Change to Select Dining while on board the ship

Does anyone have experience with doing that?

I'd be interested in hearing from other folk's experience with this too!

Our MDR head waiter was just awful on our Eclipse cruise last year...so bad that the head waiter from the adjacent section looked out for us :eek: and not just us, others in our section! (only cruise where I actually lost weight :D )

On my May Summit Bermuda sailing, I was assigned late dining, and met a couple people who were select while on board.

One night I just joined them and we were seated and had dinner. I can't recall if I ever presented my sea pass, assume I did as I'd have had a las or 2 of wine for sure.

It depends how full it is. If the M'D determines that Select is very popular and was booked full, he won't let you transfer from your Main Dining assignment to Select. This happened to us on our cruise in September. I was going to switch to Select once onboard so that the gratuities would come from my OBC. We couldn't transfer to Select, and we just stayed with our early seating table. It was fine, we only go to the dining room half the time anyway because we like going to the other venues too.

It depends how full it is. If the M'D determines that Select is very popular and was booked full, he won't let you transfer from your Main Dining assignment to Select. This happened to us on our cruise in September. I was going to switch to Select once onboard so that the gratuities would come from my OBC. We couldn't transfer to Select, and we just stayed with our early seating table. It was fine, we only go to the dining room half the time anyway because we like going to the other venues too.

Last time on the Equinox we dined Select and loved it. Like you - we would rather use our OBCs to pay for the gratuities and not have to prepay them at the time of the final payment..

I wonder if anyone has succeeded doing that... :o

Last time on the Equinox we dined Select and loved it. Like you - we would rather use our OBCs to pay for the gratuities and not have to prepay them at the time of the final payment..

I wonder if anyone has succeeded doing that... :o

We were on a B2B with traditional dining booked for both segments. After the first segment we asked to move to Select and were told they were fully booked weeks before the ship sailed.

Our Lesson Learned was that if we want Select best to pick it when booking.

I think it really all depends on how heavily booked Select is for your specific sailing.

Our yearly sailing is always fulling booked. Last year, much like others, we wanted to be Select but wanted our OBC's to pay for the tips, we had late dining and asked the MaitreD if he could possibly change us to Select. He said absolutely no way, but after working on him for about 3 days (14 day sailing) he finally gave in. It is a tough fight though - be prepared.

This year we are sailing a B2B, so it is one month on board the Eclipse, and we again will have to hound the MaitreD.

So my recommendation - be persistent (naturally with a smile - catch more flies with honey.)

Got a fantastic last minute deal on the 23 night Century transpacific a couple of months ago, but select was sold out so we were booked into late dining. :(

Second night, we talked (shamelessly groveled) to the M'D who switched us to select. :)

Had dinner many times with people in BOTH areas as there were LOTS of open tables. ;)

I would wager that within the next couple of years, fixed time dining will be moved upstairs as demand drops off. Select will be moved to the larger area downstairs to accommodate the increasing demand. :cool:

Does anyone have experience with doing that?

Just see the Maitre D when you get on board. He/she should be able to do it for you. It might take until the next night, so be patient. We switched from select to first seating & it was easy, but still took until the next day.

Just see the Maitre D when you get on board. He/she should be able to do it for you. It might take until the next night, so be patient. We switched from select to first seating & it was easy, but still took until the next day.

I have never seen first seating be full. The problem is getting into Select which is always filled to capacity with a waiting list. Most people seem to want to dine when they want to dine, and not at a set time daily. The flexibility is nice to have.

We wanted to change once and were unable to.

When we were on our B2B this spring, we were AQ in Blu for the first cruise and CC for the second cruise with late dining. The Select dining hostess saw us going to Blu everyday for the first two weeks and tried to get us to dine in the select section of the MDR. She convinced us to switch to select for the second cruise and I loved it. Now if we're not sailing AQ we've chosen select dining. I do wish there was a way of using the OBC to pay for gratuities though with select ahead of time.

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I've just changed to select by ringing my TA. Check out the similar question I fired a few days ago.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=44660214

Sent from my iPad using Forums

I've just changed to select by ringing my TA. Check out the similar question I fired a few days ago.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=44660214

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Oh.. but then you had prepaid gratuities - which makes all the difference! :)

And I agree with teecee60 about the Future.., Select wasn't too popular at first, but now certainly is..

And also thanks Ruthk for the "pestering with a smile" advice. If nothing else works - I'll certainly try it!

Miriam

Met a couple on Eclipse who tried to move to Select and were denied because Select was oversubscribed so it does happen

I think it's very unfair to allow people to switch to Select Dining once onboard. Since those who pre-booked had to pay their gratuities with their final payment and therefore couldn't use OBC for this, I don't believe people should be added to Select once onboard. On my last three cruises Select Dining was fully booked anyway.

I think it's very unfair to allow people to switch to Select Dining once onboard. Since those who pre-booked had to pay their gratuities with their final payment and therefore couldn't use OBC for this, I don't believe people should be added to Select once onboard. On my last three cruises Select Dining was fully booked anyway.

Pardon me, but I would think that "fair" has really very little to do with anything on a cruise. It's not unlike seats on a plane.. People book at different times, with different promos and perks - so they often pay different prices for the same product.

As to my 2 future cruises... In one of them (where we had $600) I managed sort of "exchange" $300 for "prepaid gratuities" (the current Europe 123GO promo made that possible) - and then move us to "select".

The second cruise is a Transatlantic and we don't have any OBC anyway.. So when the final payment comes we'll just prepay the gratuities and (hopefully) move to Select.. :)

Miriam

I think it's very unfair to allow people to switch to Select Dining once onboard. Since those who pre-booked had to pay their gratuities with their final payment and therefore couldn't use OBC for this, I don't believe people should be added to Select once onboard. On my last three cruises Select Dining was fully booked anyway.

We were just on the Silhouette TA, our third cruise with Celebrity but our first in Select Dining, which we just loved. We had booked Select in advance and pre-paid our gratuities. I would not care so much about a "fairness" issue in terms of OBC and letting people switch into Select once on board, but I would care if the Maitre d' feels so badgered by people repeatedly asking to switch (nicely or not) that Select winds up having more guests than it really should.

The popularity of Select does not surprise me, and I think Celebrity (and other lines) are going to need to move away from fixed seating, or at least from that being the main option (in terms of space).

Pardon me, but I would think that "fair" has really very little to do with anything on a cruise. It's not unlike seats on a plane.. People book at different times, with different promos and perks - so they often pay different prices for the same product.

 

 

I can't figure out how your comments about choosing seats on a plane relates to dining choices on a Celebrity cruise and fairness.

 

At time of booking, one has to choose between traditional seatings or Select Dining. If Select Dining is chosen, payment of gratuities is required at time of final payment to secure this choice. I have always felt that Celebrity required this so as to keep control of the numbers in the smaller area reserved for Select Dining. There are only a certain number of Select Dining reservations allowed on any given cruise.

 

On my most recent cruise I had $500 in OBC and paid gratuities from my TA. By choosing Select Dining when I booked, I had to pay gratuities beforehand in my final payment. Once onboard I was reimbursed for the gratuities I already paid by having that amount credited to my account in the form of additional OBC.

 

I would certainly have preferred being able to use some of that OBC towards the Select gratuities, or that my TA could have paid them for me in my final payment, but that's not how it works.

 

For someone to badger a dining room manager until he relents and allows them in is wrong, rude and unfair to all who followed the rules by choosing Select at time of booking and paying the gratuities beforehand as required.

Early dining is often overbooked when there are lots of families with young children on board. Late dining is often overbooked when there are many Europeans on board. Select may or may not be overbooked. It might be easy to switch from one to another, it might be difficult or the answer would be a firm "no". But the cruise line does want to fulfill customers' requests whenever it's feasible to do so. Ask politely, but do understand if the change can't be made.

I can't figure out how your comments about choosing seats on a plane relates to dining choices on a Celebrity cruise and fairness.

 

At time of booking, one has to choose between traditional seatings or Select Dining. If Select Dining is chosen, payment of gratuities is required at time of final payment to secure this choice. I have always felt that Celebrity required this so as to keep control of the numbers in the smaller area reserved for Select Dining. There are only a certain number of Select Dining reservations allowed on any given cruise.

 

On my most recent cruise I had $500 in OBC and paid gratuities from my TA. By choosing Select Dining when I booked, I had to pay gratuities beforehand in my final payment. Once onboard I was reimbursed for the gratuities I already paid by having that amount credited to my account in the form of additional OBC.

 

I would certainly have preferred being able to use some of that OBC towards the Select gratuities, or that my TA could have paid them for me in my final payment, but that's not how it works.

 

For someone to badger a dining room manager until he relents and allows them in is wrong, rude and unfair to all who followed the rules by choosing Select at time of booking and paying the gratuities beforehand as required.

OK.. First - let me try to clarify what I meant when I wrote about "fairness" after somebody on this thread implied that "it's not fair" to use your OBC to pay for the gratuities, while others have prepaid them (in "actual money") in their final payment.

All I meant is that - because we book cruises at different times (hence - at different prices and promos) - the fact that somebody prepays his gratuities with real money, doesn't necessarily means that he got the "lesser" deal. It's always a question of simple arithmetic.

An example: the cruise we are booked on (Silhouette in June) sells now a certain type of veranda with a "special offer" of $750 LESS than the "regular" price. OR.. you can still book it for the regular price - and get 2 perks ( the 123GO promo). This promo translated into money value means $300 for the OBCs and $288 for the prepaid gratuities (12 days X 2pX). The total - "only" $588.

So the person who will choose the "special offer" and pays the gratuities by himself (either before or during the cruise) - still has a better deal than the one who has the OBC and his gratuities prepaid. Even more so on a non-European cruise where you have just one perk to choose from.

So that was the remark about "fairness" (or lack of it). The allusion to "plane seats" was just in the context that people who cruise in the same type of cabin may have paid different prices and got different perks - depending on the timing of their bookings and the competence (and generosity) of their travel agents.

But that's really beside the point here.. I agree with cruisestitch that each of the 3 possible seatings can be overbooked (different itineraries, different demographics). Actually our first encounter with the "non-traditional-dining" was few years ago on RCI (they call it MTD) - and it was a disaster. We were assigned to it because we booked very late and this was the only option available. And it was so unpleasant that after 2 tries we quietly removed ourselves for the rest of the cruise to the "upstairs" buffet.

And then 2 years ago we got Select on the Equinox (again - not our asking) - and it was just lovely.

So here we are..

And I wouldn't dream of "badgering" anyone.. :)

Miriam

We loved Select last Feb. on Eclipse so much that I would never go back to an assigned dining time. No more worries about having to spend two weeks straight dining with people that might not be a good match. A table for two one night and the next night you can choose to share a table - early or later - we love the flexibility. However I am also in the camp that it is rude to attempt to "talk your way into Select" to avoid the upfront gratuity charge. Many of us love Select enough to pay ahead to get it - then when those trying to "work the system" so that they can use their OBC for the gratuities start begging to be let in - over crowding happens resulting in longer wait times for everyone - I believe that if you want it - pay for it when you book. I think switching to Select after the cruise has started should not be allowed. I believe that Celebrity will catch on to those that switch after getting onboard and I think rule changes will come. :D

Re: the argument that if choosing Select over Fixed Dining, the Tips have to be paid up front, and O.B.C. can't be used to pay this cost.

In this example, assuming the O.B.C. that I was going to use to pay for the Tips was to come from a Travel Agent, would not this be refunded to me if not spent on other things ? So, I choose Select, pay the Tips up front with final payment, don't spend the O.B.C. and it is refunded to me at the end of the cruise.

And if this is the case, would I not be out the cost of the Tips for 75 days, from the date I have to pay off the cruise in full and I board?

So, if my thinking is correct, $11.75 x 2 x 75 days x 1% (the interest I get in my savings account) works out to a net cost to me of less than $1.00.

Is that really what we're talking about here...........less than $1.00 ?

Yup, that's it. But some people aren't able to analyze the situation and simply scream from a knee jerk reaction...."they have MY money all that time!"

And others intend to stiff the staff by removing the tips, but when they are in Select they can't do that!

Yup, that's it. But some people aren't able to analyze the situation and simply scream from a knee jerk reaction...."they have MY money all that time!"

 

And others intend to stiff the staff by removing the tips, but when they are in Select they can't do that!

Someone over on the RCL Board opined a while back that Cruise Critic is an Island of information in a Sea of Drama.

I think threads about paying Tips up front on Select Dining demonstrate this so very well. Good Grief, we're amazing us humans what we complain about !