Questions on dining on Celebrity Edge

[Chilcotin]

I am confused about how set time dining works on the Celebrity Edge.

 

Currently we are booked for a set time of 8:30 pm with a waitlist for 6 pm.

 

My question is with the four dining room options are you assigned one dining room and have to eat there nightly?
 

Are you allowed to go to any of the other three dining rooms?
 

I am more used to anytime dining where you just show up when you are ready to eat. On this ship it seems you have to make reservations for anytime dining which to me seems to defeat the purpose of dining anytime?? Two of my most recent cruises were on Azamara and there you just showed up at the dining room when you were ready to eat. Is this the way Blu works if you were to upgrade to Aqua Class (we are currently in Concierge Class).

 

Thanks for any help in helping me understand how the dining options work.

 

 

 

 

 

[cruisestitch]

Edge is all anytime dining.  Celebrity booking system has not caught up with this fact so forces you to pick a dining time, but when you are on board Edge, you can go to any dining room at any time.

 

also, on all ships, Blu is always anytime dining.

Edited August 25 by cruisestitch

[jwlane]

Go where you want when you want and they will feed you.

[mac_tlc]

5 hours ago, cruisestitch said:

Edge is all anytime dining.  Celebrity booking system has not caught up with this fact so forces you to pick a dining time, but when you are on board Edge, you can go to any dining room at any time.

 

also, on all ships, Blu is always anytime dining.

Not exactly . We just got off the Edge, had 5:30 dining in Cyprus at table 511 every night. While our neighbors changed most nights, we had a fixed time and table. In fact the line to get into the restaurant was long some nights, we just went around it and directly to our table. 
 

 

mac_tlc

[canderson]

14 minutes ago, mac_tlc said:

Not exactly . We just got off the Edge, had 5:30 dining in Cyprus at table 511 every night. While our neighbors changed most nights, we had a fixed time and table. In fact the line to get into the restaurant was long some nights, we just went around it and directly to our table. 
 

 

mac_tlc

You might want to explain how you arranged that aboard so others aren't going crazy looking for a means to do so online.

[jelayne]

4 minutes ago, canderson said:

You might want to explain how you arranged that aboard so others aren't going crazy looking for a means to do so online.

The E class ships seem to have reverted back to having traditional set time dining for those that have booked that option.  Friends recently had it on the Apex and we met a couple on the Beyond that had the assigned 8 30 traditional dining.  There have been posters on CC who have also reported they had traditional time dining with same table, same staff every night.

[RichYak]

6 hours ago, cruisestitch said:

Edge is all anytime dining.  Celebrity booking system has not caught up with this fact so forces you to pick a dining time, but when you are on board Edge, you can go to any dining room at any time.

I believe this is now outdated information as more and more posts seem to be confirming early and late seatings on E-class ships.

[canderson]

6 minutes ago, jelayne said:

The E class ships seem to have reverted back to having traditional set time dining for those that have booked that option.  Friends recently had it on the Apex and we met a couple on the Beyond that had the assigned 8 30 traditional dining.

Have not seen 5:30pm as an online option. 

[jelayne]

1 minute ago, canderson said:

Have not seen 5:30pm as an online option. 

I believe it says 6:00  and 8:30 on the booking site, but on our recent cruises the the early seating has been at 5:30, those who selected 6 were assigned 5:30.

That timing seems to change by ship or itinerary.  Just like shows which on some ships/itineraries are 7 and 9 others are 7:30 and 9:30.

[mac_tlc]

3 hours ago, canderson said:

You might want to explain how you arranged that aboard so others aren't going crazy looking for a means to do so online.

I didn’t do anything on board. I chose the early dinner time when the reservation was made, I think it said 6pm.

 

This card was waiting for us in the cabin.

 

 

[Mauidiver]

I hope this means that reservations booked prior to cruising will be honored on E class ships as well. 

[cruisetonowhere10]

5 hours ago, mac_tlc said:

Not exactly . We just got off the Edge, had 5:30 dining in Cyprus at table 511 every night. While our neighbors changed most nights, we had a fixed time and table. In fact the line to get into the restaurant was long some nights, we just went around it and directly to our table. 
 

 

mac_tlc

We did the same as @mac_tlc.  There was a definitely a line when we entered and people waiting when we left.  So, it is anytime for those folks that want that but anytime doesn’t mean you can walk right up and get a table immediately.  We enjoyed having the same waitstaff and were able to order from all 4 MDRs despite being assigned to Cosmopolitan.  Everyone likes different things, but we enjoyed building the relationship with the same staff each night and they never led us astray on meals…bent over backward to make sure everyone was happy with food and drink.

[jelayne]

1 hour ago, Mauidiver said:

I hope this means that reservations booked prior to cruising will be honored on E class ships as well. 

We are discussing the E class ships.  The S and M class ships have always had both Traditional and Anytime dining.  
 

E class ships started that way but for the past 18 months or so did not have traditional dining, even if you had selected that when booking.  They are now honoring the booked traditional dining reservations.
 

[Mauidiver]

I get that we’re discussing E class ships.  I only mention the reservations piece for anytime dining because many folks here have said that the MDRs don’t take reservations and that it’s all first come first served.  We enjoyed being able to make reservations and go to a separate line for those with reservations on Millenium last year vs walking up at any time and waiting for an available table.

Edited August 26 by Mauidiver

[canderson]

7 hours ago, mac_tlc said:

I didn’t do anything on board. I chose the early dinner time when the reservation was made, I think it said 6pm.

 

This card was waiting for us in the cabin.

 

 

Interesting that they did the 6:00 to 5:30 time switch-up.  My comment was regarding the 5:30 time, which I've never seen made available online before.  Perhaps just an IT glitch?  If one really wanted to assure a 5:30 slot, I think it would be necessary to do so onboard.

[RichYak]

6 minutes ago, canderson said:

My comment was regarding the 5:30 time, which I've never seen made available online before.  Perhaps just an IT glitch? 

Are you referring to dining reservations in the cruise planner? I believe the person you are quoting is talking about early seating fixed time dining.

[canderson]

5 minutes ago, RichYak said:

Are you referring to dining reservations in the cruise planner? I believe the person you are quoting is talking about early seating fixed time dining.

What I'm saying is that although this person was provided a 5:30pm seating time, I've never once seen the ability to reserve a 5:30pm seating time in advance, no matter what the online mechanism used.  That would need be done aboard --- or in this case, it would need to occur as a unplanned 'surprise' having picked a different dining time and be moved to 5:30pm.

[RichYak]

7 minutes ago, canderson said:

What I'm saying is that although this person was provided a 5:30pm seating time, I've never once seen the ability to reserve a 5:30pm seating time in advance, no matter what the online mechanism used.  That would need be done aboard --- or in this case, it would need to occur as a unplanned 'surprise' having picked a different dining time and be moved to 5:30pm.

And what I'm saying is that when you choose early seating during the cruise booking process, you get exactly that--early seating. It's usually either 5:30 or 6 depending on ship/sailing regardless what time the booking engine displays.

[canderson]

25 minutes ago, RichYak said:

And what I'm saying is that when you choose early seating during the cruise booking process, you get exactly that--early seating. It's usually either 5:30 or 6 depending on ship/sailing regardless what time the booking engine displays.

We're talking in circles.  If someone actually wanted a 5:30 booking, they'd never see that.  But I take your point that if you book the early seating, you'll get the early seating, regardless of whatever time is shown (but it won't be 5:30), and whatever time it actually happens aboard.  That said, in all of our X cruises where we had a fixed dining time, we've never had an 'early' seating as early as 5:30, either.

[jelayne]

1 hour ago, canderson said:

We're talking in circles.  If someone actually wanted a 5:30 booking, they'd never see that.  But I take your point that if you book the early seating, you'll get the early seating, regardless of whatever time is shown (but it won't be 5:30), and whatever time it actually happens aboard.  That said, in all of our X cruises where we had a fixed dining time, we've never had an 'early' seating as early as 5:30, either.

Well on some ships that is when the MDRs open and when early fixed time dining is, even though that is not what the booking engine shows.  
Things that were routine for years like early fixed dining at 6 isn’t always the case, just like shows were normally at 7 & 9 but now some cruise they are 7:30 and 9:30. 
And when booking specialty restaurants for our recent Beyond cruise 5:30 was an available time to book. 

[Chilcotin]

Thanks everyone for your comments.

[buchhalm]

Along those lines:

As I understand,  Edge has four "main dining rooms ", each with more or less the same menu, but different ambience and a few restaurant-specific dishes.

Will this be a random assignment, or can you request your preferred restaurant?

Will you stay in the same restaurant or will you (and your whole table group and waiters) be rotated through the restaurants?

I read different comments about this.

🤷🏼

[doghog]

1 hour ago, buchhalm said:

Along those lines:

As I understand,  Edge has four "main dining rooms ", each with more or less the same menu, but different ambience and a few restaurant-specific dishes.

Will this be a random assignment, or can you request your preferred restaurant?

Will you stay in the same restaurant or will you (and your whole table group and waiters) be rotated through the restaurants?

I read different comments about this.

🤷🏼

Four different MDRs.  Four different menus. You select the MDRs you want to dine in. Eat in the same one or rotate between all four. Your choice. You can also request the menus from the other MDRs you are not eating in and order from all of them.   

Edited August 28 by doghog

[RichYak]

1 hour ago, buchhalm said:

Along those lines:

As I understand,  Edge has four "main dining rooms ", each with more or less the same menu, but different ambience and a few restaurant-specific dishes.

Will this be a random assignment, or can you request your preferred restaurant?

Will you stay in the same restaurant or will you (and your whole table group and waiters) be rotated through the restaurants?

I read different comments about this.

🤷🏼

If you have fixed early or late seating, you will dine at the same table in the same room with the same wait staff for the duration of the cruise. This will be assigned to you. From there, you can order any item off any of the main dining rooms menus. 

[buchhalm]

Hmmmm. Decisions, decisions. 

So far we have selected the late seating, as we usually do. Especially on a summer cruise, early dining is way too, well, early for us. 

I may change it to "any time", at the risk of having to tell "so, how did you two meet", 13 times over...

🙂