Do You At Least Try One Pay Specialty Restaurant Venue During Your Cruise? If So Why?

We just were on the Regal a couple weeks back.

We had an issue in the MDR so the Maitre D gave a comp meal in Sabatini's ($29.00ea) restaurant.

I can almost assuredly say that I wouldn't have paid the $29.00, the MDR meals for the balance of the cruise were fine.

What's your take on pay restaurants?

We never eat in the MDR when specialty restaurants or suite restaurants are available. But your question is so subjective you should receive all kinds of answers.:)

We do go to a specialty restaurant at least once every cruise.

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We just were on the Regal a couple weeks back.

 

We had an issue in the MDR so the Maitre D gave a comp meal in Sabatini's ($29.00ea) restaurant.

 

I can almost assuredly say that I wouldn't have paid the $29.00, the MDR meals for the balance of the cruise were fine.

 

What's your take on pay restaurants?

While I haven't gotten tired of the main dining room meals, we typically do a brunch or dinner on our Disney cruises (we're Platinum and get a free meal there).

Only other time we did was once on Holland America.

Yes.

Because I enjoy them.

The only time we've gone is on longer cruises, where the DR menu gets kind of old and boring after a while. I loved the dining room BEFORE the specialties....the food was SO much better and more varied!

Never tried them, don't want to spend any money on meals when great food is already readily available.

Yes we try most specialty restaurants, because we enjoy them and it feels more like a vacation to us if we eat somewhere different on most nights as opposed to eating at the same table or in the same dining room every night.

It’s not just about the better, made to order food. It’s also about a more intimate environment. To me, most specialty restaurants are well worth it.

I've never gone to a specialty restaurant and probably never will. I think the free food is fine.

I only eat in specialty restaurants; better food, service and atmosphere.

We've only eaten in a specialty restaurant once, on Holland America. It was supposed to be comped, but TA did not come through. Our steaks were very good (kind of like a regular steak house here in the Beef State) but the rest was just so-so, certainly no better than the dining room.

Service wasn't stellar either; in fact we waited so long for dessert that my husband went to check on show times. He doesn't care too much about dessert, but still was annoying.

We will be eating at three specialty places soon on NCL; they were a perk for booking. For us, the MDR and some of the other free venues are just fine; in fact really good, so it's not something we plan on doing often.

We never eat in specialty dining venues. Went to Chops once and we did not like it so we have never felt the desire to try others.

We'll try specialty dining this next cruise, but like the MDR and have only done a champagne brunch event previously.

I have tried them once or twice - but feel that the entire concept is part of the degradation of cruising: cheapening the basic product and then adding alternatives for a fee.

My wish would be for all cruisers to avoid the specialty restaurants - so the lines would give up the practice.

We don't, because we feel we have already paid for all the food we can eat, and more. Why pay even more for an even larger meal that we can't finish? We have eaten in a specialty twice, both were comped and we were not impressed. EM

I have tried them once or twice - but feel that the entire concept is part of the degradation of cruising: cheapening the basic product and then adding alternatives for a fee.

 

My wish would be for all cruisers to avoid the specialty restaurants - so the lines would give up the practice.

I doubt that that would occur as the food quality and service in the MDR was still quite good when RCI first introduced the specialty restaurants. Then it was offered as an option that took a while to gain momentum as it seemed that many people didn't see the need or were reluctant to pay the premium as most of them had only a few tables filled - at least in our experience. The quality of the MDR IMO started to decline long after the specialty restaurants were already well established. In our case it was only then that we first tried them, several years after they were introduced.

If it was intentional strategy to cheapen the basic product to then add the alternatives for a fee, it was a rather long term strategy that had the cart before the horse with the alternatives in place long before the quality in the MDR changed.

We don't eat a specialty meal every cruise but we have done it a few times. On our HAL cruise in February, we ate lunch one day in the specialty restaurant. It was very good and worth the $10 per person. On our Princess cruise next month, we've booked the Ultimate Balcony Dinner for one night (my birthday). We've done this dinner three times before and have always had a great time. There's nothing like being served a great dinner on your private balcony.

We have once on our last two cruises. Chops on Oasis because our ta gave us a free meal and Giovanni's on Adventure last time. We like them but it's not live or die if we do one on our cruises.

Always at least once.

How often depends on the cruise line. On some cruise lines it's almost every night. ;)

Sometimes.

Normally we check the menu during the day. If it doesn’t take our fancy we might do a specialty restaurant. But then that depends on the options, for us it’s more about the ambiance than the food per se.

I’ll give you an example, we like the Steakhouse on Princess, but won’t use it at all on the ships where they just use part of the Buffet, if I’m going to pay extra I want a ‘Nicer” restaurant, so on those ships, if the menu doesn’t suit we are more likely to do Room Service or the Burger Grill out on deck.

Crown Grill on the Regal was above and beyond our expectations. The $29 upcharge was well worth it for the most mouth watering tenderloin and veal chop we have ever had. We did it twice on on last cruise, once for my birthday and could not have been treated better. The desserts were spectacular! (Of course we ordered cocktails, a lovely bottle of wine and an XO cognac to finish)

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I doubt that that would occur as the food quality and service in the MDR was still quite good when RCI first introduced the specialty restaurants. Then it was offered as an option that took a while to gain momentum as it seemed that many people didn't see the need or were reluctant to pay the premium as most of them had only a few tables filled - at least in our experience. The quality of the MDR IMO started to decline long after the specialty restaurants were already well established. In our case it was only then that we first tried them, several years after they were introduced.

 

If it was intentional strategy to cheapen the basic product to then add the alternatives for a fee, it was a rather long term strategy that had the cart before the horse with the alternatives in place long before the quality in the MDR changed.

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Always, just to many tables in the MDR.

Yes, i enjoy the ambiance and intimacy of specialty restaurants.