Suite guests bump Select Dining

[julia]

We have Cruising Chick complaining that there were empty seats at tables in traditional dining on Summit.

 

We have Redtravel complaining that Select dining was a mess due to Suite people wanting to eat at Select dining.

 

Seems like a good solution would be to take part of the main dining room and turn it into "select" seating since demand for traditional dining seems to be decreasing and demand for select dining seems to be increasing.

 

FWIW - I was on Summit in April and ate in Luminae every night and the service, quality of food, etc. was much better than anything I ever received in either the MDR or Select dining in recent years.

 

 

There already IS a section of the MDR for select!

 

We had select on the Equinox TA, and I was frankly SHOCKED at how crowded (and noisy) the entire room was. Select was on upper level, with tables crammed tightly. We managed to get a nice table in a separate back area, away from the noise. Tried to "reserve" it, but despite our promtpness, only had it a few times (one night waited an hour, then bailed entirely on the MDR) We felt the MDR was a hot mess, and food was inconsistent. We did enjoy our servers though.

[Wine-O]

We just got off Summit, Traditional Dining, 2nd Seating. My observation was food & service were excellent. There were a lot of empty tables from time to time, but a lot of people eat in the specialty dining or the Oceanview Café buffet area, which I must admit is greatly improved from last year.

 

Only problem we encountered was the 10-15 minute wait to get into the dining room once it opened at 8:30 because of the one entrance. It was a complete zoo on the first 3 evenings.

 

We'll be sailing AQ and eating in Blu this Fall and normally eat around 8-8:30pm. If a Suite person comes up to dine in Blu and there are seats available, they will probably be seated, but will it be full at the time I arrive because they are taking up "my" seats?

 

I'm not sure how the Maitre'd handles the situation, but I would hope "space available" would mean ample space available for AQ pax should they seat Suite pax ahead of them.

[ECCruise]

My experience is that no reservations are taken for prime time. It is first come first served only.

 

Can we reserve prime time before the cruise? Has anyone done this?

 

You can and we have many times. You get a set reservation time and up until this point' date=' we have never had to wait, save a few minutes on formal nights.

 

I will be livid, frankly, if I pre-book a 7:30 reservation many months in advance and find a suite guest seated immediately while I have to pocket a beeper and wait.

 

In fact, the OP has said, in this thread, "Sign at the entrance to Select Dining says Suite Guests do not have to wait."

 

I understand that suite guests are paying, IMHO, absurd amounts of $$$ for their room and should be afforded [i']many[/i] perks, but NOT when it comes at the expense of another paying passenger.

[Can'tstopcruising]

You can and we have many times. You get a set reservation time and up until this point, we have never had to wait, save a few minutes on formal nights.

 

I will be livid, frankly, if I pre-book a 7:30 reservation many months in advance and find a suite guest seated immediately while I have to pocket a beeper and wait.

 

In fact, the OP has said, in this thread, "Sign at the entrance to Select Dining says Suite Guests do not have to wait."

 

I understand that suite guests are paying, IMHO, absurd amounts of $$$ for their room and should be afforded many perks, but NOT when it comes at the expense of another paying passenger.

 

Hear! Hear!

[WpgCruise]

If a Suite person comes up to dine in Blu and there are seats available, they will probably be seated, but will it be full at the time I arrive because they are taking up "my" seats?

 

This to me is an interesting point.

 

The reason we choose Select Dining is choice: our choice at what time to dine.

 

If we arrive at 7:30, how do we know how many Suite guests were seated at 7:15 thus reducing available space for Select ?

 

My point is how do we know if there are 20 Suite guests in Select Dining or 2 ?

Edited June 9, 2015 by WpgCruise

[Cindy]

Correct. My feelings are Celebrity has really messed up the MDR, at least on Summit. I suspect some of those empty seats people either ate at a specialty restaurant, the expanded buffet or changed to (or just showed up at) Select dining.

 

Until the new ships come out I think Celebrity needs to find a better way, at least on the M class ships to handle the dining room reservations. Which should have been thought about before they took away so much of the MDR to create specialty dining.

 

 

I think this is becoming more and more of a problem on all cruise lines. As Specialty restaurants and other dining options become more popular and prevalent, many seats in traditional dining are vacant. What this does is hold large chunks of available space for guests who are dining elsewhere. I think as long as the cruise lines continue to try to please both the traditionalists and the people who want more flexibility and variety, this is going to be a problem.

 

When we were on the Oasis, we only ate in the MDR one time. We had a reservation for 6:30, we were in a suite, and we still waited almost 30 minutes. Finally the hostess walked a group of us who were willing to share down 2 decks to the traditional dining room. We were seated at one of many empty tables.

[Jane2357]

When we first started cruising we always had late seating - then we tried select and never went back - we love the flexibility of showing up when we want to dine - sometimes with a reservation and sometimes without. Now because we have so many specialty dining options it sounds as if those early and late seatings often have large numbers of vacancies. I believe this is going to eventually lead to the end of early and late seatings with everyone having select dining. This would open up so much more space for the continuous turnover of select diners. I know there are die hard early/late people but as it is now - they are trying to please everyone and are pleasing very few.

[doublemm16]

We were in a suite, and my friend wanted to eat in traditional dining. We met with the Maitre D and he assigned us a table. My friend wanted to switch tables and there was nothing available, so he assigned us a table in late dining.

 

We did not go to select dining, nor did we bump anyone from their dining assignment. I am not sure it is only suite guests that are the problem. I have been reading that people missed their assigned dining time, so they went to Select Dining. Should that be allowed? In the past it was not. You would have to go to the buffet or to a specialty restaurant. Maybe Celebrity should be stricter about all guests who are not assigned Select dining.

[villauk]

When we first started cruising we always had late seating - then we tried select and never went back - we love the flexibility of showing up when we want to dine - sometimes with a reservation and sometimes without. Now because we have so many specialty dining options it sounds as if those early and late seatings often have large numbers of vacancies. I believe this is going to eventually lead to the end of early and late seatings with everyone having select dining. This would open up so much more space for the continuous turnover of select diners. I know there are die hard early/late people but as it is now - they are trying to please everyone and are pleasing very few.

 

But surely it would still work if they opened up the entire MDR to select and then allowed those that wanted an early/late dinner to prebook the same slot each evening? That way, it would result in those empty tables being used throughout the whole dining time. They could easily sit people together that so wished to be on larger tables to socialise: if you prebook and then there are others in the line that don't mind sharing a table, then they could place them together. Am I simplifying it too much :confused:?

[CruisingChick]

When we first started cruising we always had late seating - then we tried select and never went back - we love the flexibility of showing up when we want to dine - sometimes with a reservation and sometimes without. Now because we have so many specialty dining options it sounds as if those early and late seatings often have large numbers of vacancies. I believe this is going to eventually lead to the end of early and late seatings with everyone having select dining. This would open up so much more space for the continuous turnover of select diners. I know there are die hard early/late people but as it is now - they are trying to please everyone and are pleasing very few.

 

I have a feeling you are correct, at least on all the Mass Market Cruise Lines. It's too bad as one of the big reasons we fell in love with cruising is having your table waiting for you with your waiters every evening and enjoying meeting other cruisers at dinner.

 

If I have to make reservations and then stand in line and wait with a pager, or pay $50+ per person to eat in a specialty restaurant, I might as well vacation on land or stay at home. Especially since it seems the service is also beginning to suffer.

[Iamcruzin]

My experience is that no reservations are taken for prime time. It is first come first served only.

 

Can we reserve prime time before the cruise? Has anyone done this?

 

I just did this today for my cruise in May of 2016. I booked 8:00 each night in select dining. I have never made a reservation on the ship or before boarding a ship. I never really had a problem walking up at 8:00 except on formal nights when the dining room is the busiest. After reading this thread I decided that I had nothing to lose if I booked almost a year in advance. Can't wait to see how this turns out.

 

By the way I had a choice of any time slot from opening to closing of the MDR.

Edited June 9, 2015 by Iamcruzin

[Can'tstopcruising]

But surely it would still work if they opened up the entire MDR to select and then allowed those that wanted an early/late dinner to prebook the same slot each evening? That way, it would result in those empty tables being used throughout the whole dining time. They could easily sit people together that so wished to be on larger tables to socialise: if you prebook and then there are others in the line that don't mind sharing a table, then they could place them together. Am I simplifying it too much :confused:?

 

The traditionalists like to have the same tablemates each night.

I suppose they could ask for a large table the first night, then after dinner, tell the hostess that they would like the same table every night. We have done this with friends and they did accommodate us.

[ECCruise]

But surely it would still work if they opened up the entire MDR to select and then allowed those that wanted an early/late dinner to prebook the same slot each evening? That way, it would result in those empty tables being used throughout the whole dining time. They could easily sit people together that so wished to be on larger tables to socialise: if you prebook and then there are others in the line that don't mind sharing a table, then they could place them together. Am I simplifying it too much :confused:?

 

No, you might be on to something!

Or, section off a portion of the current traditional section and assign that to traditional and allow the balance to be Select. At the introduction of Select, this was the way it was done on the upper level. Only a portion was dedicated to Select and the balance to traditional.

As the tide is rapidly changing, they should go with the flow, which is the majority want Select, or Blu, or Luminae, or the buffet. The only problem, which I predicted months ago, is dedicating one door on each level to Blu and Luminae, forcing the balance (and the largest number of diners) into 2 doors where there once were 4.

[CruisingChick]

But surely it would still work if they opened up the entire MDR to select and then allowed those that wanted an early/late dinner to prebook the same slot each evening?

 

At the same table with the same wait staff.

[dkjretired]

One of the problems I believe is that Select is becoming more popular. I would suggest that at some point in the near future, Select will be downstairs and traditional upstairs. I was on Summit last week also and food was excellent, can't say the same for service in Select, very inconsistent.

[CruisingChick]

Hopefully they are building the new ships to accommodate all this change in dining. The only real problems seems to be on the M Class ships which were not designed at all for this.

[hypercafe]

Do not forget they added a lot of cabins to the M class ships a while back which IMO ruined the ships then making them overcrowded.

 

 

Sent from my XT1032 using Forums mobile app

[wwcruisers]

Hopefully they are building the new ships to accommodate all this change in dining.

 

Anna Marie -- I'm worried that the new "Edge" ships will go in the same direction that RC took Quantum Class -- total elimination of the MDR. We might not know what they are really planning, for quite some time. With Quantum, RC did not announce this total change in dining concept until AFTER booking started. And, yes, it caused quite the uproar on the RC boards!

[ClaudiaB]

You can and we have many times. You get a set reservation time and up until this point, we have never had to wait, save a few minutes on formal nights.

 

I will be livid, frankly, if I pre-book a 7:30 reservation many months in advance and find a suite guest seated immediately while I have to pocket a beeper and wait.

 

In fact, the OP has said, in this thread, "Sign at the entrance to Select Dining says Suite Guests do not have to wait."

 

I understand that suite guests are paying, IMHO, absurd amounts of $$$ for their room and should be afforded many perks, but NOT when it comes at the expense of another paying passenger.

 

And as a suite guest I totally agree. As I stated on my earlier post in this thread, it's quite arrogant and 'entitled' to take someone else's reservation or just walk up and be seated while others with reservations or who are in line have to wait. I can't fathom in a million years doing that. That's just rude. If we are ever in that position (not eating in Luminae or not in a specialty with a reservation) I would NOT allow the concierge at Michael's Club to escort me ahead of others in line. No way. Yes I am in a suite and paid more money than some to sleep in that room, but that shouldn't give me preferential treatment over someone else. We never did it in Blu and we wouldn't do it elsewhere. Please please people don't believe that all people who just happen to spend more for a cabin are like this. We/they are not. Actually my husband and I would wait for other suite people to eat - I mean it's just food. There are more seats available at dinner than there are people on the ship. I hate to see the divisiveness that is here on these boards. I am aware that there are probably less than 10% of cruisers here on Cruise Critic. So questions and answers and opinions here are in just our tight little group on this website.

 

Oh, fyi it's not always 'absurd' amounts of money for a suite. We've had sky suites for basically the same as aqua.

[Winnigirl]

 

I understand that suite guests are paying, IMHO, absurd amounts of $$$ for their room and should be afforded many perks, but NOT when it comes at the expense of another paying passenger.

 

THIS is the sign that should be at the entrance of the MDR.

[CruisingChick]

Anna Marie -- I'm worried that the new "Edge" ships will go in the same direction that RC took Quantum Class -- total elimination of the MDR. We might not know what they are really planning, for quite some time. With Quantum, RC did not announce this total change in dining concept until AFTER booking started. And, yes, it caused quite the uproar on the RC boards!

 

Suzanne, I thought I read that Anthem will also have traditional dining onboard as so many people complained about Dynamic Dining.

 

I was following all the posts about Quantum and was getting a headache with people who were complaining about having a hard time trying to make reservations for all the different night's dinners and also shows. When did cruising get so hard? It use to be easy.

 

Decision: Early seating or late seating. You go to the show that corresponds with your dining time. All you had to plan was what you would do in port.

[ECCruise]

 

Oh, fyi it's not always 'absurd' amounts of money for a suite. We've had sky suites for basically the same as aqua.

 

Totally agree. Nothing is "always".

 

But on the cruises we have taken and booked since the "suite enhancements" $800-$1000 per night is pretty average. (We do not sail in the Caribbean, so that may be a factor.) And for us, no Celebrity cruise is worth anywhere near that kind of money.

[akeka]

We booked the Summit for April 2016 last week and could not get early assigned seating in the dining room. I'm very interested in prebooking a reservation for select dining.

 

How is that done?

[greeneg]

Interesting thread, we're on the Solstice on the 19th of this month to Alaska. We're early, traditional dining, and because there are 19 of us traveling as one, big happy, family, I've requested two tables for 10 for the early seating. It will be interesting to see how this is handled....

 

Ed

[CruisingChick]

For the life of me I don't understand why Early Seating always sells out first.

 

In the 15 years we have been cruising we have always had second seating (late) dining. We could never eat at 6:00 PM.