Captains Table

[ddrv1212]

What's the scoop on eating at the Captain's Table? How many people can sit at the table? At which seating (early or late) does the Captain eat? Are drinks included with the dinner? Thanks!

[nlvc12]

I believe there are generally 8 couples seated at the Captain's table. Sometimes it is not the Captain, but another officer. I have heard that they are usually chosen from Concierge class or Anniversary couples or Elite members.

 

However, I have been successful getting seated at the Captain's table though none of the above.

 

Seek out the Social Hostess at the Cruise Critic party. Be your most charming. "Innocently" ask how/who gets selected to sit at the Captain's table - you may find an invitation on your bed a few days later! It is the Social Hostess that arranges such things.

 

I believe they "mix it up" as far as both early and late seatings. Different wine served with each course. My DH was miffed because we were invited on Lobster night, so he felt constricted from requesting second helpings (, and thirds, and fourths),

[salty dingo]

That's a great suggestion about approaching the social hostess. I bet they are looking for people who are good conversationalists, plus I am sure they like to reward the high rollers and the repeat guests who may be interested in this sort of thing.

[Ma Bell]

There are usually 10 to 12 people seated at the Captain's table. The Captain is usually there at the late seating on the first formal night. The other times are taken by different ship's officers usually the Staff Captain or Hotel Director.

 

Most of the people invited are Elite Captain's Club members or suite passengers. Sometimes there are personal acquaintances. Occasionally they will invite someone with a special celebration or just someone they have taken a shine to, but nowadays it seems they are few and far between.

 

There are no social hostesses any more. They have been replaced by the Captain's Club representative.

[kitty9]

There aren't 8 couples at the Captains table as that would mean 16 people plus the Captain---waaaay to many to fit at that table LOL. The times we dined with the Captain there were four couples, one gentleman who was cruising alone, plus our three and the Captain. Wine is served at dinner, both white and red. You meet in the Martini Bar before dinner and drinks there are free. The Captain usually dines at late seating while they have another bridge officer cover the early seating. Generally speaking, they seem to go for those who are in the biggest suites, those with many cruises with X and those who might be celebrating a special event, like a 50th wedding anniversary.

[raudacruise]

The Social Hostess (SOHO) position at Celebrity was eliminated quite some time ago. I believe the person you will meet at the Connections party is someone who has multiple hats including running the "Book next Cruise on Board" concession. There was a minor/major revold amoung the SOHO's over that (they already had extra duties, for example bereavement duty consoling next of kin when a passenger died on board).

 

We've sailed Celebrity twice and sat at the Captain's table both times sans Captain. Once with the Staff Officer and once with Assistant Hotel Manager (and his fiancee). Both were great conversationlists. I've heard that some of Greek captains are very uncomfortable in this setting.

 

Both times we were in Suites but others at the table were not. It was totally at the whim of the SOHO.

 

The evening started in a lounge with drinks and introductions. The food was from the speciality restaraunt vs. the main menu and I believe there were only two entrees to choose from (both were great). Wine (chosen by the host) and apertifs were on the host.

 

How they do it now - don't know. Asking "how" to any of the Celebrity staff probably is not going to work - at least in the past hitting on the SOHO for this was an immediate disqualification according to some of the SOHO's that were willing to discuss this. The Hotel Manager (and obviously the Captain) could override this.

[flagger]

We were VIPs on our first cruise in 2004 and got approached by the now elimnated Social Hostess when we checked in and asked if we would like to dine at the Captain's Table. We ate with three other couples the Captain and the Hotel director on the second formal night - late seating.

 

Our DD was 15 months and we used in-cabin babysitting.

[Traceybell]

My DH and I have been invited to the Captain's Table on 2 of 4 Celebrity cruises and these are my thoughts as to why I think we were invited.

 

--> we've only taken 4 Celebrity cruises - 1 Infinity, 2 Summit, 1 Connie (#5 on Connie coming up in 2 weeks). Up until the upcoming cruise we were regular Classic members of CC.

 

--> we were in Concierge class for both cruises that we were invited. Not suites.

 

--We aren't famous

--We never chatted up the Social Hostess (before she got the new job)

--We DID attend the CC parties

--We aren't Barbie & Ken of Mattel fame

--We aren't related to anyone who's name you'd see in Forbes

--We WERE seated at a table for 2

--We WERE in late seating

--We weren't celebrating any special event

--We WERE quite friendly with the Ass't MD on the 2nd cruise but hardly met him on the 1st.

--We didn't know anyone else on the ship (other than CC'ers)

--I did have a problem on the 1st cruise with the AC; but not the 2nd. I asked about 4 times to make it colder as it never improved.

 

So to sum it up I think the 2 most compelling reasons for the invites were that we were at a table for 2 so inviting us wouldn't throw off an otherwise full table and I had called the concierge 4X to work on the AC.

 

Tracey

[Traceybell]

On another board there was a cool discussion about a man who rather than wait for an invitation from the Captain; invited the Captain for dinner himself!!

 

Sure enough the Captain joined him in the specialty restaurant.

 

Does anyone else have any interesting stories about special dinner guests?

[jezzdogg]

We had dinner with the Captain of the Century this month. The table had 4 couples, a woman who was cruising on her own and the Captain. Wine was served with dinner, but not a different wine with each course. Food was from the menu of the dining room, as if was formal night.

We had a lovely time, the only problem was that the room is so noisy you could not really talk to the people at the other end of the table.

I had planned the cruise as a surprise for hubbies 60th birthday, what was nice was when we checked in we were given a room upgrade(completely unexpected) and the head waiter for the Captain's Table was a wonderful waiter we had the good fortune to have on our Mercuru cruise in 2005 David.(he was the best waiter we have had in all our many cruises on 3 different cruiselines) Knowing it was hubbies birthday, he brought what looked to be 30 waiters and assistant's to sing "happy birthday" to my hubby..this is one birthday he will always remember... A Big thank you to the David, the Captain and Celebrity

[Lsimon]

We were invited on our third Celebrity cruise but I couldn't figure out why until I saw this in the newspaper back home:

[poohtaz]

We were invited to dine with the Captain on our cruise in January on Mercury. We were in a Sky Suite and were celebrating my 40th birthday. It was fabulous. You do meet in a designated area prior to dinner to meet the other couples. You drink whatever you like for free and the drinks and or wine continue to flow while eating dinner. We consider ourselves so fortunate to be invited, however that came about, because we made great friends with another couple that evening who introduced us to more fantastic couples that made the rest of our cruise an absolute blast!:)

[BrendaJ]

I have no idea what the criteria is these days for getting invited to the Captain's table, although I have heard Elite members and suite passengers are generally invited. We were invited on our first Celebrity cruise, and our third. Both of those times, I believe it was through meeting the Social Hostess, because after a conversation, she asked for our cabin number and soon there was an invitation on our door. Last week on the Galaxy (our 6th cruise) we again received an invitation. On this cruise, we were Elite Captain's Club members and I suspect that's what prompted the invitation this time, since I don't think any staff members knew our names. However, others at the table varied; for one couple, it was their first Celebrity cruise, others, their third, and others were frequent cruisers (not sure if any of them were in suites).

 

What I have noticed is that, each time we got an invitation, it was when we were booked for early seating. When we have booked late seating, we have never been invited, probably because most veteran cruisers pick late and there are lots of Elite passengers to choose from. At early seating, you end up dining with someone other than the actual captain. Last week, it was with the Staff Captain, who was a very engaging conversationalist.

 

I always enjoy the experience and feel fortunate that we've be chosen for whatever reason.

[WhenIsOurNextCruise]

Just curious. Has any of you ever turned down the captain's invitation to dinner?

[kitty9]

Yes, we have on two cruises. Both times we were traveling with friends who were seated with us at our regular table and they weren't invited, and since we didn't want to leave our friends behind, we declined.

[penorment]

I was fortunate enough to be invited to the Captain's table on our cruise to Alaska on the Summit. We had a table for 4 with our 2 young kids and we had late seating. We had one balcony cabin that we got using Amex points. I think we got invited when we were so pleasant during a very difficult embarkation. But the best part of our invite was that we shared our dinner with Walter Cronkite and his wife Betsy. Talk about fascinating stories and I have to say his wife(who has since passed away) was just as interesting as Walter. The other couple at the table had the penthouse suite but we had something in common with the Cronkites as he summered on Martha's Vineyard and we lived right across the Sound on the Cape. It was one of those evenings you can never forget.

[fsr44]

We sat at the Captain's table on our very first cruise. We were traveling with another couple and they were invited as well. My guess as to why? We let our travel agent know that our friends were celebrating their first wedding anniversary. And our travel agent was with a very large agency which probably books a lot of cruises. When we returned, she asked about our trip and chuckled when we told her about dinner at the Captain's table, so we assume she made the request. There were at least six couples at the table and the first engineer and his wife were there as well as the Captain. It was late seating on one of the formal nights. Truly a lovely evening with drinks before dinner and seating up front at the production show. The guy sitting next to me (this was years ago) ran Priceline.com, so I'm assuming that had something to do with his invite. ;) The Social Hostess was lovely...when we received our invitation, we didn't know if our friends had been invited, so we called to check...we would have turned down the invitation if it meant leaving them behind and she assured us that they were invited, too.

[SoCalGal]

We were invited to the Captain's table on our very first cruise with Celebrity after speaking to the Social Hostess on the Mille (2001) on a Med. cruise. We had a terrible table for two sitting in the entrance hall when she stopped to ask how we were enjoying our cruise. We told her we loved everything but the table location. We were at the early seating and did have dinner with the Captain (not Staff Officer) on the first formal night. We had booked what is now a CC cabin, but at that time was just a larger verandah cabin. We had drinks with Sarah, our social hostess, in the Martini Bar prior to dinner. Then she had us moved to a wonderful table immediately adjacent to the Captains' looking out the fantail for the rest of the cruise. We were celebrating our 40th wedding anniversary, but we fell in love with Sarah the minute we met her....she did lots of great things not just for us but for many others. She even had to tell a couple that their daughter was in a very bad accident back home. I became sick on the cruise and had to be transported to a hospital in Sicily...she sat with me through much of the ordeal. It is really a shame they no longer have Social Hostess's because she made our cruise special in many ways. Because of her caring we have booked with Celebrity for several more cruises. It seems to me there were 6-8 couples at the table, but would have to look through my photos to be sure.