NEW TO CELEBRITY - SUITE RESTAURANT RESERVATION QUESTION

[harbormaster]

Hi - This will be our  first Celebrity cruise and hope some of you experienced folks can give us a quick answer. We just booked a Royal Suite for the Infinity 5 night cruise Dec. 3.  We see that, in addition to other perks, that we receive free specialty restaurant dining. We WOULD like to try all the restaurants. Do we need to book online before sailing? When we go to the booking site, it shows a cost for dining at the restaurants. Do we wait until we are onboard and make the reservations with the butler? Will there be space available at that late date?  I know this is a basic question, but I can't find the answer on the site.  Thanks much. Looking forward to our first Celebrity cruise.

Edited October 17, 2018 by harbormaster

[mom says]

I think the Concierge should be calling you in advance of your sailing. They can make your reservations for you.

[Jim_Iain]

You should have no trouble booking something once on board but you have additional options.  Approximately 2-3 weeks before sailing the shoreside concierge for you ship will contact you and request information e.g. what you would like to be stocked in you in-room bar and refrigerator.   They can also make reservations for you in the specialty dining.  You can also call Captain's Club and ask to speak with the shoreside concierge prior to this.

Once on the ship you can have the Michael's Club Concierge make reservations for you on your preferred dining dates and times.

[jcpc]

Hi, Just to set expectations.  The shoreside concierge does not always call you 2-3 weeks prior to sailing.  I'm sailing on this Sunday and I just received a call yesterday - only 5 days before my sailing!

 

[chemmo]

We tend to make provisional speciality bookings through the shoreside concierge when they contact us (about 10 days before you cruise). On boarding we ask for the Luminae menu order for the cruise and adjust to dine there where/when we want to. If we wish to then change our plans on a more last minute basis either the butler or the concierge will sort.

[harbormaster]

Thanks so much for the information!

 

[sofietucker]

11 hours ago, harbormaster said:

Hi - This will be our  first Celebrity cruise and hope some of you experienced folks can give us a quick answer. We just booked a Royal Suite for the Infinity 5 night cruise Dec. 3.  We see that, in addition to other perks, that we receive free specialty restaurant dining. We WOULD like to try all the restaurants. Do we need to book online before sailing? When we go to the booking site, it shows a cost for dining at the restaurants. Do we wait until we are onboard and make the reservations with the butler? Will there be space available at that late date?  I know this is a basic question, but I can't find the answer on the site.  Thanks much. Looking forward to our first Celebrity cruise.

No need to reserve in advance; they will accommodate you (suite pax get 1st priority); you can book  via butler or concierge. It's all free. You also have a separate, suites-only "regular" dining room, Lumiere.

[harbormaster]

So impressed with how kind everyone has been. Truly looking forward to this cruise and meeting Celebrity cruisers.

 

[verizon]

If you are in Royal Suite.

I would recommend Breakfast and Lunch in Luminaer,Dinner in Specialty restaurant.

[RobCaron]

good info . thanks

[DogLover]

2 hours ago, verizon said:

If you are in Royal Suite.

I would recommend Breakfast and Lunch in Luminaer,Dinner in Specialty restaurant.

Please keep in mind that Luminae is generally not open for lunch on port days, only embarkation and sea days. Breakfast and dinner are served everyday.

[JennAngel9]

On 10/17/2018 at 9:38 AM, chemmo said:

We tend to make provisional speciality bookings through the shoreside concierge when they contact us (about 10 days before you cruise). On boarding we ask for the Luminae menu order for the cruise and adjust to dine there where/when we want to. If we wish to then change our plans on a more last minute basis either the butler or the concierge will sort.

Do you know if the Luminae menu changes much from cruise to cruise?

 

I love your recommendation to ask for all nights upon arriving on board.  Do you have to go to the restaurant or can you request them delivered to your room?

[CruiseImage]

On 10/18/2018 at 11:08 PM, harbormaster said:

So impressed with how kind everyone has been. Truly looking forward to this cruise and meeting Celebrity cruisers.

 

As a RS guest you will have no issues in getting into any of the restaurants. Even if fully booked they are not actually fully booked a few spare tables are kept aside. I'm a late diner and never had any issues getting a reservation.

Royals are great cabins on the Millennium Class ships too.

Don't forget your unlimited wi-fi and unlimited laundry too oh and wait until you get personally escorted onto the ship from check in to the Michaels Club.

[CHEZMARYLOU]

2 hours ago, JennAngel9 said:

Do you know if the Luminae menu changes much from cruise to cruise?

 

I love your recommendation to ask for all nights upon arriving on board.  Do you have to go to the restaurant or can you request them delivered to your room?

The menus do not change from cruise to cruise.  After 4 7 day cruises we were tired of the menus so our last cruise was all specialty dining.  You can ask for the meus from the MC Concierge or the Maître D in Luminae.

[verizon]

8 minutes ago, CHEZMARYLOU said:

The menus do not change from cruise to cruise.  After 4 7 day cruises we were tired of the menus so our last cruise was all specialty dining.  You can ask for the meus from the MC Concierge or the Maître D in Luminae.

On Solstice Class ship there is a console table beside the bar counter in MC have the Daily manu of the Restaurant in MDR. Laminae and Blu.

Edited October 21, 2018 by verizon

[CHEZMARYLOU]

2 minutes ago, verizon said:

On Solstice Class ship there is a console table beside the bar counter in MC have the Daily manu of the Restaurant in MDR. Laminae and Blu.

Yes, they have the daily menu's but not the menu's for each day in advance, unless this changed since February.  We'll find out next month.  If you want to see the advance menu's you need to request them. We  were starting to know Luminae's menus by heart for the first 7 days.  

[JennAngel9]

Thank you Marylou!  I wish you luck with new and exciting menus on your next cruise.  Honestly, DH would probably be fine to have the same menu almost every night as long as the food was amazing. 🙂

 

Sometimes I feel stressed deciding between options because I know I won't have the option to pick the other alternative next time. 

[chemmo]

10 hours ago, JennAngel9 said:

Do you know if the Luminae menu changes much from cruise to cruise?

 

I love your recommendation to ask for all nights upon arriving on board.  Do you have to go to the restaurant or can you request them delivered to your room?

 

The menus themselves do not change but the order does. I believe they have 14 menus but day 1 could be menu 8, day 2 menu 6.....We have asked for copies from the concierge and then the butler usually delivers them to our room on day 2.

 

We have no issues what so ever with the service levels in Luminae but we do find the menu choices quite limited so do choose to mainly dine in the speciality restaurants.

 

First cruise night for us is always in Tuscan Grill on S class....lovely to sit watching the port fade into the distance and day slowly change into night with a glass in hand knowing your cruise has really begun....

Edited October 21, 2018 by chemmo

[Suite Susie]

We have recently returned from our first RS.  Loved every minute of it.  We made a reservation with the Shoreside concierge for Murano on the first night, the rest we did on board.  Once we were onboard, we decided to only eat in Luminae for the Evening Chic evenings only and made reservations for all the other nights in the Speciality Restaurants.  We could not always get what we wanted, as some were full but we were mostly accommodated, but the times were not always ideal.  On our next trip, we will pre-book for every night and cancel if we change our mind.  Loved Murano and ate their 5 times, Tuscan twice, Le Petit Chef twice (the food was very good there).  Can't wait for our next cruise.  You will have a fabulous time.

[chemmo]

18 minutes ago, Suite Susie said:

We have recently returned from our first RS.  Loved every minute of it.  We made a reservation with the Shoreside concierge for Murano on the first night, the rest we did on board.  Once we were onboard, we decided to only eat in Luminae for the Evening Chic evenings only and made reservations for all the other nights in the Speciality Restaurants.  We could not always get what we wanted, as some were full but we were mostly accommodated, but the times were not always ideal.  On our next trip, we will pre-book for every night and cancel if we change our mind.  Loved Murano and ate their 5 times, Tuscan twice, Le Petit Chef twice (the food was very good there).  Can't wait for our next cruise.  You will have a fabulous time.

 

Totally agree with prebooking to ensure you get the times you want. We tend to use our itinerary pre-cruise to help us decide. For example, Murano’s needs to be savoured...it is a long meal so we would not book in there on a day we had been on an active and tiring shore excursion. Tuscan is great to book for 6pm on days you are leaving the port at 6pm or at 6.30pm....Le Petit Chef is very early or quite late so needs to be fitted around other activities.

 

We pre-book with the shoreside concierge then once on board we ask the butler to check that the bookings have gone through. As invites arrive for Elite and suite events and we have looked at the Luminae menus we may then make an odd change....We always politely ask ‘if it is possible...’ we do not just assume that the restaurants can always accommodate our wishes.

 

It also helps the speciality restaurants not to need to try to ‘juggle’ to fit you in. We have been on cruises where Murano’s in particular was very busy. Last night on one of our recent cruises a couple in Michael’s asked us where we were dining and were quite disgruntled when we said Murano’s as they had not been able to book in. The difference, of course, was we had booked in nearly a month before through the shoreside concierge they had tried to get a reservation 2 days before. 

 

 

 

[catugirl]

We loved Luminae (superior ambiance, menu and service).  We noticed that people who didn’t find anything to their liking were given the option of ordering from the MDR menu.  We never made reservations for Luminae and never had to wait.