Silversea Dining Questions

[RELS]

This is our first Silversea voyage. I just booked dining reservations for the restaurants that require them. I have a few questions about how things are handled:

 

1. There are only three timeslots for reservations: Early = 7pm to 8pm, Regular = 8pm to 9pm, Late = 9pm to 10pm. Do they expect you to show up at the beginning of the reservation timeslot? Or can you show up any time during that timeslot? For example, can we arrive at 7:30 for an Early reservation, or will we lose the slot because we didn't arrive at 7?

 

2. We are dining with another couple, so I reserved for us plus 2 guests. At this point, for the upcharge restaurants, we are being "charged" (I know that the charge doesn't happen until we actually dine) for all 4 of us. Can we rearrange this charge when we get on board? We trust them to reimburse us if not :-).

 

3. Is there a way to get the reservations to show up on the other couple's calendar in MySilversea? On RSSC, when you book for other guests, you put in the reservation number of the other guests, and the reservation then shows up on both calendars. I did not see anything on SS that allowed for this.

 

TIA for the benefit of your experience.

[Stumblefoot]

1. Technically speaking, you haven’t made a reservation but rather a request.  I know it’s hard to believe in this day and age, but SS doesn’t have a reservation system yet that functions like Open Table, Tock, etc.  As such, when you arrive to your suite you’ll find your confirmed reservations and times.  Generally speaking, the times assigned can be changed with your butler.  For example, you have a confirmed reservation for 7:00p which coincides with the request you made between 7:00p to 8:00p, so you have the butler change it to your preferred time, say 7:45p.  We learned the hard way pre-Covid that you just don’t show up anytime between 7:00p to 8:00p without having your time confirmed with the

maître d'.

 

2. Yes, it will be no problem for the dining venue manager to split your specialty dining charges however you wish.

[Observer]

2 hours ago, RELS said:

This is our first Silversea voyage. I just booked dining reservations for the restaurants that require them. I have a few questions about how things are handled:

 

1. There are only three timeslots for reservations: Early = 7pm to 8pm, Regular = 8pm to 9pm, Late = 9pm to 10pm. Do they expect you to show up at the beginning of the reservation timeslot? Or can you show up any time during that timeslot? For example, can we arrive at 7:30 for an Early reservation, or will we lose the slot because we didn't arrive at 7?

this should be no problem at all. Depending upon how occupancy is on a given cruise, they can be very flexible about reservations.   In any case, they do not expect you to arrive on the hour.

 

2 hours ago, RELS said:

 

2. We are dining with another couple, so I reserved for us plus 2 guests. At this point, for the upcharge restaurants, we are being "charged" (I know that the charge doesn't happen until we actually dine) for all 4 of us. Can we rearrange this charge when we get on board? We trust them to reimburse us if not :-).

again, this should be no problem.   Simply ask the maître d’ to do two  charge slips for each evening.

2 hours ago, RELS said:

 

3. Is there a way to get the reservations to show up on the other couple's calendar in MySilversea? On RSSC, when you book for other guests, you put in the reservation number of the other guests, and the reservation then shows up on both calendars. I did not see anything on SS that allowed for this.

I have never been faced by this issue. But I am not aware of any way to put it on both calendars.

 

enjoy your Silversea experience.

2 hours ago, RELS said:

 

TIA for the benefit of your experience.

 

[PMJ]

I would like to add a dining question.  What is the dress code for the Antarctica cruise?  Are there any ‘dressy nights’ or venues?  We sail Feb. 20- very excited and certainly don’t want to make Amy faux pas!

[Stumblefoot]

3 hours ago, PMJ said:

What is the dress code for the Antarctica cruise? 

Completely different than the Classic vessels.  In general, very casual.  The dressiest night will be the Captain’s reception and even then, very few will even be dressed informally.

[taxatty]

On our recent Antarctic Cloud cruise, I didn't see anyone thrown out of any restaurant for clothing-related reasons--most of the men wore polo or collared button-down shirts with or without a sweater or casual jacket to dinner--around 10% wore sport coats on a couple of nights. The women did tend to dress up for dinner a bit more, but I guess that's par for the course.

[Cruisegal5]

We are going on our 1st SS cruise to Alaska. How strict is dress code there? We have a lot of waterproof stuff to bring so don't want to bring too many dressy outfits.

[Stumblefoot]

7 hours ago, Cruisegal5 said:

We are going on our 1st SS cruise to Alaska. How strict is dress code there? We have a lot of waterproof stuff to bring so don't want to bring too many dressy outfits.

SS dress codes are adhered to.  With that said, how long is your voyage? Voyages of 7-days or less are always formal optional.

[labrasett]

On 2/4/2022 at 1:25 AM, PMJ said:

I would like to add a dining question.  What is the dress code for the Antarctica cruise?  Are there any ‘dressy nights’ or venues?  We sail Feb. 20- very excited and certainly don’t want to make Amy faux pas!

Something a bit smarter for ladies than usual casual (could be just a lovely scarf and pearls to dress up a simple sweater, ideally jacket for the chaps and maybe (but only maybe) a tie.   You will be fine if you make just a little more effort for the Captains welcome night.   Have a fantastic time, not long now.

[ronrick1943]

On 1/30/2022 at 5:47 PM, Stumblefoot said:

1. Technically speaking, you haven’t made a reservation but rather a request.  I know it’s hard to believe in this day and age, but SS doesn’t have a reservation system yet that functions like Open Table, Tock, etc.  As such, when you arrive to your suite you’ll find your confirmed reservations and times.  Generally speaking, the times assigned can be changed with your butler.  For example, you have a confirmed reservation for 7:00p which coincides with the request you made between 7:00p to 8:00p, so you have the butler change it to your preferred time, say 7:45p.  We learned the hard way pre-Covid that you just don’t show up anytime between 7:00p to 8:00p without having your time confirmed with the

maître d'.

 

2. Yes, it will be no problem for the dining venue manager to split your specialty dining charges however you wish.

If I’m reading this right—you make a request to eat say 7:00PM to 8:00PM and they assign you the time later—like 7:15PM or 7:49PM?????

[dawntrdr]

12 minutes ago, ronrick1943 said:

If I’m reading this right—you make a request to eat say 7:00PM to 8:00PM and they assign you the time later—like 7:15PM or 7:49PM?????

Yes, this happened to us on the Moon.  I made a reservation for 7:00 pm on MySilversea several weeks before sailing; it went on the schedule no problem.  When I showed up at 7:00 pm, the maitre'd told me "but your reservation is for 7:30".  Apparently it was on my in-room TV schedule??  So I hung out at the bar for 30 minutes.  Obviously it helps the kitchen if everyone is not there at 7 pm.  I'll just remember to check the TV schedule next time.

[Stumblefoot]

39 minutes ago, ronrick1943 said:

If I’m reading this right—you make a request to eat say 7:00PM to 8:00PM and they assign you the time later—like 7:15PM or 7:49PM?????

Yes.  Well, never 7:49p. 😉

 

Most voyages we’ve been on, there is usually at least one night that the time is different.

[HPfoodie]

20 hours ago, ronrick1943 said:

If I’m reading this right—you make a request to eat say 7:00PM to 8:00PM and they assign you the time later—like 7:15PM or 7:49PM?????

So, we have booked the 8-9 slot - but don't really want to eat as late as 9 - if we are allocated say 8.45, can we speak to our butler or someone else to make it earlier?  It's our first SS. TIA

[ronrick1943]

1 hour ago, HPfoodie said:

So, we have booked the 8-9 slot - but don't really want to eat as late as 9 - if we are allocated say 8.45, can we speak to our butler or someone else to make it earlier?  It's our first SS. TIA

I don’t get it, why can’t you book the time you want if available at the time of booking, like 7:00PM. 7:15PM, 7:30PM, 7:45PM and so on.  Doesn’t make sense to me why Silversea does it the way they do.  

[HPfoodie]

2 hours ago, ronrick1943 said:

7:00PM. 7:15PM, 7:30PM, 7:45PM and so on.

That’s what we think too. 

[Stumblefoot]

5 hours ago, HPfoodie said:

So, we have booked the 8-9 slot - but don't really want to eat as late as 9 - if we are allocated say 8.45, can we speak to our butler or someone else to make it earlier?  It's our first SS. TIA

Yes, most definitely. I doubt you’ll have any trouble changing it to an earlier time.

 

3 hours ago, ronrick1943 said:

I don’t get it, why can’t you book the time you want if available at the time of booking, like 7:00PM. 7:15PM, 7:30PM, 7:45PM and so on.  Doesn’t make sense to me why Silversea does it the way they do.  

Because SS doesn’t have a technology system to allow you to do so.  Plus, SS doesn’t want to provide early booking for all time slots.  It would defeat the long-standing purpose of the brand mantra to dine anywhere whenever you like.  As such, SS always holds a significant number of time slots and tables so that passengers can make reservations on board the ship.
 

For many here, the thought of reserving the place, let alone the time, to eat months in advance isn’t appealing.  Some folks prefer to look at the menus posted outside each venue each day and decide at that time where to eat that evening.

[HPfoodie]

15 minutes ago, Stumblefoot said:

For many here, the thought of reserving the place, let alone the time, to eat months in advance isn’t appealing.  Some folks prefer to look at the menus posted outside each venue each day and decide at that time where to eat that evening.

I fully understand that. We would rather decide on a day by day basis, but got the impression from posts that some places may be fully booked. 

[ronrick1943]

1 hour ago, Stumblefoot said:

Yes, most definitely. I doubt you’ll have any trouble changing it to an earlier time.

 

Because SS doesn’t have a technology system to allow you to do so.  Plus, SS doesn’t want to provide early booking for all time slots.  It would defeat the long-standing purpose of the brand mantra to dine anywhere whenever you like.  As such, SS always holds a significant number of time slots and tables so that passengers can make reservations on board the ship.
 

For many here, the thought of reserving the place, let alone the time, to eat months in advance isn’t appealing.  Some folks prefer to look at the menus posted outside each venue each day and decide at that time where to eat that evening.

OK, sounds reasonable - but if you’re booking a table for a restaurant you want early you should get a time, not a time between 7 and 8 our 8 and 9!  Just an opinion.

[Stumblefoot]

2 hours ago, ronrick1943 said:

OK, sounds reasonable - but if you’re booking a table for a restaurant you want early you should get a time, not a time between 7 and 8 our 8 and 9!  Just an opinion.

Trust me, I understand. When it comes to me, you’re preaching to the choir.  
 

In this day and age, there’s no excuse for not having a proper reservation system that at a minimum accommodates arrivals in 15-minute windows, especially when they could just license OpenTable’s white label product.  Such a system would have zero negative impact on the onboard guest reservation experience, while at the same time reducing the amount of time a restaurant manager has to spend organizing hourly dining periods.

[Daveywavey70]

1 hour ago, Stumblefoot said:

Trust me, I understand. When it comes to me, you’re preaching to the choir.  
 

In this day and age, there’s no excuse for not having a proper reservation system that at a minimum accommodates arrivals in 15-minute windows, especially when they could just license OpenTable’s white label product.  Such a system would have zero negative impact on the onboard guest reservation experience, while at the same time reducing the amount of time a restaurant manager has to spend organizing hourly dining periods.

I concur, There are many off the pegs already out there that could easily be incorporated. 

[Host Jazzbeau]

I don't know what IT system Silversea had before, but now that they are part of RCG they have to re-code everything in Cobol...

[jpalbny]

16 hours ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

I don't know what IT system Silversea had before

 

Punch cards and 8-inch floppy disks?

[Stickman1990]

1 hour ago, jpalbny said:

 

Punch cards and 8-inch floppy disks?

No doubt made by that good old Italian computer company - Olivetti 😂