Making dinner reservations

[jabrown40]

I just booked my first cruise on Holland America, and was wondering when I can start making specialty restaurant reservations. Also, when can you make the reservation for your restaurant promotion when you get the all included package? Thanks!

[POA1]

Usually around 5 months before the cruise.

[crystalspin]

4 hours ago, jabrown40 said:

wondering when I can start making specialty restaurant reservations. Also, when can you make the reservation for your restaurant promotion when you get the all included package?

There is no difference in the two questions. Forebearing a glitch in the website, you can book your complementary dinners as soon as the restaurants open for reservations. Just keep checking and "sign up" for your Roll Call and follow it for others to mention specialties opening up.

 

[POA1]

Anothr tip. Join your roll call on CruiseCritic. There's always someone really OCD who will post when specialty dining comes online.

[teacherman]

Yes, that is true.  Someone on our cruise this coming November put it on the Roll Call a few weeks ago and I jumped on it and made our specialty reservations for the nights and times we wanted.

[jabrown40]

Thank you all, I did join.

[Will_Dieterich]

I have a cruise in 7 months and the option to make HIA reservations is already there.

[Banditswife]

Has making the HIA reservations become easier?  Admittedly it has been a couple of years since I had HIA credits, but even though I made them by calling the telephone number, once on the ship none of those reservations were in their system.

[Sea42]

4 minutes ago, Banditswife said:

Has making the HIA reservations become easier?  Admittedly it has been a couple of years since I had HIA credits, but even though I made them by calling the telephone number, once on the ship none of those reservations were in their system.

I haven't had any issues making our HIA reservations online and receive email confimations within a minute or so.

I have never called to make reservations.

[POA1]

Have not had any issues. You get email confirmations, so there is a paper trail. For HIA, you are making a zero dollar purchase in the regular dining reservations system.

[SeaMatesNYC]

When making reservations with your HIA dining credits, look for the HIA credit redemption button (or toggle) for one or more diners as you proceed through the reservation steps. I don’t have any credits available to me right now on bookings with open speciality dining, so I can’t screen shot the steps for you, but if you pay attention as you go through reservation, you will see the option to use your credit(s).  

[SeaMatesNYC]

19 minutes ago, POA1 said:

You get email confirmations, so there is a paper trail

Yes, but word to the wise, check your reservations once you board for the first couple days to prevent what happened to us which was some reservationist bumping us from a prime spot to a garbage date and time (last night at 8:30pm).  

[Will_Dieterich]

If you use the web site to do the reservation then it shows what you still have available and when you go to pay it shows you are using the HIA credit.

 

However once on board and using the app there is no payment screen and nothing that indicates you are using your HIA.  So you need to keep track on what you have used.  I just asked when I went to dinner to verify, and they could see at the restaurant how it was paid for.

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

Just be a little flexible, Some cruises have Pop up Dinners.