Eurodam cruise 2018 Open Seating - when can I book?

I am not familiar with how HAL does their open/anytime/my time dining. Is it possible to reserve a table for four prior to boarding the ship for the entire cruise? We are thinking fairly early; 6pm.

Or must I wait to be on board to book all nights?

Or must I make reservations daily for that evening?

 

Thanks for your experience!:cool:

 

Doug

For Open Seating, you can only make reservations once you get on the ship. Some ships allow you to make them for times between 5:15 - 6:15 while other ships have a cut off time for reservations at 6. The other reservation times are from 7:30 - 9. You can make reservations for 3 days at a time.

You will have to ask when you get on the ship if 6 will be okay.

Why not book traditional dining at the early seating. All six of you can sit together at the same table every night at the same time with the same waiter, guaranteed! Would be much more convenient than open seating where you might have to wait for a large enough table.

Have to agree with Lady Arwen on this - Sounds like Fixed Early dining would meet your needs very well.

For Open Seating, you can only make reservations once you get on the ship. Some ships allow you to make them for times between 5:15 - 6:15 while other ships have a cut off time for reservations at 6. The other reservation times are from 7:30 - 9. You can make reservations for 3 days at a time.

 

You will have to ask when you get on the ship if 6 will be okay.

 

Thanks very much for the informative answer!:cool:

 

Doug

Why not book traditional dining at the early seating. All six of you can sit together at the same table every night at the same time with the same waiter, guaranteed! Would be much more convenient than open seating where you might have to wait for a large enough table.

 

I'm the OP. Who are these six to which you refer? We could have had fixed seating for we four at 5:30 PM. According to our TA, the 630PM is not available. So we're hoping to made arrangement for 6PM....yeah, I know, it's only a half hour after 530.....it's complicated......:cool:

Getting a standing reservation for a table to 4 at 6pm might be difficult, as there will not have been enough time to turn the table over from the first set of diners, who can't be seated earlier than 5:00.

A fixed dining table at 5:30 will be held until 5:45, and, if you could meet that, the dining staff will be happy to see you at that time.

 

If you do manage to get a commitment before you board for an Open Dining standing reservation a 6pm, take it with a grain of salt because the dining room manager may have a different opinion.

We'd like to hear about how it all works out for you, let us know! m--

I'm the OP. Who are these six to which you refer? We could have had fixed seating for we four at 5:30 PM. According to our TA, the 630PM is not available. So we're hoping to made arrangement for 6PM....yeah, I know, it's only a half hour after 530.....it's complicated......:cool:

Sorry, I misread your post. I see now you are a party of 4 not 6. However, I would still recommend traditional early seating. You can still be seated at 5:45, which is only 15 minutes earlier than you want. Trying for a 6:00 pm dining time will become difficult to say the least.

Sorry, I misread your post. I see now you are a party of 4 not 6. However, I would still recommend traditional early seating. You can still be seated at 5:45, which is only 15 minutes earlier than you want. Trying for a 6:00 pm dining time will become difficult to say the least.

 

Heck, I might try to get the dinner time changed then. HAL's "anytime" or "mytime" is nothing like other ships, oddly enough. I think it's because HAL has much less call for that? I will have to check with my TA.....he generally books us early seating, which is our preference, but we're cruising with my sister and BIL and we may have originally indicated Open Seating, which is on our invoice. Gotta check on that.

Not sure when your cruising in 2018 (maybe I missed this), but if it's far enough out your TA should be able to get you switched to early fixed dining.

 

Good luck!

Not sure when your cruising in 2018 (maybe I missed this), but if it's far enough out your TA should be able to get you switched to early fixed dining.

 

Good luck!

 

My HAL date is in my signature; you have to "expand" that to see it. May 2018 we sail.

 

I checked with our TA yesterday, Eary Dinning on the HAL Eurodam is 1745/545PM, and not available. I am not sure it it were full when I booked, but my sister reminded me yesterday we requested Open Seating anyway as she is a regular visiting to our port stops and has lots planned. She did not want to be be locked into an early return to the ship. I had forgotten......funny, 10 years ago my mind never did that........:confused:

 

Still, I appreciate all the good suggestions for making a reservation on the days we can. Interesting to see how different HAL's "open" seating is from other ships.

My HAL date is in my signature; you have to "expand" that to see it.

Just a reminder so everyone who reads the posts understands---

some people have signatures turned off. There is nothing there to see, and nothing to expand.

If a poster feels the information is pertinent it needs to be added to the body of the post.

Just a reminder so everyone who reads the posts understands---

some people have signatures turned off. There is nothing there to see, and nothing to expand.

If a poster feels the information is pertinent it needs to be added to the body of the post.

 

And, some applications (like tap a talk) do not let you see signatures.

 

Good recommendation, Ruth.

Just a reminder so everyone who reads the posts understands---

some people have signatures turned off. There is nothing there to see, and nothing to expand.

If a poster feels the information is pertinent it needs to be added to the body of the post.

 

This applies to me, which is why I didn't see OP's sail date. Thanks Ruth..