Is Specialty dining still worth it?

[Hammer61]

Been pondering this as on the last 3 cruises post the pandemic and we have come away disappointed or feeling the value for money was very poor, in fact we have all but decided it isn’t worth it anymore and will stick to the main dining room and included options and spend our money elsewhere in future.

 

 

Aqualina on Azamara and a US$35 up charge was nice but really the main dining room was just as good, Prime C also US$35 was a steak house but nothing to rave about, I actually had a steak just as good at the Patio outside dining area when they had a special with Rib eye steak.

 

Izumi on RCI at about $50 each, we actually thought this was pretty bad; Sashimi was not fresh and obviously frozen but our own fault on a transpacific how would they get fresh fish! Sushi wasn’t very good either, Wonderland was all hype and a bit of showmanship but not worth the $87 up charge, Chops Grille at $95 up charge was ok but never worth that much extra.

 

Shell and Bones on P&O was dreadful, we complained and the maître d’ seemed embarrassed and apologized and said he wouldn’t be charging us, the “famous” seafood extravaganza for 2 was a joke, a few calamari rings, some shriveled up octopus, some kind of very dry fish and battered prawns and the big prawn sized lobster with next to no meat was laughable, poor old maître d’ had a rough night as we were not the only ones complaining!.

 

 

Edited March 5, 2023 by Hammer61

[Jedi_Laz]

Possibly not, we have booked the 3-night dining package but also wonder if worth it.

The last meal (a number of years ago ) at Izumi was not good. 

Wonderland was awesome.

Chops are always nice (just nice)

Jamies was a letdown.

We had our best meal at Windjammer.

 

I did like the Italian restaurant on the princess, sadly can't recall the name.

 

It is hit and miss I guess.

[Aus Traveller]

The Italian restaurant on the Coral Princess is called Sabatini's. I have heard good reports, but after the recent price-rise, it mightn't be good value for money.

 

We had a voucher for a specialty dinner on the Coral and chose the Bayou Cafe. The atmosphere was OK, the food was quite good, but the service was abysmal. The restaurant wasn't even a quarter full and our waiter had only six people to serve. Even so, it took two hours for the meal. I have to confess that our main course took so long coming that I asked the head waiter if we should go to the Horizon Court for dinner. The people near us commented that they hoped we would get our meal by midnight. Maybe if I hadn't made my remark to the head waiter we might have been there that long. He brought our food personally. My only excuse is that we had finished a full bottle of wine (more than we usually drink) while waiting for our main course. We had only had a few nibbles of food with all that wine. Our main course was served around 1.5 hours after we arrived. Other people had a similar experience although I don't know if they made any remarks to the head waiter! We certainly wouldn't pay to go to the Bayou after our experience. If we have another voucher, we might try Sabatini's. Otherwise, it's the MDR for us.

 

[OzKiwiJJ]

Sabatinis, on Princess, is worth it even though the price has recently gone up. I'm not sure what it is now though. Be prepared for a very large meal!

 

I've never been impressed by the steak restaurants on Princess and certainly the one on Coral Princess wasn't worth going to in my opinion, apart from the desserts which were great.

Edited March 5, 2023 by OzKiwiJJ

[OzKiwiJJ]

4 minutes ago, Aus Traveller said:

The Italian restaurant on the Coral Princess is called Sabatini's. I have heard good reports, but after the recent price-rise, it mightn't be good value for money.

 

They've upgraded the menu and it looks even more delicious! Given the amount of food you get it will be worth it even at the higher price. Anyway we have a complimentary speciality dinner on our upcoming Grand cruise so hopefully we can get into Sabatinis one night. I'll let you know what it's like.

[RosieCanberra]

The speciality dining on NCL Star in November was very good. Way too much food in the steakhouse so choose wisely, delicious filet mignon. Also ate at the French, Italian, and Teppanyaki which was a lot of fun.

The steakhouse bill was USD182 excluding drinks, so very expensive. We had a voucher. 

[OzKiwiJJ]

13 minutes ago, RosieCanberra said:

The speciality dining on NCL Star in November was very good. Way too much food in the steakhouse so choose wisely, delicious filet mignon. Also ate at the French, Italian, and Teppanyaki which was a lot of fun.

The steakhouse bill was USD182 excluding drinks, so very expensive. We had a voucher. 

There is no way I'd pay that much for a steak on a cruise ship, regardless of what the other courses were. 

 

I have had a couple of really good steaks on Celebrity Solstice - both at lunch deals at very reasonable prices. Around US$30-35pp.

[MicCanberra]

Depends on the line and what you have to pay. Sometimes it is still worth it.

[SilvertoGold]

No one has asked about HAL but with the cutbacks, extra charges at the Pinnacle for dinner (only one of appetizer/soup/ salad or pay US$7 + 18% for an extra), many upsells and smaller portions the pricing of US$39 + 18% =  US$92 per couple with no extra charges or wine is not worth it. Add on the exchange for us = CND$124 and we will be going for lunch only :)

[Auscruisefam]

I don’t think it’s financially worth it. The problem with speciality for me is that they give you so much food I can never finish it and I always walk away feeling sick. I’m not a fussy eater so MDR is fine with me. In saying that we did the Italian and Steakhouse on Coral and Fahrenheit on Luminosa. All of them where nice but for me, unnecessary. We do it more for the experience and hubby likes to try different things. With the next cruises we will do them less and less. 
I do have to say that RC speciality dining is ridiculously high. I wouldn’t pay those out of principal more than anything. 

[cruise_critical]

On my last cruise, I did the 3-night dining package on Ovation but I felt it wasn't worth it, so I am not doing it for my upcoming cruise. Mind you I was in a full suite and found that Coastal Kitchen alone was better than any specialty dining.

[lyndarra]

I've only done specialty dining a couple of times, usually a special occasion for one of our party.

Personally I don't think it's worth it. Consider the cost of an MDR meal if you had to pay for it, lets say, $40 for which you've already paid in you cruise fare. Add to that the cost of the specialty dining meal, say $60. It would have to be a really special meal for $100.

[lyndarra]

7 hours ago, SilvertoGold said:

No one has asked about HAL but with the cutbacks, extra charges at the Pinnacle for dinner (only one of appetizer/soup/ salad or pay US$7 + 18% for an extra), many upsells and smaller portions the pricing of US$39 + 18% =  US$92 per couple with no extra charges or wine is not worth it. Add on the exchange for us = CND$124 and we will be going for lunch only 🙂

On a recent HAL cruise I did notice in MDR the smaller portion sizes and reduced menu options but I still felt well fed and if I wanted more I could ask. Didn't feel the need to go specialty dining even though I had plenty of OBC to do so if I wished.  Yes, the exchange rate is a killer for us too.

[SilvertoGold]

52 minutes ago, lyndarra said:

On a recent HAL cruise I did notice in MDR the smaller portion sizes and reduced menu options but I still felt well fed and if I wanted more I could ask. Didn't feel the need to go specialty dining even though I had plenty of OBC to do so if I wished.  Yes, the exchange rate is a killer for us too.

Noordam?  From what I am reading and the photos I see even HAL's World Cruise is having a lot of cut backs, small portions, extra charges, etc. That said, I agree we were well-fed in the MDR last year over several cruises on three different ships. LIke you I see no need to stray from the MDR!

 

BTW:  I note that the pricing for Canaletto just increased from $19 to $25 + 18%. 

Edited March 5, 2023 by SilvertoGold

[OzKiwiJJ]

32 minutes ago, SilvertoGold said:

Noordam?  From what I am reading and the photos I see even HAL's World Cruise is having a lot of cut backs, small portions, extra charges, etc. That said, I agree we were well-fed in the MDR last year over several cruises on three different ships. LIke you I see no need to stray from the MDR!

 

BTW:  I note that the pricing for Canaletto just increased from $19 to $25 + 18%. 

We really enjoyed Canaletto on Westerdam and went there twice. It was excellent value for money too, especially compared with speciality restaurants on other cruise lines. 

[lyndarra]

2 hours ago, SilvertoGold said:

Noordam?  From what I am reading and the photos I see even HAL's World Cruise is having a lot of cut backs, small portions, extra charges, etc. That said, I agree we were well-fed in the MDR last year over several cruises on three different ships. LIke you I see no need to stray from the MDR!

 

BTW:  I note that the pricing for Canaletto just increased from $19 to $25 + 18%. 

Westerdam.

I have no idea what "extra charges" are for.

 

[clairebearinaus]

I usually go to the steakhouse-but-with-silver-service option once on a cruise, in the $50-65pp range and I find it worth doing just as a change from MDR - and I don't eat steak.  Carnival's version is always good just for their lobster bisque, and I had my most enjoyable cruise meal ever on Celebrity Solstice.  The free food options are fine otherwise.

 

We are trying Chef's Table for the first time on our next cruise, that's a little birthday treat though, which I've paid over the odds for as it is priced to include wine and we have bought a booze package.

[SilvertoGold]

1 hour ago, lyndarra said:

Westerdam.

I have no idea what "extra charges" are for.

 

Extra charges are upsells. In MDR lobster, surf and turf; in Pinnacle caviar, Delmonico steak, lobster mac and cheese, lobster are examples of the extra charge options

Edited March 6, 2023 by SilvertoGold

[icat2000]

Paid $65 pp on Carnival Luminosa at speciality restuarant worth every penny.

[OzKiwiJJ]

4 hours ago, lyndarra said:

On a recent HAL cruise I did notice in MDR the smaller portion sizes and reduced menu options but I still felt well fed and if I wanted more I could ask. Didn't feel the need to go specialty dining even though I had plenty of OBC to do so if I wished.  Yes, the exchange rate is a killer for us too.

The portion sizes in the MDR were inconsistent depending on which dishes you chose, and even between different serves of the same dish. Our table of 6 noticed it several times. I can understand some different dishes being larger than others ie a lamb shank is bigger than a portion of fish, but if there are different sizes of the same fish portions then that's just sloppy quality control. The head chefs aren't doing their jobs properly. 

[lyndarra]

2 hours ago, SilvertoGold said:

Extra charges are upsells. In MDR lobster, surf and turf; in Pinnacle caviar, Delmonico steak, lobster mac and cheese, lobster are examples of the extra charge options

Gotcha. Thanks.

I really don't get the obsession with lobster. I haven't eaten any for a long time but from what I have seen the portion size is miniscule at a price I see as poor value. Perhaps we are spoiled here in Oz, more so since the Chinese stopped importing our lobsters, there has been a glut of them.

[redransom]

Always felt Celebrity's Murano was worth the extra $$$. 

[christodan]

We had Jamie's Italian for lunch. It was pretty cheap and my daughter said it was better than the one in London. I quite enjoyed it, but like Auscruisefam we overate and almost felt sick. 

[SilvertoGold]

11 hours ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

The portion sizes in the MDR were inconsistent depending on which dishes you chose, and even between different serves of the same dish. Our table of 6 noticed it several times. I can understand some different dishes being larger than others ie a lamb shank is bigger than a portion of fish, but if there are different sizes of the same fish portions then that's just sloppy quality control. The head chefs aren't doing their jobs properly. 

This is so true.  We found the beef dishes were large: if you wanted more rather than less, we knew to order beef.  Fish, vegetarian, past were smaller portions.  Inconsistent, definitely!

[SilvertoGold]

9 hours ago, lyndarra said:

Gotcha. Thanks.

I really don't get the obsession with lobster. I haven't eaten any for a long time but from what I have seen the portion size is miniscule at a price I see as poor value. Perhaps we are spoiled here in Oz, more so since the Chinese stopped importing our lobsters, there has been a glut of them.

Lobster at Sel on HAL is very nice, even the appetizer! But nothing all than special, though.