Celebrity Select Dining - first timer

[Mark_UK]

Hi, I'm new to Celebrity and will be on Apex in October (mainly sailed Royal and more recently Virgin Voyages). I'm down as "Select Dining Early" which I understand means we will be allocated a restaurant/table in one spot for the 10 days but can change to another on request. 

 

How does this work in practice if you want to try a new spot? Can I do it on the app or do I have to ask in the restaurant?

 

We'd have a strong preference for a table for 2 - how likely is that? On Royal I've usually been able to request in advance and always been successful over 20 odd cruises.

 

Appreciate this is probably a common question but I could only find responses from quite a few years ago. 

 

Thanks in advance!

[ElmaLee]

If you have the Celebrity App on your phone you could try booking tables in the restaurants you would like to try.  These reservations fill up quickly. (We are on Apex in Feb 2024 and many times already unavailable)

 

We were on Edge 2 weeks ago and you could get tables without reservation up until about 18:45 as "walk ins" but after that there were queues and pagers were given out.  We often asked the hostess to reserve a table for us for the following evening.

 

We enjoyed sampling the various restaurants.

[Mark_UK]

1 hour ago, ElmaLee said:

If you have the Celebrity App on your phone you could try booking tables in the restaurants you would like to try.  These reservations fill up quickly. (We are on Apex in Feb 2024 and many times already unavailable)

 

We were on Edge 2 weeks ago and you could get tables without reservation up until about 18:45 as "walk ins" but after that there were queues and pagers were given out.  We often asked the hostess to reserve a table for us for the following evening.

 

We enjoyed sampling the various restaurants.

Ah thank you. I just changed my dining from early to anytime as it's a port intensive cruise with some late returns. I can see there are no slots left really so hopefully we can do walk in or pre-book onboard.

 

Was it possible to get a table for 2 as a walk in?

[ElmaLee]

20 minutes ago, Mark_UK said:

Ah thank you. I just changed my dining from early to anytime as it's a port intensive cruise with some late returns. I can see there are no slots left really so hopefully we can do walk in or pre-book onboard.

 

Was it possible to get a table for 2 as a walk in?

We were a party of 4 but there were lots of tables for 2 in the restaurants. 

They keep some tables back, so not all booked. 

Be prepared to wait if you aim for 8pm dining, which seems most popular.  If you are happy to wait, they will give you a pager and you can have a drink in a bar or browse the shops.

You can call each morning to reserve, or - better - ask the host/hostess at each restaurant to reserve one for following night.  You might need to be persistent!

[Mark_UK]

9 minutes ago, ElmaLee said:

We were a party of 4 but there were lots of tables for 2 in the restaurants. 

They keep some tables back, so not all booked. 

Be prepared to wait if you aim for 8pm dining, which seems most popular.  If you are happy to wait, they will give you a pager and you can have a drink in a bar or browse the shops.

You can call each morning to reserve, or - better - ask the host/hostess at each restaurant to reserve one for following night.  You might need to be persistent!

Thanks, we are usually 6pm diners so hopefully that'll be ok! 😁

[little britain]

1 hour ago, Mark_UK said:

Thanks, we are usually 6pm diners so hopefully that'll be ok! 😁

Have been on Apex twice and always got a table for 2 every evening without issue around 7:30/7:45 ish.

Loved the 4 restaurants concept 👍

[SoloAlaska]

5 hours ago, Mark_UK said:

Hi, I'm new to Celebrity and will be on Apex in October (mainly sailed Royal and more recently Virgin Voyages). I'm down as "Select Dining Early" which I understand means we will be allocated a restaurant/table in one spot for the 10 days but can change to another on request. 

 

How does this work in practice if you want to try a new spot? Can I do it on the app or do I have to ask in the restaurant?

 

We'd have a strong preference for a table for 2 - how likely is that? On Royal I've usually been able to request in advance and always been successful over 20 odd cruises.

 

Appreciate this is probably a common question but I could only find responses from quite a few years ago. 

 

Thanks in advance!

Table for 2 shouldn’t be a problem. My cruise last year I was solo and they put me at a table for 2 alone. I hated my table and dining time but it “couldn’t be changed” so I made friends and joined them for dinner. Don’t expect change’s onboard but a table for 2 is very likely.

[Mark_UK]

5 hours ago, little britain said:

Have been on Apex twice and always got a table for 2 every evening without issue around 7:30/7:45 ish.

Loved the 4 restaurants concept 👍

Great to hear! 😁 I'm looking forward to that concept too. We just did Virgin Voyages and they had many smaller restaurants that you could  book into also. 

[lorimay]

Just be aware that your table for two won't be very private. The tables in the dining rooms are extremely close together. You might as well be dining with the people next to you. 

[Mark_UK]

2 hours ago, lorimay said:

Just be aware that your table for two won't be very private. The tables in the dining rooms are extremely close together. You might as well be dining with the people next to you. 

 

Eugh yeah I hated this about Royal also... I guess there's something psychological to it though. I can't help being British and mildly anti-social!

[SoloAlaska]

33 minutes ago, Mark_UK said:

 

Eugh yeah I hated this about Royal also... I guess there's something psychological to it though. I can't help being British and mildly anti-social!

My table on Milli was against a wall alone and no one around. My friendly Canadian nature hated it so much. It also featured the massive chairs that look like the cone of silence. So happy I met a really nice family who had an extra chair to share dinner with.

[zitsky]

This would be a good revenue stream for Celebrity if they charged an extra fee the farther apart the tables are.  🙃

[wrk2cruise]

2 hours ago, zitsky said:

This would be a good revenue stream for Celebrity if they charged an extra fee the farther apart the tables are.  🙃

 

It's called Luminae

[evandbob]

We had several sailings on both the Apex and Edge recently.  Our wait staff informed us that there was no need to change restaurants (MDR) if we wanted to order something from a different menu......it might take a little longer to get, but all menu options were available in whatever MDR was chosen.

 

Some nights we stuck to the menu in our preferred MDR, other nights we mixed it up from both, yet kept the same table and wait staff.