Celebrity Select Dining Anytime

[biebz]

We chose CSDA so we were not locked into a dining time but I see on the app it says  "you will be able to book your My Time Dining time once on board." Does that mean we have to make a reservation time each night? Or can we just show up at the dining room each evening and get a table? 

[RTShaker]

12 minutes ago, biebz said:

We chose CSDA so we were not locked into a dining time but I see on the app it says  "you will be able to book your My Time Dining time once on board." Does that mean we have to make a reservation time each night? Or can we just show up at the dining room each evening and get a table? 

Reservations are not required. Show up at your desired time and get seated. Depending on the table size requested there may be a short wait, especially at peak dining times if it is a full sailing.

Edited June 13, 2023 by RTShaker

[biebz]

1 hour ago, RTShaker said:

Reservations are not required. Show up at your desired time and get seated. Depending on the table size requested there may be a short wait, especially at peak dining times if it is a full sailing.

Thank you. I was hoping it did not change to reservations only.

[the penguins]

11 hours ago, biebz said:

We chose CSDA so we were not locked into a dining time but I see on the app it says  "you will be able to book your My Time Dining time once on board." Does that mean we have to make a reservation time each night? Or can we just show up at the dining room each evening and get a table? 

Treat it like any land based restaurant. If lots of people turn up at the sametime without reservations you will probably have to wait. The wait can be reduced by asking to share.

Our preference is to prebook and always to share.

No right or wrong just choices 

[biebz]

29 minutes ago, the penguins said:

Treat it like any land based restaurant. If lots of people turn up at the sametime without reservations you will probably have to wait. The wait can be reduced by asking to share.

Our preference is to prebook and always to share.

No right or wrong just choices 

Thank you, great idea!

[TwoBeAtSea]

If the room is busy, does prebooking make a difference in the time you wait?  I've heard varying accounts on that front. 

[Saturngrl]

I always pre-book Select Dining times in Cruise Planner.  It saved us from long waits to be seated in the MDR on Reflection.  Others without reservations were provided beepers because the waits were well over an hour for many of them.  

[Essiesmom]

Select didn’t work for me last week.  Sailing solo, booked late.  Unable to make reservations, the first night I had to wait an hour for a shared table.  Second night about 35 min.  Third time I went was the first night in Bermuda, so no wait.  After that I previewed the menu, not impressed so I grazed the buffet.  Overall,  or impressed with the menu choices, but food is so subjective.  EM

[mafig]

Celebrity only has Select, right?  They do not have Traditional Early or Late, do they?

[jelayne]

6 minutes ago, mafig said:

Celebrity only has Select, right?  They do not have Traditional Early or Late, do they?

I think it is the E class ships that only have Select dining.  

[mahasamatman]

10 minutes ago, mafig said:

Celebrity only has Select, right? They do not have Traditional Early or Late, do they?

 

They have all options.

[davekathy]

10 minutes ago, mafig said:

Celebrity only has Select, right?  They do not have Traditional Early or Late, do they?

M &S class ships have SD and TD. E class only has SD. 

[mafig]

Thanks.  I thought all of X was Select.  Good to know.  

 

We had Early Traditional (5 PM !!!) on Royal recently.  Thought I would hate it, but after a few days I grew to like it.  

What time does Select start on Celebrity?

Edited June 14, 2023 by mafig

[davekathy]

17 minutes ago, mafig said:

Thanks.  I thought all of X was Select.  Good to know.  

 

We had Early Traditional (5 PM !!!) on Royal recently.  Thought I would hate it, but after a few days I grew to like it.  

What time does Select start on Celebrity?

Times may vary (?) based on class of ships but on our March Apex cruise SD started at 5:30 PM. 

[Oceangoer2]

The Select Dining website times for pre-booking start at 6pm but dining room opens around 5:30...so we arrive early.  An another note, we booked Murano for the 1st available website time, 6pm, and when we arrived they had opened the times to 5:30 for those without reservations and who had booked onboard or were a 'walk in'.  Not a happy camper when only a few tables were available.  Will be sure to arrive 'earlier' than 6pm on our next cruise.  Lesson learned.

[the penguins]

4 hours ago, TwoBeAtSea said:

If the room is busy, does prebooking make a difference in the time you wait?  I've heard varying accounts on that front. 

Once you report at the Check in Desk if/when the restaurant is busy those without reservations will be asked to join the waiting line or be offered a bleeper.

We always pre-book and have never had to wait. It also helps if you are happy to share (tell the Check in Staff as they are not "mind readers").

[horseymike]

We had reservations select dining 6 pm. Upon boarding the ship we went directly to the maitre d to confirm our reservation, we were informed that we were assigned to a large table at 8:30 pm.

That was not going to work for us. , we were then told to report at 6:15 to the mdr and the maitre d would “ see what he could do “ 

we reported at 6:15 and were seated at a table for two , we were told to do that AGAIN on night 2 of the cruise , which did. Again seated at a different table for 2 . When leaving the dining room we were informed that would be our table for the duration of the cruise.

My question is how does one avoid this confusion going forward ? 
After all , we did have a RESERVATION.

[eric4395]

Wife and I on our cruise on Silhouette in July have anytime dining. None of the times on the app suit us, either too early or too late. We prefer  to eat between 19:30 and 20:00 every night at a table for 2 . What would be the advice regarding what time to turn up at restaurant every night. Would 7 pm be a good guess and collect a bleeper. Thanks for any help.

[the penguins]

2 hours ago, horseymike said:

We had reservations select dining 6 pm. Upon boarding the ship we went directly to the maitre d to confirm our reservation, we were informed that we were assigned to a large table at 8:30 pm.

That was not going to work for us. , we were then told to report at 6:15 to the mdr and the maitre d would “ see what he could do “ 

we reported at 6:15 and were seated at a table for two , we were told to do that AGAIN on night 2 of the cruise , which did. Again seated at a different table for 2 . When leaving the dining room we were informed that would be our table for the duration of the cruise.

My question is how does one avoid this confusion going forward ? 
After all , we did have a RESERVATION.

There are 2 separate issues here:

1) table for 2 - X's reservation system does not give you the option to reserve a particular table size. Yes the staff will do there best to accommodate you but it is not guaranteed. Once you have a table allocated if you then eat at the same time each night it is likely that you be allocated the same table or at least a table served by the same waiter.

2) your booked time not being honoured: We have never had this happen but we do take print outs of the confirmation. We go to the restaurant immediately after "life boat drill" ends (the restaurant is one of the sign in points so going earlier than that is pointless) and check our reservation. We always have a sharing table (6 pax). We are always polite and not pushy saying something along the lines of " we would just like to check our reservation and wondered if you could help us? We are happy to share and a table of 6 would be great". 

Good luck.

[NH Skier girl]

Haven't cruised Celebrity for a while.  We are a group of 8  on the Summit in October.  Assigned Anytime dining.  Went in to make a reservation and the earliest time available for all 10 days was 8pm.  We prefer to dine around 6:30.  Suggestions?

Edited August 17, 2023 by NH Skier girl

[mauimary]

You could always make sure your entire group is there at 6:30 or even better earlier and just show up.  We have been booked @6:30 or 7p and wanted earlier so we would just show up as soon as the dining room  opens and would be seated right away.  It seems after 7p is a very popular time. They leave a certain percentage if tables available for walk ups. 

[jelayne]

21 minutes ago, NH Skier girl said:

Haven't cruised Celebrity for a while.  We are a group of 8  on the Summit in October.  Assigned Anytime dining.  Went in to make a reservation and the earliest time available for all 10 days was 8pm.  We prefer to dine around 6:30.  Suggestions?

The pre cruise reservations are not taking all the available tables. They hold back a decent portion of the availability for walk up dinner.  
If your group of 8 plans to dine together every night at tge same time you may want to speak to the MaitreD  on embarkation to give them a opportunity to make sure there is a table for 8 set up.

[tigervixxxen]

I’ll preface this by saying we generally eat around 6pm no later than 6:30 and have no issue getting a table for 2. When we have gone later there are two lines, reservations and no reservations and the latter is usually a shorter line and gets served quicker. I’ve never seen a need to make reservations so I just don’t make them. 
 

I agree with the suggestion if there’s something in particular you’d like to have arranged ask then to set it up. But otherwise there’s no need to stress over any sort of reservations for the MDR. 

[spearmint]

If I am reading the responses here correctly, people are choosing anytime-dining, at the same time each night and registering that time in advance, just as traditional dining does.  Is that correct?

 

On Princess, (at least two separate dining rooms for select dining) we tried anytime dining on the second night and liked the waiter and the table location; then, after reading the daily news each evening,  the next morning, I phoned to reserve a time with the same waiter .  We got what we wished every time.  Has anyone tried this on Celebrity? (I think that we more or less chose the same time nightly, but it depended upon what might be scheduled around the ship for that night.)

 

I posted something like this on another thread.... second seating,8:30, is just too late, and the aforementioned thread says that first seating is at 6. My friends and I would like 6:30 - 7:00.  Should we just bite-the -bullet and opt for first seating, to save a lot of hassles?

Bill

[tigervixxxen]

Celebrity on Anytime dining puts you in the same section with the same waiter anyway. You may not get the exact same table but often do, if not you aren’t far from it. We usually show up at a similar time though, if your schedules widely differ maybe this is different but has been our experience on several cruises. 
 

I don’t think showing up at 6:30 or 7 would be a problem but it gets busier close to 7 so you might have a brief wait if that’s your preferred time. If 6 just feels too early then it’s not really a problem to just go with the unset time of Anytime.

 

I do not even make reservations on Anytime, we have never had a problem getting seated when we show up which is usually early, closer to 6. But whenever we have gone later there’s two lines, one for reservations and one for without. The no reservations line is usually shorter and will get seated just the same as the reservations line. We just see no point in making a reservation, it’s never made any difference at all on any of my sailings. If you feel more comfortable making a reservation for 7 pm just in case it’s not like it costs anything to do so but once on the ship you’ll likely see it’s pointless. 

Edited August 18, 2023 by tigervixxxen