Dining Time - Select or Assigned?

[sarawithanh]

What is your preference?

 

My dad wants anytime dining.

My husband I are fine with anytime dining.

 

Our last cruise (Carnival) was the late dining time, and I convinced our group to do assigned time because the server is supposed to "get to know you" etc etc.

However, we ended up not liking our server so I wished we had done anytime dining.

 

That being said...... 6pm is way too early and the late serving is way too late.

 

siiiiiiiiiiiiigh. my mom is on the fence and wants to know everybody's thoughts :) :):)

[lovecruzin]

We used to do late dining and we always enjoyed getting to know the people at our table over the course of the cruise. Now we do select because we like the flexibility and like you said, for us late is too late and early too early. With select we can sit with a large table and get to know other people or dine by ourselves.

[wvufan]

For the last few cruises we have chosen mytime and actually ended up going about the same time every night. We are very friendly to the wait staff and it turns out they held the same table for us every night.

 

One big benefit we have found (so far at least) is that my time is on the upper level of the dining room and it is not nearly as noisy as below.

 

Happy Sails to You

 

OOOEEE :D:D Bob and Phyl

[1313steve]

That being said...... 6pm is way too early and the late serving is way too late.

 

Ummm. I think you just answered your own question. Select Dining is for you!

[monicajay]

Love Select!

[Purplsmurf]

We love Select as well. We make our reservations ahead of time and choose to sit at a table with just the 4 of us. If you like your server you can ask to be there each night and if you don't then you can sit somewhere else! Very flexible!!

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[aspen36]

This is a question that is subjective. I either like late or select. I don't like early seating. I like to have time to relax after being in port.

[Jack Horner]

We love Select as well. We make our reservations ahead of time and choose to sit at a table with just the 4 of us. If you like your server you can ask to be there each night and if you don't then you can sit somewhere else! Very flexible!!

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

 

How do they know you are select? Do they have a list that they check when you come into the dining room?

[CruisersTimesThree]

We love select dining!

 

Early seating always made us feel like we were clock watching whenever we were out at a port. Always felt rushed to get back to the ship, shower and dress to make the dining room on time.

Late seating....I am not a fan of...finishing dinner around 10pm...feeling too full that late.

 

Select dining is our favorite choice. We had it on our last two cruises and were very happy with it.

We usually arrived between 7 and 8pm. Rarely had a wait, if we did it was no more then 10 mins.

If you like a particular wait staff, you may request to be seated in their area each evening.

We did this without a problem.

 

As far as knowing who belongs in select...I believe the staff at the podiums have a master list with the cabin numbers of the passengers that chose select dining as their option.

Edited March 25, 2014 by CruisersTimesThree

[TeaBag]

How do they know you are select? Do they have a list that they check when you come into the dining room?

They check your cabin number in Select.

[1313steve]

Does anyone know if Select is in the upper or lower part of the dining room on S-Class ships? (Reflection in particular)

[Ando]

Does anyone know if Select is in the upper or lower part of the dining room on S-Class ships? (Reflection in particular)

 

It was upper on Solstice.

 

We also had the same waiters each night and were always seated at one of their tables.

[micmacmissy]

We were on Silhouette and select dining was AWFUL. No matter what time we walked in, we never were seated before 815pm. Never had the same table or the same server twice. Never were able to get a reservation (even days ahead) before 815pm. It was always a chaotic mess walking in to the dining room.

 

We've done anytime dining on Royal Caribbean and they have it down to a science and it worked beautifully...why was it such a mess on Silhouette? Could be that was just an issue on that particular ship? I don't know...but I wouldn't do it again!

Edited March 25, 2014 by micmacmissy

[flyingv4me]

We sailed the Silhouette in January (B2B) and had select dining. Never more than a couple of minutes to wait for our table. We had the same servers (Jorgie and Anam) each night. They were simply amazing! We didn't make a reservation, but still arrived around 7:00 - 7:30 each night and were seated almost immediately.

 

Personal preference, but we LOVE select dining!

[dobes3kh]

Does anyone know if Select is in the upper or lower part of the dining room on S-Class ships? (Reflection in particular)

 

Select dining is on the upper level on Reflection. I believe it was Deck 5.

 

We just got back on the weekend from the Reflection and we had main dining (8:30pm) for the first time---always had Select prior and we have to say we really didn't like it. It was too late for us and even though we had pre-paid gratuities, we were placed on the Select wait list which was quite large from what we were told. We actually ate in the Oceanview a few times because we were too hungry to wait for 8:30pm!!!!

[NCruiser2012]

Someone mentioned arriving from the ports late. What happens if you do not show up for your dining time or decide to eat elsewhere? Do they keep your table reserved or do they give it to others?

[james'mommy]

We do first seating because we have a kiddo with us. We don't like select dining because we like to have the waiters get to know our preferences. I also have food allergies so it's safer for me to have the same waiter every night.

[dobes3kh]

Someone mentioned arriving from the ports late. What happens if you do not show up for your dining time or decide to eat elsewhere? Do they keep your table reserved or do they give it to others?

 

 

From what I understand, if you have Select dining and you don't show at the reserved time, you have the standard grace period. That is what we have been told on at least 3 cruises. If you have the main dining and you don't show up, they won't give your table away----that is your table for the duration of the cruise (once assigned).

[ariawoman]

Ummm. I think you just answered your own question. Select Dining is for you!

 

You could always do select dining but make reservations for each night for the time you preferred and at the same table. It'll feel like traditional dining, only you'll pay your gratuities up front.

[ariawoman]

Does anyone know if Select is in the upper or lower part of the dining room on S-Class ships? (Reflection in particular)

 

Upper left hand side is Select for the Reflection.

[ariawoman]

Someone mentioned arriving from the ports late. What happens if you do not show up for your dining time or decide to eat elsewhere? Do they keep your table reserved or do they give it to others?

 

If you have an assigned dining time, it is proper manners to alert your tablemates when you will not be arriving on time for dinner so that they don't wait for you (presuming your party doesn't take the entire table).

 

If you have a whole table to yourselves I don't believe they will give it away but they will likely stop you from entering the dining room after a certain amount of time.

 

If you have select, and made a reservation, they'll likely disregard after you are a no show for 15-20 minutes I'd think (but I don't have experience so this is a guesstimate).

[rubydoobydoo]

I have only ever had select dining and it's suits me perfectly, this time I didn't get a choice and have been allocated the 8.45 sitting, I am not sure how I am going to like it though as I feel it is too late for me to eat, but then 6 is way too early

 

I would always go for select if I had the choice

[iancal]

We very much prefer Select dining.

[Jwhite4304]

Go Select! Great experiences and it fit our schedules and needs much better than an assigned time.

 

Jim

[olemissreb]

We've done My Time/Select dining on our last 2 cruises. My Time on the Adventure of the Seas was wonderful. We sat at the same table with the same wait staff 6 out of 7 nights. Select on the Millie was AWFUL. We never found a wait staff that we were happy with. On 6 out of 7 nights, it took 15 minutes before we would get our menus and then trying to flag down a bar tender or wine steward was an exercise is futility. While I don't mind a long leisurely dinner and our usually took 2 hours, it wasn't leisurely by any means - for some reason it always felt rushed (reminded me almost of rush hour - moving but at a snails pace). For our Summit cruise, it will just be DH and I so we are going traditional late seating. Will I try Select again? Probably. I've read too many reviews where it worked on other ships to not try again.