AYWD Question

[Gsel]

Ok, I am definately NOT new at this, but we were told by a HAL rep today that you can make table reservations for AYWD a day ahead. When I questioned her about this she assured me that it has "always" been that way. Am I going crazy or is that true? It was not the case when we were on the Ryndam last Spring, and I haven't heard it that way before. Does anyone else have an answer to this? We were in a group meeting for a upcoming cruise and she was telling a bunch of relatively new cruisers this along with our TA.

[Aunty Pat]

If everyone in the group wants to eat at the same time Group dining request/reservations for AYWD are handled differently than individual reservations.

Aunty Pat

 

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[RuthC]

Gsel, there have been reports of passengers being able to reserve for two days in a row, and a few where passengers could reserve for the entire cruise (I think they were the short---7-day---cruises). I don't believe it's been a universal, though. And it definitely hasn't been the HAL party line.

[Gsel]

Thanks,

She was telling individuals they could reserve tables for two, four or six the day before. I have not seen this done. Perhaps if the group wanted to dine together, but there are 64 of us on a 14 day cruise. Guess it never hurts to try!

Barbara

[Jemima]

We've been on two HAL cruises with AYWD. On the first reservations were same day only. On the second cruise once or twice they made the reservations for same day and next day if we wanted the same time. Our experience with AYWD has been that times are reserved, but type of table (2, 4, 6 etc.) requests are usually, but not always, what we get.

[Debbie&Chaz]

On our Alaska cruise last summer on the Zaandam, we had great service the second night with AYWD. We are not young, but have a 9yo DS. This was a nice table for 4. Our servers were able to book us night to night for the rest of the cruise, same table different times. We always had the reservation card at our room the next day. It was wonderful. DS had a 10 oz. steak every night - he was in heaven. Steward or asst. cut it for him every night. Also they always had magic tricks and treats for him. Needless to say - they got a generous tip at the end of the cruise.

[true_grit]

We just got off the Noordam on December 8th. We enjoyed the 4 top we had on the first night and asked the head waiter in joke if we could have it every night. Low and behold a reservation card for the same table and same time showed up everyday for the rest of the ten day cruise.

[rjm1cc]

We never made a reservation. Showed up when we were ready and probably never waited more than 5 minutes.

 

If you show up when the dinning room opens you will probably have a line but other than that it might be more convient to just show up.

[catl331]

To get a 2-top we had to call after 8:00a each day. No one ever suggested we could reserve further ahead than that. We did notice that a family of 6 had the same table every night.

[Krazy Kruizers]

We did notice that the Euridam on our recent cruises WAS accepting reservations a day on advance. It was not that way on the other ships that we were on. It appears that HAL is tweeking the program a little.

You can still call between 8 AM and 4 PM the same day to make a reservation.

[mamadot]

We were on HAL in May and October when you could not make a reservation until the morning of the dinner. After 8:00 AM you could call for a set time........... They need to get this together!!

[Gsel]

Mamadot, I agree! I called Ship's Services and got the "on the day only" answer. It seems no one seems to know. Guess we will just wait and see. Each ship seems to have their own idea on the rules of AYWD.

Thanks all

[cruiserfromohio]

Yes, you can make a reservation a day ahead. We did it on the Zuiderdam last month.

 

A word of caution. HAL will give you a card every day confirming your reservation. At the bottom of the card will be printed something to the effect "reservations are not guaranteed." Translation we can give your table away if we feel like it. It happened to us more than once, where the seating trolls had given our table to another party at 8:00PM even though we had a an 8:30 reservation. The implementation of AYWD is even bad -- the dinning room is not configured to match the expected party sizes, the people seating you know nothing about running a restaurant, they are slaves to what comes up on their computers. While a reservation may mitigate the burden of being stuck with AYWD dining, it is no assurance that you won't have one, two, three, ... bad dining experiences.

 

There many things related to AYWD that HAL does publish or tell you, the "rules" are only learned by experience, and what gets passed on by word of mouth.

[Boytjie]

The implementation of AYWD is even bad -- the dinning room is not configured to match the expected party sizes

 

How are the party sizes different for traditional dining? :confused:

[ODECCIT]

Off Noordam Dec 7TH made reservation on the first day for our group of 11 same time and table for the rest of the cruise

[peabody99]

regarding AYWD-how bad is the wait for a 2 top if you just show up?

 

If there are no 2 tops and you don't want to wait will they just seat you with others?

[RuthC]

regarding AYWD-how bad is the wait for a 2 top if you just show up?

That will be a function of how many others want the same thing, at the same time you do. It will vary. If you go quite early, or very late, you will stand a better chance.

If there are no 2 tops and you don't want to wait will they just seat you with others?

Exactly. The more flexible you are re: size of table, the easier it is to be seated quickly.