Aqua Class and pre-paid gratuities

[Xport]

we are also booked on the Equinox in the AQ Class and were told by our travel agent we could dine in Blu anytime between 6pm & 9pm with no reservation required, however, we DO have the option of the MDR whenever we want. I would like to do the MDR on formal nights. If anyone has further info it would be appreciated. We are sailing out on 3/5/12 and would like to find out. Thx, Look4me

 

AquaClass guests do have the option of dining in the Main Dining Room on a space available basis and, in my experience, space has always been available...

 

You should coordinate your plans to dine in the MDR through the Maitre 'D in Blu in advance [which also allows them to guage Blu availability for suite guests]... He/she will arrange for you to dine in the MDR through the Select Dining Host or Hostess...

 

Tastes/preferences differ... I happen to be very partial to Blu and would not personally discount the prospect of dining there on formal nights...

[LMKohler]

We have no intention of taking non-AQ members of our group to Blu. There are six of us in AQ and we will try Blu for one night, while the rest of our group dine in the MDR. On the other nights we are either going to do Select Dining, with our group of 10 (at 2 tables) in the MDR or go to the specialty restaurants. We will make sure to tell the Maitre D in Blu that we only intend to be there on a certain night.

 

Lucy

[DeeDeeRode]

On our 1/14 Eclipse sailing, I asked for MDR for the sole reason of being able to sit with a large group of people (we were booked in AquaClass).

On the first day a letter was in our room stating that Blu was booked that evening at 6 p.m. for us and every other night whenever we wanted to show up. We ate at Blu the first night, MDR the second night (a four top), and returned to Blu for the excellent service, wonderful food and beautiful dining room for the remainder of the cruise (btw, the soft shell crab appetizer is to die for!). If you see something on the MDR menu that you want, just ask your service person in Blu and they will get it for you. I found that showing up at 6 every evening, we were given the table we liked right by the window and indeed the tables are close enough to converse with others if you choose to.

Tips are automatically included and you can see them on a daily basis on the TV in your stateroom. They also give you the opportunity to opt out of the daily tips if you so choose. I like the ease of having the tips included, but I do bring envelopes with me for those people who go the extra mile -- one of them, in particular, a server in Blu -- helped my Mom out of her wheelchair every night, made sure she was comfortable and was right there when we were done dining to assist us out of the dining room.

I'm ready to book Eclipse again, it was the best cruise we have ever been on.

[PatC]

As LMkohler stated, we had no intention of trying to get non Aqua into Blu. We are well aware of the options we have.

 

We will try Blu and definitely use it for breakfast, but our TA did tell us that we could utilize both venues. We would like to dine with our other friends and we only have Blu because of the price change and the upgrade we received.

 

I'll let you all know how we make out after the cruise but at this point we're not worried. Having sailed Celebrity 19 times we find the staff are wonderful and very helpful when you treat them kindly and with respect

 

We'll "go with the flow" as they say and prepare to be flexible. However, trying Blu is on the top of our list. There are 6 of us (3 couples) in Aqua and 3 other couples in the MDR so we'll be able to spend time with everyone.

 

Looking forward to trying Blu since many on these boards have been raving about it.

[booklady26]

I was on the Silhouette last month in AQ. When we booked it we chose select dining because we didn't realize Blu was open seating. Grats were paid in full at final payment.

 

When we got to our cabin upon embarkation there was a letter asking us to arrive at Blu at 8:30 just for the first evening. If that wasn't convienient we could come anytime, so I didn't see the point ot sending the letter in the first place.

 

We ate in Blu every night with no problem.