Dinner reservations....confused

[SakeDad]

So I'm confused. I have read over and over here that you had to make reservations at restaurants by 7a or 8a and if you didn't you were out of luck. But on the Star repo cruise they had a table set up everyday, all day long in Endless Summer where you could walk up and make reservations for any place. Did they only do this for a 3 day cruise? Have they changed the way they are doing reservations? I found it extremely easy to do and very pleasant, which is not what I had expected from reading posts here.:rolleyes:

[Toyz711]

no, even on the spirit, they have a reservations desk that is manned during regular day hours. it's just that some have reported that they only way they got the time/place they wanted was to go early and stand in line. i have never had problems...got the reservations i wanted (last cruise) at 11am for 8pm that night.

plus, you can call..any phone on the ship...including the one in the cabin. it

most of the problem comes from the fact that there are soo many people wanting prime time and only a few tables.

[smeyer418]

just like many things. If you read the daily notices they will tell you where the table is and on most days you can get a reservation. Only on full cruises does it become a problem. You can also call from your room and on some ships use the TV interactive system. This isn't the chore that some people make out....or sue for....

[salty dingo]

Reservations seem to be hardest to get on the shorter cruises. On a longer cruise like a repo, I guess they would be pretty easy to get.

 

Everyone wants to experience the specialty restaurants, and on a shorter cruise, there are fewer days to cram all those people in, so reservations are so hard to get, some people want to sue! :D

[chrisbd1]

So I'm confused. I have read over and over here that you had to make reservations at restaurants by 7a or 8a and if you didn't you were out of luck. But on the Star repo cruise they had a table set up everyday, all day long in Endless Summer where you could walk up and make reservations for any place. Did they only do this for a 3 day cruise? Have they changed the way they are doing reservations? I found it extremely easy to do and very pleasant, which is not what I had expected from reading posts here.:rolleyes:

 

Some people exaggerate, maybe.:rolleyes: On the Dawn, there was a reservation table set up in front of the reception desk, everyday. Got eservations for 6 or 6:30 PM, no problems and it didn't involve getting up at the crack of dawn.

[johnql]

There was a reservations desk set up every day on the Gem. I had absolutely no problem booking the restaurants that I wanted.

[ilovewdw]

There were actually two reservation desks on the Spirit...one on Deck 7, next to Reception and one on Deck 12, right outside of Raffles/Trattoria. That desk wasn't operational all day...it seemed to open at lunch and stay open until about 9:30.

[Tobintemp]

Have not run into a problem getting a reservation. On the Star we would phone down to the reservation desk after we got up and had a choice of time.

[plcruiser]

So I'm confused. I have read over and over here that you had to make reservations at restaurants by 7a or 8a and if you didn't you were out of luck. But on the Star repo cruise they had a table set up everyday, all day long in Endless Summer where you could walk up and make reservations for any place. Did they only do this for a 3 day cruise? Have they changed the way they are doing reservations? I found it extremely easy to do and very pleasant, which is not what I had expected from reading posts here.:rolleyes:

 

 

We were on the Spirit and we made all of our reservations over the phone. There were three numbers you could call 7555, 7556 and 7557. If one of the numbers was busy we would just call another and someone always picked up. I just could not comprehend why so many people would wait in long lines each day when there was no need too. We never had a problem making reservations. One day I had forgotten to make reservations and the long line (around 30 people) reminded me to make them. I just picked up the phone in the atrium and made reservations within 2 minutes, while watching those poor people waiting on line.

 

Even though a restuarant is fully booked a lot of people do cancel. We cancelled a few reservations because we decided that we liked the menu in the main restaurant. As long as you cancel before 5:00 there is no penalty fee. Therefore, if you called to make a reservation in the morning and were told the restuarant was booked, I would recommend calling the restuarant to see if they had any cancellations; usually they do.

[ilovewdw]

Even though a restuarant is fully booked a lot of people do cancel. We cancelled a few reservations because we decided that we liked the menu in the main restaurant. As long as you cancel before 5:00 there is no penalty fee. Therefore, if you called to make a reservation in the morning and were told the restuarant was booked, I would recommend calling the restuarant to see if they had any cancellations; usually they do.

 

You are right about that. We decided last minute to go to Cagney's on our last night. At about 4:45pm, I decided to see what was available. I called on the phone and was told nothing was available until 10pm. I decided to run down to the desk...I thought maybe if I went to the desk, I'd get a different answer. Nope..nothing available until 10pm. At ANY of the specialties. So I took a quick walk down to Windows and then decided that if I wasn't going to eat until later, I'd go to Blue Lagoon to get wings for DH and I to bring back to our room. Well, as I entered the Centrum, the girl behind the desk remembered me and called me over. She just got a cancellation for 6:45pm that night! Needless to say, I decided to skip the wings. ;)

[B-Anne]

are the menus posted for the main restaurants?

 

My friend has dietary problems that do not require special menus, just that she cannot have anything with seeds, pepper etc., due to diverticulosis. On previous sailings on Celebrity, she was able to order a plain steak or chicken, with no problem, but we don't know if these options are available on NCL. If these options are not available, then we would have to look into dining in one of the alternative restaurants. That, or you'll find us in the Blue Lagoon every night eating mac & cheese!! ~B~

 

p.s. sailing on Spirit on Mother's Day, May 11th!!!

[ilovewdw]

are the menus posted for the main restaurants?

 

My friend has dietary problems that do not require special menus, just that she cannot have anything with seeds, pepper etc., due to diverticulosis. On previous sailings on Celebrity, she was able to order a plain steak or chicken, with no problem, but we don't know if these options are available on NCL. If these options are not available, then we would have to look into dining in one of the alternative restaurants. That, or you'll find us in the Blue Lagoon every night eating mac & cheese!! ~B~

 

p.s. sailing on Spirit on Mother's Day, May 11th!!!

 

Menus are posted every day at each restaurant, and at the Restaurant Reservations Desks. Note the specialty restaurants never changed menus and Windows and Garden Room had identical menus each day.

 

I would definitely suggest a meeting with the head chef to find out what is safe for your friend to eat and what is not, and also find out about making things specifically to order.

 

Oh, and the Blue Lagoon was GREAT! Have fun!!!!!!!!!