Captain's Club Elite Question

[Texalana]

This will be my first cruise as an Elite member of the Captain's Club and I would like to know how the invitation to the Captain's table works. Do I need to do something to request this? Any advice you seasoned CC Elite members can give me will be appreciated! Thanks!! :)

[tuggers]

It's a possibility and not a guarantee. The current move is to take that chore away from the CC Hostess and pass it on to the Customer Relations Manager. So they are now chosing the dinner guests on most ships. Suffice it to say there will be LOTS of Elite members on board and very few of them will be able to be accomodated because most everyone wants a seat.

[DeputyBob]

I believe we've been offered the opportunity to sit at the Captain's table on every cruise since we've been Elite. Either the Captain's Club hostess or the social hostess called to see if we were interested, and if we were, they would leave an invitation in the room. I think the offers came at least the day before on most occasions.

 

Bob P.

[Eleris]

Being Elite has nothing to do with sitting at the Captain's table. The first time I was invited I was only select and they had no idea who I was I was actually booking shore excursions when we were asked. There are a lot of guests that are in suites that are also asked. I have actually seen the social hostess pick guests on line during boarding. If it is important to you then you should definitely ask upon boarding since they are reviewing the list of guests and determining who to ask. Honeymooners are often invited as well.

[tbelian]

Being Elite has nothing to do with sitting at the Captain's table. The first time I was invited I was only select and they had no idea who I was I was actually booking shore excursions when we were asked. There are a lot of guests that are in suites that are also asked. I have actually seen the social hostess pick guests on line during boarding. If it is important to you then you should definitely ask upon boarding since they are reviewing the list of guests and determining who to ask. Honeymooners are often invited as well.

 

While this may have been true when you cruised, it is not true on Celebrity, today. First, there is no more social hostess. All social hostess positions have been 're classified', and they are now the captains club representative. So-ho: gone.

 

Next, as part of what Celebrity 'promotes' as a captain's club perk, taken directly from Celebrity's web site: "Invitation to Captain's or Officer's Table" (based on availability).

 

I can say from experience however that being elite, and/or being in a suite does not get you an automatic invite. Last cruise we were both (suite & elite), no invite.

 

My belief is, the selection process now happens in Miami (Celebrity's HQ).

[judyfssw]

I agree with tbelian. We were in a RS and were not invited. My bet is that my husband and I won't be invited this time as we're now elite. Why, because my husband had a stroke and his speech is limited, he needs his meat cut up for him as his right arm/hand is useless and that would probably make many people uncomfortable. It's okay though. We're with good friends and will enjoy their company immensely. This is a cruise and we'll have a wonderful time as we always do.

Please don't think that I'm slamming anyone, I'm just trying to be reality oriented.

[MSUSigmaK]

Judy, I hope you have a wonderful cruise. Lucky you escaping Michigan's odd winter this year! Enjoy having the opportunity to be on vacation with your husband and friends!

[canderson]

It's a possibility and not a guarantee. The current move is to take that chore away from the CC Hostess and pass it on to the Customer Relations Manager. So they are now chosing the dinner guests on most ships. Suffice it to say there will be LOTS of Elite members on board and very few of them will be able to be accomodated because most everyone wants a seat.

Something that surprised me on our most recent cruise on Galaxy was that the Captain's table was completely empty -- no officers and no pax -- for 9 or 10 of the 12 nights during late seating. I have no idea what it looked like at early seating. But if they're not getting Elite members to the table, it's not always for lack of seats. I don't know how many we had on our cruise, but it had to have been more than sat there during the course of the cruise!

[idssms]

The ship gets a list of VIP passengers and uses that as a guide for the seatings at the captains table.

 

The Captains Club Hostess who works for the Concierge hunchos up the task and sends the invites out.

 

At the first dinner hosted by the Captain,, the Captain reviews the list and can and does make changes before the invites are sent out.

 

Each host on subsequent nights reviews the list of invitees.

 

There are no guarantess of an invite being an Elite member.

 

 

Don

 

Elite Member Captains Club

[Bruin Steve]

The kicker is "subject to availability"...

We were invited to the Captain's Table on our March Connie cruise, we were not invited on our July Connie cruise...

 

Think about it...

There's a MAXIMUM of eight guests at any particular dinner seating, two seatings, seven night cruise would yield a MAXIMUM of 112 invites...The typical M-Class ship sails with over 2,000 guests...How many of those do you think have "Elite" status on a typical cruise?

 

But that 112 number is only a maximum...There may be nights when the table sits vacant...They will still invite folks for other reasons: Dignitaries, celebrities or even just people with great connections...

 

The Future Cruise Consultant on the Connie showed me the list of Elite and Select members on our March cruise (she has it because a perk is private, reserved "consultations")...and there were clearly more Elite members than could possibly be accommodated at the Captain's Table on that cruise...

[tuggers]

The Captain's Table is only used on formal nights and sometimes only on the first and last formal nights. First night is usually the Captain hosting the late seating. Other Officers who take their turn are Staff Captain, Hotel Director and sometimes the Safety Officer. This is only 'usual' exceptions to everything, of course.

 

Used to be you could cozy up to the SH and get invited. Like I said previously, that has now been, on most ships, passed the CCH (who had the job for a while) and gone to the Customer Relations Manager on ship. Of course, there will always be VIP's who get flagged by corporate. And those will get first priority.

 

To me, your chance of getting an invite just because you are Elite is pretty small.

 

Judy, enjoy your cruise!

[Texalana]

I appreciate all the replies - thank you. I was curious more than anything, actually, because it is listed as a perk for Elite CC members. My mom and I will be on the Century on March 9 and it will be my first sailing as an Elite CC member.

 

My mom and I have both been invited to the Captains table on previous cruises (separately, not at the same time) and it was a very nice experience. For me, it was my first cruise on Royal Caribbean (my 3rd cruise EVER) and my entire table of single cruisers was invited. It turned out that one of the people at my table was the mayor of a town and another was a knight! I guess I was just lucky to be at the right place at the right time!!! For my mom, it was her first cruise on Carnival, but it was her and my step-father's 40th wedding anniversary. They actually sat right next to the captain on formal night and he announced their anniversary to the entire dining room and everyone toasted them. It was quite special for them.

 

Personally, I think it's a little odd to list this as a perk (considering the number of Elite members on each cruise), but I would love it if I got asked again and will hope for the best!

 

Thanks again for all the replies and PLEASE keep your stories coming. I really enjoy reading them!:)

[judyfssw]

Thanks all. Getting away from the rainy Michigan weather will be wonderful. Also, not chasing our 9 month old toy yorkie will be a joy for a couple of weeks. I hope everyone enjoys their next cruise and those to come.

[Andy]

I appreciate all the replies - thank you. I was curious more than anything, actually, because it is listed as a perk for Elite CC members. My mom and I will be on the Century on March 9 and it will be my first sailing as an Elite CC member.

 

My mom and I have both been invited to the Captains table on previous cruises (separately, not at the same time) and it was a very nice experience. For me, it was my first cruise on Royal Caribbean (my 3rd cruise EVER) and my entire table of single cruisers was invited. It turned out that one of the people at my table was the mayor of a town and another was a knight! I guess I was just lucky to be at the right place at the right time!!! For my mom, it was her first cruise on Carnival, but it was her and my step-father's 40th wedding anniversary. They actually sat right next to the captain on formal night and he announced their anniversary to the entire dining room and everyone toasted them. It was quite special for them.

 

Personally, I think it's a little odd to list this as a perk (considering the number of Elite members on each cruise), but I would love it if I got asked again and will hope for the best!

 

Thanks again for all the replies and PLEASE keep your stories coming. I really enjoy reading them!:)

 

Hi Texalana !

 

I will be on the same sailing as you. Did you register for the Cruise Critic meet and mingle ? I hope to see you there !

[Lsimon]

On our last cruise we had the privilege of being invited to the Captain's Table on the second formal night. This cruise had three formal nights and the Captain's table was only used on the formal nights. Our dinner was with the "Staff Captain" who is second in command.

 

We received an invitation the day of the dinner. There was a small sort of reception in the Martini Bar just before dinner where we met the other invitees, a hostess (I believe she was on the customer relations staff) and the Staff Captain. Until then I had always wondered what the "reserved" area of the Martini Bar was on some nights.

 

We are not at elite status, but I believe that two of the four couples invited were. I wasn't sure why were invited, but after some investigation I discovered the reason. It is all explained in the following link: http://home.comcast.net/~lfsimon/vpic/er-B-dinner.gif

 

If anyone is interested here is a picture of our group which we received, courtesy of Celebrity: http://home.comcast.net/~lfsimon/vpic/cap-table-05.jpg

[Texalana]

Larry & Sue, that cartoon was funny! When my parents were invited, they weren't going to go at first because they wanted to have their anniversary dinner with family (we had a group of 20 people onboard). I'm glad they changed their minds, because they ended up really enjoying it.

 

Andy, yes I'm looking forward to the party and meeting everyone. It seems that we really have a good group! :)

[cechase]

There is no way that pax with Elite status can be guaranteed an invitation to the Captain's Table. On our 11 night cruise on Mercury out of San Diego on 1/2/2006, there were over 50 elite pax, over 150 select pax, and almost 450 classic pax.

 

For that cruise we were Select [now Elite with that cruise] and were in an RS. No invitation.

 

On our very first Celebrity cruise on Mercury we were not members of the Captain's Club, and were in a RS. We received an invitation and had dinner at the Captain's Table with the Hotel Director. On our next cruise, on Century, again we were in a RS and now were members of the Captain's Club and received an invitation and had dinner with the Captain. On our next cruise, again on Century, again in a RS and no invitation.

 

Our fourth cruise was on Galaxy, were in a RS, were now Select members, and received an invitation and had dinner with the Staff Captain.

 

There seems to be absolutely no pattern to the selection of pax for invitations to have dinner at the Captain's Table.

 

We can verify that Celebrity does maintain a VIP list, because we saw it at the maitre'd's desk on Century. The PH and RS pax were on a one page list. It was used in our case, to honor our request for a different table at the early seating.