Restaurant reservations pre-cruise--what a mess

[longterm]

Today at 12:00PM Pacific was the time for us to make restaurant and spa reservations.

At 9:30 central time, restaurant reservations were still closed, and the notice said that they'd open at noon Pacific. That meant that here in Central time, reservations would open at 2pm central (12:00 Pacific).

Forty-five minutes later, at about 12:15 CENTRAL, they were open, and of course the best we could get were 8pm seatings or 2-tops. We got 6pm seatings by agreeing to be sat with another couple (as yet unknown of course). When I opened a chat with an agent to ask why the reservations opened 2 hours early, I was told that we received an email telling us that they'd open early.

No, I said, EXCURSION booking opened early, not restaurants; she had no explanation as to why restaurant booking opened early. I finally decided to go with the 4-tops and hope we get seated with a friendly couple who refrain from political conversation. She then checked on it and apologized and said she was mistaken... but was useless and couldn't help me get better seating reservations.

I'm not impressed with how this was mishandled; to begin with, Viking should make 2-tops available ahead of time, rather than forcing people to go down to Guest Services first thing when they get on board--which I'll definitely do. Second, the agent should have been able to help--she was totally useless, and ended every sentence with an annoying exclamation mark.

Oh well. We've always been able to get earlier seatings once on board, and I hope that's the case this time as well.

</whining>

[Frenchberet]

Download the Viking app now.  Once onboard you can easily make dinner reservations for the Chef’s Table or Manfredi’s.  No need to visit Guest Services.  

[longterm]

19 minutes ago, Frenchberet said:

Download the Viking app now.  Once onboard you can easily make dinner reservations for the Chef’s Table or Manfredi’s.  No need to visit Guest Services.  

I've had it for years and will try that, but I'll go straight to Guest Services anyway, so that I can try to move my wife's spa visit as well--because we missed the best times, she didn't get the time that she was hoping for.

I love Viking and am almost never have a complaint about their service; I'm sure we'll end up getting seated in both the specialty restaurants, but this particular aspect of making plans is deeply flawed. To make it worse, they opened bookings 2 hours early, and of course the online rep was no help at all.


 

 

[OneSixtyToOne]

11 minutes ago, longterm said:

I've had it for years and will try that, but I'll go straight to Guest Services anyway, so that I can try to move my wife's spa visit as well--because we missed the best times, she didn't get the time that she was hoping for.

I love Viking and am almost never have a complaint about their service; I'm sure we'll end up getting seated in both the specialty restaurants, but this particular aspect of making plans is deeply flawed. To make it worse, they opened bookings 2 hours early, and of course the online rep was no help at all.


 

 

For what it’s worth every time we pre-booked dining reservations they have ALWAYS opened early. I think there is something wrong with how they are calculating times (daylight savings vs non-daylight saving, GMT, or something else.) On the other hand, I have found that excursions always open exactly on time. There is a disconnect somewhere, possible because dining is directly hooked into the ship’s reservation system? The ship’s system and the website system don’t always sych up. Once we boarded and they had no record of our reservations. I was told there are issues between them. Always check your reservations when you board.

[longterm]

20 minutes ago, OneSixtyToOne said:

For what it’s worth every time we pre-booked dining reservations they have ALWAYS opened early. I think there is something wrong with how they are calculating times (daylight savings vs non-daylight saving, GMT, or something else.) On the other hand, I have found that excursions always open exactly on time. There is a disconnect somewhere, possible because dining is directly hooked into the ship’s reservation system? The ship’s system and the website system don’t always sych up. Once we boarded and they had no record of our reservations. I was told there are issues between them. Always check your reservations when you board.

Interesting--I've not noticed it in the past but wouldn't be surprised if it opened early then too.

Excursions definitely opened right on time in March... doesn't seem like it would be a hard thing to manage, but like you said, maybe it's a confusion with DST or something.

At any rate, it's not going to affect our trip; we go with the flow and know that we'll have a great trip. 

[CDNPolar]

We book the lowest cabin category that there is.  We get NO advance restaurant reservations.

 

We have always gotten the days and times we want - with no hassle - through the Viking Voyager App as soon as we board and connect to WiFi.

 

I constantly read on here people who are having issues with when reservations open and never once have we experienced that frustration because we have always gotten what we want once we board.

[oskidunker]

The dining room is good enough. I don't need all the aggravation 

[OneSixtyToOne]

34 minutes ago, oskidunker said:

The dining room is good enough. I don't need all the aggravation 

Agree. Specially restaurants are overrated. We tend to dine at the World Cafe. With port talks, enrichment lectures, trivia, shows, etc. we prefer to be on our own schedule, not at the mercy of the waitstaff servicing us in a timely manner.

 

On our expedition cruise we cancelled both night’s advanced reservations because the World Cafe was the best food we have had at sea.

Edited May 5 by OneSixtyToOne

[longterm]

28 minutes ago, oskidunker said:

The dining room is good enough. I don't need all the aggravation 

My wife and I always enjoy The Restaurant; in the past we've tried to sit at the very back of the restaurant on port side, where it was pretty quiet. Contrary to what some folks have said, we've never found any of the restaurants to be loud.

We've had mixed success with Chef's Table, but that's partly because my wife doesn't eat beef and doesn't like any sort of raw fish. We've reserved a table for our upcoming trip though, so we'll see how it fares.

The World Cafe isn't bad on a night either, so that I can get a sushi fix and a bit of gelato.

Edited May 5 by longterm

[Mich3554]

We have been to Chef’s Table 4x, Manfredi’s twice on this Bangkok to Vancouver trip we are currently on.  We did not have a single reservation when we stepped on board for dining.  Most of the reservations were made 2-3 days in advance.  
 

We have never booked restaurant reservations before any cruises and have always eaten at them several times.

[CDNPolar]

We mostly book the Chef's Table as we love tasting menus and we have loved every menu that we have encountered, with the exception of the UK menu.  (That has been discussed in another thread)

 

We do find that the Chef's Table is often very open for reservations and because we have no food restrictions we are good to go.

 

If we eat at Manfredi's once on a cruise that is enough for us.  We are just not big fans of Italian food.

[kahuna21]

We are going on Viking for the first time in July. We have a junior suite with a priority dining reservation time. Imagine my surprise when booking immediately when booking opened, that the earliest times were 8 pm. Good to read we should be able to fix that onboard. They must release only a small number of reservations prior to sailing. 
 

On Regent and Oceania, I’m always able to pre-book dining res and get the precise days and times that I want. 

[PasadenaDave]

The restaurant and World Cafe we find to be better and more efficient than Manfredi's, and we have never gone to the Chef's Table as it isn't our thing.

 

I too stressed about the reservations prior to our first cruise but quickly learned.  Don't sweat it, you will eat when and what you want, and it will be good.

[CDNPolar]

8 hours ago, kahuna21 said:

We are going on Viking for the first time in July. We have a junior suite with a priority dining reservation time. Imagine my surprise when booking immediately when booking opened, that the earliest times were 8 pm. Good to read we should be able to fix that onboard. They must release only a small number of reservations prior to sailing. 
 

On Regent and Oceania, I’m always able to pre-book dining res and get the precise days and times that I want. 

 

Download the Viking Voyager App before you leave home.  Once you board the ship, connect to the ship's wifi and then you can book the restaurants.

[SailorPaulH]

Following up on some previous posts here. Our reservations were due to open at 12 PT (3 PM ET) today, and opened early at 12 Noon ET (3 hours early). No big deal for us as we don't eat at CT and Manfredi's we can book onboard if we decide to go. For me, it's about getting DW's times for pampering in the Spa --- and that worked out pretty good. So it may well be that restaurants/spa bookings open a few hours early than advertised, YMMV.

[Baron Barracuda]

A problem with pre-booking Chefs Table is you don't know which menu you are signing up for.  We greatly enjoy some (especially the Asian ones) however others are a hard pass.  Once aboard ship you can use the tv or app to view every menu for every venue for every day of your sailing.  On embarkation day we've found it pretty easy to book the dates and times as we want.

Edited May 8 by Baron Barracuda

[CDNPolar]

Just now, Baron Barracuda said:

A problem with pre-booking Chefs Table is you don't know which menu you are signing up for.  For us while some (especially the Asian ones) are great others are a hard pass.  Once aboard ship you can use the tv or app to view every menu for every venue for every day of your sailing.  On embarkation day we've found it pretty easy to book the dates and times as we want.

 

Because we love the unexpected and eat anything, we book every 3 or 4 days so that we can experience each menu change.

[Baron Barracuda]

1 minute ago, CDNPolar said:

 

Because we love the unexpected and eat anything, we book every 3 or 4 days so that we can experience each menu change.

On our recent 33 day Grand Polynesia sailing we were able to enjoy 7 different CT menus (plus a couple of repeats).  We passed on several others.  Did Manfredi's several times as well but became a bit repetitive.  When making reservations always had to check what we would be passing up at The Restaurant.

[longterm]

On 5/8/2024 at 12:50 PM, Baron Barracuda said:

A problem with pre-booking Chefs Table is you don't know which menu you are signing up for.  We greatly enjoy some (especially the Asian ones) however others are a hard pass.  

We had the same experience; there are some things that my sweet wife just will not eat, so booking ahead of time is a crap shoot. We're going to give it a try again on the BIE in July, but in the past it's not been our favorite. 

[OneSixtyToOne]

9 minutes ago, longterm said:

We had the same experience; there are some things that my sweet wife just will not eat, so booking ahead of time is a crap shoot. We're going to give it a try again on the BIE in July, but in the past it's not been our favorite. 

We book just to have a time slot then onboard review the menus and change accordingly. We always get our preferred menu.

[duquephart]

On 5/8/2024 at 12:57 PM, Baron Barracuda said:

On our recent 33 day Grand Polynesia sailing we were able to enjoy 7 different CT menus (plus a couple of repeats).  We passed on several others.  Did Manfredi's several times as well but became a bit repetitive.  When making reservations always had to check what we would be passing up at The Restaurant.

 

As good as Manfredi's is it gets old after 3 (maybe 4) visits.

[longterm]

5 hours ago, OneSixtyToOne said:

We book just to have a time slot then onboard review the menus and change accordingly. We always get our preferred menu.

That's what we do too, but it's such an awful system. Either they should just leave it wide open or they should allow people to get decent spots. 

As it is, I booked an 8pm slot, and we never eat that late, so I'll rebook that night for sure once we're on board.

[LindaS272]

I vote for letting us know the CT menus when we book!

[CDNPolar]

10 hours ago, LindaS272 said:

I vote for letting us know the CT menus when we book!

 

This would be a great enhancement for most people for sure.  I understand why folks would want this.

 

Many years ago now in our neck of the woods when "tasting menus" were becoming popular, we were huge fans and the tasting menus that we engaged with were anywhere from 7-11 courses with a paired wine for each course.  

 

The FUN of this for us is there was no menu.  You basically did not eat the tasting menu unless you had no food restrictions, and some restaurants would make NO substitutions under any circumstances, and you had no idea what was coming next until it was put in front of you.

 

The FUN for us was the wine steward would come just before the next course and pour a wine and tell us the story of the wine.  Based on whether the wine was white, rose, or red, and based on the whether the wine was a light, medium, or full bodied we would try to guess what the next course was... sometimes we were right and sometimes not.  Then occasionally they would come with a Craft Beer and throw us off all together.

 

We just had a tasting menu where they tell you at the point of reservation, that they make no substitutions and if you have restrictions, then the tasting menu if not for you.

 

I know this would never happen, but we would be fine without a menu, and this is also why we blindly book the CT for each menu change and are not concerned with what the menu is.

[kctwinmommy]

So having returned from our first Viking cruise, both ourselves and another couple we met on board felt that their IT system is a bit lacking. And the wife of this couple worked in IT. We just felt that when we went to guest services for things, the system they use wasn't very user friendly for them. It seems to always be a struggle for them to figure something out. Now, were they major issues, no, but we did mention it to each other a few times. It took a lot to link Manfredi's bookings together to our rooms, and when we made a change with an excursion, it always took them multiple attempts to figure it out. Again, it just seems like the system they use doesn't talk to each other well, if that makes sense.