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Speciality Dining Packages


Tokyo Mom
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Hello - this will be our first cruise on Celebrity. We've cruised Carnival, RCI, Holland America and Oceania in the past. I was wondering what people thought of purchasing the Speciality Dining Packages. It will be my husband and I (both 49) and we love good food. Would you recommend purchasing this? We will be on Reflections in early March to the Caribbean. Thanks so much for any suggestions. Michelle

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We booked a specialty dining package on both the Century and on the Solstice -- mainly because we didn't want to take formal clothes on either of these cruises and the dress code in the specialty restaurants is always smart casual. You will still see people dressed to the nines on formal nights but you will have the option.

On the Century, there was only one specialty restaurant - Muranos. It was amazing....but for an 8 night cruise, it was a bit much to eat off the same menu 3 times. But like I mentioned, the food and service were always amazing.

On the Solstice, the 3 dinner package (for an 11 night cruise) was a bit more reasonably priced -- $85 pp instead of $99 pp if you purchased it ahead of time. This came with 1 dinner at each of the following restaurants: Muranos, Tuscan Grill and Silk Harvest. I liked the variety of three different types of food and atmosphere. Silk Harvest was probably my favorite though on this ship and the least expensive of the three if you were to book them separately. Tuscan Grill had pretty decent service and food but the service and food at Muranos on the Century were far superior to that on the Solstice. At Silk Harvest, though, if you would like them to switch shrimp for chicken or vice a versa - just let them know and they will hook you up. I just happen to love Asian food so this was the best ... to each his own though.

In Muranos on the Solstice, nearly everyone at our table for 8 wanted the lobster murano which is cooked tableside. I do not eat bacon and instead of someone making my dish separately, he told everyone else that they would also have to have theirs with no bacon. My table mates kind of gave me a hard time about it and the dish really didn't turn out as great as it had on the Century ...and that was also without bacon. Also, we had started out by ordering a salad, appetizer and soup prior to our main meal and the waiter asked me 'so you want to pay for the $85 meal then?' What?? He said we ordered too many items and we would be charged an additional $85 each if we wanted to add the salad. I am sure this was an anomaly -- as I haven't had rude service on Celebrity before that ... but enough to make me know I won't be eating there again. I skipped the salad and also the dessert as I don't really care for sweets. Would have been nice if they would have made the exception to give me a salad instead of a dessert -- oh well. I don't think he was the type of waiter that wanted to go out of his way for me -- as mentioned, an anomaly I am sure.

If you want to eat at one of the specialty restaurants when you first board, the oftentimes offer a 20% discount for the first night ... last time aboard, it was at Silk Harvest. Different S-class ships have different dining options but cannot speak to those (the Lawn Club, Q-sine).

Celebrity S-class ships also have a crepe place called the Bistro on 5. It is only a $7 surcharge and nice if you want a quieter atmosphere. I only tried it once and wasn't crazy about the crepes but the salad was amazing and hear they also have great soup. I didn't try the sweet crepes, just the savory one -- just ok once you have been to a really good crepe place. But for $7, I might give it another try -- the service was good and as mentioned, I did love the atmosphere.

One more option if you really love food - Celebrity offers an all inclusive option for unlimited specialty restaurant dining for dinner and lunch or brunch when available. I believe this is $29 per person per day and has to be purchased for the entire cruise and is only available once onboard. I am not sure it is offered on every cruise, though. I have never tried it because I think they do an excellent job in the main dining room as well as the buffet for that matter. If you really love to be spoiled, you might even consider booking an Aqua Class cabin, which comes with its own specialty restaurant called Blu. You will get some people that say it isn't that great but we just loved it. There is no lunch offered but they do serve a nice breakfast as well as dinner in there. No formal dress required there either -- for us, that is the best!!

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Hello - this will be our first cruise on Celebrity. We've cruised Carnival, RCI, Holland America and Oceania in the past. I was wondering what people thought of purchasing the Speciality Dining Packages. It will be my husband and I (both 49) and we love good food. Would you recommend purchasing this? We will be on Reflections in early March to the Caribbean. Thanks so much for any suggestions. Michelle

 

We recently sailed on our third Celebrity cruise, and on this one (aboard the Silhouette) we bought the 4-dinner package upon embarkation. I can't recall the % this saved us over what we'd have paid if we went to all four venues and paid the listed rate, but it was a decent savings. Sometimes on board you can get a better discount for an individual restaurant, depending on how much in demand they are. And you can typically get a discount somewhere on the first night. So we possibly could have saved a little more than we did, but we were happy with the decision we'd made.

 

We haven't sailed on the Reflection, but it has the same 4 specialty dining dinner venues as the Silhouette -- Murano, Tuscan Grill, Lawn Club Grill and Qsine. Food is subjective, and I'm sure experiences vary from ship to ship in any event, but the dinners we had on the Silhouette at Tuscan Grill and the Lawn Club Grill were superb (and would have been superb on land as well). Tuscan Grill in fact was impeccable service paired with really good food.

 

We were disappointed in Murano, though we'd had a wonderful dinner on the Celebrity Infinity at the SS United States, which is the same menu. This was our third time eating at Qsine, and we decided we are tired of the "schtick," but it's something people should probably experience once, as the food overall is good (some of the selections are far better than others, but there are a ton of choices).

 

If you buy the package before you sail, I believe that Celebrity will insist you eat the first night of your cruise at Tuscan Grill (or possibly on the second night). We were not interested in Specialty Dining the first night, and so we did not buy the package before we sailed. We were pleasantly surprised upon boarding to learn that we could buy the package then and reserve our dinners for whatever nights we wanted, and did not have to eat at a specialty venue on the first or second nights. If you are happy to have your first or second night's dinner at a specialty venue, then no need to wait to book a package if you decide that's right for you.

 

I hope that's helpful. I think you will like Celebrity, and I hope you have a great cruise!

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Thank you so much for all of your extremely helpful information. We really don't like formal nights (one reason I love Oceania), so I think the speciality dining package is the way to go. I'm really looking forward to our upcoming cruise. Michelle

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Thank you so much for all of your extremely helpful information. We really don't like formal nights (one reason I love Oceania), so I think the speciality dining package is the way to go. I'm really looking forward to our upcoming cruise. Michelle

 

This is exactly the reason we book it. Just be sure to hit the table where they are setting up the specialty dinners as SOON as you board if you want specific nights and times.

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