Thread: Your thoughts on speciality dining. . .

I certainly think that specialty restaurants can be worth it, but don't feel like they are neccessary. That being said, I love Palo on the Disney Cruise Line. It is fairly inexpensive at $20, and they allow you to get multiple dishes in each course. The fee is to cover gratuities only. The chocolate souffle for dessert is to die for, and the antipasta plate at the beginning is as good as any you'd find in Italy.

Originally Posted by KayAnnie

I certainly think that specialty restaurants can be worth it, but don't feel like they are neccessary. That being said, I love Palo on the Disney Cruise Line. It is fairly inexpensive at $20, and they allow you to get multiple dishes in each course. The fee is to cover gratuities only. The chocolate souffle for dessert is to die for, and the antipasta plate at the beginning is as good as any you'd find in Italy.

$20.00 a person for gratuities is pretty high as if it was 15% it would be $140.00 a person dinner. I doubt the whole fee is going to the wait staff. You are already paying a wait staff tip in your daily tip so I would think the CruiseLine is getting the whole amount.If it is a gratuity, can you lower the amount if the service is bad, I don't think so.

We have eaten in specialty restaurants on Princess, Royal Caribbean and Celebrity. Of the 3 cruise lines we have enjoyed the whole experience on Celebrity much more than the others. It's nice to have a "special" evening in a fine dining room with white glove service once in awhile.

Since I have not tried any of these resturants I can only say is that I am willing to try one of them.