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

[dedosr]

I was on Anthem in January and March, and will be going again in April and October. I was able to book Solarium for all 4 cruises at no charge.

 

Well that's great to hear, I guess it was another glitch in cruise planner, because initially there was a charge. Glad to see it has been corrected!!:):)

[Baron Barracuda]

I'm on the May 5 sailing and have one thing to say: UGH. This ain't gonna be pretty....

 

Does anyone know how they would handle that with so many people already booked in the various restaurants under Dynamic Dining? How will they decide who gets fixed and who gets my time?

 

 

dd classic folks are already assigned to early or late dinner so just put them all in traditional. Then the dd choice folks become mtd. This does nothing to address the overcrowding issue though. For that they'd need to add a third seating or squeeze in a couple hundred more seats:eek:. Imagine Solarium Bistro also becomes mtd.

[akcruz]

Hhmm, I recently made our dynamic dining reservations for our August sailing on Anthem. Took time to figure out our schedule, will be disappointed if they go back to normal MTD on us 😕

 

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[Merion_Mom]

I did notice that the "Card Room" on deck 4, just forward of American Icon, has been removed.

 

To make more room for My Time Dining?

 

It wasn't removed. It was never there. It was there on QUANTUM, but Anthem has never had a dedicated Card Room.

 

They "let" us play in Chic in the morning in January and February.

[dahirsh]

what a shame. I guess the best we can hope at this time is that they continue to offer menus different from every other ship in the fleet

[RealDeal]

Since Solarium Bistro has been brought up, let me throw this into the mix....it's totally gone from the May 5 sailing. Doesn't show as fully booked...simply is not even there as an option. I called yesterday to inquire about this, and the woman allegedly called the dining dept and was told they're doing "inventory maintenance"...on the Solarium Bistro? Seems bizarre...

[Merion_Mom]

Since Solarium Bistro has been brought up, let me throw this into the mix....it's totally gone from the May 5 sailing. Doesn't show as fully booked...simply is not even there as an option. I called yesterday to inquire about this, and the woman allegedly called the dining dept and was told they're doing "inventory maintenance"...on the Solarium Bistro? Seems bizarre...

 

I had no problem dining at Solarium Bistro without having made reservations before the cruise.

 

I hope that you have the same success.

 

:)

[xpcdoojk]

This will be the second time I booked a Royal ship with the intention of trying Dynamic Dining. I was tired of their traditional dining and quite frankly it just wasn't up to par. Then they canceled it on Oasis and I was stuck with traditional, a less than satisfying experience. Now I'm scheduled on Anthem in May and it looks like they are going to implement the change by then. I will still try to enjoy whatever dining option they have and I'm sure the menus will change each day, so I'll still get to try the different menus. But I said it once and I'll say it again: what an embarrassment for this cruise line. They can't get this figured out.

 

I am guessing that the problem is the cruise line, and more importantly their clientele... Aka you and me.

 

We don't seem to like change. Too many options and people are unable to make decisions.

 

What is the one fight all married couples face daily, what are we going to do for dinner.

 

These DD ships cause that every night for US.

 

Just saying.... I love to plan, and I find these ships to be beyond me when trying to book dinner, and see a show.

 

JC

[hansolosmom]

You can put me in the I don't understand the change camp. Disney has always done rotational dining without an issue. I just don't understand why Royal can't do this.

 

I booked our Oct crusie and the only dining I could book was dynamic late (8:30). I'll just wait and see what happens as we get closer to see if I can at least change to regular dynamic or MTD or whatever they'll call it.

[Mom.to.2]

Other than using all 4 restaurants instead of 2 each, What is the difference between DD Classic & Traditional, and DD choice & MTD anyway? Is it just semantics?

 

I realize classic is rotational and traditional you stay put in one restaurant the entire cruise. Is that the only difference?

 

Is MTD any different than DD choice other than they'll be using 2 restaurants instead of 4?

 

 

 

 

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[gaylemh]

Other than using all 4 restaurants instead of 2 each, What is the difference between DD Classic & Traditional, and DD choice & MTD anyway? Is it just semantics?

 

I realize classic is rotational and traditional you stay put in one restaurant the entire cruise. Is that the only difference?

 

Is MTD any different than DD choice other than they'll be using 2 restaurants instead of 4?

 

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The big difference is that each of the 5 restaurants had a different menu.

[Clarea]

Other than using all 4 restaurants instead of 2 each, What is the difference between DD Classic & Traditional, and DD choice & MTD anyway? Is it just semantics?

 

I realize classic is rotational and traditional you stay put in one restaurant the entire cruise. Is that the only difference?

 

Is MTD any different than DD choice other than they'll be using 2 restaurants instead of 4?

 

Difference in menus too.

 

Each restaurant on Anthem had it's own set of two menus, and they changed from one to the other at some point during the cruise.

 

Traditional/MTD has a different menu every day.

Edited March 30, 2016 by clarea

[Mom.to.2]

The big difference is that each of the 5 restaurants had a different menu.

 

 

 

It sounded to me (from reviews on cc) that you could order off any menu in any restaurant though. No?

[OfTheSeasCruiser]

It sounded to me (from reviews on cc) that you could order off any menu in any restaurant though. No?

 

I believe you technically could order from only restaurants on the same floor. So if you were in Grande, you could order from Chic. It wasn't really meant to be that way, and it is not advertised. It's sort of like a cheat.

[RealDeal]

I had no problem dining at Solarium Bistro without having made reservations before the cruise.

 

I hope that you have the same success.

 

:)

 

Thanks! I'm not really losing sleep over it...just find it strange! I just hope they don't turn dining upside down just in time for my cruise. I, personally, like the concept of Dynamic Dining.

[Brocktoon623]

Would this potentially add back a formal night to the Anthem?

 

I've got Dynamic Choice booked, understanding that our formal night would be any night we reserved the Grande. If they switch us Dynamic Choice folks to MTD, would they then set a specific formal night?

 

Also, the each of the different Anthem dining rooms has it's own unique styling ... sound like if they go with a 2 restaurants per plan, then the passengers won't get a chance to experience all the places.

 

Just an embarrassing example of designing an entire boat around an advertised experience, and then not figuring out how to work it.

 

Even though I specifically chose Dynamic Choice, I think RC should figure out how to work it like Disney with a set rotation for all. You're going to have a capacity issue no matter what they choose to do.

Edited March 30, 2016 by Brocktoon623

[CruisingChick]

The big difference is that each of the 5 restaurants had a different menu.

 

That was the best part about the Anthem. The different menus in the different dining rooms that were new and improved over the old RCCL Menus. It will be hard to justify sailing Anthem again if they adopt those old RCCL menus.

[brfan]

dd classic folks are already assigned to early or late dinner so just put them all in traditional. Then the dd choice folks become mtd. This does nothing to address the overcrowding issue though. For that they'd need to add a third seating or squeeze in a couple hundred more seats:eek:. Imagine Solarium Bistro also becomes mtd.

 

I wonder if Royal is using some kind of algorithm that on average a certain percent of passengers each night opt for specialty dining or alternative dining, such as the buffet and they figure that the current capacity would be sufficient?

 

For traditional it should not be an issue they know they have between 800-900seats and will only allow that many people to book traditional for each seating.

 

MTD will be the issue, especially if a larger percent of the passengers on any given sailing decide they want to eat each night in the dining room. I wonder what will happen when Royal has to tell several hundred passengers each night sorry, no room?

 

Alternatively they could change the dining times for MTD - start earlier and end later to try to be able to turn over 3 times. But then people will likely complain that 4:30 (just picking a time) is too early and 9:30 (again picking a time) is too late and also complain that they were rushed through dinner.

 

Stupid question - if they got rid of a large number of tables for two and replaced them with larger tables (6/8/10) would that allow them to increase capacity, even a little?

 

It will be interesting to see how this plays out. It seems my cruise (18 April) may be the last one for Dynamic Dining.

[cot427]

I wonder if Royal is using some kind of algorithm that on average a certain percent of passengers each night opt for specialty dining or alternative dining, such as the buffet and they figure that the current capacity would be sufficient?

 

For traditional it should not be an issue they know they have between 800-900seats and will only allow that many people to book traditional for each seating.

 

MTD will be the issue, especially if a larger percent of the passengers on any given sailing decide they want to eat each night in the dining room. I wonder what will happen when Royal has to tell several hundred passengers each night sorry, no room?

 

Alternatively they could change the dining times for MTD - start earlier and end later to try to be able to turn over 3 times. But then people will likely complain that 4:30 (just picking a time) is too early and 9:30 (again picking a time) is too late and also complain that they were rushed through dinner.

 

Stupid question - if they got rid of a large number of tables for two and replaced them with larger tables (6/8/10) would that allow them to increase capacity, even a little?

 

It will be interesting to see how this plays out. It seems my cruise (18 April) may be the last one for Dynamic Dining.

 

Algorithm? I think this gives them WAY too much credit. Let's be real...they can't even figure out Dynamic Dining after more than a year! Seems like using something like that is way beyond their means.

 

After reading about the capacity issue, I am having a hard time believing how the change will work or how it is different from what they currently have. I mean they are going to replace DD Classic with traditional...so instead of rotating through 4 rooms you have the same seat every night. That still uses the same number of chairs, right?

 

As for Choice, they will replace with MTD...which again is essentially the same thing other than you may only get to choose 1 or 2 rooms.

 

I just don't get it! And it's frustrating to say the least!

[CruisingChick]

Not sure what the problem is.

 

Our dinner reservations were for 7:45 PM. There were always empty tables and some of the times the restaurants were only 3/4 to a half full.

[Mom.to.2]

What are the main complaints with the current choice/classic combo, that RCL is trying to address with changing to traditional/MTD?

 

 

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[avalon007]

We are booked on Ovation in Jan & the DD is very much one of the aspects of the Quantum class we are looking forward to. I hope it stays that way or that MTD is still available at least??

 

We are fans of My Time Dining after having tried traditional Dining on our first 2 cruises.

 

We prefer MTD because:

 

1. We never eat the same time every night - our dinner schedule is based on how hungry we feel, we never book either - we just turn up & asked to be seated anywhere - never had to wait more than a few minutes to get a table.

 

2. We don't want to be with the same people for dinner every night - it's fine if they are your sort of folks, but if they are PITA types they can ruin your dinner time.

 

3. We don't need the same waiters remembering my drink preference etc as we don't always want the same thing - so a new waiter every night is fine with us. Also we don't like having to tell them we may not be present the next evening as we just don't know what we want to do for dinner a day in advance.

Set dining is too controlled for us.

 

The only thing about DD I'm not keen on is this pre booking - I may do this for the speciality paid for restaurants I really want to try - like Wonderland, but if for the free restaurants if we just turn up will we have to wait for a long time to be seated outside of peak hours - anyone tried that?

 

How easy is it to book once on board if you are flexible with seating times?

 

We really don't want to be tied down to set restaurants or dining times every night so would be very disappointed if MTD was unavailable. :confused:

[cot427]

What are the main complaints with the current choice/classic combo, that RCL is trying to address with changing to traditional/MTD?

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Not sure...if I'm not mistaken I've been reading some better reviews recently for dining on Anthem! I know before service was poor (changing the method has nothing to do with food, so they can't say that.)

 

I hate to break it to them, but the only way to make it better is hire more staff for the dining rooms! These bigger ships need more staff to accommodate all of the passengers. Same thing on Oasis...

 

I'm actually looking forward to a smaller class ship next year where hopefully the MDR service is what I knew it to be years ago!

[CruisingChick]

The only thing about DD I'm not keen on is this pre booking - I may do this for the speciality paid for restaurants I really want to try - like Wonderland, but if for the free restaurants if we just turn up will we have to wait for a long time to be seated outside of peak hours - anyone tried that?

 

How easy is it to book once on board if you are flexible with seating times?

 

 

Very easy to book onboard you can do it from the Royal IQ app or just use your stateroom TV.

 

From what we saw on our Anthem cruise March 7-19 if you want to eat after 7:45 PM you should not have aproblem getting in. Most of the restaurants were only a 1/2 to a 3/4 full and our reservations were for 7:45 PM. Grande was the busiest, so you might want to make reservations for that one.

[Brocktoon623]

What are the main complaints with the current choice/classic combo, that RCL is trying to address with changing to traditional/MTD?

 

 

I don't know how widespread it is, but I read reviews mentioning that the wait staff is focusing on the classic passengers, while the service is slow to non existent for the choice folks. Could the issue be that the food is prepped and served all at once banquet style to meet the need of the classic seating times ... but the various dynamic plating and serving times are throwing things out of whack?

 

If that's the case, then it should be a staffing and prep issue to solve and will still not address the capacity issue. Of course if the 4 dining rooms share 2 kitchen / prep areas, maybe the 2 x 2 plan could help things