Suite and non-suite family traveling together. Workable?

[HBCcruiser]

We are booked in a full suite one our upcoming Royal Princess Cruise, but my brother and SIL are in a balcony cabin. Are they able to join us for dinner or lunch in the Club Class area? We booked specialty restaurants together. Has anyone cruised with this configuration before? Suggestions? 
Thanks for any intel! 

Edited January 17, 2020 by HBCcruiser

[Aus Traveller]

4 minutes ago, HBCcruiser said:

We are booked in a full suite one our upcoming Royal Princess Cruise, but my brother and SIL are in a balcony cabin. Are they able to join us for dinner or lunch in the Club Class area? We booked specialty restaurants together. Has anyone cruised with this configuration before? Suggestions? 
Thanks for any intel! 

From what I have seen, your brother and SIL will not be able to join you in Club Class. You can join them in the other area of the dining room.

[cr8tiv1]

They will not be able to join you for:

 

Club Class Dining (B/L/D)

Suite breakfast (Crown Grill/Sabatini's)

Water Shuttle Suite boarding

Embarkation boarding

Suite/Elite/Platinum happy hour (this is a maybe...all depends)

 

They will be able to join you at any specialty restaurant, even on the first night (but they will have to pay).

 

Iffy about disembarkation.  Again, depends on the Captain Circle representative guarding the door.

[Ron the Rev]

No to club class dining . We have done this and we did have our 5 friends, who we had booked into 2 inside cabins, join us for afternoon tea in our penthouse suit and at other times enjoyed room service the same way. We had no trouble with them joining us for preferred boarding or disembarking.

[Colo Cruiser]

No guests are not allowed in Club Class.

[HBCcruiser]

Thank you for the responses! Much appreciated. 😃

[AF-1]

You family could book a clubclass mini suite; and then they could join you meals;  but they still won't be able to join you for your other suite perks.  Sorry

[Cruise Raider]

As others have mentioned, they will not be able to join you in Club Class dining but they most likely can join you in the PES (Platinum, Elite, Suite) lounge for cocktails.  If they don't have the beverage package, they will be charged full price for their drinks unless you charge them on your card, where you will get the discounted price.  

Depending on the embarkation process, they may be able to board with you ... that's not a sure thing, though.  

[jondfk]

I'll add my observations & experience which broadly follows what's already been written.  

 

I've seen / heard many ask for an exception for CC dining.  Every time the response has been some variation of "unfortunately we can't accommodate you".

 

I have seen quiet exceptions made at suite breakfast.  Most notably I've seen grandparents bring their grandkids in for a meal now and again.  It was sometimes clear that this was done on an exception basis, for example when the parents were off on an early shore excursion and the GP's asked to look after the kids for a given morning.  Seems to work best with very young children, say those under about age 8.  Technically against the rules, so no promises.  

 

As to boarding and tenders.  This is one of those situations that seems to differ greatly ship to ship and port to port.  I've witnessed countless exceptions and also countless denials.  Folks always seem to miss the fact that no one will bat an eyebrow if suite pax fall back into the 'normal' line - that's a 100% fool proof solution for keeping a group together.

 

As for the PES lounge access, this too seems to vary greatly ship to ship.  

[memoak]

The suite breakfast exception will probably only work once and then they will quietly suggest that you not bring them anymore. I have seen this more than once.  As for CC dining there will be no exceptions 

[cynbar]

This will work out well only if your party understands that you will be eating many meals separately. You don't say how many nights you have booked specialty restaurants, or if you are willing to eat in the main dining room with the others. But, club class dining and the suite breakfast are some of the perks you have paid for, and are a definite step up from regular dining. When I travel with friends or family we find a shared dinner to review our days to be a highlight of our trip --- therefore, we try to compromise and book cabins where we can all dine together. Your expectations may differ. I have seen threads about this before, with some cruisers saying it worked fine and others saying that everyone was dissatisfied. But if you all know what to expect going in, you have a better chance of working it out so all of you are happy.

[flutprop]

I was in a Suite last summer and the rest of my family (11 others) were in Minisuites. I chose to dine with them in the regular dining room. I did bring my 88yo father to breakfast one morning when my husband was sleeping in, and there were no problems. I don't recall if he actually ate, or just had some coffee, but it was not an issue to bring him in with me the one time.  I don't know if the staff would have said something if I had continually done it though, as in my case, Dad is mostly blind and weak and required a family member escort, so him taking himself another venue was not possible.