Speciality Dining

[Minnie29]

I have booked Murano for the 1st night of our cruise in September at the first night discounted rate.

 

I also want to book a speciality dining package but what happens when I have already got a 1st night meal booked?

 

Thank you

[mahdnc]

17 minutes ago, Minnie29 said:

I have booked Murano for the 1st night of our cruise in September at the first night discounted rate.

 

I also want to book a speciality dining package but what happens when I have already got a 1st night meal booked?

 

Thank you

 

Nothing.  You will have the first night reservation as well as the additional nights from the package.  You can choose to cancel the 1st night dinner if you wish.

[Minnie29]

When I go on the website to book the dining package it has given me a 3pm timeslot on the first day???

 

Surely they should give me an evening dining time as I may not even be onboard by 3pm!!!

 

[Justprettynpink]

6 minutes ago, Minnie29 said:

When I go on the website to book the dining package it has given me a 3pm timeslot on the first day???

 

Surely they should give me an evening dining time as I may not even be onboard by 3pm!!!

 

 

I was told that the 3 pm slot is just there to hold your package and times are chosen once your board...I will know for sure in a few weeks...

[Minnie29]

I suppose that makes sense but a 3pm time did seem strange to me

[jsblbruce]

My TA said 3pm is being given to everyone booking a package so the premium slots are left for those paying full fare.  48 hours before embarkation they will see what slots they have left and in which restaurants and will adjust this for package holders.  While you can try to change this when you get on board, in my post-COVID experience, this is now very difficult to do.  We just had a 7 night package on Silhouette in February (12 night sailing), and it was the first time we had trouble getting the days and times we wanted.  They simply did not have enough staff to support bookings over 50% capacity.  They also had several large parties (in Murano especially) and called us to move the booking we made for Day 6 to another day or restaurant because they wanted us to have a good experience.  Many of the menu items in Murano are made tableside.  This is why staffing levels are so important in there.  Our waiter shared with us that while he was happy to be back in a new contract, he was making far less money than he used to before the shutdown.  He had fewer tables, and fewer guests were tipping because they all had prepaid gratuities and assumed these were covered.  All dining gratuities apply to the free food venues.  They also used to give you a ticket to sign, even with a package showing $0 owed, but the benefit of doing this was a tip line that people filled out.  Given contact-less service, they no longer do this.  We always bring cash to tip, but most people don't.  He suggested it was very difficult to recruit people to serve in specialty dining now because they make more money in the regular dining room.  Thus, I am not surprised to learn of the 18% service fee added.  They need it to recruit more servers and increase capacity.

 

In our opinion, Murano was well worth the 3 nights we dined there.  Tuscan Grille failed to impress either of us although there was nothing "wrong", and LPC had also gone down in quality since our Feb 2020 cruise on Reflection.  By the time it got to us after the "show", everything was cold.  However, unless I had access to Blu or Luminae, I would absolutely book a package again if sailing Solstice class ships.

 

For our TA Apex sailing in October, we booked Eden full fare in advance because we are celebrating events.  Booked a 3 night package (with 3pm "reservation") so we can try the others, although I am more keen on the specialty lunch venues and we will probably be too full for dinner most nights.

 

Hope that helps.

[jsblbruce]

FYI, we also tried to book the 30% discount first night in addition to the package and the system would not allow it.  It kept giving me an error at checkout that we already had a conflicting reservation in place.  I had previously and successfully done this 5+ times in the past.  2020 and before.

 

The only sale I've seen for Specialty dining is the addition of a special Dining Trio package for $99 that seems to only become available during their big sales.  It is 2 nights Specialty dining in the restaurants of your choice and one lunch.  Haven't seen this for Apex yet, but still hopeful.  As previously mentioned, we are big fans of Murano on Solstice class and as such, do not eat lunch so this package doesn't appeal to us on this class of ship.  However, on Apex we like the menus for lunch so will probably eat more late lunches and skip dinners.

 

Oh, and I personally would never burn a Specialty dining night on Sushi on 5.  Excellent food and excellent venue, but we ordered everything ala carte and were stuffed when we left, never having a bill of over $50.  So, the $35 per person credit they would have given us would have been a total waste.  Note that they did aggressively push this and we had to insist, "No, we do not want to use one night of our package" every time we went to eat there.  If you have a package, make sure you are clear you are not intending to use it!

[DCPIV]

@jsblbruce Thank you for your account at Murano.  It's always good to understand what the crew are dealing with.

[Minnie29]

I have managed to book a 5 night speciality dining package online even though I had already booked a reservation in Murano on the 1st night (with a 30% discount)

once onboard I will visit one of the restaurants to cancel the 1st night with the dining package and rebook.

Tried calling celebrity but gave up after an hour waiting for the Celebrity UK number to answer.

[DCPIV]

5 hours ago, Minnie29 said:

Tried calling celebrity but gave up after an hour waiting for the Celebrity UK number to answer.

 

I'm not sure that's something you can resolve before boarding, anyhow, unless you have access to a shoreside concierge.

[D. B.]

When buying the pre cruise dining package that requires booking once you get onboard make that your First Stop (before the buffet) at Any of the specialty restaurants Or the main dining room where you can book All your preferences at one stop.

like a dummy I once thought you had to go to each venue to book dining times but lucky for me at my first stop the person there ask if I had any Other reservation requests for other restaurants! 
  I see First night discounts on most cruises but only for Late (8:30pm) reservations and we are early diners.

[Suzanne123]

I’m on the Summit now and did not order a package, but we ate at the Tuscan Grill four nights. I am Elite, and the charge was $45 pp, and 18% gratuity was added to the bill to total $106.20. (the 18% was stated plainly on the menus for dinner and dessert.) I was given a bill to sign that also stated 18% gratuity added along with a line for “ additional tip.”  I added $20.  ( Totally worth it.) The $106.20 and $20 are listed separately on my account.

Edited June 12, 2022 by Suzanne123