Assigned Dining

[hawkeye65]

We're new to HAL, taking an Alaska cruise in Sept. The final payment is coming up soon. We requested early dining, MDR, large table. (We always meet the most interesting people at the dinner table.) We were waitlisted but a recent posting made me wonder if table assignments wait until final payment.. Can someone give me the HAL routine for assigned tables? What's the largest table? Do we need to wait until final payment is paid? Once on Celebrity we were in the same situation; after boarding we went to MDR to meet with maitre'd who arranged it right there. Same on HAL? Any advice is appreciated. TIA.

[Mary229]

Someone posted how to do this a while back.  All I wrote in my notes was to contact ship services. There is information on Halfacts.com about dining.  

 

That said I always go directly to the dining room when I board and make my reservation 

[grsnovi]

I don't remember the last time we were >assigned< a dining time. It seems that once HAL went to their "Anytime Dining" they also seemed to transition away from automatically assigning people to "Early" or "Late" seatings. We also like to sit in a large group. When you arrive for "anytime" they maitre' d will ask if you would like to sit at an already started table - we always say yes and that allows us to meet people. With assigned seatings and tables we would often find that half the people wouldn't show up because they had arranged to dine in a specialty restaurant that night which made the whole "don't serve the table until everyone is there" problematic. 

[Krazy Kruizers]

When we book a cruise, our TA requests a dining time and a specific table that we want.  It listed on our confirmation -- but HAL keeps it as a request.  Once final payment is made , our TA calls HAL and at that time HAL usually confirms our dining time and table number request.  99% of the time we got what we requested.

 

Once you check in, your dining time and table number will be listed on your ID card.  There is a chart set up near the dining room doors or in the Explorer's Lounge where you can go and see where your table is located and how large it is.  There are quite a few tables for 8.

 

If you don't like your table, there will be a time and place listed on the daily program where you can talk to the maitre'd.

[Mary229]

1 hour ago, Krazy Kruizers said:

When we book a cruise, our TA requests a dining time and a specific table that we want.  It listed on our confirmation -- but HAL keeps it as a request.  Once final payment is made , our TA calls HAL and at that time HAL usually confirms our dining time and table number request.  99% of the time we got what we requested.

 

Once you check in, your dining time and table number will be listed on your ID card.  There is a chart set up near the dining room doors or in the Explorer's Lounge where you can go and see where your table is located and how large it is.  There are quite a few tables for 8.

 

If you don't like your table, there will be a time and place listed on the daily program where you can talk to the maitre'd.

Thank you for that, I never considered doing that.  Off to Halfacts to look at my next dining room?  Do they allow you to pick a specific time or are you locked into the early/late format?