Select Dining Reservations

[Bruin Steve]

So...for the last several cruises, we've gone to "Select Dining" (or its equivalent on other lines)...

So far, we've never had a problem on Celebrity or on Royal Caribbean--always show up and get seated right away...OTOH, Princess has been a nightmare of long waits and buzzers...

We are Elite (soon to be Elite Plus) CC members, so we like to attend drinking hours in the Elite Lounge and then head over to the MDR at 7:00--when the drinking hours end. We prefer to sit with others...so, waiting for a table for two is not an issue...and, as I said, so far, it's worked well...

 

But I keep reading things about some people experiencing waits...so, I figured maybe we should make reservations in the system for this next cruise...

By the time this occurred to me, we could only get 7:00 pm for one night of seven...

The other nights, we're at 6:45 for the most part, though 6:30 one night and 7:15 another...

 

So, here's the question: If we show up a little late or a little early, how much of a problem should we expect? Say, the night we have the 7:15 reservation, if we show up at 7:00 will they make us wait? If we have a 6:45 reservation and we're not there promptly at 6:45...maybe not really late, but, maybe 6:50, 6:55, say we just don't wrangle ourselves away from drinking hour quickly enough...will they tell us, sorry, you missed it and make us wait a long time?

 

Thanks.

[beebee]

On our last cruise we made select dining reservations for 7 each night. We had no problem showing up at 6:45 or 7:15, although, one or two nights we did have a short wait, but, it really was very short. We were usually given the option of eating with others which sometimes we did and sometimes we didn't. We found the staff to be very accommodating.

[Lois R]

Hi Steve, I think it really depends on the cruise. I doubt 15 minutes

one way or the other is going to make that much of a difference. I have

done Select a couple of times before.....you just can't always tell

how crowded it is going to be at a given time. If you go at 7 on

the first night you can always talk to the hostess and let her know

you really prefer to eat at that specific time each night. That is my

best suggestion.....they will do their best to honor your request:)