if I prepay Verandah dining, can I switch to OBCwhen onboard?

[steelcashew]

I am prebooking the Verandah Steakhouse to make sure I get a table and had to prepay with a credit card. But I do have a big shipboard credit - is there a way of using that instead after I board? I am not sure if my cc will be charged right away or held.

[majortom10]

.No I am afraid not.

[NE John]

I’ve already prepaid for an alternative dining but will use our OBC for extra fee items like the extra charge seafood plate. 

[Pushpit]

The reason to pre-pay is to reduce the cost per head, and so using the OBC (once boarded) instead isn't going to work. But I wouldn't pre-book out of fear that Verandah will sell out - some time slots may do so, but when I've checked mycunard onboard I've never seen it full.

[newbie202020]

3 hours ago, NE John said:

I’ve already prepaid for an alternative dining but will use our OBC for extra fee items like the extra charge seafood plate. 

Hi, how would you do that? Do you need to tell the waiter to apply the OBC against the extra items? Can I use my OBC to tip them too? Thanks

[NE John]

7 minutes ago, newbie202020 said:

Hi, how would you do that? Do you need to tell the waiter to apply the OBC against the extra items? Can I use my OBC to tip them too? Thanks

Any extra charges are applied to your folio and OBC covers them until you run out of OBC. You don’t need to tell your server anything. Other charges OBC can cover include spa services, buying something in a shop…most everything onboard. 
For example, we are going to Frontier and plan to get the $20 extra charge Seafood plate. That and any other charges (like living it up and ordering a bottle of champagne) will go against OBC. Reserving an alt restaurant beforehand usually gets you a discount vs onboard purchase but more importantly, I wanted to reserve that meal for a specific Sea Day. The Frontier fee is only $20/each. That amount was already charged to my credit card. OBC covers extra tips too. Basically whatever is charged to your folio. Pls double check your charges every morning via the onboard intranet site after the overnight reset to make sure there are no errors. Things usually work well but check anyway. 

[newbie202020]

Thanks very much @NE Johnfor taking the time to provide a detailed response. It's very helpful 

[steelcashew]

Thanks everyone. My daily service charges will eat up quite a bit of the OBC anyway. And I am sure I will find ways to spend the rest 🙂

[buchanan101]

On 4/13/2024 at 4:25 PM, Pushpit said:

The reason to pre-pay is to reduce the cost per head, and so using the OBC (once boarded) instead isn't going to work. But I wouldn't pre-book out of fear that Verandah will sell out - some time slots may do so, but when I've checked mycunard onboard I've never seen it full.

Every 6:45 for QA to Norway in June is taken, plus some 7:00s. 

 

Is 6:45 best timing for the shows?

[Pushpit]

8 minutes ago, buchanan101 said:

Every 6:45 for QA to Norway in June is taken, plus some 7:00s. 

 

Is 6:45 best timing for the shows?

Depends how fast you eat but not obviously so. That said I'm not sure of the show times on QA, but if it is like the other ships, it may be something like 8pm and 10 pm, which ties in with the two Britannia sittings of 6pm and 8pm respectively (plus / minus 15 minutes).

[buchanan101]

Just now, Pushpit said:

Depends how fast you eat but not obviously so. That said I'm not sure of the show times on QA, but if it is like the other ships, it may be something like 8pm and 10 pm, which ties in with the two Britannia sittings of 6pm and 8pm respectively (plus / minus 15 minutes).

Just wondering why that time has sold out, unless it's blanked out for some reason.

 

Have booked a luxury celebration package which includes Sir Samuels (or Aji Wa) - have emailed Cunard as I want to book a time without obviously paying for it a second time!

[Pushpit]

Well there is a well known debating point, where people will say 5.45pm is way too early to eat,  but 8pm is way too late to eat. I'm not sure how Spanish and Dutch passengers manage, but that's another issue. Either way for many passengers, 7pm or so is perfect, I would suggest, and I suspect that in advance they may only allow a few tables per time slot. People booking this time may not necessarily be focused on the main showtimes anyway, and other people booking now may not realise the showtimes at this point.

[buchanan101]

Just now, Pushpit said:

Well there is a well known debating point, where people will say 5.45pm is way too early to eat,  but 8pm is way too late to eat. I'm not sure how Spanish and Dutch passengers manage, but that's another issue. Either way for many passengers, 7pm or so is perfect, I would suggest, and I suspect that in advance they may only allow a few tables per time slot. People booking this time may not necessarily be focused on the main showtimes anyway, and other people booking now may not realise the showtimes at this point.

Got to allow enough time for the cream tea to go down.... 

 

8pm IS too late in my opinion, but it used to be the standard time in the UK; we now seem to be eating earlier, and 6:45/7 is our preferred time...

 

Hopefully we can wait until on board to select our included meal time then

[Wedgie Wedgie]

If you were in QG would you still book Verandah nights? 

Couldn't you conceivably ask for anything that's on the V menu to be served in the QG?

[Victoria2]

54 minutes ago, Wedgie Wedgie said:

If you were in QG would you still book Verandah nights? 

Couldn't you conceivably ask for anything that's on the V menu to be served in the QG?

Most of the 'to pay for' meals can be asked for in QG.

 

I say 'most' as there are  Verandah dishes which apparently, engender a 'no, sorry'.

 

I have had a few 'pop up' meals in QG and sometimes they come from the pop up galley and sometimes, the QG galley.

 

If from the QG galley, don't assume it will be the same, make sure you specify exactly what you want as there can be QG interpretations on a theme, eg when asking for Bamboo Mandarin Crispy Chilli Beef, make sure you ask for egg fried rice to be included otherwise there's a heck of a lot of Crispy Chilli Beef to consume! 🙂

Edited April 16 by Victoria2
spellin!

[Pushpit]

1 hour ago, Wedgie Wedgie said:

If you were in QG would you still book Verandah nights? 

 

Yes, you can still book Verandah nights instead of going to QG, indeed your Grills concierge host will make that easy for you and make the necessary arrangements. While I don't think it's that often done, for obvious reasons, those with Diamond get a lunch on the house, and so the concierge will know what to do. You can also prebook via my.cunard or book onboard by popping to the Verandah front desk, using mycunard and on sailing day there are often pop up stalls in the central areas.

Edited April 16 by Pushpit

[D&N]

3 hours ago, Wedgie Wedgie said:

If you were in QG would you still book Verandah nights? 

Couldn't you conceivably ask for anything that's on the V menu to be served in the QG?

I don't think we would.

 

We were in Britannia Club, as our future bookings are.

We ate 39 meals at the same table over 14 days, we missed 1 of 12 lunches. I have 8 of the 14 dinner menus. Of the 8, I can see between 2 and 5 main courses I would have been happy to select each night without any repeats. On top of that there were 3 mains from the A La Carte that one or both of us tried once over the 2 weeks. Deserts were usually tempting enough, but I think we opted for flambées on 4 nights.

 

Given that the QG menu is likely to be more varied and richer than BC, and the ability to order off menu, I can't imagine we'd be tempted. We're not keen on steakhouse menus anyway. Another minus is most feedback I've read or seen from Verandah on QM2 suggests the atmosphere wouldn't be better than our experience of the MDR.

 

It might be more attractive if you are impressed by the menu or you aren't totally satisfied with the ambience of your table in QG.

 

 

[Wedgie Wedgie]

Has anyone ever asked for Alaskan King Crab Legs in QG and been refused? 

I realize you simply make your requests in advance and that the chef likes challenges.

We'll be on the QE in June and it is a 10 day Alaska rt.

[NE John]

2 hours ago, Wedgie Wedgie said:

Has anyone ever asked for Alaskan King Crab Legs in QG and been refused? 

I realize you simply make your requests in advance and that the chef likes challenges.

We'll be on the QE in June and it is a 10 day Alaska rt.

We are on the same voyage and we’re in PG. I’m planning a meal at Frontier to get to the Alaskan menu and the Alaskan seafood plate. I’ll be interested in hearing about your QG experience with your requests. Haven’t made it to QG yet.