Dining with friends

[roguebandit]

We have first time cruisers that are going to sail with us on Carnival.  How do we get the same table for early dining?  Can we do that before the cruise or do we have to talk to the maitre'd on the first day of the cruise?

[mdsgu]

Either message John Heald ahead of time, or take your friends to the MDR as soon as you board and speak with the maitre d'.  I have never had a problem with either method.

[dallasdan]

Also, log in to your account and click on booking order and details.  Scroll down and look for missing someone and send them an invite.  They will be linked with you.  this will help in getting seated together.  

Missing Someone? Invite them to be your Cruise Companion!

EMAIL ADDRESS

 

Send Invite

 

 

[Tradestock]

In the past, we have called CCL customer service and had the bookings linked together before the cruise date.

[roguebandit]

Thanks for everyone's help. I guess we will call since we don't do Facebook.  Do we need their booking number?

[Tradestock]

I think it would be a good idea to have it.  I don't remember if I needed it or not.  Someone else will probably chime in and answer that question with more accuracy. Have a great cruise.😃

[tattoos]

We always called CCL and gave them a list of names and booking #'s of people we wanted to sit with in the MDR and they linked our bookings together, easy peasy..

[skrufy]

3 hours ago, roguebandit said:

We have first time cruisers that are going to sail with us on Carnival.  How do we get the same table for early dining?  Can we do that before the cruise or do we have to talk to the maitre'd on the first day of the cruise?

Call Carnival and link your bookings. You will be seated together. 

[mz-s]

I reckon if you want to wait on hold be my guest. But you can invite cruise companions under Booking & Order Details on your cruise manager on Carnival.com.

[mrpayroll]

Yes you need their booking number.

[CoolOne56]

37 minutes ago, mz-s said:

I reckon if you want to wait on hold be my guest. But you can invite cruise companions under Booking & Order Details on your cruise manager on Carnival.com.

mz-s, If I invite people in my group to be my companion, will they see each other's name?

[mz-s]

19 minutes ago, CoolOne56 said:

mz-s, If I invite people in my group to be my companion, will they see each other's name?

 

I imagine so, all the companions can see each other's names in their cruise manager (and likely on the hub app once onboard as well).

[staceyglow]

5 hours ago, mdsgu said:

Either message John Heald ahead of time, or take your friends to the MDR as soon as you board and speak with the maitre d'.  I have never had a problem with either method.

Personally, I would never contact John Heald for something that could be easily solved in some other way.  He gets thousands upon thousands of emails, and he works 16 hours a day trying to answer them all.  Give the poor guy a break when you can.

[dallasdan]

If they accept the invite you will see them under cruise manager and they will show up on the hub app.  We all had any time dining so linking us before the cruise worked great.  I was able to make reservations and select the names of everyone in our party.

 

[joyce baly]

20 hours ago, roguebandit said:

Thanks for everyone's help. I guess we will call since we don't do Facebook.  Do we need their booking number?

You don't have to have Facebook, login to your Carnival account, then cruise manager click Booking and order details. You can link them to your booking, you will need their booking number. I have done this several times for our family, our first cruise was for 15 people and I have never had a problem. 

[wemjam]

One more note.  If you do log in and invite everyone to join together - once you are all linked you can use the Carnival hub app to request table for the number of people in that group that might want to eat together - if you decide to enjoy an specialty restaurants - and you will all be seated together as well.

[roguebandit]

My husband called Carnival (and surprise he only waited about 30 seconds to talk to a person) and he was told we need their name and date of birth or pin number (for security reasons) to be able to have them seated at our table.  

 

Thanks to everyone for your insight and advise.