Since the restart, once onboard, has anyone been offered or have you negotiated a specialty dining discount?

[NutsAboutGolf]

Been on 8 sailings since the restart, haven't seen any specialty dining offers.  Twice I've overheard conversations between pax and the specialty dining person who stated something like the only discounts they offer are the multi-night packages.  Was reading in the past people negotiating half off or being offered BOGO deals, wondering if they still exist on any ship or if they're gone. 

Edited September 29, 2022 by NutsAboutGolf

[lola2013]

We were offered a discount for a second dinner in LCG while we were at LCG.  Since it's our favorite specialty restaurant, we jumped on it.  I believe it was 30% off.  That was on Reflection in January.

[scouseronline]

Recently on the Edge, we had already been to Le Petit Chef on other cruises but newbies with us hadn’t, we did not feel the restaurant warranted $65, went to the restaurant when it was open and secured 30% discount for our group of 9 for the following night.  If you don’t ask you’ll never know 😁

[NutsAboutGolf]

28 minutes ago, scouseronline said:

Recently on the Edge, we had already been to Le Petit Chef on other cruises but newbies with us hadn’t, we did not feel the restaurant warranted $65, went to the restaurant when it was open and secured 30% discount for our group of 9 for the following night.  If you don’t ask you’ll never know 😁

 

How exactly did you receive the discount, did you ask the M'D or did they offer it to you?

[kebrown]

We were just on the Reflection at the beginning of September and they were offering 30% off at Lawn Club Grill.

[Redtravel]

Only discount was for first night if you booked online before embarkation.  Never saw anyone offering discounts. Been to all of the specialty restaurants before pandemic.  Food in MDR was very good. Saw no need to eat in the specialty venues.  

[kathynorth]

We've been on 3 cruises since Feb, asked about discounts on each of those cruises and were told none available, except our elite+ discount. 4 of us ate at Tuscan on our last cruise. They declined to extend the elite+ discount to our other 2 family members. 

[sunpsyche]

We’ve been on 5 cruises since the restart and have been offered discounts on several, if not all, of them. I don’t recall the percentages. 

 

[NutsAboutGolf]

2 hours ago, sunpsyche said:

We’ve been on 5 cruises since the restart and have been offered discounts on several, if not all, of them. I don’t recall the percentages. 

 

 

Do you recall the ships and restaurants?

[jelayne]

Have been on Edge, Apex and Reflection Edge and Apex 0 discount for Eden, Le Petit and Fine Cut.  Roof Top Grill was $5 off, less than our E+ discount.

Reflection was the same $5 off Lawn Grill no other discounts.

[sunpsyche]

1 hour ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

 

Do you recall the ships and restaurants?

We sailed on Millennium, Constellation and Apex; two were b2b.  Tuscan, Sushi on 5 and La Petite Chef were offered,  I believe. We took them up on Tuscan only as we’ve been very happy with Luminae dining. 

[calicakes]

Just came home from Reflection.  No offers at all.  I was wondering if they were going to come.  I can't believe how expensive the upcharge is.  

[PinkSandGirl]

Since the restart, I was offered a discount for the same restaurant later in the cruise.  This was in Sushi on 5 during lunch, our waiter wrote a discount on the receipt with his name and said to come back.  

 

🍹

[wallysdtr]

We were on the Millenium in March and ate at the Tuscan Grill for $35 per person due to my husbands great negotiation skills.  I can't remember what the original price per person was - maybe $50 . 

[NutsAboutGolf]

2 hours ago, sunpsyche said:

We sailed on Millennium, Constellation and Apex; two were b2b.  Tuscan, Sushi on 5 and La Petite Chef were offered,  I believe. We took them up on Tuscan only as we’ve been very happy with Luminae dining. 

 

20 minutes ago, wallysdtr said:

We were on the Millenium in March and ate at the Tuscan Grill for $35 per person due to my husbands great negotiation skills.  I can't remember what the original price per person was - maybe $50 . 

Going to attempt to negotiate on the Millie soon and will report back; we are specifically wanting multiple nights at specialty dining.  Did you just show up to restaurants host stand and start negotiating with whomever was there?

[wallysdtr]

47 minutes ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

 

Going to attempt to negotiate on the Millie soon and will report back; we are specifically wanting multiple nights at specialty dining.  Did you just show up to restaurants host stand and start negotiating with whomever was there?

My husband negotiated with the person walking around the ship trying to get us to sign up for the dinner.  We did this half way through a 10 day cruise on the Millie. 

[gobblegobbletilluwobble]

We were on Silhouette last November.  On the first and second days, crews tried to sell the discount multi nights package at the Oceanview entrance.  But we only wanted one night at Murano.  They couldn't give us a discount.  Then on the 4th day, they remembered us and offered $40 pp.  Pre-pandemic, we were able to negotiate for $30 pp.

Edited September 30, 2022 by EmQ-CA

[cangelmd]

January 2022, Silhouette. We had dinner at Murano and went back for a special sea day lunch as others described. Wasn’t a huge discount, but a nice meal with a different menu

[scouseronline]

On 9/29/2022 at 8:35 PM, NutsAboutGolf said:

 

How exactly did you receive the discount, did you ask the M'D or did they offer it to you?

We asked for it,

[RickT]

Was on the Millennium in March and got a 30% discount to Tuscan.  Ship was less than half full and Tuscan wasn’t very busy.  
Never hurts to ask….

[Milhouse]

Wondering if a lack of crew and training new crew, both wait and kitchen staff, is playing a role in ships not pushing the specialty dining too hard with discounts?

[Mark_T]

It is just driven by level of bookings and the number of covers they can handle with the available staff.

 

On Silhouette last year the LCG was under-booked (weather was not ideal) and there were discounts available.

 

In Murano we were offered a small discount on the lunch as we had several reservations there during the cruise.

 

Same with Sushi, which was also clearly under-booked most evenings.

 

Still a lot of people burning through a lot of OBC so combined with ongoing staff shortages, in general, reservations are high so there is a lot less need for the aggressive discount marketing that used to be 'normal'.

Edited October 3, 2022 by Mark_T

[eas2225]

Last October, on the Edge, there was someone standing in front of the entrance to the Oceanview Cafe asking if we had any specialty dining reservations.  I had booked the Steakhouse several weeks before.  He then asked if we would like to experience Eden, at a 50% discount.  Best meal and experience we had on the ship!  May have been offered due to the low passenger count on that cruise.

 

Before our cruise on the Summit in June I got an email offering 30% discount on the Steakhouse and I booked it immediately.

 

Haven't gotten anything yet for our Beyond cruise in 3 weeks, but still hoping!

 

[di T]

On 9/29/2022 at 7:56 PM, kebrown said:

We were just on the Reflection at the beginning of September and they were offering 30% off at Lawn Club Grill.

We also got the 30% offer on both our September cruises for Lawn club grill and enjoyed both times! Went to Tuscan and got 20% off and Sushi was 30% off even though it’s al carte we have found you have to ask the restaurant manager at Sushi if he has a discount! Always have been successful.

[NutsAboutGolf]

8 hours ago, scouseronline said:

We asked for it,

 

Thanks, you asked the M'D/host or the specialty dining sales team often posted by the OV cafe?