What is Select Dining like if you don't want to make any reservations?

[happy cruzer]

Hi, I will be on Century in Alaska.

 

I chose Select Dining so that my party of two could just go at the time we felt like and be seated at a table for two. On other lines this worked ok as long as we ate after 8.

 

What is it like on Celebrity? I know Celebrity has the feature that you can make reservations for Select Dining but we would rather not make a reservation and just have the freedom of not having any schedule in the evening. Would like to eat earlier than 8 especially the first nights because of the time difference from home.

 

Any experiences to share?

 

Thanks.

[swigso]

Just turn up whenever you feel like, yo may have to wait 5 mins or so,

we have done select on our last 4 cruises and found it works perfectly.

Another advantage is that if you meet up with folks

you can have dinner together no problem.

[4774Papa]

We did Select Dining on the Connie in March and never had to wait more than a few minutes.

[Baybear]

Has anyone done a comparison of "no reservations for select dining" vs "reservation for select dining" to notice if there's any difference in "time to be seated." Supposedly having a reservation would speed up getting to your table, but if there's no experience that that's so, then why bother with a reservation for select dining??

[Notagoose]

Baybear - We did it both ways on our Equinox cruise and for some reason, were always seated more quickly when we had NO reservation than when we reserved the day before. No idea why. In any event, I think the most we ever waited was 15, *maybe* 20 minutes on one occasion. But usually 5-10 minutes. No biggie.

[Nebr.cruiser]

We almost always just walk up, without reservations. Once in a while we did phone in a reservation, if we thought we might be eating in a busier time. We have never had a wait of more than a minute or two, with either method.

 

We don't normally eat during the busiest time, though, usually around 8 or so works well for us.

[dkjretired]

In Select dining it all depends on when you go. I have found that if you wish to sit with other people it will take less time to be seated without a reservation. Asking for a table by yourself can cause a delay.

[Karen@Steve]

We did select dining on the Summit last year. Most nights the wait was significant 15-20 minutes. A great deal depends on your timing. If you want to see the shows then you will be on the same schedule as alot of other people.

 

We were very flexible and agreed to sit with anyone else so our wait was usually only 5-10 minutes. One night uit was 20 or more. In addition, they create two lines. One line is for reservations, the other for no reservations. The no reservation line moved more swiftly then the reservation line if people were flexible.

[Vol fan]

Hi, I will be on Century in Alaska.

 

I chose Select Dining so that my party of two could just go at the time we felt like and be seated at a table for two. On other lines this worked ok as long as we ate after 8.

 

What is it like on Celebrity? I know Celebrity has the feature that you can make reservations for Select Dining but we would rather not make a reservation and just have the freedom of not having any schedule in the evening. Would like to eat earlier than 8 especially the first nights because of the time difference from home.

 

Any experiences to share?

 

Thanks.

 

We were just on the Century to Hawaii in November and had Select Dining. We went early evening. (5:30 or 6:00) We sat at a table for two at the very aft of the dining room and watched the sunset. The dining room is a wall of windows on the aft, so it's beautiful. (sorry, I digress.) We only had to wait once, and that was when we went at 7:30.) Ask for James Bond for your waiter and you will get one of these lovely tables. Hopefully, he will still be on the Century then.

[Suzy Smith]

We love select dining and have never had to wait more than about five minutes, but we just take the next available table. If you insist on a table for two, you may sometimes have to wait a little longer. We also noticed that the "no reservation" line moved quicker than the "reserved" line for those who were prepared to be flexible.

[ariawoman]

Another vote for select dining. :-)

 

We've done select on both of our celebrity cruise. Never had a long wait - sometimes sat just the 2 of us, sometimes sat with others.

 

This past sailing we ended up making friends one night at a table - and they had reserved a table each night at the same time - i found we waited longer to be seated at their table, than we did when we didn't have a reservation.

 

Either way, you wont be waiting long. 5-10 minutes on the average.

 

It's vacation, I've got 5 -10 minutes to spare :-)

[terigo]

We just showed up when we wanted to eat, usually between 7:45 and 8:00, which are supposed to be peak times...We never waited longer than 5 minutes. The people with reservations sometimes waited longer than we did, and we never *did* figure out why

Teri

[Milhouse]

On our Equinox cruise, we reserved every night generally between 6 and 6:30 (except the nights we went specialty) and always asked for a deuce. IIRC, we typically had to wait a few minutes because of crowds about half the time. I think formal night was unusually longer. Most we waited was about 15mins. The hostess also bypassed us in the reservation line a few times for others that just arrived. That didn't bother us because the folks were older and likely needed to get to a table before us. ;) We also occasionally got mixed in with a wave of people; not sure if people understood there was a reso line and no reso line (not that it seemed to matter :rolleyes: :) )

 

We also occasionally contributed to our wait (when we could have gotten in immediately) in order to be seated in a specific waiter's section.

 

If eating later, I'd recommend managing your timing away from when a show lets out.

[happy cruzer]

We were just on the Century to Hawaii in November and had Select Dining. We went early evening. (5:30 or 6:00) We sat at a table for two at the very aft of the dining room and watched the sunset. The dining room is a wall of windows on the aft, so it's beautiful. (sorry, I digress.) We only had to wait once, and that was when we went at 7:30.) Ask for James Bond for your waiter and you will get one of these lovely tables. Hopefully, he will still be on the Century then.

 

Thanks for the specific details. Very helpful. Will try asking for James Bond :)

[happy cruzer]

Thanks everyone for the info. I think I'll just set my expectation for a 15 minute wait and then I should be good.

[3littlepigs]

On Millie there was only one line and it made no difference at all whether you had a reservation or not, I can't remember ever waiting even 5 minutes. The girl on the desk (think her name was Gabrielle) was amazing, remembered all the cabin numbers after the first night and had everyone seated very efficiently!

[olemissreb]

We did My Time Dining on our AOS cruise and have Select Dining for our Millie cruise. We went to dinner between 6 and 6:30 every night. There were 6 of us and since we liked our wait staff from the first night, we always requested them. Only once were we seated somewhere else and even then on of our waiters helped out at the table by getting our drinks set up for us (not sure if the regular wait staff at that table appreciated it or not but hey). The longest we ever had to wait was about 10 minutes and we never had reservations.

 

Sounds like it will be the same for our Millie cruise.

[hancock]

While the experience of the other cruisers is generally correct, I did have a very bad experience one night in select dining. Gave our info at the door and was directed to sit in Cellar Masters. We sat at the first table inside the door. It was a formal night. ( Whether this had anything to do with what happened, I don't know). After waiting for 40 minutes, I left DH to visit the restroom. I rejoined him and sat for another 20 minutes. At the 60 minute point, I went to the desk and asked what was going on. I was told we were "in the system". Went back to my seat and started to steam as I began to realize that couples who had come in after us were being seated. I reported this at the desk. We were finally seated after 1hour and 15 minutes.

 

When I went to the restroom, the person who came looking for us ignored my husband as he was sitting alone, continuing on into CM. We got lost in the shuffle!

 

It totally ruined our formal evening. I couldn't get my BP to come down, I was so upset. Skipped desert and went to bed. The following morning, I went to guest relations and calmly reported what had happened. That night DH and I ate in the Tuscan Grill courtesy of the ship.

 

I will add that the Maitre'D did arrange(that night) for us to have a standing reservation for the rest of the cruise.

[Redtravel]

Just did select on my last cruise. Loved it. You can reserve, but it is not necessary. Oddly enough, we ate with the same people on several nights. People seem to go to dinner about the same time on most evenings. I love the flexibility.

[Trainer]

If you go at an 'odd' time you almost never have a wait. By odd time, I mean like 6:50 or 7:25 which is between times most people go. Most people go at, for example, 6:30 or 7:00 or 7:30. We were on Infinity last month and never waited more than a minute or two. You can see if there is a line but those 'odd' times never had one. We were not picky about sitting with others and once sat at table for two.

[Travelicious]

If it is any indication, the only people I observed berating the hostesses were the ones claiming to have reservations.

[miched]

Are pagers used if you have to wait or do you have to stand in line? Waiting isn't too bad if you can sit in a lounge having a liquid appetizer. :D

 

.

[ghstudio]

They do not use any pager devices...you pretty much have to just wait....but in our experience, if you are two or four people, the wait is very short....with the peak probably being about 7:15 due to the end of the elite cocktail party at 7:00.

 

We now book Aqua so we have our own dining room, but we recommend Select dining to our friends (sailing without us), but we suggest they make reservations for each night before they leave...just because it makes it easier if there is a line. They don't actually hold a table for you with a reservation...it just gets you to the front of the line quicker to get a table.....so if you don't show up, just go later and get in line without a reservation and there's no problem.

[LynnObie]

When we learned that our favorite tables for 2 were now located in "Select" on Millie, we were able, upon boarding, to book one for every night in advance as long as we would book for 5:30. Since the Select MDR opens at 5:30, the hostess advised us to simply proceed to our table without stopping to check in. On the 4 nights out of 30 that we wanted to go to a specialty restaurant, we simply advised the hostess that we'd skip that night but *would* be there the next. It worked out great for us and will do this in the future.:)