Has anyone tried this at Blu?

[Sammigar]

From the main Cruise Critic site (review of Silhouette):

 

Blu is designated for passengers staying in Silhouette's AquaSpa cabins (who eat free), but the venue is available nightly to everyone else on a first-come, first-served basis and for a $5 fee.

I've never heard of non-Aqua Spa cabin people eating at Blue. Just curious about the validity of the above statement.

[cruisestitch]

The reviewer was wrong. The only non Aqua guests who can eat in Blu are those booked in suites.

[mafig]

I think years ago (before Luminae), suite passengers were charged to eat in Blu.

I believe this practice lasted a very short time.

[ClaudiaB]

That is absolutely the most erroneous statement.

Blu has never been available to anyone but Aqua Class passengers, period. Suite pax can eat there on a space-available basis.

If you want to eat in Blu, book AQ or suites. That's the main perk of AQ and why people will book those cabins. Makes no sense that someone in a regular cabin can go there for 5 bucks!

[Luvcrusn]

Luminae passengers are allowed to eat in Blu as space permits. That being said, X tries to please suite passenger as much as possible. No one else is permitted in Blu.

[Orator]

What was the date of this post? Only Suite guests could dine in Blu with a $5 charge, but that ended a long time ago. Suite passengers can now dine there at no charge if space is available.

[CHEZMARYLOU]

Blu is now one of the main draws of Aqua Class. Why would they allow someone to book an inside at many $ below the cost of Aqua to dine there for $5.00? Before Luminae it was said that the fee for suite guests to dine in Blu was $5.00. It is now free, on a space available basis, to suite guests. This is one example of the potential confusion encountered when reading old reviews.

[dkjretired]

This is one of the rules that Celebrity has always enforced for both dinner and breakfast.

[abbydancer2003]

We were in a Sky Suite on Reflection a couple of months ago. A Celebrity rep told me we could eat at Blu for 5.00, but others said that charge was gone. Didn't matter because there was never space available.

[TeaBag]

We just got off Equinox. The first night of the cruise we went down to Blu and we couldn't believe our eyes. There was a very long queue already and it was only 5:40. Doors open at 5:45. We like to eat early and every single night when we went down to Blu, there was a line-up. Never have seen this before. Perhaps there were a lot of people on the cruise who like to eat early. The dining room seemed to be full every night.

[Canadianhey!]

We just got off Equinox. The first night of the cruise we went down to Blu and we couldn't believe our eyes. There was a very long queue already and it was only 5:40. Doors open at 5:45. We like to eat early and every single night when we went down to Blu, there was a line-up. Never have seen this before. Perhaps there were a lot of people on the cruise who like to eat early. The dining room seemed to be full every night.

On my cruise in Oct only one night that we did not have to wait for a table. We ate at various times and it was always full.

[jelayne]

We cruise mostly in AQ with an occasional suite. We were in a Suite in Feb and tried to eat on Blu on 2 different nights; both were a no go unless we were willing to wait until after 9.

 

Glad to know that AQ passengers have priority in Blu.

[CYNSport]

We just got off Equinox. The first night of the cruise we went down to Blu and we couldn't believe our eyes. There was a very long queue already and it was only 5:40. Doors open at 5:45. We like to eat early and every single night when we went down to Blu, there was a line-up. Never have seen this before. Perhaps there were a lot of people on the cruise who like to eat early. The dining room seemed to be full every night.

 

Same thing for our Oct. 16 cruise on the Equinox. We were with friends and we like to eat around 6:45, but we always had to get a buzzer and wait. The maitre d’ told us people were lined up at 5:30, waiting for Blu to open. After 10+ cruises in Aqua, this was a first! And, it was very busy until about 7:30. If you wanted to eat at 8:00, there was no problem :)

[Hlitner]

We just got off Equinox. The first night of the cruise we went down to Blu and we couldn't believe our eyes. There was a very long queue already and it was only 5:40. Doors open at 5:45. We like to eat early and every single night when we went down to Blu, there was a line-up. Never have seen this before. Perhaps there were a lot of people on the cruise who like to eat early. The dining room seemed to be full every night.

 

Guess I really need to finish my book on "Queue Avoidance." It seems that an awful lot of cruisers now want to eat before the sun goes down (when we started cruising 40 years ago most wanted to dine after 8pm). When we have been in Aqua we normally would go to Blu around 8 and never waited more than a couple of minutes to be seated. The problem with 5:45 is that there are simply more folks (on many cruises) who want to dine early and realize that if you are not among the the real early folks...you might have to wait until some of them are finished (around 7:15 or later).

 

Hank

[Luvcrusn]

Glad we're among the folks that like to dine late reading this! We like relaxing, changing leisurely, seeing the early show if we're in the mood, then dining.

[AnOnymously]

On Constellation in September, largest queue was 4 people at the desk, always tables, the queue was the time it took for them to be dealt with. No other waits and we dined between 6.15 and 7.30 each evening. Never saw anyone given a buzzer.

[GordonJasmine]

We always book Aqua cabins and eat in Blu. We always got there before they opened. By the time they did open, there was always a long line formed already. It always seemed to be busy.

[Tiggertastic]

We just got off Equinox. The first night of the cruise we went down to Blu and we couldn't believe our eyes. There was a very long queue already and it was only 5:40. Doors open at 5:45. We like to eat early and every single night when we went down to Blu, there was a line-up. Never have seen this before. Perhaps there were a lot of people on the cruise who like to eat early. The dining room seemed to be full every night.

 

 

 

That was our experience the first time we did Aqua, long lines, tables of dirty dishes and 45 minutes to get an order, we've never done Aqua again. We tried blu again when we did a suite and had a completely different experience. Good food, no lines etc. The HD said it was exactly as you thought, a very large number all wanting to eat at the same time.

 

 

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[Laurab23]

We did Blu last year and ate at 6:00. Never any lines. Hope it is this way again when we cruise the end of April.

 

Laura

[Orator]

The comments just underline the fact that every cruise is different. Have been in Blu for more than 40 cruises and only twice experienced lines. On one cruise there was a large group that booked AQ Class and they all entered Blu when it opened. Blu was empty at 7:30 PM which is usually a peak time.