I'm finding it hard to believe?

[Olive1950]

If you have Select Dining on your reservation, the computer will automatically default to having you pre pay the gratuities, we found that out the last few years with Blu.

 

You have the MDR on your reservation because they still will reserve a seat for you there.

 

SO, were your gratuities refunded to you???

[GUT2407]

They would not do this. Select is way more popular than traditional dining.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

 

If select is so popular why are people getting knocked back on traditional, or does it confirm earlier speculation it is about forcing pre-pay grats.

[Cruising Is Bliss]

Royal Caribbean is doing dynamic dining on their new ships and will go fleet wide soon. They are doing away with traditional dining. If you prefer a set time at the same place with the same wait staff, reservations can be made on a first come, first serve basis. They call it dynamic choice and dynamic classic. X will more then likely do the same and therefore are not giving out early or late seating. I thing this is a great idea.

 

Dynamic dining was a total disaster on the only ship doing it so RCCL has already said they're not going to roll it fleet wide. They're still trying to make it work on just one ship.

 

This is not a Celebrity conspiracy to force people to book Select. Those who love traditional dining are not going to budge and it really is a deal breaker for them.

 

People who favor Select or specialty restaurants have figured out all they have to do to avoid pre-paid gratuities is book traditional fixed dining and then change it on board. Like magic their Select gratuities are now charged against their OBC.

 

Suite passengers have reported they were told they were assigned traditional at booking because that was the only way to avoid the system charging pre-paid gratuities.

 

My experience with very complex inhouse business software makes it seem quite reasonable, given the problems with the Celebrity website as an indicator, wait listed traditional places open up after various gratuities are adjusted on the back end.

Edited July 15, 2015 by Cruising Is Bliss

[Caribbean Chris]

 

I wonder why I have a MDR time on my reservation when I am in a suite. I won't be dining in the MDR at any time.

 

My question is this: if I am in a suite and my reservations indicates Select dining, will these nit-wits charge me for gratuities at final payment time (if I don't have prepaid gratuities)? I certainly hope not... because there will be H**l to pay if they do.

 

 

You and/or your TA need to be sure it doesn't say Select. Just pick early or late, doesn't matter. Had this happen when we booked direct before transferring to an agent. The TA got it fixed because yes, the computer was tacking on the grats.

[Snit13]

Royal Caribbean is doing dynamic dining on their new ships and will go fleet wide soon. They are doing away with traditional dining. If you prefer a set time at the same place with the same wait staff, reservations can be made on a first come, first serve basis. They call it dynamic choice and dynamic classic. X will more then likely do the same and therefore are not giving out early or late seating. I thing this is a great idea.

 

You are not up to date. That plan was scrapped as I read about it yesterday. Only the Quantum class ships will have dynamic dining.

[dkjretired]

SO, were your gratuities refunded to you???

 

 

Never said I was in that situation, just explaining that past practice particularly with Blu are that if you have Select Dining on your reservation, the computer will automatically charge you pre paid gratuities.

[cd-tk]

I was just on the RC web site, Dynamic dinning has not been scratched from Oasis class ships, just postponed until later this year. If they are successful, you can bet the rest of the fleet will convert after they drydock and X will fallow. The ships will have a choice of dinning rooms with different menus, you can choose which one you want which night you want. If you want to dress for dinner 1 dinning will be formal all nights. If you want traditional dinning you can reserve your table and wait staff in one dinning room for the entire trip at the same time every night.

[SantaFeFan]

What is the source of this information? (Underline added).

 

Must be from one of the conspiracy theory websites. Seems there are three people on this thread who believe what they read on those sites. :D

Edited July 16, 2015 by SantaFeFan

[SantaFeFan]

I was just on the RC web site, Dynamic dinning has not been scratched from Oasis class ships, just postponed until later this year. If they are successful, you can bet the rest of the fleet will convert after they drydock and X will fallow. The ships will have a choice of dinning rooms with different menus, you can choose which one you want which night you want. If you want to dress for dinner 1 dinning will be formal all nights. If you want traditional dinning you can reserve your table and wait staff in one dinning room for the entire trip at the same time every night.

 

You should read this CruiseCritic new article posted just today. It's titled "Royal Caribbean Ditches Dynamic Dining for Non-Quantum Class Cruise Ships":

 

http://www.cruisecritic.com/news/news.cfm?ID=6444

 

And I certainly hope that Celebrity doesn't "fallow", as you are predicting. I am pretty sure that they aren't intending to get into farming anytime soon. :D

Edited July 16, 2015 by SantaFeFan

[cruiser1247]

I have had not one problem booking seating times. That being said I only book on board for future cruises. By doing the booking on board you get the best pricing by far, and some extra perks also.

[Redtravel]

On recent cruises, I heard a rumor that traditional assigned table dining was ending. Everyone in the MDR would be select.

[cgags47]

On recent cruises, I heard a rumor that traditional assigned table dining was ending. Everyone in the MDR would be select.

 

I really hope you're being sarcastic with this. Everybody has heard rumors of something at some time.

[glenneagle]

We booked a cruise for October 2016.

We are sailing with friends.They booked the day before us and were wait listed for late seating.

We booked and were given late seating,not wait listed.I was told because we are elite plus we get our dining preference when booking.

So status helps with dining request.Our friends reservation is linked to ours so we were told they will get late seating when they open dining times.But they keep times for elite and up.

[joanne2]

I recently booked a cruise for Oct. 2016. I asked for and received traditional late dining. But I was also charged for gratuities, even though I have the free gratuities with the 1/2/3 deal (also have the drink package and $300 OBC). TA is looking into why we were charged for the gratuities.

[Knolmom]

I was told by a former TA of ours( she retired) that when a TA accepts a large group of cabins on hold for future customers( groups) she also gets the same number of early or late seating spots. These spots are held by the TA as long as they have available cabins. When the unsold cabins are returned to inventory, which is usually 90-120 days out, the dining slots that go with these unsold cabins become available. So if your TA does not hold large ( group) space on the ship, you will probably be wait listed for your dining preference until about 75 days out.

[Cruising Is Bliss]

 

I wonder why I have a MDR time on my reservation when I am in a suite. I won't be dining in the MDR at any time.

 

My question is this: if I am in a suite and my reservations indicates Select dining, will these nit-wits charge me for gratuities at final payment time (if I don't have prepaid gratuities)? I certainly hope not... because there will be H**l to pay if they do.

 

As far as dynamic dining goes on RCI, it sounds a lot like "freestyle" on Norwegian.... Don't like that either.

 

Hi Beth (gimletgal.)

 

Another suite passenger asked the same question and was told it was the only way to avoid the system automatically adding pre-pay gratuities to their booking.

[woodyren]

Select is becoming the only available option as Celebrity wants everyone to pre-pay gratuities before they get aboard. Too many people are cancelling their gratuities that it is affecting the crew's wages and is causing a lot of ill feeling with their staff.

Celebrity please make gratuities (service charge) mandatory across the board then dining choice will be normalised.

 

Interesting that you say this when RCL (same parent company) have just removed the requirement to pre pay grats when choosing select/anytime/MTD/DD (whatever it is called).

 

Does not make sense to do this if what you state is true on Celebrity. You would expect the same on Royal.

[gergles]

I think a big part of the reason there's so much drama around grats is that people want to pay them out of their OBC. Being forced to not spend your OBC on grats is good for the cruise line (because then you have to spend it on high-margin services, not on paying the crew), so I think that's why they've left the system the dysfunctional way it is.

[yoj13]

I am the original poster. Lots of interesting theories have surfaced. Of course, we'll never know what's what until things happen. Interestingly, my TA has just phoned me, he was at an TA's meeting last night and was able to speak to a Celebrity representative whereby he was able to outline the scenario.

They said they would speak with someone higher up the pecking order!

Call it co-incidence if you wish, but today he has been able to choose traditional dining. After continuing with the booking he then receives a message saying:- 'oops there has been an error' and he needs to speak to the support desk at Celebrity. He is ringing tomorrow with any updates.

[Honeybearhollow]

Just for information, but I discovered that when the gratuities are added to your pre-cruise bill, the insurance goes up. When I complained to my TA, she took it off, because I don't want to pay insurance on the gratuities. Others may not have noticed this.

[Dehawes]

Bypass your TA and make a call yourself to Celebrity. Be kiind to the person who answers and ask if they can accommodate your request. I did this when we booked in Jan 2015 for a cruise in Sept. 2015. The person I had helping me said she had to make a call to the ship to ok it and put me on hold for 15-20 minutes. I got my request for set early dining. We enjoy getting acquainted with our table mates especially on a longer cruise. We also enjoy the same waiters.

[pbrady]

We were on the Eclipse in February (2015) and booked Feb 2016 & 2017. We were forced to Select for 2016 & I was told we got the last table for 2017 - a full 2 years in advance.

I am not a fan of Select dining for 2 reasons: 1) We travel in a group & having a set time makes life easier & stops the daily 'time' argument; 2) I like having the same waiter & assistant every day - they know what we like, drinks are on the table....

I am dreading refereeing the daily agreement on when to go to dinner.

[Christine Frances]

We were on the Eclipse in February (2015) and booked Feb 2016 & 2017. We were forced to Select for 2016 & I was told we got the last table for 2017 - a full 2 years in advance.

I am not a fan of Select dining for 2 reasons: 1) We travel in a group & having a set time makes life easier & stops the daily 'time' argument; 2) I like having the same waiter & assistant every day - they know what we like, drinks are on the table....

I am dreading refereeing the daily agreement on when to go to dinner.

 

Link all your reservations and have your TA make a call to Celebrity:)

[pbrady]

Reservations are all linked & I am the TA - can't make it happen. We are on a wait list, but not holding my breath.

[wallie5446]

We were on the Eclipse in February (2015) and booked Feb 2016 & 2017. We were forced to Select for 2016 & I was told we got the last table for 2017 - a full 2 years in advance.

I am not a fan of Select dining for 2 reasons: 1) We travel in a group & having a set time makes life easier & stops the daily 'time' argument; 2) I like having the same waiter & assistant every day - they know what we like, drinks are on the table....

I am dreading refereeing the daily agreement on when to go to dinner.

 

Then don't tell them it is Select, just tell them you got a very special program set up just for ya'll. You will be escorted to a different table ea evening to get a variety of staff taking care of you. They still have to be there at 6:00 or 8:30. Be there or go to the buffet! Just an idea that probably aint worth nuttin!