Premier-Unlimited Specialty dining?

[MacMadame]

 

4 minutes ago, reedprincess said:

I'd agree with you, somewhat, on those ships that only have 2, or even 3 venues. CG and Sabatini's, even Catch, would likely get old, for many, after 2 or 3 times each per 7 night sailing, or even 14 night cruise.. 

 

However, take the Sun, with 7 different specialty restaurants, and sailing 7 night itineraries.  o backs, and there's that one 5 nighter in October, and the spring/fall transatlantics, before anyone bites my head off or points out the obvious).

Okay, that's one ship where it might be hard for suite guests to get their free SD meal on embarkation night. 😄 

 

Though given how many SD restaurants they have, I would be surprised if every single one was fully booked that night.

[JimmyVWine]

5 minutes ago, reedprincess said:

I would be very surprised if those who buy Premier when sailing on the Sun even bother with MDR at all, or more than a night or two..

Pretty much describes our upcoming cruise.  9 days nights.  With Premier-80, we get 2 included SDs. I added two more paying out of pocket (which is the same price as if I had upgrade to P-90).  Added in Love and Spellbound, and we plan to dine in the MDR for the two Formal Night menus.  That accounts for 8 of the 9 nights.  For that last night, we have an overnight in Southampton and will be going to London for the day and we have no idea what time we will get back to the ship.  It could be pretty late.  So we haven't made a dinner plan for that last night.  

[Retired-N-Happy]

12 minutes ago, MacMadame said:

I'm booked for a cruise that is 16 days and only has two Specialty Dining restaurants. I think I'd go mad if that's all we had for dinner for that many days.

I'd go mad if I booked an older ship from the fleet that only had two specialty venues and subsequently had to have pop up casual venues as well.  Don't have to worry about it since we would only book a Sphere Class or Royal Class ship.

[greenie082756]

We just changed from Plus to Premier for our 54-day cruise. Normally we just do Plus on 15 days or less because we have good OBC and pay for specialty dinner that way.

 

Even if we go to Sabatini's or Crown Grill every 3 -4 days it would be nice to have a good filet mignon or veal as examples.

We drink a few specialty coffees a day, have bottled water, soda, mocktails, drink with lunch (beer with pizza), cocktail at night and wine with dinner. Just right there is around $45 - $50 just for beverages. 

 

Normally we just do boarding photo and that's it. I think it would be for this cruise fun to see the photos that are taken of us. Who knows?

 

There are quite a few more items on the list that we liked as well, so we did it. 

 

We shall see in 2026. Hubby thinks by then the price will increase to $100 a day. I know, bite your tongue!!

 

[voljeep]

1 minute ago, Retired-N-Happy said:

I'd go mad if I booked an older ship from the fleet that only had two specialty venues and subsequently had to have pop up casual venues as well.  Don't have to worry about it since we would only book a Sphere Class or Royal Class ship.

is it the venue or the menu?   How many different combinations are on a SD menu

 

say Crown Grill?

salad , app steak

app soup, chop

soup, veggies, dessert

potato, veal shop

salad, lamb chop

on and on and on and on ... dancing in September ... on and on and on and on

 

[Cruise Raider]

Our philosophy is, if we leave just slightly below being full, we wish to go back.  Plus, we tend to give greater reviews to the entire dining experience.  
If I leave hurting from being too full, we tend to finding our lives not wanting to return again so soon.  I know they try to bring one more but that certainly isn’t always a good thing.    

[memoak]

1 minute ago, voljeep said:

is it the venue or the menu?   How many different combinations are on a SD menu

 

say Crown Grill?

salad , app steak

app soup, chop

soup, veggies, dessert

potato, veal shop

salad, lamb chop

on and on and on and on ... dancing in September ... on and on and on and on

 

Those combos are very boring to me. It is like a big hunk of meat 4 out of 5 days. Not for me. I doubt we will ever sail a sphere class ship and only split our time between Grand and Royal. Our next cruises are on Majestic, Grand, Grand, Majestic , Emerald and Discovery. That takes us up to June 2026

[memoak]

14 minutes ago, reedprincess said:

Yuo, agree wholeheartedly, as the Sphere class ships are a totally different animal from older Princess ships.

7 specialty restaurants - very easy to enjoy a different one each night, plus the casual venues for two more nights - no problem "getting money's worth" there. 

And the more expensive drinks on Sun (and presumably Star) make Premier even more useful, a long with unlimited. So no worries on ordering doubles 

And reserved theater seating - well worth it on Sun, with the too small venue...

 

On older ships, with only 2 options - maybe not as useful, but the unlimited drinks, pics, etc. make up the difference...

15 drinks a day somehow seems to work for me. Haven’t had a photo take in at least 15 days excepting for obligatory ones with the captain at MTG. I will save the $60 a day for the 2 of us
 

[voljeep]

7 minutes ago, memoak said:

Those combos are very boring to me. It is like a big hunk of meat 4 out of 5 days. Not for me. I doubt we will ever sail a sphere class ship and only split our time between Grand and Royal. Our next cruises are on Majestic, Grand, Grand, Majestic , Emerald and Discovery. That takes us up to June 2026

you don't have to have a main every night - do you do that at home??

[555]

On 9/1/2024 at 12:35 PM, voljeep said:

Unlimited Specialty Dining meals:

 

Availability of Specialty Dining reservations may be limited on certain cruises

That's the part that worries me the most. 

If we can only get reservations after 8 PM and can't find that out before we sail, it doesn't apeal to us at all. 

[memoak]

6 minutes ago, voljeep said:

you don't have to have a main every night - do you do that at home??

What do you consider a main ?  We never eat 3 meals a day at home and on ship dinner is only an app and a main or sometimes just 2 apps. Why would I want to spend an extra $30 a day per person for ?  An app and salad and dessert sounds like a $14.95 casual meal

Edited September 6 by memoak

[dog]

Well good luck in booking those SD. I cannot book 3/7 nights for anything except Hot Pot, sushi.

app hasn’t let me for weeks.  Elite- I cancelled my 2 SD when this new premier announcement came out.

 

I don’t expect they will have a handle on this by my October cruise. And has anyone heard official word on the moving of restaurants?

[Retired-N-Happy]

21 minutes ago, voljeep said:

is it the venue or the menu?   How many different combinations are on a SD menu

 

say Crown Grill?

salad , app steak

app soup, chop

soup, veggies, dessert

potato, veal shop

salad, lamb chop

on and on and on and on ... dancing in September ... on and on and on and on

 

We have 4 nights reserved at the CG over our 14 night cruise.  As well as 4 nights at Sabatini's, 3 at Teppanyaki and 2 at Catch. This gives us enough variety over the course of our two weeks.

[AnyMajorCruiseDude]

28 minutes ago, dog said:

Well good luck in booking those SD. I cannot book 3/7 nights for anything except Hot Pot, sushi.

app hasn’t let me for weeks.  Elite- I cancelled my 2 SD when this new premier announcement came out.

 

I don’t expect they will have a handle on this by my October cruise. And has anyone heard official word on the moving of restaurants?

It doesn't work for me either, so I called and had them book them.  Takes some time, but it worked

[Teechur]

On 8/31/2024 at 11:52 PM, dog said:

well, consider yourself lucky!

 

There was no air conditioning on my Royal Princess cruise to Oahu last year.

 

Guest Services said sorry, we do not turn it on for this cruise. You can open balcony door.

 

no compensation offered or expected.

That's bizarre. What about people in inside cabins or ocean views? No A/C? I would demand a $1,000 as well.

[Retired-N-Happy]

17 minutes ago, 555 said:

That's the part that worries me the most. 

If we can only get reservations after 8 PM and can't find that out before we sail, it doesn't apeal to us at all. 

I think it all boils down to being able to reserve ahead of time.  There is currently nothing available on our B2B on the Sun for 10/26 and 11/2, but there was plenty of availability except for Teppanyaki for the Sun on 1/4/25 and 1/11/25. 

Because of this disparity we will wait until embarkation day to determine whether we upgrade depending upon early availability at the SD venues we wish to visit.

[Teechur]

On 9/1/2024 at 6:00 AM, cruising.mark.uk said:

If they sell more packages, they'll have more guaranteed crew appreciation which cannot be removed.  That could offset some of the lost gratuities.

I would imagine that the kind of people who buy packages are not the people who would remove gratuities even if they could.

[Retired-N-Happy]

34 minutes ago, memoak said:

Why would I want to spend an extra $30 a day per person for ?  An app and salad and dessert sounds like a $14.95 casual meal

Obviously the extra 30 a day pp doesn't apply to you since you're happy with the food you get, the Grey Goose you drink and the 25% discount on bottles of wine that lasts you and your DW two dinners.

What applies to you obviously doesn't apply to all cruisers.  Some like inside cabins, while others like balconies.  Some like older ships while others like modern ships.  Some are satisfied with basic while others like the Plus, while still others like the Premier.

[memoak]

4 minutes ago, Teechur said:

I would imagine that the kind of people who buy packages are not the people who would remove gratuities even if they could.

If they find they can’t get SD times before 6 then watch them scream and want something in return

[dog]

14 minutes ago, Teechur said:

That's bizarre. What about people in inside cabins or ocean views? No A/C? I would demand a $1,000 as well.

I got off in Oahu. Royal continued on to Australia without a/c!

[echoshipmate]

58 minutes ago, voljeep said:

is it the venue or the menu?   How many different combinations are on a SD menu

 

say Crown Grill?

salad , app steak

app soup, chop

soup, veggies, dessert

potato, veal shop

salad, lamb chop

on and on and on and on ... dancing in September ... on and on and on and on

 

How about steak or shrimp on my salad as a main...... so many possible combinations. Just have to be a little creative. I assure you we will not be bored eating in CG and Sabatini in our upcoming 16 days with Premier +. 

[Cruise Raider]

14 minutes ago, memoak said:

If they find they can’t get SD times before 6 then watch them scream and want something in return

There really is more to the premier package than unlimited specialty dining for some of us.

As mentioned before, there is very little to scream about when we are on a cruise.  
 

[Retired-N-Happy]

29 minutes ago, memoak said:

If they find they can’t get SD times before 6 then watch them scream and want something in return

All I would request would be a refund from the upgrade paid from Plus to Premier.  Certainly wouldn't want a free cruise or threaten them with a law suit.

[555]

39 minutes ago, AnyMajorCruiseDude said:

It doesn't work for me either, so I called and had them book them.  Takes some time, but it worked

I've tried calling at least 5 or 6 times & they cannot book even one SD restaurant, nor any time for a regular restaurant.

I get the same answer each call. 

[555]

41 minutes ago, Retired-N-Happy said:

Because of this disparity we will wait until embarkation day to determine whether we upgrade depending upon early availability at the SD venues we wish to visit.

I'm beginning to think that it may very well be our only option at this point. If something doesn't happen soon with their reservation system we'll have to cancel & rebook on the ship providing they can make reservations in person.