All Meals in RS cabin?

[sueclark]

When I reread through this whole post, I think my answer was kind of short.

 

The dining rooms on all the Celebrity ships are quite elegant (and even more-so on formal nights). The service is quite attentive and pretty formal. We have met very nice people at our table on every cruise. I'd highly recommend that you have at least a couple dinners in the dining room - unless you hate dressing up, be sure to try one of those nights.

 

One caution, the first night (which is always casual dress) is a little chaotic because of everyone having to be seated by an attendant. After that, it becomes a very nice experience.

 

As I said in the post above, we do eat in our Royal Suite for most meals. I love the course-by-course Butler service. Often we just aren't hungry enough to go to the dining room for the whole dinner. It's nicer to just be able to order what we want (like soup & breadsticks!) and not have to sit through the entire dinner.

[raudacruise]

We eat every breakfast in Suite. Either early when in port or late when at sea (or at a port we don't plan on doing any major activities in).

 

Dinner we've only done in Suite a couple of times. Reasons:

 

1. We're social animals and meeting and becoming friends with other couples is a major reason we cruise.

2. The atmosphere is so much more elegant.

3. We really don't know what we want to eat (or how much) until we get there. Butler's are great, but they really can't tell you what's on or off like the information you get from your waiter. A second lobster tail is sometimes a necessity when they've cooked them right (or a different entre when they've overcooked them ;)).

[rogerdm]

Thank you all for your kind replies. What do you think are the gratuities that I should leave and when and how much!!

 

Thanks.

[sueclark]

This was clipped from the Celebrity website:

 

It is customary to offer gratuities to staff members you feel have given you exceptional service and personal attention. Celebrity suggests the following guidelines:

 

Waiter: $3.50 p/day

Assistant Waiter: 2.00 p/day

Butler (suites only): $3.50 p/day

Assistant Maitre'd: $0.75 p/day

Stateroom Attendant: $3.50 p/day

Stateroom Attendant (ConciergeClass): $4.00

Assistant Chief Housekeeper: .75 p/day

 

These are the per person suggestions - for children it's half.

[FastFreddie]

Roger,

 

It's your cruise, you are paying your money for it. If you wish to have your meals in suite then by all means do so. You have not been on other curises before (according to your sig) and because of that I'd reccommend that you at least try the specialty restaurant while on the Constellation. you owe it to yourself to try that one.

 

As far as tipping goes I'd talk with the butler and hand him at least a 50 and explain what you'd like. And of course also say that the 50 will not be your final tip.

 

 

Just MHO

 

FF

[Kami's pal]

"cruisead

...

Also, if you still want to dine in your room for dinner every night, tell the head waiter so your seats can be assigned to someone else for the week. It wouldn't be fair to the waiter and assistant waiter for your assigned table to have a place ready for you and then you don't dine there for the week. These hard workers rely on tips, and to have empty seats for the week means less cash for them.'

 

 

also, your tablemates won't be left wondering if they should start, or if your cutlery and chairs can be removed to allow them the extra room.

__________________

[cechase]

We took an 8 day cruise on Mercury in March of this year, and had a Royal Suite. My dear lady friend (DLF) had a fever when we boarded [while we had insurance, she wanted to go on her first cruise], and a day later while walking on the wharf area in Monterey, her back went out.

 

With her not feeling well, we had a number of breakfasts, several lunches and several dinners in our cabin. For each of these meals, our butler brought us the menu for the main dinning room for us to place our orders. For each meal, he prepared the dining table in our suite just as the tables are prepared in the main dining room. Other than breakfast, the courses were served one at a time, again as in the main dining room. Contrary to the observations of another poster - all of our meals were hot - and just as good as the meals that we had in the main dining room. The butler made the cruise so much better for my DLF despite her being ill - as well as my getting her around the ship in a wheel chair.

 

Now, on our May cruise on Century - she was in tip top shape for a beautiful 64 year old lady - we knew many of our fellow pax through CC connections, and arranged to have 8 of us at a table in the main dining room. We had a great time, great conversation and enjoyed our new friends. We did tell everyone, that if we were not there within 10 minutes after openning of the doors, we would probably be having our meal in our suite.

 

As one poster mentioned, only the Royal Suites and the Penthouse Suites have a dining table.