Difference between Club class mini-suite and regular mini-suite on Ruby

[justjan2]

I booked a Club class mini-suite but I am reconsidering switching to a regular mini-suite. Can anyone let me know if there is an advantage to stay with the Club class? My cruise only has one tender port so the embarkation, disembarkation isn't a big deal. Thank you.

[skynight]

The cabins are the same. On the Ruby Reserve Class , formally called Club Class, are mid ship. The main benefit is reserve class dining in a section of the deck 6 mid ship DR. It is anytime dining with prompt seating, improved service and an extra entre each evening. Below is the PDF flyer. Ignore the priority embarkation and disembarkation. Embarkation is quick for all. Disembarkation is either according to your flight schedule or as you request at passenger services, such as early walk off. 

https://www.princess.com/content/dam/princess/ship/staterooms/pdfs/reserve-collection-mini-suites-overview.pdf.coredownload.inline.pdf

[SHIP TRAVELER]

We paid extra for Reserve on a future cruise on the Regal in hopes the dining situation would be better.  My DH thinks that the dining experience sets the tone for the success of the cruise  No one should dread heading out for dinner..  Not everyone feels this way of course as evidenced by people that eat every night in the buffet.  We have been disappointed in the the service and seating more than the food on recent cruises on Princess. We would like to cruise more on Princess and are hoping that club class dining will make a difference.  This is the dining available to the top suites so it should be an improvement.  We are hoping for something at least like BLU dining on Celebrity.

I know this does not answer your question but it will let you know that it was a good question.  Let's hope you get some good replies.

[LACruiser88]

20 minutes ago, skynight said:

On the Ruby Reserve Class , formally called Club Class,

FWIW, Princess dropped the word "class" from the name of these mini-suites.  They are now called "Reserve Collection" mini-suites.

[memoak]

The only real differences are location and reserve class dining area. We sail full suites and most the time the dining has been good. Virtually no wait for a table, servers have only a few tables so service is pretty good but again it depends on the crew. Also in addition to the regular menu for lunch and dinner there is one additional item usually an entree or special salad or pasta announced when you are handed your menu

[Ken the cruiser]

We purposely book a Reserve Collection mini-suite or higher category when we cruise with Princess, which as of late is quite often. We just enjoy showing up to the dining room for breakfast, lunch (on sea days) and dinner, being escorted to our same table (since we don't need to sit near a window), attended to by the same wonderful servers, and of course enjoying their tasty meals, which are always served hot has they receive priority service (from our understanding) when fetching our selections back in the kitchen. 

 

As far as comparing the Reserve dining room with Celebrity's Blu, which we also frequent regularly when we cruise with them, the Reserve wins hands down, along with the fact the Reserve is open for lunch on sea days whereas Blu is not. But I will also note, we are usually there for dinner when they open at 5 pm. If you like to eat later, say around 7 pm, it might be a little more crowded depending on the part of the world you are cruising in.

[Lady Arwen]

1 hour ago, SHIP TRAVELER said:

We paid extra for Reserve on a future cruise on the Regal in hopes the dining situation would be better.  My DH thinks that the dining experience sets the tone for the success of the cruise  No one should dread heading out for dinner..  Not everyone feels this way of course as evidenced by people that eat every night in the buffet.  We have been disappointed in the the service and seating more than the food on recent cruises on Princess. We would like to cruise more on Princess and are hoping that club class dining will make a difference.  This is the dining available to the top suites so it should be an improvement.  We are hoping for something at least like BLU dining on Celebrity.

I know this does not answer your question but it will let you know that it was a good question.  Let's hope you get some good replies.

Reserve Class is nothing like Blu on Celebrity ships.  Reserve Class dining is a roped off portion of the MDR using the same kitchen and menu.  Each night you will be offered a “special” dish which could be an entree, appetizer, salad, etc.  You do not need reservations and the service will be most likely be elevated from the rest of the MDR.  Blu on Celebrity is a separate restaurant with their own kitchen and menus.  No reservations and service is highly elevated.  This restaurant is only available to those sailing in Aqua class or suites.  Big difference.
 

 On Princess, we prefer to forgo the MDR as much as possible and eat in all of the specialty restaurants.  It’s actually much less expensive than Reserve Class and you get much better food and service.  I would only book Reserve Class if it were offered at a sale price.  However, some people enjoy it, so it’s strictly a matter of your expectations and tastes,

[LACruiser88]

11 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

If you like to eat later, say around 7 pm, it might be a little more crowded depending on the part of the world you are cruising in.

For the most part we also book Reserve Collection mini-suites and go to dinner at around 7:30.  We have rarely had to wait for a table.  When we have waited it has never been for more than a few minutes.

[Ken the cruiser]

24 minutes ago, LACruiser88 said:

For the most part we also book Reserve Collection mini-suites and go to dinner at around 7:30.  We have rarely had to wait for a table.  When we have waited it has never been for more than a few minutes.

When we were on the second leg of our Antarctica/SA cruise going from Buenos Aires to San Antonio in February, we were the only couple in the back section of the Sapphire's Reserve dining room until folks started to trickle in around 6 pm, just as we were leaving. When we asked our server about that, he said folks from Chile, of which there were quite a few onboard, are used to eating after 9 pm back home. Unfortunately for some of the DR servers that meant folks started showing up around 8:30 pm and usually hung around until around 10 pm. Funny thing, that wasn't the case on the first leg of the cruise from San Antonio to Buenos Aires that included 4 days cruising around the Antarctica Peninsula. That was also the case, but not as drastic, when we cruised around the Med for 21 days on the Regal back in July 2022.

 

BTW another thing we like about eating in the Reserve is that the tables are placed farther apart, so we can eat in peace rather than having to consciously ignore someone sitting right next to us, as is the case when we've eaten in the MDR or Blu for that matter. But some folks like that, which is cool. We just don't.

[Lady Arwen]

2 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

When we were on the second leg of our Antarctica/SA cruise going from Buenos Aires to San Antonio in February, we were the only couple in the back section of the Sapphire's Reserve dining room until folks started to trickle in around 6 pm, just as we were leaving. When we asked our server about that, he said folks from Chile, of which there were quite a few onboard, are used to eating after 9 pm back home. Unfortunately for some of the DR servers that meant folks started showing up around 8:30 pm and usually hung around until around 10 pm. Funny thing, that wasn't the case on the first leg of the cruise from San Antonio to Buenos Aires that included 4 days cruising around the Antarctica Peninsula. That was also the case, but not as drastic, when we cruised around the Med for 21 days on the Regal back in July 2022.

 

BTW another thing we like about eating in the Reserve is that the tables are placed farther apart, so we can eat in peace rather than having to consciously ignore someone sitting right next to us, as is the case when we've eaten in the MDR or Blu for that matter. But some folks like that, which is cool. We just don't.

You are so right about the tables being so close together in the MDR.  This is one of the reasons we choose the specialty restaurants rather than the MDR.  We just pefer the quiet atmosphere and the tables for two are very far apart.  

[tulok]

It seems like the main difference is the dining experience. We tend to eat many meals outside the ship so we did not opt for the reserve but some in our family did. It will be interesting to see the difference first hand. My cruise is very port heavy which could make a difference. 

[memoak]

35 minutes ago, tulok said:

It seems like the main difference is the dining experience. We tend to eat many meals outside the ship so we did not opt for the reserve but some in our family did. It will be interesting to see the difference first hand. My cruise is very port heavy which could make a difference. 

We only eat on shore for lunch which cannot be eaten on ship. How many breakfast and dinners do you have on shore ?  Most times you leave port prior to dinner anyway 

Edited March 26 by memoak

[tulok]

We are not breakfast people so we grab a coffee and something little to hold us over until a late lunch. IC is going to be perfect for us. We always have a big lunch off the ship in port. A small late dinner in the MDR if we leave earlier or grab a dinner in port if not. We mainly use the ship as a floating hotel. Which is why we fell in love with river cruising. Docking right in the middle of old town in many cities was perfect for exploring the area restaurants and pubs. This is just how we have enjoyed traveling since empty nesting. 

[memoak]

14 minutes ago, tulok said:

We are not breakfast people so we grab a coffee and something little to hold us over until a late lunch. IC is going to be perfect for us. We always have a big lunch off the ship in port. A small late dinner in the MDR if we leave earlier or grab a dinner in port if not. We mainly use the ship as a floating hotel. Which is why we fell in love with river cruising. Docking right in the middle of old town in many cities was perfect for exploring the area restaurants and pubs. This is just how we have enjoyed traveling since empty nesting. 

We travel on long sea cruises. Like 16 day cruises with only 4 ports. River cruises do not interest us nothing to do at night

[tulok]

We enjoy the towns at night. 
We usually cruise 10-14 days as we are still working and taking more than 2 weeks off can be a return to work nightmare. Maybe one day we will change how we travel, right now it works for us. Back to the OP, I think it matters what you want to spend the extra money on. Very personal preference.

[beltsbear]

On 3/26/2024 at 12:12 PM, Lady Arwen said:

Reserve Class is nothing like Blu on Celebrity ships.  Reserve Class dining is a roped off portion of the MDR using the same kitchen and menu.  Each night you will be offered a “special” dish which could be an entree, appetizer, salad, etc.  You do not need reservations and the service will be most likely be elevated from the rest of the MDR.  Blu on Celebrity is a separate restaurant with their own kitchen and menus.  No reservations and service is highly elevated.  This restaurant is only available to those sailing in Aqua class or suites.  Big difference.
 

 On Princess, we prefer to forgo the MDR as much as possible and eat in all of the specialty restaurants.  It’s actually much less expensive than Reserve Class and you get much better food and service.  I would only book Reserve Class if it were offered at a sale price.  However, some people enjoy it, so it’s strictly a matter of your expectations and tastes,

Agreed.  In fact Blu is better than MSC Yacht club dining in our opinion.  Probably one of the best non specialty dining on any line.  We miss it as it is now extremely expensive, and we just booked another princess cruise at about half the price per night. 

[cr8tiv1]

On Princess, the biggest perk to Reserve Collection is the MDR.  If you are going to want to experience everything that is happening on the ship, then having dinner in the Reserve Collection dining room will be one step to accomplishing that.  No waiting (or very little) for a table, attentive wait staff, speed of meal is your decision (fast/slow) etc. 

 

Have an early dinner, go to the 7/7:30 shows in the theater, take part in the evening game shows.  Even come back for dessert and coffee if you ran out of time.  

 

If it is a tender port intensive cruise, having priority will be helpful on the way over.  Doesn't help getting back the ship.  Have an independent excursion, you will be able to get off the ship before the other passengers.

 

Or you could "save" the difference, have nice dinners in the Specialty Dining Rooms and book lots of excursions.  

[Lady Arwen]

7 hours ago, cr8tiv1 said:

On Princess, the biggest perk to Reserve Collection is the MDR.  If you are going to want to experience everything that is happening on the ship, then having dinner in the Reserve Collection dining room will be one step to accomplishing that.  No waiting (or very little) for a table, attentive wait staff, speed of meal is your decision (fast/slow) etc. 

 

Have an early dinner, go to the 7/7:30 shows in the theater, take part in the evening game shows.  Even come back for dessert and coffee if you ran out of time.  

 

If it is a tender port intensive cruise, having priority will be helpful on the way over.  Doesn't help getting back the ship.  Have an independent excursion, you will be able to get off the ship before the other passengers.

 

Or you could "save" the difference, have nice dinners in the Specialty Dining Rooms and book lots of excursions.  

For us, we choose to save the difference.  The food, the service, the ambience in the specialty restaurants is so much better.  Even if Reserve Class was less expensive than dining in the specialty restaurants, we would still not choose Reserve Class.  Some people love it and that’s great!

[Fortunate 2 travel]

On 3/26/2024 at 10:58 AM, SHIP TRAVELER said:

We paid extra for Reserve on a future cruise on the Regal in hopes the dining situation would be better.  My DH thinks that the dining experience sets the tone for the success of the cruise  No one should dread heading out for dinner..  Not everyone feels this way of course as evidenced by people that eat every night in the buffet.  We have been disappointed in the the service and seating more than the food on recent cruises on Princess. We would like to cruise more on Princess and are hoping that club class dining will make a difference.  This is the dining available to the top suites so it should be an improvement.  We are hoping for something at least like BLU dining on Celebrity.

I know this does not answer your question but it will let you know that it was a good question.  Let's hope you get some good replies.

We had a reserve mini On the Regal

last summer.  Our dining experience was fantastic.  After the first night when the hostess saw us walking up she was already heading to our table.  We sat in the same section, same wait staff.  We absolutely felt the added expense of Reserve Class was worth it.