Dining reservations on Zuiderdam

[getawayfromitall]

Hello. We have traveled on HAL 4 times previously, each time choosing late seating. This time, however, based on a prior pleasant experience on Celebrity during which we chose anytime dining for the first time, we decided to try it on the Zuiderdam when we leave on Feb. 15, 2016. On Celebrity, one can go on line and select dining times for each night of the cruise, prior to departure. On HAL, however, I do not see that option. My travel agent indicates that I can make a reservation for no more than three nights at a time on HAL, and this must be done with the dining room staff once i board the ship.. On celebrity, I was seated almost immediately each night, without the bother of a visit to the Maitre de. Is there anyone who has had experience with anytime dining on the Zuiderdam or any HAL ship who can give me some advice? Since I know the itinerary for the entire 11 days, I would like to make all of the reservations at one time, with varying seating times, depending on the port, and be done with it. Thank you.

[Cindy]

We had a very frustrating experience with it on the Westerdam in 2013. Here's what I wrote in my review...

 

The REAL ugly to me, and the thing that almost ruined my trip was open seating dining. We didn’t have a lot of choice when we booked so late, but I also knew my mom couldn’t do late dinner and I thought anytime would work well for us. It ended up OK, but I really had to beg and plead to get reservations. The whole system just puzzled me. I was told I could only make a reservation for 5:15 or 8:30…neither of which was acceptable to us, or I could stand in line. The reason? They only allow 2% of the tables to be reserved. Why on Earth would they only allow a handful of tables to be reserved? Every night the dining room was more empty than full, and the line stretched down the hall with people waiting to be seated. It just made no sense to me! I was actually told one day that if I didn’t like the times offered and didn’t want to stand in line we should just eat in the Lido! I was NOT happy! Honestly, if I thought there was a chance I would spend every evening standing in line or eating in the Lido, I wouldn’t book a cruise. The only reason my week didn’t end up like that was because I was mercilessly persistent…I think they finally took my reservation just to get me off the phone. I do think being in a Neptune Suite would have changed our dining experience with reservations. My only exposure to how HAL handles it was on the Noordam, when friends in other suites had the concierges make their reservations for the week with no issues at all. Since we had "phone concierge" service I tried that route and it was no help at all. Her suggestion was also that we stand in line for 30 minutes or eat elsewhere.

[pmcubed]

 

I think it depends on what time you choose to dine - and the cruise you're on.

 

We have only had to wait maybe 3-4 times in all the cruises we've taken.

 

We have made the reservations - but generally do not like the selected times - so we have taken our chances and like I said - we have walked in right in - no waiting.

 

The times we did have to wait were when my husband wanted a table just for the two of us. I prefer a table of 4 or 6.

 

Pat

[Krazy Kruizers]

You can only make reservations for Open Seating once you are on the ship.

Reservations can be for any size table and only during the times between 5:15 - 6:15 and 7:30 - 9. You can make them for 3 days at a time.

[joepeka]

Hello. We have traveled on HAL 4 times previously, each time choosing late seating. This time, however, based on a prior pleasant experience on Celebrity during which we chose anytime dining for the first time, we decided to try it on the Zuiderdam when we leave on Feb. 15, 2016. On Celebrity, one can go on line and select dining times for each night of the cruise, prior to departure. On HAL, however, I do not see that option. My travel agent indicates that I can make a reservation for no more than three nights at a time on HAL, and this must be done with the dining room staff once i board the ship.. On celebrity, I was seated almost immediately each night, without the bother of a visit to the Maitre de. Is there anyone who has had experience with anytime dining on the Zuiderdam or any HAL ship who can give me some advice? Since I know the itinerary for the entire 11 days, I would like to make all of the reservations at one time, with varying seating times, depending on the port, and be done with it. Thank you.

On our most recent two cruises (RCI) we did as you did on Celebrity: reserved our My Time Dining times online for each night of the cruise. We pretty much knew our plans ahead of time and the RCI web site made it easy to reserve ahead. We've chosen the MDR open seating on our upcoming Zuiderdam cruise and based on comments I've read on this forum over the last couple of months, I'm not really looking forward to the three-days-at-a-time reservation situation. I know, we could just show up when we want and likely have a short wait and may end up doing that if the reservation situation is similar to what Cindy experienced above. Too bad HAL can't be a little more flexible on this.

Edited January 4, 2016 by joepeka

[getawayfromitall]

Thank you for the response. It doesn't sound like HAL has as good a system as Celebrity, but we'll give it a try as we don't want to be eating at 8:30 every night. Enjoy future cruises.

[getawayfromitall]

Thank you for your response. Another cruiser indicated that we can make reservations between 7:30 and 9:00. 7:30 to 8:00 suits us just fine, so we'll give it a shot. If we don't like the system, I guess we'll have to revert back to late seating or go back to cruising on Celebrity or RCI, which, as I said in my post, seems to have a better system. Enjoy future cruises.

[getawayfromitall]

You can only make reservations for Open Seating once you are on the ship.

Reservations can be for any size table and only during the times between 5:15 - 6:15 and 7:30 - 9. You can make them for 3 days at a time.

Thank you. 7:30 to 8:00 is fine for us. Just didn't feel like being required to eat at 8:30 each night with late seating and find early seating just too early.

[getawayfromitall]

On our most recent two cruises (RCI) we did as you did on Celebrity: reserved our My Time Dining times online for each night of the cruise. We pretty much knew our plans ahead of time and the RCI web site made it easy to reserve ahead. We've chosen the MDR open seating on our upcoming Zuiderdam cruise and based on comments I've read on this forum over the last couple of months, I'm not really looking forward to the three-days-at-a-time reservation situation. I know, we could just show up when we want and likely have a short wait and may end up doing that if the reservation situation is similar to what Cindy experienced above. Too bad HAL can't be a little more flexible on this.

Thank you.

[Cindy]

You can only make reservations for Open Seating once you are on the ship.

Reservations can be for any size table and only during the times between 5:15 - 6:15 and 7:30 - 9. You can make them for 3 days at a time.

 

On our most recent two cruises (RCI) we did as you did on Celebrity: reserved our My Time Dining times online for each night of the cruise. We pretty much knew our plans ahead of time and the RCI web site made it easy to reserve ahead. We've chosen the MDR open seating on our upcoming Zuiderdam cruise and based on comments I've read on this forum over the last couple of months, I'm not really looking forward to the three-days-at-a-time reservation situation. I know, we could just show up when we want and likely have a short wait and may end up doing that if the reservation situation is similar to what Cindy experienced above. Too bad HAL can't be a little more flexible on this.

 

Maybe they've tweaked their policy a bit. My one experience with open seating on HAL was the very rigid one I described above. I wouldn't have been nearly upset if I had been given options other than 5:15 & 8:30.

 

Does anybody know if there's a standard policy fleet-wide? We're considering another HAL cruise based on an itinerary we like, and dining availability would be a factor. If we select the HAL cruise we would be in a Neptune Suite, so we would have concierge access. I'm not sure if that would make a difference or not.

Edited January 4, 2016 by Cindy