Dinner with paired wines - still offered?

[WeRockChalkKU]

Hi,  

Does HAL still offer this and if so what is it called? Years ago it was called Chef’s Table or Cellar Master Dinner but have no idea if those continue. We are on Veendam 7 day Caribbean and I see that you can pre book the special one night pop up Sel de Mar but was hoping for the paired wine dinner. 
 

thanks for any info

[cat shepard]

It was called a Cellar Master’s dinner on my October Oosterdam Cruise. It was excellent.

[freestyling]

Typically the Cellar Master dinner is only offered on cruises longer than 7 days. 

[OHCruiser]

On our recent 10 day Eurodam cruise a paired wine, 6 course dinner,  was offered with Top Chef winner, Kristen Kish.  It was limited to one night in the Pinnacle Grill, 140 passengers over the evening.  The event was wonderful.  She visited each table and was very personable.  She also did a cooking demonstration the day before of the beef dish she prepared for that evening.

We don't drink wine, so we got the meal for half price 😊

[MAVIP]

Yes, in the Pinnacle Grill during the Librije pop up dinners (one per cruise segment on certain ships and in certain "waters"). Perfect!

[kopykat]

9 hours ago, WeRockChalkKU said:

Hi,  

Does HAL still offer this and if so what is it called? Years ago it was called Chef’s Table or Cellar Master Dinner but have no idea if those continue. We are on Veendam 7 day Caribbean and I see that you can pre book the special one night pop up Sel de Mar but was hoping for the paired wine dinner. 
 

thanks for any info

 

9 hours ago, WeRockChalkKU said:

Hi,  

Does HAL still offer this and if so what is it called? Years ago it was called Chef’s Table or Cellar Master Dinner but have no idea if those continue. We are on Veendam 7 day Caribbean and I see that you can pre book the special one night pop up Sel de Mar but was hoping for the paired wine dinner. 
 

thanks for any info

 

6 hours ago, OHCruiser said:

On our recent 10 day Eurodam cruise a paired wine, 6 course dinner,  was offered with Top Chef winner, Kristen Kish.  It was limited to one night in the Pinnacle Grill, 140 passengers over the evening.  The event was wonderful.  She visited each table and was very personable.  She also did a cooking demonstration the day before of the beef dish she prepared for that evening.

We don't drink wine, so we got the meal for half price 😊

This interesting. I attended one on the Konigsdam and when we asked about the discount we’re told no discount ( we were a group of 4 and 5*). Previously on the Veendam we got the discount. 
The menu didn’t change. Looking forward to the next cruise in hopes of a menu change 

[MAVIP]

1 hour ago, kopykat said:

 

 

This interesting. I attended one on the Konigsdam and when we asked about the discount we’re told no discount ( we were a group of 4 and 5*). Previously on the Veendam we got the discount. 
The menu didn’t change. Looking forward to the next cruise in hopes of a menu change 

If I remember well: no Mariners discount on the Cellar Masters dinner. However on Sel de Mer and Librije the % will be applied. Please check your Mariners info on the HAL website. 

[kazu]

2 minutes ago, MAVIP said:

If I remember well: no Mariners discount on the Cellar Masters dinner. However on Sel de Mer and Librije the % will be applied. Please check your Mariners info on the HAL website. 

 

Correct.  There is NO discount on Cellar Master or any other “special occasion” dinner. (I forget the term HAL uses but it’s basically any dinner that is special event and not a regular part of specialty dining).

[zelker]

We've never tried Cellar Master but might consider it on one of our two upcoming B2B segments.  I don't see it listed as something to pre-book so does that mean it's not being offered or only that it must be booked once onboard?  Thx!

 

PS - now that I think of it, might we have received an invitation to book it while on Noordam last fall … or am I misremembering?  🤔

Edited February 10, 2020 by zelker

[cruisingxpert]

16 minutes ago, zelker said:

We've never tried Cellar Master but might consider it on one of our two upcoming B2B segments.  I don't see it listed as something to pre-book so does that mean it's not being offered or only that it must be booked once onboard?  Thx!

 

PS - now that I think of it, might we have received an invitation to book it while on Noordam last fall … or am I misremembering?  🤔

Don't know if this has changed but I was told to go the Pinnacle Grill front desk and register- that they didn't advertise it because of the limited number of people who can attend.

[kazu]

46 minutes ago, cruisingxpert said:

Don't know if this has changed but I was told to go the Pinnacle Grill front desk and register- that they didn't advertise it because of the limited number of people who can attend.

 

I think that was the Chef’s Table.

Cellar Master is advertised and even the bar staff ask if you have booked or want to.  Cellar Master is the entire PG so quite a bit of room.  Chef’s Table was very limited to a max of 12-18 depending on the ship IME.

[kazu]

1 hour ago, zelker said:

We've never tried Cellar Master but might consider it on one of our two upcoming B2B segments.  I don't see it listed as something to pre-book so does that mean it's not being offered or only that it must be booked once onboard?  Thx!

 

PS - now that I think of it, might we have received an invitation to book it while on Noordam last fall … or am I misremembering?  🤔

 

It’s only available to book on board.

Yes, you probably received an invite to book it or saw it in the When and Where or a bar staff member asked you if you wanted to book 😉 

 

We’ve always enjoyed the Cellar Master dinner 😄 

[zelker]

Final question - for anyone who's booked it recently, how much is it per person?

[cruisingxpert]

7 minutes ago, kazu said:

 

I think that was the Chef’s Table.

Cellar Master is advertised and even the bar staff ask if you have booked or want to.  Cellar Master is the entire PG so quite a bit of room.  Chef’s Table was very limited to a max of 12-18 depending on the ship IME.

Do they do both do you know?  I'm going on Nieuw Amsterdam Sept 19-Oct 1st 12 days.

[kazu]

11 minutes ago, cruisingxpert said:

Do they do both do you know?  I'm going on Nieuw Amsterdam Sept 19-Oct 1st 12 days.

 

They used to do both.  A couple of years when I asked about the Chef’s Table I was told it was suspended and being “evaluated” by Seattle.

 

Since then, I’ve asked and it hasn’t been offered.  I’ll still ask on our next cruise.  I really enjoy the Chef’s Table and I have let my feelings be known on surveys on missing it.

We’re happy to pay the price for it.

Cellar Master I’ve seen on every cruise I’ve been on (our itineraries are always over 10 days) so you should see it offered on your cruise.  It should be in the When and Where and by the Beverage display where they announce the beverage activities in the Lido.  I always take a gander at it.

I think we were asked at least 4 times if we would like to book by our wine steward in the MDR, the bar stewards in the Lido, Crow’s Nest and Ocean Bar.

We sign up right away.  On our Westerdam cruise it did sell out quickly surprisingly enough.  In fact it was so popular on our “Sail a Way Gang” cruise that the Cellar Master put on another special one with wines and food purchased in some of the ports.  The first offers went to those that went to the first one and yes, we went to that one too 😉 

[cruisingxpert]

1 minute ago, kazu said:

 

They used to do both.  A couple of years when I asked about the Chef’s Table I was told it was suspended and being “evaluated” by Seattle.

 

Since then, I’ve asked and it hasn’t been offered.  I’ll still ask on our next cruise.  I really enjoy the Chef’s Table and I have let my feelings be known on surveys on missing it.

We’re happy to pay the price for it.

Cellar Master I’ve seen on every cruise I’ve been on (our itineraries are always over 10 days) so you should see it offered on your cruise.  It should be in the When and Where and by the Beverage display where they announce the beverage activities in the Lido.  I always take a gander at it.

I think we were asked at least 4 times if we would like to book by our wine steward in the MDR, the bar stewards in the Lido, Crow’s Nest and Ocean Bar.

We sign up right away.  On our Westerdam cruise it did sell out quickly surprisingly enough.

I like any food and wine pairing so I would sign up for both probably but my preference would be for a smaller amount of people.

I see they are offering some special Chef by name dinners but I couldn't find one on our cruise.

[cat shepard]

@zelker
 

In October it cost us $89 per person.
 

 Our wine steward invited us and even gave us the menu and pairings to review to help make our decision.

 

There were only a small number of us. Definitely less than 25. And I loved that both the head chef & the cellar master discussed each course and pairing. 
 

And it was the first time I ever had Cote du Rhône wine and I am now a huge fan. 

[kazu]

Just now, cruisingxpert said:

I like any food and wine pairing so I would sign up for both probably but my preference would be for a smaller amount of people.

Ours too 🙂 

 

Just now, cruisingxpert said:

I see they are offering some special Chef by name dinners but I couldn't find one on our cruise.

 

there might not be.  They aren’t on all the cruises, sadly. 

 

[cat shepard]

@kazu  I am jealous, but glad that you had a chance to enjoy two of them.

[WeRockChalkKU]

Does a Pop Up Sel de Mer fall under the special events or do you get your Mariner discount? We are on a 7 day Veendam and it’s showing up on HAL site as accepting reservations. 
thanks for any info

[zelker]

35 minutes ago, WeRockChalkKU said:

Does a Pop Up Sel de Mer fall under the special events or do you get your Mariner discount? We are on a 7 day Veendam and it’s showing up on HAL site as accepting reservations. 
thanks for any info

 

Yes, Sel de Mer is the only special dining event that qualifies for the Mariner discount.  

[TAD2005]

On our 28 day South Pacific cruise on the Eurodam last March, the Cellar Master Dinner was being pushed by the waiters in the Lido pool area.  It was $79 per person, and we accepted the offer.   We enjoyed the dinner courses with the paired wines.   We would do it again.

[OHCruiser]

14 hours ago, kopykat said:

 

 

This interesting. I attended one on the Konigsdam and when we asked about the discount we’re told no discount ( we were a group of 4 and 5*). Previously on the Veendam we got the discount. 
The menu didn’t change. Looking forward to the next cruise in hopes of a menu change 

Oh, we didn't get the discount because of our Mariner status.  We got it because we didn't drink any wine.

[MAVIP]

10 hours ago, WeRockChalkKU said:

Does a Pop Up Sel de Mer fall under the special events or do you get your Mariner discount?

If you reserve before embarkation, you pay the full amount and your Mariner % will be credited when on board. 

[Krazy Kruizers]

Chef Rudi's dinner -- some times we got a discount on the dinner part, sometimes we didn't.  We did tire of the same menu.  

 

The Cellar Master's dinner -- never got a discount -- the food was always different.

 

On our one 21 day cruise on the Westerdam -- no special dinners were offered even though there was quite a group of us who were interested in them.