Celebrity Flex Dining or Assigned Seating

My husband and I are going on a 14 night eastern Mediterranean cruise with Celebrity Silhouette in Sept. 2016. We've already booked for early dining at 6:15 but now are rethinking of switching to Flex dining to give us more leeway given that we have tours booked. Can we expect to have to line up for seating if we switch to Flex dining? Is it worth doing?

My husband and I are going on a 14 night eastern Mediterranean cruise with Celebrity Silhouette in Sept. 2016. We've already booked for early dining at 6:15 but now are rethinking of switching to Flex dining to give us more leeway given that we have tours booked. Can we expect to have to line up for seating if we switch to Flex dining? Is it worth doing?

Personally I won't book a cruise without anytime/select/flex dining.

I don't mind a short wait and have never made reservations for the dining room on a cruise ship.

if you are thinking of changing do it now as there is likely to be a waiting list and you may miss out

My husband and I are going on a 14 night eastern Mediterranean cruise with Celebrity Silhouette in Sept. 2016. We've already booked for early dining at 6:15 but now are rethinking of switching to Flex dining to give us more leeway given that we have tours booked. Can we expect to have to line up for seating if we switch to Flex dining? Is it worth doing?

Generally, at 7pm there may be a 5 minute wait, but usually no wait. We've used Select dining on the last 6 cruises and will have it set for the next 5. Yes, call immediately to switch to Select. There will probably be a wait list.

Someone else just told me that the Flex dining is not the same food offered in the main dining room?

Someone doesn't know what they are talking about.

Someone else just told me that the Flex dining is not the same food offered in the main dining room?

Hi Gidget424,

Welcome to Cruise Critic !

Whomever told you that, absolutely gave you incorrect information. The menus at Assigned seating, and Select dining in the Main Dining Room, is 100% the same. Perhaps they were thinking about the Buffet for dinner - which is different.

Getting back to your original question, I know this isnt exactly what you hope to hear - but the answer is.... it depends. If you go at peak hours, you may experience lines and waiting time. If you go to dinner very early or late in the evening, you should fare much better. Of course, every sailing has a different mix of guests with different needs, so anything is possible. Overall, I believe that Celebrity does a very good job of managing their Guests dining wishes.

Hope this helps, and enjoy your cruise !

Someone doesn't know what they are talking about.

Exactly the same. Menu in both.

Someone else just told me that the Flex dining is not the same food offered in the main dining room?

Do you believe everything that "someone" says. Your "someone" is woefully misinformed. It is the same food.

Re the wait, you can make reservations for the flex dining and if you do have to wait for a bit, just relax until you are called or go to the bar and have a drink. What's your rush.

DON

Definitely try to book flex dining asap. Hopefully you can get in. I don't think we will ever go back to traditional dining.

If you have several tours booked you may find that anytime dining suits you better.

There is nothing worse than getting back to the ship hot and tired and then having to rush to make your assigned seating time.

Even at peak times have never had to wait too long and I opt for flexible dining on every cruise now

We love Select dining but our friends prefer traditional dining as they find it more leisurely whereas they find Select rushed. You can ask your select waiters to slow things down but may have to do this every evening as you may have different wait staff.

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We just came off the Millennium as a group of three and had only slight delays being seated for Anytime. But, my question:

We will be on the Silhouette in October, but now a group of six. Will Anytime be convenient for that many?

We just came off the Millennium as a group of three and had only slight delays being seated for Anytime. But, my question:

 

 

 

We will be on the Silhouette in October, but now a group of six. Will Anytime be convenient for that many?

Select dining should work fine for you as the demand for tables of 6 will be minimal.

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We have used Flex dining since it first came out on all cruise lines. Will never go back to traditional. We love eating when we feel like it. And other than one Ruby Princess cruise, we never have waited more than maybe 5 - 10 minutes for a table. Also, unless we are with a bunch of people we never make reservations

Now, one year there were 8 of us on Summit. So I would look at the paper each night and see what time the show was the next day and I would call and make reservations for the 8 of us so we could make the show times

But if we cruise alone, we go when we feel like it and never have an issue.

Someone else just told me that the Flex dining is not the same food offered in the main dining room?

It's exactly the same menu. Hopefully the same ingredients, only served by different waiters.

My husband and I are going on a 14 night eastern Mediterranean cruise with Celebrity Silhouette in Sept. 2016. We've already booked for early dining at 6:15 but now are rethinking of switching to Flex dining to give us more leeway given that we have tours booked. Can we expect to have to line up for seating if we switch to Flex dining? Is it worth doing?

We started out on Celebrity with early fixed dining and that worked pretty well until on cruise #7 and 8 most of those assigned to our table either didn't show up at all, or 45 minutes late, or we wished they hadn't showed up. We switched to select dining and now only do that. We usually go to the elite happy hour and meet folks there and then migrate to the restaurant. Most of the time, we don't have to wait for a table.

If you find a serving team you love you can also request their section every evening and have the best of both worlds.

We prefer Select Dining over Traditional.

With Select Dining you can make a reservation if you want. Without reservations, we've rarely had to wait more than 5 minutes.

Someone else just told me that the Flex dining is not the same food offered in the main dining room?

You have been given bad information (as others have said). But lets explain. Celebrity ships have a single main dining room (often called the MDR here on Cruise Critic) and that dining room is generally 2 stories. At dinner time they seat both the fixed sitting folks (early and late dining) as well as the flexible or select diners. On most cruises they will simply put one group on a specific level and the others on the other level (although we have seen exceptions). The menus in the MDR are exactly the same,,,no matter which dining scheme you utilize.

There are also passengers who dine in different dining venues where they do get different menus from the MDR. For example, those who book Aqua Class cabins will dine in Blu..and have unique menus. Those in suites will dine in Luminae where they have access to a unique menu as well as MDR items.

Another dining option is to simply have your dinner in the Lido (that is the buffet venue) where they do have many of the same items (in a buffet setting) that are in the MDR. But the Lido is not the same exact menu...and certain MDR items might not be available.

Hank

Another dining option is to simply have your dinner in the Lido (that is the buffet venue) where they do have many of the same items (in a buffet setting) that are in the MDR. But the Lido is not the same exact menu...and certain MDR items might not be available.

 

Hank

On Celebrity the buffet venue is called the Oceanview Café, not the Lido.

How easy/difficult is it to get a table for 2 with flex dining? The last 2 times that my husband and I cruised with Princess, we were consistently given a hard time trying to get a table for just the 2 of us. They tried very hard to push us into sharing a table with others. On the nights we just wanted a quiet dinner alone, they gave us a beeper and we waited 20-30 plus minutes. It wasn't a great experience.

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How easy/difficult is it to get a table for 2 with flex dining? The last 2 times that my husband and I cruised with Princess, we were consistently given a hard time trying to get a table for just the 2 of us. They tried very hard to push us into sharing a table with others. On the nights we just wanted a quiet dinner alone, they gave us a beeper and we waited 20-30 plus minutes. It wasn't a great experience.

 

 

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We have had no difficulty obtaining a table for two and we would request and receive our preferred servers also. On our last cruise this past Xmas on the Eclipse, the longest wait we had was about 20 minutes. They gave us a beeper and we had a leisurely drink in Cellar Masters. Other than that, we were usually seated within a few minutes of our reservation, which we usually made the previous evening. They would ask if you were " Happy to share" but we never felt the slightest bit of pressure. Reservations are not necessary, but we make them as often as we can. We also tend to dine late, after 8. If you're an early diner, your experience may be entirely different.

Many of the tables set up are for two people. That said they are very close together which can make 3 tables for two into tables of 6 if everyone gets involved in cross talk which is often the case. It is sometimes easier and quicker to get a table for two than participate in a larger table.

How easy/difficult is it to get a table for 2 with flex dining? The last 2 times that my husband and I cruised with Princess, we were consistently given a hard time trying to get a table for just the 2 of us. They tried very hard to push us into sharing a table with others. On the nights we just wanted a quiet dinner alone, they gave us a beeper and we waited 20-30 plus minutes. It wasn't a great experience.

 

 

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We always get tables for 2 and never have any issues. Rarely do we wait more than 5-10 minutes. Same on Princess, no issues at all with getting a 2 top. Yes, they are close to others but still a 2 top