club class dining vs standard dining

[capriccio]

On 5/12/2019 at 5:59 AM, livinforcruisin said:

We are joining the Sapphire on 18th May.  We are in a full suite whereas my Sister and B-I-L are in a standard balcony cabin.  Does anyone know if they can join us in cc dining or not?  Many thanks for any information.  If not the Anytime will be fine too.

 

They cannot. 

 

We prefer the fully covered aft mini-suites on many Princess ships so that rules out club class for us even if the price difference was acceptable.

Edited May 14, 2019 by capriccio

[peety3]

On 5/11/2019 at 10:53 AM, jondfk said:

- As noted elsewhere Club Class is not a separate space rather just a small section of the primary ATD dining room (deck 6 starboard on the Grand class ships).  I'm sure new builds will at some stage introduce more separation but for now . . .

- The separation from the normal MDR can be little or none.  On our last cruise two Club Class tables were deep within the ATD area, we sat at both and it was strange to have tables on both sides that were not Club Class, not sure why they implemented it this way.

 

It's been our experience (though slightly dated) that Club Class was positioned in the "multipurpose" MDR (the one used for TD early and ATD late). And frankly if you ask me, that's the right solution: there's only so may ways to slice up three MDRs for TD vs. ATD. Princess seems to have a significant-enough draw for early TD that they justify a second MDR for early seating, but slicing off a fraction of that helps to tilt the balance back towards ATD (it's moving the CC people out of the ATD space and into what was the TD space).

 

Most passengers sailing in CC min-suites are going to CC "Anytime" dining. However, I don't know what the breakdown is for full-suite passengers; I know that my wife and I still prefer TD for dinner. Perhaps the cruise you were on had a higher than normal percentage of full-suite passengers selecting CC, and/or a decision was made that the original CC capacity wasn't enough to maintain the service levels they hoped. Putting those two tables further away may not feel right, but could perhaps provide a window seat for CC folks while augmenting the capacity.

[windsurferfirst]

On 5/11/2019 at 2:25 PM, riffatsea said:

We had club class on our first Princess cruise through the Panama Canal in December!

We really liked the extra service of just walking into the MDR without a wait, the same wait staff who knew our likes/dislikes, the extra dishes, and just the feeling of less crowd and more special service.

To us it is "worth it" at this point in our lives and since we also book full suites now we think that those extras are "worth it" also!

Always up to you as to how you wish to spend your money.

I second the above post. IMHO I think its worth the extra.

[jondfk]

1 hour ago, peety3 said:

. . . Most passengers sailing in CC min-suites are going to CC "Anytime" dining. However, I don't know what the breakdown is for full-suite passengers; I know that my wife and I still prefer TD for dinner. Perhaps the cruise you were on had a higher than normal percentage of full-suite passengers selecting CC, and/or a decision was made that the original CC capacity wasn't enough to maintain the service levels they hoped. Putting those two tables further away may not feel right, but could perhaps provide a window seat for CC folks while augmenting the capacity.

 

You make some great points including pointing out that the rest of the CC dining room is (typically) TD for first seating moving to ATD after about 7:00.  We've found that CC dining is typically a bit quieter and the dining room a bit less frantic if you hit it just before that while the largest part of the room is still converting over from early fixed seating.  Excellent tip - thanks.

 

There's no doubt there is significant variation of when pax arrive even on back to back cruises with the same itineraries, we've been told as much by CC hosts, they chuckle when they explain "this cruise everybody comes late, last cruise they all came early".  They do work hard to try to satisfy all, sometimes though . . . 

 

As for the two isolated tables, no doubt this was an attempt to bump capacity by 4 heads, and to be clear OUR service did not suffer as a result.  What did happen though was the ATD tables on both sides were VERY and vocally unhappy with their service by comparison.  

[jondfk]

On 5/12/2019 at 2:59 AM, livinforcruisin said:

We are joining the Sapphire on 18th May.  We are in a full suite whereas my Sister and B-I-L are in a standard balcony cabin.  Does anyone know if they can join us in cc dining or not?  Many thanks for any information.  If not the Anytime will be fine too.

 

No, on this point Princess seems to be quite uniform.  CC dining is limited to passengers booked into full suites and M1 mini's only.  I've seen people ask about this every CC cruise we've taken, I've never seen an exception made.

 

I think they actually have to be rather firm since the seating area is limited and is sometimes just enough for the booked passengers (see other posts on this point elsewhere in this thread).

 

Sorry.

 

[polmcs]

Club Class will suit those diners who want ATD truly at any time. We had access to club class on our cruise last week courtesy of being in a full suite. The service was exemplary and the extra dish was a nice option, but my wife and I both came to the same conclusion that we preferred the late traditional fixed seating at a large table over ATD/CC whilst on a cruise.

 

On a slightly different topic, I found the Sabatini’s suite breakfast to be a huge disappointment when compared to the suite breakfast in an NCL Haven suite.  Oh well. Back to balconies for me.

 

[rocklinmom]

On 5/12/2019 at 10:44 AM, suekel said:

suites show up as anytime.  You get Club Class.  Just a weird thing princess does.  

My sister just booked an S4 suite and says she has Anytime dining.  So this means they are actually Club Class?  I ask because it is a family group cruise and the rest of us are in regular cabins with Anytime Dining and they still want to eat with us.  When we board, will she and her husband (in the suite) be sent to Club Class dining? 

[peety3]

15 minutes ago, rocklinmom said:

My sister just booked an S4 suite and says she has Anytime dining.  So this means they are actually Club Class?  I ask because it is a family group cruise and the rest of us are in regular cabins with Anytime Dining and they still want to eat with us.  When we board, will she and her husband (in the suite) be sent to Club Class dining? 

Think of it this way: the only people who won't be "allowed" into ATD are those whose cruise card shows them to be assigned to TD (i.e. they have a table number showing on the card). If they choose to dine separate, they'll be welcomed at the CC entrance.

[OCruisers]

1 hour ago, rocklinmom said:

My sister just booked an S4 suite and says she has Anytime dining.  So this means they are actually Club Class?  I ask because it is a family group cruise and the rest of us are in regular cabins with Anytime Dining and they still want to eat with us.  When we board, will she and her husband (in the suite) be sent to Club Class dining? 

 

No problem whatsoever!   

People with Club Class dining can eat in Regular Anytime dining if they wish.  

Lots of folks with CC dining do this when they had rather have dinner with the rest of their family/friends.  

[Nrknits]

We booked a mini guarantee on our last transatlantic. 2 days before sailing we were upgraded and assigned to a Club Class mini. We were excited to try it at no additional cost. To be fair we are elite, so some of the perks were of no consequence as we got them already.  So to us the real benefits were the two 1/2 bottles of wine and the dining.  The wine, no biggie, not a deal breaker either way.  The dining, was nice, but... The service was wonderful. The "extra" dish was hit or miss. But where we ran into a problem was it's limitation.  We ended up meeting and becoming friend with another couple onboard. We played trivia together, went to cocktail hour and really enjoyed their company.  Halfway through the cruise they asked us to join them for dinner. Do we say, oh no, we'd rather eat in our special dining room alone or do we join them and enjoy their company.  Of course we chose to join them. We had a lovely time eating with them for the rest of the cruise, had excellent service and meals, as well. So the moral of my story is, Club Class is nice, but to me, not worth paying extra for.  As I said the service was excellent, the food was comparable to the MDR, with the exception of the "extra" dish, which sometimes we chose and sometimes not. I'll gladly accept a free upgrade if one comes my way, but I would not put the extra money into it.