Pre-bookable dining - how far out from sail date?

[ellie84]

Does anyone know how far out from sail-date that the pre-bookable dining opens up on cruise planner? This is for the Apex in Sept 2020, but presuming it will follow same pattern as the other ships too in terms of how far in advance you can book. Currently it says on cruise planner, dining options not available. Any comments gratefully received! 

[ipeeinthepool]

1 hour ago, ellie84 said:

Does anyone know how far out from sail-date that the pre-bookable dining opens up on cruise planner? This is for the Apex in Sept 2020, but presuming it will follow same pattern as the other ships too in terms of how far in advance you can book. Currently it says on cruise planner, dining options not available. Any comments gratefully received! 

 

I've been booked for Select Dining times in February/March 2020 on the Silhouette for quite some time.  Have you tried to go to your cruise planner and book options?

[ellie84]

1 minute ago, ipeeinthepool said:

 

I've been booked for Select Dining times in February/March 2020 on the Silhouette for quite some time.  Have you tried to go to your cruise planner and book options?

Hi, thanks for your reply 🙂 Yes on cruise planner it just says dining options not available, and that’s for speciality and Select Dining times booking 😞 Could I ask whether you have an approx guess at when you’ve had those booked since? As in was it within 12 months of sail date?

[ipeeinthepool]

Things are always changing and it sometimes depends on the ship.  Lately I've been able to book Select Dining times about a year ahead of departure.  Since Apex is a new ship, perhaps it might be delayed.  

[bebe08]

We are on the Millennium April 2020...bookable dining only opened up about a month ago.  Shore excursions still aren't finalized.  There have been itinerary changes that aren't yet reflected in the shore excursions.  I did an on-line chat and was told they are normally finalized about 9 months prior to sail date.   

[ellie84]

1 hour ago, ipeeinthepool said:

Things are always changing and it sometimes depends on the ship.  Lately I've been able to book Select Dining times about a year ahead of departure.  Since Apex is a new ship, perhaps it might be delayed.  

Yes you make a good point about whether it’s the fact that it’s a new ship! Will just have to keep watching I suppose 🙂 Thanks!

[ellie84]

5 minutes ago, bebe08 said:

We are on the Millennium April 2020...bookable dining only opened up about a month ago.  Shore excursions still aren't finalized.  There have been itinerary changes that aren't yet reflected in the shore excursions.  I did an on-line chat and was told they are normally finalized about 9 months prior to sail date.   

Ah ok, so based on that then I probably shouldn’t expect to be able to see the dining options for another few months for our cruise. Thanks for the heads up about the shore excursions too. Much appreciated 🙂

[vtcruising]

17 minutes ago, ellie84 said:

Yes you make a good point about whether it’s the fact that it’s a new ship! Will just have to keep watching I suppose 🙂 Thanks!

Yes, my Apex dining planning isn't open for the Inaugural cruise on April 5. Since they haven't had the dining reveal yet, I suppose that there could be some tweaks in the restaurants (not that I've heard anything, but as with other X ships, not all restaurants are the same on each ship in a class). I've been watching closely for them to open too - hope it is soon! 🙂

[ellie84]

17 minutes ago, vtcruising said:

Yes, my Apex dining planning isn't open for the Inaugural cruise on April 5. Since they haven't had the dining reveal yet, I suppose that there could be some tweaks in the restaurants (not that I've heard anything, but as with other X ships, not all restaurants are the same on each ship in a class). I've been watching closely for them to open too - hope it is soon! 🙂

Aaah hadn’t even thought about the fact that the Apex dining reveal hasn’t happened yet! Yes I know exactly what you mean, just like to get organised!! 😂

[vtcruising]

1 hour ago, ellie84 said:

Aaah hadn’t even thought about the fact that the Apex dining reveal hasn’t happened yet! Yes I know exactly what you mean, just like to get organised!! 😂

Me too! Planning is half the fun! 🙂

[ellie84]

6 hours ago, vtcruising said:

Me too! Planning is half the fun! 🙂

My thoughts exactly hehe 🤪

[hcat]

Nothing available  yet for  Select Dining  res for May 2020 on Summit.

We prefer early dining times so hope they list it soon..

[vtcruising]

8 minutes ago, hcat said:

Nothing available  yet for  Select Dining  res for May 2020 on Summit.

We prefer early dining times so hope they list it soon..

I had fun choosing the 4 MDRs on the Jan Edge cruise. I was able to get exactly what times I wanted. I tried to not do the 2 restaurants that looked like they had the best Exclusive entrees for the probable Chic nights, since they usually have the best regular menu those nights. Silkroad recommended the scallops at Cosmo and beef tenderloin en croute at Normandie so I booked those restaurants for non-Chic nights. I'm very excited to try them all.

 

I did book the Daniel Boulud Chef's table with OBC - I will watch for more reviews of this to see if I want to keep it. It will be held in FCSH. I haven't booked any other specialties yet.

 

Can't wait to see if Apex has anything new dining-wise. The first cruise is 9 1/2 mos away so hopefully they will reveal something soon!

[wendyam76]

58 minutes ago, vtcruising said:

I had fun choosing the 4 MDRs on the Jan Edge cruise. I was able to get exactly what times I wanted. I tried to not do the 2 restaurants that looked like they had the best Exclusive entrees for the probable Chic nights, since they usually have the best regular menu those nights. Silkroad recommended the scallops at Cosmo and beef tenderloin en croute at Normandie so I booked those restaurants for non-Chic nights. I'm very excited to try them all.

 

I did book the Daniel Boulud Chef's table with OBC - I will watch for more reviews of this to see if I want to keep it. It will be held in FCSH. I haven't booked any other specialties yet.

 

Can't wait to see if Apex has anything new dining-wise. The first cruise is 9 1/2 mos away so hopefully they will reveal something soon!

About the Chef’s Table, my TA was on a working cruise a couple of weeks ago on Edge and she was told it was going to be in Eden and that it would be only open for those guests. And on the first night. All surprising to me! I’m on the fence about cancelling. 

Wendy 

[vtcruising]

46 minutes ago, wendyam76 said:

About the Chef’s Table, my TA was on a working cruise a couple of weeks ago on Edge and she was told it was going to be in Eden and that it would be only open for those guests. And on the first night. All surprising to me! I’m on the fence about cancelling. 

Wendy 

Thanks! I figured I'd see some reviews and cancel, if needed. I figured the price would only go up so locked it in now in case we want to do it. I'm fine with it being the first night and in Eden (the chef there was excellent), so will wait for reviews to see if the experience is worth the cost. Did your TA mention anything about the wine pairing?  I remember a thread a few weeks ago where the wine pairing added quite a more to the price - I'm not sure if my price included the wine or not. I'll figure it all out before then. 🙂

[wendyam76]

Unfortunately nothing was said about wine. I have a feeling my second week of the B2B may be the first time they do it on the Edge as I saw it only on that week’s planner and I think I saw/heard it appear the day they launched it. 

[vtcruising]

3 hours ago, wendyam76 said:

Unfortunately nothing was said about wine. I have a feeling my second week of the B2B may be the first time they do it on the Edge as I saw it only on that week’s planner and I think I saw/heard it appear the day they launched it. 

I looked more closely on the website and it said wine pairing extra. I looked back at the thread from May and it was $60 extra PP.  It sounds like the champagne that goes with the initial canapes will be included.  The wines look interesting, but we will probably just pair similar wines using our premium package.

 

This was from the website info - I hope it isn't really at 5:30.

"Your restaurant location and dining time will be confirmed in your stateroom on embarkation day.

Wine pairings available for purchase onboard."

 

[wendyam76]

I hope not 5.30 either!

I’ll be doing the same re the wines - happy to pay an upgrade if necessary from the Premium package. 

Wendy

[hcat]

Chefs Table menu  looks very interesting (for health reasons, we  probably would not add all that alcohol for me)

 

EDEN restaurant looks like a perfect location for that...I predicted it would be used for demonstrations etc . I think it has a view?

 

The first night might be an issue for us esp an  early hour...we  have mdrs booked for 8 nights, and on  one night we have a shore excursion with lite dinner.

 

Have to look at our Cruise Planner to see what is offered and what we woukd be giving up that night   First night is usually Prime Rib in mdr from what we recall

[vtcruising]

Yes, the timing is odd, but is probably the first night since that's the hardest to see usually and doing it at 5:30 (if true) they can still sell reservations to Eden starting at 7:30. The website says it is in FCSH and I found another place that it said it would be in the Jewel Box in FCSH (private dining space). Oh well. we will go with the flow. 🙂

 

Yes, looks like prime rib  - that is 50-50 in my experience sometimes really good, others not so much. I do like the mushroom soup the first night.

[hcat]

Fortunately we have time for feedback..if we book it, we can cancel it

[wendyam76]

It might be worth having a look at Jim-Iain’s amazing live review on Summit - the last couple of pages have quite a bit about Chef Daniel as he is onboard.

Wendy

[hcat]

Thank you..have been following the review..heading there now.

[b7440]

We have Select Dinning on our cruise this September, in the past I was able to pre-book dinner in the main dinning room for each night.  We found this worked great, we did not have to wait to be seated.

i was just in the cruise planner, I can not find anywhere to book this.  Has Celebrity changed the policy?

[FlyingAnchor]

I called today to ask about availability of Shore Excursions in Cruise Planner. The representative told me Cruise Planner will be available 9 months prior to my sailing.