Can Diamond BOGO on specialty dining be scheduled in advance?

[Parkhopper]

We will be traveling in a group of 8-10 next April. If we choose to do a few nights specialty dining can we schedule our BOGO in advance for the first or second night?  4 in the group have Diamond status or above. Could we combine our benefits and do a night of dining for 8 using 4 different people’s BOGO?
 

I am worried about getting reservations for a large group if we cannot do this in advance. Any tips would be appreciated 

[sjb317]

We had a group of 8 on our Independence cruise last summer, I went straight to Chops as soon as we boarded and made reservations using our two BOGOS. No problem at all. 
 

I don’t think you can do this in advance but I could be wrong.😂

 

Sherri🙂

[leaveitallbehind]

No, you cannot reserve the bogo in advance to my knowledge  What we do is talk with any Maître d once we board and prepay the total amount due with the bogo and then reserve days during the week that we want to use it, with the first restaurant normally being scheduled either day one or two as we may prefer. 

 

In this manner you can also coordinate any specialty dining reservations around this so as not to loose the bogo benefit, with the first specialty restaurant scheduled on the first or second day as determined by your bogo choice.

 

We have used our bogo as a split with other traveling guests so that can be done. You just have to work out in advance who is paying for whom.  But I know of no way to do it in advance of the sailing.

Edited April 23 by leaveitallbehind

[taglovestocruise]

Only way would be to book and pay full price through the cruise planner. Once on board head straight to any specialty and switch out the reservations for BOGO. We have done this in the past with other family members, I have also seen a few posts recently that say it is becoming harder to do. Any difference in price is returned as a OBC. It does seem to be ship by ship. We have also been able to reserve and pay on day one but reserve for later in the week. 

Edited April 23 by taglovestocruise

[PhillyFan33579]

2 hours ago, Parkhopper said:

We will be traveling in a group of 8-10 next April. If we choose to do a few nights specialty dining can we schedule our BOGO in advance for the first or second night?  4 in the group have Diamond status or above. Could we combine our benefits and do a night of dining for 8 using 4 different people’s BOGO?
 

I am worried about getting reservations for a large group if we cannot do this in advance. Any tips would be appreciated 

Just an FYI, the BOGO perk only applies to Diamond Plus and Pinnacle. There is no BOGO perk for Diamonds. 

[leaveitallbehind]

12 minutes ago, PhillyFan33579 said:

Just an FYI, the BOGO perk only applies to Diamond Plus and Pinnacle. There is no BOGO perk for Diamonds. 

But you can split your D+ bogo with a D.  We have done that before twice when traveling with D friends, most recently on our Oasis NYE cruise. 

 

My wife and I each get the bogo. The charge for the bogo goes on our D+ cards, but we share the dinners with our D friends traveling with us and they pay us separately for 1/2 the total cost. That way we each end up with a discounted cost, but don't have to miss dinners together since they don't have the bogo benefit.

Edited April 23 by leaveitallbehind

[PhillyFan33579]

1 minute ago, leaveitallbehind said:

But you can split your D+ bogo with a D.  We have done that before twice when traveling with D friends, most recently on our Oasis NYE cruise. 

 

The charge for the bogo goes on the D+ cards, but you share the dinners with your D friends traveling with you and they pay you separately for 1/2 the total cost. That way you each end up with a discounted cost, but don't have to miss dinners together since they don't have the bogo benefit.

I understand your comment. I was referring to the OP’s original comment that mentioned using 4 BOGOs for 8 people. The OP stated 4 of them are Diamond or higher, which leads me to believe 4 of them are not Diamond Plus or higher (meaning 4 of them don’t have the BOGO perk). 

[RFerrington]

You cannot reserve BOGO reservations in advance.  Go to one of the specialty restaurants when you board and book the reservations.  As long as there are 4 D+ involved, you will be able to cover 8 people regardless of the others’ status.  

[Ourusualbeach]

3 hours ago, Parkhopper said:

We will be traveling in a group of 8-10 next April. If we choose to do a few nights specialty dining can we schedule our BOGO in advance for the first or second night?  4 in the group have Diamond status or above. Could we combine our benefits and do a night of dining for 8 using 4 different people’s BOGO?
 

I am worried about getting reservations for a large group if we cannot do this in advance. Any tips would be appreciated 

You mention that 4 of you have Diamond status and above.  The BOGO is only available for D+ and above. Not sure if that will change things 

[leaveitallbehind]

9 hours ago, PhillyFan33579 said:

I understand your comment. I was referring to the OP’s original comment that mentioned using 4 BOGOs for 8 people. The OP stated 4 of them are Diamond or higher, which leads me to believe 4 of them are not Diamond Plus or higher (meaning 4 of them don’t have the BOGO perk). 

My assumption (dangerous I know) was that the OP is D+ and I was addressing how they can combine their bogo with other non-D+ travelers in answer to his question.

 

But your comments are clearly correct and we are on the same page.