End date for free Cucina and Chibang on Mardi Gras

[ypcat]

It would be nice if he didn't say "there are no plans", especially if he knows that there are plans in the works that aren't public yet. There are better wording to use to make him not sound like a liar but still not reveal insider information. My opinion of JH dropped greatly in Mar 2020 when I asked about our cruise disappearing from the website a few days before our cruise. His response was "there are no plans to cancel cruises." Then just hours later I am the recipient of one of the first cancellation e-mails. I don't think any amount of free strawberries or ships on a stick will get the bad taste out of my mouth from that blatant lie. I give him the benefit of the doubt that the "beards" might not have told him about plans, but there most certainly were plans.

 

But JH saying there are no plans does nothing for me to say this rumor is not true. Until they announce the venues will be free until X date, I would not be surprised to see upcharges start.

[Pyxie]

16 hours ago, SNJCruisers said:

With sailings practically every day of the week, starting things at the first of the month would make sense.  As to how the specifics will be, we all will find out in a few weeks.

 

Except this only affects the Mardi Gras, so they only need to start it with one sailing date. It isn't a fleetwide thing.

[WhaleTailFlCruiser]

I sailed with John for the first time during the Sailbration cruise on MG his shows were hilarious amounts of fun, I just enjoyed talking to him ext when I rant into him never asked for anything but he always offered. 

[tidecat]

Is it possible people are conflating all of the other price increases happening on May 1 with the included specialty restaurants on Mardi Gras?

[maryann2]

1 hour ago, WhaleTailFlCruiser said:

I sailed with John for the first time during the Sailbration cruise on MG his shows were hilarious amounts of fun, I just enjoyed talking to him ext when I rant into him never asked for anything but he always offered. 

I agree he is hilarious. I loved it when he and Calvin were together. 

Memories!!

[Knights on the Beach]

4 hours ago, tidecat said:

Is it possible people are conflating all of the other price increases happening on May 1 with the included specialty restaurants on Mardi Gras?

 

I was wondering that as well.

[jimbo5544]

It appears that John has put this to rest, at least for the foreseeable future.

[kwokpot]

Received this email this morning for my MG cruise today(boarding delayed 1 hr due to nan overboard early this morning)

 

[rs45thompson]

On 4/13/2022 at 9:49 PM, Ellaleah said:

I purposely changed from traditional dining to anytime for my Celebration cruise 12/27/22 as I am hoping they have the same policy for their inaugural season.

Same here.  Will try and change it back if they do away with it.  

[phoneman69]

On 4/14/2022 at 5:22 PM, SNJCruisers said:

Have you not read any of the reviews and live threads from the MG?  No reservations can be had for Cucina or Chibang.  If you have anytime dining you can check in on  the app at 530 pm and the app will let you know how long the wait is( ie under 10, 10-20, etc). If you have set dining, you can't get into either place till I think 745 pm.  

As my sailing date is clearly after the May 1st time line discussed. One is to wonder if you had read threw the thread, to realize the option was to make a reservation after the May 1st time line when the free service was to expire.

Edited April 17, 2022 by phoneman69
spelling

[SNJCruisers]

28 minutes ago, phoneman69 said:

As my sailing date is clearly after the May 1st time line discussed. One is to wonder if you had read threw the thread, to realize the option was to make a reservation after the May 1st time line when the free service was to expire.

It's only a rumor at this point whether their will be a change in the policy.  If indeed there was a change, then obviously as of May 1 you could stupidly spend 18.00 pp to make a reservation.  I say stupidly because after eating multiple dinners over my B2B in February, it would not be worth it if the same menu and same portions were in play.

Have not read on the boards that anybody has indeed spent their 18.00 pp on a May forward reservation.  Until this is confirmed, it's status quo and included for free.

[kwokpot]

1 hour ago, SNJCruisers said:

It's only a rumor at this point whether their will be a change in the policy.  If indeed there was a change, then obviously as of May 1 you could stupidly spend 18.00 pp to make a reservation.  I say stupidly because after eating multiple dinners over my B2B in February, it would not be worth it if the same menu and same portions were in play.

Have not read on the boards that anybody has indeed spent their 18.00 pp on a May forward reservation.  Until this is confirmed, it's status quo and included for free.

Wholeheartedly agree. The food quality and portion size are not commensurate if a specialty restaurant. 

 

I standby my earlier comments on another similar thread that the 2 main dining rooms don't have enough capacity to properly serve dinner without utilizing Chibang and Cucina. In fact tonight while having dinner at Cucina someone came around and inquired whether we would like to make advanced reservations for dinner tomorrow at Chibang since it's Elegant Night and all the dining rooms will be busy. She said lobster will be served at Chibang. So of course we made advanced reservations for our preferred time at 7pm. Chibang is a huge dining room and there's no way it would be filled if they started charging. Additionally they wouldn't be able to seat everyone at dinner time without Chibang's capacity. As it is they are resorting to taking advance reservations for Chibang to mitigate overcrowding.

 

 

Edited April 17, 2022 by kwokpot

[phoneman69]

9 hours ago, SNJCruisers said:

It's only a rumor at this point whether their will be a change in the policy.  If indeed there was a change, then obviously as of May 1 you could stupidly spend 18.00 pp to make a reservation.  I say stupidly because after eating multiple dinners over my B2B in February, it would not be worth it if the same menu and same portions were in play.

Have not read on the boards that anybody has indeed spent their 18.00 pp on a May forward reservation.  Until this is confirmed, it's status quo and included for free.

Thank You

[CruisingWalter]

We sailed a few weeks ago. 

ChiBang! is not worth an upcharge if they start to charge for it. The Asian menu was much better than the Mexican menu, I would recommend sticking to the Asian side if you go there, or just skip it altogether.

Cucina was just fine in our opinion. Is it worth an upcharge? I'm not sure, but we did have lunch and 2 dinners there on our cruise and all were pleasant, though I wish they had the bruschetta at dinner as well as lunch. If it's $12-$18/pp that's not out of line for what you get.

Guy's Pig and Anchor Smokehouse was a mixed bag. The first night we did the BBQ Filet and that was amazing. 2 nights later we went back with the entire gang (6 of us) and it was terrible. Food, service, everything, just terrible. I would not pay anything extra for that restaurant. 

The best food on the Mardi Gras right now is Rudi's Seagrill. A complete steal at $38/pp that would easily be $55/pp or more on any other cruise line. 

Edited April 17, 2022 by creativegenius

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

42 minutes ago, creativegenius said:

...

The best food on the Mardi Gras right now is Rudi's Seagrill. A complete steal at $38/pp that would easily be $55/pp or more on any other cruise line. 

 

I concur - that, and the Muffaletta at Emeril's  🙂

 

 

As much as I'm looking forward to the Celebration, I'm saddened that I won't be able to enjoy one of these again.. it was (oddly), that good! @kwokpot - give it a try and let me know what you think !!!

 

Tom

[BlerkOne]

And in conclusion, there is no end date currently for the included restaurants on Mardi Gras.

[WES143]

On 4/14/2022 at 12:23 AM, b4coco said:

1. NO WAY the YTD dining room can accomadate all the people then if they do this it is way to small.

2. Who did you hear this from, who is your source.

3. They better not it will screw all my dinner plans I made for the week with my other paid specialties 

4. If it is true then they should have those 2 on our acct so we can book them as a specialty restaurant 

 

You’re right. In March the dining rooms were SLOW and couldn’t keep up with the 5300 passengers. I can’t imagine how it would be, if there wasn’t a way to offload the amount of pax to these restaurants.

[Illbcruzn4life]

8 hours ago, Tom-n-Cheryl said:

 

I concur - that, and the Muffaletta at Emeril's  🙂

 

 

As much as I'm looking forward to the Celebration, I'm saddened that I won't be able to enjoy one of these again.. it was (oddly), that good! @kwokpot - give it a try and let me know what you think !!!

 

Tom

Is that all for one person? 😲

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

9 minutes ago, Illbcruzn4life said:

Is that all for one person? 😲

 

We split it (but it is a single order).

 

Tom

[BlerkOne]

8 hours ago, Tom-n-Cheryl said:

 

I concur - that, and the Muffaletta at Emeril's  🙂

 

 

As much as I'm looking forward to the Celebration, I'm saddened that I won't be able to enjoy one of these again.. it was (oddly), that good! @kwokpot - give it a try and let me know what you think !!!

 

Tom

The original is currently on sale on Goldbelly, if you feel the need.

https://www.goldbelly.com/central-grocery

 

 

 

[Illbcruzn4life]

6 hours ago, BlerkOne said:

And in conclusion, there is no end date currently for the included restaurants on Mardi Gras.

so what you are saying is that the original post was just a rumor?

[Illbcruzn4life]

18 minutes ago, Tom-n-Cheryl said:

 

We split it (but it is a single order).

 

Tom

That would be all he food i'd need for a whole day lol

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

50 minutes ago, BlerkOne said:

The original is currently on sale on Goldbelly, if you feel the need.

https://www.goldbelly.com/central-grocery

 

 

 

Yeppers - Cheryl surprised me a couple of months ago with two of the big boys. As good as it was, I actually preferred the one on the Mardi Gras!

 

 

 

 

 

Tom

[SRQbeachgirl]

10 hours ago, Tom-n-Cheryl said:

 

I concur - that, and the Muffaletta at Emeril's  🙂

 

 

As much as I'm looking forward to the Celebration, I'm saddened that I won't be able to enjoy one of these again.. it was (oddly), that good! @kwokpot - give it a try and let me know what you think !!!

 

Tom

 

Good heavens, that thing is massive! (And is now on my list of things I intend to try)

[jimbo5544]

12 hours ago, Tom-n-Cheryl said:

 

We split it (but it is a single order).

 

Tom

We loved everything at Emerils