Specialty Dining

If we do not purchase a Dining Package prior to the cruise are we able to make reservations on board and pay through the cruise card? Is there always available seating in these instances? I have read that sometimes you get special deals on board than those prior to the cruise.

Of course you can make reservations on board.

Is there always availability? No, of course not. Will you get to eat at one or more of the specialty restaurants? Almost definitely. But how picky are you about dates and times? If you are flexible, you will get in.

If we do not purchase a Dining Package prior to the cruise are we able to make reservations on board and pay through the cruise card? Is there always available seating in these instances? I have read that sometimes you get special deals on board than those prior to the cruise.

What Cruiser said plus not aware of any special deals onboard?

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On all the cruises we have been on the last few years, there have been no special deals once on the ship.[/size] MS"]

I have never seen special deals on board.

I have also run into issues where unless we wanted to eat at 9 pm the specialty restaurants were totally booked up.

Other times, it's a non issue and you can just reserve on board.

There is no telling who wants what and what is going to happen.

I book online (you can always change on board) as I want specific times and specific days. If there were specials on board, I would simply ask to cancel and re-book if necessary - have never seen that.

I haven't seen specials on board, so there's no financial benefit to waiting. One thing to think about is if Explore 4 was available on your cruise. If a lot of people have it, the Pinnacle will be heavily booked, and you might have trouble getting the day/time you want.

I have seen more than one message, on these boards, that stated they were offered discounts at some of the specialty restaurants after boarding. I cannot remember specifically what cruise lines they were referring to or even when I saw those messages. But, I usually accept what people say at face value.

It is good to know that we can reserve seating after boarding if and when we wish to dine at a specialty restaurant and they have availability. Not a big priority with us. Just checking.

I booked online for our December cruise for dinner in the Pinnacle. The price went up since we booked this restaurant so we have already saved.

We were able to add a dinner in the PG onboard. Explore4 was offered for this cruise so we were lucky to get an available time slot. It was early, at 5:30, but we prefer to dine early so was not an issue for us.

Lunch in the PG can only be booked onboard.

We just booked all of our specialty dining on Koningsdam for May 2017. We wanted specific days and times since we'll be in Europe for 14 nights and so we booked dining around our excursion times. On a less port intensive cruise, I'd probably wait until boarding to book.

Aren't they doing a special dine-around package on Koningsdam where you go to all the restaurants?

Does anyone know if this is at full-price or is there a discount for booking the entire package?

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Aren't they doing a special dine-around package on Koningsdam where you go to all the restaurants?

 

Does anyone know if this is at full-price or is there a discount for booking the entire package?

 

 

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On the Nieuw Amsterdam they offer a "dine around" of the three specialty restaurants that at $65 is $10 off the regular price. But the mariner discount doesn't apply. So booking them separately if you're a 3 or 4 star mariner makes more sense. I assume the Koningsdam has the same policy.

HAL does not have a lot of alternative dining options compared to several other lines. In our nearly 500 days on HAL we have rarely seen any special deals for the Pinnacle Grill...and have never seen a deal for Canaletto (which is already pretty inexpensive). On Celebrity one can often negotiate a discount (based on supply and demand) and on Princess we have not seen any discounts.

Hank

If we do not purchase a Dining Package prior to the cruise are we able to make reservations on board and pay through the cruise card? Is there always available seating in these instances? I have read that sometimes you get special deals on board than those prior to the cruise.

I have never had a problem making a reservation in a specialty restaurant on a HAL ship. Some special evenings or certain times are occassionaly not available, but with a little flexibility, I have never had a problem.

Scott & Karen

On the Nieuw Amsterdam they offer a "dine around" of the three specialty restaurants that at $65 is $10 off the regular price. But the mariner discount doesn't apply. So booking them separately if you're a 3 or 4 star mariner makes more sense. I assume the Koningsdam has the same policy.

Perhaps, but I thought I heard of the package specifically for Kdam because there are 5 specialty restaurants on Kdam. We also thought that we were told that the Mariner discount would apply.

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So from what I understand correctly nobody was able to get reduction with their Mariner discount if they purchase a dining package ? I know the packages are new that began August this year , So Mariners discount does not apply ??? Would like to get more information please

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