Just booked dining and entertainment

[ksg]

I am so far from being entertained and have totally lost my appetite. I went to book, got as far as Mama Mia when the site crashed. So I call RCL, wait and wait and finally I get a lovely reservation person who basically tells me "no" for almost every restaurant and time I asked for. All booked up!! More than 250 days in advance! And the most torturous way of getting the dining times. She doesn't have the ability to see which restaurants are available at each time - she has to click on each restaurant at each time one by one. Unbelievable.

The site must be designed by the people who brought us healthcare.gov.

 

I'm waiting for my email confirms. Not optimistic that it will all work out with the shows. And so many nights with no shows!! My last two cruises were Oasis and Allure. Not used to having no shows. I would think they'd add some. We'll see.

 

Given the price of this cruise, I'm having second thoughts about this whole thing. The whole point for me with "Dynamic Dining" is to get to eat when you want. Not at 9:00 p.m. or 5:45.

[Boston lab girl]

So apparently I was waiting for may 15 and they sprang it early and now all the dining times are gone. Where do they think all these people are going to eat. ? I guess when I was worried about this and people said all i was doing was whining i guess I had good reason.

 

Moving on you can cancel your reservation until final payment right?

[hitaway4]

So apparently I was waiting for may 15 and they sprang it early and now all the dining times are gone. Where do they think all these people are going to eat. ? I guess when I was worried about this and people said all i was doing was whining i guess I had good reason.

 

Moving on you can cancel your reservation until final payment right?

 

People do realize they aren't "supposed" to be in, right? It's an IT glitch. It's even funnier when they call RCCL about it. You'll have slow loading, glitches, crashes. They most likely don't even have most of their servers online. And for those saying they should take it down, or "own to to a mistake", you're being their guinie pig. Free testers = win for RCCL corporate.

 

I'm sitting here really wishing I had a bag of popcorn because this forum will be flooded with "the world is ending" threads. Take a chill pill, computer systems are generally timed to release things. It's not like someone has a magical button to release all the times 2 days early.

[marci22]

It's not supposed to be open until May 15th. I don't know why some things are being shown as 'sold out' but that is impossible. I am not worried about being able to book right now. If it's crashing for me, it's crashing for everyone.

[hitaway4]

It's not supposed to be open until May 15th. I don't know why some things are being shown as 'sold out' but that is impossible. I am not worried about being able to book right now. If it's crashing for me, it's crashing for everyone.

 

Sold out at this point means not released.

[marci22]

I think people are also getting worried that few times are available. Some things are being showed with one time slot.

 

I hate that circling thing.

 

I thought a steak had been available on The Grande menu previously. Now it is coming up as a 'premium selection' meaning extra $$$ I'm sure.

Edited May 13, 2014 by marci22

[hitaway4]

I think people are also getting worried that few times are available. Some things are being showed with one time slot.

 

I hate that circling thing.

 

I thought a steak had been available on The Grande menu previously. Now it is coming up as a 'premium selection' meaning extra $$$ I'm sure.

 

My guess is that the times that people are seeing early are the times that were originally blocked off for the "selected people".

[gerig]

I reserved the dining for the 2-29-15 cruise and did not have any issue as there were plenty of time slots. I tried last night and system was very slow.

[nelblu]

I am so far from being entertained and have totally lost my appetite. I went to book, got as far as Mama Mia when the site crashed. So I call RCL, wait and wait and finally I get a lovely reservation person who basically tells me "no" for almost every restaurant and time I asked for. All booked up!! More than 250 days in advance! And the most torturous way of getting the dining times. She doesn't have the ability to see which restaurants are available at each time - she has to click on each restaurant at each time one by one. Unbelievable.

The site must be designed by the people who brought us healthcare.gov.

 

I'm waiting for my email confirms. Not optimistic that it will all work out with the shows. And so many nights with no shows!! My last two cruises were Oasis and Allure. Not used to having no shows. I would think they'd add some. We'll see.

 

Given the price of this cruise, I'm having second thoughts about this whole thing. The whole point for me with "Dynamic Dining" is to get to eat when you want. Not at 9:00 p.m. or 5:45.

 

I had no luck with the RCL rep in getting a decent time for Jamie's, however not only is the system/application so slow that even when I get to a specific date & time it tells me no time is available and to check on board. Mine is almost 7 months away. What a wonderful experience. How wonder how the Chinese will react to this mess?

[SailingSiggy]

I think people are also getting worried that few times are available. Some things are being showed with one time slot.

 

I hate that circling thing.

 

I thought a steak had been available on The Grande menu previously. Now it is coming up as a 'premium selection' meaning extra $$$ I'm sure.

 

The steak was always listed as Premium Selection on the Grande menus along with the scallops in tuxedo.

[Boston lab girl]

to hitaway4.

 

I assume you were one of the preselected and have your reservations?

[marci22]

The steak was always listed as Premium Selection on the Grande menus along with the scallops in tuxedo.

 

I could have sworn I saw 'filet mignon' in the early days of The Grande menu but my bad that was Coastal Kitchen.

Edited May 13, 2014 by marci22

[marci22]

I was preselected to book dining for one of my sailings but when I look online it says I have zero dining reservations for that sailing.

 

Also I got confirmation for 6 reservations I booked yesterday/today online but it only says I have 4. But when I look at 'full calendar' it is correct.

Edited May 13, 2014 by marci22

[marci22]

to hitaway4.

 

I assume you were one of the preselected and have your reservations?

 

I guess you mean he doesn't have to worry? I don't think anyone has to worry, regardless. The ship isn't full until it sails so there will always be empty dining slots until the end, and at that point the late bookers will know that they may not get every time, just like you can't always get early or late seating at the last minute.

 

If I went to book my cruise and they told me I could only eat at one place at 9:30pm every night I would just cancel my booking. And they don't want anyone to do that.

Edited May 13, 2014 by marci22

[SnappyNappi]

The new system is just painful to try to maneuver at this point... showing no dinner times at any of the $0-cost venues before 7:30 and the wait from page to page and then completely kicking me out of the reservation system with the "Here you are trying to plan your vacation and our system decides to take one." Annoying and frustrating to say the least.

 

I am going to wait until after the 15th... The rep that I talked to yesterday at RCCL said that it is definitely beta and not fully functional yet - which means, as another poster said, FREE BETA TESTERS... and from the perspective of IT, this saves the company LOTS OF $$$$ and is more efficient than having employees to test --- but for the rest of us trying to use the system - not so much.

 

Here's hoping that giving their IT department time to load it all up and have it go fully live on the 15th will mean that the system will have better performance when it is officially 'open for business'.

[viper17d]

I was preselected to book dining for one of my sailings but when I look online it says I have zero dining reservations for that sailing.

 

Also I got confirmation for 6 reservations I booked yesterday/today online but it only says I have 4. But when I look at 'full calendar' it is correct.

 

I'm experiencing the same thing. No worries though - I'm pretty sure we're only supposed to be able to book 2 nights (hence the 4 - assuming you also are sailing with just one other person). Time slots between 7:30 and 9:00 have not yet been released.

 

I refuse to believe they're full. I know for a fact my sailing isn't full, so there's no way those times are. I'm sure they'll open them on the 15th.

[Jenjer]

Entertainment is not open for my cruise yet.

 

What times are the main shows? for your cruise?

[mivama]

I was having no luck adding any dining reservations, so I decided to try to add the Premium Drink package. The price came up correct at $55 per day, but when I went to check out, it looks like it added an additional 15% gratuity. I'm sure it's another glitch, but I'm not going to attempt anything else until after the 15th.

[hitaway4]

to hitaway4.

 

I assume you were one of the preselected and have your reservations?

 

Nope :) I'm in the same situation as everyone else. I'm on the 1/11/15 12 night and have to book dinner for 6 people.

 

You have to look at the IT side of it.

 

Consider yourself a beta tester. It's a brand new system. They probably purposely released it a few days early because no matter how much testing you do internally it's not 100% the same as it being live. It's brand new not just for us, but the reps too. They can (hopefully) train their employees about the new system, but there will be hiccups and every CSR won't know exactly how to do stuff. The key is patience. It takes time to perfect (it'll never be perfect) and tweak a system as complicated as this. People trying to utilize the system right now is very little. Only us nutjobs on cruise critic look at their cruise reservation every day.

 

Expect on Thursday to have faster load times / less crashes and more times available. If it isn't working on the official release date, THEN bring out the pitchforks. I'll go sharpen mine.

Edited May 13, 2014 by hitaway4

[SnappyNappi]

Expect on Thursday to have faster load times / less crashes and more times available. If it isn't working on the official release date, THEN bring out the pitchforks. I'll go sharpen mine.

 

We really do need a "LIKE" button on CC... My sentiments exactly! :)

[VaTech8912]

I was having no luck adding any dining reservations, so I decided to try to add the Premium Drink package. The price came up correct at $55 per day, but when I went to check out, it looks like it added an additional 15% gratuity. I'm sure it's another glitch, but I'm not going to attempt anything else until after the 15th.

 

 

I do not think this is a glitch....there is normally a 15% gratuity charge added to drink packages at checkout. Could be wrong though.

[akcruz]

Nope :) I'm in the same situation as everyone else. I'm on the 1/11/15 12 night and have to book dinner for 6 people.

 

You have to look at the IT side of it.

 

Consider yourself a beta tester. It's a brand new system. They probably purposely released it a few days early because no matter how much testing you do internally it's not 100% the same as it being live. It's brand new not just for us, but the reps too. They can (hopefully) train their employees about the new system, but there will be hiccups and every CSR won't know exactly how to do stuff. The key is patience. It takes time to perfect (it'll never be perfect) and tweak a system as complicated as this. People trying to utilize the system right now is very little. Only us nutjobs on cruise critic look at their cruise reservation every day.

 

Expect on Thursday to have faster load times / less crashes and more times available. If it isn't working on the official release date, THEN bring out the pitchforks. I'll go sharpen mine.

 

I work in IT and if we EVER put a system out that had "glitches" like this even in a beta mode we would out the door in a heartbeat. If it was just the Quantum bookings that were impacted by this I might go along with saying it is ok, however all reservations are now going to the new booking process and causing issues.

 

I do agree, however, that if it isn't working appropriately by Thursday, the pitch forks will be out in full force :eek:.

 

I do not think this is a glitch....there is normally a 15% gratuity charge added to drink packages at checkout. Could be wrong though.

 

No, this is an ongoing issue with the drink package. These packages are supposed to include the gratuity. They keep somehow messing it up and adding it in again. Another "feature" of the lovely website!

[Jenjer]

I had a easy time with it.

 

It took a long time but it worked.

 

I am using a desk top at work with a pretty good connection maybe the problem is doing it from a Mobile platform?

[ksg]

Then why have it up there? And the poor reservations lady - we were on the phone for close to an hour with this nonsense.

 

Not true that the 7-7:30 times were blocked out. We have 7:15 at Silk (twice - I guess it's not going to be popular), 6:45 at Grande, and a 7:30 at Chic, and a 7:30 at Icon. All the other nights are either at 9:00 or no reservation cause all they had was 9:00 and I figured we'd either be doing something in San Juan at that time, watching the Super Bowl, or booking a specialty restaurant once on board. (TA certificate so must be done on board and on a port day). And that Grande is going to be rushed with Mama Mia at 8:30.

 

The reservation person tried to sell me Chops and Wonderland for 7:30 times. So pay restaurants - oh yes. That they have!

 

But I don't get what's going on with the entertainment. Even on the old classes of ships you had a show every night - even if it wasn't Broadway caliber. Hopefully they'll add shows.

 

If they're not ready for prime time, maybe they shouldn't have it up there and upset people. Really, we sail on Jan. 23. They have time to get the bugs out. I guess the shareholders should be pleased that they didn't have to pay for beta testing.

[VaTech8912]

If you added others from a different reservation, make sure the times show up on other's schedule. I added my sister and husband to all my reservations when booking, mine showed up, hers didn't. Talked to rep this morning and she was able to add my sister and her husband, but 5 out of 9 times I had reserved were not available for 4 people, only 2. Glad I had my sister ck. Glad I could help them continue to test the system....:) I think they will have more slots available once the system is fully up and I would bet they will release blocks even after that for people booking later and hold some back for on-board booking. Just my thought.