Booking speciality dining on a Caribbean cruise (Britannia)

[Presto2]

We are off on Britannia for our first adventure to the Caribbean very early in the new year. 

We arrive in Barbados on the day the ship sails, so others may have been on her a day before.

Are you usually able to book your speciality restaurants before you go and, from past experience, will there be any spaces in the other restaurants by the time we get there?

I know it seems to be an age away, but I'm in research mode ----- love this part of a cruise 😉

 

[zap99]

1 hour ago, Presto2 said:

We are off on Britannia for our first adventure to the Caribbean very early in the new year. 

We arrive in Barbados on the day the ship sails, so others may have been on her a day before.

Are you usually able to book your speciality restaurants before you go and, from past experience, will there be any spaces in the other restaurants by the time we get there?

I know it seems to be an age away, but I'm in research mode ----- love this part of a cruise 😉

 

We are on her in December and are on a Friday flight. The way things are at the moment, you may need to do some foot stamping on the Saturday, although we find speaking nicely to the staff usually works OK.

[Presto2]

9 minutes ago, zap99 said:

We are on her in December and are on a Friday flight. The way things are at the moment, you may need to do some foot stamping on the Saturday, although we find speaking nicely to the staff usually works OK.

That's what we were thinking. It is our special 'retirement cruise' so want to make sure that we have learned from the lessons from the last one. 

[zap99]

7 minutes ago, Presto2 said:

That's what we were thinking. It is our special 'retirement cruise' so want to make sure that we have learned from the lessons from the last one. 

We were on Britannia in October. It was our anniversary.  The glass house was full, so we asked nicely and got in OK.

[Presto2]

Just now, zap99 said:

We were on Britannia in October. It was our anniversary.  The glass house was full, so we asked nicely and got in OK.

We are not used to holidaying out of school holidays so we have whole new world to get used to.

Am hoping it will all be less chaotic and quieter !!!

[AndyMichelle]

49 minutes ago, zap99 said:

We were on Britannia in October. It was our anniversary.  The glass house was full, so we asked nicely and got in OK.

So did we last week, much to the disdain of all the people waiting to join the queue... 

We benefitted, but it's just not a fair system. 

Andy 

[Megabear2]

My experience doesn't bode well I'm afraid. Boarding on Saturday most specialty restaurants were gone in advance but it was Christmas.  We could book Limelight in advance but everything else was seat of the pants stuff - we did get Epicurean for Christmas day but I think mainly because it was £65 each and it put others off.  We are also due on early January arriving on a Saturday but I'm not hopeful but fingers crossed. The system on two day boarding cruises is unfortunately heavily weighted against Saturday arrivers at present.

Edited July 8, 2023 by Megabear2

[TigerB]

17 hours ago, Presto2 said:

We are off on Britannia for our first adventure to the Caribbean very early in the new year. 

We arrive in Barbados on the day the ship sails, so others may have been on her a day before.

Are you usually able to book your speciality restaurants before you go and, from past experience, will there be any spaces in the other restaurants by the time we get there?

I know it seems to be an age away, but I'm in research mode ----- love this part of a cruise 😉

 

 

It appears to be hit and miss for pre-booking, with no consistency across the fleet.

 

On Britannia last September we were able to pre-book our speciality restaurants, but the My Holiday app wasn't live then. Whereas, Selbourne is on her now, and wasn't able to pre-book.

 

On recent trips on Arvia and Iona, we were able to pre-book, and both of those have the app.

 

Megabear is absolutely correct, if you arrive in Barbados on the second day she is in port, you are at a disadvantage.

 

Hopefully, it will work out for you, and that you will have a fantastic retirement cruise.🙂

[Presto2]

Don't know what to do now --- we have booked the seats for the plane etc and don't want to change but if we had to eat in the freedom dining every night I think we'd jump overboard. At the time of booking there were no concerns re dining at all and we didn't even think about it. Beginning to think we'll just have to drink a lot of rum to numb the pain ......

[Presto2]

22 hours ago, Megabear2 said:

My experience doesn't bode well I'm afraid. Boarding on Saturday most specialty restaurants were gone in advance but it was Christmas.  We could book Limelight in advance but everything else was seat of the pants stuff - we did get Epicurean for Christmas day but I think mainly because it was £65 each and it put others off.  We are also due on early January arriving on a Saturday but I'm not hopeful but fingers crossed. The system on two day boarding cruises is unfortunately heavily weighted against Saturday arrivers at present.

Hope you don't mind me asking. What date? Are we going at the same time ?

[Megabear2]

10 minutes ago, Presto2 said:

Hope you don't mind me asking. What date? Are we going at the same time ?

We are on 13 January, is that you too?  

[Presto2]

4 minutes ago, Megabear2 said:

We are on 13 January, is that you too?  

Yeahhhhh.

Same as us 🙂

Will start a cruise thread now unless there is already one !

[Megabear2]

Just now, Presto2 said:

Yeahhhhh.

Same as us 🙂

Will start a cruise thread now unless there is already one !

Great. We can have a party!

[Presto2]

I'll turn down your cabin and you can do ours !!!!!!😆

[Megabear2]

Just now, Presto2 said:

I'll turn down your cabin and you can do ours !!!!!!😆

Any chocolate preferences?

[Presto2]

1 minute ago, Megabear2 said:

Any chocolate preferences?

We used Cadbury's Heroes last time !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But like Lindt if you're paying 😉

[Megabear2]

8 hours ago, Presto2 said:

We used Cadbury's Heroes last time !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But like Lindt if you're paying 😉

Lindor it is then.

[pete14]

I hope you each have a wonderful time. Am I envious?  Probably just a little bit. ☹️