Allure Choice Dining package, how difficult to get good times for restaurants?

[reedl]

I purchased the Allure Choice dining package in which you make reservations for Samba on the second night. With it you also get Chops, Giovanni's Table, and Izumi, but the reservations for those restaurants need to be made onship.

 

Because of other reservations on other nights, I will need to book the three additional restaurants on Night 5,6,7. Has anyone else booked on the ship and got reasonable times (say 7PM or so) when purchasing the package? I really do not want to eat at 5PM (I much prefer later eating) and really have no desire to sit down at 9:30pm either. That is too late for my tastes.

 

Thoughts?

[Daghis]

We booked that package for our last cruise.

 

For the other three restaurants that required reservations, we used the TV in our cabin as soon as we were able to get in there. We had no problem making reservations for the time we wanted (6 PM), but I seem to recall that there were plenty of other times available to reserve as well.

 

I was concerned that by making the reservations on our TV, we might get charged since we didn't call to let them know that we had the dining package, but it turned out to be a non-issue. It's apparently all properly handled in their systems and when they ran my SeaPass card after dinner, the computer automatically noted the dining package and rang up a $0.00 bill.

[reedl]

We booked that package for our last cruise.

 

For the other three restaurants that required reservations, we used the TV in our cabin as soon as we were able to get in there. We had no problem making reservations for the time we wanted (6 PM), but I seem to recall that there were plenty of other times available to reserve as well.

 

I was concerned that by making the reservations on our TV, we might get charged since we didn't call to let them know that we had the dining package, but it turned out to be a non-issue. It's apparently all properly handled in their systems and when they ran my SeaPass card after dinner, the computer automatically noted the dining package and rang up a $0.00 bill.

 

Great. I was thinking of going to Central park and booking them all when I boarded. But you mean to tell me that RCCL actually has a computer system that works well? Amazing!

 

What was your favorite of the four restaurants? Or in other words, what should I "save" until the last night to have a great memory of the cruise from?

[Daghis]

Well, Samba Grill was wonderful, but you have to have that on the first or second night, so that's not possible for your question.

 

I will say that we ended up choosing Chops Grille for the last night. It's a relaxing environment, suitable as a way to bring the cruise to an end on what is otherwise an unpleasant evening of packing and considering travel plans for the next day.

 

The other choice for me would be Izumi, but I don't see it as a last-night dining experience. It's very good, and the view is very nice (assuming you're dining during daylight hours) but the environment feels more casual and doesn't really make me think about the cruise overall. Chops Grille is more of a Royal Caribbean staple to me.

[reedl]

I was figuring that Chops was going to be that "last night" treat. I have been to Chops on every RCCL ship that has had it, and have not had a bad meal so far.

[mj]

When I bought the dining package, normally get reservations once boarding the ship by going to the restaurants or reservation system in the room. Had no problem.