Question about a platinum "perk"

[Jeafl]

I noticed that one of the perks for being platinum is "Priority dining reservations".  What exactly does that mean?  If a specialty restaurant is booked do they miraculously find you a spot?  If you have late dining and would prefer early but it is closed do they let you change anyway?  I guess I am just trying to understand what they mean by priority.

[Essiesmom]

It only refers to dining in the MDR.  You get priority preference for seating, but only Diamond get guaranteed.  EM

[weezal]

1 hour ago, Jeafl said:

If a specialty restaurant is booked do they miraculously find you a spot?

yes, this is exactly what happened to me, twice on my last sailing.

there were no tables to book, through the carnival hub app.
i went to ask the specialty dining host, and seats magically became available.

i don't know if they were reserved for plat/diamond, but it seemed that way.

[BlerkOne]

2 hours ago, Essiesmom said:

It only refers to dining in the MDR.  You get priority preference for seating, but only Diamond get guaranteed.  EM

Diamond at time of booking...

• Guaranteed seating time requested in Main Dining Room for dinner only. Seating requests must be made at time of booking in order to receive Benefit. Applies only to seating time assignment request. Does not apply to wait time when "Your Time Seating" is requested. 

 

 

Platinum

Priority dining time seating in Main Dining Room for dinner only. CCL does not guarantee that Member will receive requested seating time. Applies only to seating time assignment request. Does not apply to wait time when "Your Time Seating" is requested. 

[mfs2k]

There's no magic.  A Food and Beverage Manager for cruise lines explained to me recently that most cruise line specialty restaurants only book about 80% of their tables in advance.  They leave reservation slots open for suite guests,  frequent cruisers, and Officer requests for passengers. If they pre-reserved every table, they would have a lot of disappointed VIP's.

[jsglow]

As @BlerkOne indicated, the guarantee is limited to one's MDR selection (Early, Late, YTD) at the time of booking. That said, from a practical standpoint they will certainly make a yeoman's effort to accommodate any Diamond's reasonable request onboard, say for a Specialty Restaurant slot not showing up on the App. Obviously one should be courteous if they can't that particular evening.