Anytime Dining - Waitlist

[ev8876]

We’re waitlisted for anytime dining on our upcoming August 8 cruise on the Beyond.  Currently assigned to Select Early Dining.  If we don’t clear the waitlist prior to departure have others had any luck changing it with the MaitreD once on board?   Thanks. 

[m8zenblue]

Sometimes "Any Time Dining" is not so great.

On a recent X cruise on the Constellation we had AT dining, we usually had dinner around 7pm.

On several nights we were put on a wait list, we usually had to wait up to 30 minutes but one night it was nearly 90 minutes, even though we were sailing with only a third of passengers.

I am assuming it was staffing, not sure.

Lol, on one night we discovered that at one table of 4 they were playing cards.

[mickeysgal]

20 hours ago, ev8876 said:

We’re waitlisted for anytime dining on our upcoming August 8 cruise on the Beyond.  Currently assigned to Select Early Dining.  If we don’t clear the waitlist prior to departure have others had any luck changing it with the MaitreD once on board?   Thanks. 

Great question. We are in the same situation with our upcoming cruise .

[5waldos]

What was available has changed back and forth for our late July Alaska cruise. Initially there was ONLY Anytime. Later there was only Select. Then back to Anytime. No idea what is causing these changes but you might keep track of what is available- my experience suggests that with patience you may be able to switch to your preferred dining. 

[Saturngrl]

You may want to go into your Cruise Planner on the Celebrity website and make advanced reservations for Anytime Dining.  I did this on our next cruise for 6:30 every night, except the first.  We are planning to purchase a Specialty Dining Package and know the first night will be in one of those restaurants.  Happy cruise dining! 

[upwarduk]

AnyTime dining and Select are the same. This is:

A)either you pre book a time before you get on the ship,

B)or you turn up and hope for the best.You May be given a bleeper and asked to go to a bar, until a table come available.

Otherwise you are given either Early or Late seating at booking. This is usually in the MDR’s ground floor. The doors are shut about 20 minutes after the dining time, which is usually 6pm or 8.30pm.

This also ties in with theatre times of 7&9 pm.

 

Edited May 23, 2022 by upwarduk

[Gia2cats]

29 minutes ago, Saturngrl said:

You may want to go into your Cruise Planner on the Celebrity website and make advanced reservations for Anytime Dining.  I did this on our next cruise for 6:30 every night, except the first.  We are planning to purchase a Specialty Dining Package and know the first night will be in one of those restaurants.  Happy cruise dining! 

That is exactly what we did for our party of 6. I honestly had no idea that option was available but was pleased to find it. 

[ev8876]

We have been assigned the 6pm traditional dining and are waitlisted for anytime dining.  I'm hoping that the MaitreD can switch us once on board the ship if we don't clear the waitlist prior.  

[TowandaUK]

2 hours ago, 5waldos said:

What was available has changed back and forth for our late July Alaska cruise. Initially there was ONLY Anytime. Later there was only Select. Then back to Anytime. No idea what is causing these changes but you might keep track of what is available- my experience suggests that with patience you may be able to switch to your preferred dining. 

I agree with this suggestion. We were originally assigned early dining and put on a waitlist for anytime. I noticed when doing a dummy booking that new bookings had the chance to request anytime - although we hadn’t been advised that anytime was now available. We contacted X and got anytime. Keep checking and you may be able to change before boarding. 

[bmw-atl]

My question is how do I change my anytime dining reservations after I've made them on the cruise planner?  I realize three of the nights are for 7:45 PM and I'd meant to do earlier, but I cannot find a way to "modify" my reservations.  I assume we must wait until we are onboard and at that point try to change our reservations?  Anyone know how to change on the cruise planner site?  Thank you!

[Mark_T]

You can modify a reservation in your 'Order History'...

 

You can find that at the top of the screen in the Cruise Planner

[bmw-atl]

Mark_T, I also thought in the past there was a "modify" option in order history, but I can't find it 😞

 

[Mark_T]

It is there, but there are some similar places where it is not present, start here:

Click on 'Order History top right of the page...

 

Then for each item there is a 'modify' option bottom left...

As long as you are not within a few days of departure you should be able to change it there...

[cruisemom42]

To answer the original question, I was on the first Silhouette sailing out of Southampton in April. About a week before sailing I got a call from Celebrity basically kicking me out of Anytime Dining and telling me I had to select one of the fixed times. Needless to say I was not happy but they would not budge from this. I was told that once I was onboard I could "try" to get Anytime.

 

I made this my first priority on Boarding and I was able to get them to switch me back to Anytime, so I'm not sure what the "we must change you" charade was all about.

 

That said, once I was onboard and this was finally settled, I was unable to make a reservation on most nights for my desired times -- available times tended to be early or late only. My default was to show up at the MDR about 15 minutes before I really wanted to sit down -- most nights I was handed a pager and got summoned somewhere between 15-30 minutes later.

[bmw-atl]

Mark_T, I finally found the "cancel" option, so I just cancelled three of the reservations and rebooked for new times.  "Modify" only showed prior to checkout.  Thanks for your help!

[JeanieC,Aston]

26 minutes ago, cruisemom42 said:

To answer the original question, I was on the first Silhouette sailing out of Southampton in April. About a week before sailing I got a call from Celebrity basically kicking me out of Anytime Dining and telling me I had to select one of the fixed times. Needless to say I was not happy but they would not budge from this. I was told that once I was onboard I could "try" to get Anytime.

 

I made this my first priority on Boarding and I was able to get them to switch me back to Anytime, so I'm not sure what the "we must change you" charade was all about.

 

That said, once I was onboard and this was finally settled, I was unable to make a reservation on most nights for my desired times -- available times tended to be early or late only. My default was to show up at the MDR about 15 minutes before I really wanted to sit down -- most nights I was handed a pager and got summoned somewhere between 15-30 minutes later.

Hi 

I was on that cruise and you were lucky,what time did you go for dinner?
We found the MDR was a shambles,,,,you was OK if you turned up at 18:00 or 20:00 you got seated otherwise you could have waited over an hour for the bleeper to work.

 

They was actually working to the fixed timings.

If you missed an early req for 18:30 you knew you would have to wait often behind dozens of others until early eaters finished dinner.

 

Often at 19:00 there where loads of empty unset tables downstairs,,,,,,no staff unfortunately.

On that cruise dinner over 2 hours was not uncommon.

 

[5waldos]

5 hours ago, bmw-atl said:

Mark_T, I also thought in the past there was a "modify" option in order history, but I can't find it 😞

 

I find it on Manage Reservations. On the left there is Reservation Details. On the page that goes to in the middle is dining details which allows you to change to what you want. 

[NutsAboutGolf]

On 5/22/2022 at 9:36 AM, ev8876 said:

We’re waitlisted for anytime dining on our upcoming August 8 cruise on the Beyond.  Currently assigned to Select Early Dining.  If we don’t clear the waitlist prior to departure have others had any luck changing it with the MaitreD once on board?   Thanks. 

 

Yes.  Just go ASAP.