Specialty Dining Reservation

[shiner6]

3 hours ago, Rick&Jeannie said:

When you hear of anecdotal experiences like given in that other thread, you really don't know all the facts.  Does one person's definition of "full" *truly* mean full...there are absolutely NO tables available at ANY restaurant for ANY time at ANY seating quantity.  I really doubt that.  Plus, you don't know when the actually tried to make those reservations.  In my experience, when we have done SD we have rarely seen the restaurant "full" and we have even been able to do a walk up when we did not have a reservation...on a "full" ship.  So...I take threads like that with a big grain of salt.  Plus...if by chance you booked Premier...they are holding tables for those bookings.

Thanks Rick, but the short answer is "no", I have been trying to make these reservations for over over a month now. There were plenty of spots left, however, I had to pay for them, my Premier Plus package was not accepted although it was paid for. Just very confused as we have sailed with Princess many times and had not encountered this difficulty in the past.

[Rick&Jeannie]

Just now, shiner6 said:

Thanks Rick, but the short answer is "no", I have been trying to make these reservations for over over a month now. There were plenty of spots left, however, I had to pay for them, my Premier Plus package was not accepted although it was paid for. Just very confused as we have sailed with Princess many times and had not encountered this difficulty in the past.

Sorry you've had such an issue with this!  Others have posted similar experiences.  There seems to be no rhyme or reason.  Just more of the woefully inadequate expertise from the Princess IT departments.  You *should* be able to get it sorted out once on board.  Just go to GS and explain what has happened.  They should credit you back with OBC for the amount that you were charged.

[wallyj]

4 minutes ago, memoak said:

If the restaurants were not full did you try to get a table ?  Odds are they would be able to seat you if it is late evening. We eat after 7:30 and never have an issue

I believe it was a staffing issue on why the SD restaurants were not taking any more reservations.
 

When I boarded, I went straight to future cruise/loyalty to check if I made the cutoff to be invited to SD as policy for sailings 4 days or less, as the top10 and guest get such letter.

 

Was confirmed I would receive letter entitling me to SD, which is why I then tried to make a SD reservation. Both SD told me no reservations available with knowledge why I was asking kinda last minute. 
 

Day2 in the Buffett, a chef came around asking about my dining experience and I shared my frustration regarding not being able to get a SD reservation. He made a call to the SD manager and said I now have a reservation. I was planning on going to loyalty desk to ask for advice on how to proceed, but this chef took care of it for me.

 

When I initially asked about reservations, even times after 7:30, I was told not available.

[partybarbie]

Our cruise leaves in five weeks and I am still getting this message when I try to reserve specialty dining. Has anyone else gotten a message like this?

[t&atravel]

48 minutes ago, partybarbie said:

Our cruise leaves in five weeks and I am still getting this message when I try to reserve specialty dining. Has anyone else gotten a message like this?

@partybarbie.  Are you using the old app or the new one?  If you are using the old don’t select “explore dining options”. That only works onboard.  Choose “view or book”, pick the date you want and the specialty dining choice should be there. The new apps dining page is more intuitive.

[Rick&Jeannie]

1 hour ago, partybarbie said:

Our cruise leaves in five weeks and I am still getting this message when I try to reserve specialty dining. Has anyone else gotten a message like this?

My suggestion is to avoid *both* apps totally when it comes to dining reservations.  It is so much easier to do this in the cruise personalizer & the "web version".  Doing this on a desktop/laptop/tablet gives you so much more screen real estate and you can visualize your days much better (in my opinion!)

 

[Sugar Magnolia]

I am a Princess newbie and will be sailing on the Discovery Princess in March. Is there a central location on embarkation day where we can book or modify dining reservations for both the MDR and SD?

[partybarbie]

Thanks for the suggestions. I’ll give them a try.

[Rick&Jeannie]

42 minutes ago, Sugar Magnolia said:

I am a Princess newbie and will be sailing on the Discovery Princess in March. Is there a central location on embarkation day where we can book or modify dining reservations for both the MDR and SD?

You can call the "dine line" directly from your cabin. There is likely a dedicated button on the phone which will connect you.