Party of nine on Summit. Trying to book dining

[leisuretraveler223]

We have a family trip with a party of nine, three staterooms and a suite.  Trying to book dining together and the website will not let you select more than eight people for a booking. I booked through a TA. Am I better off contacting her, or reaching out to Celebrity directly?

[dcbiker97]

You won’t be able to do this precruise since one of the rooms is a suite. They are assigned to Luminae.  Chat with the MDR maitre’d when you get on board to arrange. 

[Mark_T]

9 minutes ago, leisuretraveler223 said:

We have a family trip with a party of nine, three staterooms and a suite.  Trying to book dining together and the website will not let you select more than eight people for a booking. I booked through a TA. Am I better off contacting her, or reaching out to Celebrity directly?

I assume you are trying to booking speciality dining?

 

What level is the suite? If it is high enough then there may be an easier route...

 

Which ship and which restaurants are you trying to book?

[cruisestitch]

If you are trying to book your nightly meal, I assume that the people booked in the suite know that they will be foregoing their Luminae dining?

 

if you are trying to book specialty dining, on the other hand, just book each room separately but for the same time, and sort it out to join all the specialty restaurants reservations together once on board.

[leisuretraveler223]

4 minutes ago, Mark_T said:

I assume you are trying to booking speciality dining?

 

What level is the suite? If it is high enough then there may be an easier route...

 

Which ship and which restaurants are you trying to book?

 

Trying to book Celebrity Select. We are on Summit in Alaska next summer.  Three veranda staterooms and my wife and I in the penthouse.  While she and I would have access to Luminae, the rest of our travelers do not, so we would prefer to just have all nine of us together in the MDR.

Edited August 10, 2023 by leisuretraveler223

[Mark_T]

5 minutes ago, leisuretraveler223 said:

 

Trying to book Celebrity Select. We are on Summit in Alaska next summer.  Three veranda staterooms and my wife and I in the penthouse.  While she and I would have access to Luminae, the rest of our travelers do not, so we would prefer to just have all nine of us together in the MDR.

Then all you need to do is go visit the Maître d' at the MDR when you get onboard and they will sort things out for you, no need to do anything in advance. If you can agree on a set time it will greatly help them in making sure your table is available each night.

 

As a courtesy, please do go see the Maître d' at Luminae and explain what you are doing, or they will be worried when they don't see you at dinner, and it avoids them trying to find out why...

Edited August 10, 2023 by Mark_T

[leisuretraveler223]

Just now, Mark_T said:

Then all you need to do is go visit the Maître d' at the MDR when you get onboard and they will sort things out for you, no need to do anything in advance.

 

As a courtesy, please do go see the Maître d' at Luminae and explain what you are doing, or they will be worried when they don't see you at dinner, and it avoids them trying to find out why...

 

I would certainly touch base with Luminae to let them know.  A little disappointing that there is no way to take care of this in advance.  I'm putting up a good chunk of change for this trip, it seems like I should be able to take care of this in advance.  Kind of a bummer.

[Mark_T]

5 minutes ago, leisuretraveler223 said:

 

I would certainly touch base with Luminae to let them know.  A little disappointing that there is no way to take care of this in advance.  I'm putting up a good chunk of change for this trip, it seems like I should be able to take care of this in advance.  Kind of a bummer.

You can contact the shoreside concierge as you are in the Penthouse, and they may be able to help you with this, but it really is a small thing to sort out once onboard... (... and I would always check that anything prearranged had been communicated to the ship once onboard anyway...)

Edited August 10, 2023 by Mark_T

[Princess Fi]

We have travelled as a party of 10 all in Concierge. I reached out to celebritydining@celebrity.com to make arrangements. At the time they said we may have to split tables but accommodated each night at table for 10. They helped book first night in Tuscan also. 

[cruisestitch]

37 minutes ago, leisuretraveler223 said:

 

I would certainly touch base with Luminae to let them know.  A little disappointing that there is no way to take care of this in advance.  I'm putting up a good chunk of change for this trip, it seems like I should be able to take care of this in advance.  Kind of a bummer.

We all wish that the cruise line would do some things differently….but this particular thing is easily sorted out on board.

 

Go ahead and put the other people together in select and you will easily be able to adjust the table size so that you can join them once you are on board and can speak to the dining room staff in person on boarding day.

[TeeRick]

24 minutes ago, leisuretraveler223 said:

 

I would certainly touch base with Luminae to let them know.  A little disappointing that there is no way to take care of this in advance.  I'm putting up a good chunk of change for this trip, it seems like I should be able to take care of this in advance.  Kind of a bummer.

We have been in your situation with 8 of us on a family cruise on Constellation.  We were in a CS suite and the others were balcony cabins.   First, it was very hard for us to get everybody together for dinner in the MDR as our group had different tours, schedules, choices.  Herding cats.  Maybe your family will be different.  But getting a larger table in the MDR was no problem once on board - they were very accommodating.   

 

We were also able to call the shoreside suite concierge to arrange Specialty dining for our group in advance.  You can most certainly do this if you are in a PH suite.

 

We were able to arrange for the 8 of us to have dinner in Luminae a couple of times.  It was free for us but $30 pp for the non-suite guests.  Much less expensive actually than a Specialty restaurant and the group loved it!  But you need to arrange this with the Luminae Maître 'D once on board and probably for a less busy time after 8 PM.  Your account will be charged - but if important you can settle with your group in other ways.  You can also take all or some of them for breakfast ($10 pp) or lunch on sea days ($20 pp).  Breakfast was mix and match with our group since our family had different sleep schedules.  

 

My best advice is to just enjoy the experience and not try to control the group too much.  

[sheeng]

We were a family group of 9 on Silhouette a few months ago. I pre-booked EVERY specialty restaurant on board plus all our select dining reservations on non- specialty nights. We were all in regular balcony cabins and I made the reservations for 8. Once onboard I spoke to one of the Specialty Maitre ‘d and had him add one additional to each of the reservations. There were 3 young children in our party so easy to squeeze in another chair without crowding. It worked beautifully for us🤗

 

Sheila.

[bigbenboys]

6 hours ago, cruisestitch said:

If you are trying to book your nightly meal, I assume that the people booked in the suite know that they will be foregoing their Luminae dining?

 

if you are trying to book specialty dining, on the other hand, just book each room separately but for the same time, and sort it out to join all the specialty restaurants reservations together once on board.

I've tried booking online for Murano. We are in a CS suite and MIL and sister not in suite. I cant book all 4 of us together. I can book 6:30 for us 2, but MIL only has 9:30 available. I called shoreside suite concierge number and the took care of it. No wait time.

[PTC DAWG]

I’d eat in the Suite restaurant at least a few times if it was me,  but it’s not. 🙂

 

I also agree with the herding cats comment. I have travelled with large family groups, we try and eat together a time or two on a 7 day cruise,  no big deal if someone can’t make it.  We’re on vacation.