Blu on Reflection and Suite Dining Room

[uktog]

Based on the press release and criteria on which people will have booked suites through to 2017 then yes suite guests have space available access to Blu, not automatic right - they have never had automatic right.

 

The extent to which the suite dining room will impact on Blu will not become clear until April 2015 onwards when the dining room starts to roll out fleet wise.

 

Other factors that might also impact on suite demands on Blu (I think it is a not unreasonable assumption that suite guests are likely to gravitate towards their own dining room)

*premium suites (PH and RS) now have unlimited free of charge access to speciality restaurants - this could marginally increase demand at some points as Blu is included on the list of specialities on the suite information.

* how good is the suite dining room - I for one would move back to Blu in the initial months if the suite dining room has teething problems

* how "heavy" is the food in the suite dining room - on a longer cruise there will be a point that my stomach will say light light light please - now it may well be that light will be available in the suite dining room, we do not know yet

 

Breakfast time should see a positive reduction as there is no tight time window to use the suite dining room, it is open all day its menu just switches over at various points.

 

I am a fan of AQ cabins, I also love suites, I love Blu and we can all co-exist together. The X product is not going to say that those in more premium rooms cannot go to a dining room open to a less restricted group - just as AQ guests can go to the MDR but no vice versa.

 

The key thing is space available, the Maitre D is going to have to manage this, some will cope better than others and as we know already, those who do not, tend to invent rules or rumours to help them cope

[cle-guy]

This is all just wishful thinking on your part. You have a dog in this hunt from looking at your upcoming cruises and cabin categories. Good luck and have a wonderful time in your suite dining room!

 

SDT

 

I don't really have a dog in the fight. I've only dined in BLU 2, maybe 3 times, and don't find it all that special, other than a quieter venue, which I can also get in Tuscan, Murano etc.

 

In fact one cruise I was in Aqua, I never even stepped foot in BLU, preferring the MDR instead. I suspect when Suite Dining comes, I'll use it 1 or 2 times on a trip, and then use MDR most nights.

 

I'm simply sharing the written facts as presented in official Celebrity Brochures, as they have been modified over time to offset the "rumors and speculation" we get from the onboard staff, who are about as reliable as a gaggle of teenaged girls when it comes to gossip, and are still presented as the official information related to traveling in a suite: http://www.creative.rccl.com/Sales/Celebrity/General_Info/Flyers/14037410_CEL_Suites_FAQs.pdf

Edited November 19, 2014 by cle-guy

[C-Dragons]

Most everyone knows how bad the X website is. It has been pointed out many times before how painfully SLOW X is to update information regarding anything, except perhaps stateroom pricing, on the website. ;)

IMO, anyone who proposes that FAQ's or T&C's are to be taken as sealed in stone for any proposed amount of time (X's fine print states that anything can be changed at any time) are a little out of touch. I'm sure decisions on policy changes are made daily at corporate, but unless they issue a press release, I don't take anything for granted.

[Kevnzworld]

Actually, I misspoke. We travel on TA's with someone who stays in Royal Suites. It was that Suite pax who learned from the Michael's Club concierge a couple days before disembarkation that Suite Pax will not be allowed to dine in Blu once the Suite dining room was built out. It was a discussion between the Suite pax and the maitre'd, who could not confirm. The maitre'd was concerned that if this would be the policy, it would affect the additional tips suite pax would bring for the wait staff.

 

My parents were in the Royal suite for the last cruise on Silhouette ( TA ) , and we were in a regular suite. We spoke to Anka in Michaels club, as well as the Maître D's in both Blu and the MDR.

Nobody had any info other than what has been announced. They honestly don't know. They do know that it will be set menus fleet wide. They hope that there will be a real Chef that will have some menu discretion. I get the feeling that it's still being worked out.

[SHill64]

Pretty harsh....

 

It's not wishful thinking since X's own press release states that suite guests will still be able to eat in Blu on a space available basis.

 

Not harsh, just how I see it. Our friends that travel with us in a Royal Suite want to dine with us in Blu and made it a point to inquire about this when booking a B2B TA on the Reflection in 2016. They're also booked in a RS for the Silhouette fall 2015 TA. They feel from what they were told at the Future Cruise Desk they will not be able to dine in Blu after April 2015. For anyone to believe they'll able to dine in Blu after April 2015 just because Celebrity has bookings open through 2017 is foolish. Read the cruise contract. They reserve the right to change the rules of the game at any time.

 

 

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[cle-guy]

Not harsh, just how I see it. Our friends that travel with us in a Royal Suite want to dine with us in Blu and made it a point to inquire about this when booking a B2B TA on the Reflection in 2016. They're also booked in a RS for the Silhouette fall 2015 TA. They feel from what they were told at the Future Cruise Desk they will not be able to dine in Blu after April 2015. For anyone to believe they'll able to dine in Blu after April 2015 just because Celebrity has bookings open through 2017 is foolish. Read the cruise contract. They reserve the right to change the rules of the game at any time.

 

 

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The folks at Future Crusie desk last spring were also telling people the Century was not being sold, it was being relocated to serve the ports of call that included Venice due to its restricted access that was being discussed by its port officials, this even after the group that purchased Century had put out a press release announcing their plans to purchase it. I put very little faith in them. They know how to push buttons on their computer. They also told me I couldn't get 123 perks on a Century from Dubai sailing, even though several on our roll call had it. I made them call corporate, they did and found out, oh yes, that cruise did allow the 123 perks. They didn't even know anything about my 2 canceled cruses that happened while I was aboard my Bermuda sailing, my November 20 Connie sailing, and the redirected Century Dubai to rome changed to Dubai to Singapore - BOTH while I was aboard. Yet I had emails from X telling me of the changes.

 

Agree, they can change anything anytime, I just don't see what purpose it serves for them to extend major perks to suites, and then roll them back, especially since it's a program that's worked just fine all along. Restricting BLU access is just going to mean more empty tables in there. Nothing gained.

 

UNLESS they decide to start charging a fee for entrance to non-aqua, then I could see X prohibiting suites in, but only if there's a way to make a dollar.

[SHill64]

The folks at Future Crusie desk last spring were also telling people the Century was not being sold, it was being relocated to serve the ports of call that included Venice due to its restricted access that was being discussed by its port officials, this even after the group that purchased Century had put out a press release announcing their plans to purchase it. I put very little faith in them. They know how to push buttons on their computer. They also told me I couldn't get 123 perks on a Century from Dubai sailing, even though several on our roll call had it. I made them call corporate, they did and found out, oh yes, that cruise did allow the 123 perks. They didn't even know anything about my 2 canceled cruses that happened while I was aboard my Bermuda sailing, my November 20 Connie sailing, and the redirected Century Dubai to rome changed to Dubai to Singapore - BOTH while I was aboard. Yet I had emails from X telling me of the changes.

 

Agree, they can change anything anytime, I just don't see what purpose it serves for them to extend major perks to suites, and then roll them back, especially since it's a program that's worked just fine all along. Restricting BLU access is just going to mean more empty tables in there. Nothing gained.

 

UNLESS they decide to start charging a fee for entrance to non-aqua, then I could see X prohibiting suites in, but only if there's a way to make a dollar.

 

Empty tables? Really? I now believe you've never eaten in Blu. Blu is overcrowded. I had a lengthy discussion with George, the maitre'd in Blu last week. We dine every night at 8pm. Each night we arrived, the room was full. I asked him how many paxs are able to eat in Blu. About 270. Of that, over 50 are suite passengers. Double cabin occupancy of course. Blu seats 136. The night we had this discussion, he had served 220,; of which 40 were suite passengers and it was only 9pm. This was the case, give or take 20, every night.

 

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Edited November 19, 2014 by SHill64

[cle-guy]

Empty tables? Really? I now believe you've never eaten in Blu. Blu is overcrowded. I had a lengthy discussion with George, the maitre'd in Blu last week. We dine every night at 8pm. Each night we arrived, the room was full. I asked him how many paxs are able to eat in Blu. About 270. Of that, over 50 are suite passengers. Double cabin occupancy of course. The night we had this discussion, he had served 220,; of which 40 were suite passengers and it was only 9pm. This was the case, give or take 20, every night.

 

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I appreciate your factual numbers, I love to analyze things here, and rarely get real numbers to work from.....sooooooo.......

 

It absolutely varies from time to time and time of the day and passenger demand. 8 pm is of course a High Demand dining time, so I'd expect to see it at capacity around then

 

I was on Reflection last year, and arrived to BLU (this was my 2nd time dining there while in a suite) at 8pm and several of the large tables were completely open. Sat with 4 friends, and we had an empty seat at our table, and there were at least 2 open 2 tops I could see.

 

So you were told 270 CAN dine there, and from what I can tell it seats about 125 or so based on its floor plan. Yes, there will be busy times, but there will also be less busy times. Not really much different than how it works out for Select dining, and of course not all suite PAX dine there.

 

On Reflection, at dbl occupancy, that would be (RF-1 cabin, SG-5, PH-1, RS-8, CS-12, AQSte-32, Sky-52) 111 Suites/222 people. You learned that 40 suite PAX dined, so just under 20% of suites gained access to BLU.

 

there are 150 AQ cabins, so max of 300 PAX in Aqua. So maximum would be 300 + 222 = 522 diners in an evening. That would require almost 4 turns of the restaurant, which is a bit excessive, likely they can comfortably do 3 turns, in that MDR does 2 at a far slower pace. You experienced 250ish diners, 2 turns of the space. VERY doable.

 

For comparison the other S class ships have 130 (not 150) Aqua cabins, and 66 (not 111) suites, and the same footprint in BLU as reflection. SO yes, Reflection is going to be far more busy than the rest, and I don't think they would have planned to cram so many in there if it couldn't handle it based on the experiences of the other ships. But it certainly was designed to run at capacity.

Edited November 19, 2014 by cle-guy

[ghstudio]

For comparison the other S class ships have 130 (not 150) Aqua cabins, and 66 (not 111) suites, and the same footprint in BLU as reflection. SO yes, Reflection is going to be far more busy than the rest, and I don't think they would have planned to cram so many in there if it couldn't handle it based on the experiences of the other ships. But it certainly was designed to run at capacity.

 

"couldn't handle it" is relative. One of the design points has to be waiting for a table time. I think the real breakage on the Reflection is that they increased the seating in aqua slightly to accommodate the additional aqua passengers....however, they then changed their policy on allowing suite guests to dine in blu when they decided to pump up the suite perks. That created a problem on all the ships, but far more of a problem on the reflection where there are more suites and the increase in seats really wasn't enough to even accommodate the increased aqua passengers.

 

The suite restaurant will (hopefully) remove the extra load that blu was never designed to handle in the first place.

[Gracie115]

I appreciate your factual numbers, I love to analyze things here, and rarely get real numbers to work from.....sooooooo.......

 

It absolutely varies from time to time and time of the day and passenger demand. 8 pm is of course a High Demand dining time, so I'd expect to see it at capacity around then

 

I was on Reflection last year, and arrived to BLU (this was my 2nd time dining there while in a suite) at 8pm and several of the large tables were completely open. Sat with 4 friends, and we had an empty seat at our table, and there were at least 2 open 2 tops I could see.

 

So you were told 270 CAN dine there, and from what I can tell it seats about 125 or so based on its floor plan. Yes, there will be busy times, but there will also be less busy times. Not really much different than how it works out for Select dining, and of course not all suite PAX dine there.

 

On Reflection, at dbl occupancy, that would be (RF-1 cabin, SG-5, PH-1, RS-8, CS-12, AQSte-32, Sky-52) 111 Suites/222 people. You learned that 40 suite PAX dined, so just under 20% of suites gained access to BLU.

 

there are 150 AQ cabins, so max of 300 PAX in Aqua. So maximum would be 300 + 222 = 522 diners in an evening. That would require almost 4 turns of the restaurant, which is a bit excessive, likely they can comfortably do 3 turns, in that MDR does 2 at a far slower pace. You experienced 250ish diners, 2 turns of the space. VERY doable.

 

For comparison the other S class ships have 130 (not 150) Aqua cabins, and 66 (not 111) suites, and the same footprint in BLU as reflection. SO yes, Reflection is going to be far more busy than the rest, and I don't think they would have planned to cram so many in there if it couldn't handle it based on the experiences of the other ships. But it certainly was designed to run at capacity.

 

pretty much says it all..:D:eek::D

[SHill64]

pretty much says it all..:D:eek::D

 

I was speaking about Silhouette. 108 AQ cabins-216 passengers. 116 suites-232 passengers. Blu dining room on the Silhouette seats 136 according to the maitre'd that has been with the company 21 1/2 years. Blu opens at 6 pm and generally has two seatings. Reflection has more AQ cabins. After April 2105, AQ suites are a thing of the past. Back to standard S2 cabins.

[SHill64]

The folks at Future Crusie desk last spring were also telling people the Century was not being sold, it was being relocated to serve the ports of call that included Venice due to its restricted access that was being discussed by its port officials, this even after the group that purchased Century had put out a press release announcing their plans to purchase it. I put very little faith in them. They know how to push buttons on their computer. They also told me I couldn't get 123 perks on a Century from Dubai sailing, even though several on our roll call had it. I made them call corporate, they did and found out, oh yes, that cruise did allow the 123 perks. They didn't even know anything about my 2 canceled cruses that happened while I was aboard my Bermuda sailing, my November 20 Connie sailing, and the redirected Century Dubai to rome changed to Dubai to Singapore - BOTH while I was aboard. Yet I had emails from X telling me of the changes.

 

Agree, they can change anything anytime, I just don't see what purpose it serves for them to extend major perks to suites, and then roll them back, especially since it's a program that's worked just fine all along. Restricting BLU access is just going to mean more empty tables in there. Nothing gained.

 

UNLESS they decide to start charging a fee for entrance to non-aqua, then I could see X prohibiting suites in, but only if there's a way to make a dollar.

 

Kurt, what is "pied piper"? :confused:

[ghstudio]

Kurt, what is "pied piper"? :confused:

 

Google is your friend....since they are a TA, we really can't discuss here

[cle-guy]

Kurt, what is "pied piper"? :confused:

 

Once upon a time they MAY HAVE been a TA, but now just organize gay travel groups (not charters) almost exclusively with Celebrity. They actually don't do any travel agency stuff anymore.

[cle-guy]

I was speaking about Silhouette. 108 AQ cabins-216 passengers. 116 suites-232 passengers. Blu dining room on the Silhouette seats 136 according to the maitre'd that has been with the company 21 1/2 years. Blu opens at 6 pm and generally has two seatings. Reflection has more AQ cabins. After April 2105, AQ suites are a thing of the past. Back to standard S2 cabins.

 

Sillouhette as I know it has:

130 Aqua Cabins

66 Suites (2 PH, 8 RS, 12 CS, 44 SkySuites)

 

I was pretty close with my seating estimate of 125, nice to know the floor plans are relatively accurate. I do think I missed some of the banquette seats...

 

So 260 people with entitled access to BLU, and 132 with as available.

 

136 seats for 492 people if all show up (and of course never does everyone show up, as you noted, about 240 (48% of all invited guests, though as you noted in prior post, only about 20% of suite guests took the option) showed up), so not even 2 full turns of the seating in reality, but 3.6 turns needed if ALL showed up

 

BLU as I understand it does not do fixed dining, it's full select, though most do show up at the traditional 6:30 and 8 pm I'm sure. I realize most get a card on 1st night with an assigned time, which applies to 1st night only, generally considered a way to "throttle" arrivals on that hectic first night.