Newbie - Dining Times and Entertainment ??

[barneymag]

Looking forward to our first cruise on Celebrity Eclipse in October to Spain and the Canaries. Booked Freedom/Select Dining and although I know we can dine at any time between 6 and 9pm I wondered if shows etc are at certain times every night ?? Are the theatre shows on twice or three times each evening ? Are there other shows or bands/comedians that show once or multiple times each evening ?

 

I believe we can reserve dinner times on select prior to the cruise and would normally favour around 7 to 8pm .... This is why we chose select/freedom as with traditional 6 is too early for us and 8.30 too late. If we can pre book these times in MDR what is everyone's opinions to optimum times for seeing shows after dinner

 

Appreciate all suggestions as this site gives great alternative views and options with so many experienced cruisers

 

Thanks

 

Stuart

[wallie5446]

Stuart, the benifit of select is to have the freedom to go when ever "without" a need for a reservation. You come back from a long shore tour and dont want to rush around to get straight to the dinning room, so you go to the earyl show and have a later dinner. Or you need to turn in early since you have a tour in the morning that requires you be up and ready by 7:00, you stroll to dinner early then debate about taking in the late show or turning in. It is about you being in a tad more control of your schedule.

 

IMHO, dont make preset reservations, give youeself the flexability that Select was designed for.

 

( Just my 2 cents that wont get you a cup of joe anywhere :D )

 

ps: normally there are 2 seatings for the main evening shows.

Edited September 8, 2014 by wallie5446

[Sloop-JohnB]

Looking forward to our first cruise on Celebrity Eclipse in October to Spain and the Canaries. Booked Freedom/Select Dining and although I know we can dine at any time between 6 and 9pm I wondered if shows etc are at certain times every night ?? Are the theatre shows on twice or three times each evening ? Are there other shows or bands/comedians that show once or multiple times each evening ?

 

I believe we can reserve dinner times on select prior to the cruise and would normally favour around 7 to 8pm .... This is why we chose select/freedom as with traditional 6 is too early for us and 8.30 too late. If we can pre book these times in MDR what is everyone's opinions to optimum times for seeing shows after dinner

 

Appreciate all suggestions as this site gives great alternative views and options with so many experienced cruisers

 

Thanks

 

Stuart

 

Generally speaking, the timing of the Shows in the Main Theatre coincide with the Evening Plans of those who pick Traditional Early or Late Dining... And each seating takes approximately 1-1/2 to 2 Hours.

 

Although there are some exceptions... Most notably on Formal Nights, First Night and Last.

 

Those who dine early catch the late show, and those that dine late catch the early show...

 

In addition to the Shows in the Main Theatre, at least on the S-Class Ships there are often other acts / presentations that happen in the Grand Foyer during the Evening... Musicians, Singers, Dancers, and the occasional fun event such as Dancing with the Stars (where Officers dance with Pax). And at least on our Solstice Cruise ended with a fabulous rendition of the Zorba Dance performed by all the Sr Officers... Who were primarily Greek heritage... As is the history of =X= It was truly awesome !!

 

On the S-Class Ships there is also another smaller Theatre (in the round) upfront on Deck 4 called "Celebrity Central"... This venue is often used for Late Night "Adult" Comedy - Midnight Movies - and on our Solstice Cruise was where the Officers held their version of "The Liars Club" (another hysterical event)

 

My best advice is...

 

Celebrity Today newsletter is delivered each evening showing Schedule & Events for the next day. Make time to read it, and highlight what interests you... In that way you'll run less likely of missing something you would truly enjoy

 

Hope this helps,

 

Cheers!

Edited September 8, 2014 by Sloop-JohnB

[barneymag]

Thanks Sloop-JohnB and Wallie5446

 

Our last cruise was a Western Med on P&O Ventura - we did this with the kids who were 14 and 17 at the time and had freedom dining normally between 7 to 8pm, after dinner the lads would go off and see their new friends and we would catch the late theatre show or a comedian/band etc

 

Yes Freedom suited us, but sometimes had a 30 to 60min wait which impacted on the rest of the evening, which is why we were considering pre booking a set time each evening in between the two traditional dining times. Therefore was trying to understand if shows were on at set times each evening i.e. 7pm or 9pm or 11pm etc ..... Then we could gauge whether pre reservations would work for us

 

Thanks again

 

Stuart

[Sloop-JohnB]

Glad I could help, somewhat

 

Mr Sloop & I have in the past always booked Traditional Late Dining in the MDR

 

Our next cruise we are Aqua Class... So we'll be in Blu doing Select Dining.

 

I too am wondering how that experience will differ over our past ones with Celebrity... Particularly as to "the flow" of our Evenings from getting back on board from a Port untl we call it a night and turn in

 

In the past we had a very set / workable routine with Late Seating... Although we did often miss the Early Theatre Show (much preferred Formal Nights when they had a very late show)

 

The upside was there was always something going on in the Evening in various venues not just the Main Theatre on both the M & S Class ships... So we didn't actually feel we missed out on anything drastically. We enjoyed the big shows in the Main Theatre... But they were to us just one more offering... Not necessarily the main event although they may have been billed that way

 

Cheers!

[surus]

We are Celebrity newbies too, having taken only one cruise with them on The Summit this past June. We had select dining and reserved our table for two each day (usually around 7:30). There was often a line ten deep of people without reservations waiting for tables while those with reservations stood in a separate line and usually had no wait at all. For our upcoming cruise in two weeks, I have reserved all of our dinners online for between 7-8 PM. I figured if something came up it would be easier to cancel a reservation than try to book one at the last minute.

[wallie5446]

Everything will be a mirror to what you experienced on your P&O cruise. There are not many different way dinner and a show for 2500+ can be changed around ya know!:D

 

As mentioned if you dine early there is a show seating afterwards. And the flip if you dine later.

 

The one big, IMHO, exception is the Sin City show on the S-Class. One show after late seating that fills quickly in a small venue:eek: and for the most part it is not to be missed. Well the stripper act really aint a stripper ya know:D

[BrusselsGirl07]

On our last cruise we had select dining. We did not make any reservations and turned up when we were ready.Sometimes there was no wait all all, and sometimes we had to wait up to 30 minutes - in those cases they gave us a beeper.

 

We have sailed in Aqua, and never had to wait for a table, not matter what time we went we were always seated right away.

[cruisin-m]

Personally I like to make a booking each night in advance of the cruise for 7pm as it is easy enough once you are on the ship to cancel out of a booking and this time seems to tie in well with entertainment and not feeling rushed to get to dinner. A 7pm dinner also means you will be getting your mains around the 7:45-8 mark which works for me.

 

As someone else has said whilst that freedom of going to dinner whenever you want is good if you don't make reservations and just rock up during a peak time you will often have to line up and then wait until a table is available. At least if you have a reserved time you have a time each night that suits you that you won't have to line up for and if need be you can always just cancel the reservation and go at anytime and line up :)

[Cruise_me_Crazy]

We select the Kate seating because we are on holidays and not wanting to rush. We struggle being ready for tea, let alone a show before our meal :D!

 

We were hoping to eat & catch the late show after that. This seems like it won't work with celebrity. :(

[dkjretired]

Celebrity more often has late diners going to the shows prior to diner. Generally the shows for both seatings are after your meal only on formal nights. Each ship has their own rules as I was on Silhouette and the meals were before the shows for the three production shows. For most of my cruises though if you are on a seven day cruise and in late seating 5 of those nights your show will be BEFORE you eat.

 

Having select dining changes things completely making it very difficult to decide when you wish to eat.