Dining Package Questions

[teacherman]

Scheduled to be on Reflection for 10 nights in January.  We are Elite but have not been on Celebrity in a few years.  If we buy a 3 night dining package, which restaurants can we use.  Can we just do Murano and Tuscan?  Also, does our Captain's Club give us any discounts or "2 for 1" like we get on RCCL.  Any information or advise is welcome.  Thank you.

[sandancer]

As far as I recall you can book any restaurant using the package. However, you will not be able to choose the first one. I’m sure this is allocated before you board but I could be wrong. You have to go to the restaurant reservation desk on boarding and book the dates and restaurants you want. 

[gfkcruiser]

I believe you can choose from the Specialty restaurants and go more than once to a venue. 

 

No 2/1 but have been offered discounts on board either offered to me or I asked.  

[sandancer]

If the speciality restaurants are not selling well the waiters will patrol the buffet entrance/sun decks drumming up business by offering discount, usually 20%. I have heard of people bargaining with them for a better price. 

[NantahalaCruiser]

2 hours ago, teacherman said:

Scheduled to be on Reflection for 10 nights in January.  We are Elite but have not been on Celebrity in a few years.  If we buy a 3 night dining package, which restaurants can we use.  Can we just do Murano and Tuscan?  Also, does our Captain's Club give us any discounts or "2 for 1" like we get on RCCL.  Any information or advise is welcome.  Thank you.

Dining packages can be used for any specialty restaurant - for several different specialty restaurants or even for every night in the same specialty restaurant.  If you are interested in getting a package, then you should book it online prior to the cruise since they often sell out prior to boarding.

 

When you book the package online, they will automatically give you a reservation for a particular specialty restaurant on the first night of the cruise. But after boarding you can change that reservation to any other night and any other restaurant - recommend you make your reservations for each night of your package as soon as you board in order to get as close as possible to the times you may wish to reserve.  You can make all of your reservations for different restaurants at a single specialty restaurant and often at tables outside the Oceanview Cafe.

 

Unfortunately, the 3-night package ($129 pp - $43 pp per night) does not give you much of a discount: just 14% off of the $50 pp at Murano and 4.4% off of the $45 pp at Tuscan.  Personally, I would not bother with the 3-night package.  The 4-night package is a little better: $149 pp, $37.25 pp per night, 25.5% off at Murano and 17.2% off at Tuscan.

 

To the best of my knowledge there are no Elite Captain's Club discounts for specialty restaurants.

 

Have a wonderful cruise.

[jelayne]

In the cruise planner they offer a discount for booking for the 1st night and you can pick restaurant and time.  Murano normally $50 is $35 and Tuscan normally $45 is $30.

[FLCruiser97]

You can also use the package for Sushi on 5 up to (I think) $35/pp. I'm not sure about that amount but we did use our package for that restaurant. Since S on 5 is an ala carte menu, and very reasonable I might add, we ordered almost everything on the menu and still had trouble reaching the $35/pp.

[39august]

I have never been refused a discount when I asked for it while on the ship. I would take the first night discount offer, and ask for discounts while on board.

[FLCruiser97]

5 minutes ago, 39august said:

I have never been refused a discount when I asked for it while on the ship. I would take the first night discount offer, and ask for discounts while on board.

Good Point.

[dateacher]

On 10/30/2021 at 4:31 PM, jelayne said:

In the cruise planner they offer a discount for booking for the 1st night and you can pick restaurant and time.  Murano normally $50 is $35 and Tuscan normally $45 is $30.

I tried to get the Murano discount and it said it wasn't available. The cruise is in February so I don't know if it's too early or I'm too late.

[vermonter16]

I'm struggling with getting the dining package as well....or just wait until onboard.  We are sailing the Apex in January.  Just looked and there is no option for a 3 night dining package.  Does that mean that the restaurants are getting full?

 

Edited December 13, 2021 by vermonter16

[Guindalf]

1 hour ago, vermonter16 said:

I'm struggling with getting the dining package as well....or just wait until onboard.  We are sailing the Apex in January.  Just looked and there is no option for a 3 night dining package.  Does that mean that the restaurants are getting full?

 

 

We are also sailing in January on the Apex (15th - join our FB group if this is your sailing!) and I noticed that the 3-night package has disappeared. However, we have never had a problem buying onboard so we can take advantage of first-night discounts. This cruise we're in a suite and have $1050 total in OBC, so with Luminae as an option, we'll most probably just PAYG.

[SNJCruisers]

We are on a B2B on the Apex in January.  The back half is a 7 day sailing and we opted for the 4 night package at 165 pp, basically giving you 4 nights for the price of 3 since Fine Cut Steakhouse, Eden and Le Petite Chef are all 55.00.  Since Eden has changed to a somewhat traditional menu on the Apex versus the A or B choice on the Edge, we will be trying it out. More details are in the attached article.

 

https://thepointsguy.com/reviews/first-look-celebrity-apex/

 

 

[neverlaysup]

6 hours ago, vermonter16 said:

I'm struggling with getting the dining package as well....or just wait until onboard.  We are sailing the Apex in January.  Just looked and there is no option for a 3 night dining package.  Does that mean that the restaurants are getting full?

 

On our last two sailings, both less than 40% capacity, there was no issues getting a reservation at any restaurant. I would wait for the specials on board and try to get in that way. We had a 4 night package for both cruises but probably could have done a little better with some effort by waiting for the onboard promotions.

[dazey]

I always did the 3 night specialty dining on a 7 night cruise; however, you cannot book the specific times you want and have to go to the maitre d' upon boarding to get the times you want.  You can change the first night you have been assigned also.  If it were a full cruise, it could be a problem if you are set on your dining times. At this time I now just book the times and pay full price for what I want - avoid the need to get the changes made once on board.  Ends up maye a $18 per person difference. Also do not use the Sushi on 5 or Raw on Five as one of your specialty dining selection as it is really only worth $35.

 

Once you dine at Sushi on Five or Raw on 5 you can always ask for a discount on your next visit and you get(at least as I have found) to get a 30% discount.  On the Apex last month we ate what we wanted and it only came to $26 for lunch(food only).

 

Either way you decide, it will be enjoyable.

 

 

[vermonter16]

Thanks for the advice!  I love Sushi on Five which will be Raw on 5 on the Apex and those are good suggestions that you have.  I know that we will want to do Eden, Raw on 5, and maybe the Rooftop Grill - so, really the dining package would only help us for the Eden.  Really, really good ideas.