Are dinner reservations required in Luminae

[Ugaaucruisers]

Are reservations required for any meals in Luminae?

Thank you.

[Nachosdelux]

No

[markeb]

Neither required nor offered. 

[Reel Love]

markeb, you noted reservations are not offered.  Will be booking our first suite along with ten other friends for an Alaskan cruise.  Can you or others please advise if we should at least talk to the maitre'd (sp?)  about accommodating a party of 12?  TIA for any insight

[NHCRUISIN]

10 minutes ago, Reel Love said:

markeb, you noted reservations are not offered.  Will be booking our first suite along with ten other friends for an Alaskan cruise.  Can you or others please advise if we should at least talk to the maitre'd (sp?)  about accommodating a party of 12?  TIA for any insight

yes , with a group that large I would talk to the desk at Luminae and ask the best way to handle your dining requirements 

[markeb]

9 minutes ago, Reel Love said:

markeb, you noted reservations are not offered.  Will be booking our first suite along with ten other friends for an Alaskan cruise.  Can you or others please advise if we should at least talk to the maitre'd (sp?)  about accommodating a party of 12?  TIA for any insight

Yes. Talk to the maitre’d. You may not have a “reservation” but they’ll work to accommodate you.

 

10-12 may be difficult in Luminae. In my experience Luminae is set up more for smaller groups. Which ship will you be on?

[1025cruise]

Are all 10-12 staying in a suite? Only suites are allowed in luminae.

[Reel Love]

2 minutes ago, markeb said:

Yes. Talk to the maitre’d. You may not have a “reservation” but they’ll work to accommodate you.

 

10-12 may be difficult in Luminae. In my experience Luminae is set up more for smaller groups. Which ship will you be on?

The Edge.  I kind of wondered if they can accommodate the table size but never having dined there before, have no idea.  Thank you so much for the information and guidance!

[Reel Love]

2 minutes ago, 1025cruise said:

Are all 10-12 staying in a suite? Only suites are allowed in luminae.

Yes, all will be booking suites.  Most couples in Sky Suites and at least one couple in a Royal Suite.  I should have been more clear in my initial post!  Sorry about that 😊 

Which now leads to another question.... I assumed that as long as we are all booked in suites, the exact "category" of suite does not matter and we can all dine "together" in Luminae (and hopefully at the same table lol)

[CruisersTimesThree]

1 hour ago, Reel Love said:

Yes, all will be booking suites.  Most couples in Sky Suites and at least one couple in a Royal Suite.  I should have been more clear in my initial post!  Sorry about that 😊 

Which now leads to another question.... I assumed that as long as we are all booked in suites, the exact "category" of suite does not matter and we can all dine "together" in Luminae (and hopefully at the same table lol)

All suite passengers dine in Luminae, it does not go by which level suite you booked. As others have said, talk with the Maitre D’ first chance you get, preferably when you arrive for the embarkation lunch to discuss how they can handle your group. I once traveled with my family as a group of 11 on the Summit and they set us up on one large table at the back end of Luminae without issue, (my immediate family were the PH guests, so not sure if that helped) It will be at the discretion of the Maitre D’. 

[markeb]

1 hour ago, Reel Love said:

Yes, all will be booking suites.  Most couples in Sky Suites and at least one couple in a Royal Suite.  I should have been more clear in my initial post!  Sorry about that 😊 

Which now leads to another question.... I assumed that as long as we are all booked in suites, the exact "category" of suite does not matter and we can all dine "together" in Luminae (and hopefully at the same table lol)

 

I've only cruise in Sky Suites. There are generally more Sky Suites than other suite categories, so I assume most people in Luminae are in Sky Suites. I've never seen or heard of a hierarchy in Luminae. There are benefits available to higher level suites, such as in suite dining and free specialty restaurants, but that's not going to matter for dining together.

 

I've not sailed on the Edge class. Search can be iffy, but you can look for threads on Luminae on the Edge. I've seen concerns on the design of Luminae and noise levels. On the S and M class ships we've been on, the default seating is two-tops. They put those together for larger groups, so you'll typically end up with a long linear table for larger groups. I think the largest I've seen was 8. I don't know how many two-tops they can put together on Edge. It's very difficult to communicate from one end to the other. In my experience, main dining rooms are much more likely to have large round tables to accommodate family reunions, wedding parties, etc. and keep the group closer together. I've not really seen that in either Blu or Luminae. 

 

Enjoy your cruise.

[billc23]

8 hours ago, markeb said:

I've never seen or heard of a hierarchy in Luminae. There are benefits available to higher level suites, such as in suite dining and free specialty restaurants, but that's not going to matter for dining together.

As with most things on Celebrity there is a hierarchy in Luminae. Tables are reserved in a subtle way, such as putting a bottle of wine on an unused table at lunch/dinner so that guests entering the dining area will assume the table is occupied. Leaving a certain desirable table not setup/cleaned at breakfast so it is unavailable to entering guests. Occasionally they will say a certain table is reserved for the PH guests but usually it is more discreet.

 

Large tables are accommodated but as stated it is difficult to communicate because of the layout and the large tables are often disruptive to the environment in Luminae because of the noise level. Some of the speciality restaurants and certainly the MDR are much better suited to large parties.

[billc23]

10 hours ago, Reel Love said:

markeb, you noted reservations are not offered.  Will be booking our first suite along with ten other friends for an Alaskan cruise.  Can you or others please advise if we should at least talk to the maitre'd (sp?)  about accommodating a party of 12?  TIA for any insight

Communication is necessary because if you just show up they probably will not have the tables available to put together to accommodate your party. The tables will be occupied in a somewhat staggered fashion already. Large parties are usually seated along a wall that has bench seating because the room is not set up for a large table without disrupting traffic flow. They will probably give you a "reservation" for a specific time for dining and when your party arrives the table will be ready. The choice of time offered may be limited depending on the sailing. 

[markeb]

1 hour ago, billc23 said:

Communication is necessary because if you just show up they probably will not have the tables available to put together to accommodate your party. The tables will be occupied in a somewhat staggered fashion already. Large parties are usually seated along a wall that has bench seating because the room is not set up for a large table without disrupting traffic flow. They will probably give you a "reservation" for a specific time for dining and when your party arrives the table will be ready. The choice of time offered may be limited depending on the sailing. 

 

I've seen tables clearly set aside for larger groups as well. But they've usually been as far away from others as possible, and not necessarily a desirable location. As you say, along the wall in the back. Usually the second night and on once they know the group a bit. Once they know there's a larger group, they tend to work to seat them together.

 

I'm sure you're right and there are subtleties depending on the level of suite. I think there's also the reality of accommodating a large group in a space that was designed for couples or small groups!

[jelayne]

Luminae is quite loud on the E class ships, particularly.

You might want to consider 2 tables for 6 and folks can switch between them from time to time. The your party will find it easier to have a conversation and others around you won’t be disturbed by a large group.

[Happy Cruiser 6143]

Ditto the recommendation for two tables of six.  Luminae isn't set up to accommodate parties of 12 and you can't have conversations with people at the other end of the table anyway.

 

[Liao]

17 hours ago, Reel Love said:

Yes, all will be booking suites.  Most couples in Sky Suites and at least one couple in a Royal Suite.  I should have been more clear in my initial post!  Sorry about that 😊 

Which now leads to another question.... I assumed that as long as we are all booked in suites, the exact "category" of suite does not matter and we can all dine "together" in Luminae (and hopefully at the same table lol)

If you are willing to break up into groups of 6, you may have better success.  Plus you can all mix the groups up each night giving everyone a chance to dine together over the course of the cruise.

[Sox Fan Cruiser]

Our group of 10 was easily accommodated on the Apex. We would eat around 8ish every night so it started to empty out. They also wouldn’t seat people around us as we were quite boisterous (ie loud). We had a great time with the staff every night. 

[George C]

20 hours ago, Reel Love said:

Yes, all will be booking suites.  Most couples in Sky Suites and at least one couple in a Royal Suite.  I should have been more clear in my initial post!  Sorry about that 😊 

Which now leads to another question.... I assumed that as long as we are all booked in suites, the exact "category" of suite does not matter and we can all dine "together" in Luminae (and hopefully at the same table lol)

We were on a E class Luminae and someone in iconic suite had a huge table at least 12 in back of the restaurant. Definitely possible.

[DaKahuna]

 There is a long bench with separate tables the can be combined into a single table.

 

  As others have mentioned there is an 'informal pecking order' so I would recommend having whomever is in the Royal Suite coordinate with the Maitre'd.  It has been my observations that they are more accommodating to the people sailing in the higher end suites. 

 

[tangogulf]

Given our last experience on Edge there are not enough staff in Luminae. We sat at breakfast one morning and were completely forgotten about so we left and never went back at least for breakfast. Perhaps taking reservations would mean they know how many guests will be coming in to the restaurant and at what times so they can have staffing to cater. Given the price we pay for suites I expected better. 

[Reel Love]

I know that I obviously did not start this thread (sorry Ugaaucruisers, however I certainly appreciate you asking your question that allowed me to chime in! 🙂), but want to thank everyone for your comments, suggestions and insights to the question that I asked about a large group.  Being new to a suite/Luminae, this is obviously all new to me and unsure what to expect so very much appreciate learning from those who are experienced!!  

[Sox Fan Cruiser]

2 hours ago, tangogulf said:

Given our last experience on Edge there are not enough staff in Luminae. We sat at breakfast one morning and were completely forgotten about so we left and never went back at least for breakfast. Perhaps taking reservations would mean they know how many guests will be coming in to the restaurant and at what times so they can have staffing to cater. Given the price we pay for suites I expected better. 

So one experience turned you off. You should have spoken up and I bet they would have been so apologetic and treated you like royalty the rest of the cruise. Things happen in every service industry. Bad things consistently is a problem. Not one time.  

[chemmo]

On 7/3/2024 at 1:41 AM, Ugaaucruisers said:

Are reservations required for any meals in Luminae?

Thank you.

The only time we have ‘booked’ a set time was when the staff agreed to do a special meal for us not on the menu. As we had requested something different we felt we should accommodate them by letting them know when to expect us.

 

We also tend to avoid dining between 7pm and 8pm as we found service was less prompt and in particular wine service. Don’t get me wrong service wasn’t bad it was simply slower and the waiters were more rushed.

On 7/3/2024 at 3:05 AM, Reel Love said:

Yes, all will be booking suites.  Most couples in Sky Suites and at least one couple in a Royal Suite.  I should have been more clear in my initial post!  Sorry about that 😊 

Which now leads to another question.... I assumed that as long as we are all booked in suites, the exact "category" of suite does not matter and we can all dine "together" in Luminae (and hopefully at the same table lol)

Another vote for 2 x 6 tables…You will probably find you do not all dine together every night anyway. Some may want to try a speciality, or be tired from an excursion and opt for the buffet or room service or want to see a show…We have found it better for the group to agree 2/3 nights (first, last and a sea day evening in between) then decide on the rest as days progress.

[bEwAbG]

For the large group question, also remember that the upper suites get specialty dining as part of the suite so they may not want to dine in Luminae every night.  Could also be that other cabins want to do their own thing on some nights.  I'd try to pre-plan some of this and see if you really need a table for 12 every night.