ANTHEM - What's going on with DD/Classic Dining?

[Expat Cruise]

Dynamic Dinning just has not worked. In a idea situation it would be great if you could pick your time and place to eat. The problem is the ships cannot accommodate all the passengers dinning together, or to many passengers picking the same times and restaurants. The kitchen staff needs prep time and to stage the meals with traditional dinning they can prep and plan for the two main dinning times or turning of the dinning room two times per dinner meal.

 

When you throw Dynamic Dinning in it requires much more resources. And acts to separate the staff from the guest. It will always work for a small percent of the cruisers but the majority of the passengers will have issues and therefore it will fail. Royal has the largest cruise ships in the World and needs to turn and control dinning in order to process all guest.

[boatseller]

True, and it would be interesting of someone on a longer sailing could try ordering from another menu. The POS clearly supports this so there's no technical limitation. China might be an issue, but overcomeable.

 

I recall another post where someone stated this is possible, except Coastal Kitchen as it had an isolated galley.

 

Either way, I was more (educated) speculating on the venue optimization DD offers rather than menu choices.

[holden0301]

We are currently onboard and have enjoyed DD. Our waiter confirmed they are switching to traditional dining soon. He was moved to Anthem because he is excellent and they want the bring up the level of customer satisfaction. He seems to know a lot about what is going on. He's in Chic and his name is Oslar.

[boatseller]

Here's the thing, in the current DD focused setup, all work during service hours is dedicated to production. All prep work must have been completed, like slicing carrots, between services. This allows the galley crew to prep and plate on demand so pan to table is relatively short, as you would find on land.

 

To prepare for a large single seating, they look at it like a banquet where everything is served at once. The problem with this is you cannot prepare 2200 meals all at once. To optimize this pattern, managers have to guess how many of each dish will be ordered and plate ahead of time. This means your Chicken Cordon Bleu may sit for an hour or more after plating. You really don't want that. (Those fancy covers aren't to keep the food hot, they are so the plates will stack.)

 

Anyway, the Traditional vs DD is entirely a software problem. The user should be presented 4 slots, say 6, 7, 8 and 9pm and you are assigned a rotation, same table number in all venues. Similar to how Disney does it.

 

On my last 4 cruises, Dynamic, Anytime or Freestyle, I/we have never waited more than 5 minutes for a table without a res.

[Tom1234]

We are currently onboard and have enjoyed DD. Our waiter confirmed they are switching to traditional dining soon. He was moved to Anthem because he is excellent and they want the bring up the level of customer satisfaction. He seems to know a lot about what is going on. He's in Chic and his name is Oslar.

 

 

Sailing April 30, 2016 5 day Bermuda cruise.

If this is happening soon, why no word from RCCL?

So much for online reservations for shows and dinners.

The dining experience is one of the highlights of cruising and sounds like

they missed the boat on this one.

Can't understand how Royal Caribbean could spend $940 million on a ship and not have this

figured out before the Anthem ever set sail. Maybe test the concept on an older ship first.

Poor service, cold food unacceptable.

 

Tom

[gaylemh]

Sailing April 30, 2016 5 day Bermuda cruise.

If this is happening soon, why no word from RCCL?

So much for online reservations for shows and dinners.

The dining experience is one of the highlights of cruising and sounds like

they missed the boat on this one.

Can't understand how Royal Caribbean could spend $940 million on a ship and not have this

figured out before the Anthem ever set sail. Maybe test the concept on an older ship first.

Poor service, cold food unacceptable.

 

Tom

 

I've been on Anthem twice, and going again on the 18th. I never had poor service or cold food.

[ratfam]

Our family of 4 (including two older teens) was very happy to have classic dining as an option during our Anthem European cruise last August. We tried DD during Christmas cruises one year on Freedom and the next on Oasis. With Freedom we never had waits, with Oasis waits varied between 5-20 minutes, in all cases with reservations. The biggest problem, though, was that with DD we always felt like we were in the middle of controlled chaos. The servers all worked so hard, but they were trying to deal with multiple tables all on different schedules that service was very inconsistent--some nights very good, some nights we could barely catch the server, or waited a long time to get drinks or place an order. The other thing I didn't like about DD was that, as someone who is a huge planned and tends to overthink things, it was just too much work (and made me a little nuts). I would come up with a plan, then showtimes would be announced requiring changes, then we would get on the ship and see something else that didn't work around the time we chose and we would want to switch again. With the set dining time we knew that RCCL had some kind of plan for show times, and if we felt that there would be a conflict between something we wanted to do and our set dining time we could either go to Windjammer or pick a specialty. We were on Anthem for 14 nights, and I can't imagine trying to sort out the different restaurants and book separate dining times for that many nights, would have taken all the fun out of it. Similarly for our NYE cruise this past December on the Navigator the classic dining was much more relaxed, and the service much better, than DD during the prior two Decembers. Admittedly, DD may work better at quieter times than holidays or summer school vacation, when perhaps you can actually show up when you want and have a prayer of getting seated without having advance reservations, but as long as we are traveling as busy times we will continue to stick with classic dining.

 

One other point, relative to the comment that classic dining ends up leaving many tables empty. On our NYE cruise tables would be left empty for maybe 15 or 20 minutes after the seating started, and then many nights unfamiliar looking people would be brought in and seated. We assume that they were overflow DD people. Made it a little more stressful for the servers but they managed. I did hear people complaining about the waits for DD during the NYE, making us even happier to have classic dining.

[UandMe4Ever]

Dynamic Dinning just has not worked. In a idea situation it would be great if you could pick your time and place to eat. The problem is the ships cannot accommodate all the passengers dinning together, or to many passengers picking the same times and restaurants. The kitchen staff needs prep time and to stage the meals with traditional dinning they can prep and plan for the two main dinning times or turning of the dinning room two times per dinner meal.

 

When you throw Dynamic Dinning in it requires much more resources. And acts to separate the staff from the guest. It will always work for a small percent of the cruisers but the majority of the passengers will have issues and therefore it will fail. Royal has the largest cruise ships in the World and needs to turn and control dinning in order to process all guest.

 

We did for our upcoming cruise Oct 29th. Fpr Dynamic, I spoke to a wonderful rep and we got our times and choices pf restaurants we wanted, for all 12 nights. Hope they don't make me cancel this cruise. 5:30 tooo early and 8:30 tooo late for us older folks.

[qanderson]

I've been on Anthem twice, and going again next month. The menus are not the same in all 4 restaurants. (actually there are 6 free restaurants - Coastal Kitchen, for suites only - Chic - American Icon - Silk - Grande - Solarium Bistro) All the restaurants have what they call classic dishes, but each restaurant has their own menus. There are 2 menus for each restaurant A & B that change during the cruise. On the 12 night the rotation of the menus was AA - BB - AAAA - BBBB.

 

 

Did they tell you the rotation once on board or do you just have to figure it out?

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

[cruisenfever]

Did they tell you the rotation once on board or do you just have to figure it out?

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

Your rotation schedule will be left in your cabin on embarkation day.

[Thetrail]

We sailed on the Quantum as a B2B in December 14 and loved Dynamic Dining.

 

We sailed on the Anthem in December 15 and was not as happy with Dynamic Dining. Our waiters in the dining rooms seemed more interested in their "DD Classic" tables.

 

Two people reported in reviews this week that they were told that Dynamic Dining would be phased out sometime during the next few cruises. However we all have read plenty of "I heard while on the ship" statements that didn't come true.

 

I can't imagine how they could go to Traditional Dining and/or MTD with the number of seats in the 4 dining rooms…unless they did a 3 seating time rotation.

Just got off Anthem March 19th. Had friends that sailed and did the DD. Took them longer to get their meals and were not happy with the service. On the other hand we did DD Classic and it worked to perfection! Seated at 5:30 and done with coffee and dessert by 6:30, could set my clock by the waiter we had! As far as "rumors", was told by a head waiter that they were going to combine the four restaurants that you rotated in with your same waiter, asst. waiter and head waiter for the cruise into two dining venues. Traditional dining and MTD. The way it was explained to us made sense due to the fact it was much easier on the galley. I think this will make everyone or hopefully most everyone happier regarding consistant service on the Quantum class vessels in the dining rooms.....:)....K.O.

[Baron Barracuda]

Just called my ta to make final pmt for Anthem 6/16/16. We are listed as "open seating" and asked her to request early seating if dd goes away to avoid conflict with entertainment. Of course Royal phone rep had no idea what we were talking about. Fully expect this will get screwed up "Royally".

[yj2cute]

I enjoyed DD on the Anthem and like the way it's currently set up with guests getting a choice between DD and traditional dining. I can't believe that Royal can't figure out a way to make this work if NCL can. It would be very disappointing if they scrap DD and go back to the same old boring MDR served on other ships.

[messy]

NCL only has Freestyle dining or pay restaurants. We usually cruise NCL but I really dislike Freestyle dining. It's okay if you like to eat early but otherwise even with reservations we have had to wait.

 

Because we usually get a suite with NCL we avoid the dining problems by eating in the Haven restaurant or the pay restaurants.

 

Will be sailing on the Anthem April 8th - we have classic dining for 8:30 - prefer having that to having to make reservations.

 

It's personal preferences...hopefully they will get it all figured for those that like dynamic.

[starfish216]

 

This makes the most sense. Have each guest assigned to one of the dinning rooms for the duration of the cruise, then rotate the menus.

 

We don't do traditional dinning since we don't always eat in the dinning room. Hate to have a table for 6-8 people sitting empty because we choose to eat somewhere else.

[ecourtney]

Hello,

 

I have cruised on both Quantum and Anthem sample cruises and I can honestly say that Dynamic Dining does not work and ruins the whole dining experience. Service was exceptionally slow and the food was brought out either lukewarm or cold. Waiters do not take the time to get to know you and you feel rushed to make room available for the next party (similar to land-based restaurants).

 

We did receive confirmation that Traditional Dining would be brought to Anthem in May (no exact date).

 

Also, one major complaint is that the dining rooms are too dark! You can barely see the person across the table (and we were at a table for two!) Hopefully they can adjust this.

 

Until Dynamic Dining goes away, I will avoid the Quantum class of ships. I am very happy that they did not implement Dynamic Dining on the Oasis class of ships, as this would ruin the entire experience.

[OfTheSeasCruiser]

We did receive confirmation that Traditional Dining would be brought to Anthem in May (no exact date).

 

 

Confirmation from whom?

[LongTimeTvlr]

We were on the Quantum back in Feb 2015 and DD was a disaster. Hours spent planning and reserving and then re-reserving when entertainment schedules came out, then again when we boarded and found out the schedules we had been given were incorrect.

Then spent 30 - 60 minutes almost daily remaking reservations day by day with each dining venue we wanted for that day.

 

I am really surprised RCL hasn't fixed this by now.

 

Given our experience, we now only make final payment on cruises when our TA can guarantee we get traditional first seatings or we cancel the cruise.

 

Sadly there have been cruises where there weren't enough first seating. This seems to be an issue on many of the cruises we book. We have to twist the agents arm to get these seatings booked. Seems to me they need to add more traditional seating.

[gaylemh]

It's amazing, all the different experiences people have had with dining on Quantum and Anthem. I guess I was extremely lucky, on 5 cruises, I never had a problem with reservations, food or waiting for dinner. There were some dishes I liked better than others, but that is my personal taste. I loved DD and hope it continues in some form.

 

We'll see if my luck hold out on number 6 in April.

[cruisenfever]

We did receive confirmation that Traditional Dining would be brought to Anthem in May (no exact date).

May I ask from where and from whom the confirmation was generated from?

It's amazing, all the different experiences people have had with dining on Quantum and Anthem. I guess I was extremely lucky, on 5 cruises, I never had a problem with reservations, food or waiting for dinner. There were some dishes I liked better than others, but that is my personal taste. I loved DD and hope it continues in some form.

 

We'll see if my luck hold out on number 6 in April.

I'm with you Gayle. Did a b2b on Lady Q and absolutely loved DD and never once experienced any of the problems being posted here.

 

Looking forward to 5 weeks of DD beginning Sunday and hope there are no changes, as we will be very disappointed.

Edited March 23, 2016 by cruisenfever

[Merion_Mom]

May I ask from where and from whom the confirmation was generated from?

 

I'm with you Gayle. Did a b2b on Lady Q and absolutely loved DD and never once experienced any of the problems being posted here.

 

Looking forward to 5 weeks of DD beginning Sunday and hope there are no changes, as we will be very disappointed.

 

I'm with Patti and Gayle. :D

[Hoopster95]

I'm with Patti and Gayle. :D

 

And I'm with Patti, Gayle & Carol....

And Beachnative and others who have voiced their positive experiences with DD in many past threads.

 

But Gayle, word of advice... Give up this honourable fight you're leading. You with 5 cruises, Marion_mom with 10, etc... Just doesn't matter to the so many who worry/are against DD even before they sail or others who have one sailing. It just doesn't matter, and now Royal is giving up too. It's just better to drink the "negativity kool-aid" and join the negative majority. I gave up... My meds are working great!!! ;)

 

Actually, let's all start a thread about how badly MTD will suck when it's ship wide, even though it hasn't been implemented yet. I'm sure that thread will go 30 pages with "expert" and "first hand" opinions :rolleyes::p

[marksoe]

For us, we LOVE the experience of having the same dining staff each night. They get to know you and your choices.

 

Personally, it really makes the dining experience that much better. I will not go to DD, and have fought to get the 'classic' on each of the three booked cruises that I have.

[davy jones]

I have never sailed on Quantum class, but I am booked. I have my dinner reservations already.

 

We have used MTD on other RCI ships and it worked very well. We made our reservations in advance for those cruises.

 

If you show up without reservations at the peak desired times at (6:30 or 7:00), I would expect that there would be a wait. I don't see why it can't work the same way on Quantum class.

[Hoopster95]

For us, we LOVE the experience of having the same dining staff each night. They get to know you and your choices.

 

Personally, it really makes the dining experience that much better. I will not go to DD, and have fought to get the 'classic' on each of the three booked cruises that I have.

 

only took 14 min after my post!!! Roflmao :p:p:p