Just booked on Solstice for Dec. But no select dining

[kmawani]

Hi,

 

I just booked my cruise for a Dec. 5, 2010 sail date directly through the Celebrity Cruises website. However, the only available dinner time was early dinner, 6:00pm. There was no check box under the "Select Dining" option either. When I called Celebrity to ask why I cannot book/select the Select Dining option, I was told they are all filled up.

 

Huh?

 

Filled up 6 months in advance??? Is that normal? Is anyone else having the same problem or could it be a mistake on the agent's part when she said they are all filled up. On the same note, I am unable to make any reservation for specialty dining too.

 

Help.

 

Thanks.

[ocbeachbums]

I would suggest calling Celebrity directly, again. A different agent may give you different info. At the very least you should be able to get on a waiting list. You still have a fair amount of time until your cruise and things may change. We cruise on the Equinox November 15th and the ability to make a reservation for a specialty restaurant just opened up for our cruise last week. I checked every day before that to see when the reservations opened up so that I could book early and get the day and time I wanted.

[MauiGirl55]

Hmmm....we booked the same cruise on Solstice back in February, and at that time, the only time available was Late Seating--no select, no early seating. What gives????

[txsloth]

I just did a mock booking of a suite for this cruise (yeah, I have nothing better to do:D) and it would have let me book CSD, so they are holding slots for future suite bookings. I'd be willing to bet that if you go straight to the maitre d' when you board, they'll let you switch.

[kmawani]

I am going to call celebrity tomorrow to find out whats going on. I am pretty sure we are probably still to far out and as someone suggested, their cruise is in Nov. and the reservation just opened up.

 

I will post what the agent tells me tomorrow.

[txsloth]

I am going to call celebrity tomorrow to find out whats going on. I am pretty sure we are probably still to far out and as someone suggested, their cruise is in Nov. and the reservation just opened up.

 

I will post what the agent tells me tomorrow.

 

The post you refer to was talking about the ability to book specialty restaurants. This has nothing to do with Celebrity Select Dining (CSD). As I stated, I was able to select CSD when I did a mock booking of a suite.

[blubionda]

If Select is still not available when you call today, I would inquire about waitlisting; this far out from depature date a lot of folks may have deposits down on the sailing but may cancel closer to final payment due (which may open up the Select option slots that may currently be associated with those reservations).

 

When we had Select on Solstice last month, we had several folks inquire about moving to Select on the first night of the cruise (we were in line for our table behind them and overheard0. They were politely told that Select was full and no additional cruise passengers could be accommodated for the Select Dining Option = I would recommend you keep trying before sailing if this option is really important to you.

 

p.s. you might also have better luck if you book a Concierge Cabin - my understanding is you then have priority for your dining preference over others.

 

p.p.s. when I originally booked Equinox for Feb 2011 back in April - no select dining was available (despite Concierge cabin status); however, in the last two weeks it was available to add to my reservation.

[mahi mahi]

Hi,

 

I just booked my cruise for a Dec. 5, 2010 sail date directly through the Celebrity Cruises website. However, the only available dinner time was early dinner, 6:00pm. There was no check box under the "Select Dining" option either. When I called Celebrity to ask why I cannot book/select the Select Dining option, I was told they are all filled up.

 

Huh?

 

Filled up 6 months in advance??? Is that normal? Is anyone else having the same problem or could it be a mistake on the agent's part when she said they are all filled up. On the same note, I am unable to make any reservation for specialty dining too.

 

Help.

 

Thanks.

Happened to us back in April, large groups were booked onboard and had all of the specialty restaurants tied up most nights. Keep checking, as the sailing date approached the restaurants opened up when they found they didn't have as many takers as they thought. I believe they were just giving these large groups first dibs. Have a great cruise.

 

Jake

[berylde]

We booked Solstice in April for the 12/5/2010 and traditional seating was full

 

Anyway, poster gave this number to call--I called last week and was able to get early seating for all 3 of our cabins. Just what we wanted !!

 

Here's the #

Dining consultants

1-800-242-6374

Ext. 3 when prompted

[jagoffee]

We booked Solstice in April for the 12/5/2010 and traditional seating was full

 

Anyway, poster gave this number to call--I called last week and was able to get early seating for all 3 of our cabins. Just what we wanted !!

 

Here's the #

Dining consultants

1-800-242-6374

Ext. 3 when prompted

 

Are you saying that both early and late traditional dining was full and you were being forced into Select dining? I am shocked to hear this. I was certain that Celebrity was committed to implement Select dining without forcing people into it. Which is what is done on Princess with Anytime dining.

[kmawani]

Update: I called Celebrity today and the agent I spoke to manually added Select Dining to my reservation. Now when I go into my Celebrity profile / reservation management, it shows that I have select dining with the appropriate times for each night.

 

If anyone else is having problems for the Dec. 5th sailing, I suggest you call Celebrity directly.

 

As for Specialty Restaurants, I was told to try again in two weeks and if I still could not make a reservation, to call them directly.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Thanks,

Karim.

[May B]

If I have select dining, I don't want to choose my times in advance. To me, one of the beauties of select dining is being able to "wing it" each evening!

 

--May