding and adjust you will probably have no issues. If you try to adjust last minute the restaurants will try their best for you but may only be able to offer very early or very late options or an alternative day.
 

As you say cruising not cooking is enough to make us all smile!

 

 

We are fairly flexible & don’t mind eating later if that will help the MD. 

[ISABELLA]

10 hours ago, LB_NJ said:

So, some of the days 9PM was available?

Yes. I think there were 3 nights out of 9. But we don't eat that late, so it would not work for us. We will try on board, maybe there will be some cancellations. 

[jelayne]

6 hours ago, chemmo said:

Some spaces are reserved for upper suite guests who have unlimited speciality dining and guests with dining packages.
 

Suite guests make their reservations about 2/3 weeks out. We have always managed to get the exact times we want. Guests with dining packages will usually make their reservations on boarding. Not all withheld times will be used by the above groups so on boarding if you head for Murano the M’D will most likely be able to offer you the time or near to want, especially if you are flexible with day/date.

 

 

Since when did Suite guests get to make reservations 2-3 weeks out other the Royal Suites and above 

[chemmo]

1 hour ago, jelayne said:

Since when did Suite guests get to make reservations 2-3 weeks out other the Royal Suites and above 

My initial reference was “spaces are reserved for upper suite guests”…Second paragraph probably misleading,  I should perhaps have phrased it  “upper suite guests make their reservations about 2/3 weeks out”, sorry for any confusion…

Edited October 7, 2022 by chemmo

[danceswithphones]

23 hours ago, chemmo said:

 “upper suite guests make their reservations about 2/3 weeks out”

I'm in an Edge Villa and sail in 31 days. Should I go ahead and book specialty dining on the app? I'm concerned about getting charged for all those bookings and having to have the charges backed out. 

[Cruise a holic]

On 10/6/2022 at 2:40 PM, Arizona Wildcat said:

Impossible to tell except Chef's Table will be sold out.   Never was good at predicting the future.  On our recent Summit cruise there were opening every night for 8pm or later. 

We recently did the chef's table.  What a big disappointment.  Never again.  Menu wasn't nearly as good as in specialty restaurants.  Never again.

[chemmo]

3 hours ago, danceswithphones said:

I'm in an Edge Villa and sail in 31 days. Should I go ahead and book specialty dining on the app? I'm concerned about getting charged for all those bookings and having to have the charges backed out. 

No, you should be contacted shortly by the shoreside concierge. Usually about 2 weeks out. We usually draft an email ready listing our bar set up, pillow requirements, speciality dining requests and other miscellaneous items like a kettle and tea tray (well, we are British). Usually you get a phone call but sometimes contact can be email.

 

If we get a phone call we talk through our requests but then offer to forward our email. The answer is always yes. In our experience an email is more likely to arrive (in full detail) with your butler than a telephone conversation.

 

We also print out two copies of the email. One for the butler as a suite check list and we ask him to confirm our dining requests have gone through. The second copy is for us to remind us where we are wining and dining each night!

 

Sincere best wishes for a fantastic cruise!