Well one thing I would want for Celebrity definitely, that RCL is getting.

[bikerunner]

Just read this from CC about RCL

 

Cruise Critic learned that the cruise line is preparing to implement a change that will allow passengers who purchase a dining package to make reservations on specialty restaurants before their cruise.

Currently, cruisers who purchase a dining package can only make reservations for specialty restaurants once they get onboard their ship, which can create stress on embarkation day. Royal Caribbean offers two dining package options: a 3 restaurant dining package and an unlimited dining package.

There isn’t a set date yet for the implementation of this new reservation feature. But according to Jay Schneider, Royal Caribbean’s Senior Vice President and Chief Product Innovation Officer, the cruise line is aiming to have it up and running a few days soon after the launch of Icon of the Seas, whose debut is slated for Jan. 27.

Moreover, Schneider revealed that this functionality is currently being tested on board Wonder of the Seas. And the plan is to eventually roll it out across the fleet.

 

This would be a great feature to have that Celebrity does not allow or have in place, let RCL figure out the works of it and then incorporate it into Celebrity cruise planner and app.  Of course, we are dealing with mostly at times inept IT departments.  

 

Royal Caribbean news: changes in dining, tips and more (cruisecritic.com)

Edited November 8, 2023 by bikerunner
forgot a sentence

[kathynorth]

I can't seem to locate the post you are referencing. Can you provide a link? Are you saying RCL intends to allow passengers who purchase a dining package, including the unlimited package, to make reservations prior to the start of their cruise?

[bikerunner]

3 minutes ago, kathynorth said:

I can't seem to locate the post you are referencing. Can you provide a link? Are you saying RCL intends to allow passengers who purchase a dining package, including the unlimited package, to make reservations prior to the start of their cruise?

correct  I forgot a sentence and added the link

[tschwa2]

Yes.  Wouldn't that be nice.  

 

https://www.thestreet.com/travel/royal-caribbean-makes-big-possibly-controversial-dining-change

[kathynorth]

2 minutes ago, bikerunner said:

correct  I forgot a sentence and added the link

 

Thanks for the edits and also thanks to tschwa2 for posting the 2nd article. 

 

I absolutely think this is a great idea. It never made sense to me that we could spend $400+/pp for a specialty dining plan and get shut out of reasonable dining options, when a person can book 1 restaurant for 1 night and reserve a preferred time at a restaurant of their choice. I understand we get a discount for multiple nights, but seems weird to be penalized after spending so much $. 

[Cruising89143]

I think that this will move over to Celebrity as well once RCI works out any bugs. RCG wants to increase onboard spending and this will help. 

[PTC DAWG]

I don’t know what time I will eat tonight, much less when my cruise sales in January. 
 

But now that I think about it, I bought a dinner at Eden, was easy to pick a time on the cruise planner. That’s the only meal I have a plan for. 
 

After reading further, I see this is more about the multiple meal dining packages offered.  I’ll see myself out. 

Edited November 8, 2023 by PTC DAWG

[Jeremiah1212]

There's no way this won't eventually flow over into Celebrity. The new Celebrity President has an extensive background in Shared Services. Jay Schneider is a Royal Caribbean Group employee, not Royal Caribbean International employee. If this drives more revenue by providing easier to use Dining Packages it will happen. Just like the websites and Cruise Planners continue to look more similar among the two cruise lines, things like this will apply to both brands as well. 

[jelayne]

Seems to me that it encourages purchasing a dining package vs paying more for guarantee of the date, time & restaurant you want. 
We happily pay a bit more to get what and when we want.  Wonder if the book ahead will only show options at 5:30 and 8:30, 9:00 and 9:30. I find it hard to believe they would offer the prime 6:30-8:00 times at a discount when they can sell for more as stand alone reservations.

[chemmo]

27 minutes ago, jelayne said:

Seems to me that it encourages purchasing a dining package vs paying more for guarantee of the date, time & restaurant you want. 
We happily pay a bit more to get what and when we want.  Wonder if the book ahead will only show options at 5:30 and 8:30, 9:00 and 9:30. I find it hard to believe they would offer the prime 6:30-8:00 times at a discount when they can sell for more as stand alone reservations.

I was thinking exactly the same…

[mrgabriel]

30 minutes ago, jelayne said:

Seems to me that it encourages purchasing a dining package vs paying more for guarantee of the date, time & restaurant you want. 
We happily pay a bit more to get what and when we want.  Wonder if the book ahead will only show options at 5:30 and 8:30, 9:00 and 9:30. I find it hard to believe they would offer the prime 6:30-8:00 times at a discount when they can sell for more as stand alone reservations.

 

I think it's really disingenuous when Celebrity pushes the discounted packages pre-cruise, then give those diners only less-appealing dining times. 

 

After our last experience with a dining package this past spring, we will pay more to get a time that we prefer ... although that also means that we won't be in specialty dining as frequently. We don't sail in suites and are already paying almost $1k per day (Cdn) for a cruise so I'm less inclined to fork over another $150 for dinner when we've already paid for one. 

 

[C 2 C]

41 minutes ago, mrgabriel said:

 

We don't sail in suites and are already paying almost $1k per day (Cdn) for a cruise so I'm less inclined to fork over another $150 for dinner when we've already paid for one. 

 

That's practically the cost of our whole cruise PP let alone one day.  When the Gordie Howe bridge opens , I may be able to find a bridge for you, cheap.

[mrgabriel]

1 hour ago, C 2 C said:

That's practically the cost of our whole cruise PP let alone one day.  When the Gordie Howe bridge opens , I may be able to find a bridge for you, cheap.

 

Well, it’s a holiday cruise and they’re always way more expensive. And that’s in Canadian dollars which is 35% more than American these days. For the two of us, a cruise that costs $US 2500 each is a thousand dollars a day Canadian. So more than one dinner in Eden ain’t happening. 

[NutsAboutGolf]

From their Q2 earnings call:

 

"But really, the main driver of that has been our ability to be much more effective to curate and take friction out of the process for our customers to book their activities on the ship.

And of course, there's a great commercial reasons of doing that. There's also an incredible guest experience benefit of doing that as our ultimate goal here is to try to give a day back to our guests to come on our ships and instead of them having to spend a day booking their restaurants and booking their spa appointments and shore excursions. They're able to do that ahead of time. And we are really in the early innings of that, especially curating -- there's still a lot of friction points for us to resolve, but our teams have really just done an exceptional job of moving that forward, which can also see supporting an even more elevated customer deposit balance as we're able to take on those onboard spend bookings."

[NorthStarStateCruiser]

I applaud the change. Seemed like a pitfall of the dining packages that put undue stress on the passengers and crew on boarding day.

[rraesh]

Strange.  I made specialty restaurant reservations prior to my cruise on NCL.  Didn't realize some don't even give the option.

[zitsky]

I know it’s inconvenient but if you pay less than others why expect to have the same experience booking restaurants?  I make individual reservations for a reason.

 

Next on Celebrity, book an inside cabin and get access to the Retreat included.

[fstuff1]

15 minutes ago, zitsky said:

I know it’s inconvenient but if you pay less than others why expect to have the same experience booking restaurants?  I make individual reservations for a reason.

 

If you have flexibility:

On my Solstice cruise last month, employees were regularly offering 35%+ off specialty dining on certain restaurants on certain days.

That's a bigger discount than a multi-day dining package.

 

Pre-covid, i got 50% off for both Le petite chef (both versions) and Lawn club grill (dinner) while onboard.

Now, Le Petite chef increased the price from $45 to $60. I would still do version 1 for 50% off if i've never seen it before for the novelty but not v2.

if Lawn Club Grill is now also $60, i wouldn't do it even for 50% off if i'm traveling solo.

Edited November 9, 2023 by fstuff1

[zitsky]

51 minutes ago, fstuff1 said:

If you have flexibility:

On my Solstice cruise last month, employees were regularly offering 35%+ off specialty dining on certain restaurants on certain days.

That's a bigger discount than a multi-day dining package.

 

Pre-covid, i got 50% off for both Le petite chef (both versions) and Lawn club grill (dinner) while onboard.

Now, Le Petite chef increased the price from $45 to $60. I would still do version 1 for 50% off if i've never seen it before for the novelty but not v2.

if Lawn Club Grill is now also $60, i wouldn't do it even for 50% off if i'm traveling solo.

Is that because the food at LCG is not very good?  Is it an all you can eat place?  Or is there a menu?

[fstuff1]

2 hours ago, zitsky said:

Is that because the food at LCG is not very good?  Is it an all you can eat place?  Or is there a menu?

all you can eat. there is a menu but no limit on what you can order.

i had multiple multiple multiple seafood(?) shiskabobs. dont remember the meat but ordered alot of them.

plus theres a salad buffet style.

 

if $45 normal price, i'd do it for $22.50 again.

if $60, not worth $30 for me.

yes, it's 7.50 difference but one has to draw the line somewhere.

Edited November 9, 2023 by fstuff1

[jelayne]

4 hours ago, rraesh said:

Strange.  I made specialty restaurant reservations prior to my cruise on NCL.  Didn't realize some don't even give the option.

You can make reservations in the MDR pre cruise and you can book specialty restaurants individually pre cruise.  The dining packages of multiple dinners provide a discounted price and the trade off has been that those dinners cannot be booked until you are on the ship.

[DaKahuna]

14 minutes ago, jelayne said:

You can make reservations in the MDR pre cruise and you can book specialty restaurants individually pre cruise.  The dining packages of multiple dinners provide a discounted price and the trade off has been that those dinners cannot be booked until you are on the ship.

 

That is very true, but the biggest complaint that I have seen is that people cannot book the restaurant they want when they purchase the package because those paying for individual bookings have booked all the open reservations. 

 

[zitsky]

6 hours ago, DaKahuna said:

 

That is very true, but the biggest complaint that I have seen is that people cannot book the restaurant they want when they purchase the package because those paying for individual bookings have booked all the open reservations. 

 

Does Celebrity tell people the conditions when they buy a dining package?  Are they committing fraud?

 

“They” haven’t booked all the open reservations.  They booked the reservation times that these folks want for themselves and they are mad because they aren’t allowed to do that.

 

Caveat emptor.

 

 

[bikerunner]

7 hours ago, jelayne said:

You can make reservations in the MDR pre cruise and you can book specialty restaurants individually pre cruise.  The dining packages of multiple dinners provide a discounted price and the trade off has been that those dinners cannot be booked until you are on the ship.

Not entirely true, I can book the individual restaurants for 8-10% off, then also the first night discount ones.  I usually never get a package except it was on sale for the 5 night at 25% off.  Its a 13 day TA so figure why not.  Yes overall the pkg does come out better dollar wise per restaurant visit as you're not paying the premium of each individual place.  But this is a big improvement if they can get it to work correctly with their stupendous IT figuring it out.  

[sanger727]

NCL has allowed this for a long time. I didn't actually realize that Celebrity didn't. It is much more convenient to make reservations ahead. 

 

On NCL you can make a reservation for as many people as you want pre-cruise without paying as long as you have a specialty dining credit available.