Wait list for traditional dining over a year before cruise

I have booked the Eclipse transatlantic cruise on 29 October 2016; however, traditional 6pm dining, my personal preference, is on a wait list and I have been allocated select dining.

It is hard to believe that 6pm traditional dining is booked up so far in advance and wonder if Celebrity are trying to ensure the gratuities are paid upfront for select dining before considering allocating me traditional dining.

I am happy to pay gratuities upfront, but not to pay so far in advance. Nevertheless, I would like confirmation so far in advance that my preferred dining option is available.

I have contacted Celebrity and I am waiting for a reply.

Has anyone else had experience of this?

Yes, I booked onboard for two years out and I was told that only Delect Dining was available. I called when I returned and I now have Traditional Dining.

I have booked the Eclipse transatlantic cruise on 29 October 2016; however, traditional 6pm dining, my personal preference, is on a wait list and I have been allocated select dining.

 

It is hard to believe that 6pm traditional dining is booked up so far in advance and wonder if Celebrity are trying to ensure the gratuities are paid upfront for select dining before considering allocating me traditional dining.

 

I am happy to pay gratuities upfront, but not to pay so far in advance. Nevertheless, I would like confirmation so far in advance that my preferred dining option is available.

 

I have contacted Celebrity and I am waiting for a reply.

 

Has anyone else had experience of this?

We are going Celebrity Eclipse transatlantic on 01 November this year we booked this nearly a year ago and agreed to pay gratuities up front to get select dining and it's only been in the last couple of weeks that I have been able to go on line and book the dining times we wanted . Even then it was a laborious process each day had to be done and confirmed individually and I received a confirmation email for each one, as we are on for 28 nights I really lost the will to live over it. However we also have a booking on Celebrity Infinity for Feb2016,and this had been booked well over a year ago and we asked for late traditional dining on that and got it immediately. There is no rhyme or reason behind any of it.

"I am happy to pay gratuities upfront, but not to pay so far in advance. "

You would pay these gratuities at the same time you make Final Payment, presumably about 75 days in advance of the cruise.

I have same issue. We have a transatlantic booked for April 10, 2016. My travel agent told me that as a guarantee cabin select dining was my only option. We are also required to pay gratuities at time of final payment. I have requested late dining. Has anyone had experience with this? How likely am I to get my request?

I have booked the Eclipse transatlantic cruise on 29 October 2016; however, traditional 6pm dining, my personal preference, is on a wait list and I have been allocated select dining.

 

It is hard to believe that 6pm traditional dining is booked up so far in advance and wonder if Celebrity are trying to ensure the gratuities are paid upfront for select dining before considering allocating me traditional dining.

The new suite restaurant--Luminae--has been carved out of the portion of the main dining room that had been allocated to traditional dining... Though perhaps an unintended consequence, I seriously doubt such determination was made in an attempt to accelerate prepayment of gratuities but rather relates to the ever increasing popularity of/demand for Select Dining in terms of main dining room space allocation...

This has been going on for years, We have had this happen to us since 2012, we end up getting are requested early dining and twice have had to ask for our prepayed grat's to be taken off our final payment. I don't know why they do this and I'm sure they have a reason, just seems like a pain to tell us that tradional dinng is filled years a head of time.

J.

I suspect that many of the folks who find "select dining only" on their cruises will find that after final payment, early and late dining miraculously open up.

One possible reason...and you can call me a conspiracist...is that "free gratuities" actually cost celebrity the full amount of the gratuities. If they, however, compensate you for the free gratuities in the way of an OBC (which is what they would do if you were moved to early/late seating after you've paid the gratuities at final payment time), you will now spend that OBC on something where celebrity makes a profit...and therefore, the benefit costs them far less than had they just paid your gratuities directly.

Let's see if I'm right as time goes on. I don't think the availability of select dining only on so many 2016/2017 cruises is an accident.

I sort of also subscribe to the alternate theory though....that Celebrity is thinking about moving to all select dining and they haven't set a date for announcing or implementing that change so they are keeping their options open by only allowing folks to book select dining.

I suspect that many of the folks who find "select dining only" on their cruises will find that after final payment, early and late dining miraculously open up.

 

One possible reason...and you can call me a conspiracist...is that "free gratuities" actually cost celebrity the full amount of the gratuities. If they, however, compensate you for the free gratuities in the way of an OBC (which is what they would do if you were moved to early/late seating after you've paid the gratuities at final payment time), you will now spend that OBC on something where celebrity makes a profit...and therefore, the benefit costs them far less than had they just paid your gratuities directly.

 

Let's see if I'm right as time goes on. I don't think the availability of select dining only on so many 2016/2017 cruises is an accident.

 

I sort of also subscribe to the alternate theory though....that Celebrity is thinking about moving to all select dining and they haven't set a date for announcing or implementing that change so they are keeping their options open by only allowing folks to book select dining.

I totally agree with all of the comments! We were waitlisted on our Equinox sailing in 3/2016 and we have never been waitlisted prior to this booking. Hmmmm...suspicious about the reasons. I like the theory that Celebrity wants you to pay for other things with your OBC's. A few days ago, I had our TA check to see if we could get early dining and we did! So, I asked that the upfront prepaid gratuities be removed as we would like to use our OBC's for that. And....they did! We are 200 days from sailing and maybe that is the magic number even though it has never happened before!

I subscribe to the theory that a lot of people who are in Blu or Luminae get assigned a dining time in the main dining room, even though they will likely not be in the MDR at all during the cruise. I have traditional late seating booked for my Feb 2016 cruise that was booked in Feb 2015 but will be dining in Luminae every night as I booked a suite. That is a MDR reservation that someone else cannot have. It's all part of their IT weirdness.

I'm curious about this idea -- if you are right it's a major screw-up on the Celebrity booking system.

Naw...there's probably a group onboard and they place them in the same dining time....once onboard, the group will change to the time of their choice, freeing up times for others. When I say "group", I'm thinking of large groups who don't really know each other...like a "reward" cruise for top earners in some company....insurance sales, or real estate......these folks don't know each other, and don't have functions....but it's booked as a "group".

I subscribe to the theory that a lot of people who are in Blu or Luminae get assigned a dining time in the main dining room, even though they will likely not be in the MDR at all during the cruise. I have traditional late seating booked for my Feb 2016 cruise that was booked in Feb 2015 but will be dining in Luminae every night as I booked a suite. That is a MDR reservation that someone else cannot have. It's all part of their IT weirdness.

I agree. We are traveling soon in a suite on the Infinity. Yet, when I booked the cruise directly with Celebrity, I was asked whether I wanted early or late traditional seating. I said that since I would be in a suite, I would be dining in Luminae. The Celebrity rep said that, nonetheless, I would need to chose a time for dinig in the MDR so that, if I wanted to eat there, a table would be available.

Go figure!

I have booked the Eclipse transatlantic cruise on 29 October 2016; however, traditional 6pm dining, my personal preference, is on a wait list and I have been allocated select dining.

 

It is hard to believe that 6pm traditional dining is booked up so far in advance and wonder if Celebrity are trying to ensure the gratuities are paid upfront for select dining before considering allocating me traditional dining.

 

I am happy to pay gratuities upfront, but not to pay so far in advance. Nevertheless, I would like confirmation so far in advance that my preferred dining option is available.

 

I have contacted Celebrity and I am waiting for a reply.

 

Has anyone else had experience of this?

Just sit back & relax!! When you get on board go right to the Maitre D in the Moonlight Sonata & tell him your request. We've done it twice. The first time We booked 3 weeks prior to the cruise. The internet T/A/s book many cabins in advance & the dining shedule to go along with them. As the cruise nears, they are forced to release cabins not actually booked. Trust me, you'll be fine!

Just sit back & relax!! When you get on board go right to the Maitre D in the Moonlight Sonata & tell him your request. We've done it twice. The first time We booked 3 weeks prior to the cruise. The internet T/A/s book many cabins in advance & the dining shedule to go along with them. As the cruise nears, they are forced to release cabins not actually booked. Trust me, you'll be fine!

Well, I wouldn't over-promise. We had a couple at our table last cruise who were quite annoyed that they couldn't get a 2-top even though they had status with the cruise line. Same thing for the second night. We didn't see them after the third night, but I don't know if they went elsewhere or finally got a table for 2.

The last 2 Celebrity Cruises we have been wait listed for Traditional 2nd seating having booked out over 6 months. A few weeks before we received confirmation of traditional. The MDR was about 2/3 full each night. I also believe that the problem is the Suite resturants and anytime. Many make reservations for MDR but really want anytime. Once onboard they go to anytime. The MDR is just a backup for them in case.

Hi Cool Cruiser:

We are having the same problem with Celebrity Cruise Lines and, like yourself, perplexed by it. Our cruise is not until June 2018 and we are being informed that we are being assigned AnyTime Dining which we are definitely not interested in. Our Travel Agent is making every effort to get confirmation that we are going to receive Traditional Dining. It is now 11 months prior to departure date and the Traditional Dining rooms are full?????? I'm very disappointed in this way of handling reservations. I am hoping for a resolution of this problem shortly.

Birdwoman

the fixed dining room isn't "full". This happens every time we book more than a few months out. Once you are closer to the sailing date, the ship will do the seating arrangements. We have always received our request.

Too, if by some chance you don't get your request, you can go to the maître d who meets with passengers around 2:00 on boarding day in the dining room to reseat passengers wanting some kind of change. MOST of the time, folks can be accommodated. Especially if not trying to shuffle up large groups. Don't lose sleep over it.

Welcome to Cruise Critic,

as you can see, this thread is quite old. In fact, the original poster has never returned to Cruise Critic.

Do not panic about your dinner assignment, Once Final Payment is made, there is generally some shuffling, as spaces held by travel agents "on spec" are released.

In case you don't clear the waitlist, you can go to the dinng room staff when you board to repeat your request and they usually can take care of you.

But meanwhile, investigate Select Dining some more. You may find that any reservations you have about its suitability are groundless.

On our last few cruises, early fixed seating and Select dining were crammed full. But late fixed seating was a ghost town. Select was so rushed and crowded that we changed to late fixed, and it was so much more civilised. If you can tolerate eating late, a switch to fixed seating works really well.

We book Eclipse March 18, 2018 Exotic Southern Caribbean, on June 8 this year, We selected 2nd seating (8:30PM) also prepaid gratuities (until final payment date). We was on waiting list for about 3 weeks.