Individual vs Group Bookings - dinner reservations struggle

[Cruise till you drop]

So 6 of us (3 couples) are on the Edge late March for Panama Canal cruise. 
 

4 of us ( 2 couples) did individual booking either directly with Celebrity or with a TA

The other couple used their own TA and somehow have a group booking

 

Trouble is that neither the Celebrity app nor Celebrity guest services (1-800 #) are able to link us all for dinner.  Only the 4 of us can make main dining or specialty restaurant bookings.  And the problem is that prime times in both Main and Specialty dining are basically taken by now.
 

Our thought is that we may have to wait until we board to get this all straightened out.
 

Question - Wondering if anyone else has experienced this and have any advice if it’s possible to work this out before we board

[Jeremiah1212]

You aren't able to do this. The easiest solution is to make the reservations for four then go to the dining room once you board and speak with them and adding the additional couple. 

[jelayne]

If you can book the 4 and the other 2 book all for the same day and time.  It shouldn’t be a big problem to go to the restaurant the day before and asked that the 6 be seated together.

[Cruise till you drop]

14 minutes ago, jelayne said:

If you can book the 4 and the other 2 book all for the same day and time.  It shouldn’t be a big problem to go to the restaurant the day before and asked that the 6 be seated together.

That’s the problem is that they can’t book same times (we have 8pm and they can only get 9pm).  
 

Either all the prime earlier times are booked, or Celebrity only posted limited times to book and holding some back for once people board

[RTShaker]

1 hour ago, Cruise till you drop said:

... Celebrity only posted limited times to book and holding some back for once people board

This.

[Cruise till you drop]

17 minutes ago, RTShaker said:

This.

We think so too but hard to tell

[tinaincc]

This is so annoying!  We are trying to do booking for specialty restaurants and having the same issue.  We are so frustrated.

[Jim_Iain]

Contact your agent (both) and see if someone can fix it for you.

 

We invited my SIL and BIL on a cruise and I booked and paid for it with the same agent on the same card.   Tried to book a dinner reservation and got the same thing except it said the we either different currency or different group bookings.

 

I contacted my TA and he sent me a message back 10 minutes later saying -  try again.   This time everything is fine and I was able to book us all at the same time.

[Cruise till you drop]

1 hour ago, Jim_Iain said:

Contact your agent (both) and see if someone can fix it for you.

 

We invited my SIL and BIL on a cruise and I booked and paid for it with the same agent on the same card.   Tried to book a dinner reservation and got the same thing except it said the we either different currency or different group bookings.

 

I contacted my TA and he sent me a message back 10 minutes later saying -  try again.   This time everything is fine and I was able to book us all at the same time.

We have found no one at either the travel agent or Celebrity that can resolve this and the only solution they suggested was to deal with it once we board, or just show up when we want to dine and simply wait for an available table.

 

As we’ve exhausted every idea on how to solve this in advance, we decided to just do that 

 

Our fear though is that by the time we board, specialty restaurants will not have availability at a decent time

[Mark_T]

6 hours ago, Cruise till you drop said:

Our fear though is that by the time we board, specialty restaurants will not have availability at a decent time

As long as you have the group of 4 booked at the time you want, and you go to sort it out as soon as you get onboard, I'd be very surprised if this was actually a problem. 

[ecslady]

Having the same issue with someone in our group booked with a group booking.  I was a able to link and make reservations for 5 of our group, We figure we will deal with the 1 other person as soon as we board.

[LadyBerard]

Once on board, go visit the maitre'd in the main dining room and have everyone's room # with you to arrange to seat together.  They are most accommodating.

 

[Dar & Bob]

On 1/29/2023 at 6:11 PM, Cruise till you drop said:

So 6 of us (3 couples) are on the Edge late March for Panama Canal cruise. 
 

4 of us ( 2 couples) did individual booking either directly with Celebrity or with a TA

The other couple used their own TA and somehow have a group booking

 

Trouble is that neither the Celebrity app nor Celebrity guest services (1-800 #) are able to link us all for dinner.  Only the 4 of us can make main dining or specialty restaurant bookings.  And the problem is that prime times in both Main and Specialty dining are basically taken by now.
 

Our thought is that we may have to wait until we board to get this all straightened out.
 

Question - Wondering if anyone else has experienced this and have any advice if it’s possible to work this out before we board

We had this issue on our January cruise on the Equinox and we were told when we called to see the maitre'd when we got on.  All 3 had a 7:30 reservation and we linked our reservations on the website and they showed as linked on the app.  When we showed up for dinner the first night we could not be accomodated, not even as 3 individual reservations.  The hostess at the desk was just down right rude not something we have experienced before and we were polite.  Second night same issue and I found the Maitre'd and had him talk to my husband - the ONLY thing they could offer was 5:30 (saying we could show at 6 pm) or 8:00.  We made our reservations 5 months in advance. 

Obviously we weren't going to make a scene in the MDR.  In my contact with someonein the Executive Office - I was told we should have reported it to Guest Services.  So if they can't do it go to Guest Services.