NEW Cabin Class Category: Club Class Mini-Suite

[Dudleydog73]

I'm new to this, but we will be in a suite in December, so I thought I would ask. How does the Club Dinnig work? Is there a separate part of the MDR where you will be seated? And, you can go any time? Which dining room?

 

As stated elsewhere in this thread, we will have to wait until Dec 10th cruise to find out how this will work. Since there is no Club Class right now no one knows.

[seafish]

I'm new to this, but we will be in a suite in December, so I thought I would ask. How does the Club Dinnig work? Is there a separate part of the MDR where you will be seated? And, you can go any time? Which dining room?

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These are some of the questions/issues regarding CC we are all asking. See my today's post #371. Princess does a good job of explaining the overall new dining venue at their website - but falls short on the dining details. Even our Princess CVP does not yet have all the details. Hopefully we'll have more concrete CC answers with early passenger reports from Ruby 12/11.

[floridalover5623]

The wait times will still be there at the high volume dinner times for both ATD and if most in club class decide to eat at the same time there will be a wait, they say no waiting for club class but that is impossible I think.

 

 

It could be that the club class people are not going to be made to wait in line & are just seated immediately ahead of the other passengers as they arrive. (as soon as the first table becomes available)

Either way it all translates into longer waits for most people and if this does become a problem I'll be switching back to traditional.

[seafish]

The information only appears to state that there will be dedicated waitstaff "committed to your exclusive dining area" but it doesn't specifically state that you will have the same waitstaff every night. It might work like Sabatini's at breakfast where there are typically four waitstaff but any of them may wait on you on any given morning. We will need to wait and see.

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Agree - wait & see. But it sure would be great to have the best of the Anytime & Traditional Dining venues with flex-times, same table, same wait staff combined with the new CC exclusive dining menu. Time will tell.

Edited August 3, 2016 by seafish

[NavyVeteran]

The information only appears to state that there will be dedicated waitstaff "committed to your exclusive dining area" but it doesn't specifically state that you will have the same waitstaff every night. It might work like Sabatini's at breakfast where there are typically four waitstaff but any of them may wait on you on any given morning. We will need to wait and see.

 

That's how I interpreted also. I don't believe they can afford to hold the same table all evening for only one seating. You may not have the same waiter every night but you will have the same small group, so you could still get to know them and vice versa.

[IECalCruiser]

I'm new to this, but we will be in a suite in December, so I thought I would ask. How does the Club Dinnig work? Is there a separate part of the MDR where you will be seated? And, you can go any time? Which dining room?

Club Class is being rolled out over a number of months. Unless you are sailing on the Ruby on 12/10 or later or the Emerald on 12/12 or later, Club Class will not be available on your cruise.

[metairiegal]

Club Class is being rolled out over a number of months. Unless you are sailing on the Ruby on 12/10 or later or the Emerald on 12/12 or later, Club Class will not be available on your cruise.

 

Ok, thanks. I guess I don't have to worry about it! We will be in our suite on the Caribbean Princess 12/17/16. (I had just read about it on the suite perk list - but didn't realize it wasn't even on all ships yet.)

[shredie]

I'm new to this, but we will be in a suite in December, so I thought I would ask. How does the Club Dinnig work? Is there a separate part of the MDR where you will be seated? And, you can go any time? Which dining room?

 

A full suite or a mini-suite?

[seafish]

In addition to Full Suites - M1 Premium Mini Suites also include Club Class.

[metairiegal]

A full suite or a mini-suite?

 

A window suite which is considered a full suite.

[Astro Flyer]

I'm new to this, but we will be in a suite in December, so I thought I would ask. How does the Club Dinnig work? Is there a separate part of the MDR where you will be seated? And, you can go any time? Which dining room?

 

Here are links to how Princess "currently" describes the new Club Class program.

 

http://www.princess.com/learn/ships/staterooms/club-class/

 

http://www.princess.com/ships-and-experience/food-and-dining/club-class-dining/

 

Since this doesn't debut until the Ruby's 12/10/16 sailing, no one is certain about the program which has already changed since it was first promoted a couple of months. If you want to read all 20 pages of this thread you can read more about it but since it may change before implementation or possibly even evolve later, I'm waiting until later to learn more about it. ;)

Edited August 3, 2016 by Astro Flyer

[SoCal Cruiser78]

...Since this doesn't debut until the Ruby's 12/10/16 sailing, no one is certain about the program which has already changed since it was first promoted a couple of months...but since it may change before implementation or possibly even evolve later, I'm waiting until later to learn more about it. ;)

 

I agree. I wonder if, like many things on Princess, the Club Class amenities will vary somewhat from ship to ship, at least in practice.

 

The one thing that I don't see on the list of amenities is priority tendering. That would be a big incentive for me, as the larger the ships grow, the more tedious tendering becomes. Perhaps they don't want to upset the Elites who have this as a benefit (one-way), but even Carnival offers this as part of their "Faster to the Fun" upgrade.

Edited August 4, 2016 by SoCal Cruiser78
spelling

[Astro Flyer]

I agree. I wonder if, like many things on Princess, the Club Class amenities will vary somewhat from ship to ship, at least in practice.

 

The one thing that I don't see on the list of amenities is priority tendering. That would be a big incentive for me, as the larger the ships grow, the more tedious tendering becomes. Perhaps they don't want to upset the Elites who have this as a benefit (one-way), but even Carnival offers this as part of their "Faster to the Fun" upgrade.

With the priority tendering for elite & suite passengers already to the point where sometimes we need to go to a dining room & get a boarding priority ticket, I don't think it would be a good idea to add another category of passengers to an already overcrowded benefit.

 

We wait on the other side of the dining room & may get on a tender quicker but sometimes we're denied the elite benefit to join the back of the tender line without a ticket. Would I be upset if they added more passengers to an already overcrowded procedure? Yes because they already are unable to always provide us with a promised benefit...priority tendering.

 

Lines for priority boarding on embarkation day are also already too long on more of our cruises so again I don't want a "Faster to the Fun" program. I don't know if Carnival has fewer repeat passengers making this a more viable option.

 

It's merely my opinion but I do not want to make the benefits Princess says we'll receive become even more difficult to receive. :(

Edited August 4, 2016 by Astro Flyer

[SoCal Cruiser78]

...It's merely my opinion but I do not want to make the benefits Princess says we'll receive become even more difficult to receive. :(

 

I understand what you are saying. As a Platinum member myself, I can see that this is already happening by promising Club Class passengers priority boarding and disembarking. I see that they are being promised a waiting lounge for disembarkation. I wonder if they are mixing them into the current Platinum and/or Elite lounges, or are creating another lounge just for them?

 

What I meant was that I personally find the tendering process the most annoying part of cruising, particularly on the larger ships. Giving Club Class this benefit would probably be the only thing that would get me to consider the bump in fare, as I have four more cruises until I reach Elite. But I definitely see your point that it would further dilute the value of the perk.

Edited August 4, 2016 by SoCal Cruiser78

[easyboy]

With the priority tendering for elite & suite passengers already to the point where sometimes we need to go to a dining room & get a boarding priority ticket, I don't think it would be a good idea to add another category of passengers to an already overcrowded benefit.

 

We wait on the other side of the dining room & may get on a tender quicker but sometimes we're denied the elite benefit to join the back of the tender line without a ticket. Would I be upset if they added more passengers to an already overcrowded procedure? Yes because they already are unable to always provide us with a promised benefit...priority tendering.

 

Lines for priority boarding on embarkation day are also already too long on more of our cruises so again I don't want a "Faster to the Fun" program. I don't know if Carnival has fewer repeat passengers making this a more viable option.

 

It's merely my opinion but I do not want to make the benefits Princess says we'll receive become even more difficult to receive. :(

I agree esp. on priority tendering. Seem to be hardly beneficial now.

[Murphey]

Hadn't noticed this before:

 

"An exclusive area of the Main Dining Room featuring expedited seating with minimal to no wait. You'll also enjoy expanded menu options, dedicated waitstaff, uniquely styled decor, table-side preparation and more!"

 

So, they are apparently going to do more than just rope off an area of the dining room.

Edited August 4, 2016 by Murphey

[shredie]

Hadn't noticed this before:

 

"An exclusive area of the Main Dining Room featuring expedited seating with minimal to no wait. You'll also enjoy expanded menu options, dedicated waitstaff, uniquely styled decor, table-side preparation and more!"

 

So, they are apparently going to do more than just rope off an area of the dining room.

 

Interesting. I wonder if this means they will be putting up walls in the dining room.

[floridalover5623]

Hadn't noticed this before:

 

"An exclusive area of the Main Dining Room featuring expedited seating with minimal to no wait. You'll also enjoy expanded menu options, dedicated waitstaff, uniquely styled decor, table-side preparation and more!"

 

So, they are apparently going to do more than just rope off an area of the dining room.

 

Uniquely styled decor can translate as a fancy tablecloth & flickering a candle on the table.

[SoCal Cruiser78]

Interesting. I wonder if this means they will be putting up walls in the dining room.

 

To keep the riff-raff out of view :).

[seafish]

Uniquely styled decor can translate as a fancy tablecloth & flickering a candle on the table.

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All the Club Class Dining perks sound great - maybe we'll even have some Grey Poupon! But - we do need to wait & see.

Edited August 4, 2016 by seafish

[sunneesmile]

We have always booked minis, but prefer the Emerald deck, and we always prefer the aft, expressly because they are covered balconies on the majority of the ships. We had some bad experiences on dolphin uncovered balconies with morons throwing trash off the side and landing on our balcony every day. I was sad to see that the Club Minis were all midship on Dolphin deck.

[Aussie Gal]

We were booked into an Emerald Deck Mini E731, one of the coveted aft cabins with the larger balcony and covering but yesterday, after reading about the new Club Mini's and the no wait for your table, we decided to change our booking to a Club Mini. Our cruise is only for 11 days and is in January on the Emerald Princess so we will be one of the first to try out the new Class especially as the change up wasn't a huge amount to pay.

 

When we have cruised with Celebrity, we have always booked Aqua which we found was great for us. Hopefully, the dining part of the program will be as Princess promise. We are Elite so there isn't much else on the program that we don't already receive. We have had a lot of trouble with Anytime Dining on Princess and were back in Traditional until we decided to move over. We find the early times on Traditional to be too early and having a meal at 8.15pm is far too late for us as we often miss the Entertainment due to being too tired after a long day in Port.

 

We had an outstanding cruise on Oceania's Marina in April/May where they know how to do Anytime Dining. We are hoping that this new class will be more like what we experienced on Oceania.

 

Jennie

Edited September 11, 2016 by Aussie Gal

[Murphey]

 

We had an outstanding cruise on Oceania's Marina in April/May where they know how to do Anytime Dining. We are hoping that this new class will be more like what we experienced on Oceania.

 

Jennie

 

Hi, could you expand on how they did it so well?? Is it because they don't have traditional at all?

Edited September 12, 2016 by Murphey

[Aussie Gal]

Hi, could you expand on how they did it so well?? Is it because they don't have traditional at all?

 

No they don't have any traditional at all. The main dining room is for Anytime Dining plus of course the Terrace Cafe (buffet during the day) which they convert into Waves Grill in the evening. Then there are the four speciality restaurants which you need to book, but are gratis. Every night that we went to the Main Dining Room on that long cruise, we were shown immediately to a table. They have loads of tables for 2, 4, 6 and 8 so you had an excellent choice. :)

 

The food in every one of their restaurants is excellent, the best we have had at sea. We were on the QM2 just after our long voyage on the Marina and even though we were in Queens Grill, the food wasn't anything like Oceania's food. In fact we thought Princess's food was better and we had paid top dollar for our crossing on the QM2. Never again will we cruise with Cunard. :mad:

 

Jennie

[Aussie Gal]

On the Emerald Princess for our cruise in January, there are 28 Mini Suites offered for Club Class. Together with the 24 suites, it really isn't a lot of people to cater for, considering that the ship holds over 3000 passengers.

 

Jennie