Disappointed We Could Not "Upgrade" to Club Class

[Rick&Jeannie]

We have only experienced Club Class once earlier this year.  For our upcoming sailing I was hoping that we could do a Club Class "add-on" to our existing mini-suite.  No joy!  Princess says that you have to book a mini-suite that is specifically designated as a Club Class mini.  I don't get it.  As far as I can tell, the only difference is the actual dining experience (I very well could be wrong).  This seems like a perfect opportunity for Princess to reap some more dollars.  The only way they were going to allow us in to Club Class was to change our mini-suite to a different one (very close to where we were already...same deck) and charge us about $1000.  Much as we'd like to do CC again...not worth $1K in my opinion.  We passed on it!

[vjmatty]

It depends on how long your cruise is....  would agree 7 days would not be worth it, but if it is less than the cost of specialty dining every night, then maybe just for the avoidance of the main area of the MDR might be worth it.

[Steelers36]

32 minutes ago, Rick&Jeannie said:

We have only experienced Club Class once earlier this year.  For our upcoming sailing I was hoping that we could do a Club Class "add-on" to our existing mini-suite.  No joy!  Princess says that you have to book a mini-suite that is specifically designated as a Club Class mini.  I don't get it.  As far as I can tell, the only difference is the actual dining experience (I very well could be wrong).  This seems like a perfect opportunity for Princess to reap some more dollars.  The only way they were going to allow us in to Club Class was to change our mini-suite to a different one (very close to where we were already...same deck) and charge us about $1000.  Much as we'd like to do CC again...not worth $1K in my opinion.  We passed on it!

I don't see a problem.  You can look into the new Bid Upgrade process if you receive an email.

 

The thing is that all the Suites and a sub-section of the Mini-Suites get it.  They cannot offer CC dining to other cabins or they would be over-subscribed.

[Sea Hag]

36 minutes ago, vjmatty said:

It depends on how long your cruise is....  would agree 7 days would not be worth it, but if it is less than the cost of specialty dining every night, then maybe just for the avoidance of the main area of the MDR might be worth it.

I think a person also has to look at how many total meals they want to eat in the MDR, not just dinner. On our recent Alaska cruise, there were more than usual "sea days" so we had six breakfasts, five lunches, and six dinners in the MDR. For people like us who like to eat in the MDR, the other meals definitely factor into the bang for buck.

[vjmatty]

1 minute ago, Sea Hag said:

I think a person also has to look at how many total meals they want to eat in the MDR, not just dinner. On our recent Alaska cruise, there were more than usual "sea days" so we had six breakfasts, five lunches, and six dinners in the MDR. For people like us who like to eat in the MDR, the other meals definitely factor into the bang for buck.

 

That would make a difference as well, although I don't think I have ever had a problem with breakfast or lunch being crowded or not getting a table.

[Sea Hag]

28 minutes ago, vjmatty said:

 

That would make a difference as well, although I don't think I have ever had a problem with breakfast or lunch being crowded or not getting a table.

I mostly agree with that. We never had before our April cruise of this year on the Ruby. Breakfast wasn't too bad, but lunch was simply impossible on sea days.

[skynight]

1 hour ago, Rick&Jeannie said:

We have only experienced Club Class once earlier this year.  For our upcoming sailing I was hoping that we could do a Club Class "add-on" to our existing mini-suite.  No joy!  Princess says that you have to book a mini-suite that is specifically designated as a Club Class mini.  I don't get it.  As far as I can tell, the only difference is the actual dining experience (I very well could be wrong).  This seems like a perfect opportunity for Princess to reap some more dollars.  The only way they were going to allow us in to Club Class was to change our mini-suite to a different one (very close to where we were already...same deck) and charge us about $1000.  Much as we'd like to do CC again...not worth $1K in my opinion.  We passed on it!

Yes. You must book a Club Class mini suite to obtain the Club Class benefit, mainly dining.

[azbirdmom]

Offering it as an add-on would diminish the benefit and revenue that comes from attaching that feature to cabins in desirable locations.  If the number of people who could access Club Class increased, there would surely be waits to be seated and for service, something that rarely happens in CC today.  There seem to be enough takers for full suites and Club Class minis at the price point they have set so I can't see them selling it as an add-on like they do with specialty restaurants.

[ldubs]

 

It seems the upgrade was available, just not at a sufficiently discounted price for the OP.  I would have made the same choice as the OP.   

[jwattle]

4 hours ago, Rick&Jeannie said:

We have only experienced Club Class once earlier this year.  For our upcoming sailing I was hoping that we could do a Club Class "add-on" to our existing mini-suite.  No joy!  Princess says that you have to book a mini-suite that is specifically designated as a Club Class mini.  I don't get it.  As far as I can tell, the only difference is the actual dining experience (I very well could be wrong).  This seems like a perfect opportunity for Princess to reap some more dollars.  The only way they were going to allow us in to Club Class was to change our mini-suite to a different one (very close to where we were already...same deck) and charge us about $1000.  Much as we'd like to do CC again...not worth $1K in my opinion.  We passed on it!

 

4 hours ago, Steelers36 said:

I don't see a problem.  You can look into the new Bid Upgrade process if you receive an email.

 

The thing is that all the Suites and a sub-section of the Mini-Suites get it.  They cannot offer CC dining to other cabins or they would be over-subscribed.

I think that Steelers and a few others explained it perfectly, and, no offense, but your angst is unjustified...

You want an "add-on" for a feature that isn't an "add-on:...it is a stand alone. Get a Club Class Mini or a full suite if you want Club Class dining, or forget the Club Class dining. It is, fortunately or otherwise, a rule.

As others have said, selling it as an add-on would oversell it to where it might mean a wait, where the lack of waiting is one of the selling features.

[Rick&Jeannie]

4 minutes ago, jwattle said:

 

I think that Steelers and a few others explained it perfectly, and, no offense, but your angst is unjustified...

You want an "add-on" for a feature that isn't an "add-on:...it is a stand alone. Get a Club Class Mini or a full suite if you want Club Class dining, or forget the Club Class dining. It is, fortunately or otherwise, a rule.

As others have said, selling it as an add-on would oversell it to where it might mean a wait, where the lack of waiting is one of the selling features.

I think perhaps you have misunderstood the purpose of my post. I was simple expressing my opinion that it would have been nice to be able to do an upgrade...without having to spend $1K to gain CC and have to move down the hall about 6 cabins from my original location.  I fully understand that Princess has its ways.  No "angst" here, I promise! 😄

[wowzz]

We booked a club class mini suite to celebrate our 40th Wedding Anniversary.  We wanted a good minisuite, and, most importantly, we wanted a premium dining option. And we thoroughly enjoyed our experience.

Once you start letting anyone buy their way into the club class dining room option,  you lose that exclusivity.

I think the OP is just being cheap.  

[intel]

46 minutes ago, wowzz said:

We booked a club class mini suite to celebrate our 40th Wedding Anniversary.  We wanted a good minisuite, and, most importantly, we wanted a premium dining option. And we thoroughly enjoyed our experience.

Once you start letting anyone buy their way into the club class dining room option,  you lose that exclusivity.

I think the OP is just being cheap.  

I am with you. Even cabins next door to one another have different prices. Cabin Class isn't only the dining there ia also the setup. Also I wouldn't be happy paying a lot extra and then queing for dining caused by extra cabins being included.      

 

[Kay S]

We booked CC for the first time (on Princess' dime--lots of goodwill FCC) so it will be interesting to see how the experience differs from regular minis, which we have often done.  Princess is not shy about offering opportunities to take your money, but I can see how selling CC access to anyone would soon cause a problem with the "no wait" dining.

[cr8tiv1]

28 minutes ago, Kay S said:

We booked CC for the first time (on Princess' dime--lots of goodwill FCC) so it will be interesting to see how the experience differs from regular minis, which we have often done.  Princess is not shy about offering opportunities to take your money, but I can see how selling CC access to anyone would soon cause a problem with the "no wait" dining.

 

Reasons to book a Club Class Mini:

 

1.  Prime location for some.  Mid-ship, Mid-forward, Mid-aft.

2.  No (or little) wait to be seated in Club Class area of MDR

3.  Extra offerings for dinner (not that great)

4.  There are a few other perks, but I am not familiar with them.  Priority boarding? Priority tendering? wine split?

 

Not to be confused with Full Suite amenities.

[donswife]

Perhaps you are thinking of Club Orange on HAL?  It is not tied to a specific Stateroom type,  and is charged by the day.

[wowzz]

6 hours ago, cr8tiv1 said:

There are a few other perks, but I am not familiar with them.  Priority boarding? Priority tendering? wine split

You get a half bottle of red and white wine per cabin. You are meant to get priority biarding, but when we boarded in Barcelona there was one queue for everyone. 

As I see it there are only rwo reasons to puchase cc. The cabin and the dining experience. Everything else is just puff.

[geoherb]

The way Princess limits the number of people in Club Class is by having a limited number of cabins designated as Club Class. On my cruise last month, the demand for Club Class dining from the people in those cabins and suites was such that they ended up extending the Club Class dining into the dining room. One person posted on my live thread that "they put some overflow tables in the regular area of the dining room with CC servers but it's noisy awkwardly placed randomly in aisles."

[Lady Arwen]

If I had booked and paid for the Club Class option and I found out that anyone could simply “upgrade”  from the MDR at a nominal cost, I would cancel my booking.  The purpose of CC is to give certain passengers, who are willing to pay a premium, an upscale experience.  Allowing all passengers the opportunity, totally defeats the purpose.  I’m totally in agreement with Princess on this one.

[Dar & Bob]

12 hours ago, cr8tiv1 said:

 

Reasons to book a Club Class Mini:

 

1.  Prime location for some.  Mid-ship, Mid-forward, Mid-aft.

2.  No (or little) wait to be seated in Club Class area of MDR

3.  Extra offerings for dinner (not that great)

4.  There are a few other perks, but I am not familiar with them.  Priority boarding? Priority tendering? wine split?

 

Not to be confused with Full Suite amenities.

LOL on #2 they say on their website "Expedited seating with no wait" On our last cruise we were sent away for about 15 to 20 minutes because they were full. Maitre d' came to get us and they did bend over backwards to give us great service but I don't understand not being able to accomodate when the ship was not full. 

That said, allowing people to just purchase the dining portion would just make the situation worse.  For a 7 day cruise it's about $400 per person extra for CC.  If we are cruising alone we probably will not book it.  When we had a group of 8 in January it was fabulous as they just held a table for our group, breakfast, lunch and dinner.  

[memoak]

16 hours ago, Rick&Jeannie said:

I think perhaps you have misunderstood the purpose of my post. I was simple expressing my opinion that it would have been nice to be able to do an upgrade...without having to spend $1K to gain CC and have to move down the hall about 6 cabins from my original location.  I fully understand that Princess has its ways.  No "angst" here, I promise! 😄

There are a limited amount of tables on club class. If I had to wait I would be very unhappy

[cruzsnooze]

2 hours ago, geoherb said:

The way Princess limits the number of people in Club Class is by having a limited number of cabins designated as Club Class. On my cruise last month, the demand for Club Class dining from the people in those cabins and suites was such that they ended up extending the Club Class dining into the dining room. One person posted on my live thread that "they put some overflow tables in the regular area of the dining room with CC servers but it's noisy awkwardly placed randomly in aisles."

Yes and in addition there was a 10-15 minutes many nights for Club Class if we went to dinner around 6 PM. The extra dish each night was actually very nice compared to previous cruises. The service was excellent. My last cruise they had kept one table for 6 near a window for sharing which I took advantage of when the table was not full. It was in demand all the time. I would have liked to see this sharing table on more cruises. This sharing table was the the equivalent of 3 two tops so would alleviate the wait times we experienced at dinner time.  It was a win win for Princess and guests. 

Edited September 10, 2022 by cruzsnooze

[taxmantoo]

1 minute ago, cruzsnooze said:

Yes and in addition there was a 10-15 minutes many nights for Club Class if we went to dinner around 6 PM. 

We quickly found out on our August cruise on the Caribbean Princess in Club Class that when Princess advertises "Dine My Way" they really mean "Dine Our Way", where and when they decide... They had trouble accommodating guests every night.

[cruzsnooze]

37 minutes ago, taxmantoo said:

We quickly found out on our August cruise on the Caribbean Princess in Club Class that when Princess advertises "Dine My Way" they really mean "Dine Our Way", where and when they decide... They had trouble accommodating guests every night.

This was on the Caribbean Princess to Greenland last month. Other ships had no wait times but this ship handled their club class poorly. They also allowed one couple who were not club class to dine with their 4 friends who were club class in club class. They kept a table of six for them empty in the overflow area. 

[jagoffee]

On 9/9/2022 at 4:30 PM, Rick&Jeannie said:

I think perhaps you have misunderstood the purpose of my post. I was simple expressing my opinion that it would have been nice to be able to do an upgrade...without having to spend $1K to gain CC and have to move down the hall about 6 cabins from my original location.  I fully understand that Princess has its ways.  No "angst" here, I promise! 😄

Very legitimate question.  A lot of posters did a good job explaining why this would not be practical  nor fair for the people that paid for a Mini Club Class.  The smaller controlled group of potential diners in Club Class dining is a major reason that people book this category.  The diners also include suite guests.  
 

Perhaps you will be fortunate enough to find a deal on a Club Class mini that fits your budget.

Good luck.