Specialty Dining Strategy and General OBC Question

[sakigemcam]

Hi there -

 

Our first Celebrity Cruise is in March - moving over from Royal for a more upscale experience and hopefully better food. :D

 

I'm a little confused about the Specialty Dining Packages. If we purchase a 3-night package, it's $109/pp - so you save a few dollars from choosing without a package for 3 meals - is that right? And - we're foodies - being that, is there one of those 3 restaurants that's forgeable if we decide not to do the package?

 

As I was poking about on the site, it didn't appear to give me a choice of restaurant to book for Night 2. So I stopped and came here - that made me wonder if they randomly assign you restaurants? We would only be interested in the Lawn Grill, Qsine and Murano. And we really prefer to do specialty dining on sea days only.

 

Lastly - we can use the OBC to pay gratuities, correct? :cool:

 

Thanks in advance!

[jelayne]

Yes you can use OBC for gratutues.

 

The regular prices for the speciality restaurants are Murano $50 pp, Tuscan, Qsine, and the Lawn Grill are $45pp so packages offer a good decent.

 

Our favorite is the Lawn Grill, love the filet in Tuscan, Qsine is fun but we only go with a group don't care for it if it's just us. Murano gets great reviews unfortunately the 3 times we have gone ( different ships) the service was horrible so we no longer go to Murano.

[ShakeDaddy]

Easy to decide on Celebrity's just a few specialty choices. Well you have the big 2 to choose from, Tuscan or Murano, that's about it, not too difficult. ;p

 

This is the time for Celebrity to offer more choice's ??

 

Waiting.

[Luvcrusn]

Individual tastes vary. We have never had anything other than wonderful dinners in Murano and stellar service. The lobster prepared tableside is wonderful. Your cover charge for any of the specialty restaurants includes the 18% gratuity. We always add a bit extra. We do not care for Tuscan, which to us seems like a mid range chain restaurant with a bit better than mid range service. Food is okay but, to us, not worth the cost. Qsine is only fun with a larger group, so if it's just the two of us we skip. We haven't sailed Reflection or Silhouette yet, so we are looking forward to trying Lawn Club. When you buy the package they make a reservation for you for the first one. If you don't want to eat there you can change it, if not before you can change it once onboard. Generally we find that if we're not picky about the day or time we dine we can make deals for the specialty restaurants that are at least equal to, if not better than, the package price.

[tanzania2015]

We eat mostly in the specialty restaurants. On of the first things we do is to go to the Muranoj (solstice class) or the Tuscan (M class) and make reservations for your dinner package including changing the first night. The pri

 

 

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[Sammy1]

Hi there -

Our first Celebrity Cruise is in March - moving over from Royal for a more upscale experience and hopefully better food. :D

I'm a little confused about the Specialty Dining Packages. If we purchase a 3-night package, it's $109/pp - so you save a few dollars from choosing without a package for 3 meals - is that right? And - we're foodies - being that, is there one of those 3 restaurants that's forgeable if we decide not to do the package?

As I was poking about on the site, it didn't appear to give me a choice of restaurant to book for Night 2. So I stopped and came here - that made me wonder if they randomly assign you restaurants? We would only be interested in the Lawn Grill, Qsine and Murano. And we really prefer to do specialty dining on sea days only.

 

As you can see from the few responses so far, "different strokes for different folks!"

You didn't mention whether you are just two, or more. I agree with other posters that Qsine is better with more than two. You can definitely decide on your grouping of restaurants, and change the first night if you've bought the package in advance, provided you do so immediately on boarding. We always book our dining package when boarding, and on our most recent cruises picked the 3 you mention. Murano is by far our favorite....the lobster is fantastic, starting with watching it prepared tableside, and ending with enjoying a fabulous main course. On some cruises we've gone to Murano twice. By the way, the rack of lamb is also delicious!

 

Enjoy!

[sakigemcam]

Thanks all - part of me is thinking we'll just wing it till we get aboard the ship and see if they offer some great specials to fill space. It's just the two of us now, though our friends will decide in a few months (it's March, for heaven's sake, hurry up you guys!). Since it's our first Celebrity Cruise we'd probably be fine with the MDR and other included options if we don't wind up at a specialty.

 

As an aside, my son had a great point when we took them for a cruise for the first time, on the Allure. He said we go out to great restaurants at home, and that the cruise was so special and included so many options (though we avoided the dreaded Oasis Class buffet), there was no need to spend extra on specialties. Our next time on Allure, we did a few specialities bc we'd been there, done that - but by then, we most definitely noticed a change in the food quality.

 

I always appreciate the insights on CC tremendously! Thank you!

[sakigemcam]

Also - I've read it in a few spots - why isn't Qsine fun for two?

[RadioPeri]

Also - I've read it in a few spots - why isn't Qsine fun for two?

 

Qsine is fun for two, but MORE FUN for more! It's a lot of interesting, whimsical, eclectic small plates, so the more people you go with, the more you can sample.

 

Don't let being two stop you from trying it, but if you can make some friends on board, plan a group outing!

[GigemAggies]

I will weigh in on Qsine. After initially only going there with a group of 6 or more we actually have realized that it is our FAVORITE place for just the 2 of us. By now we have tried everything on the menu and we know what our favorite dishes are and we just order those. It's like having a tapas dinner with ALL of your favorites. So yes, maybe for a 1st time visit it's better with more people because you usually try a lot more dishes but we love it for just the 2 of us.

Also, the food at Murano is delicious, the service is terrible! It seems like everytime we go there we just get ignored.

Next to Qsine, Lawn Grill is our favorite restaurant but it's not on every ship.

I wish there were more options for specialty dining.

[Luvcrusn]

I will weigh in on Qsine. After initially only going there with a group of 6 or more we actually have realized that it is our FAVORITE place for just the 2 of us. By now we have tried everything on the menu and we know what our favorite dishes are and we just order those. It's like having a tapas dinner with ALL of your favorites. So yes, maybe for a 1st time visit it's better with more people because you usually try a lot more dishes but we love it for just the 2 of us.

Also, the food at Murano is delicious, the service is terrible! It seems like everytime we go there we just get ignored.

Next to Qsine, Lawn Grill is our favorite restaurant but it's not on every ship.

I wish there were more options for specialty dining.

That's so foreign to our experience in Murano. We have dined there many times on many ships and gave never had anything less than OUTSTANDING service that matched the wonderful food. Sorry your experience was different.

 

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[tanzania2015]

I will weigh in on Qsine. After initially only going there with a group of 6 or more we actually have realized that it is our FAVORITE place for just the 2 of us. By now we have tried everything on the menu and we know what our favorite dishes are and we just order those. It's like having a tapas dinner with ALL of your favorites. So yes, maybe for a 1st time visit it's better with more people because you usually try a lot more dishes but we love it for just the 2 of us.

 

Also, the food at Murano is delicious, the service is terrible! It seems like everytime we go there we just get ignored.

 

Next to Qsine, Lawn Grill is our favorite restaurant but it's not on every ship.

 

I wish there were more options for specialty dining.

 

 

 

To echo the the Qsine comments, my wife and I enjoy the small plates to share. We have also discovered that you don't have to order the entire plate. Example, we only order the sashimi on the sushi lollipops, only one meatballs of the meatball trilogy, and the lamb and chili on the M's Special, only one of three spring rolls etc. Our top restaurant is the Murano followed by the Qsine, Tuscan, and Silk Harvest (depending on the ship.). We eat 90% of the time in the specialty restaurants because of the service.

 

 

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[sakigemcam]

Thank you!