Ultimate Balcony Dining????

[JWFogg]

We were checking out the dining options on the Sapphire Princess and saw a listing for "Ultimate Balcony Dining". Does anyone know the scoop on this? $50.00 fee for dinner and $25.00 fee for breakfast. Pricey for whatever it is!!!

 

Fogg

[Linda the Book Lover]

There is another thread http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=146195 Ultimate dinner and breakfast. I hope it helps :)

[JWFogg]

Thanks for the thread. Looks like fun for a warm weather cruise. May be a little challenging in Alaska!

[Iamthesea]

It may be mentioned on the other thread, but I recall reading some negatives from one couple.

 

They mentioned trying to have a romantic dinner and the passengers either next door or up above were on their balcony drinking, smoking and being very loud. I had thought about this ultimate experience also until I read that post and it did it for me! We are saving our money.;)

[GloriaF]

I am just too practical and economy-minded for the Ultimate Balcony Dinner. Also, having the wait staff there interferes with my sense of privacy. I plan on ordering a room-service dinner from the regular dinner menu, tipping the delivery person, and serving it ourselves. We will miss out on all the little nuances of the Ultimate Dinner, but will be quite content with our private dinner.

[Commodore Suzy]

I'm with Gloria. When I first heard of this, I said, OMG, another way for them to charge for food! I refuse to even go to Sabatini's when I cruise. ;) I think the included food and service are fine.

 

This whole pay extra for food on the balcony thing started, interestingly enough, with Alaska though. They offer some kind of special thing for the Glacier Bay day (forgot what they called it), and it was so popular they've expanded it now. Apparantly, Gloria and I are in the minority.

 

Cheers!

[GloriaF]

The other post regarding room service and ordering off the menu to any but suites, seems to point toward Princess putting a stop to those of us like Suzy and I that would do a "poorman's version" of the Ultimate Balcony Dinner. According to someone that called Princess to check, that is just not possible. Not to give up easily, though, I'll give it a try and see what happens. It isn't going to ruin my cruise either way.

[MommyInSC]

I'll go against the flow and say we did the Ultimate Balcony Dinner and loved it. We did it on my 30th birthday. The only time we even knew there were other people on balconys around us was when the waiters came in with a cake and started singing "Happy Birthday." All sorts of other people from other cabins joined in.

 

The waiters did not just sit there with you while you ate. They came and went, much like they would if you were in the dining room.

I thought it was highly romantic to be on our balcony, with the flowers, wine, and dinner brought to us. We had ours timed so that we started dinner before sunset...the dinner lasted through sunset and until it was dark.

I thought it was worth the $100. The picture they took of us was fabulous. I just thought it was a neat experience.

 

We had the Breakfast as well. That came with the package we bought on the cruise. I would NOT pay for that on it's own. Sure you get 1/2 a bottle of champaign and you get to choose from a couple extra things on the menu, but I did not feel it was worth what they charge. (Again, I did not actually pay for that...it was included for us.) They did not set up like they did for the dinner. They brought you the food, left it in your room, and left you. Might as well order room service and a bottle of wine...you will come out cheaper LOL.

 

To each his own I guess :)

[JWFogg]

Thanks for all the posts. I've got to say that these boards really help out with anything to do with cruzin'. This will be our ninth crusie and we thought we heard it all. There is always something new.

 

Thanks for the help.

[seamare]

we did the ultimate balcony dinner on our feb star cruise and i would do it again in a heart beat. you do get sooo much for your $100 if you factor in the drinks, flowers, pictures along with a fabulous meal and then the next day we had chocolate covered strawberries delivered to our room. we will be on the caribbean princess next feb and will hopefully do it again.