When do online dining reservations open?

[PirateShark]

After a few years of moving, road trips and work related projects, we are cruising again on the Konigsdam.  Since HALs website is less than helpful in this topic, I'm wondering if I can get some insight from the helpful people here.  We embark July 4th this year.

[dfish]

I'm waiting for them to open for our June 7th cruise.  They seem to be dragging their feet on this more and more.

[Alberta Quilter]

For my Feb/20 cruise, the reservations opened up about six weeks prior to embarkation.

[kazu]

Our April sailing opened up in late 2019.

Our September sailing still does not have reservations available.  

 

Hard to say for sure but just check on a regular basis.

[Gigi1977]

It seems to be very, very random.  We made dinning reservations 6 months in advance of our cruise last July, but our February cruise didn’t open dining reservations until the end of 2019.   I don’t know if it’s the ship or where the cruise is. . . ?  Not very helpful, I know -but just keep checking or call ship services.  

[Cruising-along]

44 minutes ago, dfish said:

They seem to be dragging their feet on this more and more.

I agree.  And yet shore excursions are available sooner than ever.  No dining reservations yet for our Sept. 2020 cruise but the excursions for our Sept. 2021 cruise have been available for awhile!

[PirateShark]

Thanks for all the replies.  I'll continue to wait (somewhat) patiently.

[Sue from Canada]

2 hours ago, Alberta Quilter said:

For my Feb/20 cruise, the reservations opened up about six weeks prior to embarkation.

Hi Alberta Quilter.  Where are you and your mum sailing to now?  Are you trying to escape those horrible temps we heard about on the news?

[Alberta Quilter]

28 minutes ago, Sue from Canada said:

Hi Alberta Quilter.  Where are you and your mum sailing to now?  Are you trying to escape those horrible temps we heard about on the news?

 

We're out of the deep freeze as of this morning!  Yippee!!  We're actually on the plus side right now instead of -35 with a wind chill factor of -42!  We're off to the Caribbean, and yes, it's to escape.  Too bad our timing was off.  (With my luck, it will be balmy here while we're away!)  Why don't you shoot me an email?  abquilter at iCloud dot com.

[senoragilbert]

Sorry to the OP for hijacking your thread, but I wondered if anyone knew on a 7 day (Canada and New England, if it matters) what nights are gala nights? I’d prefer to eat in the MDR those nights, so don’t want to reserve for the wrong night!

[kazu]

1 hour ago, senoragilbert said:

Sorry to the OP for hijacking your thread, but I wondered if anyone knew on a 7 day (Canada and New England, if it matters) what nights are gala nights? I’d prefer to eat in the MDR those nights, so don’t want to reserve for the wrong night!

 

Don’t know your itinerary but usually the first day after embarkation is a sea day so it will be a Gala night.  Gala night is never the last night before disembarkation day if that helps.

 

There is probably another sea day on your itinerary and I would guess that it would be your other Gala night.

 

Once on board, you’ll have a planner and know the gala nights.

[senoragilbert]

58 minutes ago, kazu said:

Once on board, you’ll have a planner and know the gala nights.

This is a pretty port-intensive short cruise. We're in Bar Harbor day 1, Halifax day 2, Sydney day 3, Charlottetown day 4, then finally a sea day on day 5, Quebec City day 6, disembark Montreal day 7. I'm sure we'll have a gala night on day 5, but I'm trying to guess if they'll do one after Bar Harbor (departing 4 pm) instead of one of the NS or PEI days since those are 6 pm departure days.

 

I'm so used to NCL, where specialty dining reservations at peak times go quickly. Maybe I don't even need to worry about reserving Pinnacle ahead of time on Amsterdam. Would love your feedback on that. Thanks!

[suec12]

Are you talking reservations for speciality dining or MDR "select"? On X, you can make reservations even if you have open dining in the MDR. Thanks.

[RuthC]

Bar Harbor and cruising the St. Lawrence nights should be your Gala nights, IIRC. 
If particular days and/or times matter for your specialty restaurant dinners, I strongly suggest making reservations in advance. 

[senoragilbert]

5 minutes ago, RuthC said:

If particular days and/or times matter for your specialty restaurant dinners, I strongly suggest making reservations in advance. 

Thank you so much!

[Vineyard View]

We sail 5/7. Still cannot make specialty dining reservations. 
The shore excursions were available months ago - but they mostly do not interest us.