Dining Reservations No Longer Guaranteed

[shadowlover]

3 minutes ago, May B said:

This whole topic about restaurant reservations boggles my mind. If I take a ten night  cruise in a deluxe veranda stateroom, might I have to eat EIGHT dinners at the World Cafe?

We actually ended up eating in the world cafe for the majority of our meals towards the end of our 15 day cruise.  The food is really good and the service was excellent.  Please don't get too fussed up.  You will most likely find that you are able to get plenty of reservations while onboard.  Viking tends to bend over backward to please. 

I'm glad that you love your husbands company the best- it is sweet and I feel the same about mine- he's my best friend.   We do tend to try and socialize on longer cruises because we have met so many interesting people!  Viking cruisers tend to be well traveled, well educated and super fun!

[May B]

32 minutes ago, shadowlover said:

We actually ended up eating in the world cafe for the majority of our meals towards the end of our 15 day cruise.  The food is really good and the service was excellent.  Please don't get too fussed up.  You will most likely find that you are able to get plenty of reservations while onboard.  Viking tends to bend over backward to please. 

I'm glad that you love your husbands company the best- it is sweet and I feel the same about mine- he's my best friend.   We do tend to try and socialize on longer cruises because we have met so many interesting people!  Viking cruisers tend to be well traveled, well educated and super fun!

And very helpful! Two of my fellow guests went out of their way to help me, on Octantis. I felt like it was not a coincidence. I also agree that crew, staff and officers go out of their way to be helpful.

 

I guess that’s why we’re considering the Baltic on Viking Jupiter next year for our 55th anniversary.

[May B]

1 minute ago, May B said:

And very helpful! Two of my fellow guests went out of their way to help me, on Octantis. I felt like it was not a coincidence. I also agree that crew, staff and officers go out of their way to be helpful.

 

I guess that’s why we’re considering the Baltic on Viking Jupiter next year for our 55th anniversary.

That having been said, when I filled out the end-of-cruise survey, I was perplexed at having to answer regarding Viking’s comparison to its competition in the cruise industry. I’ve never in my 49 other cruises cruised on a ship where I couldn’t dine every night at a full-service restaurant.

 

I agree there was great variety, much of it very good to really nice, at the World Cafe.
 

Does any venue ever serve rack of lamb? 

[Mrs Miggins]

You can dine every night in  a full service restaurant.  It is on Deck 2.  The World Cafe is on Deck 7.  Plus you are guaranteed one reservation in each of the speciality restaurants.  I agree that it is frustrating that booking online at the moment does not work = but we will book onboard.  Friends just back from a 14 day Mediterranean cruise were in Manfredi's 3 times and in the Chef's Table once.

Edited July 31, 2022 by Mrs Miggins

[Queenie1603]

I am sure it will work out OK in the end. Viking could have been more upfront about the booking issue. May be customer services didn’t know there was an issue. I was  told I was late booking where as, like our excursions I was ready to book on the day they came available. We have booked a PV so should have had 7 days grace before the DV bookings became available and are cruising for 14 days. Apart from two  visits to the daily visits I made to ‘my journey’ they were never available and on the two occasions they were the only sittings were at 9 pm and one of those was on the last night!
My expectations would be that Viking would have communicated the problem and how it will be resolved. 
I’ll find out on Saturday when we board the Sky and post here. 

[photopro2]

3 hours ago, Mrs Miggins said:

You can dine every night in  a full service restaurant.  

You certainly can dine every night in The Restaurant without reservations on the ocean ships. I think there may have been some misunderstanding and that @May B was referring to their experience on the Octantis where reservations are very much required in The Restaurant and not always available (due to it being much smaller than on the ocean ships) as well as in Manfredi's. When we were on the Octantis we were surprised to find it easier to get reservations in Manfredi's than in The Restaurant!

 

9 hours ago, shadowlover said:

We actually ended up eating in the world cafe for the majority of our meals towards the end of our 15 day cruise.  The food is really good and the service was excellent.  Please don't get too fussed up.  You will most likely find that you are able to get plenty of reservations while onboard.  Viking tends to bend over backward to please. 

I completely agree. We mostly eat in the world cafe by choice. We love being able to dine to our own timescale and impose some degree of portion control on ourselves. However, given the tempting quality of the food, that's not always easy 🙂 

 

3 hours ago, Queenie1603 said:

My expectations would be that Viking would have communicated the problem and how it will be resolved. 
I’ll find out on Saturday when we board the Sky and post here. 

You sum up my gripe with Viking exactly. It was the fact that Viking are not proactively communicating at all with their customers on this issue that prompted me to start this thread.

Despite this I'm sure you will have an absolutely wonderful time once onboard. Safe travels and we look forward to hearing from you soon.

[Mrs Miggins]

I agree, it is particularly galling to get several emails from Viking , one more received today, telling me to be sure to log into My Viking Journey to book dining. I am doing that on a daily basis but no change to the message telling me reservations are not available at this time.I know it will be OK once onboard but it is frustrating.

[May B]

8 hours ago, Mrs Miggins said:

You can dine every night in  a full service restaurant.  It is on Deck 2.  The World Cafe is on Deck 7.  Plus you are guaranteed one reservation in each of the speciality restaurants.  I agree that it is frustrating that booking online at the moment does not work = but we will book onboard.  Friends just back from a 14 day Mediterranean cruise were in Manfredi's 3 times and in the Chef's Table once.

Guaranteed one reservation in WHAT specialty restaurants?

 

 

[philw1776]

1 minute ago, May B said:

Guaranteed one reservation in WHAT specialty restaurants?

 

 

Manfreidis & Chef's Table

[May B]

3 minutes ago, philw1776 said:

Manfreidis & Chef's Table

Ah, ok, thx! 
 

Is there a particularly good night to dine there?

Edited July 31, 2022 by May B

[philw1776]

Menu seems to be the same every night at Manfreidis but changes every 3-4 days at Chef's Table. People either love or hate the Table menus.
Besides the World Cafe, dining adjacent at the pool area can be fun. Pop up surprise buffets get held there some evenings.

[May B]

10 minutes ago, philw1776 said:

Menu seems to be the same every night at Manfreidis but changes every 3-4 days at Chef's Table. People either love or hate the Table menus.
Besides the World Cafe, dining adjacent at the pool area can be fun. Pop up surprise buffets get held there some evenings.

Manfredi’s also has a fish of the day and a pasta of the day. We easily dined there two out of seven nights.

[Queenie1603]

I promised I’d post an update. We sail on Saturday.  I contacted Customer Services again yesterday as I hadn’t  heard anything. This morning I woke to find an email saying they were pleased to advise that they were able to accommodate all my dining requests. My Journey hasn’t updated to reflect this but at least I have the email.

l have spent a lot of time trying to sort this out. The system isn’t working for some reason. I did make me wonder whether I should use a TA next time so they can sort it out! 

[May B]

Remember that my only experience is on Octantis, but I just found out on Facebook that a guest had success booking presumably ALL nights at The Restaurant, onboard, on the app. Is it possible that I didn’t try that? The guest was responding to somebody who had the same experience as I did, booked four out seven, ate the other three dinners at World Cafe.

 

Queenie, bon voyage!

[villager13]

5 hours ago, Queenie1603 said:

I promised I’d post an update. We sail on Saturday.  I contacted Customer Services again yesterday as I hadn’t  heard anything. This morning I woke to find an email saying they were pleased to advise that they were able to accommodate all my dining requests. My Journey hasn’t updated to reflect this but at least I have the email.

l have spent a lot of time trying to sort this out. The system isn’t working for some reason. I did make me wonder whether I should use a TA next time so they can sort it out! 

Did you get to make reservations at the main dining room each night? 

[MICHE99]

On 7/30/2022 at 8:55 PM, May B said:

That having been said, when I filled out the end-of-cruise survey, I was perplexed at having to answer regarding Viking’s comparison to its competition in the cruise industry. I’ve never in my 49 other cruises cruised on a ship where I couldn’t dine every night at a full-service restaurant.

 

I agree there was great variety, much of it very good to really nice, at the World Cafe.
 

Does any venue ever serve rack of lamb? 

 

[MICHE99]

Am I understanding that there is not a regular dining room that is easily available? Or is it only the specialty restaurants that require advance reservations? 

[janetcbl]

4 hours ago, MICHE99 said:

Am I understanding that there is not a regular dining room that is easily available? Or is it only the specialty restaurants that require advance reservations? 

On our recent 28 day cruise only the speciality restaurants required advanced reservations. And sometimes you could just walk up to the restaurant and get a table without a reservation if tables were available, The Restaurant did not need a reservation.

[May B]

5 hours ago, MICHE99 said:

Am I understanding that there is not a regular dining room that is easily available? Or is it only the specialty restaurants that require advance reservations? 

I was on Octantis, which is an expedition ship, not river nor ocean. The World Cafe is always open for dinner, no lines, no waiting; but it’s buffet. Plenty of variety, usually at the correct temperature. Wait staff serves drinks and clears table. There are I think six seats overlooking the grill area, similar to overlooking the kitchen at some fine restaurants. I think you’d still be getting your sides yourself, though. We didn’t try it.

 

The Restaurant and Manfredi’s require a reservation. Depending on load factor, you might or might not be be able to get seated at The Restaurant without a reservation. I don’t think that’s likely to work at Manfredi’s, but I would never say never. For our seven nights, we ate twice in The Restaurant and twice in Manfredi’s. That left three nights at the World Cafe.

[Twitchly]

On non-expedition ships, you do not have to make reservations to eat at the main restaurant (called, creatively, “the Restaurant”). Just at Manfredi’s and Chef’s Table.

[MICHE99]

Thank you, Janetcbl, May B and Twitchy. Appreciate the in-site. Been on many cruises but this will be our first Viking. All this talk about not getting reservations was concerning me. I’m not going to stress about the specialty restaurants. I’ll just see how it plays out onboard. We enjoy meeting people and are always happy to be seated at a group table as well. 

[May B]

17 hours ago, MICHE99 said:

Thank you, Janetcbl, May B and Twitchy. Appreciate the in-site. Been on many cruises but this will be our first Viking. All this talk about not getting reservations was concerning me. I’m not going to stress about the specialty restaurants. I’ll just see how it plays out onboard. We enjoy meeting people and are always happy to be seated at a group table as well. 

Have a blast! I like the idea of not stressing, for sure.

[photopro2]

On 8/6/2022 at 3:46 AM, MICHE99 said:

All this talk about not getting reservations was concerning me.

I owe you and others an apology.

In hindsight I should have titled the thread "Speciality Dining Reservations No Longer Guaranteed" Sorry for any confusion that caused.

Just to be clear: The Restaurant on the Ocean class ships does not and has never required advance reservations, apart from a brief period following the start-up after the Covid hiatus. In our experience you can just walk up and get seated almost immediately. The Restaurant on the Explorer class ships is a different matter and reservations have always been required there. 

[MICHE99]

8 hours ago, photopro2 said:

I owe you and others an apology.

In hindsight I should have titled the thread "Speciality Dining Reservations No Longer Guaranteed" Sorry for any confusion that caused.

Just to be clear: The Restaurant on the Ocean class ships does not and has never required advance reservations, apart from a brief period following the start-up after the Covid hiatus. In our experience you can just walk up and get seated almost immediately. The Restaurant on the Explorer class ships is a different matter and reservations have always been required there. 

Thank you for the clarification. We will be fine. Being a bit of a foodie I’m sure we would love to try the specialty restaurants but honestly I’m not sure I want to be worried about making plans for the day based on just that. Sounds like we could probably squeeze in somewhere in 14 days. My experience on other lines is that they are always willing to be accommodating and people change their minds. 

[Queenie1603]

On 8/2/2022 at 1:39 PM, villager13 said:

Did you get to make reservations at the main dining room each night? 

 

19 hours ago, MICHE99 said:

Thank you for the clarification. We will be fine. Being a bit of a foodie I’m sure we would love to try the specialty restaurants but honestly I’m not sure I want to be worried about making plans for the day based on just that. Sounds like we could probably squeeze in somewhere in 14 days. My experience on other lines is that they are always willing to be accommodating and people change their minds. 

Hi, we are now onboard the Viking Sky and all the speciality restaurants requests I made through guest services have been honoured and showing in my On board reservations. We were only able to make one booking for the Restaurant but will just turn up when we fancy eating and see what happens. I still don’t know why there booking service didn’t work this time.