Dynamic Dining - Boon or Bust - my thoughts

[AdvGirl]

Ok, first I have not sailed Quantum or Anthem, but will sail Anthem in Feb so my comments are based on all I have read so far. So if you looking for comments from some who has sailed I am not your girl yet!

 

I think the many issue with Dynamic Dining is poor logistics. What I mean is the way dinner flows from guests to servers is awkward and leads to difficulties.

 

The best way to explain this is too first talk about traditional dining on older ships. First traditional dinning was designed for two seating early and late. Each seating had a clear flow customers arrived within a certain window, where seated and a flow started with drinks and ended with the final desert. Everything happened within a window of time and everyone could understand the flow and there was very little confusion from kitchen to waiter to customer eating dinner. Everyone at that seating was on the same flow of events resulting in a consistent and predictable experience. Even the location of the kitchen in relation to the restaurant was designed so things flowed smoothly and efficiently.

 

Now Dynamic Dinning has people arriving and leaving at multiple times. There is no consistent flow. A waiter will be taking orders from one customer and serving dessert to another at the same time. From those wait staff that grew up with the Traditional dinning this is very confusing. Add to this that kitchen access and flow is now split among 4 different restaurants and not all the venues have equal access to kitchen you can begin to understand why so many staff are not at there best. Now you could say that this is no different then a normal Restaurant on land where customers come and go at different times. But the shear volume a cruise ship deals with makes this very challenging - even good wait staff at a normal land based restaurant can get out of their flow if the restaurant becomes extremely busy (every day for a cruise ship).

 

So what is the cure for this - well number one is training followed by correct staffing. Maybe reducing seating times would help - NCL has been doing this longer then any other cruise line Maybe RCL needs to steal someone away from NCL who knows how to make this more complicated way of providing meals on a cruise ship work at its most efficient.

 

For those of you have tried dynamic dinning first hand let me know if I am close to the mark or totally off base.

[dada2199cc]

Might get more eyeballs posting to the Countdown to Quantum subforum here -- pretty much dedicated to that class!

[Biker19]

 

For those of you have tried dynamic dinning first hand let me know if I am close to the mark or totally off base.

 

Unless you are getting a Phd in hospitality and doing research, it's time you step away from CC for a few days.:cool:

[cot427]

 

Now Dynamic Dinning has people arriving and leaving at multiple times. There is no consistent flow. A waiter will be taking orders from one customer and serving dessert to another at the same time. From those wait staff that grew up with the Traditional dinning this is very confusing. Add to this that kitchen access and flow is now split among 4 different restaurants and not all the venues have equal access to kitchen you can begin to understand why so many staff are not at there best. Now you could say that this is no different then a normal Restaurant on land where customers come and go at different times. But the shear volume a cruise ship deals with makes this very challenging - even good wait staff at a normal land based restaurant can get out of their flow if the restaurant becomes extremely busy (every day for a cruise ship).

 

 

While I have not done DD yet either, I chose to do the Dynamic Dining classic route in hopes that the timing issues are less prevalent. However, I just can't see how this is such a problem for them when they've done My Time Dining for years. I haven't done it on Royal, but I did it on Carnival. Now they sat people in the same area and my waiter pretty much was on the same schedule with every table (4-5 tables) and it wasn't a problem. Now, I hate to bring Carnival into the mix, because I don't sail them often and I would not prefer to go back, but this was never an issue. Why can't they do that with Dynamic? It's almost the same concept but different restaurants. Maybe the kitchen is the bigger issue, or maybe they just need more wait staff.

Edited December 21, 2015 by cot427

[American Bear]

We prefer Dynamic over Traditional!

Always thought Traditional was like the cruise lines treating their customers like Children with specified times!

We like flexibility cause we aren't hungry each day at the same time, and want to see entertainment at different times!

[BecciBoo]

This is a forum for discussion of opinions and the OP has a right to air hers, experienced or not.

 

Assigned seating was to enable the amount of passengers to get served efficiently, nothing more. With Dynamic Dining, it's turned the experience into one more similar to regular land based restaurants where diners come and go and must be served ideally in a marked amount of time. Harder to cope with for servers but that's the way of it.

 

Personally, if they would do away with the pre-paid gratuity requirement, we'd be doing all our dining My Time. They still add gratuities during the cruise so I don't know why they require My Time to be pre paid??

[George C]

We prefer traditional dinning but do eat many meals in specialty restaurants. Also I am against doing anything the way NCL does it, I stopped sailing NCL right after they stopped traditional dinning.

[robtulipe]

Personally, if they would do away with the pre-paid gratuity requirement, we'd be doing all our dining My Time. They still add gratuities during the cruise so I don't know why they require My Time to be pre paid??

 

Pre paying gratuities is no longer required for My Time dining on RCI ships. :).

[BillOh]

So far I've only been on ships with tradtional dining and MTD. I wonder if anyone has seen numbers on how many cruisers pick which? My last cruise on Freedom was the first that the main floor was MTD. That suggests more people than traditional on that cruise

[AdvGirl]

Unless you are getting a Phd in hospitality and doing research, it's time you step away from CC for a few days.:cool:

 

 

Well no PH.D. But do have experience in process optimization and owned a business that serviced the public and studied customer service practically and theoretically. But still have not seen inner workings of Anthem and most likely will not get to the underbelly of the beast when I cruise in Feb. So at best it is

an educated guess.

 

Not trying to offend just noticed some trends in all the negative postings about Dynamic Dinning.

 

Oh and my bad was using app and thought this was posted in Quantum Class.

[caseymorgan]

I've haven't been on a ship that offered DD, but if it's like MTD I think it might be a bust. As I said on an earlier thread, we much prefer going right to our assigned table at the assigned time. We usually opt for 6pm early seating (except port intensive Europe where we like late seating). There is a reason traditional dining was created-- it works. No waiting; the servers knows what you like; and meals are timed around the shows.

[Biker19]

Oh and my bad was using app and thought this was posted in Quantum Class.

The mods may move it, eventually.

[Biker19]

I've haven't been on a ship that offered DD, but if it's like MTD I think it might be a bust.

 

It's been working just fine at NCL for many years and RCI has no choice but DD on Quantum class ships since there's not enough capacity for traditional.

[AdvGirl]

I just can't see how this is such a problem for them when they've done My Time Dining for years.

 

The difference with My Time Dining - which I have done - is they only use one part of dining room for this so volume is less. Also the ship configuration with one main dinning room would seem to make it easier. But remember I do not an expert and never ran a restaurant and even if I had the size of cruise ship dinning puts it in a whole other world - so everything I say is subjective on my part.

 

I do wonder how NCL appears to pull this off with much less issues then RCL has had so far. :rolleyes:

 

Any NCL pros please chime in.:cool:

[Biker19]

So far I've only been on ships with tradtional dining and MTD. I wonder if anyone has seen numbers on how many cruisers pick which? My last cruise on Freedom was the first that the main floor was MTD. That suggests more people than traditional on that cruise

 

That's rare since the top deck is usually used for MTD and MTD numbers are limited - some WAG it at 20%. The opposite is true for Quantum class - they can probably only accommodate about 20% DD Classic before math gets in the way.

[BillOh]

That's rare since the top deck is usually used for MTD and MTD numbers are limited - some WAG it at 20%. The opposite is true for Quantum class - they can probably only accommodate about 20% DD Classic before math gets in the way.

 

My Freedom cruise back in late April was the first one where MTD had the main floor. I saw that was the case for at least a few weeks before that on Freedom from watching reviews.

[Biker19]

My Freedom cruise back in late April was the first one where MTD had the main floor. I saw that was the case for at least a few weeks before that on Freedom from watching reviews.

 

MTD was on the top floor by Nov.

[AdvGirl]

MTD was on the top floor by Nov.

 

Last Dec on Alure I was My Time and the top floor of the Main dinning room was all or close to all My Time diners. But the Allure main is three stories so at best My Time was 30% of diners maybe less. :)

[Merion_Mom]

 

Personally, if they would do away with the pre-paid gratuity requirement, we'd be doing all our dining My Time. They still add gratuities during the cruise so I don't know why they require My Time to be pre paid??

 

Pre paying gratuities is no longer required for My Time dining on RCI ships. :).

 

For quite a long time now.

[Biker19]

Last Dec on Alure I was My Time and the top floor of the Main dinning room was all or close to all My Time diners. But the Allure main is three stories so at best My Time was 30% of diners maybe less. :)

 

I think it's the same on all Freedom and Voyager class ships.

[robtulipe]

I've haven't been on a ship that offered DD, but if it's like MTD I think it might be a bust. As I said on an earlier thread, we much prefer going right to our assigned table at the assigned time. We usually opt for 6pm early seating (except port intensive Europe where we like late seating). There is a reason traditional dining was created-- it works. No waiting; the servers knows what you like; and meals are timed around the shows.

On our last nine cruises, all on RCI, we were cruising with friends and had MTD and it was fairly easy to make reservations each evening with all of us together at the same table in a sector with the same waiters with flexibility as to the time as long as we didn't want to start at the peak time of between 6:30 to 8pm. ;)

[Bonnie Voyager]

I have done "Dynamic Dining" on both Quantum and Anthem and had no real issues on either ship. We loved the experience. It really worked well for us. But we do tend to dine early (6-ish), so we never had a wait, were seated promptly, and service was mostly good to excellent. What I did notice was that by the time we left the dining room, there were longer lines forming, and waiters were becoming more "harried". I think the later you eat, the more likely you are to have "issues".

 

Quantum didn't have the option of "Dynamic Classic" dining like Anthem does now, but on Anthem the most complaints I heard were from "classic" diners with a set dining time with rotating dining room assignments and Dynamic Diners who chose to dine later in the evening.

[AdvGirl]

I have done "Dynamic Dining" on both Quantum and Anthem and had no real issues on either ship. We loved the experience. It really worked well for us. But we do tend to dine early (6-ish), so we never had a wait, were seated promptly, and service was mostly good to excellent. What I did notice was that by the time we left the dining room, there were longer lines forming, and waiters were becoming more "harried". I think the later you eat, the more likely you are to have "issues".

 

Quantum didn't have the option of "Dynamic Classic" dining like Anthem does now, but on Anthem the most complaints I heard were from "classic" diners with a set dining time with rotating dining room assignments and Dynamic Diners who chose to dine later in the evening.

 

 

Interesting - makes sense - just like flying those that fly early usually have fewer problems then those that fly late. Problems compound with time. Looks like my up coming cruise I will be dinning later since most venues where already booked for early times. I am 45 days out and most early times are gone. So looks like you really need to book long before the cruise begins to get early times.

[Bonnie Voyager]

Interesting - makes sense - just like flying those that fly early usually have fewer problems then those that fly late. Problems compound with time. Looks like my up coming cruise I will be dinning later since most venues where already booked for early times. I am 45 days out and most early times are gone. So looks like you really need to book long before the cruise begins to get early times.

 

 

Or just show up early and see if they can seat you! Many folks don't make reservations at all!

[Biker19]

Or just show up early and see if they can seat you! Many folks don't make reservations at all!

 

+1, you will likely have no problem getting into a venue with little to no wait before 6.