When you dine in a specialty restaurant is the cover charge what you pay or is each entree on the menu priced and you must pay at least the amount of the cover charge?

If the cover charge is $25 is that the amount you pay no matter what you order or could your bill add up to $50 or more?

Except in a very few instances, the cover charge is what you pay. The new Queen Elizabeth will have an a la carte restaurant. And in a very few instances, there are supplements to the cover charge for special dishes, but these are exceedingly rare. You are sometimes expected to leave a separate tip.

Thank you, Doug. I wasn't aware of the separate tip - that is good to know.

I thought the tip is automatically added to the bill ....

On Princess and RCI its the stated charge and no more no matter what the entre is. I think its the same on all mass market lines. I don't recall tips being added but I am sure we tipped as per service.

On HAL we tipped individually after dinner it was not added to the bill. The tip is added to wine, cocktails etc but not the food. Make an early dining time and make an evening out of it. Don't know what line you are going on but Princess, HAL and Celebrity all had wonderful food in several courses.

We are going on Star Princess. Looks like they only have 2 specialty restaurants. The entire list of Princess line restaurants sound great - the menus are wonderful. Would like all of them on the Star Princess.

I guess it would be an oops on me. I never check the bill. I just sign it, saw total amounts and tips and taht is it. Never thought to see if the tips included tips for the food cover charges. I would be more careful next time. Don't want to penalise the service staff on my ignorance.

Only on certain speciality restuanrts will you be expected to pay extra otherwise the cover charge is all that you will need to pay regardless of how much you eat. ALthough drinks dont come included.