Club class mini suite

[Traderboy]

Can anyone offer their opinion on the benefits of booking a Club Class mini suite on Crown Princess.

It appears that a special area of the main dining room is partitioned off with extra choices and better service. Do the Full suite customers eat in this section too?

 

 

 

 

 

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[pms4104]

22 minutes ago, Traderboy said:

 

Can anyone offer their opinion on the benefits of booking a Club Class mini suite on Crown Princess.

It appears that a special area of the main dining room is partitioned off with extra choices and better service. Do the Full suite customers eat in this section too?

 

 

 

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

Yes, full suite guests may dine in that same area.

 

Many here sing the praises of CC dining ... we found it just ok on the Ruby in March.  I suppose we expected a more spectacular dining experience

Edited July 18, 2019 by pms4104

[rcp6146]

We had a Full Suite with Club Class dining on the Crown for a 20 night Caribbean Cruise last December.  It was wonderful!  The two of us ended up with the same window table for four every night, all to ourselves.  From the folks that seated us to the folks that waited our table, they knew us by name very quickly and gave us the best service. 

[Potstech]

Had a Club Class Mini on our last cruise. Do not see any special reason to try one again. Other than the dining and the free bottles of cheap wine we could not see what all the hype is about. Back to a balcony.

[JC in CA]

We had a club class mini on the Grand Princess in May, 2018 (10 day out of San Francisco to Alaska).  Was our first time in Club Class, and we would definitely do it again.  

Pros:

Only waited about 5 minutes one time, every other time, seated right away.

Ana, the hostess, knew our names the 2nd time we were in the dining room.  We saw her all over the ship and she always greeted us by name.

We met 2 different couples in CC - once Ana saw us chatting with them, she would make sure we had the opportunity to sit with them or at the adjoining 2 top.

Lunch embarkation day, so very nice to sit down and be served a very nice lunch

Breakfast debarkation day, Ana took our carry on and set it aside for us, was a very pleasant breakfast.

Debarkation waiting area is separate and was a very short walk off the ship.

Couch in the cabin, not just a chair.

Great cabin position, mid-ship

 

Cons:

The two 1/2 bottles of wine were not very good.

Two tops are very close together - nearly the same as a table for 4.

Cost - but considering all the Pros - definitely worth it to us.

[jondfk]

Yes, full suite passengers use the same Club Class section in the MDR (though only full suite passengers are eligible for the suite breakfast amenity in Sabatini's or Crown Grill).

 

Is Club Class worth it?  A search here will provide you a wealth of opinions.  My thoughts are as follows:

 

If the price premium is modest (you'll have to decide what that means to you) I would do Club Class.  

 

On the other hand, we typically do fixed dining, and our experience with few exceptions is that service with the same wait staff night after night improves as they learn your preferences (and they DO learn your preferences).  We've never been able to recreate this service experience with ATD, Club Class solves this problem by limiting the service team to a handful of waiters who work more closely together to understand and meet your expectations.  Is this worth a large premium, IMHO, no.

 

Club Class will have one additional entree each night, often though this is little more than a different combination of meat and veg offered on the regular menu.  It's plated specially for CC, this extra attention might make it better but rarely dramatically so.  Often the additional item is nothing more than a piece of fish or chicken added to a vegetarian item from the main menu - another option - yes.  Special, not so much.  

 

Your Club Class host will prepare something in the dining room every night.  Could be a caesar salad (reliably excellent) with chicken or prawns.  Could be banana's foster for desert.  Often will be a pasta dish.  Whatever the case, they won't be doing any actual cooking.  Just combining of ingredients prepared in the kitchen.  Some host love this activity and perform it with a dramatic flourish.  Others see it as a burden, they might prefer to socialize with their guests and find the 'cooking' a distraction.  My advice here is to pay attention to how the host approaches this task and make your decision to take or leave these selections accordingly.

 

Another less obvious benefit of CC dining is that food typically comes from the kitchen more quickly than the MDR.  There's a reason for this, CC waitstaff have line jump privileges in the food service lines.  They literally do go to the front of the line.  This can make a real difference to the pace of your dining experience - so much so that I'd suggest you say directly if you prefer to linger over your meal.

 

I'll close saying, Club Class can be very nice, and is a nice splurge within limits.  At the end of the day though it's a corner of the MDR with a dedicated service team.  A good service team in the fixed dining room will deliver very close to identical service in my experience bringing me back to my opening point.  If the premium is within reason - I pay for CC - else, no.

[cruzsnooze]

I like it but only if it's no more then $25 PP PD. At that price point I could eat at a specialty restaurant for dinner every night. 

[voljeep]

Club class was a nice convenience when we had our one and only (so far) suite ... taken with an upsell ...

 

we try to stay away from shower/tub combo's so the CC mini's are a no go for us, anyway

 

might pay a little extra - no more than about $ 10 pp per day if it became available in the future for a premium deluxe balcony or other category ... maybe

 

the somewhat no wait for a 2 top was the best part of CC dining ... service was very attentive ... courses seemed to come quicker, but basically the same food as the mdr with a "special" side, salad, or dessert

[Sea Hag]

We've only had it once, and we liked it a lot. Definitely much better dining experience.

[jasbo49]

We have not yet sailed in a Club Class mini, but we will in October. We have, however, had Club Class dining three times and the first thing I'll say is each time has been a little different.

 

While Princess tries to standardize these things, they don't all come out the same. Two of our three CC experiences, via upsells or moveover offers that resulted in suites, were on the Crown.

 

The first one, an April 2018 transatlantic, had the best hostess I can imagine, but a waitstaff that seemed uneven. One waiter would rather talk to you than wait on you.

 

Our last Crown CC experience was pretty recent. The host seemed ill-equipped for the job, never came close to knowing our names and had to ask our cabin number till the last night. But the waitstaff was on the money. Oddly enough, one of the waiters we were not too impressed with in April 2018 was still onboard and had developed into a major leaguer by June 2019, and it was a treat to have the great talker be a great waiter too.

 

Regardless of the personnel, I think there are some real advantages of having Club Class dining, and as usual it's up to every cruiser to decide what's "worth it."

 

-- The time factor is doubled when you realize 1. You don't have to wait to be seated; and 2. You can get through your meal faster. We have gotten through a complete meal with apps, entrees and desserts in an hour or less when in Club Class. If you want to take longer, take longer. No problem.

 

-- There is something else offered each night. Unlike another post here, I haven't seen an extra entree and another extra (but, as I said, we all have different experiences). We've generally seen an app, an entree or a dessert, but it was still a fun addition.

 

-- We've often been dismayed at how clumsy Princess dining rooms could be with breakfast. When you have Club Class for breakfast, you have a dining team that can figure out breakfast.

 

Jim

[voljeep]

4 minutes ago, jasbo49 said:

When you have Club Class for breakfast, you have a dining team that can figure out breakfast.

why eat in CC when you could to a specialty restaurant for breakfast when staying in a suite ???

[jasbo49]

15 hours ago, voljeep said:

why eat in CC when you could to a specialty restaurant for breakfast when staying in a suite ???

I think we did it just to check out the CC experience for breakfast as much as anything. And I'm glad we did, since our October cruise is in a CC mini and now I'm more sure of a good breakfast experience.

 

Jim

[PoohUnderstands]

I have been able to get CC mini vs centrally located mini for about $9-18pp per day more.  I think it is worth it.  When I first tried it, I usually booked a balcony or deluxe balcony.  Doing CC made me book a mini suite.  Well, once I used that bathroom, I was hooked on a mini-suite.  The main reason and really only reason, I book a CC mini is that it is the perfect  combination of anytime dining and traditional dining (if you like to eat as a twosome).  You can go anytime and I have yet to wait more than 3-4 minutes and during that time I am fawned over and they are so gracious and once you have servers you like you just eat in their area each day (like traditional).  All the rest you get is fun and sometimes nice but unnecessary for me.  I like the traditional feel of dining and yet going between 5:30-6:30 depending on my day and getting right in.  This eating at 5pm or 7:15 is just not something I like!

And CC dining for breakfast and all available lunches is very nice too.

Pooh

[Ken the cruiser]

We are currently on the Crown in a CC mini-suite and so far the service has been great. We also love the size of our mini-suite with one big exception. Our balcony has no cover at all which appears to be common for CC mini-suites on the Crown. But the 2 bottles of free wine were ok and the canapés every afternoon are a nice touch.

 

However I think we’re going to opt for a mini-suite with a covered balcony from here on out and request early fixed seating which should serve our dining purposes just fine. The extra dish is fine, but we won’t miss it.

 

[Traderboy]

Thank you for all these comments about  Club Class mini suites. 

We decided to take the plunge on our forthcoming Crown cruise. The extra we paid amounted to about $ 20 per day.

Unfortunately  we will still be Platinum rather than Elite - just one day short- so I don’t think we’ll get any’ liquid’  incentives .   Is that correct?

The free laundry on Elite would also be a big plus.

Any comments would be welcomed.

[jondfk]

Traderboy.

 

Congratulations on your decision.  

 

You're right, nothing happens until the cruise after you cross the threshold.  So, no liquid incentives for you!  You'll get your CC half bottle of wine though, so that's something.  If you're going to be 1 day short at the end of this cruise, I personally would be looking for a short one 2 or 3 days to get you over the Elite hump for next time - but that's just me making an excuse for one more cruise, any cruise, however short.

 

Enjoy

[getting older slowly]

10 hours ago, Traderboy said:

Thank you for all these comments about  Club Class mini suites. 

We decided to take the plunge on our forthcoming Crown cruise. The extra we paid amounted to about $ 20 per day.

Unfortunately  we will still be Platinum rather than Elite - just one day short- so I don’t think we’ll get any’ liquid’  incentives .   Is that correct?

The free laundry on Elite would also be a big plus.

Any comments would be welcomed.

 I think it all boils down are you looking at the cabin or what extras come with the cabin.

Only you can decide if it is worth the money.

 

Our choice is pick the cabin we want.. it is important to us... we don't choose it on the perks.

 

With this in mind we always go in a suite because we love the space in our cabin....

 

Since club class arrived we know use the MDR a lot more... particularly on sea days for lunch

and for dinner.... but love the suite breakfasts at the Crown grill..

 

overall Club Class Dinning is good, like the MDR but a little better, and great staff....

and if they told is away,,, yes we would miss it...

 

we are Platinum as well... but the free laundry and priority boarding in a suite is good.

 

So enjoy your cruise and as they say  just do it

 

Cheers Don