New to celebrity, need help with dining package

[Heather1972]

Booked my first cruise with Celebrity a few days ago. I picked Edge. I have cruised many other times with other cruise lines. Can someone help me with the dining package for 3 meals? What restaurants does the dining package cover? I’m a bit confused if I did buy the dining package how I would make the dining reservations. TIA! Oops I guess I should ask what restaurants people recommend? Looks like Eden is a bit like Royal’s Wonderland? We were STUFFED by the time the entree came out for that restaurant! lol 

Edited July 4, 2021 by Heather1972

[jelayne]

With the dining dining package you save money however you can not make reservations until you are on the ship.  You need to be flexible with days and times as some spots will have already been filled by those paying full price.  Eden, Fine Cut Steak, Le Petit Chef, Roof Top Grill, are included as is Raw on Five ( since it is ala carte their is a set $ limit). 
 

when you book it will have either day 1 or 2 and ask you will for a time .  This is a workaround to the system.  You actually make your reservations once on board

Setting up the reservations as soon as possible after boarding will give you the most options of restaurants, days & times. Fine Cut is probably the most popular.

[Heather1972]

17 minutes ago, jelayne said:

when you book it will have either day 1 or 2 and ask you will for a time .  This is a workaround to the system.  You actually make your reservations once on board

Setting up the reservations as soon as possible after boarding will give you the most options of restaurants, days & times. 

 

Can you explain a bit more about the day 1 or 2... I’m trying to understand.  Sounds like it might be easier to book what I want when I want rather than trying to save a little money with a dining package?

 

[NutsAboutGolf]

Dining package = no advanced reservations, all specialty restaurants are included except for a la carte venues

 

If you're able to have some flexibility, the maître d' can get you the time you want if you're okay with short notice.  Please change/cancel all the time and you can replace them if they're no shows but its short notice.

[pixiedust777]

For the few dollars in savings I do not like to buy the dining package.

I like to book my specialty dining around my schedule and get the times that I like.

Before we board I have all of our dining reservations for dinner and are able to plan shows and such before hand as well.

[jelayne]

1 hour ago, Heather1972 said:

 

Can you explain a bit more about the day 1 or 2... I’m trying to understand.  Sounds like it might be easier to book what I want when I want rather than trying to save a little money with a dining package?

 

It is meaningless but the dining reservation systems requires a day & time. That makes sense for all the bookings people make for each evening I’m MDR or those booking individual meals in the speciality restaurants.  When they first introduced dining packages you were required tohave the 1st dinner on either day 1 or 2 you could select the time but not the restaurant.and that was how the system was set up.

A few years ago they dropped the requirement to have a dinner on day 1or 2 and added the flexibility to choose all the restaurants and days, based on a availability.

If you have a day and time that is important to you the only way to guarantee that you can get that is book in the Cruise Planner and to pay full price.

[cangelmd]

Edge of course also has the 4 MDRs to visit which increases your choices.

 I’ve only done a pkg once, as others have said, buy a separate meal if you need a particular day and time, like a birthday, anniversary, or for us Valentine’s Day. When we did the pkg, we were flexible about days and times, but got our first choices. It included a lunch which was fun - this was on a TA with lots of sea days

[Heather1972]

Thanks for the responses all. 

 

[sanger727]

We did the package on our last Celebrity sailing. We purchased it onboard and were able to make reservations right away. We usually eat at 6 and didn't have any trouble getting into all the restaurants we were interested in at that time. For us the savings was well worth it.