Specialty restaurants first night

[NCteacherlovescruising]

We have reservations at Qsine the first night to take advantage of the discount.  However, I switched us from Select to Late dining. I’m thinking we should be in the MDR the first night to meet our servers and table mates. Do you try to make it to the MDR the first night if you don’t have Select?

[Georgia_Peaches]

Lots of people do their own thing on embarkation night.  You will have plenty of opportunity to meet your servers and table mates throughout the trip.  Perhaps they will be doing their own thing as well.  I'd keep the Qsine and take advantage of the discount.

[keesar]

1 minute ago, NCteacherlovescruising said:

We have reservations at Qsine the first night to take advantage of the discount.  However, I switched us from Select to Late dining. I’m thinking we should be in the MDR the first night to meet our servers and table mates. Do you try to make it to the MDR the first night if you don’t have Select?

 

When we cruised in the MDR with an assigned seating,  we made it a point to make it the first night as I felt it set a tone for the rest of the cruise with others including staff.  Then we would tell others which night we would be eating elsewhere.  

[hopeless holiday booker]

41 minutes ago, keesar said:

 

When we cruised in the MDR with an assigned seating,  we made it a point to make it the first night as I felt it set a tone for the rest of the cruise with others including staff.  Then we would tell others which night we would be eating elsewhere.  

We always do the same but often our table mates don't arrive until the second night - so I guess I would say, do what makes you happy - it's your holiday.

[Luvcrusn]

We especially enjoy dining in specialty restaurants on the first night. The MDR tends to be a bit chaotic the first evening since everyone is of course arriving at the same time and no one knows where their table is and must be escorted to their table. The specialty restaurants are accustomed to escorting diners to their tables and are much more laid back. In addition, it will be much easier for your waiter to learn your preferences on night 2, since he/she will only have you to remember!  You can say hello to your fellow diners and wait staff on night two. It will be much quieter. Enjoy your cruise.

[screwsmcernst]

We also have reservations in the Tuscan Grille the first night.  We have early seating in the MDR.  I have a food allergy, so I will be meeting with the Maitre D when we get on the ship.  While we are meeting, I will let them know that we will not be there that evening.

Edited July 24, 2019 by screwsmcernst

[dkjretired]

13 hours ago, NCteacherlovescruising said:

We have reservations at Qsine the first night to take advantage of the discount.  However, I switched us from Select to Late dining. I’m thinking we should be in the MDR the first night to meet our servers and table mates. Do you try to make it to the MDR the first night if you don’t have Select?

 

I think you may be disappointed if your goal is to meet your tablemates, very good chance they will be in Specialties that night and many are reporting that other nights their stablemates are often not there.  Its not like it was years ago. 

[FlorenceItaly]

In June we dined in Tuscan the first evening.  We wanted to avoid the first evening confusion in the dining room and take advantage of the discount.  Tuscan was completely full the first evening.  As far as meeting our tablemates, we book a table for 2 on the majority of our cruises.

[helen haywood]

Keep your reservation.  As mentioned above, very likely that other table mates also wouldn't be there the first evening or evenings thereafter.  Between the Buffet and the specialty restaurants and the Dining Packages many people are not in the MDR every night.  

[doubled]

You can go to dinning room and meet your servers before your reservation and let them know you will be absent and how much you look forward to being with them on future evenings.  That way they can inform other table mates and they won't be waiting on you.  Enjoy!  It is nice to miss all the confusion the first night.

 

Art

[NCteacherlovescruising]

2 hours ago, FlorenceItaly said:

In June we dined in Tuscan the first evening.  We wanted to avoid the first evening confusion in the dining room and take advantage of the discount.  Tuscan was completely full the first evening.  As far as meeting our tablemates, we book a table for 2 on the majority of our cruises.

 

I bet!  I tried to get Tuscan the first night but the only time we could get was like 10!  Who on earth wants to eat a big dinner at 10:00 at night?  The only reason we changed to late dining was to have tablemates and the same wait staff every day. 

 

16 hours ago, Luvcrusn said:

We especially enjoy dining in specialty restaurants on the first night. The MDR tends to be a bit chaotic the first evening since everyone is of course arriving at the same time and no one knows where their table is and must be escorted to their table. The specialty restaurants are accustomed to escorting diners to their tables and are much more laid back. 

 

Good point. I hadn’t thought of this. 

 

3 hours ago, dkjretired said:

 

I think you may be disappointed if your goal is to meet your tablemates, very good chance they will be in Specialties that night and many are reporting that other nights their stablemates are often not there.  Its not like it was years ago. 

 

I will be so disappointed if we end up sitting alone.  The main reason we switched from Select was to enjoy conversing with others during dinner. With this being our first Celebrity cruise and our first time in Bermuda, I thought we could learn a lot from them as well. On our one and only Princess Cruise we were seated at a table with three older couples that had cruised with them for years and we so enjoyed all their stories and tips. 

 

43 minutes ago, helen haywood said:

Keep your reservation.  As mentioned above, very likely that other table mates also wouldn't be there the first evening or evenings thereafter.  Between the Buffet and the specialty restaurants and the Dining Packages many people are not in the MDR every night.  

 

That would be so disappointing for us!  We have only been on one other cruise where this happened. We didn’t go the first night, but others did and then never returned. 

 

[NCteacherlovescruising]

6 minutes ago, doubled said:

You can go to dinning room and meet your servers before your reservation and let them know you will be absent and how much you look forward to being with them on future evenings.  That way they can inform other table mates and they won't be waiting on you.  Enjoy!  It is nice to miss all the confusion the first night.

 

Art

 

I didn’t know we could meet our servers before our reservation. How and when could we do that?  We our CC so we will be having our embarkation lunch in there, but I don’t know if our servers will be there then or how we would even know who there are. 

[helen haywood]

I don't think that's really feasible.  You'd have to have someone escort you to your table as on the first night you wouldn't know where it is.  You could go tell the hostess at the door whenever the MDR opens for dinner that night (Deck 3 as you have traditional seating) that you won't be dining there that evening.  She can pass that along to your waitstaff.

[NCteacherlovescruising]

53 minutes ago, helen haywood said:

I don't think that's really feasible.  You'd have to have someone escort you to your table as on the first night you wouldn't know where it is.  You could go tell the hostess at the door whenever the MDR opens for dinner that night (Deck 3 as you have traditional seating) that you won't be dining there that evening.  She can pass that along to your waitstaff.

 

We usually go to the MDR after lunch to find our table. This time we will be eating lunch in there so I assume they would let us see where we will be sitting.  They don’t actually seat you for dinner, do they?  

[helen haywood]

They do escort you to your table the first night as you wouldn't know where it is...

[NCteacherlovescruising]

20 minutes ago, helen haywood said:

They do escort you to your table the first night as you wouldn't know where it is...

 

We always found our table shortly after embarkation because we wanted to see where it was and how many would be at it.  Perhaps they did still seat us, I don’t recall.  

[helen haywood]

In that case I'm sure they'd be happy to free up a waiter and let you go yourself!  But you still have to check in with the hostess.  There are always people getting confused and going to Deck 4 which is just for Select Dining or vice versa....

[hcat]

2 hours ago, helen haywood said:

Keep your reservation.  As mentioned above, very likely that other table mates also wouldn't be there the first evening or evenings thereafter.  Between the Buffet and the specialty restaurants and the Dining Packages many people are not in the MDR every night.  

Excellent  summary.

We stopped loving the mdr when we would be assigned  to a table for 6 or 8 and NO one showed up on sev nights.  Some never showed, others   came on some nights and of course we were away on a few nights too!  That was the signal that trad dining was no longer workable for us.  Fortunately, along came BLU and we never went back to trad dining in the mdr..

 

As a courtesy OP can let the maitre know they will be absent..Hope you won't miss put on the Prime Rib!

[helen haywood]

If they miss the MDR on the first night of a seven night cruise....alas they would miss the prime rib.  Even when we've been in AQ we forgo Blu on that first night in favor of the MDR. 

[NCteacherlovescruising]

28 minutes ago, hcat said:

Excellent  summary.

We stopped loving the mdr when we would be assigned  to a table for 6 or 8 and NO one showed up on sev nights.  Some never showed, others   came on some nights and of course we were away on a few nights too!  That was the signal that trad dining was no longer workable for us.  Fortunately, along came BLU and we never went back to trad dining in the mdr..

 

As a courtesy OP can let the maitre know they will be absent..Hope you won't miss put on the Prime Rib!

 

27 minutes ago, helen haywood said:

If they miss the MDR on the first night of a seven night cruise....alas they would miss the prime rib.  Even when we've been in AQ we forgo Blu on that first night in favor of the MDR. 

 

If we find our tablemates aren’t at our table we may not bother going either, although that would be disappointing.  We have reservations at Qsine the first night and Tuscan the third, then we will be in Bermuda.  I’m sure I could easily eat off a buffet or order room service and dine on our balcony and not have to worry about getting dressed for dinner if it’s just going to be the two of us anyway.  I don’t think the Blue menu looks appealing, but I almost wish we could eat there.  They already accepted our MoveUp to CC, so I don’t think I can bid again. At least I don’t see a way to do it now. 

 

Oh, and if they have prime rib the first night I would cancel our reservations. How late can we cancel and still get our OBC returned to our account?  At this point prime rib is not listed on our menu on the app. I wouldn’t mind doing Qsine later in the week, especially if we could find a discount again at another point, or if we meet another couple that would like to go with us. I’ve heard it’s more fun with a larger group. I have read on here that some have been offered good prices later in the week, perhaps while we are docked in Bermuda they won’t be busy. 

Edited July 24, 2019 by NCteacherlovescruising

[NCteacherlovescruising]

41 minutes ago, helen haywood said:

There are always people getting confused and going to Deck 4 which is just for Select Dining or vice versa....

 

Do they have those cool chairs (the really high ones) on deck 5 too, or just on Deck 4?  

[hcat]

1 hour ago, helen haywood said:

If they miss the MDR on the first night of a seven night cruise....alas they would miss the prime rib.  Even when we've been in AQ we forgo Blu on that first night in favor of the MDR. 

 

Us too...thought we were the only ones!

Plus it saved alot of the line up delay first night at BLU 

 

A bit trickier now as menus can change but that's the first thing we  usually checked and called for warly MDR res asap...Not usually a problem getting a res and great Prime Rib!

[hcat]

In Bermuda..we always try Frog and Onion at the port for late lunch  and drinks.. they usually have nice music and we have   lots of fun...not just cruisers go there!

[Redtravel]

First night is prime rib.  It is the best meal of the cruise. Usually there are deeper discounts for specialty restaurants when you book during the cruise. I have often asked for 50% off and gotten it. They may say no.  If so, try again. You can negotiate for a better deal than they offer.  The MDR menus are available from guest services. Look at them and then decide which night you would like to skip.  Don’t pay full $50pp for any of the specialty venues. They are not worth it.  

[NCteacherlovescruising]

52 minutes ago, Redtravel said:

First night is prime rib.  It is the best meal of the cruise. Usually there are deeper discounts for specialty restaurants when you book during the cruise. I have often asked for 50% off and gotten it. They may say no.  If so, try again. You can negotiate for a better deal than they offer.  The MDR menus are available from guest services. Look at them and then decide which night you would like to skip.  Don’t pay full $50pp for any of the specialty venues. They are not worth it.  

 

Mid we find they are indeed having prime rib the first night we will cancel and go to the MDR. Can we cancel same day?  We do have reservations for day 3 because it’s our Anniversary and we want to make sure we get in.