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Missing a dinner reservation?


ejnsb
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Any penalty if you miss a reservation at a for-fee restaurant?

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

 

 

A penalty from whom exactly? Do you mean from NCL or from the other guests who couldn't get the reservation that they wanted because NCL was holding a table for someone who isn't going to show up?

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They tried to charge my friend at Teppanyaki last week, but he had stopped by Guest Services a couple days ahead of time, and they had noted the account that our party would be one less (but for some reason they didn't actually change the reservation!) Had that note not been in there, they were going to charge him for the no-show guest.

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If you have SDP - wouldn't you just lose that portion of your promotion? Why would you have to pay?

 

The SDP covered 4 of the 10 meals we at at specialty restaurants last week on the Escape. There is not necessarily an SDP associated with any given meal.

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Any penalty if you miss a reservation at a for-fee restaurant?

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

 

I'm not sure how NCL is handling cancellations these days because their FAQS and Terms and Conditions have never been updated to reflect the fact that rather than paying cover charges in advance pre cruise or on the ship when booked, people now very often have dining packages. So except for perhaps a $15 upcharge for an Ocean Blue or similar, they really have not paid anything outside the package price, or the 18% on the Promo package. And even without a dining package, there are now 3 a la carte restaurants which would be a zero charge at booking.

 

Pre a la carte and SDP, the rule was cancel >24 hours, get a refund of cover charge in the form of OBC. <24 hours, no refund issued. Reservations will be held for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, the unclaimed reservation will be released. The full cover charge will be billed to the guest's account. For prepaid reservations, no refund will be issued.

 

IMO, people need to have some skin in the game in order to prevent abuse. If they have SDP and they no show, they should lose the SDP credit for the missed reservation. NCL should decide how to handle non SDP reservations at a la cartes. Maybe just a flat $25 charge per person for no shows.

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It looks as if NCL need to look at this situation. Now that so many people are getting the SDP it is getting harder for others to turn up and get a table at the door.

If you make a booking at a specialty restaurant and have the SDP there should be three options: Turn up; Cancel before 24 hours; Lose one SDP meal from the package.

 

Mike

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If you have SDP - wouldn't you just lose that portion of your promotion? Why would you have to pay?

 

Most of the dining packages now are 3/4/5 days on 7 day cruise.

 

Our Hawaii is 7 for 7 days. This was booked way way back in 2015 when all the packages came out.

Med Cruise is 4 for 10

Bermuda is 3 for 7

 

Also watching closely for any changes

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Our concierge told us that she has seen a lot of people book 2 or 3 restaurantsin advance for the same day and time because they aren't sure which one they'll feel like eating at. We couldn't even get into Cagneys through the concierge one day. By 8am they were already booked solid.

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Most of the dining packages now are 3/4/5 days on 7 day cruise.

 

Our Hawaii is 7 for 7 days. This was booked way way back in 2015 when all the packages came out.

Med Cruise is 4 for 10

Bermuda is 3 for 7

 

Also watching closely for any changes

 

 

You can still buy them for anywhere between 3 meals and the number of nights of your cruise.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

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Our concierge told us that she has seen a lot of people book 2 or 3 restaurantsin advance for the same day and time because they aren't sure which one they'll feel like eating at. We couldn't even get into Cagneys through the concierge one day. By 8am they were already booked solid.

 

Surely the NCL system should have a fail-safe so that you cannot book more than 1 restaurant with any card from the same cabin/suite for the same time on the same day.

 

OK; if they do that and don't cancel 24 hours out then they should be charged the day(s) on their SDP.

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Under this new/modified NCL "freestyle" specialty/a la carte/fees & package-based dining system, from what we could see - they need to rewrite their codes for the POS reservation system (Point of Sales) integration with the overall cruise booking - and, to update their iConcierge APP which parallel the stateroom's interactive TV menu system ... namely, to not just do booking or reservations, but also to make it easier/user-friendly to check and review existing bookings; and, to cancel or release un-needed dining reservations.

 

For example, it was possible for our friends to book LeBistro for 4 and not be asked to pay anything, as it was a la carte - at whatever time slots open/available at that moment. Once, onboard - I saw a better time slot on a different day and we could book an earlier time (not 9:30 PM) so went ahead to book for 4 of us. He tried to call to cancel & they said over the reservation line (Ext. 50, I think it was) - oh, don't worry - it will be held only for 15 minutes and released automatically, besides - they're expected a percentage of no-shows ... not even caring to release the slot for someone else, unable to make a booking.

 

In years past, you need to prepaid all specialty dining first @ booking time & if you don't show up or cancel at least 24 hours ahead, you get charged or billed ... the ball is in NCL's court to play & dealwith the loopholes, unless they don't want to / care to.

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It is something that NCL could learn from Disney (parks ) If you have dinner reservations and dont cancel or dont show within 15 minutes (havent called either) then the reservation is released , AND it also works if you DO cancel - We did this one day - we couldnt get into a specific restaurant that was and during the day I happened to go onto the app and there was 1 open reservation ! believe me I grabbed it! Many of the restaurants book up the same way as ships

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I'm a newbee to NCL and just off the Breakaway. I asked this same question and the guest relations staff member looked at me like I was crazy. She was like "of course there's no fee". I was specifically asking about if there was a fee to cancel a reservation ahead of time. We have experienced Celebrity trying to charge us. They were really pushing reservations to one of their specialty restaurants one afternoon in the lobby. We went ahead and booked, telling the man we would have to double check our schedule. He said no problem, to check and get back to the reservations line. We checked within a half hour and called back, only to be told we were going to be charged for cancelling. :mad: Luckily they waived it, but it's make me very cautious about this kind of fee.

 

Just to throw another idea out, I understand how a penalty would be applied to holders of the UBP or SDP, but what about non-package holders? The restaurants are mainly a la carte, so maybe they don't charge a fee because they can't punish people equally for skipping their reservations? Just a thought.

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It is something that NCL could learn from Disney (parks ) If you have dinner reservations and dont cancel or dont show within 15 minutes (havent called either) then the reservation is released , AND it also works if you DO cancel - We did this one day - we couldnt get into a specific restaurant that was and during the day I happened to go onto the app and there was 1 open reservation ! believe me I grabbed it! Many of the restaurants book up the same way as ships

 

 

 

And I think Disney now charges $10 per person if you don't show up and also if you don't cancel by a certain time the day before. It's really helped free up last minute reservations there, so I'd love to see NCL using a similar system...

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