Past guests...priority dinner seating times

[laura1960]

Hi all,

 

This upcoming cruise on Spirit (1/1/08) will be our fourth Carnival cruise. We've requested early dining (5:45) and certainly hope we get it. I know there are no guarantees.

Does the fact that we are past guests on Carnival give us any sort of advantage? Does anything at all give you more of a chance of getting the dinner seating you prefer? Or is it just the luck of the draw?

We've had late seating only once...on our first cruise, on the Ecstasy, and because we were traveling with small children, it kind of made the evenings rather difficult for us. We tried to change it with the maitre d' on the first night, but it was a no go.

Anyone know about Carnival's policies on who gets what seating?

Thanks!

[jleq]

Guaranteed Dinner Seating is one of the perks of Platinum [10+ Carnival cruises]. Otherwise, they try to seat you with people of similar marital status/family with you/et cetera. But the fact that you're a "repeat cruiser" isn't taken into account. In May...I didn't get the seating I requested. It was my 7th CCL cruise

[firefly333]

More than half the ship is probably repeat cruisers, they cant give more than 50% priority.

[Cotton]

No, doesn't happen that way. I didn't get my requested seating on my 9th cruise.

 

Gotta be Platinum to get those type perks. Just took my 11th Carnival cruise - NICE perks!:D

[victory2020]

Since you are travelling with children, you will most likely get 1st seating. CCl suggests 1st seating when cruising with children & I have really never seen them on 2nd seating (the 1 time I was at 1st seating because of travelling companions the DR was full of kids).

[Sharon2U]

I think they should take into consideration when you booked, I have cruised twice with Carnival, got requested dining time both time. Both times I did book almost a year in advance. This is one time I think "first come, first served" would be appropriate. Cabins that are reserved are assigned this way.:rolleyes: I have heard they assign groups first then fill in with others but have never cruised with a group, so I really don't know about that.