Speciality restaurant package guidance

[Megabear2]

My travelling companion is extremely interested in booking a 5 night package for dining on our Edge cruise.  I have looked at it on our reservation and apparently we can purchase it for £157pp which seems reasonably good value. I note it gets the first night automatically reserved - we have 3 time options showing.  Am I correctly reading that we would have no control over this booking other than selecting a time and Celebrity allocate the venue?  Also is their any guarantee we would actually be able to eat in any particular restaurant throughout the cruise or is it pot luck? We are just in an ordinary cabin, not suite guests who assumedly get first pick.

[PTC DAWG]

First night time/restaurant can usually be changed upon embarkation.  See the Maitre D at the entrance at any specialty restaurant upon boarding...I also believe they can help you at that time with other dining reservations if you are ready to make them.  

 

Availability may be more depending on sailing capacity than anything else.  

[Luvcrusn]

You can change your first night reservation when you board and book all the other nights as well as soon as you board for the restaurants you desire. Go to the maitre d  immediately upon boarding in any specialty restaurant. We have always been able to request our desired restaurant for the first night and they made that reservation for us. We did this by calling to purchase the package rather than by just doing it online. Also they were able to apply any OBC we had available for pre-cruise onboard purchases. If there was a balance, they just charged our credit card.

[Megabear2]

Thank you. Advice much appreciated.

[floralscent]

We always get a speciality dining pkg and pay pre-cruise. It’s nice to pay ahead so you don’t have to deal with it later. 
 

When purchasing you must select a first night time slot but that can be changed once onboard. Board the ship, head to a specialty restaurant and schedule your pkg as you see fit. If you have specific time requests, get the reservations completed very soon after boarding. 
 

Enjoy the great experiences!

[kebrown]

1 hour ago, floralscent said:

We always get a speciality dining pkg and pay pre-cruise. It’s nice to pay ahead so you don’t have to deal with it later. 
 

When purchasing you must select a first night time slot but that can be changed once onboard. Board the ship, head to a specialty restaurant and schedule your pkg as you see fit. If you have specific time requests, get the reservations completed very soon after boarding. 
 

Enjoy the great experiences!

When purchasing the 3 night package, do you have to dine in a speciality restaurant on the first night or can you skip the first night and use it later in the cruise?  Also, can you pick which speciality restaurants you want to dine in or does Celebrity pick the restaurants for you? 

[cruisnuts]

We purchased a first night dining in Murano at a discount.  We also booked a 4 night specialty restaurant package.  I’m glad I saw this thread, we will definitely have to go change that and make the additional reservations for the remainder of the cruise.  It would have been nice if we could have booked the different venues for the package online. 

[floralscent]

On 3/8/2022 at 6:25 PM, kebrown said:

When purchasing the 3 night package, do you have to dine in a speciality restaurant on the first night or can you skip the first night and use it later in the cruise?  Also, can you pick which speciality restaurants you want to dine in or does Celebrity pick the restaurants for you? 

kebrown- I have never had a problem 'rescheduling' the first night that I reserved pre-cruise. It likely depends on when you go to the specialty podium to reserve the additional nights and obviously what type of reservations are available for you. Get onboard and do this first...all will work out and in the end, if you don't get the exact timing that you would like...just remember, you are on a cruise and nothing else matters right then 🙂

[George C]

On 3/8/2022 at 10:41 AM, Megabear2 said:

My travelling companion is extremely interested in booking a 5 night package for dining on our Edge cruise.  I have looked at it on our reservation and apparently we can purchase it for £157pp which seems reasonably good value. I note it gets the first night automatically reserved - we have 3 time options showing.  Am I correctly reading that we would have no control over this booking other than selecting a time and Celebrity allocate the venue?  Also is their any guarantee we would actually be able to eat in any particular restaurant throughout the cruise or is it pot luck? We are just in an ordinary cabin, not suite guests who assumedly get first pick.

You can pick the restaurant you want , you can eat in same specialty each night if you like , my personal favorites were fine cut and le petit chef .

[D C]

On 3/8/2022 at 7:25 PM, kebrown said:

When purchasing the 3 night package, do you have to dine in a speciality restaurant on the first night or can you skip the first night and use it later in the cruise?  Also, can you pick which speciality restaurants you want to dine in or does Celebrity pick the restaurants for you? 

You can skip the first night and schedule as you like once onboard. 

 

If you take advantage of the first night discount, we've found that the 3-night package actually COSTS you money if you don't eat the other 2 nights at the most expensive place. It's even worse with other discounts.

 

For example, we're eating twice at the rooftop on Edge on an upcoming cruise.  Pre-booked for $40pp (not the first night).  The 3 night package would cost $57 for the 3rd night (going from memory, so I may be off), but we could eat at Fine Cut for $55 full price.

 

Do check and compare the 4n package as it seems to be the sweet spot.