Balcony dining??

[hylasgirl]

Can someone tell me... if you plan to have balcony dining, either dinner or breakfast, will they set up a normal table? How can anyone eat dinner on those little tables they provide?? Thanks for any advice.

[Mary Ellen]

Only in the big S suites is the outside table large enough to dine on comfortably. There just isn't enough room out there on the smaller verandahs - that is if you want to move around/breathe while outside.

[Krazy Kruizers]

No -- they will not set up a table out on the smaller balconies -- I am of course referring to the cabins other than PS, SA, SB and SC which already have a table and 4 chairs.

There isn't even room in those cabins to set up a tabe inside. The tray will be put on the table (which isn't big) in front of the sofa in those cabins.

Some people don't mind eating in a cramped area.

[hylasgirl]

Awwww, bummer. This is the thing I love about Celebrity. They have a small dining table on the balcony and there is plenty of room. No, there is no way I would be comfortable eating dinner on that tiny sofa table inside, or that low table on the veranda.

Anyone have any experience with requesting one?? We are in an aft balcony and it is huge. Maybe this is the reason people bring their own roll-up tables eh?

[Seavoyage]

HI Haylasgirl -

If you are in a suite no worries - just ask the wonderful staff in the Neptune to arrange - they will do whatever you wish. My DH and I had dinner on our balcony on our 07' cruise - it was wonderful. That night we saw 3 shooting stars - it was so amazing and so romantic - I cannot wait until our next cruise in November! Have a fab time!

[COLLEYBERRY]

We were able to enjoy most breakfasts and one dinner( cabin/balcony. dining. )on our Eurodam cruise.

Though it is a little more of ' patio party' dining experience it can be fun. Who you share the meal being the most important factor:)

The sofa table (at least on the Eurodam) is adjustable and is easily raised to dining height .The sofa and parsons chair for seating, add some some wine and good conversation suddenly the space doesn't seem so small.
We self served a course at a time either from desk or the sofa table( if eating on the balcony.)
When on the balcony, the cocktail table for one,and ottoman for the other( by the way the leather seat of the ottoman in cabin can be flipped and viola' a tray) serve as surfaces. I would have loved a table but somehow when enjoying a beautiful morning , I didn't mind so much.

Often in room dining is chosen because it's a little too early to face the public yet or a quiet dinner with no fuss is all you are up for.

We made full use of our balcony ,so if el fresco dining is something you enjoy it can be attained on a regular balcony( not for everyone maybe but it worked for us)

Now ,if we could all arrange for those shooting stars to show up .That must have been so wonderful !!!:)

We sail Celebrity ,our next cruise We are in a SkySuite, we only have been on two cruises( both Holland America) I am a little nervous about
switching. Do you enjoy both egually? (other than no table on balcony;) )
Thanks for input
Colleen

[RCDR]

Is room service dinner served course by course by room service? We will be in a SB suite.:rolleyes:

[sueclark]

Is room service dinner served course by course by room service? We will be in a SB suite.:rolleyes:

No, it's brought all at once. The course by course service by the Butlers in the suites on Celebrity is considerably better.

[sail7seas]

We could have had course by course service the twice we had room service dinner but we declined. We were in "S" suites and it was offered to us. The only reason we were dining in was because I wasn't feeling well and really didn't want to bother the steward coming back several times to serve each course. We were happy to have him leave the tray.

[COLLEYBERRY]

Nope. It all comes at once. :) Metal covers to keep things warm .
I am sure higher catogories could arrange for wait staff but we just self served,part of the fun;) ( we were in VB)

[gebo]

Can we order from the dining room lunch menu in a suite? We have only ordered lunch from the room service menu in the past.

[hylasgirl]

We were able to enjoy most breakfasts and one dinner( cabin/balcony. dining. )on our Eurodam cruise.

Though it is a little more of ' patio party' dining experience it can be fun. Who you share the meal being the most important factor:)

The sofa table (at least on the Eurodam) is adjustable and is easily raised to dining height .The sofa and parsons chair for seating, add some some wine and good conversation suddenly the space doesn't seem so small.
We self served a course at a time either from desk or the sofa table( if eating on the balcony.)
When on the balcony, the cocktail table for one,and ottoman for the other( by the way the leather seat of the ottoman in cabin can be flipped and viola' a tray) serve as surfaces. I would have loved a table but somehow when enjoying a beautiful morning , I didn't mind so much.

Often in room dining is chosen because it's a little too early to face the public yet or a quiet dinner with no fuss is all you are up for.

We made full use of our balcony ,so if el fresco dining is something you enjoy it can be attained on a regular balcony( not for everyone maybe but it worked for us)

Now ,if we could all arrange for those shooting stars to show up .That must have been so wonderful !!!:)

We sail Celebrity ,our next cruise We are in a SkySuite, we only have been on two cruises( both Holland America) I am a little nervous about
switching. Do you enjoy both egually? (other than no table on balcony;) )
Thanks for input
Colleen











I like Celebrity more... for a few reasons. But you will love the table and chairs on the balcony. I enjoy the food better on Celebrity. And another thing they do that I like is bring the entire bottle of wine to you and pour you a taste before you decide if you want that brand. They do this every time you order any glass of wine. I think it is a very classy thing. The Sky Suites you will enjoy even more!:D I did not have one of those. BUT, you will enjoy your butler. My friends sailed in a suite and their butler was a sweetheart. He took care of so many things for them. The "Suite" service on Celebrity is a much much better product, I think. Enjoy!

[sail7seas]

The five times we sailed on "X" in a Suite, we had a butler. I was ready to pay him to leave us alone. Only once did I find them useful or appreciate them. They were more a nuisance to us than anything else.

DH and I FAR prefer our excellent HAL stewards and services of Neptune Lounge concierges. Never in hundreds and hundreds of days on HAL in Suites have we ever not received the assistance/service we wanted for any and everything from our steward and /or concierges.

[lorekauf]

The five times we sailed on "X" in a Suite, we had a butler. I was ready to pay him to leave us alone. Only once did I find them useful or appreciate them. They were more a nuisance to us than anything else.

DH and I FAR prefer our excellent HAL stewards and services of Neptune Lounge concierges. Never in hundreds and hundreds of days on HAL in Suites have we ever not received the assistance/service we wanted for any and everything from our steward and /or concierges.


I'm with you on preferring HAL over Celebrity. I'm at a loss on why some folks think "X" is so great. It's at the bottom of the pack for the lines I have tried. The one thing that was good with the cruise I took on Celebrity was that it was cheap. I have to say however I thought the ship was beautiful.

[Jen&Joe]

We have never had an issue with dining on our verandah or in our room (we always get an aft cabin). The table in the room adjusts to dining height and for eating on the verandah we each use one of the side tables as our "dining table".

[fun*n*sun]

When we were on our Princess cruise we had a multi course dinner served course by course on our balcony, which was quite large. It felt a little funny to have our waiter standing right outside the door in the hall waiting for us to let him know when we were ready for the next course. Two waiters also serenaded us with a duet that was very nice. The whole thing was very romantic. It was our anniversary ;)

It was a special service that we had to request and pay extra for, but it was really wonderful. I wish they had something like this on HAL, but I think the HAL food is better so it's worth "serving yourself" each course and you don't keep someone standing there in the hall for hours :D

[Krazy Kruizers]

It is an extremely rare occurance when we order room seervice on HAL..

We always book Delux suites (SA -- PS) and we have had a couple of bad experiences -- even the conceirges were not able to help us.

[Williebill]

Only on rare occasions have we ever ordered a full breakfast; the one thing we like in the morning on our balcony is our coffee.

[sail7seas]

We have full breakfast Room Service almost every morning of all our cruises.

Once in a while we go to Lido and more rarely to Pinnacle for breakfast.

Room Service breakfast is one of the treats I enjoy most on cruises...... No one brings me breakfast like that at home. ;)

[Randyk47]

We have first breakfast in our cabin which usually means coffee, juice, and croissants. This gets me by until Mrs. K has taken in sufficient caffeine and is ready for the Lido and second breakfast. First breakfast is pretty easy to accommodate and even the smaller cabins have enough room for a tray. Coffee on the veranda in a new port is one of the truly excellent aspects of cruising for us.

The only cabins we're ever had that would come even close to a comfortable full cabin dinner are the couple of deluxe veranda suite cabins we had on the Ryndam and Volendam and the one time when we crossed to the "dark side" with Celebrity on the Galaxy and had a Royal Suite which actually had a dining room in the cabin. Realize there are folks who do have dinner in non-suite cabins but it would just be too crowded for us.