Celebrity Select vs. Traditional Dining

[helen haywood]

I don't know why Celebrity makes you pre-pay grats when you do Select. But they do....its here to stay. You can adjust them at Guest Relations, I've heard....and of course you can give a server more also directly. I just think of it as more OBC (if I'm lucky enough to have some) for me to use up.

[Christine Frances]

"if you had a really bad time you could adjust gratuities somewhat when you paid your bill the second to last night......"

 

I think if I had a "bad" time that I would discuss it with the Maitre'd and give them a chance to correct the issue before adjusting any gratuities.

[Lois R]

"if you had a really bad time you could adjust gratuities somewhat when you paid your bill the second to last night......"

 

I think if I had a "bad" time that I would discuss it with the Maitre'd and give them a chance to correct the issue before adjusting any gratuities.

 

Hi:) exactly what I did on Summit earlier this month. Problems were

taken of immediately.

[jerseygirl3]

I really can't think of any reason not to do Select Dining. You can make it as similar to assigned dining if you want to do so. If you have a waiter and staff you like at a certain table you can ask the hostess to give you one of their tables again. You can sit alone or you can sit with others. I don't believe you would see any difference at all in service. I've done Select on Solstice and twice on Eclipse and enjoyed it very much...in tables by the window, tables overlooking the lower tier of the MDR, at intimate tables, at tables for 4 and tables for 8.

 

I agree...however, we were with a large group (taking up two tables) and we figured if we tried to do Select, it might be hard to get everyone to show up when everyone else wanted to eat. By selecting a traditional time, they knew they had to be there.

 

If I were with a smaller group or just DH and myself, we do Select. In fact, we'll be on Enchantment of the Seas in April with my sister and her DH and kids. My sister is notoriously late for everything and it used to give me great angst when we'd cruise and had to be at dinner at a specific time. Now we do Select Dining (or My Time on RCI) and we tell her when she's ready, meet us at XXX Bar and then we'll head to dinner. So much less stress...DH and I relax with a glass of wine while we wait.

 

Jo-Ann

[FiggyWig]

Our gratuities are pre-paid and currently we have selected 2nd sitting traditional. Just wondering though, once on board, would we be able to change to any-time dining a day or two in ?

 

We are doing a Med cruise in August when I suspect it will be busy and the ship full.. We don't want the situation where we are having to wait to be seated, and would like to have the same waiter hence our selection, but if it really does turn out that we are eating just toooo late do you suppose we could change it ?

[capecodder2]

I wouldn't count on changing from traditional to Select after the cruise starts.......they limit the number of passengers who can take Select. When we were on the Equinox in January Select was only 1/2 of the upper level of the MDR. Irisheyes doesn't need to worry about sitting at a 2-top, they are so close together it is not like you are alone. I don't quite understand why anyone would think the service would be less if you didn't have the same servers each night - they all work hard to please whether they see you daily or once.

[ljk76]

Just off the Summit and select dining was great. We had a standing reservation for 7pm, but were easily able to change it when we wanted to dine with some friends who were also select. If they hadn't been doing select dining as well I think this might have been a problem. They were using a larger area of the upper level for select last week as they had so many requests booked, but we never saw people waiting and it was very organized.

[eandbnorton]

Thank you.

[BellaGirl0282]

I don't know why Celebrity makes you pre-pay grats when you do Select. But they do....its here to stay. You can adjust them at Guest Relations, I've heard....and of course you can give a server more also directly. I just think of it as more OBC (if I'm lucky enough to have some) for me to use up.

 

Hello, what is OBC?

[sandancer]

We did Select Dining on the Eclipse last week and it worked great. The only drawback we saw was that you are always seated on the upper level of the dining room. AKA Siberia.

 

For us, this was an advantage as I don't like to be on the bottom floor. If it was a little chilly (and we did not find this on the Millie, our last cruise) I carry a wrap.

[wallie5446]

Good to see the Search function is working again, but this is from 2011:)

[sandancer]

Hello, what is OBC?

 

On board credit. Sometimes awarded by the cruise line as an incentive to book during a marketing campaign or to encourage booking a future cruise whilst on board. It can be used for on board spending in the shops, spa, or speciality restaurants. In the US some travel agents also give OBC. Alas that is not the case where I come from.

[Lois R]

Good to see the Search function is working again, but this is from 2011:)

 

LOL Hi Wallie,:) you know that happens alot;)....that makes it only 3

years old. I am sure you have seen threads brought back up that are

twice as old as that.....

 

To BellaGirl, OBC is "on board credit".

[dkjretired]

LOL Hi Wallie,:) you know that happens alot;)....that makes it only 3

years old. I am sure you have seen threads brought back up that are

twice as old as that.....

 

To BellaGirl, OBC is "on board credit".

 

Hi Lois:

 

There was one brought up recently from 2007, I still can't figure out how its done.

[wallie5446]

LOL Hi Wallie,:) you know that happens alot;)....that makes it only 3

years old. I am sure you have seen threads brought back up that are

twice as old as that.....

 

To BellaGirl, OBC is "on board credit".

 

Good Morning Lois!

Boy howdy do we know! Our DD got an email a couple of months ago from RCCL HR, reminding her that 'employees' should not post to chat boards while on ship. She has been home since 2004 :eek: I found an old thread had been brought up she posted on about hurricanes:D

[Lois R]

Hi Lois:

 

There was one brought up recently from 2007, I still can't figure out how its done.

 

Hi Don:) I can....the search feature is working and it is picking up

something from whatever the topic is and the CCr is replying to

that old thread and so it comes back up the front.

 

Hope you are doing well and you recieved my email about Alaska?

Never heard back.....you need to do that Floatplane in Ketchikan

with Island Wings:D

[Atwell]

We have used Select Dining for our last 4 Celebrity cruises and we like it very much for the flexibility. It always seemed that the traditional dining early seating was too early and late seating was too late for us.

 

On Summit, we were told that reservations are accepted in Select Dining but only taken one day ahead, not allowed to be booked for the entire cruise. Also, they do not accept reservations for seating between 7-7:30 pm as that is the most popular time. We only made reservations for one night and the other nights only waited 5-15 minutes. I can't remember if the Select Dining procedures were exactly the same on the other ships.

 

We usually ask to be seated with other people and we have met some very nice folks this way. We highly recommend Select Dining.

 

I believe the Select Dining section opens at the same time as Traditional Dining. On our last cruise this was 6:00 pm. I don't know how late they allow diners to arrive and be seated in Select Dining but my guess would be around 9:30 pm. Maybe someone else on this thread will know.

[gmachar]

We were on the Summit last month for a B2B. After our first week in traditional dining where a table for 12 (too big for us) became usually us & one other couple, then 2 other couples who came at least 25 minutes late every day, sat at the opposite end of the table & spoke Spanish, so hard to include in conversation anyway, we decided to try Select for the first time. We loved it & would certainly go that route again. As it ended up we usually ate at 6:00 - ended up seated with another couple & a single man the first few days & then we made plans to meet outside the restaurant & eat together the rest of the week, but could adjust our time if the show that night was early or whatever. Select dining was from 5:30-9:00 I think, but we were told that 7:00 was a popular time - never had a wait at 5:30 or 6:00.