Should Celebrity Change Their Dining Options ?

[BikerAl]

I voted for traditional, with 4 seating times, rather than the current two. I would caveat that with, it must be done on different floors of the room, and some redesign would be required to make the seating time, rather less obvious to those already well into dinner. We were on a resent NCL Pearl trip, and I was not at all pleased with a giant dining room, a bunch of people coming and going, and tables with dirty dishes on them. If it is going to be anytime, it needs to be a broken up room, that is more in tune with a shore side restaurant. A traditional dining room design, fits traditional dining.

[caviargal]

It is noticable that those who "love" anytime dining are couples, and the reasons they quote is "do not like to rush back from port"

 

I believe anytime dining is favoured by those who do not wish to conform in any way shape or form and who want everything and everyone to suit their wishes whatever the wishes may be at any particular time

There are ships who fit this life style,so why do they insist on booking "traditional" lines and then demand the lines change their product .

 

.

 

We are a couple and rushing back from port is not the issue. Yes, we enjoy being on our schedule and do not apologize for that; we also prefer not to be stuck at dinner with people we do not want to have to dine with every evening.

 

I have always been fine with traditional dining, especially when travelling solo. However, given the option these days, I will chose Anytime unless travelling with friends.

 

While 45 minutes may be an ideal window for you between before dinner, I like to read a bit, or take a nap or a sauna, get dressed at my leisure and then have a glass of wine before dining.

 

I enjoy lines that generally enforce their dress codes, their adult venues, etc. Yes, I prefer to have things the way I want them on vacation. Since I am paying for it, why not? If a line has traditional dining, then I confirm the time I want and don't sail if I cannot get it. Dining at 6:15pm is not my idea of a good time, period. I also request a table for 2 and have always been accomodated.

 

I personally choose to cruise with lines that have some semblance of standards of dress code and behavior and can be happy with either dining option.

[grandsix]

It is worth expanding the dinner options as the industry is changing. The more important STRATEGY is that the outstanding service Celebrity is known for DOES NOT SUFFER It is essential that Management monitors this area very carefully.

[beauxdammit]

I'm with you Bububr. If enforcement becomes any more lax, and/or the traditions continue to erode, I will have to fine a different way to spend my limited leasure resources. I would hate to leave cruising, but the experience is becoming more "MacDonaldized" as time goes by and I can get that kind of dis-interested, unprofessional treatment without leaving home.

[BILLP1]

We were on Regent mariner recently which had anytime dining in two of their restaurants and we loved it. The other two speciality restaurants needed a reservation.

 

The fixed time dining for us is either too early or too late.

Eating between 700 and 730 worked for us. Most nights we ate with people that we met on the ship though we had the option for a table for two..

[Host Kewlguy]

Celebrity should keep traditional dining. If I want "Freestyle Cruising" I'll book NCL. If I want "Anytime Dining" I'll book Princess. Service will most definitely suffer if Celebrity switches as servers hate open seating.

[Host Kewlguy]

I liked what Celebrity did during our Baltic Cruise on Constellation last year. We had traditional seating every night with the exception of the nights we stayed in a port overnight, or didn't leave until 9:00 PM. On those nights they had open seating for dinner.

 

We've experienced open seating on both RCCL and X when leaving a port late. And the service in the dining room has always been horrible. The servers are stressed out and there is much confusion. If I had to eat dinner under those circumstances every night I would order room service or eat in the buffet.

[jerin]

One of the reasons we cruise is to experience the traditional dining in the evenings. We enjoy sitting with the same people every night and getting a chance to hear about their day ... having to go back to square one every night, you just wouldn't have the opportunity to get to know your tablemates as well.

 

Our choices for cruise lines that offer traditional dining are getting narrower and narrower, and for now we WON'T book with a cruise line that can't GUARANTEE us traditional dining. Especially for Celebrity where part of their uniqueness is in the elegant dining experience, I'd hate to see the traditional dining taken away. There are plenty of other cruise lines that offer anytime dining, and some of us choose to avoid them.

[Costest]

I voted for split the dining based on the assumption I could do traditional "late" seating. If the split meant I had to waitlist or take other choices, I would have voted to do nothing.

[Drew B]

The younger ones are also the ones that have lower standards, expectations, and codes of ethics. There's a very good reason why the generation after the baby-boomers is called the "me generation" - it's because they feel that the world revolves around them and their wishes, and refuse to conform to any standards or traditions. If a cruiseline diminishes their level of service, tradition and policy just to cater to "the younger ones" then they shouldn't be surprised when the entire middle-age and older generations flock to another line - which, at that point, I'm sure another cruiseline will recognize this and gladly uphold these values in order to gain our business.

 

(Let me try this again in a less inflammatory way...)

 

Please don't generalize, Rick. Not all seniors have class and not all young people lack it.

 

Thank you.

[DeepWaterMariner]

We didn't think we would like Anytime Dinning on Princess but discovered that we liked it better than traditional so we would like to see Celebrity offer that option. Offering flexibility in dinning would also mean adding more flexibility in entertainment options so those selection open sitting dinning could match up their schedule with evening entertainment.

[jerin]

(Let me try this again in a less inflammatory way...)

 

Please don't generalize, Rick. Not all seniors have class and not all young people lack it.

 

Thank you.

This is true, preferences don't necessarily follow age trends. On the cruise we're planning for 2009, my brother (20's), my husband and I (30's) are the ones pushing for traditional dining to the point that we won't consider a ship that won't guarantee it (if they offer both, that's fine, but I've heard too many horror people from people on Princess who couldn't get it), and my grandmother in her 80's would actually prefer anytime with no formal nights, etc. She might dine with my 4 year old that night, but then my 4 year old probably won't want to pass up the chance to get dressed up and have the fancy dinner in the dining room.

[DeepWaterMariner]

I think one reason HAL will offer an anytime dinning option is that they are losing bookings from people like me who want a particular dinning room seating only to find that it is full. By offering anytime dinning they still have a shot at getting my booking. An example: we were looking at repositioning cruises with the options being two HAL ships and one Princess ship. We preferred the HAL itineraries but we couldn't get early sitting so we booked Princess instead. Had HAL offered an anytime option at the time then our choice would have been different. Celebrity may eventually have the same problem if they don't already.

[C 2 C]

Hey Andy:

 

I'm not to old to change. I see no problem doing both. At many extended ports of call, with many passengers still on tour, I always questioned why an occasional open seating was not used.

I think it would be great for the dress code question as well.

There would be a dining room available for the more casual loving guests as well as the more traditional setting.

As long as it is not either or, I would look forward to more choice.

Groups of people can always book a table together, even in an open environment.

[c-legs]

:) Good evening,

Some toughts:

*calibre of service may very well suffer from the traditional ==X== standard if they allocate one of the 2 levels in their dining room to ''anytime dining''...

* If RCI wants to ''test the water'' on that topic, I suggest they ''experiment'' with it on RCCL, not ==X==. HAL did that by trying out the concept in various forms on two ships for about 1 year now.

*Most ==X== ships ALREADY offer quite a variety of dining options , all of the ''open seating'' variety, besides the main two level dining room.

* NCL , as the first of the biggies to sponsor the concept, with their ''freestyle dining'' approach, seemingly has a problem with the whole thing ,judging by feedbacks on this site and others.

*The experience of traditional dining is one that most avid cruise enthusiasts cherish highly....one cannot imagine a premium or luxury line without it.

 

Traditional dining ought to be kept and continuously maintained to high standards

If, one day, ==X== decides to ADD a flexible product to its dining offers, so be it...but it should be with a somewhat limited capacity, and advertised as such.

 

My 2 cents, IMO.

 

Cheers & happy sailing dreams

;)

[caviargal]

*The experience of traditional dining is one that most avid cruise enthusiasts cherish highly....one cannot imagine a premium or luxury line without it.

 

 

;)

 

I respectfully disagree.

 

My best two cruises ever were on Regent/Radisson. Open dining and fabulous food and service. Other true luxury lines offer open dining as well.

[ECCruise]

*The experience of traditional dining is one that most avid cruise enthusiasts cherish highly....one cannot imagine a premium or luxury line without it.

 

Uh, except for Oceania, SeaDream, Regent. Seabourn, Silverseas...

 

I can't imagine sailing a premium/luxury line with traditional dining. I can, however, imagine a mass market line with it.

[Jimsgirl]

May I put in my 2 cents worth, re the comment that having plese yourself dining times will make for better entertainment times.

 

On Sapphire in April ( a 29 day cruise), traditional diners where unable to get in to see the show, the theatre is small for the number of passengers, at the show for "early dining " passengers, the theatre would be packed with "personal choice " passengers, who would go for Bingo, stay for the show and then dine at say 9p.m.

 

In order to see the show passengers at my table would have to skip desert , rush to the thetre, and sit through Bingo even though they did not play.

 

As for HAL, having 2 seating times in the same dining room for each seating was horrible, I do not know what help it was to the staff, but as a passenger I found it a miserable experience .

[Steph27]

Anytime dining is wonderful. I really enjoyed it on Oceania. I would give a preference to lines offering this option.

[caviargal]

May I put in my 2 cents worth, re the comment that having plese yourself dining times will make for better entertainment times.

 

On Sapphire in April ( a 29 day cruise), traditional diners where unable to get in to see the show, the theatre is small for the number of passengers, at the show for "early dining " passengers, the theatre would be packed with "personal choice " passengers, who would go for Bingo, stay for the show and then dine at say 9p.m.

 

In order to see the show passengers at my table would have to skip desert , rush to the thetre, and sit through Bingo even though they did not play.

 

As for HAL, having 2 seating times in the same dining room for each seating was horrible, I do not know what help it was to the staff, but as a passenger I found it a miserable experience .

 

Again, it depends on why one cruises as well as priorities. Dancing, listening to live music or a walk on deck are my preference for after dinner so having to get anywhere on any schedule is never an issue. Actually, I prefer to have no time constraints on vacation and enjoy maximum flexibility.:)

 

I do not go to shows and have not been on Princess in years but often read on these boards that the venues are not adequate for the number of passengers. Sounds like that could be an issue as well in terms of having to rush to be seated.

 

On HAL in May, Anytime dining was in use and created no problems at all for us versus my last 3 HAL cruises where it was not yet implemented. We have booked Anytime Dining for our HAL cruise to Alaska next summer.

[tn1728]

I have to agree with all of the other posters who pointed out that Celebrity already has the choice of 'anytime' dining, with room service, the specialty restaurants on the larger ships, and the casual dining area in the buffet.

 

Having the same table mates and wait staff has worked really well for us, and I would hate to see the dining room split- risking the chance of not getting my traditional choice and being forced to eat anytime all of the time.

[lynn21]

We didn't think we would like Anytime Dinning on Princess but discovered that we liked it better than traditional so we would like to see Celebrity offer that option. Offering flexibility in dinning would also mean adding more flexibility in entertainment options so those selection open sitting dinning could match up their schedule with evening entertainment.

 

Having cruised X for our last 3 cruises, this year we decided to try Anytime Dining on Princess. It was wonderful and hope that Solstice will offer this option as we would find it difficult to return to Traditional. The dress code was smart casual (except for the 2 formal nights) and I wasn`t aware of anybody incorrectly dressed. As well as the flexibility, it meant that we had several entertainment venues after dinner. On X we have late seating on a large table and found that when we left the dining room around 11pm, the only choice was the theatre, karaoke or the nightclub - no piano bar and guitarist at the Cova Cafe finished at 1045. We particularly enjoyed Princess`Explorers Lounge which was like a Las Vagas show lounge. Have both types of dining and then everybody will be happy.

[hcat]

Unless you could have a table for two at each meal , I would not like to make new friends at every meal & go over the same tired ground of introductions etc....that's fine for breakfast & lunch but at dinner I like it the way it is-- It has worked well & we have tried both early & late seating --there are enough other options for the specialty restaurant, sushi & casual dining blvd for night you want a break from the main table... getting to really know your assigned table mates over the course of the cruise has led to many nice friendships over the yrs...

[Lois R]

Hi Andy,:) I have been following this since you posted it and as a solo

cruiser I LOVE traditional dining.

I have met some wonderful people at dinner and enjoy the entire

ambiance of the evening.

I also enjoy having the same wait staff each night.

I am still friends with some of those waiters and Maitr'ds:),

oh yes and some of those tablemates too!

 

I feel as some have stated on here already~I think there are other

choices, just not in the way Princess or NCL offers.

But they do offer alternatives for those people who do not want

the dining room.

 

Anyway, I vote to keep it as is.....but what do I know? I am just

one lil person:eek:

[raudacruise]

Hi Cruise Gypsy, for me, the reason that adding the anytime option would definitely negatively impact the Celebrity cruise experience is in booking the cruise itself. I have had to completely change my plans in the past when trying to book a Princess cruise because when I got to the final reservation phase I found out that all of the traditional seating was waitlisted (and it seems this happens all of the time).

 

So, for me, knowing just how many prefer traditional dining on Celebrity you would have to be sure and book right away when the itinerary is released or you could be "stuck" with anytime dining. Once onboard I have never found the anytime dining to affect anything with my experience... as long as I have traditional seating!

 

I have friends that this happened to recently on Princess. While they had a wonderful cruise they commented that dining seemed rushed, service lacked the personal touches like remembering they like decaf after dinner. Having to do introductions each night to new people on top of waiting for a table every night with a blinking coaster also really took away from their experience.

 

 

We got stuck with the same thing on our last (repeat - last) cruise on Princess. Trying going at 7pm for "Anytime" dining and you will be lucky to get a table at 7:30pm and then they squeeze 10 people into a table meant for 8. Obviously, your new table mates are just as thrilled as you are and really aren't looking forward to a pleasant conversation.

 

No thanks.