Restaurant reservations?

[beltane]

Hi all... Hubby and I are eagerly looking forward to our first Celebrity cruise in February. I have a few quick questions...

 

I am happy to see we can book our restaurant reservations ahead of time on-line. I have a quick question... is there a fee if we decide to cancel? Having never cruised Celebrity I don't know and I worry if, say for example, I get a sun burn in port that day and am not up to dinner in a restaurant, is there a cancellation fee if we call and cancel?

 

Plus, I cannot find anywhere on the Celebrity website... does Celebrity do a "Chef's Table" kind of dinner? Hubs and I LOVE doing that. We did one on the Carnival Miracle 2 years ago, and last year on the Ruby Princess. Both dinners were absolutely incredible!

 

I am also wondering... we were finding Carnival getting kind of loud and busy for our taste, so last year we tried Princess. Princess certainly does an excellent effort to provide a wonderful relaxing experience, however Hubby and I found that there was ZERO nightlife. We're not huge party-ers, but we do like to maybe dance and listen to good music and have a few drinks. You could wander around halls on the Ruby by 9:00 p.m. and practically hear crickets! Will there be a bit more nightlife on a Celebrity cruise?

 

How are the lounges around the pools? Is there a problem with lounge-hogs? We had no problem getting lounge chairs on the Princess cruise last year, and the year before Carnival was finally enforcing their "no saving lounges" policy and only had few problems finding somewhere to enjoy the sun and water.

 

...I'll probably drive you all nuts with more questions before February gets here, apologizing in advance...:D

 

~~Bel

[ghstudio]

No penalty if you don't show up for a reservation in select dining. If you booked a meal in a specialty restaurant, there may or may not be a problem....just don't know.

 

There is a sporadic chef's dinner...it is done on some cruises, but not announced ahead of time. When you board, go to guest services or the MDR and ask if your cruise will offer one...and get on the list, if they have one.

 

No problem with crickets on celebrity ships..they will be asleep by 9pm :) just kidding. While celebrity does have many that go to their cabins early, there is nightlife around the ship...and there is always the casino if you are feeling lucky.

 

Pool hogs can be a problem on some cruises, but not all. The pool stewards try to assure that if a chaise is not being used for 30 minutes, it is freed up. This works sometimes better than others, but at least Celebrity tries to control this.

[Blazerboy]

We've had this happen on several cruises, where, for a variety of reasons, we cancelled a specialty restaurant reservation. Most times we moved it to another night, with no problem or penalty. One time, we were just too tired, overfed and not wanting to make the effort (late in the cruise) to waddle down to dinner, and we notified them to cancel, and were not charged- it was reservation we made on board for a 3rd night in Murano - which might explain the waddling/overfed thing:D

 

Not exactly the same as your hypothetical situation, but we've found ship's staff to be very accommodating about changes.

 

Andrew

 

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[wallie5446]

We were on the Ruby last Nov and found it hit an miss after 10:00, depending on the karokee crowd. IMHO, Celebrity is a tick or so up in the night life, yet a couple of ticks down from RCCL & Carnival. Now the 123 Go drink crowd should really change this! :eek:

 

We agree 100% about the Chef Table & Ultimate balcony on Princess, outstanding, nothing like it on a regular time frame on Celebrity.Tho with MDR menu thru room service, we plan on creating our own UBD on the Reflection this Nov.

 

Chair hogs 'lounge' on the decks of every Ship we have been on, and it is hit an miss as to enforcement by the poor staff member assigned to enforce it.:rolleyes:

 

We will wait till on board to book any speciality resturant's, will see what kind of 'specials' they are offering.

 

All in all, again, IMHO, I think you are really, really going to like the product Celebrity presents.

[beltane]

with MDR menu thru room service, we plan on creating our own UBD on the Reflection this Nov.

 

That's BRILLIANT! Hubs and I LOVE dining out on our balcony! We will absolutely be doing that.

[cle-guy]

I've prebooked my last 2 cruise specialty dinners.

 

I won't do it again. Why? Both cruises I found the restaurant staff out selling premium dining experiences sometimes for as much as half off but always for less than I paid for pre-booking!

 

I have been easily able to change mov etc. reservations with no problems. Ive also never seen any of the restaurants complete full so assume there is still availability for seating. Possible on shorter cruises this may not be the case with that many more people trying to get in in a small time frame though.