Specialty restaurant reservations with "Dining Segments"

[Torquer]

Our upcoming cruise this winter will be our first cruise on O since covid, and I don't remember anything like this earlier.  We are booked on a 20-day cruise on Marina, and staying in a suite, so we get 3 reservations at each of the 4 restaurants.  This is not a B2B cruise, but a single 20-day segment.  When we tried to make reservations, we discovered there are two buttons to select the "Dining Segment".  The first segment covers the first 12 days, and the second covers the final 8 days:

Note that "?" in circle is not clickable to explain what it means.  So we discovered we were not able to book the same restaurant twice in that final dining segment.  We get the error message "You've reached your limit for this time segment, would you like to replace your existing reservation with this one?".  Through trial and error, we discovered we could book two at the same restaurant during the first dining segment, but not two during the second.

 

First, is this normal and what is the purpose?  It almost sounds like O has this coded in their computer that this is a B2B cruise with two segments, but it is not.  Has O discovered that people like to eat at specialty restaurants toward the end of their cruise so they want to try limit the number of reservations during this time to let everyone have a shot at them?  Why no limitations during the first dining segment?

 

[LHT28]

Are you are booked on a Grand Voyage  which consists of  2 cruises

The purpose  for delaying your booking for the  2nd segment is to give those booked on that cruise the opportunity to book the reservations  in the same  time frame

If you are in a top suite you get to book  90 days  from Feb 26 th 

You are still ahead of most on that segment

JMO

[Torquer]

3 minutes ago, LHT28 said:

You are booked on a Grand Voyage  which consists of  2 cruises

As I clearly stated in my post, this is not a B2B or Grand Voyage.  It is a single 20-day cruise.  In fact, at the transition point between the two dining segments, we are in the middle of 5 consecutive sea days cruising in Antarctica; no one is embarking or disembarking.

[LHT28]

2 minutes ago, Torquer said:

As I clearly stated in my post, this is not a B2B or Grand Voyage.  It is a single 20-day cruise.  In fact, at the transition point between the two dining segments, we are in the middle of 5 consecutive sea days cruising in Antarctica; no one is embarking or disembarking.

I just  went to see  your sailing

 I am surprised you can even book this early  

Usually it is 90  days out  not 5 mths ??

Maybe call O on Monday & find out  why

[Flatbush Flyer]

1 hour ago, Torquer said:

Our upcoming cruise this winter will be our first cruise on O since covid, and I don't remember anything like this earlier.  We are booked on a 20-day cruise on Marina, and staying in a suite, so we get 3 reservations at each of the 4 restaurants.  This is not a B2B cruise, but a single 20-day segment.  When we tried to make reservations, we discovered there are two buttons to select the "Dining Segment".  The first segment covers the first 12 days, and the second covers the final 8 days:

Note that "?" in circle is not clickable to explain what it means.  So we discovered we were not able to book the same restaurant twice in that final dining segment.  We get the error message "You've reached your limit for this time segment, would you like to replace your existing reservation with this one?".  Through trial and error, we discovered we could book two at the same restaurant during the first dining segment, but not two during the second.

 

First, is this normal and what is the purpose?  It almost sounds like O has this coded in their computer that this is a B2B cruise with two segments, but it is not.  Has O discovered that people like to eat at specialty restaurants toward the end of their cruise so they want to try limit the number of reservations during this time to let everyone have a shot at them?  Why no limitations during the first dining segment?

 

You booked what O officially calls an “extended journey” (two consecutive segments with a single booking number that is marketed as a single cruise. If not marketed that way and you have a single booking number with two cruise ID numbers, you booked a “custom cruise” (also splits the dining dates). 
Recently, O reintroduced “grand voyages” with marketed cruises of three or more segments and single booking number. They too will have split dining booking dates.

[Torquer]

1 hour ago, Flatbush Flyer said:

You booked what O officially calls an “extended journey” (two consecutive segments with a single booking number that is marketed as a single cruise. If not marketed that way and you have a single booking number with two cruise ID numbers, you booked a “custom cruise” (also splits the dining dates).

As I said in a previous post, this is definitely not two segments (at least on those dates they show for the segments).  We are at sea cruising in Antarctica on the day one segment ends and another begins.  No one is getting off the ship on that day, unless we hit an iceberg and need to abandon ship🙂

 

@LHT28We can book restaurants this early since we are in a suite and can therefore book at time of final payment, which we made today.

 

So my question remains, why is this cruise broken into two dining segments.  If anyone wants to take a look, the cruise is here (the days for the dining segments are in my first post above):

https://www.oceaniacruises.com/south-america-cruises/santiago-de-chile-to-buenos-aires-MNA240214

[Snaefell3]

3 hours ago, Torquer said:

First, is this normal and what is the purpose?  It almost sounds like O has this coded in their computer that this is a B2B cruise with two segments, but it is not. 

Uhh....  But it is.   It's even being sold as a B2B2B.

 

O is selling:

Santiago → Buenos Aires, 20 days

Santiago → Rio de Janeiro, 30 days

Santiago → Miami,  51 days

All departing Santiago, 14 Feb '24 on Marina.

[LHT28]

2 hours ago, Snaefell3 said:

Uhh....  But it is.   It's even being sold as a B2B2B.

 

O is selling:

Santiago → Buenos Aires, 20 days

Santiago → Rio de Janeiro, 30 days

Santiago → Miami,  51 days

All departing Santiago, 14 Feb '24 on Marina.

I think  the OP  cruise  may start with 2 others but  their segment  is  not over lapping  but the  other 2 cruises are 

 Feb 14 to Mar 5   20 days

Feb 14 to March 15  30 days

Fen 15  to Apr 5  51 days

 

Only Oceania  has the  answer  of why they have the  reservations  blocked  for part of their  cruise

 

It does seem strange  as there are a limited number of top suites   that can now book & even if they all booked the same restaurant on the same night  there would still be seating for others onboard

JMO

[Torquer]

14 hours ago, Snaefell3 said:

Uhh....  But it is.   It's even being sold as a B2B2B.

O is selling:

Santiago → Buenos Aires, 20 days

....

Yes, the cruise can be booked as a B2B.  But we are only on the 20 day segment and the dining segment break is in the middle of those 20 days.  The break on the dining reservation page is Feb. 25 where one ends and Feb 26 when one starts.  There is no B2B that starts/ends on those dates, and as I have said, we are cruising in Antarctica on those days and definitely no one is getting on/off the ship.

 

It sounds like this is not normal to have dining segment break in the middle of a cruise segment, and no one really knows why?  Its no big deal for us, we just swapped two of our restaurant reservations around, but it just seems strange.

[LHT28]

4 minutes ago, Torquer said:

It sounds like this is not normal to have dining segment break in the middle of a cruise segment, and no one really knows why?  Its no big deal for us, we just swapped two of our restaurant reservations around, but it just seems strange.

Could be  an IT  thing 

I would just keep checking   you  have a few months to go

[Tranquility Base]

5 hours ago, Torquer said:

 The break on the dining reservation page is Feb. 25 where one ends and Feb 26 when one starts.  There is no B2B that starts/ends on those dates, and as I have said, we are cruising in Antarctica on those days and definitely no one is getting on/off the ship.

 

It sounds like this is not normal to have dining segment break in the middle of a cruise segment, and no one really knows why?  

Indeed……appears a bit of a mystery.

If you ever find out why, please post the reason.

[Flatbush Flyer]

56 minutes ago, Tranquility Base said:

Indeed……appears a bit of a mystery.

If you ever find out why, please post the reason.

I looked into it and was reminded that I’ve seen this before with single segments that are about 3 weeks long. The reservations blocks are split so that reservations are forced into a somewhat equal distribution where you must split your allotment over the multiple blocks (both by number and specific restaurant.