Chef's Table Selection Process

[swdke]

I have just finished reading all the posts here' date=' and have a question. Which should we do, call the dine line as soon as we are in our room, or go to the Specialty restaurant reservation place as soon as onboard--and where is that place? We have not tried to do the Chef's Table on our 3 prior Princess cruises, nor used the specialty restaurants. We are sailing on the Ruby 11/21/11, and would like to try for the Chef's Table and Ultimate Ship's Tour. Thanks for any advice.:)[/color']

 

For the Chef's Table, call the dine line as soon as you board. Then, you can go visit the specialty restaurants and place your reservations.

[D&N LUV 2 TRAVEL]

Call the dine line and then follow that up with a visit to the maitre d. We were late ( 5 pm) getting on our Panama cruise last year and by visiting the maitre d I think made the difference. Based on that they do not use first come first served.

[oskidunker]

Matri D

[Rob & Beckys mom]

On a 14 day Caribbean cruise on Sea princess our table was offered the Chef's Table by the Maitre d' !! Not sure if it just wasn't that popular, but we all accepted & were billed right there on the spot at dinner one night.

 

Jan

[Hlitner]

We are 2 for 2 with the Chef's Table (2 different ships) and it was handled differently on each ship. But, in each case we got onboard as quickly as possible (we are Elite so we can get on pretty fast) and immediately called the dine line. On one ship the dine line did not open until 1 pm so we called again at exactly 1 pm. On the other ship the dine line was answered the first time. In both cases they just took our names and said they would let us know. On one ship we had to meet the maitre'd before they made a decision and on the other ship we simply got an invitation with no other formalities.

 

Hank

[Tagsalong]

On August 28, we boarded the Emerald Princess about 12:20 pm and I went to the Crown Grill, DW to the "dine line". She got our request made immediatly and I spoke with the Grill's head waiter who called the "dine line" to find that DW had already gotten us on the list. Two days latter we got our invitation. This was just our third Princess cruise.

 

Toward the end of the week, we talked to an Elite couple that made their request much earlier than us and was not invited. They had done the Chef's Table several times before.

 

We talked to Executive Chef Christophe (our host at Chef's Table) several times through our three sailings in September, and he said that he has no input on who is selected - only the Maitre'd. He would not admit to knowing how the selections were being made. He did say he is often accused (sic) of complicity in the selection process.

 

So this may give some additional hints as to the selection process, but does not answer the oft asked question!