Charge for specialty restaurants?

[MomC]

I have just booked an Oceania cruise for the first time since before Covid.  Do they now charge for specialty restaurants?

 

Thanks for your help.

 

Mom. C

[MomC]

Ooops!  Meant Azamara.  I actually booked cruises with both cruise lines and was going to ask if either had charges for specialty restaurants.

 

Also, do you have to make reservations to attend the evening shows?

 

Mom C

[candkd]

52 minutes ago, MomC said:

Ooops!  Meant Azamara.  I actually booked cruises with both cruise lines and was going to ask if either had charges for specialty restaurants.

 

Also, do you have to make reservations to attend the evening shows?

 

Mom C

Oceania doesn't charge for specialty restaurants but Azamara does. Oceania also allows you to make reservations before you sail and on Azamara you can only book once onboard. And no reservations are required on either line for the evening shows.

[manc]

Speciality restaurants included if you are in a Club Continent cabin. 

[blag]

35 minutes ago, candkd said:

Oceania doesn't charge for specialty restaurants but Azamara does. Oceania also allows you to make reservations before you sail and on Azamara you can only book once onboard. And no reservations are required on either line for the evening shows.

Azamara does not charge extra for all guests.

For example, all those in a suite, specialty dining is included. 

[MomC]

Since I am traveling solo for the first time, I have not booked a Club Continent Suite—thus, I will have to pay to eat in one.  When my husband was alive, we were in a suite; thus we didn’t pay and that was why I didn’t remember the charge.  Do I still get house cocktails included in the price?

 

Thank you,

 

Mom C

[marinaro44]

19 minutes ago, MomC said:

Since I am traveling solo for the first time, I have not booked a Club Continent Suite—thus, I will have to pay to eat in one.  When my husband was alive, we were in a suite; thus we didn’t pay and that was why I didn’t remember the charge.  Do I still get house cocktails included in the price?

 

Thank you,

 

Mom C

Yes

[blag]

43 minutes ago, MomC said:

 Do I still get house cocktails included in the price?

https://www.azamara.com/it/home/why-azamara

[excitedofharpenden]

1 hour ago, MomC said:

Since I am traveling solo for the first time, I have not booked a Club Continent Suite—thus, I will have to pay to eat in one.  When my husband was alive, we were in a suite; thus we didn’t pay and that was why I didn’t remember the charge.  Do I still get house cocktails included in the price?

 

Thank you,

 

Mom C

The fee for the Specialty Restaurants has recently been increased to just under $50 pp. 

 

Phil 

[MomC]

38 minutes ago, excitedofharpenden said:

The fee for the Specialty Restaurants has recently been increased to just under $50 pp. 

 

Phil 

Think I will pass on that.  That’s a little steep for me to go and dine by myself.

[Dr H]

I'm searching for the price of the surcharge - it/they seem to have vanished. We were onboard Onward as recently as Nov '23, and we had one of the packages -$30/head.  I might point out to Mom that she probably has onboard credit as part of her booking, and that credit can be applied to an individual night in Prime C or Aqualina, or to the dining packages.  House cocktails are still part of the Azamara fare, and as long as you stick to the house brands, they will be happy to make them for you at no additional charge. The upper tiered drinks tend to run about $10-15. depending upon what you order, and if you wish to brink a bottle of liquor or wine on board, it is permitted. The two of us have had a bottle of wine follow us for about 3 days, no spoilage, no difficulty storing it. That special $30-40 bottle of wine lasting for days is not an expensive investment. I hope this helps.

[MomC]

23 hours ago, excitedofharpenden said:

The fee for the Specialty Restaurants has recently been increased to just under $50 pp. 

 

Phil 

I just spoke to someone at Azamara and they said it was $30 per person.  As usual, different answers from difference folks.

[KirkNC]

18 hours ago, MomC said:

I just spoke to someone at Azamara and they said it was $30 per person.  As usual, different answers from difference folks.

Its $30 on the Onward right now

[uktog]

Perhaps someone should show this to the call centre 

[blag]

It seems that - maybe - the pricing is not consistent fleet-wide.

[Grandma Cruising]

On the Pursuit it's $35, drinks packages are $18.95 for premium & $26.95 for Ultimate, so yes pricing certainly seems to be inconsistent.

[uktog]

6 hours ago, blag said:

It seems that - maybe - the pricing is not consistent fleet-wide.

Yep and that’s not really fair if the offering is supposed to be consistent. The menus on quest are the same old ones so it’s not as if anything “better” is being offered 

[Dynacruiser]

4 hours ago, uktog said:

Yep and that’s not really fair if the offering is supposed to be consistent. The menus on quest are the same old ones so it’s not as if anything “better” is being offered 

@uktog, I don’t think we should expect that higher restaurant prices will bring better offerings.   
 

The  lack of consistency is hard to explain, and just looks like they are not running their business well. 

[blag]

15 minutes ago, Dynacruiser said:

The  lack of consistency is hard to explain, and just looks like they are not running their business well. 

Just musing...

Have we got sufficient data to be able to determine what price is being charged on each ship?

I have a feeling that the higher price is being charged on one ship only. If that ship is the Onward, perhaps the higher price is explained by the additional number of suites on Onward, so as to limit demand/disappointment.

Alternatively, maybe Azamara are trialling the higher price(s) so as to measure response.

[G2G]

25 minutes ago, blag said:

Just musing...

Have we got sufficient data to be able to determine what price is being charged on each ship?

I have a feeling that the higher price is being charged on one ship only. If that ship is the Onward, perhaps the higher price is explained by the additional number of suites on Onward, so as to limit demand/disappointment.

Alternatively, maybe Azamara are trialling the higher price(s) so as to measure response.

But UKtog is on Quest

[blag]

6 minutes ago, G2G said:

But UKtog is on Quest

Ah, well, strike that theory!

[Mackdogmolly]

IMO, the food in the specialties isn’t all THAT much better than the MDR. Of course, I am not a red meat eater, so I can’t really comment about the quality of the steaks in Prime C.

[Dynacruiser]

27 minutes ago, blag said:

Just musing...

Have we got sufficient data to be able to determine what price is being charged on each ship?

I have a feeling that the higher price is being charged on one ship only. If that ship is the Onward, perhaps the higher price is explained by the additional number of suites on Onward, so as to limit demand/disappointment.

Alternatively, maybe Azamara are trialling the higher price(s) so as to measure response.

 

 

Since we are just expressing our own interpretations, I'll offer another hypothesis:  Sycamore Partners knows how to make money, at least in the retail private equity business.  Perhaps they told the food and beverage managers that they need to make more money, and they gave them some freedom on how to achieve those goals.  Perhaps some managers ran their numbers and determined that they couldn't make a profit with the current prices, but other managers decided to cut costs in some other way.

 

On Journey last year, I noticed they didn't bring a big basket of bread to the table anymore, but one piece of bread at a time (which works better for my unhealthy carbs addiction).  They don't bring the big unsolicited desserts anymore (which was a bad practice because of course I would eat it), or the extra piece of lobster or shrimp "because I noticed you loved it the last time you were here", and some plates like the garlic shrimp at Aqualina had gotten smaller.    I am OK with all those changes, just pointing out that there have been some efforts to reduce costs even if the price hasn't changed.

 

1 minute ago, G2G said:

But UKtog is on Quest

 

 

I have a hard time keeping up in what ship each person is.  I'll keep that in mind and post the name of the ship i'm referring to each time.

 

 

 

 

1 minute ago, Mackdogmolly said:

IMO, the food in the specialties isn’t all THAT much better than the MDR. Of course, I am not a red meat eater, so I can’t really comment about the quality of the steaks in Prime C.

 

There could be other reasons why specialty restaurants are more expensive:  the spacing between tables, the lower number of tables per waiter, the relaxed experience and serving of the courses, etc. 

 

I personally enjoy the specialty restaurants, but usually when I am in a suite.  Otherwise, I just eat there once or twice.  The MDR is a good place, except for steaks, which tend to be tough.

[Bloodaxe]

5 hours ago, uktog said:

Yep and that’s not really fair if the offering is supposed to be consistent. The menus on quest are the same old ones so it’s not as if anything “better” is being offered 

 

its a good bet that they will all soon be charging higher price.

[shank63]

1 hour ago, Mackdogmolly said:

IMO, the food in the specialties isn’t all THAT much better than the MDR. Of course, I am not a red meat eater, so I can’t really comment about the quality of the steaks in Prime C.

IMO the quality of food in Prime C is excellent and worth the upcharge.  Not so much for Acqualina, but that’s our tastes.