Eclipse specialty restaurant questions - especially looking for recent passengers

Several people on the Dec 10th roll call have the same questions as I do. Hopefully , one of you has the answers.

We're sailing on the Dec 10th departure. I'm hoping you guys might be able to answer some questions for many cruisers on our roll call.

We have quite a bit of OBC on this cruise. I am considering using it for a four night specialty dining package ($125 per person, plus gratuities). On Celebrity's website, the price per person to book the restaurants individually are $50pp for Murano an $45pp for Tucsan Grille. If those are the REAL prices, it makes sense to book the package. But I have a couple of questions:

1. In prior sailings with X, they were discounting and doing BOGO sales for the specialty restaurants. If that still occurs, why book a 4 night package? (we're not fussy about scheduling or reservations.)

2. We have prepaid gratuities as part of our booking incentives. Does that apply to the gratuities in the restaurants and packages, too?

Sailed on the Eclipse end of October 2017.

First off - grats are included in the price you pay for either your restaurant package, or dining as your choose.

In terms of costs - first night they offer 50% off any speciality restaurant (they’ll have someone in the port building advertising this as well as drinks packages/upgrades), on our recent cruise it was also offered on the second night too.

At some point during your cruise there will be a free galley tour, ending in the speciliaty restaurant area aft deck 5. You’ll be taken around each restaurant and offered discounts on all, we secured 30% off an Indian Cuisine night in Qsine, and 20% off at Sushi on 5. Deals were there to be had at Tuscan as well.

Our waiter in the main dining room arranged a meal for us in Murano for the second Evening Chic night which co-incided with our wedding anniversary, again 30% off. We didn’t have to haggle at all for any of the above prices - I suspect we could’ve bartered down further.

On the basis of the prices we paid, we’d never book a dining package, but it all depends on how flexible you are with times and days.

One final thing - use the promotional casino credit they put on your seapass intermittently through the cruise (it’s advertised in the Daily). We won enough to pay for our meal in Murano and a few other onboard spends!

There is a difference between prepaid gratuities I.e the daily service charge that has been prepaid and the 18% they add to drinks etc. The bill we've been given in the specialty dining has included the gratuity but there has been a topic discussion on here recently of them splitting it.

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There is a difference between prepaid gratuities I.e the daily service charge that has been prepaid and the 18% they add to drinks etc. The bill we've been given in the specialty dining has included the gratuity but there has been a topic discussion on here recently of them splitting it.

Thank you all for the answers to my questions. However, this response is confusing to me.

We have the incentives of prepaid gratuities AND the classic alcohol package. Will we be paying gratuities on drinks??? Is our classic package accepted in the specialty restsurants?

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We have the incentives of prepaid gratuities AND the classic alcohol package. Will we be paying gratuities on drinks???

no unless you go over the price point of the beverage package, then you pay the difference in the price and the gratuity on that difference. Buy a drink that is $1 over your package and you will pay $1.18 ($1 plus 18% gratuity)

Is our classic package accepted in the specialty restsurants?

Yes

Thank you!