La Privee questions

[ColoradoCruiser88]

I have booked La Privee for our cruise (only 2nd time on O) next year and I have some questions about how the reservation works, please.

 

i understand that there is now 4 new set menus.  Do we need to choose 1 menu for the table?  Do we all need to choose the same entree from that menu?

How do I add my friends onto the reservation?

We all have prepaid gratuities for this cruise - do we tip the Privee staff separately this evening?

 

Thank you for your help.

[mauibabes]

We reserve it all the time when on an O Class cruise.  It’s $300 and the room and staff are yours for the evening.  You can do your own invitations or if you are in a Suite, your Butler can handle that for you, or even the Concierge.  
While there are now 4 menus to select, since We are paying and inviting, we usually set the menu we enjoy most.  We are not gourmet eaters but love Polo and and Toscana menus so we opt for everyone to select any items from both of those menus. Everyone can order anything they want from them.  We usually bring along the wine and pay the Corkage and celebrate the evenings with family and friends. 
The private room for just us, we have our Butler(s) escort the wives through Toscana and we just have a great, memorable evening celebrating 🎂, Anniversaries or anything else that needs celebrating. 
We usually do provide the dedicated waiters with a tip but since on longer voyages, we may be reserving Privee a couple of times, we tip at the end of the cruise.

Everyone considers our evening a HIGHLIGHT of their cruise.  
ENJOY, Mauibabes

[mauibabes]

We are on Marina in January and have already reserved Privee for our upcoming 53rd Anniversary Party.  Never miss an opportunity to celebrate the most important day in our lives together.

Mauibabes

[Robjame]

Rather than an ostentatious display for us, it was an opportunity to have an intimate dinner for a total of 10 people. The charges ($300 + gratuity) are put on one person’s account. It is up to that person to bear the full cost or collect from the other guests. On one occasion the organizer divided the cost and added a little extra as an additional tip given to the staff at the end of the meal.

You can arrange for a selection of appetizers and have drinks in Privée prior to the meal. Our favourite is chunks of parmiagano drizzled with balsamic. Wine can be brought by you and/or guests paying corkage or charged to accounts.

Not sure how the new choices for meals works. They were not all available at first as Oceania was introducing them slowly. 
I would suggest you speak to one of the staff about pacing the meal slowly so you can have a wonderful evening.

You have no need to add your friends to the reservation. 
‘We found the room and table conducive to quiet conversation. Others have mentioned that they thought the setting was cold and the table too large.

It will be a memorable time!

[jwindham]

I have done Privee twice since they started with the 4 menus. If you chose the new special 2 it is like going to La Reserve. It is a set menu and all in the room have that menu. Since there were no exceptions, or I was told that, then I have opted for everyone to chose with the menus from Polo and Toscana and the nice thing about that is you can get a mix from both menus and it is up to each person to chose what they want. Hope this helps. Julia

[ColoradoCruiser88]

19 hours ago, mauibabes said:

We are on Marina in January and have already reserved Privee for our upcoming 53rd Anniversary Party.  Never miss an opportunity to celebrate the most important day in our lives together.

Mauibabes

Congratulations on your special anniversary and thanks for the tips.

[Cliff-FLL]

We normally book Privée twice per cruise - once for just for us and once for a group we meet on board.  We have pre-paid gratuities but we always tip the Privée staff separately.  Generally, when it's just the 2 of us, we tip the waiter about $30 and the sommelier about $15.  (The sommelier's tip is in addition to the corkage fee we pay for each bottle we bring.)  If we're hosting a group, we "up" the waiter's tip to about $50 and the sommelier's to about $25, which is in addition to corkage fees and automatic tips for wine purchases.

Vis-à-vis the menus, we were on Marina last November and they gave us 3 choices: 1) whatever each guest wanted from Toscana and/or Polo; 2) one of the 2 new, set, specialty menus.  If we opted for one of the set menus, everyone would be served that same menu, and that menu only.  Therefore, we opted for the Toscana/Polo menus when we were entertaining and the set menus for ourselves.  The chef, even though he was cooking for La Réserve that night, took the time to make a special cake for my birthday and to stop by to learn our impressions of the new menus.

Edited October 13, 2022 by Cliff-FLL

[ColoradoCruiser88]

@Robjame, @Cliff-FLL, @jwindham
 

Thank you so much for your responses - I think I’ve got the gist of this now.

 

1. I don’t need to add my friends to the reservation - it’s not like trying to book reservations in the specialty restaurants and we needed to include each others’ booking numbers in order to share the table/reservation.

2. if we pick the Toscano/Polo menu, we can each order whatever we like off of those 2 restaurants’ menus

3.  If we decide on one of the new menus, we all have to order off of that 1 particular chosen menu

4.  We should tip the waitstaff at the end of the evening.

 

Thanks again for all your help!

 

[pinotlover]

I’m making an assumption here that may be incorrect. I’ve read a couple of the La Reserve menus as options in Privee. If so, is the cost the $300 plus the La Reserve meal costs? How are those options handled?

[jwindham]

The two menus are like LaReserve but they are not those menus. How they are alike is they are a fixed menu, no choices. But no extra charge if you chose one of them for your group. Julia

[Robjame]

1 hour ago, pinotlover said:

I’m making an assumption here that may be incorrect.

 

Here is a full description of the options:

 

https://www.theluxurycruisereview.com/oceanias-new-privee-private-dining-menus/