Celebrity Cruises has confirmed that starting September, passengers will be able to opt for fixed dining or go for the new Select system, which allows them to choose a time to dine.
They have gone for an incredibly complicated system though - which is no doubt why they have given themselves until September to put it in place.
Passengers can pre-book their preferred dining time for the duration of the cruise, or pre-book different dining times. Or if they pre-book and then if they want to change when they are on board, they can do that too.
Having experienced first-hand P&O Cruises making a complete hash of its Freedom dining on Ventura because it allowed people to book, I can't help wondering how Celebrity is going to manage this.
I am also struggling to understand the point of the new system, which seems simply to allow passengers to fix another time to dine rather than giving them flexibility to just go and eat when they want to.
"We don't want Celebrity passengers having to queue to get a table," Lisa Lutoff-Perlo, Celebrity Cruises senior vice-president hotel operations, told me.
To my mind, Celebrity Select also misses one of the key points of these new flexible dining systems, namely giving passengers the option to dine alone with your partner if that's what you wish, rather than share a table with complete strangers.
Lutoff-Perlo said diners are unlikely to get a table for two as there are so few in the dining rooms on Celebrity ships, but she promises people won't be put on a table where passengers are already halfway through their meal.
Which is something I guess.
Jane Archer
