Dine My Way & all new Dining questions since cruising restart!!

[alwalaska]

4 minutes ago, 1sttimeAlaska said:

I was able to confirm the Botticelli Dining Room every night for our September cruise on the Emerald.  I think the servers are getting hammered, because I had to try several times before it successfully reserved it.  We wanted traditional early, but 5pm is just too early for us.  Times for traditional are 5pm and 7:30pm.  So we chose the reservation one instead.  Hopefully this works well!

I'm wondering if the traditional dining rooms are going to be partially empty and the lines for walk-up will be crazy.  At least on this thread, not very many people seem interested in traditional. 

[adamtoonarmy]

5 minutes ago, 1sttimeAlaska said:

I was able to confirm the Botticelli Dining Room every night for our September cruise on the Emerald.  I think the servers are getting hammered, because I had to try several times before it successfully reserved it.  We wanted traditional early, but 5pm is just too early for us.  Times for traditional are 5pm and 7:30pm.  So we chose the reservation one instead.  Hopefully this works well!

Where were the choices? My app still has the three MDRs and when I click on any of them it says no times available. So where did you see the options for traditional, reservation and walk up MDRs?

[Bobsgonecoastal]

8 minutes ago, adamtoonarmy said:

Where were the choices? My app still has the three MDRs and when I click on any of them it says no times available. So where did you see the options for traditional, reservation and walk up MDRs?

Same here.  I’ve spent a lot of time on the phone, chat, and in the app.  At 9:30 am pacific, a rep on the phone said it wasn’t working, but should be up and running in 2 hours.  We’ll that hasn’t happened.  This has been a cluster and huge waste of time.

[RGEDad]

So - I was able to book my October 21 day TA cruise Regal reservations for the Alegro for 6 PM each and every day. I had earlier today updated the APP to the latest version. 
I have some experience with mainframe servers and the response I was seeing for the last hour was very typical of a computer system that was overloaded with service requests. Lots of time-outs at various stages in the process.
Hang in there - Good things come to those who keep pushing the Reservation button...

[cpizzull]

We are going to be a group of 8.  Is it possible to do Reservation Dining with a table of 8, for the same time every night??  with same waiters (I only ask this because I'm celiac and it would help to stick with same servers)?

[AZaTaz]

15 minutes ago, adamtoonarmy said:

Where were the choices? My app still has the three MDRs and when I click on any of them it says no times available. So where did you see the options for traditional, reservation and walk up MDRs?

So what I see is as I click into each dining room I see times available. On one dining room on each ship there are only two times available 5:00 and 7:30. That is the traditional room. On one room no times available I assume that is walk up and on third I see all the times and can make reservations. 

[Rudy888]

We are on the Enchanted. I can book 5 & 7:30 for ytaditopnal but cannot click for shared at least not yet. Could be a work in progress

 

[Thrak]

43 minutes ago, 1sttimeAlaska said:

I was able to confirm the Botticelli Dining Room every night for our September cruise on the Emerald.  I think the servers are getting hammered, because I had to try several times before it successfully reserved it.  We wanted traditional early, but 5pm is just too early for us.  Times for traditional are 5pm and 7:30pm.  So we chose the reservation one instead.  Hopefully this works well!

 

5:00 PM is what I feared. I guess I will be sticking with making a reservation for the same time and venue for the entire cruise as I've done for all cruises since the restart and the advent of DMW.

[Kay S]

50 minutes ago, 1sttimeAlaska said:

I was able to confirm the Botticelli Dining Room every night for our September cruise on the Emerald.  

My experience has been that times will vary from ship to ship.  I think I'll wait for six months or so to see how it all shakes out before booking another cruise.

[Kay S]

47 minutes ago, alwalaska said:

I'm wondering if the traditional dining rooms are going to be partially empty and the lines for walk-up will be crazy.  At least on this thread, not very many people seem interested in traditional. 

There are a lot more fans of TD than post here on CC.  And if the TD dining room is not full and the walk up is crazy, they will direct some of those walk ups to the empty TD tables exactly as they used to do in the past, pre covid and pre DMV.  

[RGEDad]

27 minutes ago, cpizzull said:

Is it possible to do Reservation Dining with a table of 8, for the same time every night??  with same waiters

I was on the Regal in February with my daughter who has special dietary needs. Once the manager found out he got her a special dinner for that night, then he reserved a table for us at the same time, that specific table, and each night he brought over the next night's special menu and had her pre-order so it would be ready for her. He also coordinated with the head waiter for our table. He would check on us each day, and check with us after the dinner to make sure all was well. Truly outstanding customer care.
Talk to the manager - I am sure they can set it up for you.

[alwalaska]

6 minutes ago, Kay S said:

There are a lot more fans of TD than post here on CC.  And if the TD dining room is not full and the walk up is crazy, they will direct some of those walk ups to the empty TD tables exactly as they used to do in the past, pre covid and pre DMV.  

Yes, but unfortunately, those are almost all big tables.  Our Panama Canal cruise is on the Coral, so only 2 dining rooms for 3 purposes and someone was saying that reservations and walk-ups would share one dining room. It will make the lines even longer if they have to walk people to the other dining room. 

Hopefully, I can get everything paid for and figured out in time to get us reservations for all of the evenings when we want to eat in the main dining room. 

[Kay S]

1 minute ago, alwalaska said:

Yes, but unfortunately, those are almost all big tables.  Our Panama Canal cruise is on the Coral, so only 2 dining rooms for 3 purposes and someone was saying that reservations and walk-ups would share one dining room. It will make the lines even longer if they have to walk people to the other dining room. 

Hopefully, I can get everything paid for and figured out in time to get us reservations for all of the evenings when we want to eat in the main dining room. 

Well, that varies from ship to ship.  The Coral is going to be an exception anyway with only the two dining rooms.  The Royal class ships provided lots more two and four tops than were on the Grand class ships.  Taking people from one dining room to another was never ideal, but it was a solution, and it was done for years, starting with the inception of Anytime Dining.  In any case, I wish you luck in settling it all, and I can guarantee you will love the Coral.  Prettiest ship in the fleet.

[1sttimeAlaska]

1 hour ago, adamtoonarmy said:

Where were the choices? My app still has the three MDRs and when I click on any of them it says no times available. So where did you see the options for traditional, reservation and walk up MDRs?

I think they are just overloaded, and I got lucky I got in.  When I look now, it says it either can't load the content, or No results found.  I hate to say keep trying, but that may be the only thing to keep you sane!  When I did get in, it listed the two restaurants available for either traditional or reserved. 

[memoak]

1 hour ago, alwalaska said:

I'm wondering if the traditional dining rooms are going to be partially empty and the lines for walk-up will be crazy.  At least on this thread, not very many people seem interested in traditional. 

Remember people on this site are a very small minority of cruisers

[Bobsgonecoastal]

I was just on the phone with my cruise planner and he’s telling me I can’t select a dining time until the cruise is within 90 days of sailing.  Is that true?

 

im use to picking early or late dining shortly after I book a cruise and put our preferences via online.  What am  missing here?

[RGEDad]

I went back in - and checked my reservation (that had been accepted) only to find i had no reservation - so going back in to re-try the same reservation...
Keep getting bumped out
recommend after you make your reservation - you exit the system, then go back in to verify your reservations is still intact

 

[SuziCruises]

Do you still have to be paid in full and your guest registration completed?   So it will be awhile before I can do it for my June 2025 cruise?  Sure would be nice if all this was in writing somewhere. 

 

Edited Monday at 08:12 PM by SuziCruises

[Gunner 66]

Yes......mine says cruise must be paid in full. Won't be until January. So final payment isn't due until October.

Edited Monday at 08:20 PM by Gunner 66

[dreaminofcruisin]

My cruise in 2 weeks for which I had made reservations, now has NO reservations.

I still can't book reservations for my February 2025 cruise.

Good job Princess.

☹️

[AZaTaz]

1 minute ago, dreaminofcruisin said:

My cruise in 2 weeks for which I had made reservations, now has NO reservations.

I still can't book reservations for my February 2025 cruise.

Good job Princess.

☹️

Just out of curiosity are you gty 

[RGEDad]

(Regal Ship) So clearly the system has issues/overload. I thought I had a reservation from previous attempt, and it said i was confirmed reservation. I went back in later to confirm, it was not showing any dining reservations. Tried again to make a new one for every night at 6 pm, Error code, tried multiple times, same error code issue, tried a new way to look at my schedule, now i have three dining reservations in the Alegro dining room for each night at 6 pm...

Think I will let it (the system) get a good nights sleep and look at it in the morning...
At worst i will have to go in to delete the duplicate dining reservations.

 

[alwalaska]

29 minutes ago, memoak said:

Remember people on this site are a very small minority of cruisers

Yes, but traditionally, they are the loudest and the cruise lines listen to them. 🙂  Everyone sounded really excited about traditional coming back, but both here and the group site that shall not be named, everyone has been saying how they are making reservations in the "anytime" concept and not doing the traditional.  Maybe the people who want traditional just aren't as antsy to get something officially reserved. 

[dreaminofcruisin]

3 minutes ago, AZaTaz said:

Just out of curiosity are you gty 

 

Nope.

and Elite.

[t&atravel]

30 minutes ago, SuziCruises said:

Do you still have to be paid in full and your guest registration completed?   So it will be awhile before I can do it for my June 2025 cruise?  Sure would be nice if all this was in writing somewhere. 

 

@SuziCruises   It is in writing.

 

https://www.princess.com/en-us/ships-and-experience/onboard-experience/food-and-dining/dining-reservations