UPDATE FOR RESERVATIONS AT MANFREDI'S AND CHEFS TABLE

[Fieldofdreams]

In  earlier posts I mentioned that I would provide an update on booking dining reservations at the two specialty restaurants Manfredi's and Chefs Table. 

 

My Experience: Reservations for our cruise were supposed to open 8:00pm Pacific Time 11:00 P.M. Eastern Time today (12/23/2022). Received notifications on MyVikingJourney last night that reservations were open for booking however when I went to make an actual reservation for each restaurant it stated that reservations were not yet open. When I got up this morning to check, most reservations were taken, all Sea Days were booked and no availability with times on any days before 8:30 pm. I did call Viking and explained the situation and the first representative was not at all helpful. I called back and was able to get a great person who was able to book days and times that worked for us including two Sea Days, and yes obviously some reservation inventory is held back. When I explained what happened to the second agent there were no surprises, they are receiving lots of calls regarding booking at Manfredi's and the Chefs Table. My learning experience and advice is the check 24 hours in advance and keep checking even throughout the evening. Folks on CC have been so helpful and generous with their experiences, thought I would take the time to share and help others out as well.

[CDNPolar]

This has been discussed many times before.

 

We book the lowest level cabin for many reasons other than price, but also realize that we get NO pre-booking of the specialty restaurants.

 

We board the ship, immediately connect to the ship wifi and then open the Viking Voyager app.  We are able to get reservations when and where we want them without any issue.  

 

We love the Chef's Table, and we book every 3-4 days when the menu changes and get the time and table size we want every time.  Last cruise we ate all 5 menus of the Chef's Table.

 

Manfreidi's can be more difficult - it is clearly more popular than Chef's Table, but we have never had an issue getting reservations.

 

Our first couple of cruises, we booked higher cabin levels with pre-booking options and went through all the frustration that you have been experiencing.

 

 

Edited December 23, 2022 by CDNPolar

[photopro2]

20 minutes ago, CDNPolar said:

Last cruise we ate all 5 menus of the Chef's Table.

 

Manfreidi's can be more difficult - it is clearly more popular than Chef's Table, but we have never had an issue getting reservations.

Would you mind if I ask when this cruise was?

My perception, both from personal experience and anecdotal evidence, is that on board reservations are becoming noticeably more difficult to obtain as time goes on.

[photopro2]

55 minutes ago, Fieldofdreams said:

I called back and was able to get a great person who was able to book days and times that worked for us including two Sea Days

Did you confirm if these were tables for two or on a shared table? The reason I ask is that we did this and were surprised when we boarded to discover that the reservations were on shared tables. However we did then manage to change the bookings to tables for two at a later time on same evenings.

[Fieldofdreams]

40 minutes ago, CDNPolar said:

This has been discussed many times before.

 

We book the lowest level cabin for many reasons other than price, but also realize that we get NO pre-booking of the specialty restaurants.

 

We board the ship, immediately connect to the ship wifi and then open the Viking Voyager app.  We are able to get reservations when and where we want them without any issue.  

 

We love the Chef's Table, and we book every 3-4 days when the menu changes and get the time and table size we want every time.  Last cruise we ate all 5 menus of the Chef's Table.

 

Manfreidi's can be more difficult - it is clearly more popular than Chef's Table, but we have never had an issue getting reservations.

 

Our first couple of cruises, we booked higher cabin levels with pre-booking options and went through all the frustration that you have been experiencing.

 

 

Thanks for that information. The Viking representative shared the same info with us about the Viking Voyager app. Great info.

[Fieldofdreams]

20 minutes ago, photopro2 said:

Would you mind if I ask when this cruise was?

My perception, both from personal experience and anecdotal evidence, is that on board reservations are becoming noticeably more difficult to obtain as time goes on.

Our cruise, a 15 day Australia/New Zealand cruise embarks Feb. 21st 2023

[Fieldofdreams]

9 minutes ago, photopro2 said:

Did you confirm if these were tables for two or on a shared table? The reason I ask is that we did this and were surprised when we boarded to discover that the reservations were on shared tables. However we did then manage to change the bookings to tables for two at a later time on same evenings.

We are traveling with another couple so reservations are for four. We were asked if a table of 6 was available would we be willing to share, we declined and they were able to find reservations for the four of us. I will say you have to be somewhat flexible on reservation time.

[photopro2]

7 minutes ago, Fieldofdreams said:

so reservations are for four

That makes sense, advance reservations only seem to be available on tables of four or more. I just wanted to be sure people were aware of that and not caught out.

Sorry if my question about the date of the cruise caused some confusion. It was intended for CDNPolar as I'm interested to know how up-to-date their information is.

 

 

[CDNPolar]

1 hour ago, photopro2 said:

Would you mind if I ask when this cruise was?

My perception, both from personal experience and anecdotal evidence, is that on board reservations are becoming noticeably more difficult to obtain as time goes on.

The last two cruises - December 2021 and June of 2022

[CDNPolar]

54 minutes ago, photopro2 said:

Did you confirm if these were tables for two or on a shared table? The reason I ask is that we did this and were surprised when we boarded to discover that the reservations were on shared tables. However we did then manage to change the bookings to tables for two at a later time on same evenings.

Tables for two and tables for four as we were travelling with another couple but did not always eat together.  We have never on Viking been presented with a shared table.

[photopro2]

1 hour ago, CDNPolar said:

We have never on Viking been presented with a shared table.

Expecting guests to use shared tables seems to have become standard practise in recent months. When advance booking opened for our next cruise, the page on MVJ Immediately showed that all available tables for two had already been booked:

On contacting Viking the only "other available options" offered were for shared tables. This is backed up by the OP's comment that they had booked tables for four without difficulty, however I am sure that getting a table for two in advance would have been a different matter.

Given that Covid is not completely behind us I am disappointed that the sharing of tables between strangers, as well as those travelling together, is now being promoted/encouraged by Viking.

[harbourside]

3 hours ago, Fieldofdreams said:

Our cruise, a 15 day Australia/New Zealand cruise embarks Feb. 21st 2023

We are on this cruise.  The days available started at day 9 (what happened to day 1-8) and only 9.00pm times available.  My booking time stated 8.00pm Sydney time which  would have been 10.00pm NZ time this evening.  After seeming your post, I went and checked.

[Pushka]

Is there a reason why bookings are being held back these days? I always thought it was a Covid safe reason. But enabling shared tables and not tables for two seems to contradict that idea.  

[miami mama]

There have always been a very generous number of tables for two. Making people share tables doesn't make any sense especially since Viking seemed to take the most care regarding Covid safety procedures in the past.

[Fieldofdreams]

9 hours ago, CDNPolar said:

Tables for two and tables for four as we were travelling with another couple but did not always eat together.  We have never on Viking been presented with a shared table.

Our upcoming cruise in February are reservations for just the four of us

[Fieldofdreams]

7 hours ago, harbourside said:

We are on this cruise.  The days available started at day 9 (what happened to day 1-8) and only 9.00pm times available.  My booking time stated 8.00pm Sydney time which  would have been 10.00pm NZ time this evening.  After seeming your post, I went and checked.

How did your bookings for your reservations go? Interesting, wonder if days 1-8 were completely booked?

[harbourside]

5 hours ago, Fieldofdreams said:

How did your bookings for your reservations go? Interesting, wonder if days 1-8 were completely booked?

Didn't get any bookings, as only 9.00pm available .  Days 1-8 did not show at all. 

[CDNPolar]

Is anyone trying to book using the Viking Voyager App?  We have gone to the dining room and not been successful in getting a time, but then gone to the App and booked a time.

 

Also this past June - could be different now - the Chef's Table was never more than half full and we were at Chef's Table 5 or 6 times in the 12 day cruise.  We did eat either 6:30pm or 7:00pm, but even when we were leaving, there were many empty tables.  ??

 

We wondered if they were limiting capacity because of staffing issues in the kitchen?

 

I see these threads with many experiencing challenges booking but it has - to this point - never been our experience.

 

Manfredi's is a bit different as it is clearly more popular, but we are in the minority that prefer Chef's Table to Manfredi's anyway.  Frankly we prefer The Restaurant to Manfredi's.

[Fieldofdreams]

10 hours ago, harbourside said:

Didn't get any bookings, as only 9.00pm available .  Days 1-8 did not show at all. 

Sorry, have you tried calling Viking directly, think they may have access to more inventory

[Fieldofdreams]

9 hours ago, CDNPolar said:

Is anyone trying to book using the Viking Voyager App?  We have gone to the dining room and not been successful in getting a time, but then gone to the App and booked a time.

 

Also this past June - could be different now - the Chef's Table was never more than half full and we were at Chef's Table 5 or 6 times in the 12 day cruise.  We did eat either 6:30pm or 7:00pm, but even when we were leaving, there were many empty tables.  ??

 

We wondered if they were limiting capacity because of staffing issues in the kitchen?

 

I see these threads with many experiencing challenges booking but it has - to this point - never been our experience.

 

Manfredi's is a bit different as it is clearly more popular, but we are in the minority that prefer Chef's Table to Manfredi's anyway.  Frankly we prefer The Restaurant to Manfredi's.

Thanks for adding this additional info. 

[Cienfuegos]

Very useful info, thank you.

 

If you have more info on the staffing issue, that might be helpful. An understaffed kitchen or front of house might explain some of the hold backs on making tables available.  Viking may be staffing a February 2023 cruise with some folks who are currently on leave / rotation at home. And the company hopes they return to service.

 

Covid is still a concern for many countries from which Viking draws its staff.

[Mimiya11]

Have really appreciated some of the sage words of advice from other's experiences.   So just wanted to share my dining reservation experience that just happened.   

 

While dining reservations were supposed to open at 8pm Pacific time which is 11pm here in Toronto, for fun, I went on MJV and the reservations were open!!  It is only about 1:30 pm here.  

 

Anyway, tables for 2 were open, but times were varied.   One Manfredi reservation I got was at 6:30, another 8pm.   No surprise there. 

 

While Chef's Table times had good options for earlier diners, many of the dates that I had wanted only had late dining.   

 

Glad I checked and will definitely go on the app once we board in March.   We do want to see the Chef's Table menus to book accordingly.

 

[photopro2]

19 minutes ago, Mimiya11 said:

Anyway, tables for 2 were open,

As you mentioned making two reservations in Manfredi's I suspect you may be in a higher category cabin than the majority in DV grade cabins, who are those generally encountering difficulties.

 

 

Edited December 27, 2022 by photopro2
revised content

[millybess]

11 minutes ago, Mimiya11 said:

 

 

While dining reservations were supposed to open at 8pm Pacific time which is 11pm here in Toronto, for fun, I went on MJV and the reservations were open!!  It is only about 1:30 pm here.  

 

Same. We were to book at 11pm December 25 and I checked at 6am and voila! They were probably available to book even earlier than that. 
 

We booked all of our Manfredis reservations which we will keep, and we  booked our Chefs Table reservations, but will wait to see what the menus are before we try to rearrange them once on board.

 

Pre Covid they would post the Chefs Table menus for each day before booking. Doing that again would help. 

[OneSixtyToOne]

19 minutes ago, Mimiya11 said:

While dining reservations were supposed to open at 8pm Pacific time which is 11pm here in Toronto, for fun, I went on MJV and the reservations were open!!  It is only about 1:30 pm here.  

I had the same experience on a different booking. Reservations were suppose to open at 8:00 PM Pacific Time. Logged in a little after 7:00 AM and they were already open.