Planning my first cruise! Questions on reservations and adult zones..

[V2000]

Hello!

I am confused about reservations. How do you plan on eating at the restaurants for lunch 7 dinner?
I take it that breakfast is only buffet? What time is a good time to beat the breakfast buffet rush?
If I want to dine at the 18 and older restaurant, how do I make reservations and how far out would you recommend making the reservations.

I will be traveling with my 18 year old daughter and my husband.
What kind of adult zones are there for us??

 

[Jess_S]

How do you plan on eating at the restaurants for lunch 7 dinner?

For dinner, you request a dining time when you book. (Depending on when you book, you might be waitlisted for your first choice). You will get your dining rotation when you board. Your table number, servers and table mates stay the same, but you rotate through the main dining rooms. If you want to eat in Palo or Remy one night, that needs to be booked. You can also dine at the buffet, which is a table service restaurant at meal times.

Lunch options include the buffet, sit down restaurant and quick service locations. You just show up during the dining time.

I take it that breakfast is only buffet? What time is a good time to beat the breakfast buffet rush?

Usually there is a table service option available as well. The info on what restaurants are open and when will be in your Daily Navigator (the DCL activity schedule that you will get each day).

What kind of adult zones are there for us??

Pool, cafe, bars, etc. Go to the DCL website and check out the ship plans for a better idea of what is on each ship.

 

[gwmort]

Hello!

I am confused about reservations. How do you plan on eating at the restaurants for lunch 7 dinner?
I take it that breakfast is only buffet? What time is a good time to beat the breakfast buffet rush?
If I want to dine at the 18 and older restaurant, how do I make reservations and how far out would you recommend making the reservations.

I will be traveling with my 18 year old daughter and my husband.
What kind of adult zones are there for us??

For dinner you only choose dining time (early seating or late seating) and you will be assigned to a dining rotation which will tell you which restaurant to go to each night.

For lunch there are a host of options, we usually grab a sandwich on the pooldeck, you might also want to check happy hour food offerings in the adult spaces.

Breakfast for us was either the buffet or one of the Main Dining Rooms which rotated every morning. We did that once, but generally preferred the buffet. We arrived at the buffet at a variety of times (super early before port excursion through sleeping late and almost not making it on sea days) but we never had a problem finding a seat.

Reservations at the adult restaurants are available online once you complete the online check-in before your cruise, which time window varies depending if you are concierge or a higher castaway club member level.

 

[clten]

For Breakfast and Lunch, these meals are "open seating" meaning the hours of the restaurants are listed in the Navigator and you are free to dine there any time during their open hours. There is usually one sit down restaurant for each meal (Lumiere's, Tritons, Royal Table, Royal Palace depending on the ship) and at least the main buffet (Cabanas or Beach Blanket Buffet). But a second Main Dining Room may be set up as a buffet (Enchanted Garden, Carioca's or Parrot Cay). The buffet is a buffet every morning for breakfast and midday for lunch. When is a good time to miss the breakfast rush at the buffet depends on if it is a sea day or a port day. Sea days many people tend to sleep in so going earlier is less crowded. On port days, usually an hour to an hour and half before all ashore time, the buffet starts filling. So either go very early or later to miss the crowds.

As far as Palo (or Remy if on the new ships), as a first time cruiser (unless you are concierge) you will be able to make reservations for these restaurants 75 days before your sailing. You log into your reservation and select adult dining and if there is availability, you can make a reservation. If there isn't any more availability, you can keep checking online or once you are onboard, there will be a location listed in the Navigator where you can go and see if they have available times for Remy or Palo.

Adult (18+) areas on the ship include the Quiet Cove Pool, the Spa, Cove Café, Satellite Falls (on new ships) and the bar area after 9pm (might be forgetting something) and on Castaway Cay you have Serenity Bay.