Specialty Dining Reservations with Princess Premier

[JamieLogical]

I just upgraded our booking from Princess Plus to Princess Premier. I was hoping to go in and make our specialty dining reservations ASAP, since we are only 49 days from sailing and there are few days/times still available. However, when I try to make reservations through the app, it wants to charge my credit card. How do I reserve my two free specialty dinners that I receive through Princess Premier? Do I need to call?

[Host CJSKIDS]

It should show you that you have some dining credits. If you go to book it, it should show the charge and then a credit before you actually book it. 

 

If not, I would definitely call and have them make the 2 reservations

[JamieLogical]

I called and they told me that it can take 24-48 hours for the system to update with my upgrade, so to try back then. Unfortunately, I fear the last few remaining reservations will be booked by then. Has anyone had any luck/experience with booking specialty dining when onboard? The rep on the phone told me that only a certain percentage of reservations are made available to book through the app ahead of the cruise and we should still be able to book onboard?

[sternfanla]

Following for same information.

[PacnGoNow]

1 hour ago, JamieLogical said:

I just upgraded our booking from Princess Plus to Princess Premier. I was hoping to go in and make our specialty dining reservations ASAP, since we are only 49 days from sailing and there are few days/times still available. However, when I try to make reservations through the app, it wants to charge my credit card. How do I reserve my two free specialty dinners that I receive through Princess Premier? Do I need to call?

If you just upgraded today, sign out of the App and back in again.

It may refresh later today or try again to book them tmrw.

 

You can call in again and ask them to book it for you, if you get someone who knows how to do that.  

[Stosh68]

While I'm not telling you to not book ahead, I certainly would and do myself.  However there were no available reservations while I was on the Discovery in February, and for the entirety of the meal over half of the tables in the the Crown Grill were empty.

 

I've never been in a Sabatini's or the Crown Grill without half of the tables being empty, perhaps Rudy's is different but I'm not a seafood person.

 

Secondly, if you read the casino threads, there's always talk about players being comp'd meals at the specialty restaurants, that wouldn't be possible if they were totally booked before the cruise left the dock.

 

I would be surprised that even without a reservation, if you showed up as a party of two just after 5pm, that there would not be an available table.

 

I'd still try to make a reservation though.

[lx200gps]

1 hour ago, JamieLogical said:

I called and they told me that it can take 24-48 hours for the system to update with my upgrade, so to try back then. Unfortunately, I fear the last few remaining reservations will be booked by then. Has anyone had any luck/experience with booking specialty dining when onboard? The rep on the phone told me that only a certain percentage of reservations are made available to book through the app ahead of the cruise and we should still be able to book onboard?

I literally just called in to Princess this afternoon to upgrade from Plus to Premier for one of our upcoming trips, in July. As soon as I hung up from talking to her, I went onto our account under that sailing and the upgrade was already in effect, with the Travel Summary showing our Premier package.

 

Interesting that the rep actually admitted that they only release a certain percentage of dining slots in advance. That has always been our understanding, certainly from our personal experience, I've just never heard of Princess admitting it. As to booking SD restaurants on board, we usually eat in the SDRs, hardly ever in the MDRs. We never book on line in advance and always prefer to book once we board. We rarely have any problem, and calling the DINE line is one of our first actions upon boarding, though we also will just walk up to each of the venues and book in person.

[memoak]

1 hour ago, JamieLogical said:

I called and they told me that it can take 24-48 hours for the system to update with my upgrade, so to try back then. Unfortunately, I fear the last few remaining reservations will be booked by then. Has anyone had any luck/experience with booking specialty dining when onboard? The rep on the phone told me that only a certain percentage of reservations are made available to book through the app ahead of the cruise and we should still be able to book onboard?

Yes you can book onboard. We have never booked prior to a cruise and have always been accommodated 

[voljeep]

2 minutes ago, memoak said:

Yes you can book onboard. We have never booked prior to a cruise and have always been accommodated 

and, again, we tried to book onboard as soon as we got onboard, directly at Crooners and were told it was booked for the entire cruise.  We could only book Sabatini's for embarkation night and that was it.

[tulok]

We were able to make our specialty dinners with linked bookings. I made our UBD reservation for the one night. So all that is left is to make sure we get into the casual dining restaurants at least once. Do we go to the MDR midship to make those reservations, upon boarding?

[memoak]

4 minutes ago, tulok said:

We were able to make our specialty dinners with linked bookings. I made our UBD reservation for the one night. So all that is left is to make sure we get into the casual dining restaurants at least once. Do we go to the MDR midship to make those reservations, upon boarding?

I have never seen reservations allowed for casual dining

[tulok]

Just now, memoak said:

I have never seen reservations allowed for casual dining

Thanks. I assumed. One should never assume. 

[memoak]

15 minutes ago, voljeep said:

and, again, we tried to book onboard as soon as we got onboard, directly at Crooners and were told it was booked for the entire cruise.  We could only book Sabatini's for embarkation night and that was it.

You do know that Crooners is not a food venue and I have never seen them make reservations for any restaurant. You probably mean Crown Grill. Again I have always been able to get in however we do prefer to dine after 7:30 or 8:00 even at home. It may also help that we usually take 14-21 day cruises. If all you take short cruises it may be harder

Edited March 15 by memoak

[suekel]

On 3/15/2024 at 4:14 PM, Stosh68 said:

While I'm not telling you to not book ahead, I certainly would and do myself.  However there were no available reservations while I was on the Discovery in February, and for the entirety of the meal over half of the tables in the the Crown Grill were empty.

 

I've never been in a Sabatini's or the Crown Grill without half of the tables being empty, perhaps Rudy's is different but I'm not a seafood person.

 

Secondly, if you read the casino threads, there's always talk about players being comp'd meals at the specialty restaurants, that wouldn't be possible if they were totally booked before the cruise left the dock.

 

I would be surprised that even without a reservation, if you showed up as a party of two just after 5pm, that there would not be an available table.

 

I'd still try to make a reservation though.

You should try Rudi's.  My husband said the filet he had was better than anyone he's had at the CG. 

[suekel]

We cruise in a week and booked with the Plus package.  I've decided to upgrade us to the Premium.  I've already booked 2 specialty dining.  Any idea if they'll refund the $ paid since it's before the cruise?

[JamieLogical]

12 hours ago, suekel said:

We cruise in a week and booked with the Plus package.  I've decided to upgrade us to the Premium.  I've already booked 2 specialty dining.  Any idea if they'll refund the $ paid since it's before the cruise?

 

I was told on the phone that, if I wanted, I could pay to book my specialty reservations while waiting for my Premier package to show up on my account and then I could have the cost of the pre-paid reservations refunded onboard as OBC.

[suekel]

Just now, JamieLogical said:

 

I was told on the phone that, if I wanted, I could pay to book my specialty reservations while waiting for my Premier package to show up on my account and then I could have the cost of the pre-paid reservations refunded onboard as OBC.

awesome.  Thanks

[socmft]

20 hours ago, suekel said:

We cruise in a week and booked with the Plus package.  I've decided to upgrade us to the Premium.  I've already booked 2 specialty dining.  Any idea if they'll refund the $ paid since it's before the cruise?

If you don’t mind, please come back and let us know how this went. We cruise in 3 weeks and in the same situation. 

[suekel]

5 minutes ago, socmft said:

If you don’t mind, please come back and let us know how this went. We cruise in 3 weeks and in the same situation. 

Ok, I'll know in a week

[p.pete]

On 3/17/2024 at 3:47 PM, JamieLogical said:

 

I was told on the phone that, if I wanted, I could pay to book my specialty reservations while waiting for my Premier package to show up on my account and then I could have the cost of the pre-paid reservations refunded onboard as OBC.

New scenario, maybe...

If you were planning to book Plus when on board, using OBC that you already have - but then decided actually, maybe we'll go for Premier (when we get on board) - assuming you book and pay for a couple of specialty reservations in advance knowing that they can be swapped to OBC, is there a way for this extra OBC counting towards your purchase of Premier?  In my head that sounds very circular, I hope it makes sense!

 

Also, looking ahead, roughly 7 weeks away so the same as the original poster - I can see in the app that most of the times left for bookings are very late at night, which wouldn't suit us (and these meals would be a big factor in Prem vs Plus).  I'd be interested in more people's experiences - especially on SKY - as to whether there's always capacity once on board / one or two saying no or few options when they got on board.  Any of Sky's 3 SD's would be fine, but ideally we'd try two of the three rather than double visiting one of them.

[memoak]

1 minute ago, p.pete said:

New scenario, maybe...

If you were planning to book Plus when on board, using OBC that you already have - but then decided actually, maybe we'll go for Premier (when we get on board) - assuming you book and pay for a couple of specialty reservations in advance knowing that they can be swapped to OBC, is there a way for this extra OBC counting towards your purchase of Premier?  In my head that sounds very circular, I hope it makes sense!

 

Also, looking ahead, roughly 7 weeks away so the same as the original poster - I can see in the app that most of the times left for bookings are very late at night, which wouldn't suit us (and these meals would be a big factor in Prem vs Plus).  I'd be interested in more people's experiences - especially on SKY - as to whether there's always capacity once on board / one or two saying no or few options when they got on board.  Any of Sky's 3 SD's would be fine, but ideally we'd try two of the three rather than double visiting one of them.

We always book specialty dinners while on board however we prefer to eat after 7:30

[JamieLogical]

4 minutes ago, p.pete said:

New scenario, maybe...

If you were planning to book Plus when on board, using OBC that you already have - but then decided actually, maybe we'll go for Premier (when we get on board) - assuming you book and pay for a couple of specialty reservations in advance knowing that they can be swapped to OBC, is there a way for this extra OBC counting towards your purchase of Premier?  In my head that sounds very circular, I hope it makes sense!

 

Also, looking ahead, roughly 7 weeks away so the same as the original poster - I can see in the app that most of the times left for bookings are very late at night, which wouldn't suit us (and these meals would be a big factor in Prem vs Plus).  I'd be interested in more people's experiences - especially on SKY - as to whether there's always capacity once on board / one or two saying no or few options when they got on board.  Any of Sky's 3 SD's would be fine, but ideally we'd try two of the three rather than double visiting one of them.

 

Since your onboard account isn't charged to your credit card in real-time, I think this would work. Say you had a reservation for CG and Rudi's. They are ~$35 per person? So you have spent $140 (assuming there are two of you) to pre-book specialty restaurants through the app. Once onboard, you upgrade to Premier from Plus, so you spend $280 to upgrade. That $280 gets billed against your account, but then you get $140 credited back to your account for the two specialty reservations. Your total balance owed on your account at the end of your cruise and billed against your credit card would be $140.

[memoak]

33 minutes ago, JamieLogical said:

 

Since your onboard account isn't charged to your credit card in real-time, I think this would work. Say you had a reservation for CG and Rudi's. They are ~$35 per person? So you have spent $140 (assuming there are two of you) to pre-book specialty restaurants through the app. Once onboard, you upgrade to Premier from Plus, so you spend $280 to upgrade. That $280 gets billed against your account, but then you get $140 credited back to your account for the two specialty reservations. Your total balance owed on your account at the end of your cruise and billed against your credit card would be $140.

That might work for a short cruise but on all the 14-21 day cruises we book would be an extra $40 per day with nothing much to show for it

[JamieLogical]

13 minutes ago, memoak said:

That might work for a short cruise but on all the 14-21 day cruises we book would be an extra $40 per day with nothing much to show for it

 

Huh? I was just explaining that someone could use the OBC they were refunded for pre-paid specialty dining to cover part of the cost of the upgrade to Premium onboard. Which is the question I was responding to. I wasn't suggesting that it makes upgrading to Premium a good deal or anything....

[p.pete]

On 3/15/2024 at 9:49 PM, memoak said:

We have never booked prior to a cruise and have always been accommodated 

 

On 3/15/2024 at 10:04 PM, memoak said:

Again I have always been able to get in however we do prefer to dine after 7:30 or 8:00 even at home. It may also help that we usually take 14-21 day cruises. If all you take short cruises it may be harder

 

17 hours ago, memoak said:

We always book specialty dinners while on board however we prefer to eat after 7:30

 

17 hours ago, p.pete said:

  I'd be interested in more people's experiences - especially on SKY - as to whether there's always capacity once on board / one or two saying no or few options when they got on board.  

Thanks, very thorough.  Assuming the same prerogative, of repeating myself 😄, I'm interested in getting perspectives from additional people.  You raise really good points re time of dining and length of cruise.  I can definitely see why there'd be more capacity at SD over longer cruises - and if we were happy eating at 5pm, is that early enough for it to be a bit quieter again (assuming the busiest time might be 6-7:30)?