dining packages

[thebigpuba]

I am looking at a holiday cruise and trying to purchase a dining package and was told not applicable to holiday cruises. Was I misinformed or this true. Has anyone booked one for Xmas cruises. Thanks

[Project_gal]

We were on the New Year cruise on Eclipse in 2012/13. We booked specialty dining really early [not a package] but, as the cruise got closer, people found that they could not book. When they rang Celebrity, they told them that you could not pre-book specialty dining in advance. This was not actually true. We had reservation for every night. They only release a certain number of reservations in advance and I suspect that these had just sold early.

 

Clearly, advance bookings are very good for Christmas and New Year cruises. If that is the case, I guess that they do not need to sell packages. Why sell specialty dining at a reduced price if you can sell out at full price?

[ghstudio]

Celebrity doesn't block dining packages on any cruise....in fact, they want passengers to book those in advance. They do, however, keep some space available for selling to those on board the cruise.

 

Having said that, on most cruises, you'll find that the specialty restaurants aren't sold out, in fact they may offer discounts to entice folks to book the restaurants. It's not unusual to have offers of 20% off when you're on board....or up to 50% off on the first night of the cruise.

[fatbaldbloke]

The last 2 cruises we have been on they haven't sold out & have been discounting meals in all 3 speciality restaurants. Hope this helps we were on Infinity & Eclipse.

 

Phil

[Jenna109]

On all our recent cruises staff have been trying to get people to book the speciality restaurants with discounts. On the Constellation we got an excellent discount because there were four of us. However, we do not feel the quality of these restaurants are what they were and the difference between them and the MDR is sufficient for the extra charges. Must admit service is far superior and the ambiance wonderful - am I talking myself into going again:rolleyes:

[Officer Dibble]

On our last 2 cruises - admittedly not at Christmas - we booked a number of speciality restaurants online before departure. On the cruises themselves, the staff were always trying to interest guests in the speciality dining options. On the first night there was a 50% reduction for the speciality restaurants for that evening.

 

OD