Which menu ?

[Redtravel]

I made my specialty restaurant reservations online. I had no trouble finding acceptable times. I know that Chef Table serves fixed menu that changes every three days. How can I find out what menu will be served on the days that I reserved?  If I don’t like the menu of the day, do I just pass on it or do I get a rebook to a more desirable menu?  

[WanderingBrit]

You won't be able to learn until boarding, and even then they often have conflicting information.

 

Once on board you can book to visit Chef's Table as often as they have availability, there are no limits.

[OneSixtyToOne]

17 minutes ago, Redtravel said:

I made my specialty restaurant reservations online. I had no trouble finding acceptable times. I know that Chef Table serves fixed menu that changes every three days. How can I find out what menu will be served on the days that I reserved?  If I don’t like the menu of the day, do I just pass on it or do I get a rebook to a more desirable menu?  

You won’t know the rotation until you board. One of the first things we do upon boarding is check the menus. If you have a reservation see if you can re-book. Typically there are cancellations and it’s not an issue. Not all tables are allocated to pre-boarding reservations.

[CCWineLover]

1 hour ago, Redtravel said:

  If I don’t like the menu of the day, do I just pass on it or do I get a rebook to a more desirable menu?  

If you decide you don't like the menu for a reservation that you have, please contact the reservation folks and cancel or rebook.

Right now, Viking says too many people just blow off their reservations and are no shows.

Thank you!

[lovetosew]

Where is everyone's sense of adventure? I have been on so many cruises with side trips to dining venues to try the local cuisine and some of my best travel tales are of peoples lack palate curiosity. I will not repeat but to encourage.  As my mom would say, "Just one bite."

[Mich3554]

I think we have tried all the menus at this point.  Some menus I liked better than others.  The Indonesian CT menu was introduced on the Neptune during the 22-23 world cruise.  We tried to go a second time it was so good, but couldn’t get in.  Unfortunately, on our last cruise we discovered it had been spiced down considerably.  

[Redtravel]

Thought that maybe somebody knew the rotation of the menus served at the chefs table.   Seems odd that you can make a reservation without knowing the menu.  I am not surprised that people cancel or no show.  We have 2 reservations 8 nights apart. Hopefully the menu will be something appealing.  If not, oh well. 

[OneSixtyToOne]

28 minutes ago, Redtravel said:

Thought that maybe somebody knew the rotation of the menus served at the chefs table.   Seems odd that you can make a reservation without knowing the menu.  I am not surprised that people cancel or no show.  We have 2 reservations 8 nights apart. Hopefully the menu will be something appealing.  If not, oh well. 

Rotations are dependent on a lot of factors including itinerary, provisioning, crew changes (new Chef arriving), etc. You won’t know until you board.

[lackcreativity]

1 hour ago, Redtravel said:

 Seems odd that you can make a reservation without knowing the menu.  I am not surprised that people cancel or no show.  

Canceling is understandable. Being a No Show should not happen.  

[CCWineLover]

2 hours ago, Redtravel said:

Thought that maybe somebody knew the rotation of the menus served at the chefs table.   Seems odd that you can make a reservation without knowing the menu.  I am not surprised that people cancel or no show.  We have 2 reservations 8 nights apart. Hopefully the menu will be something appealing.  If not, oh well. 

That's why we never get reservations ahead of time, but always do when we board and then know the menus and rotation.  I'm fine with that approach and it has always worked for us.  So many get so worked up over reserving it all ahead of time.  Have to be open and flexible!

[Redtravel]

21 minutes ago, CCWineLover said:

That's why we never get reservations ahead of time, but always do when we board and then know the menus and rotation.  I'm fine with that approach and it has always worked for us.  So many get so worked up over reserving it all ahead of time.  Have to be open and flexible!

On some cruise lines, making advance dinner reservations is tough. Making dinner reservations on Oceania is race to the finish.  Depending on the cabin class, reservations open up for booking at midnight eastern time. I have logged on at midnight and booked. I don’t always get my first choices.  

[millybess]

8 minutes ago, Redtravel said:

On some cruise lines, making advance dinner reservations is tough. Making dinner reservations on Oceania is race to the finish.  Depending on the cabin class, reservations open up for booking at midnight eastern time. I have logged on at midnight and booked. I don’t always get my first choices.  

Been there, done that, with Viking.  Just once and never again. 😒

[Breckski]

3 hours ago, Redtravel said:

Thought that maybe somebody knew the rotation of the menus served at the chefs table.   Seems odd that you can make a reservation without knowing the menu.  I am not surprised that people cancel or no show.  We have 2 reservations 8 nights apart. Hopefully the menu will be something appealing.  If not, oh well. 

Just give it a go even if you don't think you'll like the meal.  I'm a somewhat picky eater, but have never had a bad meal at CT.  Obviously, we have our favorites.  But I don't think we've had a menu where we thought we'd rather be in the World Cafe or Restaurant.  I think we've tried 12 menus.

[uktog]

13 hours ago, lovetosew said:

Where is everyone's sense of adventure? I have been on so many cruises with side trips to dining venues to try the local cuisine and some of my best travel tales are of peoples lack palate curiosity. I will not repeat but to encourage.  As my mom would say, "Just one bite."

Whilst I agree when you are working around food allergies (nuts and chilli in our case) you want to find a menu that has least adaptations otherwise as DH found to his cost he gets lower quality substitutes at times. 

[JPtheATC]

On 7/22/2024 at 5:06 PM, CCWineLover said:

That's why we never get reservations ahead of time, but always do when we board and then know the menus and rotation.  I'm fine with that approach and it has always worked for us.  So many get so worked up over reserving it all ahead of time.  Have to be open and flexible!

Good advice...think maybe I will do this as well.

[beanpittsburgh]

We just got back from our Alaska Cruise.  On our 9 day cruise, the Chef's Table never had any early cancelations.  There was two nights an 830 became available.  Too late for us.  My wife has a GF allergy.  The chef worked with her at all the restaurants including Chef's table.

[Clay Clayton]

On 7/30/2024 at 6:58 AM, beanpittsburgh said:

We just got back from our Alaska Cruise.  On our 9 day cruise, the Chef's Table never had any early cancelations.  There was two nights an 830 became available.  Too late for us.  My wife has a GF allergy.  The chef worked with her at all the restaurants including Chef's table.

Perhaps we just got lucky, but we never asked about cancelations, we would just pop by the Maitre’d stand and ask if they could find us a table. Sometimes they said if we came back in 30 minutes they would have a table or occasionally they asked for a minute to set up a table and ushered us in. 

[odblnt]

2 hours ago, Clay Clayton said:

Perhaps we just got lucky, but we never asked about cancelations, we would just pop by the Maitre’d stand and ask if they could find us a table. Sometimes they said if we came back in 30 minutes they would have a table or occasionally they asked for a minute to set up a table and ushered us in. 

Ah, Clay, but by that time they probably knew you and knew that you (and Mike) were VIPs (Very Impatient People). 😉

[Redtravel]

On 8/7/2024 at 4:26 PM, odblnt said:

Ah, Clay, but by that time they probably knew you and knew that you (and Mike) were VIPs (Very Impatient People). 😉

Every cruise is different.  We are on Mars. We made reservations online for Manfredi’s and Chefs table.  Once onboard we got to see the menus for Chefs Table.  Dropped our first night reservation. Menu didn’t appeal. Booked some others. We ate the Asian Panorama menu.  It was weird. The wines were awful. We were not impressed.  We met other guests who also didn’t like that menu.  We have dined at Manfredi’s twice on this cruise. Both nights were excellent.

[CCWineLover]

2 hours ago, Redtravel said:

Every cruise is different.  We are on Mars. We made reservations online for Manfredi’s and Chefs table.  Once onboard we got to see the menus for Chefs Table.  Dropped our first night reservation. Menu didn’t appeal. Booked some others. We ate the Asian Panorama menu.  It was weird. The wines were awful. We were not impressed.  We met other guests who also didn’t like that menu.  We have dined at Manfredi’s twice on this cruise. Both nights were excellent.

To show as an example how everyone (at least on Cruise Critic) has often completely opposite opinions, and thus a reason people should not listen to any specific person and try things out for themselves . . .

 

We were just on Mars.  We absolutely loved Chef's Table and Asian Panorama was our favorite menu.  We met many other guests who also loved that menu.  We went twice even.  We absolutely loved the wines (and I'm somewhat critical of wines on ships).  However, we dined at Manfredi's twice - and had a horrible meal both times.  We've been there on all our Viking cruises and it has steadily gotten worse.  The new menu is awful in our opinion.

 

Just an example - people should try things themselves and see what they like, not what others like or dislike.  

[CILCIANRQTS]

On 7/22/2024 at 7:55 PM, Breckski said:

Just give it a go even if you don't think you'll like the meal.  I'm a somewhat picky eater, but have never had a bad meal at CT.  Obviously, we have our favorites.  But I don't think we've had a menu where we thought we'd rather be in the World Cafe or Restaurant.  I think we've tried 12 menus.

Not possible, since we don’t eat lamb or veal, and my wife doesn’t eat seafood. We wait until we’re onboard.

[CCWineLover]

1 hour ago, CILCIANRQTS said:

Not possible, since we don’t eat lamb or veal, and my wife doesn’t eat seafood. We wait until we’re onboard.

Always possible.  Viking will do nice substitutions for you.  I don't eat lamb but enjoy the "lamb" menu, as they always give me a very nice steak!  Our friend doesn't eat seafood and they give her a choice of what she'd like (often a steak or pork).   Just ask!

[Redtravel]

8 hours ago, CCWineLover said:

To show as an example how everyone (at least on Cruise Critic) has often completely opposite opinions, and thus a reason people should not listen to any specific person and try things out for themselves . . .

 

We were just on Mars.  We absolutely loved Chef's Table and Asian Panorama was our favorite menu.  We met many other guests who also loved that menu.  We went twice even.  We absolutely loved the wines (and I'm somewhat critical of wines on ships).  However, we dined at Manfredi's twice - and had a horrible meal both times.  We've been there on all our Viking cruises and it has steadily gotten worse.  The new menu is awful in our opinion.

 

Just an example - people should try things themselves and see what they like, not what others like or dislike.  

Did the British menu at Chefs Table tonight.  The food was ok. The service was very slow. We started at 6 and left at 8:30. Skipped dessert.