Celebrity Select Dining is Here

[gkm]

We had 2 other couples traveling with us so we had the same table for 6 each night. I have heard others say that on the first night they have liked their tablemates and they all decided together to sit with each other during the cruise and everything worked out fine.

 

Garry

[RodPat]

I've dined a on a few Royal Caribbean ships(Jewel, Liberty, Navigator and Independence) and on which we've done MTD and never experienced a "a close together two" as you have described.

 

Rest assured, if Celebrity follows the same options as Royal, traditional will be available for you.:)

 

Those close together two tops I have found only on Solstice. In fact the entire dining room tables are too close. We went on Solstice and were a party of 4. We had requested a small table but were to be put at a large table. Went to the dining room to request a change and no problem. We were told that they had two tables of two that we could put together. Well we went to look before we changed and the tables were about 4 inches apart. We all laughed and asked if they could put the tables closer, tongue in cheek, and they said no problem. I have been on all the classes Celebrity has and no other two top is that close to the other. Solstice has many other dining options and most nights the dining room was 1/3 empty anyhow. I think that Select dining will work and the people who want traditional dining will still be happy.

 

Pat

[Oville]

I agree with you about Solstice. It was a joke to even call them two tops. On a recent cruise on Century it wasn't a whole lot better but there was more room.

[Jeka]

With MTD, if you are not sailing with family or a group, each night you will have to meet new people or dine w/ spouse at a close togther two.What I dislike abt breakfast & lunch is being sent to any old table, having to wait for it to fill & making small talk with strangers... the waiters do not care since they get their tips anyhow with no incentive to get more. the assigned traditional seating seems to work best for us--just hope it survives

 

Again, the statements above are simply not true. The two tops are not close together and if you don't want to eat with strangers each night you don't have to.

 

Clearly, you simply do not want Select Dining to come to Celebrity and will not believe anyone who has actually tried it and given feedback about RCCL's MTD. Unless I'm mistaken, you've never done MTD but you've become an expert on it. Not sure what your beef is, as many of us have reported here, traditional dining will still be an option so you won't have to be exposed to the "cafeteria."

[Ma Bell]

Why bother arguing about it now. Obviously Celebrity is a different cruiseline than any of the others including RCCL so we'll just have to wait and see if it's a good thing or not. There are no experts on "Celebrity" MTD yet.

 

I personally don't particularly like the idea but I'm always willing to give something a try. If I don't like it I'm sure my cruising habits will change. There won't be a lot left to keep me with Celebrity on a regular basis.

[Bridge Maven]

Other than the option of the time flexibility, how do MTD diners like being seated with different people each time they sit down to dinner or having a diff set of waitstaff each evening?

 

...seems more like a cafeteria than dining, but I only know from lunch & breakfast how diff it is from the traditional seating in the evenings whihc are much more enjoyable..

 

As other people have mentioned if you like your table mates and wait staff, you can request to have the same every night. At least that is the way it is done on Royal Caribbean.

[Karynanne]

All of this is moot, as this point. We should just sit back, and see what the new Celebrity policy will be...or if there even is one.

[usha]

Why bother arguing about it now. Obviously Celebrity is a different cruiseline than any of the others including RCCL so we'll just have to wait and see if it's a good thing or not. There are no experts on "Celebrity" MTD yet.

I'm basing my favorable anticipation of Celebrity's open dining on our very pleasant open dining experienc on HAL (my second-favorite cruise line:)).

Knowing how well Celebrity does everything else, I would certainly expect that they would be able to implement open dining at least as well as HAL did.:D

[hcat]

I am hoping we get our preferred table next to the rail on the second level on our upcoming Solstice, Summit & Equinox cruises--just like we had on Solstice in January and many prior X cruises,,,,Great location, food & service! Anything in the way back on Solstice--either level is awful!

 

When we cruise on Radiance of the Seas in April 2010--we won't expect anything too special & hope to be pleasantly surprised as we have been twice on Jewel!

 

Guess it's time to move on to other issues--this horse is beaten to death already!

[J & G]

Other than the option of the time flexibility, how do MTD diners like being seated with different people each time they sit down to dinner or having a diff set of waitstaff each evening?

 

...seems more like a cafeteria than dining, but I only know from lunch & breakfast how diff it is from the traditional seating in the evenings whihc are much more enjoyable..

 

That is a great question.....with RCCL's My Time Dining, you can request a certain location and wait staff each night, if you so desire. Since we had enough fellow travelers to fill a table, we were not seated with different people each night. I did see, however, that there were a variety of table sizes in the MTD section and it seemed that everyone's requests were granted. The wait staff scrambled to seperate or combine tables and reset them between guests. We were not bothered by that while eating, however, as we were engrossed in conversation and in our meal.....we only realized that was happening as we waited briefly for our table.

 

Although we asked for 6:30 PM each night, one evening "our table" was not available until 7:00. We liked our location and waitstaff so much that they were worth a mere 30-minute wait.

 

I can't say how this will play on Celebrity, but it was quite a hit on Royal Carib.

[hondorner]

Other than the option of the time flexibility, how do MTD diners like being seated with different people each time they sit down to dinner or having a diff set of waitstaff each evening?

That's probably the best thing about open dining. Instead of the same 4 or 6 others every night, we have had the opportunity to meet dozens of fascinating folks. Sometimes we make arrangements to dine together again, sometimes we share a table of 4 with new friends-to-be, and sometimes we request a table for 2. This was especially convenient during our recent cruise around Cape Horn, when I developed a slight but persistent cough, and did not want to "share" it.

 

As for the wait staff, we like the variety. We need no special pampering and are perfectly content to request ice or whatever at each meal. We do not cruise to make friends with the servers.

 

In fairness, I have to point out that we generally take longer cruises. We have spent as many as 26 days on one cruise, and our next Oceania cruise will be a 14 and a 10 day back to back. We can'[t imagine having to dine with the same people every night for 14, 16 or 24 days in a row -- it would be like eating the same food at every meal. We had traditional dining on a 7 day Carnival cruise last year, but it was a family cruise and we dined with our daughter, son and their families every night. That's different. The last time we had traditional dining before that was on a 12 day Costa cruise to Panama, and by the end of it, I was ready to shoot certain of our tablemates. Never again!

[esther e]

That's probably the best thing about open dining. Instead of the same 4 or 6 others every night, we have had the opportunity to meet dozens of fascinating folks. Sometimes we make arrangements to dine together again, sometimes we share a table of 4 with new friends-to-be, and sometimes we request a table for 2. This was especially convenient during our recent cruise around Cape Horn, when I developed a slight but persistent cough, and did not want to "share" it.

 

As for the wait staff, we like the variety. We need no special pampering and are perfectly content to request ice or whatever at each meal. We do not cruise to make friends with the servers.

 

In fairness, I have to point out that we generally take longer cruises. We have spent as many as 26 days on one cruise, and our next Oceania cruise will be a 14 and a 10 day back to back. We can'[t imagine having to dine with the same people every night for 14, 16 or 24 days in a row -- it would be like eating the same food at every meal. We had traditional dining on a 7 day Carnival cruise last year, but it was a family cruise and we dined with our daughter, son and their families every night. That's different. The last time we had traditional dining before that was on a 12 day Costa cruise to Panama, and by the end of it, I was ready to shoot certain of our tablemates. Never again!

 

 

Yep!:)

[hondorner]

Hi, Esther, we still remember the pictures of the Amazon you shared before our adventure. When are we going to coincide on a sailing? I know you like HAL a lot, but the formal nights are somewhat of a deal breaker for us.

[jer_l]

I'm basing my favorable anticipation of Celebrity's open dining on our very pleasant open dining experienc on HAL (my second-favorite cruise line:)).

Knowing how well Celebrity does everything else, I would certainly expect that they would be able to implement open dining at least as well as HAL did.:D

HAL is also our second favorite line. We had their As You Wish (AYW) dining last summer because traditional seating was filled. We didn't think we would like it, but found that it worked well for Alaska. My DW was the must opposed to AYW, but after booking again with HAL this summer and getting traditional late seating she expressed disappointment and wanted me to change it to AYW. We also found that we could have switched to traditional last summer once aboard because more than half the passengers opted for AYW dining after the first day or two. That was surprising considering the amount of complaining on the HAL boards about the change. We didn't feel that it made the dining experience any less formal or elegant.

 

I agree that Celebrity will undoubtedly do a great job at implementing Select Dining.

 

Just a thought about the gratuity added to your bill: I think more passengers would considering moving the auto-tip if they had a different server every night than those who choose traditional dining. Perhaps this is Celebrity's way of making sure that tips are still received by those who deserve them.

 

One final thought: On our last Celebrity cruise, for the first time, we had a tablemate who made dining rather tedious. He had an opinion on everything and dominated the table conversation at every meal. For the first time on a Celebrity cruise we would have liked to have had the option of Select Dining available.

[rmaxi]

I am having trouble finding any mention of Select Dining on Celebrity web site. Am I missing something here?

 

Thanks

[Bridge Maven]

I am having trouble finding any mention of Select Dining on Celebrity web site. Am I missing something here?

 

Thanks

 

Maxi, it was on Celebrity's website for a day or two but then they removed it because they have not finalized their plans for it.

[rmaxi]

Maxi, it was on Celebrity's website for a day or two but then they removed it because they have not finalized their plans for it.

 

Thanks.......reassuring to know I am not going crazy!!!:)

[seaduty]

We are elite Celebrity cruise members and have always enjoyed the traditional late seating dining on Celebrity. Our one experience with anytime dining occurred earlier this year on the Crown Princess. It was routine for anytime diners to schedule their evening meal to afford them the opportunity to arrive early for the Princess theatre shows well ahead of the traditional second seating. As a result, and to our amazement, there were many evenings when there was no seating available in the 1,000 seat theatre. On one formal evening we observed women in formal attire sitting on the steps inside the theatre for lack of available seating. Celebrity recently also did away with semi formal nights and the jacket and tie requirement for men. We're all adults. How lazy and undisciplined have we become that we can no longer arrive for dinner at the same time for a week or two? How sad Celebrity has turned into Carnival. It appears that Cunnard and Crystal are the only adult choices remaining.

[Jeka]

Celebrity recently also did away with semi formal nights and the jacket and tie requirement for men. We're all adults. How lazy and undisciplined have we become that we can no longer arrive for dinner at the same time for a week or two? This comment is archaic and insulting to those of us who do not need to put a jacket and tie on in order to enjoy an evening out. There is nothing lazy and undisciplined about it. It's simply the style of today.

 

How sad Celebrity has turned into Carnival. It appears that Cunnard and Crystal are the only adult choices remaining. Celebrity is nothing like Carnival and I doubt it ever will be. Funny, everyone I've met on Celebrity has been sophisticated, worldly and, oh yeah, adults.

 

Please see my comments in Red. Enjoy Cunard!!

[Lois R]

I am having trouble finding any mention of Select Dining on Celebrity web site. Am I missing something here?

 

Thanks

 

You are not missing anything. It was posted on the website

in error and was then removed.

They are not implementing it yet.

 

Don't worry, you are not going crazy:)

[Ma Bell]

We all understand that there are some new Celebrity cruisers who are thrilled with MTD because they have tried it on other cruiselines. It may well turn out to be a good thing, but WE GET THE MESSAGE without it being repeated over and over by the same posters.

[esther e]

Hi, Esther, we still remember the pictures of the Amazon you shared before our adventure. When are we going to coincide on a sailing? I know you like HAL a lot, but the formal nights are somewhat of a deal breaker for us.

 

We do like HAL. To be perfectly honest, we like large staterooms and can't afford them any longer on O.:( HAL has some excellent suites at a decent price. Join us!!! Not to worry about formal nights; you indicate a Sky Suite so you don't have to worry about formal nights...same on HAL; you can get a nice suite at a good price and dine on the balcony. Try it--you'll like it. And don't forget, you'll look dapper no matter what!

[J & G]

Originally Posted by seaduty

Celebrity recently also did away with semi formal nights and the jacket and tie requirement for men. We're all adults. How lazy and undisciplined have we become that we can no longer arrive for dinner at the same time for a week or two? This comment is archaic and insulting to those of us who do not need to put a jacket and tie on in order to enjoy an evening out. There is nothing lazy and undisciplined about it. It's simply the style of today.

 

How sad Celebrity has turned into Carnival. It appears that Cunnard and Crystal are the only adult choices remaining. Celebrity is nothing like Carnival and I doubt it ever will be. Funny, everyone I've met on Celebrity has been sophisticated, worldly and, oh yeah, adults.

 

 

Please see my comments in Red. Enjoy Cunard!!

 

Totally agree, Jeka! I'm not sure how eating at the same time every evening makes one a disciplined and responsible adult....in fact, my 2-month-old grandaughter is the only one in the family who eats on a regular schedule each day. I guess we are just lazy, undsiciplined, and immature.....but we do have a great time on a cruise!

[txsloth]

We all understand that there are some new Celebrity cruisers who are thrilled with MTD because they have tried it on other cruiselines. It may well turn out to be a good thing, but WE GET THE MESSAGE without it being repeated over and over by the same posters.

 

I'm glad to have someone reasonably responding to all the alarmist nonsense; I don't care if it happens to be the same repeated voice of reason.

[Spender Nui]

Those close together two tops I have found only on Solstice. In fact the entire dining room tables are too close. We went on Solstice and were a party of 4. We had requested a small table but were to be put at a large table. Went to the dining room to request a change and no problem. We were told that they had two tables of two that we could put together. Well we went to look before we changed and the tables were about 4 inches apart. We all laughed and asked if they could put the tables closer, tongue in cheek, and they said no problem. I have been on all the classes Celebrity has and no other two top is that close to the other. Solstice has many other dining options and most nights the dining room was 1/3 empty anyhow. I think that Select dining will work and the people who want traditional dining will still be happy.

 

Pat

 

Will those wanting a deuce be happy with the distance to their neighbors tables?