Why it's faster and easier to make NO advanced restaurant reservations

[SempreMare]

The topic of restaurants reservations is not being discussed much here 😉.  

So I thought I'd start another thread 🤠.

 

On my Viking British Isles Explorer cruise last September,

- It would have been easier to make NO advanced restaurant reservations.  
- Once on board, it would have saved LOTS of time and some aggravation to have not made advanced restaurant reservations

 

I'm taking the time to write this out because this was not at all obvious to me as a first time Viking cruiser, despite researching lots here before I left. 

 

Big picture, 3 reasons why: 

 

1) Unanticipated things (almost all good things!)  seemed to happen each day that completely changed when I wanted to eat dinner 
vs my carefully considered and researched advanced options.

.

2) Having to cancel any reservation seemed to take too much time because of

- sloowwww onboard WiFi,

- occasionally no one answering the phone, etc.

 

Yes, I could have just not canceled the reservation, but then I would have felt ick / slimy for not doing that.

 

3) Being spontaneous and just showing up to a restaurant created a maximum wait time of... 10 minutes at worst, easily filled with interesting conversation. 

Examples of unanticipated things that happened, Reason 1) 

 

a) Sunset and sailaways - I wanted to watch and take pictures of the sailaway or coastline sunset before going to dinner

 

So many interesting things to see from the ship during  British Isles Explorer after sailaway before sunset.
- The coastline and houses along the coastline of the country du jour
- The wind farms in what seemed like the freaking middle of the ocean
- The oil refineries
- The pilot transfer between ship and boat.  I felt compelled to watch and make sure the pilot didn't fall in as they made the leap from vessel to vessel while I silently screamed inside ;-).  

 

b) I did NOT anticipate the spa and workout room closing every night at 8:00 pm :-(.  

 

After a full day of excursions,  returning to the ship late afternoon I had planned to chill, eat dinner,  then relax for a couple hours workout room then spa.
It became quickly obvious that the spa and workout room would be closed exactly when I would want to be there.

So I permanently skipped working out during the cruise.  I saw exactly 1 person from the crew in there after 8:00pm the entire time of my 15 day cruise.

I did not anticipate I'd enjoy the spa so much.  The facilities are excellent.  The bucket thing was shocking and exhilarating.

So I quickly decided to change all reservations from early to 8:30 or later. 

 

c) I would join other passengers' reservation party;  people I met during an excursion.  
If someone said "hey join us tonight at Manfred's at X time" I would!  So fun! 

 

d) near my room 7000, When I noticed the door to the opening in the wall containing the serious looking equipment had been left opened, I thought the safety person should know about it. 
 So instead, ate at World Cafe where the officers typically eat after 8:00pm ish to give the safety officer a map of where this strange opening was. 

 

e) Classes and lectures I wanted to attend 
Was impressed with the quality of the Viking lecturers.   One in particular on British Isles Explorer was excellent.  

Yet another reason I wish I had kept evening restaurant decisions completely spontaneous. 

 

- - - 

 

In hindsight, when i realize the spa 8:00pm closure times changed everything, I should have just canceled my restaurant reservations instead of rescheduling them.   I rarely saw a line to get in to either Manfredi's or Chefs Table after 8:00 pm.

But let's say it would have been completely full or had a wait. 

After a bad Day 1, I found World Cafe to be consistently good to very good, with several exceptional dishes. There is always "room" at World Cafe, no waiting! 

[CCWineLover]

19 minutes ago, SempreMare said:

The topic of restaurants reservations is not being discussed much here 😉.  

So I thought I'd start another thread 🤠.

 

On my Viking British Isles Explorer cruise last September,

- It would have been easier to make NO advanced restaurant reservations.  
- Once on board, it would have saved LOTS of time and some aggravation to have not made advanced restaurant reservations

 

I'm taking the time to write this out because this was not at all obvious to me as a first time Viking cruiser, despite researching lots here before I left. 

 

Big picture, 3 reasons why: 

 

1) Unanticipated things (almost all good things!)  seemed to happen each day that completely changed when I wanted to eat dinner 
vs my carefully considered and researched advanced options.

.

2) Having to cancel any reservation seemed to take too much time because of

- sloowwww onboard WiFi,

- occasionally no one answering the phone, etc.

 

Yes, I could have just not canceled the reservation, but then I would have felt ick / slimy for not doing that.

 

3) Being spontaneous and just showing up to a restaurant created a maximum wait time of... 10 minutes at worst, easily filled with interesting conversation. 

Examples of unanticipated things that happened, Reason 1) 

 

a) Sunset and sailaways - I wanted to watch and take pictures of the sailaway or coastline sunset before going to dinner

 

So many interesting things to see from the ship during  British Isles Explorer after sailaway before sunset.
- The coastline and houses along the coastline of the country du jour
- The wind farms in what seemed like the freaking middle of the ocean
- The oil refineries
- The pilot transfer between ship and boat.  I felt compelled to watch and make sure the pilot didn't fall in as they made the leap from vessel to vessel while I silently screamed inside ;-).  

 

b) I did NOT anticipate the spa and workout room closing every night at 8:00 pm :-(.  

 

After a full day of excursions,  returning to the ship late afternoon I had planned to chill, eat dinner,  then relax for a couple hours workout room then spa.
It became quickly obvious that the spa and workout room would be closed exactly when I would want to be there.

So I permanently skipped working out during the cruise.  I saw exactly 1 person from the crew in there after 8:00pm the entire time of my 15 day cruise.

I did not anticipate I'd enjoy the spa so much.  The facilities are excellent.  The bucket thing was shocking and exhilarating.

So I quickly decided to change all reservations from early to 8:30 or later. 

 

c) I would join other passengers' reservation party;  people I met during an excursion.  
If someone said "hey join us tonight at Manfred's at X time" I would!  So fun! 

 

d) near my room 7000, When I noticed the door to the opening in the wall containing the serious looking equipment had been left opened, I thought the safety person should know about it. 
 So instead, ate at World Cafe where the officers typically eat after 8:00pm ish to give the safety officer a map of where this strange opening was. 

 

e) Classes and lectures I wanted to attend 
Was impressed with the quality of the Viking lecturers.   One in particular on British Isles Explorer was excellent.  

Yet another reason I wish I had kept evening restaurant decisions completely spontaneous. 

 

- - - 

 

In hindsight, when i realize the spa 8:00pm closure times changed everything, I should have just canceled my restaurant reservations instead of rescheduling them.   I rarely saw a line to get in to either Manfredi's or Chefs Table after 8:00 pm.

But let's say it would have been completely full or had a wait. 

After a bad Day 1, I found World Cafe to be consistently good to very good, with several exceptional dishes. There is always "room" at World Cafe, no waiting! 

Well stated!  I can say this has happened to us as well.  I totally agree with you.  Having no reservations reduces stress ahead of time as well.  Look at all those posters who are so stressed and unhappy about reservations issues!!

[Squawkman]

One more thing - having a Manfredi’s reservation only to find out that morning that you’ll miss surf and turf night in the WC.

[SempreMare]

4 hours ago, CCWineLover said:

Having no reservations reduces stress ahead of time as well. 

 

A variation of that is true for me: 

 

When on a cruise, I need to be much more aware of the clock throughout the day vs on a DIY holiday. 

 

Not having a timed restaurant reservation means 1 less clock thing to be aware of on any given day.

[photopro2]

I completely and wholeheartedly agree with you. It is generally better not to have fixed reservations for all the reasons that you mention.

 

Occasionally though, people may wish to set up a special meal ahead of time. It might be a birthday or anniversary or simply because they know in advance that there will be a late start the next morning and the opportunity to “live it up” the night before. 

 

That is why I am unhappy with Viking unilaterally removing the My Viking Journey advanced reservations process to a section of their customers, while still promoting it as a benefit on the website. It is one thing to choose not to make advance reservations and another to be prevented from doing so.

 

I would make an analogy with the binoculars that are provided in the DV cabins. To my mind they are of such low quality as to be virtually useless, so always bring my own. However, if Viking removed them but continued to list them as a cabin benefit, I feel that would give legitimate cause for complaint.

 

Hopefully you will forgive me hijacking your excellent thread to again exercise this bee in my personal bonnet 🐝. 

 

Viking do so much, so well.......but I will continue to call them out at every opportunity when they fail to offer customers something that they have guaranteed. Whether the customer chooses to use it is another matter, as you quite rightly say 😁👍

[OneSixtyToOne]

2 hours ago, photopro2 said:

That is why I am unhappy with Viking unilaterally removing the My Viking Journey advanced reservations process to a section of their customers, while still promoting it as a benefit on the website. It is one thing to choose not to make advance reservations and another to be prevented from doing so.

 I agreed with this back in November because it was the case for our January cruise. However on our upcoming April cruise, DV reservations are currently available, so I believe the situation has been rectified.

I'll also note that a schedule change has been imposed by corporate in order to decrease the rush at certain hours for restaurants and afternoon tea. Port talks are at 4:30 PM and lectures at 6:45. We experienced no waits at any dining venues.

[photopro2]

46 minutes ago, OneSixtyToOne said:

However on our upcoming April cruise, DV reservations are currently available, so I believe the situation has been rectified.

That really is excellent news, and thanks for sharing it. Obviously, I could only report on the situation as I had experienced it. It would be good to hear from others to confirm that the issue has now been fully resolved.

[SempreMare]

2 hours ago, OneSixtyToOne said:

I'll also note that a schedule change has been imposed by corporate in order to decrease the rush at certain hours for restaurants and afternoon tea. Port talks are at 4:30 PM and lectures at 6:45. We experienced no waits at any dining venues.

 

You must be psychic @OneSixtyToOne !     

Over the weekend, I was trying to recall exactly that.  There was so much I missed on my first Viking cruise that I definitely want to make room for on my upcoming second one, Viking Homelands.

 

Do you think that those times vary from cruise to cruise? 

 

I'd guess that to optimize daily operations and improve consistently, Viking would likely try to make the time-of-day offering consistent for a while on, let's say, 15-ish day cruises, and then see how it works.

[OneSixtyToOne]

1 hour ago, SempreMare said:

Do you think that those times vary from cruise to cruise?

It was stated that this was dictated by corporate and I assume it’s fleet wide. The 6:45 presentations had to end by 8 although a few went a couple of minutes over and the presenters commented that needed to wrap it up for the dinner crowd. 
I really think this help decrease the 7:00 PM rush at the restaurant.

Edited February 13, 2023 by OneSixtyToOne

[SempreMare]

8 hours ago, photopro2 said:

Viking do so much, so well.......but I will continue to call them out at every opportunity when they fail to offer customers something that they have guaranteed. 

 

Total agree with that and also this: 

 

8 hours ago, photopro2 said:

Occasionally though, people may wish to set up a special meal ahead of time. It might be a birthday or anniversary or simply because they know in advance that there will be a late start the next morning and the opportunity to “live it up” the night before. 

 

Other reasons why reservations still might be preferable. 

1) If you are in a party of 5 - 6 or more, AND want to eat at 7:00pm

 

(fyi - when I ate at 7:45pm or later, I observed plenty of room for large parties every place I went.)
 

2) If you have a medical condition where you really should eat at a certain time, I could see where making a reservation would give me more self-discipline to eat at a certain time
 

--------

 

Another reason to not make reservations in advance: 

• To not feel World Cafe FOMO (Fear of Missing Out). 

 

ex 1:  World Cafe FOMO

On those occasions when I made myself use a restaurant reservation, I'd find myself wondering what I was missing at World Cafe.   

Then, once I experienced  the World Cafe's Russian Medovik cake, I could not stop myself from sprinting to the dessert area as soon as possible to scan for it.  Alas ::sniff::, it was only offered that one day during World Cafe lunch (?) I believe.   

 

Since Viking Homelands used to include Russian ports on its itinerary, maybe I will become the World Cafe Chef has kept it on the menu.  So I might become reacquainted with Russian Medovik cake...

 

ex 2:  World Cafe FOMO

Like others mentioned above - not wanting to miss Surf & Turf night at World Cafe 
The exceptional seafood I enjoyed at World Cafe was that single huge scallop, cooked in shell and seasoned really well.

 

----- separate question 

 

Could someone please remind me: 

Are World Cafe menus available 

- on Stateroom TV

- on the onboard App 

- on the hallway big monitors
 ? 

 

This is something I wanted to email Viking about but never did

 

A dining friction point I wish Viking would fix: 

It seems like to get the info I wanted to make a decision, there were times when I needed to consult all 3 screens above

there was no "one-stop shopping"

 

The same dining info should all be available in the app and on my stateroom TV

And whatever key info was missing to the hallway big monitor should be added :-), even though I can't remember what I was looking for 🤠.    I definitely remember thinking, "Why didn't the person who designed this include that info there too?"     

It was general info;  not specific to me. 

 

I wanted to keep my head UP more and buried in my phone LESS than what I ended out having to do. 

 

 

Edited February 13, 2023 by SempreMare

[Jim Avery]

The info is on the cabin tv and at least the electronic board near the entrance to Manfredi's.  But quite often they did not impart the same information.  And when going to the restaurant or World Cafe not agreeing with what was available.  Seemed to happen more often than not on last months Caribbean.  In spite of this we always found plenty of good choices.  Surprise, surprise.....🍹

[LindaS272]

Also available on the app—and sometimes several days ahead, but preview not always available several days ahead on room TV. I think screens around the ship are just for day of…?

[FlyerTalker]

And if you find the same info on the various sources, consider yourself lucky.

 

In my experience, they were often different.  Plus, they didn't correspond with what was actually being presented in the dining venues (items listed weren't offered, and items were present that weren't listed.)

 

Too much reliance on cut and paste - and not just with menus.

 

 

[Pushka]

So please remind me. It was pre Covid before we went on Orion and the memory is hazy. I just can't recall. Being a buffet I presumed that OC pretty much offered the same foods pretty much every dinner time. So these special nights, for regional food, are they every night or just random? We ate at Manfredis and while I loved the Risotto the service wasn't all that great. We were forgotten. Happy to eat in Restaurant and Ocean cafe every night but maybe just one night in Manfredis. 21 night cruise.  I remember we couldn't book anything online prior so it isn't really a new thing after Covid, just much harder. 

Edited February 13, 2023 by Pushka

[OneSixtyToOne]

11 minutes ago, Pushka said:

So these special nights, for regional food, are they every night or just random?

These are cruise specific and sometimes quirky. For example they served Turkey on our one stop in Turkey. Seems like to there is always a seafood night soon after embarking an overnight port, probably because they can obtain fresh sea food. Italy had Italian night. Crete had Greek cuisine. Just about every night had regional cuisine. Not sure how this plays out on long cruises with a lot of sea days. 

[Squawkman]

Only issue we had last October was one or two times future dinner menus for the Restaurant shown on the Voyager app were changed. Example - we planned to go to the restaurant one night because we wanted a featured main course - so we didn't book Manfredi's that night. When that day came, the main course we wanted wasn't offered, although there was something else we were happy with. All in all, not major issues.

[kctwinmommy]

Thank you for this! We're taking our first Viking cruise next spring, so we've got a lot of time to learn and research. Things like this are good to know. We've never done a specialty restaurant on any of our previous cruises (different lines of course). But we might want to on this one. I like your thinking though, this is all helpful!

[photopro2]

14 hours ago, Pushka said:

Being a buffet I presumed that OC pretty much offered the same foods pretty much every dinner time.

While the breakfast offering remains pretty much static, the lunch and dinner menu varies daily in the World Café. In addition to occasional (random?) evenings with a particular theme, such as seafood, Italian or live cooking on the pool deck, there are daily specials. For dinner, these often match the specials available in the main restaurant that day, though sometimes presented slightly differently. The Viking Voyager app available on board does list the menus for all the restaurants, including lunch and dinner in World Café, several days ahead. However, as others have said, this is not completely reliable and the specials listed on the app are sometimes substituted.

If we had to pick just one restaurant as our favourite, it would be World Café. We love the connection to the open air and can usually find a shady spot without too much breeze.  

 

 

[SempreMare]

16 hours ago, kctwinmommy said:

Thank you for this! We're taking our first Viking cruise next spring, so we've got a lot of time to learn and research. Things like this are good to know. We've never done a specialty restaurant on any of our previous cruises (different lines of course). But we might want to on this one. I like your thinking though, this is all helpful!

 

You just reminded me of 3 other reasons to not try to anticipate exactly what time I will want to eat: 

 

1) Afternoon Tea in the Wintergarden starting at 3:00 pm

After eating all the cute mini-sandwiches, scones, and tiny desserts, I was too full for dinner before 8:30pm, and even then I still felt like I didn't really need it so I just requested tiny portions of things that looked interesting.** 

 

2) Lunch / afternoon Soup Buffet / Seafood buffet in the [ what was the name?] terrace  just outside of the World Cafe.   This was fun every time it happened.

 

My World Cafe server would give me the heads-up the night before the day of the soup/seafood  would occur,  I remember unexpectedly enjoying the cold soups, the artistry of the food arrangement, the geometry of the soup bowl layout.     The Crate & Barrel CEO (for those who have read that book) would approve 🙂

 

3) Fun & Games!  

the 5:30pm (?) trivia games

I only joined it once but wanted to try it again

 

 

**1 - Not eating much that night thanks to afternoon tea turned out to be fortuitous. 

 

That night between Stavenger (a replacement port) and Bergen*, we experienced vicious turbulence.   It was especially difficult because I was trying to pack up for disembarkation while barely being able to stand upright due to the the ships motion.   I was SO exhausted by the time I went to bed, but still couldn't sleep from all the jostling around. 

 

The ship was so close to land, I was surprised it could be so turbulent.   I kept looking at my phone's Google Maps thinking, "this will stop soon, right?"   I broke out the Ginger Pills and Meclizine. 

 

The next day on land walking around Bergen, I constantly felt like I needed to right myself / stay upright from turbulence that no longer existed.  Bizarre.   

I needed to remind myself, "I am on solid land.  No need to brace for unexpected side-to-side motion".  

@Heidi13 is this phenomena called sea legs? 

 

** @Twitchly do you recall that night of really bad turbulence?   Was it after Stavenger?   That must have been doubly difficult for you with a knee injury 

Edited February 14, 2023 by SempreMare

[OneSixtyToOne]

26 minutes ago, SempreMare said:

1) Afternoon Tea in the Wintergarden starting at 3:00 pm

Tea is 4:00-500

[Squawkman]

9 minutes ago, OneSixtyToOne said:

Tea is 4:00-500

Correct - and we always try to join trivia - but never remember it at 5:30. I think the time changes per the cruise director's decision, but it always started between 7 and 8:30.

[kctwinmommy]

@SempreMare - well I also have to consider the fact, that our cruise is extremely port intensive. As in, every day is a port. And they're all like 10-14 hours. We're doing the 22 day Med. cruise. So the reality is, we may not even always eat on the ship as we'll be in a city every day. Which would be another reason to not even worry about reservations. I'm sure we'll be a little tired some nights.

[CCWineLover]

2 hours ago, SempreMare said:

1) Afternoon Tea in the Wintergarden starting at 3:00 pm

After eating all the cute mini-sandwiches, scones, and tiny desserts, I was too full for dinner before 8:30pm, and even then I still felt like I didn't really need it so I just requested tiny portions of things that looked interesting.** 

 

3) Fun & Games!  

the 5:30pm (?) trivia games

I only joined it once but wanted to try it again

 

 

SempreMare:

1. For the cruises post-COVID until the perhaps last summer, Tea was 3-5, and Viking stated that was to spread things out more.   Since then it has reverted to pre-COVID time - always 4:00 - 5:00.

3.  Trivia seems to vary from cruise to cruise that we have taken post COVID, possibly depending on the popularity.  We have seen it at 12:15 in the Star Theatre (for big crowds) and in afternoon.  We have seen it in Explorer's Lounge in afternoon, at 5:15, and also at 8:15.

I'm not sure they have standard times and let the ship CD and itinerary dictate.

[Heidi13]

2 hours ago, SempreMare said:

 

The next day on land walking around Bergen, I constantly felt like I needed to right myself / stay upright from turbulence that no longer existed.  Bizarre.   

I needed to remind myself, "I am on solid land.  No need to brace for unexpected side-to-side motion".  

@Heidi13 is this phenomena called sea legs? 

 

 

Negative, sea legs is a reference to your ability to walk around on a moving ship without hitting bulkheads, falling, etc.

 

Having that sense of movement once ashore, I believe is from the inner ear. Usually clears fairly quickly. 

[SempreMare]

3 hours ago, OneSixtyToOne said:

Tea is 4:00-500

Thank you!  

Tea in the Wintergarden feels as good as it looks in the catalog photos.