Help With App/Dining Reservations

[RLM77]

I need a reality check here.  Our November 12 VL cruise (first one on Virgin!) just opened for dining reservations, presumably at 12:01 AM.  When I went to make reservations at 7:15 AM, less than 8 hours later, I found only Pink Agave, The Wake, and Razzle Dazzle had any open slots before 8:30 PM, any night of the cruise.  Additionally, although the app says I can make two reservations per venue for 6 night cruises I was only allowed to make one per venue.  So I have no reservations at all for three nights as we gave up late dining (anything after 7 PM) many years ago.

 

Does it sound right that there would be no early dining slots left on any night at Extra Virgin and Gunbae less than 8 hours after reservations opened?  Will the app eventually allow second reservations at the other venues?  Please share your experiences with this.  Thanks.

Rich

[CruisingWalter]

41 minutes ago, RLM77 said:

Does it sound right that there would be no early dining slots left on any night at Extra Virgin and Gunbae less than 8 hours after reservations opened?  Will the app eventually allow second reservations at the other venues?  Please share your experiences with this

 

Yes absolutely. Many folks stay up or get up at midnight on the East Coast specifically to make their dining reservations. 8 hours later, it's no surprise the early slots are gone. I believe the second reservation at each venue is only allowed for 7 nights or longer.  We've not sailed the 6 night itinerary so I'm not entirely certain on that one. We're on an 8-night in November and we do have the option to book a venue twice.

 

There will be additional dining slots that are held back from the app to be booked onboard. My suggestion is to go directly to the restaurant of choice when you board to see what availability they have. There will also be walk-up stand by lines as well each evening. Your luck with those will dependin on how popular that particular restaurant is that evening. 

[cantgetin]

A couple things that worked for us.....call VV asap and see if they can help you.  When I couldn't get any reservations thru the app, the phone agent was able to get them for me (this was on my first VV cruise).
I've never heard of being allowed to make 2 reservations per restaurant.  The rule is one  advance reservation on short cruises and 3 per restaurant on longer cruises. If we tried to exceed that, the app showed an error with explanation.  This does not mean that you can't eat at that restaurant more than the permitted times, but only that you can't make advance reservations thru the app.

Again, our experience only, but Sailor Services on board could not help with dinner reservation issues.  They directed us to the specific restaurant after it opened.  However, on the first day of our most recent cruise, there was a team in Razzle Dazzle who were sorting out dining reservation issues for all restaurants.  A significant number of reservations (we've been told 30% and 35%) are held till after boarding.  Try to get what you want thru the app as soon as you board; if unsuccessful go over to RD or go to Sailor Services to find out where dining issues are being handled.  We also found that it was usually easier to move a reservation than to make a new one, so I've always made a point to make a reservation in advance if possible, even if it wasn't the exact time I wanted.  Getting early reservations has never been a problem for us, but in fairness, the most full cruise we've been on had a bit over 1800 sailors.

[RLM77]

1 hour ago, CruisingWalter said:

 

Yes absolutely. Many folks stay up or get up at midnight on the East Coast specifically to make their dining reservations. 8 hours later, it's no surprise the early slots are gone. I believe the second reservation at each venue is only allowed for 7 nights or longer.  We've not sailed the 6 night itinerary so I'm not entirely certain on that one. We're on an 8-night in November and we do have the option to book a venue twice.

 

There will be additional dining slots that are held back from the app to be booked onboard. My suggestion is to go directly to the restaurant of choice when you board to see what availability they have. There will also be walk-up stand by lines as well each evening. Your luck with those will dependin on how popular that particular restaurant is that evening. 

Thanks folks, this is helpful.  The 11/12 cruise is the first of a B2B so I will set my alarm for midnight next week when the second set of reservations opens.  Thanks again!

[warmwinds]

I'm on the West Coast so I called at 9:00 pm (midnight Miami time) and almost didn't get some of my choices, had to choose different days.  It's crazy. 

[CruisingWalter]

2 hours ago, warmwinds said:

I'm on the West Coast so I called at 9:00 pm (midnight Miami time) and almost didn't get some of my choices, had to choose different days.  It's crazy. 

 

If you're with a TA they can go into your booking and grab the dining times as well. Just send them your list of preferred dining times ahead of time. 🙂

[cantgetin]

8 hours ago, RLM77 said:

Thanks folks, this is helpful.  The 11/12 cruise is the first of a B2B so I will set my alarm for midnight next week when the second set of reservations opens.  Thanks again!

Just a hint; the app often opens for reservations  15 minutes or more before midnight NY time.  I've read of it opening hours before, but my experience has been in the 15-30  minute range.  If you used a TA, they can book dining for you.  That's really helpful when the app fails miserably.

[tbmrt]

15 hours ago, cantgetin said:

Just a hint; the app often opens for reservations  15 minutes or more before midnight NY time.  I've read of it opening hours before, but my experience has been in the 15-30  minute range.  If you used a TA, they can book dining for you.  That's really helpful when the app fails miserably.

Should we give TA our choices before the booking night/day?  I'm worried that by the time she gets to book resos things could be pretty well taken.  We have 6 in our party. Tx

[cantgetin]

2 minutes ago, tbmrt said:

Should we give TA our choices before the booking night/day?  I'm worried that by the time she gets to book resos things could be pretty well taken.  We have 6 in our party. Tx

Yes, give your info to your TA in advance (or at least I do).  I try to be as flexible as possible.  For example, on the last request, I said that we'd like to eat about X time each night and eat in these 5 restaurants.  I didn't specify which restaurant on which night as we don't care and that gave some flexibility.  I also wouldn't have a problem with 15 minutes before or after the stated time and know that I can move the reservations after boarding if desired.  I tried making my own reservations thru the app i my own and got 2 night, then the app totally crashed.  I pm'd the TA and within 10 minutes was sent a copy of all my reservations.

While the TA was happy to do this, I was also warned that sometimes their access portal can be difficult.  Same TA also booked all 14 nights of a crossing for me!

[CruisingWalter]

On 9/28/2023 at 6:15 PM, cantgetin said:

If you used a TA, they can book dining for you.  That's really helpful when the app fails miserably.

 

You mean like last night when the Valiant Lady opened up for 11/18? Oy! White screen for over an hour. Fortunately our TA was on it booking most of our party's dinners within minutes. Geez they need to chuck that app in the garbage and hire Royal Caribbean, Carnival or Disney's App developers.

[CruisingWalter]

On 9/29/2023 at 10:10 AM, tbmrt said:

Should we give TA our choices before the booking night/day?  I'm worried that by the time she gets to book resos things could be pretty well taken.  We have 6 in our party. Tx

 

Yes but be a bit a flexible. Provide a list of restaurants and times but know that the TA may have to get something close but not exactly what you wanted. I was on the phone with our TA last night making the reservations. 

[CruisingWalter]

On 9/29/2023 at 10:17 AM, cantgetin said:

While the TA was happy to do this, I was also warned that sometimes their access portal can be difficult.  Same TA also booked all 14 nights of a crossing for me!

 

To say the least, yes, yes it can from all accounts. The TA booking engine works about as well as the public website often from what I've been able to gather. 🙂 

[AlyssaJames]

Single data point: dining reservations opened up for my window at basically midnight on the dot last night.

Prior to midnight (for maybe 30 minutes?), you could see the available times but clicking one resulted in a white screen. It started working (albeit slowly) at midnight.

[happy cruzer]

On 10/4/2023 at 9:34 AM, AlyssaJames said:

Single data point: dining reservations opened up for my window at basically midnight on the dot last night.

Prior to midnight (for maybe 30 minutes?), you could see the available times but clicking one resulted in a white screen. It started working (albeit slowly) at midnight.

We had the same experience.  Just noting that the times are EST in the US.

 

Happy with the spots we got.  We are on a 6 night and it would not allow two reservations for dinner on different nights at the same spot.  Can deal with that onboard if need be.    Did allow reservation for brunch or breakfast. So all good.

 

Thanks to all who shared info, it helped a lot.