Currently on Silhouette -- anytime dining is a problem

[kevinyork]

Our first Celebrity Cruise, Select worked great, but I have to say with each trip it becomes more troublesome. I don’t want to reserve a specific time in advance but feel compelled to given the increasing lack of flexibility if you have not. Couple of things they should do 1) stop reservations, both online in advance or on the ship. Whilst reserving assists one set of passengers it reduces flexibility for many others. 2) Stop Select being the ‘dumping ground’ for those with other options. So many stories on here of Luminae guests wanting to try the MDR and skipping the Select lines or people arriving late for their MDR fixed dining time and being sent to Select. Make Select only for Select.

 

It’s annoying to look down and see so many empty seats in fixed dining where people are dining elsewhere but a Select passenger who dines elsewhere frees up more space for others Select passengers.

 

Unfortunately there isn’t a panacea until they bite the bullet and remove fixed dining completely making it all flexible. We’ve just come back from our first land holiday in 9 years, a 5 star All Inclusive in Mexico with 9 a la carte restaurants. We could choose which one and when we wanted to dine on the night and it was great. It was an eye opener having been a cruiser only for the last 9 years. Imagine going to such a resort and being told you had to eat at an early or late set sitting on the same table for the whole holiday? And yet that’s what cruising fixed dining is.

 

 

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Edited February 8, 2018 by kevinyork

[phillygirl2400]

We have always had select dining (and the equivalent on other lines). Summit, Infinity, Equiniox - no problem. Reservations were for 7 or 7:15 and were made before the cruise. Hope problems on Silhouette are resolved before our cruise in Aug., 2018!!

 

 

 

Also, Reflection, no problem with Select.

I hope problems on Silhouette are resolved before our March 4 sailing. I get cranky when I'm hungry!

[pbrady]

We did the 7 night Silhouette followed by the 14 night Eclipse. 4 1/2 months out I made Select Dining reservations for four of us at 7:00 for all 21 days. On the Silhouette we had a problem every night. Oksana , the hostess, was just plain rude every night. We waited up to an hour & never had the same wait-staff. We never saw a drink person & my husband got his wine with dessert a couple times then stopped & got his wine at an exterior bar & took it to dinner. Then we went to the Eclipse. We never waited, the Hostess was wonderful & we had the same table & wait-staff every night & drink service was fantastic! Silhouette obviously has issues that are not being addressed.

[obnurse]

So, with all of this recent information in mind, is it better in MDR or is it more of the same? We're looking at next year and Silhouette 12 day is on our radar as a probability. We always do Select Dining, but maybe we need to look at alternatives. Any opinions about that?

[Baron Barracuda]

 

Unfortunately there isn’t a panacea until they bite the bullet and remove fixed dining completely making it all flexible. We’ve just come back from our first land holiday in 9 years, a 5 star All Inclusive in Mexico with 9 a la carte restaurants. We could choose which one and when we wanted to dine on the night and it was great. It was an eye opener having been a cruiser only for the last 9 years. Imagine going to such a resort and being told you had to eat at an early or late set sitting on the same table for the whole holiday? And yet that’s what cruising fixed dining is.

 

 

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Please don't try to dump this mess on Traditonal dining. You may not be a fan of Traditional, but many of us are. What's not to like? Doors open and walk directly to my table where I'm greeted by my regular waiter and immediately handed a menu. Sommelier knows what we drink and brings it right away. For this I'm willing to suffer the indignity of dining at the same time every night.

 

Traditional works much more efficiently for passengers and crew than Select and remains very popular. First seating is always fully booked. Royal tried to replace Traditional with Dynamic Dining on Quantum class (think Select using multiple dining rooms) and it was complete disaster. Eventually ditched it. Traditional isn't going away anytime soon.

[nngardener]

So, with all of this recent information in mind, is it better in MDR or is it more of the same? We're looking at next year and Silhouette 12 day is on our radar as a probability. We always do Select Dining, but maybe we need to look at alternatives. Any opinions about that?

 

 

 

We haven’t been in anything but select dining since 2013 and have had absolutely no problems on the Eclipse and Equinox. The problems on the Silhouette are baffling and really irritating. In addition, the powers in charge didn’t seem motivated to solve them.

 

As a result we’ve decided to not take the chance that the issues are still there when we sail on a 33 day b2b2b cruises in January and February 2019. We had our TA make the change.

 

 

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[Zoedokey]

Obviously Celebrity is aware that this is a problem on this particular ship. Why don’t they step in and fix it.

 

 

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[nngardener]

Obviously Celebrity is aware that this is a problem on this particular ship. Why don’t they step in and fix it.

 

 

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Good question. No one seemed to be motivated to get it fixed even though I saw many people upset.

 

 

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[purpletequila]

Regarding specialty dining discounts, we were told that no more discounts are permitted during a cruise. If you want discounts, other than embarkation day specialty dining, you must now buy a dining package.

 

 

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Yeah. They're full of it. If the reservations are slow, you better believe they are going to offer discounts. Sounds like what's happening is the MDR is such a logistics nightmare, people are going to the specialties so there is no need to discount.

[WNCtourist]

Obviously Celebrity is aware that this is a problem on this particular ship. Why don’t they step in and fix it.

 

 

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That's the real question remaining unanswered. Our Select Dining experience on Reflection has been very enjoyable. On Silhouette it was awful for us and many others. I'm considering switching to fixed for next year if it's still available.

 

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[kevinyork]

Please don't try to dump this mess on Traditonal dining. You may not be a fan of Traditional, but many of us are. What's not to like? Doors open and walk directly to my table where I'm greeted by my regular waiter and immediately handed a menu. Sommelier knows what we drink and brings it right away. For this I'm willing to suffer the indignity of dining at the same time every night.

 

 

 

Traditional works much more efficiently for passengers and crew than Select and remains very popular. First seating is always fully booked. Royal tried to replace Traditional with Dynamic Dining on Quantum class (think Select using multiple dining rooms) and it was complete disaster. Eventually ditched it. Traditional isn't going away anytime soon.

 

 

 

I’m not trying to dump “ this mess “ on traditional dining per se, but if a traditional diner eats elsewhere, no one takes their place and their space is wasted. If a traditional diner arrives too late for their seating, they can be directed to Select Dining, thereby taking a seat from a select diner or making a select diner wait longer. Traditional dining works better for those that enjoy it because they can guarantee their time and table. Unfortunately select diners are being squeezed into less choices and less flexibility.

 

 

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[cdbaum]

My fear/thought on anytime dining, no matter which line, is that they will run into problems because most peoples idea of "any time" is roughly the same time. Since the dining area can only hold a set amount of people someone will have to wait.

 

We tried it and went back to traditional seating.

[Bo1953]

Maybe consideration needs to be given to adding one (1) additional fixed dining time, say 6.30p possibly this will alleviate some of the overflow to Anytime Dining?

 

Personally, we do not mind waiting, too often and understand the need to wait. We would prefer to wait vs not getting the wait staff or sommelier or table desired. We have waited in the bar area for up to 35 minutes, had cocktails and some snacks while doing so... if we missed the show or something else, no big deal, we make up for it another night.

 

If someone in our party just has to have something because they are famished or other reason, we always recommend that they get a quick snack in OVC just in case there is a delay which may be unforeseen.

 

This approach has worked well, for us and our needs.

 

bon voyage

[RickT]

I’m not trying to dump “ this mess “ on traditional dining per se, but if a traditional diner eats elsewhere, no one takes their place and their space is wasted. If a traditional diner arrives too late for their seating, they can be directed to Select Dining, thereby taking a seat from a select diner or making a select diner wait longer. Traditional dining works better for those that enjoy it because they can guarantee their time and table. Unfortunately select diners are being squeezed into less choices and less flexibility.

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If a traditional table makes a reservation at one of the specialty restaurants that table DOES become available for select. When we've dined Select we have eaten in the lower level a few times. We also know that when we have chosen traditional dining and are eating in a specialty restaurant that our table was used by others.

 

I think the issue is that for someone from Select dining to eat on the main level the whole table needs to be empty. If one couple from a larger table skips dinner they don't move a select diner to that seat.

 

To agree with others, the issue here is NOT traditional dining. That is what I regularly book and prefer it and would be truly disappointed if X stopped offering it. I think the issue is that Select dining only works if people are randomly choosing to eat at different times and spread out the demand. Unfortunately that often doesn't happen.

[mystone99]

I’m not trying to dump “ this mess “ on traditional dining per se, but if a traditional diner eats elsewhere, no one takes their place and their space is wasted. If a traditional diner arrives too late for their seating, they can be directed to Select Dining, thereby taking a seat from a select diner or making a select diner wait longer. Traditional dining works better for those that enjoy it because they can guarantee their time and table. Unfortunately select diners are being squeezed into less choices and less flexibility.

 

We were on the Jan 26. Silhouette sailing with the select dining because we couldn't get on the early traditional dining. We only had to wait with a beeper the first night, and after that showed up without a reservation, usually between 6:30 and 7, and were seated immediately. Twice we were walked downstairs to an open table in the traditional dining room, so that does happen.

The thing we noticed was since this was an 9-day cruise the crowd was older and early dining was always packed. If you waited an hour so there were empty tables, and the one night we ate later the MDR was maybe half full.

Edited February 10, 2018 by mystone99
added words

[sasset]

On Silhouette last May anytime worked great for us. Same table at same time, 845P, every night.

[savage critic]

We were on Silhouette January 2018 14th to 26th and the anytime dining was our best experience ever from all our previous Celebrity Cruises. We were allocated the same table and team each night as we entered the dining room, and we were so well looked after throughout the cruise by the staff in the MDR that we simply couldn't fault it.

[laslomas]

I have always chosen Select Dining and until two years ago had never experienced a problem of turning up and being seated within a few minutes. I did not even know the 'beepers' existed.

 

I understand, from reading this forum, that many cruisers book some or all their MDR dining in advance. They like the normality of eating at the same time every night. I am the opposite when on holiday i.e. not having to keep to a timetable at all. In fact if I made a reservation I would probably not be relaxing as I would be worrying about being late, or even early for my reservation. We are all different and I would not judge anyone's choice in this matter.

 

So what I want to know is, is just a set percentage of the tables available to be reserved in advance? I mean is maybe 50% available for reservations and the other 50% always available for the walk ups? I hope this is how it works to be fair to all. Does anyone know? :confused:

[zanderblue]

Don’t know for sure the exact amount of tables allocated between reserved and walk up. However, I suspect it is not fixed but rather a variable amount. Early in evening I’d reckon the percentage available for walk ups would be very high, but as the evening moves into the popular times of 6:30 to 8, then I’d expect it would drop dramatically (due to folks having made reservations), but then pick up again as the evening rush tails off.

 

The other factors in all this of course, is the size of table and the preference of the diners on whether they want to share a table or sit by themselves.

[Cruise a holic]

Our first Celebrity Cruise, Select worked great, but I have to say with each trip it becomes more troublesome. I don’t want to reserve a specific time in advance but feel compelled to given the increasing lack of flexibility if you have not. Couple of things they should do 1) stop reservations, both online in advance or on the ship. Whilst reserving assists one set of passengers it reduces flexibility for many others. 2) Stop Select being the ‘dumping ground’ for those with other options. So many stories on here of Luminae guests wanting to try the MDR and skipping the Select lines or people arriving late for their MDR fixed dining time and being sent to Select. Make Select only for Select.

 

It’s annoying to look down and see so many empty seats in fixed dining where people are dining elsewhere but a Select passenger who dines elsewhere frees up more space for others Select passengers.

 

Unfortunately there isn’t a panacea until they bite the bullet and remove fixed dining completely making it all flexible. We’ve just come back from our first land holiday in 9 years, a 5 star All Inclusive in Mexico with 9 a la carte restaurants. We could choose which one and when we wanted to dine on the night and it was great. It was an eye opener having been a cruiser only for the last 9 years. Imagine going to such a resort and being told you had to eat at an early or late set sitting on the same table for the whole holiday? And yet that’s what cruising fixed dining is.

 

 

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we also went to a highly rated riviera maya resort in mexico and even with reservations (a choice of seven also five star) had to wait to dine. No perfect panacea. Also in luminae you can request the MDR menu so why would guests want to dine in MDR, when they can sit at a comfortable table in luminae? I think people are being encouraged to consider the specialty restaurants to be seated without long waits. I would recommend using cruise credit for a specialty dining package

[dutchclogs]

Interesting reading. We had no problems with select dining on a 12 night cruise on Silhouette last July.

We did have a short wait (15 mins or so?) with bleeper one night , We possibly benefited from Concierge priority seating, I did note a separate waiting line for suite and concierge guests which I don't recall seeing before.

 

In contrast,we did not have a good select dining experience on a B2B on Equinox the year before. Select service was so stressed on the first leg that we asked to transfer to fixed dining. This was not possible but we were advised to turn up about 10 minutes after the fixed dining times to see there was a vacant table (we were a party of 4).

[AC Stew]

We've always pre-reserved a Select Dining table for two, usually sometime around 7:00. Millennium or Solstice class, there's never been an issue ... until recently.

 

If you're on a Millennium class ship, you'll find that Select Dining has been moved from the upper level to the lower level of the MDR. Just guessing here, but the Luminae restaurant has taken away about 20 to 25% of the former dining space in that lower level. But there are still the same same number of Select diners. The result? Tables and chairs have been jammed much closer together. Servers have a difficult time trying to negotiate with little wiggle room. Tables for two are compressed within inches of a line-up of other "tables for two." The atmosphere (on our recent 12 night sailing), was akin to a crowded and noisy cafeteria. Dreadful. We actually retreated to the much quieter Oceanview buffet for several nights. Seriously, the MDR was that unpleasant.

 

We also noticed unprecedented line-ups for both reserved table times and walk-ins. Cruisers were noticeably vexed. The hostess was noticeably stressed out.

 

While my points are a bit off topic from the "reservations" subject, I think that the bottom line of the smaller dining room remains at the crux of the problem. I raised the issue with the Captain's Club, and put it in writing as well. They're aware.

 

I have no idea what the solution could be. But I strongly suggest that if anyone is inconvenienced by the current state of "Select Dining," make that call or put it in writing!

 

AC Stew

[Cruise Raider]

Sorry to hear about your problems with Select Dining. On our Silhouette cruise 14.-26. January our experience was just the opposite: After embarkation we made a phone reservation for a table of two, but were flexible about the time. We agreed for 08.30 for the first night. After dinner we talked in a nice way to our hostess Paola and she was able to offer us a standing reservation for 07.30 (same table if possible). Only on two evenings we had a 7 minutes wait and enjoyed the Select Dining!

 

I see two problems with Select Dining: More and more guests prefer it and the space is now to small. While we saw every night empty tables in Traditional (Lower floor), our deck 4 dining area was always full. Celebrity cannot switch Select to the downstairs MDR because on deck 3 is only one entrance. Second problem is when a lot of guests arrive at 05.30 they fill up and occupy the room for the next one hour and a half. The same problem comes up when a lot of guests arrive at 08.00 after the early show.

 

I know we very very lucky to have a great hostess - on port-side!

 

 

Was that the same Paola that wore the pink lipstick?? Worst hostess we've even had on over 50 cruises. If it is the same one, maybe she was nice to you ... she was horrible on the cruise we were on ... and everybody said so. Maybe she was saving all of her customer service skills for you.

[ccsix]

I just came off The silhouette on Feb 4-11 sailing . I read this post a few days prior to my cruise so i called and made a couple of reservations just in case . Absolutely no problems or waits . The nights we did not have reservations we walked up as a party of four at around 745 and were seated right away . Also we were able to book a specialty dining for 20 % off on board .

[dandee2]

Was that the same Paola that wore the pink lipstick?? Worst hostess we've even had on over 50 cruises. If it is the same one, maybe she was nice to you ... she was horrible on the cruise we were on ... and everybody said so. Maybe she was saving all of her customer service skills for you.

Paola was very nice and acommodating to us. We just left Silhouette this morning.

 

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