Dining reservations - 1st Princess cruise

[sd63]

Hi everyone, I just noticed that apparently you can make Dine My Way reservations after the final payment date has passed. Is this accurate? How can you make reservations without knowing what the activity schedule is for the day? What if I make a reservation now and when I get on the ship I want a different time, is it easy to change, can you change? Is there other things I should know about making reservations ahead of time? Our cruise begins November 6th. Thank you in advance!

[Boiler Cruiser]

Sd63,

 

Since we never know the specifics of activity schedules on a particular cruise until we see the first Princess Patter, once we get on the ship, all anyone can do is approximate when they would like to, or will be able to sit down to eat in the restaurants.

 

I suggest that you choose a convenient time that you would like to eat on a day with no, or few, scheduled evening activities.  For my wife and I, that time is either 6:20PM or 6:40PM.  I then make a reservation for us (always a table for 2), on the Medallion App, for each evening of the cruise at those times.  That way I know I will not get stuck eating too early or too late on most days. 

 

Also, since the shows start at 8PM or 10PM usually, I know we have a time that allows us to choose which performance we want to go to (if we choose to go to a show that night).

 

If there turns out to be a conflict (and this has happened occasionally), such as wanting to eat at Sabatini's or the Crown Grille, you can simply cancel that reservation on the Medallion App at any time. 

 

You can make your reservations for Sabatini's and the Crown Grille on the Medallion App, as well.

 

The other thing to remember is that there are usually 2 or 3 main dining rooms on the ship.  Make you reservation on the Medallion App for the restaurant you want.

 

I hope this helps.

Edited August 4, 2023 by Boiler Cruiser

[deltahog]

OP, I had the recent same situation, and realized that if there's any night I want to see a show or any activity rather than my dining time, that would be a good night to see the show then eat one of the other included eating places (gotta give those a try) or even be a "walk up" at one of the other MDRs for the night.  At whatever time we want to eat.

[Steelers36]

2 hours ago, Boiler Cruiser said:

Also, since the shows start at 8PM or 10PM usually

I found these times to be the case in Europe, but more like 7:30/9:30 in N.A.

[Purplsmurf]

We are newish to Princess as well and first time with this Medallion thing. We have made our MDR reservations. Made them as soon as final payment was made and earliest was 7. I’m ok with that, but my parents wanted closer to 6:30. Also wanted to make specialty reservations, but no where on app for me to do it. It’s not under dining. 

[Steelers36]

14 minutes ago, Purplsmurf said:

We are newish to Princess as well and first time with this Medallion thing. We have made our MDR reservations. Made them as soon as final payment was made and earliest was 7. I’m ok with that, but my parents wanted closer to 6:30. Also wanted to make specialty reservations, but no where on app for me to do it. It’s not under dining. 

It certainly was part of DMW function.  You can try the web version.  But, several guests have been posting about SD advance bookings not working.  Who knows if a bug, if holding back a lot of it because now they have to satisfy Premier bookers, plus the Suite guests (as before).  

[Purplsmurf]

17 minutes ago, Steelers36 said:

It certainly was part of DMW function.  You can try the web version.  But, several guests have been posting about SD advance bookings not working.  Who knows if a bug, if holding back a lot of it because now they have to satisfy Premier bookers, plus the Suite guests (as before).  

Not sure what DMW or SD means, but dining reservations can only be made on the app. I tried the website 

[Cruzbw]

1 hour ago, Purplsmurf said:

Not sure what DMW or SD means, but dining reservations can only be made on the app. I tried the website 

I'll only answer what I do know.  DMW is Dining My Way and SD is Specialty Dining, such as Sabatini's or Crown Grill.

[Scirocco Breeze]

On the app, click on Dine My Way  and then you should see View Or Book Individual Daily Reservations. It is there and working for me, I've just booked our speciality dining.

Edited August 5, 2023 by Scirocco Breeze
Typo

[Purplsmurf]

1 hour ago, Scirocco Breeze said:

On the app, click on Dine My Way  and then you should see View Or Book Individual Daily Reservations. It is there and working for me, I've just booked our speciality dining.

I found it! Thank you! I would’ve never figured that out. So appreciative!

[Steelers36]

13 hours ago, Purplsmurf said:

Not sure what DMW or SD means, but dining reservations can only be made on the app. I tried the website 

Sorry you did not understand at first, but since you stated you had made MDR reservations, you had to have used DMW, so I presumed you had familiarity with it.  As you now know, one of the options is to make SD reservation in lieu of MDR reservation.

[HotRoot]

I made all of our dining reservations on the website as soon as I booked.  I did not have to wait for final payment.  Because of what I have read on here about reservations disappearing, I check every couple of weeks to make sure they did not disappear.  So far everything is still there.  I made all reservations over a year before the cruise is scheduled to depart.  Have not cruised yet so hope it all works out.

[Rick&Jeannie]

I *always* make our dining reservations using the "web version".  It's just so much easier to see exactly what you're doing, as well as seeing more of the calendar days.