Celebrity Edge - Four Main Dining Rooms

[kearney]

When we arrived on Equinox on our first Celebrity cruise...we found a note in our stateroom indicating that the peak times were... as I recall 6:30-7:30 or something like that... and recommended coming before or after the peak time... That worked for us. We have now been on 4 cruises in the past 10 months or so, and I recall only waiting twice for about 5-10 minutes. And that was when we arrived around 7 pm.... You don't have to make reservations. They just give you that option. Some people like to plan out there time to make sure they hit all the shows or whatever. Others rather take it as it comes... so no need to do what others do... just be open to the idea that some do like to make reservations....

[hcat]

Bo... as always your comments make so much sense!

 

As for spontanaiety, when we dine in BLU, we check the dinner menu each morning, If not to our liking we have always been able to get a specialty res or a res in MDR ...no issues. Helps that we dine early and those slots are often open.

 

Agree that booking all shows and activities in advance on Oasis was a pain in the neck, but dinner res are not that difficult. Drop in diners just have to wait.. or be happy at the buffet .only fair!

 

Can't wait to try the EDGE. We've been with X a long time...some new stuff we don't love but have never seen a need to change cruise lines...looking at Ocean and Azamara but not a fan of smaller vessels in big oceans! Mercury used to bob and list in storms

Edited August 8, 2018 by hcat

[hcat]

Hi there! It will be our first large cruise ever on the Edge in Sep 2019. I have questions. I'm reading the threads and everyone is talking about wait times for the dining room. We selected to dine at anytime. Are there really wait times? With a ship that is 2900 people and these smaller intimate dining rooms how could they possibly seat everyone with a "dine anytime" selection?

 

With no res, you may have to wait to be seated, esp at prime time..and at whatever restaurants are the most popular,

 

To avoid that, you can book res in your online Cruise Planner for some or all nights..for Sept, there should be plenty of available times. We did that to insure we could try all four MDRs plus specialty dining,

[Biker19]

Dynamic Dining borrowed from RCI V 2.0?

[Bo1953]

Hi there! It will be our first large cruise ever on the Edge in Sep 2019. I have questions. I'm reading the threads and everyone is talking about wait times for the dining room. We selected to dine at anytime. Are there really wait times? With a ship that is 2900 people and these smaller intimate dining rooms how could they possibly seat everyone with a "dine anytime" selection?

 

To be sure, not all 2,900 passengers will descend on the four (4) dining rooms at the same time, as well, factor out those who will be eating at traditional times and in Aqua, Suite and Specialty Restaurants... also those who will choose to eat in the OVC... all capacity controlled to some degree to help with flow.

 

bon voyage

[vtcruising]

Hi there! It will be our first large cruise ever on the Edge in Sep 2019. I have questions. I'm reading the threads and everyone is talking about wait times for the dining room. We selected to dine at anytime. Are there really wait times? With a ship that is 2900 people and these smaller intimate dining rooms how could they possibly seat everyone with a "dine anytime" selection?

 

Welcome to Cruise Critic and to the Edge Forum!

 

I think it is difficult to tell if there will be significant wait times for dining on this ship. There are many more suites on this ship (110 more) so more people will have Luminae as their assigned restaurant than on other Celebrity ships where some people have reported wait times for Select Dining. Also, there are several new specialty dining options that many people will want to try so that will take away MDR diners. They also have said in their FAQs sheet that they have more flexibility because of the number of seats and space with the 4 MDRs (it makes me think they have more seats than needed and maybe can flex up some in each restaurant because of extra space, if needed).

 

I have had to wait a couple of times for Select Dining on celebrity ships when just walking in without a reservation and with a reservation, but it was a minimal amount of time. We were given pagers and went to the bar nearby and relaxed while waiting for a table for a few minutes. I think the bigger issue may be getting the specific MDR you want at a specific time because there are bound to be favorites, but I personally wouldn't worry about that yet. Let's see how it pans out after several cruises (will take some time for them to get the system working well, I assume).

 

The beauty of this system is all of the the dining options that we will have and the problems that will occur will be because we have so many options. For me, I would rather have more options (4 MDRs, Traditional Dining, Select Dining) and have some potential wait times (that I can deal with). :D

 

A lot of us here enjoy speculating about what may or may not happen on this new ship, but it is all speculation. I think most of us on the Edge Forum feel this will be a great ship overall so are willing to take the chance, even though some things will not be ideal. It's all about balance - there are always a few things that could be better about any ship that we sail on, but if we have a wonderful time overall, we can overlook those things. Hopefully, Edge's positives will outweigh the things we are not as thrilled about. :D

[dazey]

We are in late dining and wait-listed for select so we cannot pre-arrange complimentary dining. I do not want to dine in the same dining room each night so I am hoping I can change it when on board. Also it is a 7 night cruise and we have 4 night specialty dining. I am quite anxious that I will not even be able to get 4 nights at specialty dining. The first night is out for us as we are Super Bowl fans and will miss dinneraltogether to watch the game. I think I just messed up when I booked this cruise! At least I am on vacation so I will have to go with whatever happens. Although I am pretty sure it will not go as I am hoping.

 

Anyone know how this works - choosing specialty once on board and then changing complimentary venues?

[vtcruising]

We are in late dining and wait-listed for select so we cannot pre-arrange complimentary dining. I do not want to dine in the same dining room each night so I am hoping I can change it when on board. Also it is a 7 night cruise and we have 4 night specialty dining. I am quite anxious that I will not even be able to get 4 nights at specialty dining. The first night is out for us as we are Super Bowl fans and will miss dinneraltogether to watch the game. I think I just messed up when I booked this cruise! At least I am on vacation so I will have to go with whatever happens. Although I am pretty sure it will not go as I am hoping.

 

Anyone know how this works - choosing specialty once on board and then changing complimentary venues?

My advice is to head for the specialty dining table (we go to the one outside the Ocean View Cafe) as soon as you board with a list of requested restaurants, dates and times - you should be able to get the restaurants you want, but maybe will have to be a bit flexible with times. You can go to the MDRs and speak to the maitre 'd about Select Dining as soon as possible as well - hopefully they will be able to switch it.

 

For the Super Bowl, you could always plan dinner early or at half time, either at an MDR, the buffet, which does have good things for dinner (a grill for cooked to order steak, chicken, fish usually), a nice salad bar and desserts, ice cream and much more or you can have room service (you can order off the MDR menu for dinner - not sure which MDR menu you can order from on the Edge - maybe Cosmo or maybe any of them?).

 

It should be fun to start the cruise off with the Super Bowl! You will meet many other football fans onboard and share the excitement. :D

[Oville]

We are in late dining and wait-listed for select so we cannot pre-arrange complimentary dining. I do not want to dine in the same dining room each night so I am hoping I can change it when on board. Also it is a 7 night cruise and we have 4 night specialty dining. I am quite anxious that I will not even be able to get 4 nights at specialty dining. The first night is out for us as we are Super Bowl fans and will miss dinneraltogether to watch the game. I think I just messed up when I booked this cruise! At least I am on vacation so I will have to go with whatever happens. Although I am pretty sure it will not go as I am hoping.

 

Anyone know how this works - choosing specialty once on board and then changing complimentary venues?

 

My advice, cancel the 4 night Specialty Package, spend a bit more money and pick the restaurants and time you want to go. It might cost you ~$100 more but well worth the expense and certainly a small percentage of your cruise cost. That is what I did, used Celebrity OBC to book “The Rooftop Grill”, “Eden” and “Le Petite Chef” and it cost me $30. For us, the savings on the packages were not worth the angst of waiting to be on board to book reservations.

[Tall-Cruiser]

The idea of having four main dinning rooms with different menus is great, along with being able to rotate on different days. The challenge I see and some of us have is, when half a of family/group are in a Suite and another half are in other Edge Invinite balcony cabins. Those NOT in a Suite can and have chosen Select dining in the four main restaurants, The others in a Suite, cannot reserve Select dining ahead of time (default is Luminae). So if the entire group wanted to dine together on any giving day in one of the four MDRs it cannot be reserved right now or before we sail.

We as a family like dining together in the MDR (especially the first night) and I'm sure we are not unique in this. I'm hoping that Celebrity will have a solution for those of us in this scenario.

 

Maybe some of you here have already been dealing with something similar and could share your thoughts if you please don't mind. Thanks in advance.

[Oville]

The idea of having four main dinning rooms with different menus is great, along with being able to rotate on different days. The challenge I see and some of us have is, when half a of family/group are in a Suite and another half are in other Edge Invinite balcony cabins. Those NOT in a Suite can and have chosen Select dining in the four main restaurants, The others in a Suite, cannot reserve Select dining ahead of time (default is Luminae). So if the entire group wanted to dine together on any giving day in one of the four MDRs it cannot be reserved right now or before we sail.

We as a family like dining together in the MDR (especially the first night) and I'm sure we are not unique in this. I'm hoping that Celebrity will have a solution for those of us in this scenario.

 

Maybe some of you here have already been dealing with something similar and could share your thoughts if you please don't mind. Thanks in advance.

 

I can’t give any advice other then to say currently on Celebrity Select Dining is a bit of a zoo on the first night. Also Blu has issues and usually offers those staying in AQ cabins incentives to dine in Specialty restaurants. Hopefully on Edge this won’t be a problem. How many are you?

[Bo1953]

The idea of having four main dinning rooms with different menus is great, along with being able to rotate on different days. The challenge I see and some of us have is, when half a of family/group are in a Suite and another half are in other Edge Invinite balcony cabins. Those NOT in a Suite can and have chosen Select dining in the four main restaurants, The others in a Suite, cannot reserve Select dining ahead of time (default is Luminae). So if the entire group wanted to dine together on any giving day in one of the four MDRs it cannot be reserved right now or before we sail.

We as a family like dining together in the MDR (especially the first night) and I'm sure we are not unique in this. I'm hoping that Celebrity will have a solution for those of us in this scenario.

 

Maybe some of you here have already been dealing with something similar and could share your thoughts if you please don't mind. Thanks in advance.

 

That will always be an issue when there are groups with 'mixed' stateroom categories, even on the current ships to a degree.

 

What we have done in the past in this situation is that most nights we ate in our respective restaurants and mixed it up by joining each other in our respective assigned dining venues one night and specialty dining on a few nights.

 

We accepted and understood the situation upfront and worked it that way. We always met up before dinner for cocktails and after dinner for entertainment.

 

bon voyage

[hcat]

The idea of having four main dinning rooms with different menus is great, along with being able to rotate on different days. The challenge I see and some of us have is, when half a of family/group are in a Suite and another half are in other Edge Invinite balcony cabins. Those NOT in a Suite can and have chosen Select dining in the four main restaurants, The others in a Suite, cannot reserve Select dining ahead of time (default is Luminae). So if the entire group wanted to dine together on any giving day in one of the four MDRs it cannot be reserved right now or before we sail.

We as a family like dining together in the MDR (especially the first night) and I'm sure we are not unique in this. I'm hoping that Celebrity will have a solution for those of us in this scenario.

 

Maybe some of you here have already been dealing with something similar and could share your thoughts if you please don't mind. Thanks in advance.

 

For the first night, you can try to get a dining res for all .....go to MDR first thing after you board or try via tel.,. Sometimes first night is a bit chaotic!

 

OR, the entire group can book a night or two at a Specialty venue (including first night) ... linking your res numbers...you will gave a great time! Rooftop grill might be fun for a big family dinner to kick off the cruise,

 

You can also do an in suite dinner if your suite is large enough, I believe you can also invite guests to join you in Luminae for a fee..but I think it is expensive,

 

. Most dining issues can usually get worked out once you board,,,if you address it asap and are flexible . Edge is new for everyone...so please post how it worked out.

[hcat]

My advice, cancel the 4 night Specialty Package, spend a bit more money and pick the restaurants and time you want to go. It might cost you ~$100 more but well worth the expense and certainly a small percentage of your cruise cost. That is what I did, used Celebrity OBC to book “The Rooftop Grill”, “Eden” and “Le Petite Chef” and it cost me $30. For us, the savings on the packages were not worth the angst of waiting to be on board to book reservations.

 

Re your reply to DAZEY

I was thinking the same .Much less stress. I'd book 3 specialty venues on line via Cruise Planner for set time..,then work on the MDR issues for variety... They can float or do the buffet for Superbowl.. We will be getting off the ship the day they board!

[Tall-Cruiser]

I can’t give any advice other then to say currently on Celebrity Select Dining is a bit of a zoo on the first night. Also Blu has issues and usually offers those staying in AQ cabins incentives to dine in Specialty restaurants. Hopefully on Edge this won’t be a problem. How many are you?

 

Thanks for the feedback. There are currently 8 in our group. Four in two seperate suites, two in an Invinite Balcony and the other two in an Inside cabin.

[Tall-Cruiser]

That will always be an issue when there are groups with 'mixed' stateroom categories, even on the current ships to a degree.

 

What we have done in the past in this situation is that most nights we ate in our respective restaurants and mixed it up by joining each other in our respective assigned dining venues one night and specialty dining on a few nights.

 

We accepted and understood the situation upfront and worked it that way. We always met up before dinner for cocktails and after dinner for entertainment.

 

bon voyage

 

Thanks for the feedback Bo. I have thought about your idea above but, my understanding is that none suite guess are not allowed in Luminae. So personally for me, I would feel bad going to Luminae for dinner and saying see ya to the rest of the family that are not in a suite. I'm sure there will be a solution and compromise by the time we sail.

[Tall-Cruiser]

For the first night, you can try to get a dining res for all .....go to MDR first thing after you board or try via tel.,. Sometimes first night is a bit chaotic!

 

OR, the entire group can book a night or two at a Specialty venue (including first night) ... linking your res numbers...you will gave a great time! Rooftop grill might be fun for a big family dinner to kick off the cruise,

 

You can also do an in suite dinner if your suite is large enough, I believe you can also invite guests to join you in Luminae for a fee..but I think it is expensive,

 

. Most dining issues can usually get worked out once you board,,,if you address it asap and are flexible . Edge is new for everyone...so please post how it worked out.

 

Thanks also for your feedback hcat. I will definitely try that. Now that I think of it, I will email Celebrity Dining (Ivana) again to see whether they can reserve for us.

 

For the in suite dinner, unfortunately we couldn't book the Iconic Suite. May be when we get upgraded :D.

[Biker19]

The idea of having four main dinning rooms with different menus is great, along with being able to rotate on different days.

It sounded good also when RCI tried it with Dynamic Dining - didn't turn out so well.

[Tall-Cruiser]

It sounded good also when RCI tried it with Dynamic Dining - didn't turn out so well.

 

Hopefully there are lessons learned from RCI with DD and adjustments and modifications will be done. The same VP that led it with RCI is leading it with Celebrity. I haven't had the chance to sail Quantum Class and so never experienced DD.

[Bo1953]

Thanks for the feedback Bo. I have thought about your idea above but, my understanding is that none suite guess are not allowed in Luminae. So personally for me, I would feel bad going to Luminae for dinner and saying see ya to the rest of the family that are not in a suite. I'm sure there will be a solution and compromise by the time we sail.

 

That would be a new policy for Edge only.

 

I have eaten in Luminae many times with friends who were in suites.. they, the suite guests had to pay a fee for us to do so.

 

There may be a limit on the number of people and number of times non-suite guests can dine there with the same party.

 

As well, your family and friends will understand and appreciate that there is a separate dining room for suite guests only.

 

I do not think there is nothing much to worry about. for several hours of separation, then gather to compare notes on dining or just gather again to continue to enjoy the sailing all fo you are on...

 

bon voyage

[Bo1953]

Thanks for the feedback. There are currently 8 in our group. Four in two seperate suites, two in an Invinite Balcony and the other two in an Inside cabin.

 

That combination is great, four and four in each respective dining room...

 

I would not worry about that situation, if it were a single or one couple, then that might be something to be concerned about.

 

Everyone will be fine. You will be able to host them in your dining room one night, a specialty dining one night..

 

I think you will be fine....

 

bon voyage

[hcat]

Hope it will work out for all..

Maybe not every night but a few times ...at least. Other times, folks can do their own thing.

 

We cruised on Oasis with our dtr and sil after we booked the same cruise without knowing..

 

We had diff schedules and plans . We mostly preferred some Specialty Dining..but had a great family b day dinner one night in Chops and invited them to share our Cabana on Labadee... worked out great!

[vtcruising]

Tall, as Bo said, you can invite guests to Luminae - it is best to reserve ahead of time. It is $10 for breakfast PP, $20PP for lunch, $30PP for dinner the last time we brought guests (last year). It can be charged on your Seapass or to the person who is dining with you, or at least we have done it both ways. You might want to see if they would have room for you for a meal (they may have a time that it would work to have your large group). It would be a treat for the family and fun to have everyone together there.

 

We treated our friends to the embarkation lunch one time and it was a fun way to start the cruise. Great wine, food and service! Hope you can find ways to all eat together! :D

[Tall-Cruiser]

Thank you to all of you for your feedback and great ideas. We are looking forward to our first cruise with Celebrity and making it a great fun cruise.

[Biker19]

The same VP that led it with RCI is leading it with Celebrity. I haven't had the chance to sail Quantum Class and so never experienced DD.

Yes, she was on the maiden Quantum TA. We had no issues with DD and kinda liked it.