I see on Cruise Critic that one of last bastions of the fixed dining tyranny is crumbling.
One of their sharp-eyed members spotted a reference, since removed, to Celebrity Select Dining on Celebrity Cruises' US website, sparking an "are they aren't they debate". It seems they are, but are just not quite ready to tell the cruising world about it yet.
It had to happen - in fact I am amazed Celebrity has taken so long to move on this, especially as Holland America Line, its main rival, took the leap a couple of years ago, offering As you wish dining alongside fixed for the growing number of cruisers who don't want to be told when and where to eat when they are on holiday.
I endured something similar in a Russian hotel in 1977, but then Communism ruled and we all shook our hands in sadness at such a defunct system.
Judging by the Cruise Critic message boards, the move by Celebrity will be very welcome. One member bemoans the end of elegant dining, but I'm with DaveFr who asks how dining with 1,000 others in a noisy room with waiters dashing back and forth can be considered particularly elegant.
Bring it on Celebrity, and the sooner the better.
Jane Archer
Comments (1)
I have taken only one cruise on Celebrity. One of the reasons I have never been back was the fixed time, fixed seating policy for the evening meal. Not only was there the unholy scrum to get to the table when the doors of the dining room opened, but the melee that followed, with waiters dashing everywhere and a thousand conversations going at once was very tiresome. Add to that the false "elegance" of the all-too-frequent formal nights, with the same scrum and melee, it became enough to turn my attention to other, more relaxed (less pretentious?) lines. Azamara, Celebrity's stablemate, manages well without this formality. If Celebrity is finally giving up on Soviet-style dining (as Jane puts it), so much the better: I may be very tempted to try Solstice or Equinox.
Posted by Philip | June 15, 2009 4:48 PM
Posted on June 15, 2009 16:48