Sky Princess Speciality Restaurant Reservation Query

[bevandmark]

We're travelling on Sky from 6th May for 1 week and have a couple of speciality restaurant meals included in our booking.  I've started to look in the medallion app and on most dates there seems to be very limited availability - many timeslots do not show up, and for those that do, Crown Grill is hardly ever available. See attached screenshot showing only 4 timeslots on one evening).

Does this mean we have `missed the boat` (sorry!) or do Princess hold back slots for on-board booking?

Many thanks.

[kcl491]

We had this problem on Sky in December last year.  Unable to make any reservations prior to boarding and the only times available after boarding were 9PM or 9:30PM both in Crown Grill and Sabatini's.  I inquired if there was a wait list available for any cancellations and was told no.  Our ship was severely understaffed so that might have been the problem.  We walked by Sabatini's at 6:30PM one evening and not even half the tables were in use.

[bevandmark]

Interesting, kcl491.

I've managed to get 2 reservations in Sabbatini's. We would like to have eaten in either Crown Grill or Bistro Sur La Mere, but the occasional available slots at 5.30 or after 9pm really don't work for us. 

I am surprised that a month out we are struggling to book things we want on the ship and really hope this isn't going to be indicative of the general experience. We are occasional cruisers and Sky will be the biggest vessel we have been on. 

I've spent a lot of time faffing with the (pretty awful) app today and the whole thing isn't a great start to the cruise. 

I will ask about a waitlist when we board and will keep an eye to see how busy the speciality restaurants are. 

 

[macmax]

4 hours ago, kcl491 said:

We had this problem on Sky in December last year.  Unable to make any reservations prior to boarding and the only times available after boarding were 9PM or 9:30PM both in Crown Grill and Sabatini's.  I inquired if there was a wait list available for any cancellations and was told no.  Our ship was severely understaffed so that might have been the problem.  We walked by Sabatini's at 6:30PM one evening and not even half the tables were in use.

Unfortunately it's the same issue on every Princess ship and has been for years.  We have had more success by stopping by the restaurant and requesting a date and time. 

[Eglesbrech]

This particular cruise is now absolutely heaving. It is now a two day bank holiday for the coronation so filled up since that was announced. I booked before this became apparent.

[jeromep]

6 minutes ago, Eglesbrech said:

This particular cruise is now absolutely heaving. It is now a two day bank holiday for the coronation so filled up since that was announced. I booked before this became apparent.

In the U.S. we are required to have banks open at least 4 days a week, come rain or shine.  Federal holidays figure into that, but we also don't stack up more than one Federal holiday per week.  The most holiday stacked month is November, where we have Veteran's day on the 11th and then Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday.

 

Anyway, we have the best experience booking specialty restaurants by getting reservations when we are on board.

[bevandmark]

We booked before the bank holiday announcement too, in fact using some credit from a covid cancelled booking. 

I really hope it's not too busy on board.