Majestic Princess - Premier?

[Nikita4]

We booked a cruise on the Majestic Princess in December 2024 with Premier. There are not a lot of casual restaurants and on my booking ist marked unlimited speciality dining, so we receive not only 2 speciality dinings? We can eat all day in a speciality restaurant? Or how it works?

[grimace95120]

Hi there, under the terms of the "new" premier package that was just announced last week, specialty restaurants go from 2 to unlimited. So yes, you can effectively eat in a specialty every night of your cruise if you wish at no additional cost outside the price you paid for Premier 

for the casuals, its the same, unlimited  

[paddingtonbear]

2 hours ago, Nikita4 said:

We booked a cruise on the Majestic Princess in December 2024 with Premier. There are not a lot of casual restaurants and on my booking ist marked unlimited speciality dining, so we receive not only 2 speciality dinings? We can eat all day in a speciality restaurant? Or how it works?

You will have to book SD though. Plus package get 2 x speciality dining too. Not sure how all these people are going to be accommodated. 

[grimace95120]

10 minutes ago, paddingtonbear said:

You will have to book SD though. Plus package get 2 x speciality dining too. Not sure how all these people are going to be accommodated. 

Hi there, i believe Plus gets 2 Casual meals not specialty meals. You are correct though, reservations are required for the specialty ( casuals are not reservable) . I just booked all of my specialties ( 7 bookings for 7 nights)  on the new Premier package for my Sept 21 cruise. It was no issue getting any time I wanted at The Catch by Rudi, but Sabatini's and The Crown Grill took a bit more effort and some compromise on my ideal times due to capacity constraints 

[Thrak]

13 minutes ago, paddingtonbear said:

You will have to book SD though. Plus package get 2 x speciality dining too. Not sure how all these people are going to be accommodated. 

Plus bookings get 2 casual dining not Specialty Dining.

[Nikita4]

Thank you, on the Majestic are 3 speciality restaurants: Crown Grill, Catch by Rudi and Harmony? I think Chefs Table will not be included in the premier package and balcony dining also not?

Casual dining are the Pizzeria, Vines and the Sushi?

Our last Princess Cruise is some years ago without this packages.

[Cruise Raider]

8 minutes ago, Nikita4 said:

Thank you, on the Majestic are 3 speciality restaurants: Crown Grill, Catch by Rudi and Harmony? I think Chefs Table will not be included in the premier package and balcony dining also not?

Casual dining are the Pizzeria, Vines and the Sushi?

Our last Princess Cruise is some years ago without this packages.

Yes .. you are correct and the sushi is only on sea days and is held in the location currently used for the Catch by Rudi and only at lunch time.  There is talk of them expanding it as it is on the Discovery where they serve the sushi directly from the Ocean Terrace, which is currently only a bar. 
Many changes will be coming to the Majestic in March 2025 when she goes into dry dock.  Vines will be turned into O’Malleys, Harmony will be removed and the Catch will take over that location, Sabatini’s will be using the space currently used by The Catch.  The Noodle Bar will be replaced with Slice Pizza up on the pool deck.  

Athena specialty dining venues will be charging $45 pp for dinner and I’m really not sure if reservations will be accepted ahead of time for those without the premier packages.  I do understand there will be a $10 fee if you don’t show for a reservation that you’ve booked.  
Time will tell if they will need to limit the number of premier packages that are sold. 

 

[Thrak]

15 hours ago, Cruise Raider said:

specialty dining venues will be charging $45 pp for dinner and I’m really not sure if reservations will be accepted ahead of time for those without the premier packages.  I do understand there will be a $10 fee if you don’t show for a reservation that you’ve booked.  

 

Zowie! It may not be a popular stance but I agree with charging a fee for the no-shows. With so-called unlimited Specialty Dining people will likely be booking for a lot of nights and planning to "decide at the time" if they are actually utilizing the venue. $10 isn't much of a penalty charge but it "might" help alleviate the problem.

 

This is actually the first I've heard of the penalty fee for not showing up for a reserved time. Did I just miss this somehow?

[grimace95120]

5 minutes ago, Thrak said:

 

Zowie! It may not be a popular stance but I agree with charging a fee for the no-shows. With so-called unlimited Specialty Dining people will likely be booking for a lot of nights and planning to "decide at the time" if they are actually utilizing the venue. $10 isn't much of a penalty charge but it "might" help alleviate the problem.

 

This is actually the first I've heard of the penalty fee for not showing up for a reserved time. Did I just miss this somehow?

I'm in agreement with you. No different than land based restaurants that, due to popularity and often price point, require a deposit that's forfeitable on a no show or cancellation inside the window. Its hard enough planning meals when you know what the guest count will be, its a nightmare when it could be constantly evolving . Is multiple restaurant booking the new deck chair hoarding ?? 🙂  

[Cruise Raider]

1 hour ago, Thrak said:

 

Zowie! It may not be a popular stance but I agree with charging a fee for the no-shows. With so-called unlimited Specialty Dining people will likely be booking for a lot of nights and planning to "decide at the time" if they are actually utilizing the venue. $10 isn't much of a penalty charge but it "might" help alleviate the problem.

 

This is actually the first I've heard of the penalty fee for not showing up for a reserved time. Did I just miss this somehow?

We are onboard so I heard it from one of the top officers.  It will be $10 pp .. and yes, people won’t tend to make a bunch of reservations and decide which ones they wish to keep.  
Last week was the Jeff Corwin sailing and only 63 elite passengers onboard .. something like that.  But, so many people had the packages and many of those had the premier.  Needless to say, it was difficult getting a dinner reservation via the app.  When we called the dine line, we were accommodated, though.  
 

[paddingtonbear]

I've read some people have booked speciality dining every night of their cruise.  While others say they prefer the food, and time taken to be served, in the MDR. 

Each to their own. 

 

$10pp fee sounds good and it should go some way towards stopping no shows. 

I've just resigned myself to not dining in SD as we will not have Premier.

 

I read on here that they are reserving some seats for those onboard.  So people not on cruise critic or not in the know have a chance at getting some seats in SD. 

Maybe Premier package gets priority? I don't know. 

[rocker57]

On 8/21/2024 at 10:43 PM, Cruise Raider said:

Vines will be turned into O’Malleys,  Is this true? I hadn’t heard this before. Never been on a ship with O’Malleys, is it considered a casual dining? We will be on the 2nd sailing after drydock, so I hope it’s true, the menu looks delish. We have the premium package, but not going to upgrade to new package.

what is Athena dining?

 

 

[Cruise Raider]

19 hours ago, rocker57 said:

 

That’s what I heard about O’Malleys.  It will be a causal dining venue.  Sounds great to me.