Quantum of the Seas Dynamic Dining Disaster

[boscobeans]

With MTD you go to one restaurant when ever you want to dine and you select from one menu.

 

With DD you go to one of four restaurants when ever you want to dine and you select from 4 menus.

 

I calculate that you have 32 entrées and 32 appetisers to chose from every night where as the MDR menu had around 5 choices IIRC.

 

I am confused as to the comments that DD does not have has much choice as the MDR. :rolleyes:

 

Love Live DD!:D

 

With MTD the menu will be different each and every night so on a ten day cruise you will get to chose from 10 different menus over the course of the cruise./

 

With DD you can go to one of four restaurants and at each the menu will NOT CHANGE from night to night. So you will have a choice of 4 menus over the course of your cruise.

 

OMO

 

bosco

[gkbiiii]

Well gregdude - they may have heard you and thought that was a good idea. So, not only have I not received the email reinstating my customer-service dinner reservation, but my calendar is now showing 0 -yes 0 - dining reservations. I guess they decided to scrap the whole thing and we'll have to rebook everything on Friday. Or not... Who knows? I only know that Windjammer is not an option unless they put tablecloths down and serve us. Nor is eating at 5:30 or 9:00.

 

I can't tell my husband this one - he wanted to go on Windstar.

 

 

 

Well that's what Disney does, the buffet becomes a fee-free dining room!!!

[marci22]

I calculate that you have 32 entrées and 32 appetisers to chose from every night where as the MDR menu had around 5 choices IIRC.

 

I am confused as to the comments that DD does not have has much choice as the MDR. :rolleyes:

 

Love Live DD!:D

 

MDR menu usually had 5 OR 6 entrees per night, X average 7 night cruise would be 35-42 choices over the course of your cruise.

 

They probably instituted DD to save money. They certainly didn't do it to expend more money; that's not what RC does. They cut and cut.

Edited January 20, 2015 by marci22

[Christine Frances]

With MTD the menu will be different each and every night so on a ten day cruise you will get to chose from 10 different menus over the course of the cruise./

 

With DD you can go to one of four restaurants and at each the menu will NOT CHANGE from night to night. So you will have a choice of 4 menus over the course of your cruise.

 

OMO

 

bosco

 

Either way you are still going to only eat 10 entree's on a 10 night cruise! Doesn't matter how many menus that are involved - unless there is only one entree listed on each menu on Q rather than the usual 4-5:rolleyes:

[caribill]

Ever go to dinner at MDR or MTD and want 3 or 4 of the entrees? And you can't get them the rest of the cruise.

Ever go to dinner at MDR or MTD and not see anything at all you want? Hmmm... maybe a specialty dining would've been a good option here

Do you eat all 6-7 entress offered to you every single night at MTD or MDR that you must absolutely require a different menu each and every night because you will miss the next 7 entrees the next night you want to gorge yourself with?

 

 

 

I do not eat seafood. I do not eat pork. I do not eat lamb.

 

So, no, I rarely see more than one or two entrees on MDR/MTD dining each evening that I would like. But each evening I find a different one to order.

 

And in looking at the standard menus on the Internet for the 3 or 4 DD dining rooms that have no surcharge and that do not require formal attire, I only see one or two entrees in each dining room that I would like.

 

I took a 15 day TA on RCCL with MDR/MTD and had 15 different menus over the evenings on that cruise (and did have to dress for three formal evenings).

 

With the upcoming 14 day Quantum TA, I would have only four menus to choose from in the dining rooms, not 14 as in the past. After eliminating seafood, pork and lamb, I would probably have to order the same evening meals three or four times, not the way I enjoy cruising.

 

And my spouse, who is a vegetarian, would have even less choices than I would.

Edited January 20, 2015 by caribill

[boscobeans]

Either way you are still going to only eat 10 entree's on a 10 night cruise! Doesn't matter how many menus that are involved - unless there is only one entree listed on each menu on Q rather than the usual 4-5:rolleyes:

 

Although the standard MDR or MTD menus are made up of the standard basics, there will be at least one beef / pork dish, one chicken dish, one fish dish, one pasta dish and sometimes an additional choice made with one of those mentioned. There will also be the standard available every day menu as well.

 

These entrée basics, aside from the available every day menu, will be prepared in a different fashion every night of a ten (any number will do) day cruise.

 

I will be able to choose a different meal every night even if I only choose one type of food.

 

If I'm a big pasta lover and want to have it each night I can expect some variety in which pastas are served each night as well as how they are prepared.

 

With DD (as I understand it) if I am not Pinnacle or in a suite I can have some Soutwestern pasta dish or an unusual form of pasta Alfredo and that's it.

 

Of course I can always go to Jamie's if I want a different pasta dish each night, but after owning two restaurants, I find it hard to imagine how almost any pasta dish (even with a shaving or two of truffles) is worth $30 more, considering the charge is on top the regular meal expense allotment.

 

OMO

 

bosco

Edited January 20, 2015 by boscobeans

[DEIx15x8]

I do not eat seafood. I do not eat pork. I do not eat lamb.

 

So, no, I rarely see more than one or two entrees on MDR/MTD dining each evening that I would like. But each evening I find a different one to order.

 

And in looking at the standard menus on the Internet for the 3 or 4 DD dining rooms that have no surcharge and that do not require formal attire, I only see one or two entrees in each dining room that I would like.

 

I took a 15 day TA on RCCL with MDR/MTD and had 15 different menus over the evenings on that cruise (and did have to dress for three formal evenings).

 

With the upcoming 14 day Quantum TA, I would have only four menus to choose from in the dining rooms, not 14 as in the past. After eliminating seafood, pork and lamb, I would probably have to order the same evening meals three or four times, not the way I enjoy cruising.

 

And my spouse, who is a vegetarian, would have even less choices than I would.

 

like

[DEIx15x8]

Anyone that thinks 4 menus offer as much choice as 14 can't count very well. Royal Caribbean promised larger menus at each of the four venues but never delivered that. In order to figure out what venues to eat at each night I listed every dish at every venue onboard and then marked all the ones I would eat. I then put them together as meals and planned how many times to eat at each restaurant based on eating each complete meal twice (some individual courses repeating more than twice). To see how it would compare and make sure it wasn't comparable to the offerings of the old menu (some of us like to ensure that our opinions are have a basis in facts) I did the same thing with that. Our cruise was the 11/23 and 12/1 sailings, our first B2B so while that adds an extra challenge to the MDR, it's a challenge that the old menu would have handled without an issue.

 

My results were that in 19 nights the Dynamic Dining menus offered:

Appetizers: 4

Entrees: 9

Desserts: 10

Total Courses: 23

 

Along with those were several nights of no options though:

Appetizers: 6

Entrees: 0

Desserts: 0

Total Courses: 6

 

So to fill the 19 nights there are tons of repeats:

Appetizers: 9

Entrees: 10

Desserts: 9

Total Courses: 28

 

That's more repeats than actual items to eat. There were some items that I would eat that simply didn't fit though (based on minimizing repeated courses while maximizing unique items)

Appetizers: 0

Entrees: 0

Desserts: 2

Total Courses: 2

 

Those aren't very good looking numbers on there own, but when compared to the old menu system where in the 19 nights we had just 11 unique menus (not the complete set of 14) with 8 of them repeating (and I researched which 8 do. I did't just pick the 8 best) the results look absolutely pathetic:

Appetizers: 16

Entrees: 17

Desserts: 19

Total Courses: 52 (that's more than double!)

 

Along with those there is still one night with no options though:

Appetizers: 1

Entrees: 0

Desserts: 0

Total Courses: 1 (Basil is the problem, luckily it's only on longer sailings)

 

The menus do repeat so there are still some repeats, about 5% the amount that DD has:

Appetizers: 2

Entrees: 2

Desserts: 0

Total Courses: 4

 

The impressive thing though is that with all those courses there are still more items that I couldn't find room to eat in the schedule because the number of times you have an individual menu is fixed:

Appetizers: 2

Entrees: 7

Desserts: 9

Total Courses: 18

 

 

So moving from just the 11 night version of the traditional menus to the 4 night dynamic dining menus (36.36% the number of menus) takes my available options to pick from down to 30 from 70 (35.71% the number of items). Those numbers seem to be pretty clear. When you cut down on the menus the number of options are decreased by the same amount. It's actually a bit surprising as it shows that the menus are of comparable quality (looking over them I honestly think that with the exception of American Icon they are of poorer selection but the numbers say differently), just fewer of them. That clearly does not match their claims that we would have fewer menus but each one would offer more options than a traditional menu.

 

A single Dynamic Dining menu offers:

Appetizers: 8

Entrees: 8

Desserts: 5

Total Courses: 21

If you count the simple tastes (only available in one venue one night out of the 19) that adds an additional 4 entrees, though half seem to be repeats of the main menu's entrees with a small veggie substitution and not an actual additional meal. Counting it anyway though: 25

 

A single Traditional menu offers:

Appetizers: 10

Entrees: 6

Desserts: 5

Total Courses: 21

Classics: 5

Signature Desserts: 3

Total + Standard: 29

 

That means that total Dynamic Dining offers: 84-100 items depending on how you count the simple tastes.

Traditional offers a total of: 294-302 items. Not sure how anyone can claim these numbers are equal. I'd love to give them 5 $20 in exchange for 3 $100. It's the same amount right?

Edited January 20, 2015 by DEIx15x8

[boscobeans]

That means that total Dynamic Dining offers: 84-100 items depending on how you count the simple tastes.

Traditional offers a total of: 294-302 items. Not sure how anyone can claim these numbers are equal. I'd love to give them 5 $20 in exchange for 3 $100. It's the same amount right?

 

As usual you obviously put a lot or work into everything you do.

Thank you for your thorough analysis, it does an excellent job of explaining DD vs TD and gives people a lot of sound information so they can hopefully make the best choice for their next cruise.

 

 

bosco

[John&LaLa]

As usual you obviously put a lot or work into everything you do.

Thank you for your thorough analysis, it does an excellent job of explaining DD vs TD and gives people a lot of sound information so they can hopefully make the best choice for their next cruise.

 

 

bosco

 

But isn't it just an analysis on his particular tastes?

I may have missed something though. :o

[floridaglen]

Don't forget The Simple Tastes menu in all the complimentary restaurants onboard Quantum too.

[John&LaLa]

Don't forget The Simple Tastes menu in all the complimentary restaurants onboard Quantum too.

 

I think in the example, they were not always available. It was back a couple of months though. It may be better now

[boscobeans]

But isn't it just an analysis on his particular tastes?

I may have missed something though. :o

 

I think the last portion of the post where personal taste plays no part and deals with the actual offerings of DD vs TD are the meat of the matter.

 

"So moving from just the 11 night version of the traditional menus to the 4 night dynamic dining menus (36.36% the number of menus) takes my available options to pick from down to 30 from 70 (35.71% the number of items). Those numbers seem to be pretty clear. When you cut down on the menus the number of options are decreased by the same amount. It's actually a bit surprising as it shows that the menus are of comparable quality (looking over them I honestly think that with the exception of American Icon they are of poorer selection but the numbers say differently), just fewer of them. That clearly does not match their claims that we would have fewer menus but each one would offer more options than a traditional menu.

 

A single Dynamic Dining menu offers:

Appetizers: 8

Entrees: 8

Desserts: 5

Total Courses: 21

If you count the simple tastes (only available in one venue one night out of the 19) that adds an additional 4 entrees, though half seem to be repeats of the main menu's entrees with a small veggie substitution and not an actual additional meal. Counting it anyway though: 25

 

A single Traditional menu offers:

Appetizers: 10

Entrees: 6

Desserts: 5

Total Courses: 21

Classics: 5

Signature Desserts: 3

Total + Standard: 29

 

That means that total Dynamic Dining offers: 84-100 items depending on how you count the simple tastes.

Traditional offers a total of: 294-302 items. Not sure how anyone can claim these numbers are equal. I'd love to give them 5 $20 in exchange for 3 $100. It's the same amount right?"

 

 

bosco

[crayon78]

That means that total Dynamic Dining offers: 84-100 items depending on how you count the simple tastes.

Traditional offers a total of: 294-302 items. Not sure how anyone can claim these numbers are equal.

 

Thanks for doing the work on this. We were not opposed to Dynamic Dining in theory but with the menus not changing over 11 nights, we just got bored with the choices (especially after trying dishes we thought we would like and then had no desire to repeat).

 

Maybe it would have been different if we were a single person traveling or if we were on a shorter cruise or if we didn't share with other people in our group. But in our group of 4, unless there were dietary restrictions involved to prevent someone from doing so, we usually tried what everyone had. And sometimes we ordered 2 entrees at a time, covering even more of the menu. So for us, the regular MDR format just offered so many more choices. If the DD menus were larger or changed every 4-5 days (so you could "rotate" through the restaurants if you chose to and then have a different menu the next time), I think we would have liked it much better.

[floridaglen]

Do we think that they are limiting the menus to encourage cruisers to eat at the speciality restaurants thus meaning more revenue for them perhaps?

[karmacats]

I think in the example, they were not always available. It was back a couple of months though. It may be better now

 

The simple tastes menu is now printed in the menus for all 4 complimentary restaurants (i can't remember if it's also in coastal kitchen, but i don't think so). It's the same in each of the 4 restaurants now, too - there are no longer different simple tastes menus for each venue. given that the servers didn't seem to know they existed, i was surprised to see them printed in the menus on the jan 3 cruise, but there they were, and ordering off of them was no problem.

[steveru621]

The simple tastes menu is now printed in the menus for all 4 complimentary restaurants (i can't remember if it's also in coastal kitchen, but i don't think so). It's the same in each of the 4 restaurants now, too - there are no longer different simple tastes menus for each venue. given that the servers didn't seem to know they existed, i was surprised to see them printed in the menus on the jan 3 cruise, but there they were, and ordering off of them was no problem.

 

That news is great news.

[gaylemh]

The simple tastes menu is now printed in the menus for all 4 complimentary restaurants (i can't remember if it's also in coastal kitchen, but i don't think so). It's the same in each of the 4 restaurants now, too - there are no longer different simple tastes menus for each venue. given that the servers didn't seem to know they existed, i was surprised to see them printed in the menus on the jan 3 cruise, but there they were, and ordering off of them was no problem.

 

What are the choices on the simple taste menu? Is it the same as on the other RCL ships?

[DEIx15x8]

The simple tastes menu is now printed in the menus for all 4 complimentary restaurants (i can't remember if it's also in coastal kitchen, but i don't think so). It's the same in each of the 4 restaurants now, too - there are no longer different simple tastes menus for each venue. given that the servers didn't seem to know they existed, i was surprised to see them printed in the menus on the jan 3 cruise, but there they were, and ordering off of them was no problem.

 

That's great to hear. Would you happen to remember what it offered? The original Simple Tastes menu was for the most part the same items as the regular menus with maybe a small substitution (I believe Thanksgiving Dinner was offered as Roasted Turkey Breast and the only difference was mashed potatoes instead of stuffing, not really an alternative item IMO). There were a few exceptions, the only Simple Tastes menu we were actually able to order from was Silk and the Lo-Mein was delicious. It really should have been an additional item on the regular menu as it was completely different from anything offered. It was actually the best thing in the place and really disappointing that it wasn't available until the last time we dined there.

[karmacats]

i could have sworn i took a picture of the simple tastes menu, but i just went through all my pictures and it's not there. it may be on my phone - i never uploaded those pix onto my computer. i'll have to double-check, and i'll get back to you.

 

in the mean time, i can tell you it was basic stuff. appetizers were chicken soup (which i got and was delicious) and a salad; mains were a chicken breast, a fish (i think maybe salmon?), a beef dish, pasta primavera, and a mixed vegetable dish.

 

fwiw, the simple tastes menu was printed in my menus in american icon, silk, and the grande, but not chic. however, my husband got it in his chic menu, as did our other travelling companions, so i think i may have just gotten an old menu. so, if you get a menu without it, just ask for a new menu with the simple tastes selections included.

[karmacats]

ok, got it. of all places, it was on my husband's phone. i guess i didn't take my phone to dinner the first night - i'm used to being disconnected on cruises. of course, it didn't take more than a day for me to get used to the free internet... :D

 

anyway, here is the Simple Tastes Menu:

 

Appetizers:

 

Roasted Chicken Noodle Soup

- slow cooked chicken broth with rosemary, thyme, and vegetables

(i had this and it was really tasty)

 

Arugula Salad

- teardrop tomatoes, shaved parmesan, and vinaigrette

 

Entrees:

 

Grilled Chicken Breast

- roasted new potatoes, sauteed seasonal vegetables, natural jus

 

Oven-Roasted Salmon

- grilled vegetable cous cous and warm herbed lemon dressing

 

Grilled Beef Ribeye

- yukon gold potatoes, root vegetables, red wine sauce

 

Penne Pasta Primavera

- lightly grilled vegetables, olive oil, garlic, and soft herbs (whatever those are)

 

Garden Harvest

- snow peas, roasted peppers, asparagus, carrots, green beans, roasted shallot dressing

 

That's it. Hope this helps! I was really happy to see it, and then ended up more adventurous than i thought i would be and only got the chicken soup off of it, and otherwise ate off the regular menus. I think on a longer cruise i would have definitely tried some more off of it, though.

[caribill]

Do we think that they are limiting the menus to encourage cruisers to eat at the speciality restaurants thus meaning more revenue for them perhaps?

 

Definitely.

[Hoopster95]

Anyone that thinks 4 menus offer as much choice as 14 can't count very well. Royal Caribbean promised larger menus at each of the four venues but never delivered that. In order to figure out what venues to eat at each night I listed every dish at every venue onboard and then marked all the ones I would eat. I then put them together as meals and planned how many times to eat at each restaurant based on eating each complete meal twice (some individual courses repeating more than twice). To see how it would compare and make sure it wasn't comparable to the offerings of the old menu (some of us like to ensure that our opinions are have a basis in facts) I did the same thing with that. Our cruise was the 11/23 and 12/1 sailings, our first B2B so while that adds an extra challenge to the MDR, it's a challenge that the old menu would have handled without an issue.

 

My results were that in 19 nights the Dynamic Dining menus offered:

Appetizers: 4

Entrees: 9

Desserts: 10

Total Courses: 23

 

Along with those were several nights of no options though:

Appetizers: 6

Entrees: 0

Desserts: 0

Total Courses: 6

 

So to fill the 19 nights there are tons of repeats:

Appetizers: 9

Entrees: 10

Desserts: 9

Total Courses: 28

 

That's more repeats than actual items to eat. There were some items that I would eat that simply didn't fit though (based on minimizing repeated courses while maximizing unique items)

Appetizers: 0

Entrees: 0

Desserts: 2

Total Courses: 2

 

Those aren't very good looking numbers on there own, but when compared to the old menu system where in the 19 nights we had just 11 unique menus (not the complete set of 14) with 8 of them repeating (and I researched which 8 do. I did't just pick the 8 best) the results look absolutely pathetic:

Appetizers: 16

Entrees: 17

Desserts: 19

Total Courses: 52 (that's more than double!)

 

Along with those there is still one night with no options though:

Appetizers: 1

Entrees: 0

Desserts: 0

Total Courses: 1 (Basil is the problem, luckily it's only on longer sailings)

 

The menus do repeat so there are still some repeats, about 5% the amount that DD has:

Appetizers: 2

Entrees: 2

Desserts: 0

Total Courses: 4

 

The impressive thing though is that with all those courses there are still more items that I couldn't find room to eat in the schedule because the number of times you have an individual menu is fixed:

Appetizers: 2

Entrees: 7

Desserts: 9

Total Courses: 18

 

 

So moving from just the 11 night version of the traditional menus to the 4 night dynamic dining menus (36.36% the number of menus) takes my available options to pick from down to 30 from 70 (35.71% the number of items). Those numbers seem to be pretty clear. When you cut down on the menus the number of options are decreased by the same amount. It's actually a bit surprising as it shows that the menus are of comparable quality (looking over them I honestly think that with the exception of American Icon they are of poorer selection but the numbers say differently), just fewer of them. That clearly does not match their claims that we would have fewer menus but each one would offer more options than a traditional menu.

 

A single Dynamic Dining menu offers:

Appetizers: 8

Entrees: 8

Desserts: 5

Total Courses: 21

If you count the simple tastes (only available in one venue one night out of the 19) that adds an additional 4 entrees, though half seem to be repeats of the main menu's entrees with a small veggie substitution and not an actual additional meal. Counting it anyway though: 25

 

A single Traditional menu offers:

Appetizers: 10

Entrees: 6

Desserts: 5

Total Courses: 21

Classics: 5

Signature Desserts: 3

Total + Standard: 29

 

That means that total Dynamic Dining offers: 84-100 items depending on how you count the simple tastes.

Traditional offers a total of: 294-302 items. Not sure how anyone can claim these numbers are equal. I'd love to give them 5 $20 in exchange for 3 $100. It's the same amount right?

 

This is awesome... it vividly proves that with DD you have 84 choices every single day, how many choices do you have every day with MDR?

 

But what does it matter? Can anyone eat ALL 294 items in one cruise with MDR? This just points out how ridiculous MDR dining is as far as excessive choices. What about the CC'ers who like to repeat their meals (ie. like those who order escargot every night, or those who eat steak from the "Simple Tastes Menu" every night. Hopefully less items, better efficiency, better food and preparation. In my Quantum experience I found that overall the food was better than most MDR's in the past 3 years. I'll take better food any day over 294 crappier choices.

 

Hate to say it, but I think you've proven here without a shadow of a doubt how inefficient and useless MDR might truly be... then exact reason why there's a push for DD fleet wide.

[floridaglen]

The simple tastes menu is now printed in the menus for all 4 complimentary restaurants (i can't remember if it's also in coastal kitchen, but i don't think so). It's the same in each of the 4 restaurants now, too - there are no longer different simple tastes menus for each venue. given that the servers didn't seem to know they existed, i was surprised to see them printed in the menus on the jan 3 cruise, but there they were, and ordering off of them was no problem.

 

That is good news, at least the servers cannot deny that it does not exist now! It's a shame they did not stick to the original concept of having a different Simple Tastes Menu for each complimentary restaurant though. I thought the choices on each of the five menus were very good.

[little britain]

This is awesome... it vividly proves that with DD you have 84 choices every single day, how many choices do you have every day with MDR?

 

But what does it matter? Can anyone eat ALL 294 items in one cruise with MDR? This just points out how ridiculous MDR dining is as far as excessive choices. What about the CC'ers who like to repeat their meals (ie. like those who order escargot every night, or those who eat steak from the "Simple Tastes Menu" every night. Hopefully less items, better efficiency, better food and preparation. In my Quantum experience I found that overall the food was better than most MDR's in the past 3 years. I'll take better food any day over 294 crappier choices.

 

Hate to say it, but I think you've proven here without a shadow of a doubt how inefficient and useless MDR might truly be... then exact reason why there's a push for DD fleet wide.

 

Like! I totally agree. The food on Quantum was generally of a higher standard than on many of my previous RCI cruises.

Edited January 21, 2015 by little britain