Speciality dining reservations

[Daveskib]

I'm cruising in January  2025 on the Apex. How far in advance can I book a specialty  restaurant? The only posts I'm finding is for dining packages which I'm not doing. I am planning just doing Eden one night. Thanks in advance! 

[sptrout]

When reservations become available they will be shown in your Cruise Planner. You will be able to reserve individual restaurants if desired, also available days and seating times can we selected. We did the same process for our 11-night Beyond cruise last month. We picked three nights (Le Voyage (2) and Fine Cut (1)) several months ahead of time. However, I do not remember when I made the reservations, but it was a few months before the sailing date.

[Daveskib]

Thank you for clarifying this!

[jelayne]

I made specialty reservations in June 2023 for a sailing in September of this year.  

 Generally I have found they become available about 10-12 months pre cruise.

[lifeisrealygood]

We have an Ascent cruise in March, 2025 and dining reservations for specialty restaurants opened up on-line last Monday, February 5th. We booked five nights at specialty restaurants, no package, just picked the dates and times we wanted.  

[Daveskib]

Thank you!

[highway180]

If by chance your app shows no availability...don't sweat it. Honestly I've never been able to get any decent times. I just head to one of the specialty restaurants when we board, and book them all then.

I always get my desired dates/ times .May I'm just lucky?

 

Enjoy!

[Daveskib]

Thank you!

[At Sea At Peace]

16 hours ago, Daveskib said:

I'm cruising in January  2025 on the Apex. How far in advance can I book a specialty  restaurant? The only posts I'm finding is for dining packages which I'm not doing. I am planning just doing Eden one night. Thanks in advance! 

 

You're a good advance planner.  A couple of thoughts from our recent experiences (Silhouette December 10N, Ascent 7N this past week), both we consider last minute bookings ~

 

PRE-CRUISE on the Celebrity APP there we no times at all for Eden.  On the APP (for us) Eden reservation didn't even offer the 'Tasting Menu' as a choice.  By accident I was logged into to our X account and checked availability again.  BOTH the regular menu and tasting menu options were presented; the regular was 'not available the entire cruise at any time' yet the tasting menu had numerous days and times available.  We booked the tasting and, once on board, changed to the regular menu at the host station ahead of time, got the credit for the difference on the account.

 

BOARDING presents an opportunity to book specialty dining at almost all of the venues and we met several couples that did successfully.

 

POST-BOARDING presents an opportunity every day.- especially for Early times.  We find that the Specialty restaurants 'are not very full at all' except for the final night, followed next by sea day nights.  We believe a number of reasons account for this ~

 

~ Retreat guests, likely specialty dining cruisers, have Luminae.

 

~ Aqua guests, also likely specialty dining cruisers have BLU.

 

~ With regard to Early, Elite benefits for those without beverage packages (an increasing count of passengers) include Happy Hour generally from 5-7 each night (except embarkation), several special events for welcome and meeting Captain and crew, etc.  Primarily the 5-7 factor naturally pushes dining towards post-7 PM, a busy dining preference according to venue host and server comments.

 

~ Celebrity cruise line is well know for its high quality of food and service in the main dining venues.

 

 

 

[Daveskib]

Thank you! I want to make sure I have my ducks in a row before my wife and I leave.