Anytime dining? Thoughts?

[Woodstove]

We sail on Silhoutte on April 8 and have chosen the anytime dining. Just wondering how that has worked out? Much delays? We are in concierge and there are only two of us so I'm hoping it won't be an issue. We usually eat between 6&7pm. Last cruise was on Norweigian and the anytime dining worked perfectly.

Just wondering what you experienced?

[footer6]

I've has select dining several times on Celebrity. If you eat between 6 and 7 you shouldn't have a problem We have never waited more than a minute or two. You also can schedule specific times in advance.

[helen haywood]

We are Elite Plus on Celebrity and have always done Select Dining. We are a party of two who don't mind sharing, don't request a certain table or wait staff and like to eat around 6:45. We have never had a problem until our most recent cruise on Silhouette in January. Now, on that particular cruise there was a large group that bumped some 300 people out of Early Dining on Deck 3 into Select. I'm hoping that was the reason for the disaster that befell us. Every time we went to the MDR we were given a pager, quoted a 10 or 20 minute wait and we always ended up waiting twice that long. We weren't happy about it because we were told the pager would only work near by the MDR so we couldn't be in the Sky Lounge watching the sunset as we would have liked. We tried to figure out the routine and started going earlier and earlier but it made no difference. It was such an unpleasant experience that I got on our laptop while on the cruise and made reservations for every night for our next cruise, on the Reflection in April.

 

Now, you may not have any problems. But I would suggest, if you know what time you would like to eat, to make some reservations. They aren't carved in stone and if you find on your sailing that going when you want isn't a problem you can just tell the hostess to cancel them...if you'd rather eat at another time.

 

For me, eating in the Oceanview Buffet is NOT an option for dinner so it was really important to have my evening go the way we want. Drinks in Sky watching the sunset or sailaway followed by dinner without a long wait at the Passport Bar.

[RoyalVic]

Definitely reserve the times you want online - you can always change them!

[mafig]

I noticed a change when they stopped making guests pre-pay gratuities if they had Select.

[PRH]

Good luck! Silhouette has had a real problem with those in select wanting to dine between 6 and 7pm. Make reservations and lower your expectations and you should be ok

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[kevinyork]

Select used to work great. However it is the fallback for traditional diners who are too late to eat and suite or Aqua diners that want to try the MDR. Our first couple of X cruisers, Select was truly flexible and worked great but over the years the lack of flexibility has drove us to pre reserve times online in advance. This in turn reduces flexibility for others. In my opinion, Select should be ONLY for select diners and shouldn’t have reservations at all. I also think that tables in traditional dining that are not occupied within 30 mins should be opened up too.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[fshagan]

We were on the Infinity last September and we always had to wait for seating. It was usually 20 - 30 minutes. The tables were crowded and the experience less than ideal. Meal times were our least favorite part of that cruise.

[FLOURTOWN]

We tried anytime dining & was put in a jammed pack hallway with a pager & had to wait. This is not what dining on a ship should be like. Plus they rush you out. Years ago we tried 6:00 & found that this too is a rush from getting back from shore & eating all day anyway. We book 8:30 even though we eat at 4:30 at home! No wait, no rush & we get to sit by the pool watching the sunset with a drink!

[Woodstove]

Thanks for all your replies. I just booked all our reservations online. Hopefully it works out and if it doesn't it will just mean one or two more drinks before supper!;p

[Bo1953]

Our last experience on Millie was, we only had three (3) nights where there was a wait. The average wait time was 25 - 30 minutes, but our group whiled away the time at the bar... we had one person who never ate when they needed to during the day (medical reasons) so we sent them to OVC to get a snack to tie them over and that was fine.

 

The other four (4) nights there was no wait... we had a specific team and Sommelier desired so it was fine.

 

I accept that others like to eat when they want to eat, and that is fine. I would always defer to those folks just as long as it does not go beyond 45 minutes, otherwise I would be too over served at the bar to eat! LOL

 

bon appetite and bon voyage

[Munsterguy]

We were on Equinox last year and never waited more than a minute or two for our table. Was very happy with select .

[jagoffee]

Select used to work great. However it is the fallback for traditional diners who are too late to eat and suite or Aqua diners that want to try the MDR. Our first couple of X cruisers, Select was truly flexible and worked great but over the years the lack of flexibility has drove us to pre reserve times online in advance. This in turn reduces flexibility for others. In my opinion, Select should be ONLY for select diners and shouldn’t have reservations at all. I also think that tables in traditional dining that are not occupied within 30 mins should be opened up too.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

Then I guess you would not call it Select Dining if you could not Select it.

IMO the anytime dining type concept sometimes struggles because of some people’s insistence on keeping the traditional dining. This creates many unused seats in the Traditional dining rooms when cruisers dine elsewhere. (As you pointed out). If Celebrity could figure out how to do away with unused dining spots the problem would be solved.

[gwsster]

I agree that the reservations should be done away with....The "any time" dining was a pain. We had to wait until the Reservations were seated and at least once was a 45 minute wait. I was underwhelmed with Celebrity's dining plan. Make it traditional seatings and then true anytime dining where it is first come, first served.

 

Select used to work great. However it is the fallback for traditional diners who are too late to eat and suite or Aqua diners that want to try the MDR. Our first couple of X cruisers, Select was truly flexible and worked great but over the years the lack of flexibility has drove us to pre reserve times online in advance. This in turn reduces flexibility for others. In my opinion, Select should be ONLY for select diners and shouldn’t have reservations at all. I also think that tables in traditional dining that are not occupied within 30 mins should be opened up too.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[davekathy]

We always make reservations (5:30 or 6:00) on line before we sail for SD. No waiting to be seated. When we first board we request a table for two. We always get the same table for the entire cruise.

[helen haywood]

It’s just a pity that “anytime dining” doesn’t work better on X. NCL does it so well.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[jagoffee]

It’s just a pity that “anytime dining” doesn’t work better on X. NCL does it so well.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

My understanding is that NCL has no Traditional Dining option and everyone is on “anytime Dining”. Correct?

 

It also works well on the Oceania, but again no Traditioanl Dining option.

[Mapleleaf14]

We were also on the Silhouette cruise in January that had such a mess with Select dining. I had made a reservation for every night well before the cruise and it made no difference. The following week we were on the Equinox and it was wonderful!

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[nimiq]

Was on Silhouette before and had select dinning must say out of 7 nights we had to wait for 30 minutes in 3 occasions.

We had table fir four no sharing with others. What we did is that if we wanted to est st 7:30 then we showed up at 7:00 got the pager went for s drink and voila 7:30 got a table.

So that’s our trick just go 30 minutes prior to your perfect time and you should be fine.

 

 

Envoyé de mon iPhone en utilisant Forums

[helen haywood]

My understanding is that NCL has no Traditional Dining option and everyone is on “anytime Dining”. Correct?

 

 

 

It also works well on the Oceania, but again no Traditioanl Dining option.

 

 

 

Correct; NCL doesn’t have any “traditional” dining. But we never experienced the long waits. NCL’s specialty restaurants are more reasonably priced than X so maybe that takes some of the strain off the (and there are 3 on the Away ships) MDR. It just doesn’t seem like it should be so difficult.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[Driveshaft]

Go to manage your cruise and in Dining scroll to Select Dining and you can reserve times for all nights of your cruise, pre-cruise. I do this before the cruise and it has been fantastic for the last three i=of them. You can always change on board if necessary

[paulh84]

We were on Silhouette last month and had zero issues or waits with Select.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[jagoffee]

Correct; NCL doesn’t have any “traditional” dining. But we never experienced the long waits. NCL’s specialty restaurants are more reasonably priced than X so maybe that takes some of the strain off the (and there are 3 on the Away ships) MDR. It just doesn’t seem like it should be so difficult.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

That might be the reason. Based on my experiences on ships without traditional dining is that a seat is seldom not used. I see many empty seats in the Traditional dining area on Celebrity whenever I look in/down.