Club Class minisuites

What do you actually receive as a benefit besides a separate entrance and seating area in the dining room?

I think a few extras on the menu, is that right?

How about in the stateroom?

I’m trying to talk my DH into it, but so far he’s laughing at me.

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The mini suite is the same as any other mini suite. The club class dining is open for breakfast each day, lunch on sea days, and dinner each evening. You have a small group of servers who are excellent. You are seated virtually right away--our max wait was about 5 minutes. There is typically an "extra" at lunch like nachos or something similar and small, sometimes an extra main. At dinner, there is an extra main dish which is not on the menu and either an appetizer or dessert but not both. Those that we tried were also excellent.

The additional perks are priority boarding and tendering, etc. Basically, if you are elite, you get nothing extra. If you are not elite, you get a few benefits that cost Princess next to nothing.

Is a club class mini worth it? That depends on the price. I've seen it for everything from $0 to $50pp per night more than a regular mini. It was definitely the best dining we've ever experienced on Princess and ranks with the best we've had on any line.

Yes, dining anytime at its purest and yet the wait staff closeness of traditional dining of yesteryear makes it well worth it to me. You also get priority embarkation and disembarkation and also priority status when at a tender port which is helpful more so than at embarkation. The extra courses at dinner or lunch aren't that big a deal but don't really care about that part of the cc experience. I have also found though, that you get fresh squeezed OJ at breakfast and special pastries/donuts.;p;)

Pooh

Club Class did not include tender priority when we sailed Ruby last year.

The dining room service matched the way folks always claim it "used to be in days of yore".

Also, since Princess runs two dining rooms on Traditional for early seating and only switches

to a second AnyTime dining room later in the evening, CC gets you early evening AnyTime

dining without the dreaded beeper wait.

If it cost more then $25 PP PD then it's not worth it because you could go to a specialty restaurant every night, that's how I would gauge it.

I think there's also a bottle of wine??:confused:

We have been underwhelmed at the current Club Class situation. We just came off the Golden where we had friends in Club Class (we had a non-Club Class mini) and we compared notes. We went to dinner (open sitting) around 7:45 most nights and never waited more then a minute to get into the regular MDRs. The Club Class folks waited about the same (perhaps 1-3 minutes). What they got was a separate section in a regular MDR with the same menu plus 1 or 2 additions. We sometimes were seated right next to the Club Class area (they were only 1 table away) and they were getting pretty much the same service. For us, we prefer the regular MDRs because we prefer to share larger tables (6-8) on most nights (we like to meet new folks and socialize). Our friends in Club Class usually ended up at a 2 top because there were few sharing opportunities.

The question is how much extra is Club Class worth? For us it would be no more than $5-$10 per day (if that). Princess really needs to improve the Club Class concept. The Club Class dining area needs to be made into a truly separate dining venue (walled off from the regular MDR) with a unique menu that is worth extra money. As of now, the Club Class waiters are picking up the Club Class food from the same serving lines as the regular dining waiters. Having an extra pasta course prepared by the Club Class Maitre'd can be nice, but it is just not enough to justify the extra cost for those cabins.

Hank

We have been underwhelmed at the current Club Class situation. We just came off the Golden where we had friends in Club Class (we had a non-Club Class mini) and we compared notes. We went to dinner (open sitting) around 7:45 most nights and never waited more then a minute to get into the regular MDRs. The Club Class folks waited about the same (perhaps 1-3 minutes). What they got was a separate section in a regular MDR with the same menu plus 1 or 2 additions. We sometimes were seated right next to the Club Class area (they were only 1 table away) and they were getting pretty much the same service. For us, we prefer the regular MDRs because we prefer to share larger tables (6-8) on most nights (we like to meet new folks and socialize). Our friends in Club Class usually ended up at a 2 top because there were few sharing opportunities.

 

The question is how much extra is Club Class worth? For us it would be no more than $5-$10 per day (if that). Princess really needs to improve the Club Class concept. The Club Class dining area needs to be made into a truly separate dining venue (walled off from the regular MDR) with a unique menu that is worth extra money. As of now, the Club Class waiters are picking up the Club Class food from the same serving lines as the regular dining waiters. Having an extra pasta course prepared by the Club Class Maitre'd can be nice, but it is just not enough to justify the extra cost for those cabins.

 

Hank

Hank, the operative phrase to me in your entire comments is you went to dinner at around 7:45pm every night. That has never been mentioned as a wait time for ATD. I never eat that "late." If you were to go at 6:00-6:30pm, I think you would have experienced something different, maybe not every night but several I am sure (from comments here on Cruise Critic.) And I have, I hate to admit, gotten to the point in cruising that I like a 2 table top. What is nice in CC is that you are not on top of each other, but close enough to start a conversation with another 2 top if they are so inclined (or I am!!). Also, we like to eat lunch and breakfast in the MDR also (stay away from buffet, but do use IC and Alfredo's occasionally) and CC is nice for that. You get fresh squeezed OJ and special pastries too! Grin. So if you are a mainly MDR eater and like to eat early and like a 2 top, then CC is well worth the difference in price(please note we have never paid more than $19pp per day for it and usually ends up around $10pp.) And I don't need a walled off area to eat, but I will agree maybe one or two "really" different or "better" entree and/or appetizer offerings would be nice.

Pooh

We have been underwhelmed at the current Club Class situation. We just came off the Golden where we had friends in Club Class (we had a non-Club Class mini) and we compared notes. We went to dinner (open sitting) around 7:45 most nights and never waited more then a minute to get into the regular MDRs. The Club Class folks waited about the same (perhaps 1-3 minutes). What they got was a separate section in a regular MDR with the same menu plus 1 or 2 additions. We sometimes were seated right next to the Club Class area (they were only 1 table away) and they were getting pretty much the same service. For us, we prefer the regular MDRs because we prefer to share larger tables (6-8) on most nights (we like to meet new folks and socialize). Our friends in Club Class usually ended up at a 2 top because there were few sharing opportunities.

 

The question is how much extra is Club Class worth? For us it would be no more than $5-$10 per day (if that). Princess really needs to improve the Club Class concept. The Club Class dining area needs to be made into a truly separate dining venue (walled off from the regular MDR) with a unique menu that is worth extra money. As of now, the Club Class waiters are picking up the Club Class food from the same serving lines as the regular dining waiters. Having an extra pasta course prepared by the Club Class Maitre'd can be nice, but it is just not enough to justify the extra cost for those cabins.

 

Hank

I have a couple of comments. We had club class dining in April on the Caribbean Princess (just as a reference point). If your friends in club class were getting the same service as you got, then the service in regular dining has improved greatly. We had fantastic service in club class--rather like we were used to 15 years ago.

And the extra course was not a pasta item each night. On at least 2 occasions, we had a beef dish from the regular service line that was not available on the main menu. On those nights, the club class prepared item was either an appetizer or a dessert, but the entree came from the main kitchen.

We didn't feel that the lack of a separate dining room was a negative. We had a separate area, separate entrance, and super service. I'd have to seriously question what the dollar value of club class was--we got it included with our window suite. I honestly don't like the Celebrity concept of "a ship within a ship" where people who book a given category have a separate dining room, pool, etc. But maybe it is because I'm not willing to pay enough to get it!

Were Club Class perfect for everyone, there would only be CC.

Were Main Dining perfect for everyone, there would only by MDR.

Isn't it nice we get to choose what suits us? One size does not fit all.

Were Club Class perfect for everyone, there would only be CC.

Were Main Dining perfect for everyone, there would only by MDR.

 

Isn't it nice we get to choose what suits us? One size does not fit all.

Great attitude...and thanks for your suggestion about Whittier excursions on another thread.

Club Class Mini-Suites are in great locations.(y)

we had one once, just a mini, before CC

not for us...don't like the shower/tub combo

and I can't see us in suite to get the CC bene, but, I do have a ticket for the next Powerball !!

Love the Club Class dining service and special menu items.

Love the Club Class dining service and special menu items.

So do we! Since CC Dining comes with the mini suite location we would book anyway, ALL THE BETTER! :D

Thanks for your responses. Very enlightening!

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We have done the CC twice. We were in a full suite both times. So far our experience is this: I was really surprised @ how different it was on the 2 different ships we were on. The 1st time on the Star it was not good. We love the Star, but their Club Class was very lacking. There was usually a wait (people were burning mad about it) . The area was just too small. Even thou they knew the time people seemed to want to eat (around 5:45 every night) they did nothing about it. They needed extra staff. It was very obvious, but nothing changed over 15 nights. The wait staff was very unfriendly & sometimes rude. Was it their culture or because they were so obviously over worked??. The only extra entree every night was a Cesar salad done by the ma’tre d. It was good by the way.

Then 5 months later on the Emerald it was just the opposite. There was never a wait for a table for 2. Or if you wanted to sit with others. The staff was very friendly, and they seemed to genuinely care about us. And not just us everyone . After about 2 nights they called us by name. They had what I would call a real extra entree. A few nights it was filet mignon steak, steak Diane, lamb, different shrimp dishes , or even lobster newberg. The food was excellent. And every night was a special dessert. They treated everyone like VIP’s.

What a big difference in the 2 ships. It was down right shocking.

So if you get the experience we had on the Emerald, I would say it’s worth all of $70.00 a day extra.