It's Official... Celebrity is rolling out Open Seating on all ships

[kelly kipper]

We booked our February cruise on Constellation last month and chose a to join a large table for late dining. I have just seen the thread regarding select dining.

Does anyone know if it will be possible to have traditional dining for the first week of a 14 day cruise and to pre-book select dining for the second week.

[kelseys nan]

We are on the Christmas sailing of Equinox and we are on second seating. We have requested a table for two, if we do not get one will we be able to change on board to open seating. I would be grateful if anyone can help me with this

[takemewithyou]

I am looking at a booking for Sept of 2010 - more than one year away. If I book a CC, I can not have my first choice for dining, which is traditional early dining. The only options are late traditional dining or the new Select Dining. However, on the same cruise, if I book a Sky suite, I can have my traditional early dining. Interesting.....wondered how this was going to work.....now I get it. Been there, done that!

 

It is the same thing I encountered on the past four sailings with HAL, every since they introduced their As You Wish dining. Those of us who prefer traditional early dining (could not have our wish), even if we booked as soon as the bookings opened, we were always told early dining was closed. The only way you could get your preference, was to book a suite. They were given their preference for dining.

 

I am sorry to see X go down the same path as HAL. I thought they were going to learn from the other cruise lines' mistakes.

[Gracie115]

We booked our February cruise on Constellation last month and chose a to join a large table for late dining. I have just seen the thread regarding select dining.

Does anyone know if it will be possible to have traditional dining for the first week of a 14 day cruise and to pre-book select dining for the second week.

 

 

Suspect the answer is "NO" it's one or the other for the entirety of the cruise and must be decided within the first day, if not before you sail. But calling Celebrity direct would get you the definitive answer I would think.

[Gracie115]

I am looking at a booking for Sept of 2010 - more than one year away. If I book a CC, I can not have my first choice for dining, which is traditional early dining. The only options are late traditional dining or the new Select Dining. However, on the same cruise, if I book a Sky suite, I can have my traditional early dining. Interesting.....wondered how this was going to work.....now I get it. Been there, done that!

 

It is the same thing I encountered on the past four sailings with HAL, every since they introduced their As You Wish dining. Those of us who prefer traditional early dining (could not have our wish), even if we booked as soon as the bookings opened, we were always told early dining was closed. The only way you could get your preference, was to book a suite. They were given their preference for dining.

 

I am sorry to see X go down the same path as HAL. I thought they were going to learn from the other cruise lines' mistakes.

 

 

well...you COULD book the SS..get the early dining designation, then go in and change the stateroom to the CC and see what happens.....worth a try anyway...seems a bit devious but what the heck....

[Gracie115]

We are on the Christmas sailing of Equinox and we are on second seating. We have requested a table for two, if we do not get one will we be able to change on board to open seating. I would be grateful if anyone can help me with this

 

according to what I've read you can change your dining choice within the 1st 24 hours of your cruise...so I guess the answer is YES!!

[LongTimeTvlr]

We have tried both and far prefer tradional seating.

I agree that it is good to have open for those who prefer it, but our experience on both Princess and HAL is that they tend to reserve more tables for the open seating option whatever they call it than the demand and therefore limit the tables available for tranditional.

 

In every case we requested Traditional seating and were waitlisted because of lack of availability. When we got on board we met with the Maitre'd and were accomodated in traditional seating because they were under subscribed for open seating and assigned some of those tables for traditional.

 

It is just incovenient to have to do this at the start of every cruise. With HAL we actually ended up surrounded by open seating tables and it afffected our service in a bad way.

 

If I ran the world there wouldn't be any open seating, but if I ran the world I would be better looking and much richer so I probably wouldn't care about the seating format on my cruise. You know what, I don't run the world and I still don't care that much.

 

Either way it is still a cruise on a ship I like going to places that are exciting to see. The rest is all details.

 

We don't cruise to eat. We eat to cruise.

[whazzup]

Princess has been doing this for years. It's no big deal. You can have it your way!

[Denny01]

Princess has been doing this for years. It's no big deal. You can have it your way!

 

There are more then a few posts here that state Princess doesn't have it 'your way' and our experience was the same. We booked on Princess last year and even though it was 6 months prior, we could not get Traditional/Set dining and had to go with Anytime dining. It worked OK, but since Princess has set numbers for each type dining in specific dining rooms, you Don't have it your way.

 

That is what some Celebrity cruisers who like Traditional dining were afraid off, and it appears Celebrity is setting it up properly.

 

The whole point was to introduce Select Dining without adversely impacting Traditional dining which Celebrity has apparently done. Princess is the example of how not to do it.

 

Denny

[J & G]

We have tried both and far prefer tradional seating.

I agree that it is good to have open for those who prefer it, but our experience on both Princess and HAL is that they tend to reserve more tables for the open seating option whatever they call it than the demand and therefore limit the tables available for tranditional.

 

In every case we requested Traditional seating and were waitlisted because of lack of availability. When we got on board we met with the Maitre'd and were accomodated in traditional seating because they were under subscribed for open seating and assigned some of those tables for traditional.

 

It is just incovenient to have to do this at the start of every cruise. With HAL we actually ended up surrounded by open seating tables and it afffected our service in a bad way.

 

If I ran the world there wouldn't be any open seating, but if I ran the world I would be better looking and much richer so I probably wouldn't care about the seating format on my cruise. You know what, I don't run the world and I still don't care that much.

 

Either way it is still a cruise on a ship I like going to places that are exciting to see. The rest is all details.

 

We don't cruise to eat. We eat to cruise.

 

Very "fair and balanced"......although we liked MTD on RCCL.

 

If Celebrity handles things as well, which I suspect they will , traditional and SD seatings will not be intermingled. RCCL set aside a rear portion of the upstairs dining room for MTD. The rest was traditional and neither impacted the other.....unless, of course, one was concentrating on looking at those in the other area. We were busy talking with our travel companions, so we didn't even know there were others around (unless they were dressed interestingly, of course :eek:).

[teajak]

Princess has been doing this for years. It's no big deal. You can have it your way!

On Princess the wait was usually 20 to 30 minutes with those horrible BEEPERS.

[TomTN]

There are more then a few posts here that state Princess doesn't have it 'your way' and our experience was the same. We booked on Princess last year and even though it was 6 months prior, we could not get Traditional/Set dining and had to go with Anytime dining. It worked OK, but since Princess has set numbers for each type dining in specific dining rooms, you Don't have it your way.

 

That is what some Celebrity cruisers who like Traditional dining were afraid off, and it appears Celebrity is setting it up properly.

 

The whole point was to introduce Select Dining without adversely impacting Traditional dining which Celebrity has apparently done. Princess is the example of how not to do it.

 

Denny

 

Your experience on Princess is exactly like ours and at least 400+ other people on our Princess cruise who were unable to get fixed dining.

 

Celebrity seems to be doing more right than wrong recently(unlike 2007-08 when all cruise lines were trimming back with a chain saw) so I'll keep my fingers crossed.

[Waterlily777]

There are more then a few posts here that state Princess doesn't have it 'your way' and our experience was the same. We booked on Princess last year and even though it was 6 months prior, we could not get Traditional/Set dining and had to go with Anytime dining. It worked OK, but since Princess has set numbers for each type dining in specific dining rooms, you Don't have it your way.

 

That is what some Celebrity cruisers who like Traditional dining were afraid off, and it appears Celebrity is setting it up properly.

 

The whole point was to introduce Select Dining without adversely impacting Traditional dining which Celebrity has apparently done. Princess is the example of how not to do it.

 

Denny

 

Hi Denny:

 

This was exactly our experience on Princess as well. We waited almost 40 minutes one evening.

[Bridge Maven]

I have never been on Princess but have also heard of long waits for their anytime dining option from people who have. However, we did not experience any such problem with My Time Dining with Royal Caribbean. Since My Time Dining works so well on Royal Caribbean, I feel confident that it will work just as well on Celebrity.

[Ma Bell]

I guess we'll soon find out. We're giving it a try in November.

[Rysyonok]

To me, traditional seating heightens the dining experience in a way similar to the experience of attending a banquet or wedding reception. It just seems to be a bit more special. There is the anticipation of seating with new friends since sitting with the same people several times gives us a chance to get to know each other. There is the structure of the set time. My wife and I relax on our balcony until the appointed time, get dressed, have a leisurely drink in a nearby lounge, and then enter the dinning room to share the daily adventures with our new friends. Our wait staff becomes our friends too, as they have always seemed to be interested in us, our adventures, and in turn share glimpses into their own lives, both onboard and at home.

 

Maybe the experience brings back many fond memories of sitting down together for dinner as a family each night when we were children, discussing our daily activities. Or maybe some of us like the feeling of doing something as a group instead of only for ourselves. It harkens back to the days when people spent more time with each other than as in today's culture where everyone seems to be solely intent on their own lives.

 

Out of all the 250+ posts I agree with this one the most. Change, however, is inevitable, and I'm just glad that both TD and MTD will co-exist in the near future. I think it'll be ok. After all, how many of us have been to classy restaraunts where a reception was held in one room and casual diners were in another, and it always turned out ok, with neither parties disturbing each other? :)

[gailnnels]

We are sailing on the Equinox on 9/13/09 and have the late seating of 8:45. We booked this because of the late hour our excursions return. Does any one know of they will offer an open seating on evenings we leave port late or overnite in port??? Now rethinking we probably should have taken the earlier seating. Appreciate any feedback.

 

Gail and Nels

[Jeka]

After all, how many of us have been to classy restaraunts where a reception was held in one room and casual diners were in another, and it always turned out ok, with neither parties disturbing each other? :)

 

Totally don't get your analogy. What do "casual diners" have to do with this converation?:confused:

[Jeka]

We are sailing on the Equinox on 9/13/09 and have the late seating of 8:45. We booked this because of the late hour our excursions return. Does any one know of they will offer an open seating on evenings we leave port late or overnite in port??? Now rethinking we probably should have taken the earlier seating. Appreciate any feedback.

 

Gail and Nels

 

Is Select Dining available on your cruise? If so, why not sign up for it. You can eat late on days you have excursions and early on the days you don't. Seems a perfect use of SD, but don't know if it is available to you.

[gailnnels]

Unfortunately, select dining starts the following cruise on 9/26/09 . That is the ideal situation for this E. Med. itinerary, but it will not help us.

[Dalcrew]

People really ... 14 pages on this subject???? For the love of God please get lives. It's not that big a deal and if it is for you then you have absolutely NO LIFE.

[Lois R]

People really ... 14 pages on this subject???? For the love of God please get lives. It's not that big a deal and if it is for you then you have absolutely NO LIFE.

 

Hi:) you replied to it;).... as for having a life?

It is a brand new feature and people want to post their

feelings about it.

Unless someone attacks someone else about it, the thread

will probably go on for...well, 14 more;)

[Ma Bell]

Yes, Lois that's what happens when some find it necessary to attack to posters instead of commenting on the subject. Why bother if they're not interested.:confused:

 

I've been to the office, wrote three contracts, paid bills, visited a friend at the hospital, came home for a furniture delivery, picked up Grandkids at school and am heading to a soccer game then I'll be home to fix dinner. I also posted to this thread. I wonder what he accomplished today.

[FinelyCruising]

Yes, Lois that's what happens when some find it necessary to attack to posters instead of commenting on the subject. Why bother if they're not interested.:confused:

 

I've been to the office, wrote three contracts, paid bills, visited a friend at the hospital, came home for a furniture delivery, picked up Grandkids at school and am heading to a soccer game then I'll be home to fix dinner. I also posted to this thread. I wonder what he accomplished today.

 

Sounds to me like you are living life, unlike some others who will go nameless.:D

[Jeka]

Unfortunately, select dining starts the following cruise on 9/26/09 . That is the ideal situation for this E. Med. itinerary, but it will not help us.

 

Too bad, hope it all works out for you.

 

Hi you replied to it;).... as for having a life?

It is a brand new feature and people want to post their

feelings about it.

Unless someone attacks someone else about it, the thread

will probably go on for...well, 14 more;)

 

Yes, Lois that's what happens when some find it necessary to attack to posters instead of commenting on the subject. Why bother if they're not interested.:confused:

 

I've been to the office, wrote three contracts, paid bills, visited a friend at the hospital, came home for a furniture delivery, picked up Grandkids at school and am heading to a soccer game then I'll be home to fix dinner. I also posted to this thread. I wonder what he accomplished today.

 

Lois R and Ma Bell, thumbs up to both of you. Great posts!!!;):p

 

Ma Bell, glad to see you're giving SD a try. Hope your experience is as positive as ours have been on MTD.