Booking Sabatinis on the Ship

[tjcletzgo]

How hard is it to get dinner reservations when on the ship? We’re getting the Plus package and have a bunch of OBC and want to use it for specialty dining.

[reedprincess]

5 minutes ago, tjcletzgo said:

How hard is it to get dinner reservations when on the ship? We’re getting the Plus package and have a bunch of OBC and want to use it for specialty dining.

It varies. Itinerary, ship, time of year, how many may have booked Premier Cruise Package, etc all play a role.

 

My last Caribbean Princess sailing, late 2024, couldn't get into Sabatini's for live or money - although empty tables were there any time I checked, and I checked several times every night.. 

 

Generally speaking, they do hold some skits for booking aboard - but they may not be the times and dates you want..the only way to ensure that is to book in advance.. and no, you can't use your OBC in advance for specialty dining..  so, to book it, you have to pay at time of booking.. you could then have it reversed aboard, and it would be refunded to OBC. Kinda defeats the idea of using OBC to book specialty dining though...

 

 

 

 

Edited May 9 by reedprincess

[memoak]

If you want early dining times it can be an issue. We almost never eat prior to 7;30 and have never had an issue booking on board

[JimmyVWine]

9 minutes ago, reedprincess said:

although empty tables were there any time I checked, and I checked several times every night..

It’s not unusual for a restaurant to be at full capacity even when tables are empty. It all depends on how many people are in the kitchen and how many servers are on the floor. In a “cook to order” restaurant, the kitchen can only prepare so many items at a time and that number never equals the number of seats in the restaurant. Perhaps Princess staffing is such that the restaurant is “full” at 60-70% capacity. 

[Arizona Wildcat]

We were able to get seats in Sabatinis any evening on a Christmas cruise at 8pm.

Agree the kitchen at the specialty venues could not handle a full restaurant.

[Esprit]

11 hours ago, memoak said:

If you want early dining times it can be an issue. We almost never eat prior to 7;30 and have never had an issue booking on board

Ditto for us at 8 pm

[lx200gps]

We rarely eat dinner in the Dining Rooms and frequent the SDRs at least 4 or 5 times on a 7 day trip. Aside from issues in the immediate post-COVID restart when staffing issues forced them to scale back, we have pretty much much never had any issue booking SDRs on board. Admittedly we prefer to eat early to ensure making theater shows, when the restaurants first open and the experience is at it's calmest, the staff is fresh etc.  Bottom line is head to the restaurants IMMEDIATELY on boarding (and try to board early) or call the DINE line and make your bookings by phone. If you make your bookings early and are a bit flexible when as to dining times, you should be quite successful.

[rocklinmom]

Question related to using OBC for booking Sabatini's onboard...can one person treat a family group to dinner there paying for everyone using their OBC? Or is everyone charged individually? I have enough OBC to treat our group of 8 but don't know how or if they will do that. 

[skynight]

7 minutes ago, rocklinmom said:

Question related to using OBC for booking Sabatini's onboard...can one person treat a family group to dinner there paying for everyone using their OBC? Or is everyone charged individually? I have enough OBC to treat our group of 8 but don't know how or if they will do that. 

You can request that the entire charge be placed onto your on board account where it will net against any credit (OBC) balance. 

[azbirdmom]

Agree that it does vary by ship.  Your best bet is to go to Sabatini's right after you board.  They will typically have someone there to make reservations.  Or you can call the dine line.  The sooner you do it the better.

[jeromep]

23 hours ago, tjcletzgo said:

How hard is it to get dinner reservations when on the ship? We’re getting the Plus package and have a bunch of OBC and want to use it for specialty dining.

It depends on the sailing.  On our last cruise it was kind of difficult.  We had Premier and two comped specialty dinners and one embarkation night dinner as a suite perk.  Embarkation night dinner was the easiest one to book.  The remaining two were more difficult.  We used the Concierge to book those next two dinners.  I don't know if they pulled strings or we were fortunate, but it was nice asking them to do it and them getting back to us with what was available.  We ate at Sabatini's three times on that cruise.  Ironically, we were never able to get a decent dining time at Crown Grill, so never ate there.  Crown Grill on that sailing was very popular and full every night.  Bistro Sur la Mer was still the seafood concept for specialty dining on that cruise (Discovery Princess, July 2023), and was nearly empty every night.  We thought the menu looked ok, but it never struck our fancy.  It would have been an easy walk up and dine situation, too.  Looking forward to trying Catch on our next cruise.  Not long now, not long.

[memoak]

8 minutes ago, jeromep said:

It depends on the sailing.  On our last cruise it was kind of difficult.  We had Premier and two comped specialty dinners and one embarkation night dinner as a suite perk.  Embarkation night dinner was the easiest one to book.  The remaining two were more difficult.  We used the Concierge to book those next two dinners.  I don't know if they pulled strings or we were fortunate, but it was nice asking them to do it and them getting back to us with what was available.  We ate at Sabatini's three times on that cruise.  Ironically, we were never able to get a decent dining time at Crown Grill, so never ate there.  Crown Grill on that sailing was very popular and full every night.  Bistro Sur la Mer was still the seafood concept for specialty dining on that cruise (Discovery Princess, July 2023), and was nearly empty every night.  We thought the menu looked ok, but it never struck our fancy.  It would have been an easy walk up and dine situation, too.  Looking forward to trying Catch on our next cruise.  Not long now, not long.

What were you looking for as far as dining times ?  We always eat after 7:30 and have not had an issue on any ship

[tjcletzgo]

We are wanting to eat at 7:00🛳️

[memoak]

I would suggest being a bit flexible. Some diners who want 5-6 courses and eat at 5:30 or so may not be finished by 7:00 to free up the table. We only eat 3 courses and are usually done in just over an hour or so