Pre-Cruise Dining Reservations Conflicting with Evening Shows

[lisa928]

My family is on a 10 day cruise out of NYC in November.  I would really like to make our dinner reservations for the specialty restaurants as soon as it opens (which I know is not yet).  Anyway my concern is not knowing which shows are which nights.  To be more specific I think my girls would enjoy Burn the Floor and Six so I don't want to make a reservation (which would be around 6pm) on those nights.  We are traveling with two kids so we cannot do a late night dinner or even a late night show.  Is there any method to the scheduling of the evening shows for itineraries that are unique?

[FLAHAM]

If you are cruising on one of the newer, larger ships that allows show reservations, at 120 days out make the show reservations first, then the dinner reservations. 

[dmdiver]

We just booked our dinner & show reservations online this past weekend.  We picked the 5:30 dining time & 7:30 showtime.  We are thinking that a smaller specialty dining venue would not take as long as a crowded main dining room & hopefully will be done in plenty of time to get to the show early enough to get a decent seat.

[FL-Cruzer]

47 minutes ago, dmdiver said:

We just booked our dinner & show reservations online this past weekend.  We picked the 5:30 dining time & 7:30 showtime.  We are thinking that a smaller specialty dining venue would not take as long as a crowded main dining room & hopefully will be done in plenty of time to get to the show early enough to get a decent seat.

When the 120 day mark comes.  you will be able to see show times and make reservations, Make sure to be online that day.  if you need to change as soon as you get on ship go to the comedy club and you should be able to make changes. Keep in min about 90 min for dinner, if you let your waiter know you are going to a show they will work with you.

[BirdTravels]

1 hour ago, dmdiver said:

We just booked our dinner & show reservations online this past weekend.  We picked the 5:30 dining time & 7:30 showtime.  We are thinking that a smaller specialty dining venue would not take as long as a crowded main dining room & hopefully will be done in plenty of time to get to the show early enough to get a decent seat.

5:30 is fine. But you have to let your server know. You want to leave by 7:00 to get a seat. All reservations are cancelled at 7:20 and stand bys are allowed to take any seats others didn’t want.  

[Pduaime]

We're cruising NCL for the first time in a few weeks, so I'm no expert by any means, but what I noticed was that, as soon as I booked something - dinner, show, excursion - anything else that seemed to possibly overlap timing wise, disappeared from my options.   So, not sure, but I think their system maybe won't allow you too book two conflicting events.   If that is true, again I'm not positive, at the 120 day mark, you should book whatever is priority and then see what else is available.  

[pe4all]

10 hours ago, BirdTravels said:

5:30 is fine. But you have to let your server know. You want to leave by 7:00 to get a seat. All reservations are cancelled at 7:20 and stand bys are allowed to take any seats others didn’t want.  

This.  We book 5:30 dining and the early show time.  We let our servers know we have a show booked, and always get out in plenty of time.  1 and 1/2 hours is plenty of time for us to eat without feeling rushed.  

[dmdiver]

Does anyone know when the comedy club & cavern club are available to book?

[Dina7]

11 minutes ago, dmdiver said:

Does anyone know when the comedy club & cavern club are available to book?

Can only book those once you’re on the ship, from what I’ve heard.

[Dina7]

13 minutes ago, dmdiver said:

Does anyone know when the comedy club & cavern club are available to book?

And actually from what I remember reading, you don’t make reservations for cavern club. You just show up & people say it gets mobbed, so try to get there very early the night of show.

[dmdiver]

8 hours ago, Dina7 said:

Can only book those once you’re on the ship, from what I’ve heard.

 

That's what I was afraid of.  I really was wanting to get everything booked so we don't have to mess with that on board.

[coldweather]

21 hours ago, FL-Cruzer said:

When the 120 day mark comes.  you will be able to see show times and make reservations, Make sure to be online that day.  if you need to change as soon as you get on ship go to the comedy club and you should be able to make changes. Keep in min about 90 min for dinner, if you let your waiter know you are going to a show they will work with you.

 

We can make show reservations 120 days out.  Does anyone know what time the reservations open?  Midnight eastern time?  Sometime else? 

[BirdTravels]

15 hours ago, coldweather said:

 

We can make show reservations 120 days out.  Does anyone know what time the reservations open?  Midnight eastern time?  Sometime else? 

Midnight NCL time (Miami - US Eastern). 

[smplybcause]

On 1/17/2020 at 8:47 AM, Dina7 said:

And actually from what I remember reading, you don’t make reservations for cavern club. You just show up & people say it gets mobbed, so try to get there very early the night of show.

 

Yup no reservations and it fills up to the gills. Same for Syds on the ship that has that instead. 

[alrose251]

How long do most shows last?  We have dinner reservations for 8:30.  Hoping to catch the first show, then go to dinner.[