Carnival Cruiser "Jumping Ship" - Reservations

[llg13]

Carnival Cruiser here - #8 is happening in September. I've recently become interested in sailing on one of Norweigan's bigger ships - Escape, Breakaway or Epic. Coming from the Carnival's smaller ships, my most main concern has to do with pre reserving restaraunts and entertainment before cruising. Is this something that needs to be done, or can you get away with deciding what you want to do, or where you want to eat once you are on the ship?

[blackwing]

If you want to eat at any of the upcharge specialty restaurants, then yes, you should reserve up to 90 days in advance. Otherwise all of the good times will be taken and you have to try and see if you can get a reservation once you get onboard.

 

I also recommend making reservations for the shows. They are free, but if you don't have a reservation you will be held in a line until 10 minutes or so before the show starts and then left to try and find seats.

 

A big Norwegian ship is no different than a big ship on any other cruise line. Lots of people.

[CruisinHarvey]

These days with all the SDP promos, it's wise to pre-book dinner in the specialty restaurants. You can do that when you get on the ship, but you need to do it early the first day, if you want to be sure to go around the time you want. They set up kiosks in headliners on embarkation day. We'll go down there when we board. Most all time are available, as they only pre-book a percentage of the reservation online. They do leave some open seating too, so not impossible to get in. But, it is a little risky.

 

For shows it's not as bad. Our experience is you can usually get in if you wait until 10-15 minutes prior to the shows in the main show room. Sometimes the comedy shows book up in headliners. There is a waiting line for that if you get there early though.

Edited March 24, 2016 by CruisinHarvey

[llg13]

Thanks for the replies! I am not one to go out of my way for speciality restaraunts but I was concerned about the shows - that doesn't sound too bad. I've been known to stand in line over a half hour to get into the comedy shows on Carnival sometimes.

[Jasalth]

I understand how you feel cause I was in the same "boat" when I found a killer deal on our NCL cruise!

 

What I did read on here that at least helped me was the suggestion that if you wanted to see one of the shows on a sea day, to reserve it as soon as you could. We are going to Bermuda though, so I could imagine these being a little more coveted than other destinations since well, we don't HAVE to be back on the ship at a certain time.

 

While I could book MDR times, I ended up not even considering it cause well we have had MTD on Carnival since they started it and hate hate hate any experience (Disney excluded) in a set dining time.

 

I have also sailed almost exclusively on smaller ships, so the -away's scared me a bit also. Just go in with a good attitude, anything you must do, book before hand, and the rest? Just take it like a Carnival small ship and go with the flow cause you can't do much else there!