Restaurant reservations pre-cruise--what a mess

[CDNPolar]

1 hour ago, kctwinmommy said:

So having returned from our first Viking cruise, both ourselves and another couple we met on board felt that their IT system is a bit lacking. And the wife of this couple worked in IT. We just felt that when we went to guest services for things, the system they use wasn't very user friendly for them. It seems to always be a struggle for them to figure something out. Now, were they major issues, no, but we did mention it to each other a few times. It took a lot to link Manfredi's bookings together to our rooms, and when we made a change with an excursion, it always took them multiple attempts to figure it out. Again, it just seems like the system they use doesn't talk to each other well, if that makes sense.

 

Never had this issue with Guest Services, they seem to always take care of our issues quickly and without any tech issues... Sorry that you experienced this.

 

[kctwinmommy]

1 hour ago, CDNPolar said:

 

Never had this issue with Guest Services, they seem to always take care of our issues quickly and without any tech issues... Sorry that you experienced this.

 

It seemed that the things we needed help with, took them longer to figure out. When our friends and I went to link our Manfredi's reservation together, they really had a hard time with. She was confused on what we were asking, she kept thinking we were trying to make our table for 4 a table for 6, then she said she couldn't keep their other reservation and add them to ours, she said she had to cancel that night in order to them to ours, which didn't make sense. As far as I know, there's no limit on how many nights you go to Manfredi's. And then, the time we needed to change an excursion, they struggled to get us on the right one. And in fact, they actually cancelled us from the wrong one. Luckily, we had decided to skip it anyway. It was our last day in Venice, an on your own thing. We both were feeling under the weather that day, and the Pope was doing mass in Venice, so a lot of it was closed off. But, they cancelled it on us, by mistake. It just seemed that as we would try to figure things out, they had to get info from different places, like there's multiple systems to use.

[CDNPolar]

1 minute ago, kctwinmommy said:

It seemed that the things we needed help with, took them longer to figure out. When our friends and I went to link our Manfredi's reservation together, they really had a hard time with. She was confused on what we were asking, she kept thinking we were trying to make our table for 4 a table for 6, then she said she couldn't keep their other reservation and add them to ours, she said she had to cancel that night in order to them to ours, which didn't make sense. As far as I know, there's no limit on how many nights you go to Manfredi's. And then, the time we needed to change an excursion, they struggled to get us on the right one. And in fact, they actually cancelled us from the wrong one. Luckily, we had decided to skip it anyway. It was our last day in Venice, an on your own thing. We both were feeling under the weather that day, and the Pope was doing mass in Venice, so a lot of it was closed off. But, they cancelled it on us, by mistake. It just seemed that as we would try to figure things out, they had to get info from different places, like there's multiple systems to use.

 

Again, sorry for this.  Write tellus@vikingcruises.com and let them know your experience.

 

You can eat at Chef's Table or Manfredi's as often as you can get reservations.

 

I have noted that when they link us with friends, one of the other of us don't show the reservation on the TV system....  Don't know if this was the case.

 

You sound like you got a newer GS Crew and perhaps not as skilled as we have experienced.

 

Definitely write tellus@vikingcruises.com

[kctwinmommy]

15 minutes ago, CDNPolar said:

 

Again, sorry for this.  Write tellus@vikingcruises.com and let them know your experience.

 

You can eat at Chef's Table or Manfredi's as often as you can get reservations.

 

I have noted that when they link us with friends, one of the other of us don't show the reservation on the TV system....  Don't know if this was the case.

 

You sound like you got a newer GS Crew and perhaps not as skilled as we have experienced.

 

Definitely write tellus@vikingcruises.com

Yes, there's a few things I want to share with them, so I plan on it this week. Just need to get better. And yes, linking them together was really weird. The first reservation never showed up on their account, but the second one did. And yes, I got the feeling that some of them were newer. And again, it wasn't anything major, but it was enough for us to notice.

[Baron Barracuda]

When looking to make / adjust dining reservations we skip guest services and instead speak with the host / hostess at Manfredi's or Chef's Table (either one can handle both restaurants).  They know exactly what their availability is and have been able to make reservations for us even when a restaurant is listed as full.

[CDNPolar]

11 hours ago, Baron Barracuda said:

When looking to make / adjust dining reservations we skip guest services and instead speak with the host / hostess at Manfredi's or Chef's Table (either one can handle both restaurants).  They know exactly what their availability is and have been able to make reservations for us even when a restaurant is listed as full.

 

Yes, we do the same - direct with the restaurant.  We have never done dining reservations at Guest Services.

[OneSixtyToOne]

16 hours ago, kctwinmommy said:

It just seemed that as we would try to figure things out, they had to get info from different places, like there's multiple systems to use.

There are definitely separate systems at play. We once had our pre-cruise reservations not appear when we boarded. We were told that the software used by the ships is independent of the website. This is one reason they tell you to check the Viking daily as there may be a delay with what is on the web. The integration between the two systems must be a periodic data update, or even worse, a manual process. 
 

My career is in IT and I’ve worked on plenty of places that have a hodgepodge of off the shelf, custom software, and multiple 3rd party systems. Integration is always a challenge. I suspect they have an integrated off the shelf solution that runs their fleet and everything offshore is totally different. Ironically when we had our extension in Athens, our hotel was hosting a European computer conference for a company that sold ship fleet management software.

[kctwinmommy]

23 minutes ago, OneSixtyToOne said:

There are definitely separate systems at play. We once had our pre-cruise reservations not appear when we boarded. We were told that the software used by the ships is independent of the website. This is one reason they tell you to check the Viking daily as there may be a delay with what is on the web. The integration between the two systems must be a periodic data update, or even worse, a manual process. 
 

My career is in IT and I’ve worked on plenty of places that have a hodgepodge of off the shelf, custom software, and multiple 3rd party systems. Integration is always a challenge. I suspect they have an integrated off the shelf solution that runs their fleet and everything offshore is totally different. Ironically when we had our extension in Athens, our hotel was hosting a European computer conference for a company that sold ship fleet management software.

Yes!! I'm not an IT person, but our friend was. Very knowledgeable on these things. And that's what she was saying, it wasn't that the systems themselves are bad, but the communication between them was difficult. We saw it with Guest Services and at the reservation desk for the dinning.

 

Again, these weren't huge issues, but I do think it's good for people to be aware, as they might need to follow up on things.

[CDNPolar]

1 hour ago, OneSixtyToOne said:

There are definitely separate systems at play. We once had our pre-cruise reservations not appear when we boarded. We were told that the software used by the ships is independent of the website. This is one reason they tell you to check the Viking daily as there may be a delay with what is on the web. The integration between the two systems must be a periodic data update, or even worse, a manual process. 
 

My career is in IT and I’ve worked on plenty of places that have a hodgepodge of off the shelf, custom software, and multiple 3rd party systems. Integration is always a challenge. I suspect they have an integrated off the shelf solution that runs their fleet and everything offshore is totally different. Ironically when we had our extension in Athens, our hotel was hosting a European computer conference for a company that sold ship fleet management software.

 

We last minute booked a river cruise in December last year - 2 or 3 weeks before departure.

 

The ship was changed last minute.  When we arrived at the airport we were not on the manifest and when we arrived at the ship they did not have our reservation. (But, on a manual list in the office they knew we were to be there...)

 

They said a combination of our last minute booking and the change of ship...

 

Our excursions were not recorded - the optional ones that we paid for.

 

This was a bit of a cluster&$*@ but they worked it out.