Holiday Sailing Speciality Restaurant Price Hike

[stephenjp]

Was anyone on Celebrity over the holiday period?  We were on Equinox and were shocked that not only were there no speciality dining packages, but the price for the restaurants onboard had gone up from the usual to $70 per person, and that Captains Club discounts were not being honoured.  Apparently this was a fleet wide policy, but it's my first New Year's sailing with Celebrity.  Azamara certainly don't put up their prices for the speciality restaurants onboard.  The only festive menu on offer was for NYE, otherwise the menus were unchanged!  It seems like profiteering to me...

[mahdnc]

We were on the Dec 23 2019 Solstice cruise that sailed during Christmas and New Year's Day. 
 

What we saw was that the specialty dining restaurant price for Murano and Tosca Grille was raised during the entire sailing to about $70 per person. But on Christmas Eve and NYE, prices were $119 pp although those nights involved a special menu. 

[neilrr]

Hi there: We were on the Dec 20, 2019 sailing on Reflection for Christmas... The prices were also raised to $70 for the Specialty Restaurants - which is crazy, but we started talking with one of the guys outside the buffet area and we were able to get Murano's for $50 PP.  We also did the lunch at Murano's for $30 - which we have been to before and really enjoy. They had that $119 dinner -- but it was on Christmas Eve and they were serving lobster in the MDR that night -- so people who had made reservations from our MDR table cancelled them... 

 

In addition, all table games in the casino were $10 min. and if you play 3 card poker it would cost $30 per hand. I played a bit of blackjack and some slots, but that was it... 

 

Personally, I think Celebrity is reaching too hard for that higher level (i.e. Azamara, Oceania, etc..) who are really not their target market. They are also attempting to go after the Millennial crowd (with the new cutting edge style of ship) which in general can not afford the Celebrity product. This is obviously reflected in the reviews (by the regular Celebrity crowd) of the new Edge and the adjustment that Celebrity has made in the cruise pricing on the Edge. We have been travelers on Celebrity going back to the Horizon.  We shall see how their strategy works out for them.  We will be going on the Edge in March and are hoping for the best. We are back on the Reflection in July...

 

Happy Sailing!!!🛳️