Specialty Restaurant Reservations

[KatieBelle]

16 hours ago, clo said:

Living on the Left Coast can be a definite advantage on timing, huh?  🙂  I'm already giving it some thought.  Definitely French and Italian and likely steak.  Red Ginger isn't wildly appealing since we get a good bit of that out here.  And we'll definitely have some lunches even early dinners in ports and may not want a lot for dinner.  A real first world problem.

Hello Clo,

 

So many Red Ginger fans.  But we aren't!  My DH ate there once and that was enough.  Not bad, just not for him.  My palate does not fancy Asian cuisine to the point that I would force the issue with him.  However, we always pre book all our available specialities and then trade the RG reservation once on board.  It's still hard to get an extra Jacques but Toscana is a close second for me.  I do also enjoy the olive oils AND the balsamic vinegars.  

 

And I second Mura's advice for table sharing.  We have always had wonderful evenings meeting new people and even making new friends.

 

Enjoy your cruise!

Katie

[clo]

1 hour ago, KatieBelle said:

Hello Clo,

 

So many Red Ginger fans.  But we aren't!  My DH ate there once and that was enough.  Not bad, just not for him.  My palate does not fancy Asian cuisine to the point that I would force the issue with him.  However, we always pre book all our available specialities and then trade the RG reservation once on board.  It's still hard to get an extra Jacques but Toscana is a close second for me.  I do also enjoy the olive oils AND the balsamic vinegars.  

 

And I second Mura's advice for table sharing.  We have always had wonderful evenings meeting new people and even making new friends.

 

Enjoy your cruise!

Katie

Ooh, I like the idea of 'trading.' How does one do that?  Just asking about?  Thanks for the idea.  And, yes, after spending the entire day together, sharing tables is a great idea.

[Sulo]

Oh my, what great responses to what I thought was a simple question..... I've really learned a lot reading all these posts. Thank you one and all.

[CintiPam]

17 hours ago, Paulchili said:

I agree - RG is has a warm, inviting atmosphere with great service but Jacques serves my favorite food on the ship.

I agree that the food is excellent in Jacques but last month we had a very pretentious captain there plus a table that was plunked smack in the middle of the path from the kitchen to most of the rest of the tables, so it felt quite a bit like I was dining in NYC’s Grand Central Station.  To me, it simply is not a physically relaxing venue like the other three.  

 

I confess I also still have some prejudice about Jacques from the time I was forced to share a table there with a very obviously drunk and loud passenger at 6:30 pm no less who came to dinner in a Hawaiian shirt and baseball cap and kept leaving the table to swill drinks elsewhere before returning, making our dinner endless while the courses were held up for his return.  People were staring our way the entire agonizing time.  We should simply have left instead of waiting until he left to complain.  This drunken lout never should have been seated.

 

Sounds like I need to work a bit harder on cultivating a shorter memory!

 

I hasten to add that every meal we ate onboard Marina last month was excellent (including at Jacques) due to the winning combination of good food and good service.

 

 

Edited June 15, 2019 by CintiPam

[Paulchili]

26 minutes ago, CintiPam said:

I confess I also still have some prejudice about Jacques from the time I was forced to share a table there with a very obviously drunk and loud passenger at 6:30 pm no less who came to dinner in a Hawaiian shirt and baseball cap and kept leaving the table to swill drinks elsewhere before returning, making our dinner endless while the courses were held up for his return.  People were staring our way the entire agonizing time.  We should simply have left instead of waiting until he left to complain.  This drunken lout never should have been seated.

It's precisely for this reason that we choose to dine alone unless we are traveling with friends or have met people on the cruise whose company we enjoy. We do enjoy meeting others just not at dinner - too "risky". We prefer to meet people at trivia, excursions and other activities where one does not have to "suffer" through experiences like yours.

[jawlaw]

Here is a question for this experienced group from a very excited Oceania first timer - on Marina in the Baltics in August.  

 

Our specialty restaurant booking became available today. Our traveling companions (both of our cabins are Concierge category) hopped online right away and snagged great slots at each restaurant, and invited us to join, just as we planned.  

 

These reservations are now on my specialty dining calendar as “invited”.  

 

Do I have to do anything to accept these invitations, or are we all set?  

 

Thanks in advance!

[Shawnino]

55 minutes ago, Paulchili said:

It's precisely for this reason that we choose to dine alone unless we are traveling with friends or have met people on the cruise whose company we enjoy. We do enjoy meeting others just not at dinner - too "risky". We prefer to meet people at trivia, excursions and other activities where one does not have to "suffer" through experiences like yours.

 

Wiser words never spoken.

Dinner can always be arranged afterward.

[KatieBelle]

3 hours ago, jawlaw said:

Here is a question for this experienced group from a very excited Oceania first timer - on Marina in the Baltics in August.  

 

Our specialty restaurant booking became available today. Our traveling companions (both of our cabins are Concierge category) hopped online right away and snagged great slots at each restaurant, and invited us to join, just as we planned.  

 

These reservations are now on my specialty dining calendar as “invited”.  

 

Do I have to do anything to accept these invitations, or are we all set?  

 

Thanks in advance!

Hello jawlaw,

You are set!

[KatieBelle]

6 hours ago, clo said:

Ooh, I like the idea of 'trading.' How does one do that?  Just asking about?  Thanks for the idea.  And, yes, after spending the entire day together, sharing tables is a great idea.

Once you embark you will find the reservations desk on deck 5 (deck 4 on R ships).  Stop by and ask to trade the reservation.  I usually wait until after dinner the first night or the next day.

 

Good Luck!

Katie

[AtA]

On 6/15/2019 at 12:42 AM, Paulchili said:

Interesting that you should mention these “cheap wooden chopsticks”.

We are getting ready for our Silversea Muse cruise and I am reading that they provide these chopsticks (the ones you have to separate) in their Kaiseki Japanese restaurant and the Silversea customers are understandably confused about this (ditto for their Indochine restaurant - same chopsticks).

I’ll take O’s “silly” choice of nice chopsticks over those provided on the “luxury” cruise line like Silversea.

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2665233-a-mused-in-a-laska-seward-to-vancouver-27-may-to-6-june-2019/page/4/?tab=comments#comment-57617427

 

LOL. I loved both RG and Toscana and am disappointed that there is no Toscana on Serina which is the ship my son and I will be sailing on. And I loved the choices of olive oils.

 

As for the chopsticks, I found that to be a cute touch and a bit of fun. Having said that, while the food at RG is very good and I certainly look forward to it, I'll take the wooden chopsticks in Umi Uma on Crystal any day. (Nobu's Japanese restaurant) 

[Paulchili]

46 minutes ago, AtA said:

I loved both RG and Toscana and am disappointed that there is no Toscana on Serina which is the ship my son and I will be sailing on. And I loved the choices of olive oils.

Actually, you are in luck as Sirena has Tuscan Steak which is a "best of" Polo and Toscana 😀. It also has Red Ginger.

Here is the menu from Tuscan Steak:

https://www.oceaniacruises.com/Documents/Menus/61698/Tuscan-Steak-Dinner.PDF

Personally, I was not impressed with Umi Uma despite it carrying the famous chef's name - personal preferences, I guess.

[AtA]

3 minutes ago, Paulchili said:

Actually, you are in luck as Sirena has Tuscan Steak which is a "best of" Polo and Toscana 😀. It also has Red Ginger.

Here is the menu from Tuscan Steak:

https://www.oceaniacruises.com/Documents/Menus/61698/Tuscan-Steak-Dinner.PDF

Personally, I was not impressed with Umi Uma despite it carrying the famous chef's name - personal preferences, I guess.

But does it have the specialty oils? 🙂

And aren't we all lucky that we can have choices? Maybe it's because the RG menu is limiting a bit to me because I can't eat shellfish and I don't eat red meat. 

Edited June 16, 2019 by AtA

[Paulchili]

3 minutes ago, AtA said:

But does it have the specialty oils? 🙂

And aren't we all lucky that we can have choices? Maybe it's because the RG menu is limiting a bit to me because I can't eat shellfish and I don't eat red meat. 

I was on the Sirena only once a few years ago and I do not remember if they have the oils - perhaps someone else can comment.

I would be very unhappy if I couldn't eat shellfish - perhaps my favorite food group 😀

..and, yes, we are all very lucky to have these wonderful choices.

[AtA]

5 hours ago, Paulchili said:

I was on the Sirena only once a few years ago and I do not remember if they have the oils - perhaps someone else can comment.

I would be very unhappy if I couldn't eat shellfish - perhaps my favorite food group 😀

..and, yes, we are all very lucky to have these wonderful choices.

It used to be my favorite food group too, but I developed a food sensitivity to it. Ah well, I still haven't managed to starve. 🙂

 

[CintiPam]

On 6/15/2019 at 4:44 PM, Paulchili said:

It's precisely for this reason that we choose to dine alone unless we are traveling with friends or have met people on the cruise whose company we enjoy. We do enjoy meeting others just not at dinner - too "risky". We prefer to meet people at trivia, excursions and other activities where one does not have to "suffer" through experiences like yours.

We now only sign up to dine alone in the specialties.  (And on that cruise we had no choice for the most popular specialty Jacques unless we were willing to dine at 9, which I am not!). We happily dine in the GDR with friends we meet while touring or playing trivia.  Last month trivia in Martinis followed by cocktails there followed by dinner in the GDR made for a great evening.  

[edgee]

On 6/15/2019 at 8:33 PM, KatieBelle said:

Once you embark you will find the reservations desk on deck 5 (deck 4 on R ships).  Stop by and ask to trade the reservation.  I usually wait until after dinner the first night or the next day.

 

Good Luck!

Katie

We have tried multiple times to trade for a specialty restaurant we prefer over Toscana and have been denied each time. So our reservations have gone unused.

[clo]

15 minutes ago, edgee said:

We have tried multiple times to trade for a specialty restaurant we prefer over Toscana and have been denied each time. So our reservations have gone unused.

Well, drat.  I was hoping to be able to trade RG for Jacques or really any of them.  But I'll give it a shot.

[edgee]

1 minute ago, clo said:

Well, drat.  I was hoping to be able to trade RG for Jacques or really any of them.  But I'll give it a shot.

Can't hurt to try. Maybe we just encountered a grumpy😁 reservations person when we asked. 

[clo]

1 minute ago, edgee said:

Can't hurt to try. Maybe we just encountered a grumpy😁 reservations person when we asked. 

Oh, I'll definitely try.  I can be ever so charming when I want to be 🙂

 

[Mura]

Paul, I rarely disagree with you but I have to when you say Tuscan Steak has the "best" of Toscana and Polo.

 

I found the "new" menu very disappointing.  It's true that we were on Sirena early on (October '16 I think) so maybe things have changed.  But we found the new menu extremely disappointing.

 

Mura

 

 

[Paulchili]

1 hour ago, Mura said:

Paul, I rarely disagree with you but I have to when you say Tuscan Steak has the "best" of Toscana and Polo.

Mura

 

 

Mura,

I should clarify. When I said best of I put it in quotation marks - meaning that Oceania picked what they thought to be the “best of” (not mine personal opinion).

I too prefer the old configuration of separate Polo & Toscana.

[Mura]

Then we can be friends again!

 

Not that we weren't ...

 

Yes, Oceania made the judgment about what was "the best" ... and I think many of us disagreed.

 

To give them credit, they had to reduce two very large menus to one ... and there is probably no way they could possibly satisfy everyone with that kind of challenge.

 

Mura

 

[StanandJim]

1 hour ago, Mura said:

Paul, I rarely disagree with you but I have to when you say Tuscan Steak has the "best" of Toscana and Polo.

 

I found the "new" menu very disappointing.  It's true that we were on Sirena early on (October '16 I think) so maybe things have changed.  But we found the new menu extremely disappointing.

 

Mura

 

 

"The Best" in the manner of a "Greatest Hits" compilation

 

Certain things,  like the elimination of the politically incorrect foie gras irk us as well, but  the big hits such as the  Prime Rib, Dover Sole, Osso Bucco and whole Maine Lobster remain in combination with "album cuts" such as the pesto gnocchi,  escargot casserole and the Lobster Bisque.  

In short, if this were American Bandstand, I would say that it has a good beat and that I can (still) dance to it-

🕺🕺

YMMV

[Paulchili]

I suspect that they put their computers to work and picked the dishes that cruisers chose most frequently based on their stats (maybe)?

[clo]

21 hours ago, Paulchili said:

I suspect that they put their computers to work and picked the dishes that cruisers chose most frequently based on their stats (maybe)?

That makes a ton of sense.  This is very big business.