Celebrity Select Dining is Here

[A Sixth?]

From USA Tody (Cruise Log) although I am not sure what date this was posted.

 

"Is Celebrity Cruises developing a plan to offer flexible dining on its ships?

That's the word this week from industry watcher Cruise Critic, which quotes a spokesperson for the line as confirming the concept is in the works.

The online cruise site notes that word of the plan got out prematurely this week after the line accidently posted information about what it is calling Celebrity Select Dining on the Celebrity web site. The information has since been taken down."

 

I also did not see any announcement on the Celebrity Website. I love the concept and hope it gets implemented before our cruise in November!

 

Ditto here, but we only need it on the Millenium by January 2010. :D

[Napi's Mom]

I don't understand all of the comments concerning the idea that the Celebrity Select dining is going to somehow change the way people dress. The dress code would remain the same for both select and traditional dining.

 

I would love to be able to try select dining on our upcoming cruise but I doubt it would be offered in Blu. :(

Well a few months ago...the change to Smart Casual dress...had people SURE that all will be showing up in "Wife Beater" shirts, shorts etc in the MDR...and the slide down to perdition had started. Everyone was going to LEAVE because of the Smoking Ban (well people DID leave in droves about the same time, but NOT because of the smoking ban but the economy) My sister who's accompaning us to Alaska, mentioned she had 2 formals to bring... BECAUSE SHE NEEDED THEM ON CARNIVAL for their formal nts., the only other cruise she'd taken. I've never been on Car. have been on Azamara & Oceania and their dress is CC Casual every night...and all are neat clean and usually VERY nicely dressed, their open dining is a great hit. I realize that the ships are smaller. I understand that the RC version is doing oK tho trying to do both kinds seems a recipie for trouble. You needen't dine with people OR alone if you you prefer. We always were seated with large tables that filled up fast with folk that liked meeting new people!

[Jeka]

It would be interesting to know what the average number of passengers are waitlisted for traditional dining on lines such as Princess and Holland America. From reading the reviews, I believe that it is often in the 300-400 range. That's a lot of disappointed people who are forced into Anytime, Freestyle, As You Wish, or Whatever dining.

 

Hopefully the powers that be at Celebrity are prepared to deal with this. It will be a bad marketing move if the choice is granted at time of booking only to repeat, loyal customers, thereby forcing the beepers, long lines, and confusion on new customers.

 

Why would you worry that X would follow the Princess and HAL models, Carnival companies, and not adapt a similar program as their sister line, Royal Caribbean, that has no lines, no waitlists for traditional and no beepers? I'm guessing you've not read this whole thread.

[Jeka]

I understand that the RC version is doing oK tho trying to do both kinds seems a recipie for trouble. You needen't dine with people OR alone if you you prefer. We always were seated with large tables that filled up fast with folk that liked meeting new people!

 

I personally think Royal's version is doing much better than ok. I believe it started in 2007, and the recipe seems to be doing just fine.;)

[BrendaJ]

Brenda,

 

You don't seem to understand nor do a lot of other people on here how this works.

The only thing different about select dining will be that people arrive to dinner at various times EXACTLY like any restaurant you go to on land. The food will be the same the menus the same, the Dress code for the day the same, the only difference is that THOSE WHO SELECT THIS OPTION will arrive at a time of their own choosing and sit either by themselves, with a party of their own choosing or at a table with strangers. It will have no affect on those who choose traditional dining early or late. You will still be committing to the same time frame experience, they are not suddenly fast food.

Anyone seeking a quicker option would still eat elsewhere on the ship. This is an excellant OPTION and long overdue.

 

Sorry, I guess I didn't express myself very clearly. I do understand that, at least initially, traditional dining would still be available. However, I have heard from passengers of lines that offer the choice, unless you book your cruise far in advance, many times traditional dining is booked solid and people have no choice but to take anytime dining. I've also read that around 7:30, anytime dining tends to get backed up and people have to wait for a table. I have no idea how Royal Caribbean does it since, till today, I thought they still had traditional dining.

[Bridge Maven]

Sorry, I guess I didn't express myself very clearly. I do understand that, at least initially, traditional dining would still be available. However, I have heard from passengers of lines that offer the choice, unless you book your cruise far in advance, many times traditional dining is booked solid and people have no choice but to take anytime dining. I've also read that around 7:30, anytime dining tends to get backed up and people have to wait for a table. I have no idea how Royal Caribbean does it since, till today, I thought they still had traditional dining.

 

When we tried anytime dining on Royal Caribbean we ate between 7:00 PM and 7:30 PM on most nights without having to wait for a table.

 

During that cruise several passengers changed from traditional to anytime dining after a few days and liked it much better.

[DaveFr]

Sorry, I guess I didn't express myself very clearly. I do understand that, at least initially, traditional dining would still be available. However, I have heard from passengers of lines that offer the choice, unless you book your cruise far in advance, many times traditional dining is booked solid and people have no choice but to take anytime dining. I've also read that around 7:30, anytime dining tends to get backed up and people have to wait for a table. I have no idea how Royal Caribbean does it since, till today, I thought they still had traditional dining.

Brenda,

 

You should look at posts by Jeka who has experienced the RCI version of Select Dining five times. She has been pleased by the experience and noted that the problems of passengers on Princess and HAL, such as waiting lists for traditional dining, have not occurred.

 

Dave

[hcat]

when folks see how close the tables for two will be & that they will be treated as a large table with the neighboring twos by the waiters, they may not love the new system....the twos on S class were very close together!

 

hope traditional is preserved for those who enjoy it...

[Jeka]

when folks see how close the tables for two will be & that they will be treated as a large table with the neighboring twos by the waiters, they may not love the new system....the twos on S class were very close together!

 

hope traditional is preserved for those who enjoy it...

 

OMG, you are so wrong it's unbelievable. We've only had 2 tops with MY Time dining on Royal Caribbean and never waited for others' orders and, unlike traditional dining on X, the two tops are not on top of each other. What you have written here is just not true. How many times have you done MTD on Royal? My guess is never.

 

AND AGAIN, traditional dining is perserved on Royal Caribbean!!!

 

I will give you this, the current 2 top arrangement on Celebrity is as you have described it is the pits, and it's the reason we decided to book on HAL next March, rather than endure another 2 top on Celebrity in traditional dining.

 

I'll post it again, here's the Royal Caribbean thread from when My Time was first

announced in 2007. Read a few pages, it will all sound familar.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=610483

[hondorner]

Sorry, I guess I didn't express myself very clearly. I do understand that, at least initially, traditional dining would still be available. However, I have heard from passengers of lines that offer the choice, unless you book your cruise far in advance, many times traditional dining is booked solid and people have no choice but to take anytime dining. I've also read that around 7:30, anytime dining tends to get backed up and people have to wait for a table. I have no idea how Royal Caribbean does it since, till today, I thought they still had traditional dining.

Way back in the beginning of this thread, it was clearly explained that when Celebrity rolls out the Select Dining option, those who choose the option will have to have their gratuities added to their booking, rather than during the cruise, so Celebrity will know how many tables to allocate to Select.

 

In other words, the entire dining room will start off as Traditional, and anyone who wants it will get it. As others choose Select, enough tables will be changed from Traditional to Select to accommodate them. Based on this explanation, there is no possibility that Traditional will ever be "sold out".

 

My understanding is that on some other cruise lines, a certain amount of space has been pre-allocated for anytime dining, and what is left is available for Traditional dining. This is what leads to Traditional being "sold out".

 

No one on Celebrity will ever be forced to take an option they do not want.

 

Celebrity has a large, loyal following of repeat cruisers primarily because they manage to do things right. I have a hard time understanding why so may hard-core Celebrity cruisers have such a distrust of management's ability to get it right. The same management is running RCCL and the reports from those ships are overwhelmingly favorable towards the options.

 

Don't you think that Celebrity is perfectly aware of how some other cruise lines have gotten it wrong, and have carefully thought out how to do it right?

[hondorner]

when folks see how close the tables for two will be & that they will be treated as a large table with the neighboring twos by the waiters, they may not love the new system....the twos on S class were very close together!

I'm not sure how the spacing of the tables will be affected by Select Dining -- the tables are where the tables are, and I seriously doubt they will be moved just because someone wants to choose when they dine...

[usha]

Celebrity has a large, loyal following of repeat cruisers primarily because they manage to do things right. I have a hard time understanding why so may hard-core Celebrity cruisers have such a distrust of management's ability to get it right.

Don't you think that Celebrity is perfectly aware of how some other cruise lines have gotten it wrong, and have carefully thought out how to do it right?

My sentiments, exactly! :)

[Denny01]

Way back in the beginning of this thread, it was clearly explained that when Celebrity rolls out the Select Dining option, those who choose the option will have to have their gratuities added to their booking, rather than during the cruise, so Celebrity will know how many tables to allocate to Select.

 

In other words, the entire dining room will start off as Traditional, and anyone who wants it will get it. As others choose Select, enough tables will be changed from Traditional to Select to accommodate them. Based on this explanation, there is no possibility that Traditional will ever be "sold out".

 

My understanding is that on some other cruise lines, a certain amount of space has been pre-allocated for anytime dining, and what is left is available for Traditional dining. This is what leads to Traditional being "sold out".

 

No one on Celebrity will ever be forced to take an option they do not want.

 

Celebrity has a large, loyal following of repeat cruisers primarily because they manage to do things right. I have a hard time understanding why so may hard-core Celebrity cruisers have such a distrust of management's ability to get it right. The same management is running RCCL and the reports from those ships are overwhelmingly favorable towards the options.

 

Don't you think that Celebrity is perfectly aware of how some other cruise lines have gotten it wrong, and have carefully thought out how to do it right?

 

Thank you! You hit it right on.

 

I can not believe how many keep bemoaning the 'lose' of Traditional' or how it will be so adversely impacted. It's almost like we resent ANY change and resent people getting options that differ from what we like. 'Those people' should just go to 'those' lines.

 

It might be smart to wait to see what is implemented, and then we can use this forum to 'talk' to Celebrity management.

 

I've seen the posts from some who are so sure management intentionally wants to punish their customers and mess things up. Weird. We enjoy Traditional, we move over to one of the Grills or specialties when we need another time for an evening, and so on. This will give those that dislike set dining an option, bringing them to a very nice line when it is a port-intensive cruise and help to keep Celebrity at a high level of quality by joining those of us who love the line.

 

And yes, things are never as good as they were when we first started cruising, or anything else we look back on. Its human nature of selective memory: on those first cruises, we only remember how fantastic it was. Now we (at least some) see a worn carpet spot and cluck our tongues, 'oh, you should have been cruising when it was so much better'. Right.

 

Denny

[sealover155]

Why would you worry that X would follow the Princess and HAL models, Carnival companies, and not adapt a similar program as their sister line, Royal Caribbean, that has no lines, no waitlists for traditional and no beepers? I'm guessing you've not read this whole thread.

 

Well, I have read this entire thread. I only proposed the thought that many other cruise lines have had hundreds of frustrated customers who were not granted their choice when booking and I was hoping Celebrity would consider that when designing their plan.

[Bou]

Oh please say it isn't so...Celebrity going the way of the rest of these United States, everything casual. I just love the opportunity to eat properly, dressed appropriately for a change. You can't go to a land restaurant without at least one person in jeans. Cunard line may be the only way to go in the future for any form of formality. :(

[J & G]

I'm not sure how the spacing of the tables will be affected by Select Dining -- the tables are where the tables are, and I seriously doubt they will be moved just because someone wants to choose when they dine...

 

We cruised on RCI's Voyager of the Seas during the first week that VOS implemented My Time Dining. I LOVE traditional dining to I was somewhat (OK, more than somewhat.....) resistant to the idea of "freestyle dining." The real reason that we selected My Time Dining is that our shore excursions would have to be cut short if we were to make our early dining time....so I relented and decided to try something new and different.

 

It was very interesting that the area allocated to My Time Dining was actually set up differently every night, based on the number of people, the size of the groups, and the time that they selected.

 

The first night seemed a bit disorganized, as this was an entirely new set-up for Voyager, and a few rough edges were to be expected. The next five nights were fantastic! We loved it....same table, same waiters, just like tradional, only at our convenience!! The last night was AWFUL! Apparently, many people decided to opt for MTD the final night and there was just not enough space to acommodate them all. Tables were nearly on top of each other and people were seated in the aisles, such that one member of our party had to lean forward each time a waiter passed behind him. The waitstaff was not increased and seemed quite frazzled. They still tried hard to please, even though MTD gratuities had been prepaid. It was not pleasant at all......

 

From what we were told, the area for MTD was being expanded the next week. MTD was a fixed area (small with very few tables) the first week, but was to be expanded as demand warranted...it did not limit those who wanted traditional dining.....in fact, it was just the opposite. Traditional dining had many empty seats and empty tables, but MTD did not spill over into the traditional dining areas at all. MTD was limited...not the other way around.

 

I have no reason to believe that those who want traditional dining will be negatively impacted in the least by a choose-your-own-dining-time option. And as for us....we will select the choose-your-own-dining-time anytime it is available.....we loved it! None so radical as a convert!

[Oville]

Oh please say it isn't so...Celebrity going the way of the rest of these United States, everything casual. I just love the opportunity to eat properly, dressed appropriately for a change. You can't go to a land restaurant without at least one person in jeans. Cunard line may be the only way to go in the future for any form of formality. :(

 

I am totally confused by your post. Who said anything about casual? On Royal Caribbean their flexible dining follows the same dress suggestions as traditional.

[hcat]

OMG, you are so wrong it's unbelievable. We've only had 2 tops with MY Time dining on Royal Caribbean and never waited for others' orders and, unlike traditional dining on X, the two tops are not on top of each other. What you have written here is just not true. How many times have you done MTD on Royal? My guess is never.

 

AND AGAIN, traditional dining is perserved on Royal Caribbean!!!

 

I will give you this, the current 2 top arrangement on Celebrity is as you have described it is the pits, and it's the reason we decided to book on HAL next March, rather than endure another 2 top on Celebrity in traditional dining.

 

I'll post it again, here's the Royal Caribbean thread from when My Time was first

announced in 2007. Read a few pages, it will all sound familar.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=610483

 

I have NO experience with MTD on Royal--nor will I by choice, but I have been on Solstice & what i say is 100% accurate--some twos are better but not the ones lined up side by side--no room to move one's leg even! they are basically a large table sep by a few inches for each two

[Jeka]

I will give you this, the current 2 top arrangement on Celebrity is as you have described it is the pits, and it's the reason we decided to book on HAL next March, rather than endure another 2 top on Celebrity in traditional dining.

 

I have NO experience with MTD on Royal--nor will I by choice, but I have been on Solstice & what i say is 100% accurate--some twos are better but not the ones lined up side by side--no room to move one's leg even! they are basically a large table sep by a few inches for each two

 

And I believe I totally agreed with you regarding two tops on Celebrity.

[Mysticks1]

Oh please say it isn't so...Celebrity going the way of the rest of these United States, everything casual. I just love the opportunity to eat properly, dressed appropriately for a change. You can't go to a land restaurant without at least one person in jeans. Cunard line may be the only way to go in the future for any form of formality. :(

 

Celebrity Select Dining will have no impact at all on the dress code for the evening. The only change is the time that you dine and where you are seated. I don't understand why so many are jumping to the conclusion that it is a more casual atmosphere. :confused:

[hcat]

With MTD, if you are not sailing with family or a group, each night you will have to meet new people or dine w/ spouse at a close togther two. What I dislike abt breakfast & lunch is being sent to any old table, having to wait for it to fill & making small talk with strangers... the waiters do not care since they get their tips anyhow with no incentive to get more.

 

the assigned traditional seating seems to work best for us--just hope it survives

[Oville]

I've dined a on a few Royal Caribbean ships(Jewel, Liberty, Navigator and Independence) and on which we've done MTD and never experienced a "a close together two" as you have described.

 

Rest assured, if Celebrity follows the same options as Royal, traditional will be available for you.:)

[hondorner]

So many people fear that traditional dining will go away if select dining is introduced -- the only thing I can figure out is they know they are wrong to like traditional, and expect everyone else to want select...:rolleyes:

 

I don't think they have anything to fear but fear itself.

[Bridge Maven]

So many people fear that traditional dining will go away if select dining is introduced -- the only thing I can figure out is they know they are wrong to like traditional, and expect everyone else to want select...:rolleyes:

 

I don't think they have anything to fear but fear itself.

 

Horndorner, I agree with you. The only way Celebrity will stop offering traditional dining as an option is if select dining is such a hit that most of their passengers request it.

[hcat]

Other than the option of the time flexibility, how do MTD diners like being seated with different people each time they sit down to dinner or having a diff set of waitstaff each evening?

 

...seems more like a cafeteria than dining, but I only know from lunch & breakfast how diff it is from the traditional seating in the evenings whihc are much more enjoyable..