specialty restaurant

[christopherlee62]

Can i eat at any specialty restaurant without early booking,just walk in.thanks.

[RocketMan275]

If you're lucky but probably not.

[Phoenixon]

Depends on the particular sailing also. Going to be easier on a 2-week TA than a 5-day Caribbean during school holidays. Still possible in the latter case but would anticipate a wait. 

[The Traveling Man]

16 minutes ago, christopherlee62 said:

Can i eat at any specialty restaurant without early booking,just walk in.thanks.

On most cruises, in most specialty restaurants, you occasional can find an opening when you can just walk in and be seated after a brief wait.  Most of the more popular dining times will already be reserved, of course, but you usually can find a opening.

[Asawi]

If you're solo Teppanyaki often has seats left for one even if "fully booked" because of how seating is done there.

[destar]

3 hours ago, christopherlee62 said:

Can i eat at any specialty restaurant without early booking,just walk in.thanks.

Depending on the restaurant, you might be depending on cancellations.

[IAcruising]

More info needed. What ship? What sailing? What restaurant? How many people?

 

In some cases, yes. In others, no chance.

 

[zqvol]

A party of 1 or 2 can almost always get in, larger table sizes have trouble. 

[IAcruising]

2 minutes ago, zqvol said:

A party of 1 or 2 can almost always get in, larger table sizes have trouble. 

 

That's a pretty broad statement. Have you tried to "walk in" at Cagney's on a packed, 5-day Bermuda cruise between 6-9 pm? There will be 10 other couples in front of you.

 

[christopherlee62]

Hi,I am am going on the Encore,going in october on the last trip out to Alaska.So I hope that there wont be a crowd.Thanks

 

[IAcruising]

12 minutes ago, christopherlee62 said:

Hi,I am am going on the Encore,going in october on the last trip out to Alaska.So I hope that there wont be a crowd.Thanks

 

 

Yeah, details matter. You should have no problem.

 

[BirdTravels]

3 hours ago, destar said:

Depending on the restaurant, you might be depending on cancellations.

Cancellations really don't matter. Most popular restaurants during prime time dining, are significantly oversold. Once steerage books their tables, the Concierge can oversell restaurants to get reservations for Suites/Haven guests. Once they are totally oversold, even the Concierge would not be able to book a table for you. 

 

On BA and Prima-class ships, the big deciding factor is whether outside seating is available. On nights when al fresco dining is open, that provides additional tables. There are many days when al fresco dining is not requested: too cold, too windy, too hot, too humid, raining on my table. One night we were having a lovely dinner outside while the ship was in port. The ship got underway as we dined and immediately there was a tremendous amount of wind, flipping tablecloths and plates full of food on people. Everyone was moved inside. 

[IAcruising]

3 minutes ago, BirdTravels said:

On BA and Prima-class ships, the big deciding factor is whether outside seating is available. On nights when al fresco dining is open, that provides additional tables. 

 

I know you're responding to a different post, but this cruise is Alaska in October. I'm going to guess that outside seating at night is probably not gonna happen.

 

[BirdTravels]

3 minutes ago, IAcruising said:

 

I know you're responding to a different post, but this cruise is Alaska in October. I'm going to guess that outside seating at night is probably not gonna happen.

 

There was some two weeks ago. Late season, not so much. 

 

My windy dinner story was from the Encore in Alaska in 2021. The outside dining have heaters in the ceiling and we, personally, much prefer sitting outside and enjoying the beauty of Alaska if it isn't too cold. In 2019, just pre-pandemic, we were on the Joy to Alaska and I can remember one dinner where the waiters were getting frustrated because eveyone sitting outside kept standing up and going to the railing to take pictures of the sunset and mountains. 

[dbrown84]

8 hours ago, christopherlee62 said:

Can i eat at any specialty restaurant without early booking,just walk in.thanks.

I've never had a problem doing this.  I'm not one to plan my meals weeks/months ahead so I just go with the flow, decide where I want to eat each evening and just go to whichever restaurant I decide.  Even if quoted a long wait time, go ahead and put your name on the list.  You'll find that the wait is nowhere near the time they quote you

[IAcruising]

23 hours ago, dbrown84 said:

I've never had a problem doing this.  I'm not one to plan my meals weeks/months ahead so I just go with the flow, decide where I want to eat each evening and just go to whichever restaurant I decide.  Even if quoted a long wait time, go ahead and put your name on the list.  You'll find that the wait is nowhere near the time they quote you

 

I would really like a few more details. Ship? Date? Time? Capacity on board?

 

Your experience is not the norm on a full ship between 6-8 pm.

 

 

[dbrown84]

3 hours ago, IAcruising said:

 

I would really like a few more details. Ship? Date? Time? Capacity on board?

 

Your experience is not the norm on a full ship between 6-8 pm.

 

 

Not the norm according to????

[DominicAUS]

On 9/29/2023 at 12:15 PM, dbrown84 said:

I've never had a problem doing this.  I'm not one to plan my meals weeks/months ahead so I just go with the flow, decide where I want to eat each evening and just go to whichever restaurant I decide.  Even if quoted a long wait time, go ahead and put your name on the list.  You'll find that the wait is nowhere near the time they quote you

I agree, was on the Bliss in March (spring break) and walked in to the restaurants with little to no wait. They only allow to prebook so many tables and have tables for walk ins. Doing 20 days in January back on the Bliss and will go where the wind takes me. If I have a wait then I’m sure I can entertain myself at a bar while I wait. 
 

I used to plan my dinners to each night, but that took away the freestyle and haven’t had issues getting in. 
enjoy your cruise 

[The Traveling Man]

17 hours ago, IAcruising said:

 

I would really like a few more details. Ship? Date? Time? Capacity on board?

 

Your experience is not the norm on a full ship between 6-8 pm.

 

 

We have sailed with NCL on 30+ cruises and have eaten in specialty restaurants well over 100 times.  We usually make our reservations weeks before sailing, but sometimes need to reschedule once we are on board.  On a few occasions we even have just dropped in without a reservation.  The status of available seating in the restaurants is posted on monitors around the ship.  Although there have been a few instances when everything is fully booked during the peak time, roughly 6-8 PM, most times that we have checked the board there has been availability at one or more restaurants at various times of the evening.  You may not be able to get your choice of your favorite restaurant, but usually you can get in somewhere or another with little delay.  Even on cruises that are overbooked, i.e. more than two persons in some rooms, we have found some of the specialty restaurants have plenty of available space, particularly on the first few nights of the cruise. 

 

I do recommend making reservations in advance, of course.  If your plans change, then the next best option is to rearrange your reservations while on board, but still a day or two before you plan to visit the specialty restaurant.  If all else fails, however, you usually still can find somewhere with availability if you're willing to wait a bit.

[BirdTravels]

15 hours ago, DominicAUS said:

They only allow to prebook so many tables and have tables for walk ins.

This is inaccurate. There is zero business case to leave empty tables... just in case.

 

If they have no shows or, per prior discussion, if they have extra tables with al fresco seating, they can accommodate a limited number of walk ins. When changing plans, we have been told, many times, no tables availabe, come back at 9 pm. 

[IAcruising]

20 hours ago, dbrown84 said:

Not the norm according to????

 

To nearly everyone but you, it would see. See, answering questions is easy. Give it a shot.

 

[UKstages]

i don't "walk-in" per se, but i have often showed up 90 minutes or two hours before my 9 pm reservation and have always been seated.... indoors. that's the equivalent of a 7 or 7:30 pm prime time walk-in.

 

pro tip: i find that there is often more availability on the last few nights of a cruise because many passengers use their FAS dining and platinum dinners in the earlier nights of a cruise.

[DominicAUS]

3 hours ago, BirdTravels said:

This is inaccurate. There is zero business case to leave empty tables... just in case.

 

If they have no shows or, per prior discussion, if they have extra tables with al fresco seating, they can accommodate a limited number of walk ins. When changing plans, we have been told, many times, no tables availabe, come back at 9 pm. 

You can disagree as much as you want. I know what I experienced and speaking with the staff they ALWAYS have tables for walk ins. We never had a wait longer than 10 mins and most times walked straight in.  that is enough business case I need not to book my dinners and walk in when I travel in January. 

also in all my cruises, when they’ve advised the restaurant is sold out. Get there and there are many open tables. Asked about that. Oh what is that they said? That’s right available for walk ins……

 

think that’s a good enough business case! 

Edited October 1, 2023 by DominicAUS

[cruiser2015]

5 hours ago, BirdTravels said:

This is inaccurate. There is zero business case to leave empty tables... just in case.

 

If they have no shows or, per prior discussion, if they have extra tables with al fresco seating, they can accommodate a limited number of walk ins. When changing plans, we have been told, many times, no tables availabe, come back at 9 pm. 

Now, I can't say for a certainty that they will or won't reserve out all tables.

However, I had a conversation with an NCL rep a few hours ago and it just happened to come up in our talk that tables were held back from pre-sail reserving.

[UKstages]

41 minutes ago, cruiser2015 said:

tables were held back from pre-sail reserving

this is not really news. It’s settled law. well, not law, but a long established fact: tables are held for booking once onboard. we know dis.

 

what’s being discussed is whether they have tables set aside, unreserved, for walk-ins. 
 

they don’t.

 

but it’s often possible to get a table because of no-shows and canceled reservations or tables turning more quickly than expected.