Reservations in main dining rooms?

[witchegirl]

I woke up to an email from NCL this morning that we can now make reservations in the main dining rooms. When I log in and go to that page, it says reservations are "highly recommended" for both and there's a drop-down menu to choose your time. You can book now or on board at the restaurant reservations desk.

 

Is this new?

[wasiii]

I woke up to an email from NCL this morning that we can now make reservations in the main dining rooms. When I log in and go to that page, it says reservations are "highly recommended" for both and there's a drop-down menu to choose your time. You can book now or on board at the restaurant reservations desk.

 

Is this new?

 

I just checked my upcoming reservation and sure enough the MDR's are now able to be reserved too.

 

I guess we still can not make reservations to the Haven restaurant though.

 

:(

 

wasiii

 

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[amflor]

I woke up to an email from NCL this morning that we can now make reservations in the main dining rooms. When I log in and go to that page, it says reservations are "highly recommended" for both and there's a drop-down menu to choose your time. You can book now or on board at the restaurant reservations desk.

 

Is this new?

Hi,

Just got off the Gem Last week. Ate in the main dining room 4 times (between 5:30 - 7pm) just walked in. Maybe had to wait a couple minutes (2 people). The specialty restaurants have limited seating and do fill up. They do have digital signage throughout the ship that shows you how booked they are. Cagneys and Tappayaki seem to be the busiest. If you like to go to shows you may want to wait till you get onboard to pre-book dinners so you can play around the entertainment.

[sugarnyc]

I was on the Breakaway in May. Pre-cruise I was able to make MDR reservations at Manhattan, Savor & Taste. I did so for my party one night. The rest of the nights just showed up and only had a few min wait. I generally went to dinner around 7-7:15 pm. The menus on my sailing had bigger differences some nights than others so I checked them out in the afternoon to see what was on the menus.

[TravelJoe]

 

I guess we still can not make reservations to the Haven restaurant though.

 

:(

 

wasiii

 

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I have a "dining request" in with the pre-cruise Concierge for The Haven for one night for our trip -- will see if it turns into a reservation once on board.

[punkincc]

I woke up to an email from NCL this morning that we can now make reservations in the main dining rooms. When I log in and go to that page, it says reservations are "highly recommended" for both and there's a drop-down menu to choose your time. You can book now or on board at the restaurant reservations desk.

 

Is this new?

 

Witchgirl, I just started a similar thread about 15 minutes before yours:). My offer was for the POA, but only 1 of the 2 MDRs was offered, the Liberty. Sounds like both of your MDRs are available to book. When I go to the reservation page on My NCL, it says nothing about reservations being "highly recommended".

 

The time slots offered were 5:30, 6:30 and 8:30. How about on your ship?

 

Wasiii, why would you need to make res for the Haven restaurant? I can't imagine that you could not just walk in there anytime with no problem. In fact, we have never had a problem with any MDR on any ship. Once out of 6 cruises, we got a glass of champagne while we waited a short time, but every other time just walked in. I would rather chance that than have to worry about making and then being on time for a reservation while I'm on vacation.

Edited July 2, 2014 by punkincc

[JP4GA]

I just checked my upcoming cruise and all 3 MDR's now allow for reservations. I think all the reservations may limit the "free style." I don't want to make my reservations for everyday, because we want to check out some of the other dining options once we are on board. However, we have a small child and like to eat around 6:00 at night. Don't want to not make reservations and then end up at the buffet every night because we can not get in at a reasonable (to us) time.

Edited July 2, 2014 by JP4GA

[punkincc]

I just checked my upcoming cruise and all 3 MDR's now allow for reservations. I think all the reservations may limit the "free style." I don't want to make my reservations for everyday, because we want to check out some of the other dining options once we are on board. However, we have a small child and like to eat around 6:00 at night. Don't want to not make reservations and then end up at the buffet every night because we can not get in at a reasonable (to us) time.

 

I don't think you will have a problem. If one dining room seems busy, just walk a short distance to another. We were on the Getaway in February and ate early in Taste or Savor one night. There were only a handful of tables occupied. We walked into the Tropicana no problem. IMO, reservations will probably be made only by those die hard traditional dining fans who must dine at 5:30 every night. In my case, there were only 3 time slots offered, so it sounds like they may limit it somewhat. And by the way, the food in the buffet I thought was very good. Lots of variety and never had any problem finding a table. Don't miss the Flamingo Cuban out by the Spice H20.

[JP4GA]

I don't think you will have a problem. If one dining room seems busy, just walk a short distance to another. We were on the Getaway in February and ate early in Taste or Savor one night. There were only a handful of tables occupied. We walked into the Tropicana no problem. IMO, reservations will probably be made only by those die hard traditional dining fans who must dine at 5:30 every night. In my case, there were only 3 time slots offered, so it sounds like they may limit it somewhat. And by the way, the food in the buffet I thought was very good. Lots of variety and never had any problem finding a table. Don't miss the Flamingo Cuban out by the Spice H20.

 

Thanks.... The Flamingo is on our list of must do, we have read so many good things about it.

[KeithJenner]

The MDRs have been available to book for a couple of weeks now on our upcoming Jade cruise.

 

With regard to just walking in at 6ish, we eat at that sort of time and we have always just been able to walk in.

 

I suspect that very few people will actually prebook MDRs.

[rhelms]

What a great idea. But i think it would be better if they would just establish maybe two different eating times, say 6:00 and 8:30. Then you would have established reservations every night without the trouble of having to deal with this daily.

[rvsullivan]

What a great idea. But i think it would be better if they would just establish maybe two different eating times, say 6:00 and 8:30. Then you would have established reservations every night without the trouble of having to deal with this daily.

 

So then we could have two seating and forget about Freestyle???

[pisenor]

What a great idea. But i think it would be better if they would just establish maybe two different eating times, say 6:00 and 8:30. Then you would have established reservations every night without the trouble of having to deal with this daily.

 

So what you are saying is that you endorse a return to the "traditional" cruise model and ditch the Freestyle brand that NCL created? No thank you. I like what NCL has created and I am sure that the majority of NCL customers would agree. The whole concept of Freestyle cruising is what drew my family to NCL in the first place.

[wasiii]

So what you are saying is that you endorse a return to the "traditional" cruise model and ditch the Freestyle brand that NCL created? No thank you. I like what NCL has created and I am sure that the majority of NCL customers would agree. The whole concept of Freestyle cruising is what drew my family to NCL in the first place.

 

Nobody says you have to make reservations in the MDR's or specialty restaurants. Do as you wish, that is what Freestyle is all about.

 

wasiii

 

 

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[ken02802]

I just tried to make MDR reservations on the Pearl.

 

It's so limited as to be useless for me. I can only pre-book the Palace and only at 6:30pm and only on certain days. None of the times I wanted could be pre-booked.

 

But, as others have said, this shouldn't be a problem. Easy to find somewhere to eat on the few days that our schedule is tight.

 

 

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[pisenor]

Nobody says you have to make reservations in the MDR's or specialty restaurants. Do as you wish, that is what Freestyle is all about.

 

wasiii

 

 

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Yes, understand that whole concept of freestyle cruising but thank you pointing out the obvious. The post I referenced appears to be suggesting a departure from freestyle by having two sittings for dinner which is NOT part of the freestyle concept. I don't think you truly can combine the two and still have freestyle. I know that other lines have tried to emulate NCL's successful freestyle approach but the hybrid system just isn't the same. Don't get me wrong, I am not opposed to the option to make a reservation and think it will prove beneficial when trying to coordinate show times and dinner. But what I don't agree with is a return to assigned sitting times in general. Allow the reservations but stay clear of assigned meal times.

[punkincc]

What a great idea. But i think it would be better if they would just establish maybe two different eating times, say 6:00 and 8:30. Then you would have established reservations every night without the trouble of having to deal with this daily.

 

And then have 50% of the people on board, maybe a couple thousand, drop whatever they happen to be doing at 6:00 or 8:30 and rush down to the MDR and create a huge bottleneck of people waiting to be seated? Yeah, sounds like a real improvement to me:rolleyes:. I do not want an established eating time every day. If I wanted that, I would just book with HAL.

 

We'll have to wait to see how this pans out. I doubt most people will bother to make an MDR res. Most folks choose NCL because they do not want to be locked into a schedule, but simply to do what they want each day without too much advance planning. I think NCL is offering this to appease those die hard traditionalists who must have the security blanket of a reservation, even if it is not necessary.

 

It seems that each ship is offering all MDRs or only some, and the time slots seem to differ per ship. Perhaps each ship has determined their least busy, or busiest times, and made the reservations available for those times only.

[rhelms]

I was being sarcastic folks. Freestyle to me means that i can eat when I want where ever i want. This would no longer be the case if the if the MDR's are fully booked with reservations. If you then argue that they would only allow a limited number of reservations freeing up tables for freestyle dining, then there is obviously no need for a reservation.

[witchegirl]

Witchgirl, I just started a similar thread about 15 minutes before yours:).

 

I checked before I posted, and there was nothing on the topic. Yours is actually only 5 minutes before mine :) I was typing on an ipad and was slow. I think we were essentially typing at the same time lol

 

I'm going to be on the Sun, and both MDRs say reservations are highly recommended.

 

In the Four Seasons, the times are 5:30 and 8:30.

In the Seven Seas, the times are 5:30, 6:30, 7:30, and 8:30.

 

I checked a few other days (but not all)...the times available vary.

 

We sail in 5 days. I'm inclined to not worry about this. If we get there and it seems like having a set time would be better, we'll just make the reservations on board.

[TravelJoe]

Wasiii, why would you need to make res for the Haven restaurant? I can't imagine that you could not just walk in there anytime with no problem. In fact, we have never had a problem with any MDR on any ship. Once out of 6 cruises, we got a glass of champagne while we waited a short time, but every other time just walked in. I would rather chance that than have to worry about making and then being on time for a reservation while I'm on vacation.

 

My request for a reservation in The Haven restaurant is due to there being 17 of us -- I don't think (nor expect) that we could just walk in and be accommodated. I thought we'd do a "family dinner" the first night with everyone knowing that in reality, 17 people really can't engage with everyone, but nice to be together.

 

Also planning on doing the same the last night in Manhattan dining room. The other 5 nights we're all on our own to do together or not.

 

.

[LrgPizza]

I think this might help eliminate some of the long waits, even for those without reservations. It might help spread out the crowd a bit.

[rvsullivan]

Nobody says you have to make reservations in the MDR's or specialty restaurants. Do as you wish, that is what Freestyle is all about.

 

wasiii

 

 

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Check out the post that two or three of us were referencing. They state two seatings at 6 pm and 8:30 pm. Sounds traditional to me?

 

Also, I think if NCL wants to go this way with reservations in the MDR's, they should use the same penalty as for specialty reservations. Late cancellation or no show gets a charge per person added to their on board account. Slow down the ones that are now going to make reservations for different times on different nights "just in case". Now everyone in line at one of those times is just going to wait for the no shows for 15 minutes. Make sure the system can handle those who abuse the system.

Edited July 2, 2014 by rvsullivan

[All-ready2cruise]

You know that if other people start reading this thread about reserving their dining times and tables in the traditional format, they will be flocking to NCL and demanding this option.

 

So the question is, where does that leave the rest of us who prefer to choose our dining venue, and time, when we want, "on the fly" so to speak?

 

I sure hope this is not the way of the future on NCL. This is NCL isn't it? or am I on another cruise line's forum?

 

I understand that some people prefer to dine at the same time, with the same people, have the same waiters (unlikely to happen) every evening. Last time I checked, that was easily obtainable.

 

Just cruise a different line, no worries.

 

JMHO

[culinarc]

I would not get too worried about this. I think like everything else that NCL tries to do is give you another option should it work out better for you. If you have to eat at peak times, have a large party or you have booked a show this might work out better for you. I have been on a few NCL cruises and have never had to wait more than 10 minutes without a reservation. I don't think anything will change. As for "highly recommended", I would take this with a grain fo salt. Being in the restaurant business I know we sometimes push to get as much info as we can to be prepared for an unforeseen rush that crushes the kitchen and waitstaff. The way it works is when these people are done feeding us dinner they are off work for the day. They want you to be served as fast as possible. This is another of NCL's use it if it helps you otherwise disregard.

[rhelms]

I think this might help eliminate some of the long waits, even for those without reservations. It might help spread out the crowd a bit.

 

You clearly meant to say "except for those without reservations." Because if all reservations are taken, you would have to wait until the next available reservation time. Who knows how long that might be.

 

Come on NCL let's just leave it the way it was. Free Style means Free Style!