Complimentary Dining Reservations

[MMackey348]

1 hour ago, KeithJenner said:

Yes, they can book them if you call or through online chat. The restriction is only online.

Thank you!

[KeithJenner]

1 hour ago, genealogyfan said:

That isn't true. On my sailing on the Epic in April, I was able to reserve multiple days at the Taste, a couple days at the Manhattan and even two separate reservations for Le Bistro - all ahead of time.

Was that online, or by calling? As stated above, the restriction appears to apply to most cruises when booking online, but occasionally some people have been able to do so.

 

There is no restriction when calling, by chat or onboard.

[KeithJenner]

1 hour ago, MMackey348 said:

Thank you!

Sorry, just to clarify that I wasn’t answering your question. I have only ever needed to book for up to 4 people so can’t comment on your situation.

 

I’d have thought that they can probably help if you call. There may be a department for larger groups. This has certainly been discussed on here a few times and I’m sure someone else will be able to help soon.

[Raleigh Traveler]

Don't worry and stress. On all of our ten NCL cruises, we have never had to wait more than 10 minutes at a MDR for a party of two. On one cruise with a party of 8, we were actually seated quicker because most of the people in line wanted tables for 2-4. We have never even made reservations pre-cruise for specialty dining and have always gotten a table, maybe not at the exact time we hoped for but never missed a good meal.

[scooter6139]

I ran into this same booking issue for Taste/Manhattan for our June Bliss sailing, where the reservations kept disappearing from the cart.  However, I received the dining update email from NCL that shows I have all those reservations I was trying to do.  Now I only have one night that is unassigned, which we will wait to be on the ship to decide (and maybe try to move some of those late seatings an hour or so forward, as 8:30 PM is pretty late for us).

[genealogyfan]

3 hours ago, KeithJenner said:

Was that online, or by calling? As stated above, the restriction appears to apply to most cruises when booking online, but occasionally some people have been able to do so.

 

There is no restriction when calling, by chat or onboard.

It was online. 

[Maleficent's Dad]

5 hours ago, genealogyfan said:

That isn't true. On my sailing on the Epic in April, I was able to reserve multiple days at the Taste, a couple days at the Manhattan and even two separate reservations for Le Bistro - all ahead of time.

Exactly the same experience for me - sailing the Joy in July and we have reservations for every night, speciality and MDR’s, with Taste, and the Manhattan Room on multiple nights.  We have a party of 6.

Edited May 24, 2023 by Maleficent's Dad

[Panhandle Couple]

Isn't the whole concept of "Free Style" dependent on NOT having to make reservations 3 months before sailing?  Especially for the free MDR's?  

 

As some have stated, we haven't had to wait more than 5 minutes for a table (for 2) at an MDR since restart, with 5 cruises completed.  (Dawn, Pearl, Bliss, Breakaway, Escape).  In most cases the wait was maybe 2 minutes, and that is waiting for the next guide to walk you to the table.

 

Is the more connected NCL web site making things WORSE for those who don't plan every step of a vacation 3 months ahead of time?  

 

 

[cmph]

I was able to make multiple reservations for a single MDR on the Dawn for June.

 

We had a few undecided nights, though, and after talking it over with the family, I went back to book the rest of the nights. Every time I added anything to my cart, whether it was an MDR or any of the specialty venues, no matter what time - it would disappear when I went to check out. Same thing whether I was on the mobile app or my computer. I thought the site was having issues, since I had had absolutely no problem the first round - but after a week of that, I had my husband try to book them via his account (2 rooms, one under each of our names). He successfully booked every restaurant/time I had earmarked, so it wasn't an issue of availability. I ended up calling tech support to find out what was wrong with my account, b/c I don't want any surprises down the road, but they couldn't find anything at all to cause this.

 

Super glitchy IT, that's all I can say!

[ChiefMateJRK]

1 hour ago, Panhandle Couple said:

Isn't the whole concept of "Free Style" dependent on NOT having to make reservations 3 months before sailing?  Especially for the free MDR's?

The point is to eat whenever you want to eat. Making a reservation in advance only serves as a placeholder and can be easily canceled if/when you make your "real" daily plans (i.e. Free Style).  Nobody has to make reservations for anything, but if they want some schedule flexibility when the day comes, a few tentative reservations are free and easy.😎

 

I tried to explain this in post #16:

"Like you, I generally don't reserve MDR, but it takes zero effort and at least gives us a placeholder if we like what the MDR is serving that night and want to eat at 5:30 to make it to some scheduled entertainment."

[KeithJenner]

I have never seen the idea of freestyle as being that you can wait to decide what and when you want to do things.

 

For me it is about being able to make those decisions myself, rather than being told by the cruise line when and where I am eating and what I need to wear. I understand that this is fairly standard these days on many lines, but it was a big difference when freestyle was introduced. NCL is still further down this road than many lines (no formal nights etc).

 

Just like in real life, reservations are still required in popular places, and there is no real way of avoiding this. I may need that reservation to be guaranteed access to Cagney's on a particular night, but it is totally my decision to eat there. Again, just like in real life.

 

As for the MDR's, I made my first reservation for one yesterday, just to check the booking system. It was no risk to me as we can always cancel/not turn up, and we will almost certainly use the booking anyway as we usually eat at around that time anyway and as we have no other plans that day we are unlikely to find going to Manhattan a problem.

 

If being able to wait until the day to decide on dining is important to anyone then they will struggle on NCL (assuming they will want to eat outside the complementary places), as they would with most, if not all, other mainstream lines. Logistics means that these things are required for the places that have limited seating.

 

But there is no requirement to book MDR's in my experience. We have rarely waited any time at all.

[Panhandle Couple]

2 hours ago, ChiefMateJRK said:

The point is to eat whenever you want to eat. Making a reservation in advance only serves as a placeholder and can be easily canceled if/when you make your "real" daily plans (i.e. Free Style).  Nobody has to make reservations for anything, but if they want some schedule flexibility when the day comes, a few tentative reservations are free and easy.😎

 

I tried to explain this in post #16:

"Like you, I generally don't reserve MDR, but it takes zero effort and at least gives us a placeholder if we like what the MDR is serving that night and want to eat at 5:30 to make it to some scheduled entertainment."

Well, the point is that if LOTS of people sign up for MDR dinner times, and don't show, then others who didn't (make reservations) have to wait.  Reservations are typically held for 10 minutes or more before they cancel out of the system.  You may be considerate enough to cancel an MDR reservation, but many people aren't, and of course free at sea drinks changes peoples attitude about responsibility.

 

We have been told that we could only get into a Le Bistro an hour later than we wanted, because they were booked up.  We show up 15 minutes early, and they have us wait 10 minutes.  As we get escorted to our seats, we notice that there are only 5 tables (10) people in the place.  (and we only saw 4 people leave in those 10 minutes) Only 1 other couple gets seated after us.  30 minutes later the place is almost empty.  4 customers.  So either they were staff limited, or too many people overbooked and didn't bother to cancel or show.  

 

If this starts walking over to the MDR side, then we will see more complaints, and lessened cruise experiences.

  

[ChiefMateJRK]

4 minutes ago, Panhandle Couple said:

Well, the point is that if LOTS of people sign up for MDR dinner times, and don't show, then others who didn't (make reservations) have to wait. 

Well, 98.3% of people posting here say that they've never waited more than two minutes for MDR, so apparently people like me aren't causing others to wait.  The other 1.7%?  They need to decide if they would rather be the guy with the reservation or the guy who has to wait.  I would rather be the guy with the reservation. 😎

[Panhandle Couple]

28 minutes ago, ChiefMateJRK said:

Well, 98.3% of people posting here say that they've never waited more than two minutes for MDR, so apparently people like me aren't causing others to wait.  The other 1.7%?  They need to decide if they would rather be the guy with the reservation or the guy who has to wait.  I would rather be the guy with the reservation. 😎

And I am one of those "guys".  I'm looking at the TREND, and maybe it is overblown here at CC. 

I would recommend MDR reservations for parties of 7 or more, since there are few tables that have that many seatings in Taste or Savor. 

 

And again, if there are no risks or penalties for making multiple reservations that you won't honor, then more people will be inclined to do it.  (sort of like being a pool chair hog)  My point is NCL needs to consider that when opening up on line reservations. 

[KeithJenner]

MDR reservations have been available for many years and they don’t appear (as far as I can tell) to have made much difference to availability for those just turning up.

[schmoopie17]

I know people have reported long waits when walking up to the MDR. We have never experienced this. In fact, on our recent Prima cruise, our party of eight walked up to Hudson's five times (we had specialty dining the other nights) and were seated immediately.

 

Of course, we're old and eat early...so maybe that worked in our favor.

[cruiseny4life]

12 hours ago, Panhandle Couple said:

And I am one of those "guys".  I'm looking at the TREND, and maybe it is overblown here at CC. 

I would recommend MDR reservations for parties of 7 or more, since there are few tables that have that many seatings in Taste or Savor. 

 

And again, if there are no risks or penalties for making multiple reservations that you won't honor, then more people will be inclined to do it.  (sort of like being a pool chair hog)  My point is NCL needs to consider that when opening up on line reservations. 

I'm not going to get further involved in the debate...at least at this point...I just wanted to let you know (if you even care), that I'm with you!

 

When we eat in the main dining room, it's never been more than a ~ two minute wait. And that's only because the host was new and figuring out the section map. Now, there's only two of us, so it's not like we have 12 trying to be seated at 6:30 PM. But, we would never make a reservation as the menu of the evening determines whether we even want to bother with the main dining room.

 

Hopefully, Norwegian, doesn't become Disney World where you have to have virtually every second planned months out. I appreciate being able to deviate with only a moment's notice.

[ChiefMateJRK]

3 hours ago, cruiseny4life said:

I appreciate being able to deviate with only a moment's notice.

Does a reservation prevent you from deviating with only a moment's notice?

[MagnoliaBlossom]

We were on the BA in February and we’re able to make Manhattan reservations but only one night at a time.  We tried for Taste or Savor and they said they did not allow that.

 

may depend on the ships, the mood of the FB mgr, the phase of the moon.  Who knows.

[Sue Do-Over]

On 5/23/2023 at 4:08 PM, ChiefMateJRK said:

I know that you understand this stuff better than anybody Keith.  That said, I recently booked the Sun main dining room for six nights of an upcoming 10 day cruise.  The system didn't care.  We will cancel some of them once we plan our schedule a bit more.

Right.  Since there is no charge for the regular main dining room, no need to limit reservations. 

For Specialty Dining, the system will limit the number of reservations (not seats, but bookings) to the number of meals in your dining package.  It does not seem to recognize the extras offered to Platinum guests -- but will charge you for add'l bookings over the package count.

[KeithJenner]

35 minutes ago, Sue Do-Over said:

Right.  Since there is no charge for the regular main dining room, no need to limit reservations. 

 

There certainly are restrictions on complementary restaurants (for some people at least).

 

As stated above, I made a reservation at Manhattan for our upcoming cruise and am now unable to book that restaurant again.

 

This restriction is nothing to do with the total number of reservations. It is to do with not being able to book the same restaurant twice, which appears to be a problem with both included and speciality restaurants.

 

There is no restriction on total reservations. As you say, they will start charging after you have booked the number of restaurants that are included in your package, but it doesn’t stop you from booking them.

Edited June 6, 2023 by KeithJenner

[ChiefMateJRK]

50 minutes ago, KeithJenner said:

As you say, they will start charging after you have booked the number of restaurants that are included in your package, but it doesn’t stop you from booking them.

Isn't this only true of the fixed price specialty venues?  I can book as many ala carte restaurants as I want without being charged pre-cruise.

[ChiefMateJRK]

52 minutes ago, KeithJenner said:

This restriction is nothing to do with the total number of reservations. It is to do with not being able to book the same restaurant twice, which appears to be a problem with both included and speciality restaurants.

I have the Sun Seven Seas MDR booked six times on an upcoming cruise.

[KeithJenner]

9 minutes ago, ChiefMateJRK said:

Isn't this only true of the fixed price specialty venues?  I can book as many ala carte restaurants as I want without being charged pre-cruise.

Yes, fixed price places only. I assume that is what the previous poster was referring to.

[KeithJenner]

7 minutes ago, ChiefMateJRK said:

I have the Sun Seven Seas MDR booked six times on an upcoming cruise.

Yes, I think we covered that earlier. It seems that the restriction (which is only online, so can be got around my calling) may not apply all the time, but it is definitely a thing. We have not been able to book any restaurant more than once on any cruise since covid (although we have only tried it with MDRs once) and it is an often reported issue on these boards.