Your thoughts on Select Dining?

[iann]

This will be our third cruise with Celebrity and I’d be interested to hear your views on Select Dining as opposed to Traditional Dining times.

 

For the past two years we have had dinner at the later seating and have requested a large table as we enjoy meeting people and having conversation with others at dinner. The first year, we were at a table for eight, which consisted of four couples of different nationalities (all English speaking), none of whom knew each other beforehand. We all got on really well, socialised during the cruise and we still keep in touch. Last year, we were at a table of six. Our companions were two couples who were travelling together and who were great friends. They were really nice and we enjoyed their company, but we did feel a bit intrusive, and we didn’t build up the same relationships as we did on the previous cruise.

 

This year we will be on Equinox and have chosen select dining, but I am having second thoughts. Ideally, we would like to dine at a large table. I am concerned that either we would be meeting different people every night (which would make it difficult to get to know them) or that we would be seated at a table for two. I’ve also read reports that select dining can be impersonal and rushed.

 

I'd appreciate your views based on your experience.

 

Karen

[CathyCruises]

Haven't done select but we were in Blu in January, just the two of us each night, and we both missed the camaraderie of the large tables. We have decided to go just with CC on our next cruise so we are back in the MDR doing late seating. We have also had great fun with our tablemates in the past.

[radsailor]

We did it in August of last year for the first time and loved it so much we did it again in May. Love it. It gave us not only flexibility in time, but we did get the option on whether we wanted a table for 2 or if we wanted to sit with others. We prefer a mix so it works out well. You also sit in the same area of the dining room so we did see the same waiter a couple of times.

 

We have booked for next April and have once again chosen Select Dining.

[jg2256]

The nice thing about Select Dining is that if you want to sit at a larger table then you can. If that night you just want to be by yourselves then you can do that also. On a 10 day cruise in Feb we did about half large table and half table for two and met a lot of people at dinner while also having some really nice dinners between the two of us while also having the flexibilty to actually eat when we wanted. We seemed to run into many of the "lots" of people that we met at dinner all the time. My recommendation is to try Select Dining, you will no be sorry.

[Christine Frances]

It will really just come down to personal preference. We have tried Select & Freestyle along with Early and Late Traditional and we have settled on Early Traditional. My DH & I have "intimate table for 2" style dinning 99% of the time at home and while cruising we find it so much fun to meet and chat with like minded people at dinner. Because we like to eat at a table of 6-8 we find traditional works best as we don't have to keep repeating the the intro's each night and you end up asking the same questions over and over to each new group. I also find that the Select area seems "busier" with people arriving and leaving and the waiters racing to turn the tables.

Late dining is fine but as we are fairly early to retire, we find we are still really full/uncomfortable by the time we go to bed. I know - I know - we "could" eat less:D When we eat early we go to the show then donate at the casino, have a good walk around the ship and we feel much better. It has never failed that by the last night of the cruise we are all exchanging email/address/phone info and hugging our waiters:)

Everyone finds their own "perfect" dining time/venue!

[PartyAllDaTyme]

We enjoy the flexibility of Select dining. No rushing around for an early seating if we're on a late shore excursion, no fighting off the sandman for a late seating if we've had a busy day. We've never felt the need to make reservations, and have always had a short wait, if any. Part of the reason for that is we allow fate to play a hand. We usually request a two top if it's available, but if it isn't we take whatever's available at that time. That way, we have a mix of romantic evenings together and meeting new people. If we get some tablemates that we would rather not be seated with in the future, no problem-- we just have to get through that night. We don't have many special requirements, so having different waitstaff each night is not a disadvantage.

[tomcruiser1234]

We tried select this last May on the Connie and really liked it. We always do late seating in MDR but decided we wanted to try the flexible schedule. We never made reservations and always got seated within 10minutes or so. Really liked all the waiters.

 

Also the tables for 2 may seem to close together but we were pretty comfortable with some casual conversations. However there are tables along the balcony that had more privacy.

 

Regarding being rushed, never felt that way. I can't say that we will not go back to MDR traditional but this was a neat change.

[iann]

Thanks for taking the time to reply everyone. Think we'll give Select a try!

 

Karen

[scotslizzy]

I would not go back to fixed time dining unless that wa the only thing available .

 

Love the fact that you can decide for yourself when to eat and have a large table or just the two of you.

 

I never understand the comment about being rushed as in my experience this has not happened and we do like to have wine with our meal so never want to be rushed in any event.

 

 

Scotslizzy

[mafig]

We prefer select dining also.

 

We like to have a table for two. We find that with Select this works out better. We generally find a table we like that's not too close to others (hard to do on Solstice class ships) and ask for that one. Also, since not everyone comes to dinner at exactly the same time, many times the table next to you is just fininishing up or is empty and will remain that way for the rest of the dinner. (We're really not that anti social ... we love to interact with people at b'fast and lunch but prefer to be alone at dinner.)

[Northshorecruisers]

We will be doing Select on our first upcoming Celebrity cruise.

 

We did it on Princess and didn't care for it. Long waits, felt rushed through dinner, just didn't have any "special" feeling to it. Might as well have gone to the buffet.

 

Did it on a HAL cruise and loved it. Sat at large tables each night and met so many interesting people.

 

So, we'll try it on Celebrity. In addition to meeting greater numbers of people, I like being able to go to dinner when we want. The downside....not getting to know the serving crew over the entire week.

[caripoo]

We LOVED select dining. After 25 plus cruises, it is the way we will always dine now. We love meeting new people and large tables, so we request to sit at a large table. If you meet people you enjoy, you can plan for the next evenings to dine together. We found that there are some slight bugs to work out, but eventually it will be near perfect. We never waited last fall in the Med, there were 4 of us and generally ate at 7-730. You can also request a specific waiter each night if they are available. Try it you might just LOVE it....We thought early was to early after a long day..late seating way to late....

[Northshorecruisers]

Sometimes after a full day in port I don't want to rush to make an early seating and other days I don't like to eat late. I really liked being able to select the time to eat based on what we felt like at the time. Made our vacation much more enjoyable not to be tied to a watching a clock.

[SingingMom1]

We just returned and had select dining. I loved it. I find it stressful sometimes to get three people ready at a certain time, especially if you are enjoying an activity, etc. This cruise we ate at Normandie's twice, in our suite one night, and another night skipped dinner completely and ordered sandwiches at midnight... I would feel bad if we were assigned to a specific table and didn't show up - making tablemates think we didn't enjoy their company. lol

[vvnh16a]

WE did for the first time Select dining (group of 6) on the Eclipse during a transatlantic crossing in October/november 2010. It was MUCH better than we ever expected. Rushed...NO WAY...we had the same table the same set of waiters each night...it was just waiting for us.

 

Now that they have changed the Elite Happy Hour from 5-7 it will even moreso suit our particular needs since we typically dine at 7:30-7:45

[ISABELLA]

We loved it. You can request large table, or for 2. At least, if you don't like your tablemates, there is always tomorrow. I kinda know half thru the dinner if I would like to dine with same people again. Go for it.

[iancal]

We really like it-had it on the Equinox. On our last trip, Millennium, the we were not able to get select and had to remain with first sitting. The Maitre'D told us that Select is becoming very, popular on all of the ships.

[SFCAcruiser]

We really like it-had it on the Equinox. On our last trip, Millennium, the we were not able to get select and had to remain with first sitting. The Maitre'D told us that Select is becoming very, popular on all of the ships.

I have no doubt this is the case. I'm looking at several cruises in November (have not booked yet) and Select dining & early seating are sold out on several of them.

My opinion is that "the writing is on the wall" and I would guess that =X= will start to increase the number Select dining seats and reduce the number of traditional dining seats. Just a guess, but it seems logical to me.

I no longer try to persuade people to try Select dining; if they want traditional, so be it.

[Northshorecruisers]

There will always be some passengers that traditional dining is part of what a cruise means to them and that's wonderful. However, I wonder if the trend continues towards open seating if it might encourage the cruise lines to put in more of a variety of venues. For me, having a different type of food choice each night would really make my cruise experience. Even though there is a great variety on ships already, I always like to try new foods.

[Quendryth]

When we first began crusing (about 20 years ago!) we enjoyed the camaradarie of a table of 8. What fun to exchange what we had done on shore that day & what we planned for tomorrow. It truly was an adventure. However, I am now in a position where I eat so slowly because of a health problem ( no need to go in to detail) my DH & I find it necessary to eat alone or the remainder of the guests at our table would have to just sit & wait for me for the next course to be served. This made me very uncomfortable so we decided a table of 2 was the answer. We have been very fortunate to always have this available to us - but in the event we cannot find our table for 2 there is always our

stateroom! I guess it is a good thing we still like to talk to one another!

 

Happy Cruising!

 

Faith

[RVRCLC]

If you want "select dining" and it is not available,

you simply take advantage of one of the dining options

available elsewhere on the ship. There was a time when no

ship had "select dining," yet some folks never went to the

dining room.

[A Sixth?]

After dozens of cruises over 25 years we won't cruise a line that doesn't offer a version of Select dining. :)

 

We love it and notice that after all the whining by "old school" posters here, Select as a dining option sells out before set seating on lots of cruise dates. So my only complaint is that they haven't devoted enough dining spots for it on many sailings and need find more space for it by reducing the number of traditional spots.

 

The service and quality has been nothing but five stars every time we've dined, and not just on "X", on all the Anytime/My Time/ Freestyle venues we've also enjoyed.

 

Select dining?... nothing succeeds like success as they say.

[geepmaley]

We are a family of four just of Equinox. We did Select Dining for the first time and really enjoyed it due to the flexibility of timing etc. The tables (even two tops) are fairly close to each other, so even though you are at different tables, you can still meet people (who want to be met).

 

We met other people through our roll call who were traditional dining and wished they had gone select for the flexibility

 

We ended up sitting next to a couple the first formal night (2nd night on the cruise) that we came to enjoy. By mid cruise the 6 of us decided to dine together every night from that point on and just coordinated timing. Only had a reservation once.

 

Never felt rushed. The wait staff were a mix of good and not so good, but since we rarely sat in the same section each night, we got to know more of the wait staff too. We never did, but I guess you can request a certain waitstaff too.

[dabear]

We used to enjoy not rushing by taking the second seating but after taking a few cruises with open dining, we're hooked on it. Much more flexable and I love that you can go to the martini bar to have a drink and they will call you when your table is ready (assuming one was not available when you checked in).