Anthem of the Seas MTD and Windjammer - Problems

Just off Anthem and as a Diamond Plus we know the high standards of RCCL. The MTD on Anthem is well below what we all expect and have experienced in the past. With reservations at 6pm, every night when we arrived at the check-in desk on the first 2 nights the line as 20-30 deep. When we got to the sign-in desk it took 20-25 minutes to get us a table - and this is with a reservation. On other recent sailings (Harmony, Allure, Oasis, etc) they had a table ready and we were seated in minutes. Also, on those ships we were at the same table each night and therefore after the 2nd night the receptionist just gave us a head-nod and we headed right for the table. That is a Wow.

Not Anthem. When arriving at check-in the staff starting scrambling on their radios as if they did not know we were even coming. First night it took them 22 minutes to just find us a table. The next morning I met with the Head of Dining Services and a Head Waiter and was assured that this would not happen -- "Please come back tonight to see improvement." But sadly, no better. On the second night it took them again 18 minutes to find us a table - which happened to be table for 8 - not 6. OK we can live with that but again it was like - Surprise! - we're here. Actually amusing to watch the staff on the radios talking into their lapels - "Alert - Alert try and find a table for these guests". Looked like the Secret Service.

In addition, the service is very slow. 15 minutes to take your orders, 10 minutes until appetizers, with dirty plates while we wait for main course which took 16 minutes. Assistant waiter disappeared and had to flag down help to get water and tea re-filled.

Our group, for the 1st time on any cruise, decided to go to the Windjammer for dinner for the rest of the cruise until lobster night. Fantastic! Great food, great seating. (Note: Tables are left dirty for much longer periods during every meal - more on this later).

Going back for lobster night was better - but because I was given a business card by a headwaiter when we arrived they called him to the front immediately upon our arrival - we were accommodated personally. During dinner we had 3 head waiters stop to ask how was our experience. (I was on their radar) As always I told them we are all big RCCL fans and we only brought our concerns to their attention so that they can improve as I know they want.

Two headwaiters to told me privately that they feel that the dining room set-up, because of the 4 different venues (from the Dynamic Dining experiment), have made coordinating reservations and tables very difficult. They also said they are understaffed and the experience level is in the dining department is about 5 years vs.15-20 years on many other RCCL ships. The under-staffing in the Windjammer is very apparent when it comes to the long, long time to clear the tables - I would say they are least 10-20 waiters short every seating.

Important!!! Everyone on the staff with whom I spoke was very, very receptive to our criticisms. They want it to be better and wanted to hear our concerns. Kudo's! The staff wants our feed back and they told us so at every opportunity. The staff wants to be able to go back to management with our concerns because they see it and live it everyday.

Always nice too see a post that makes us appreciate giving up MTD a few years ago.:p

Kinda sad if one feels the need to time everything to the minute. Seems like a nice way to ruin vacation time.

We were on the November 27 cruise when dynamic dining switch to traditional and it was so smooth seamless we always had the same staff same table we prefer a table for two 830 seating and everybody seem to be very relieved that dynamic dining was no longer. We have anthem booked for a back to back starting December 2 and we can't wait . we have seen improvements from our first and second anthem cruise. We are loyal to royal and cruise number three and four should be just as good as anthem cruise number one and two. We are diamond and will be diamond plus on our second leg of our B to B. Any time we have had any issues that required staff attention was always handled courteously, professionally, and respect fully. But I do agree they need more staff. Good seas and good cruising to everybody

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

watson50---I am someone who never experienced Dynamic Dining, and I really want to know what was the main problem that everyone had with it? I have cruised NCL with their Freestyle Cruising, where we just showed up at hostess desk, requested a table, and was seated---just like at any restaurant back home. Isn't that what Dynamic Dining was supposed to be?

Sent from my iPad using Forums

watson50---I am someone who never experienced Dynamic Dining, and I really want to know what was the main problem that everyone had with it? I have cruised NCL with their Freestyle Cruising, where we just showed up at hostess desk, requested a table, and was seated---just like at any restaurant back home. Isn't that what Dynamic Dining was supposed to be?

Dynamic Dining added the option to choose among 4 restaurants with different menus.

Hi grandma nurse this is Watson 50 dynamic dynamic dining was good for a lot of people because of the four distinct and truly different style restaurants. We really had no problem with it but we didn't care for the rotation every night. We thought the food was pretty good but we are traditionalists we prefer late seating table for two. We always did have the same wait staff who were wonderful but people in the majority it seems didn't care for dynamic dining. I guess they were more main dining room and my time dining fans out there than Royal anticipated. When they did switch over we were on that cruise and it was a very pleasant surprise to hear the wait staff actually sounded relieved. We all kind of thought they didn't like rotating either. The menu changed to the same thing in every different style restaurant of the four that they offered for dynamic dining. So we're just kind of standardized the Royal Caribbean dining experience. I guess they considered it a flop. We have cruised royal many times before and dynamic dining just didn't do it for us. Happy Steph happy passengers that seem to be the theme upon the switch. I hope this helped. Bye for now Watson 50.

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Watson 50 here again please excuse my typo I'm using the dictator and I guess it doesn't understand me as well. New fangled blankety,blankety gadgets

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

We sailed anthem with dynamic dining in September and with mtd in February. Lines moved much quicker in February. Had same table and waitstaff after second night.

Just got off allure this morning. Lines for mtd was huge night one. Changed waiter and table for night two on. Still long lines to get to podium but once there, we were sent to same table every night. Lobster night was a zoo but other nights were fine.

Anthem is just different and hard for some traditionalists to adapt to. We did not love anthem but after coming off allure today, there are some anthem features l missed on allure.

Last year's cruise on the Anthem we had dynamic dining, this year, it was switched to MTD. Here is what I don't get. If you have a reservation you should be seated fairly quickly, doesn't usually happen. Second thing, if you like a certain table, have a reservation rarely can you get that table and then you see it remains empty the entire time you are dining. I brought this up to different head waiters and never did get an answer! Even though we had the business card of one of the head waiters, meant nothing. Oh well, it's how it's done. In no way spoiled our cruise but maybe if enough people complain the glitch will be fixed, hopefully by our cruise next year!

Marg

When we did the dynamic dining classic, it ran smooth as butter! Same wait staff, easy to find tables. Really it was the best of both worlds. I'll miss the different styles of menus. But I could see it being an issue doing it for all the passengers, as there clearly isn't enough room for everyone. Maybe they'll figure out a way to carve more space out for the dining rooms come dry dock time.

With reservations at 6pm, every night when we arrived at the check-in desk on the first 2 nights the line as 20-30 deep.

Curious, did you try getting traditional early dining? One of the things that may have had an influence on wait times is the size of the table.

Curious, did you try getting traditional early dining? One of the things that may have had an influence on wait times is the size of the table.

No - 5:30pm is too early and we wanted to have option with our MTD reservations to adjust times as we did.

Always nice too see a post that makes us appreciate giving up MTD a few years ago.:p

 

Kinda sad if one feels the need to time everything to the minute. Seems like a nice way to ruin vacation time.

Please understand that this was the 1st time, after great experiences with MTD on many other cruises, that we saw such disorganization. I am not concerned so much about the time delays but the lack of planning on the part of the MTD system on Anthem. We are very "go with the flow" cruisers and do not "time everything to the minute" as you suggest.

Always nice too see a post that makes us appreciate giving up MTD a few years ago.:p

 

Kinda sad if one feels the need to time everything to the minute. Seems like a nice way to ruin vacation time.

Seriously! You are on vacation. Why the rush? OMG, I'm looking forward to getting away from all the hustle and bustle. If my worst problem of the day is waiting for a dinner table for 20 minutes, god bless!

Just off Anthem and as a Diamond Plus we know the high standards of RCCL. The MTD on Anthem is well below what we all expect and have experienced in the past. With reservations at 6pm, every night when we arrived at the check-in desk on the first 2 nights the line as 20-30 deep. When we got to the sign-in desk it took 20-25 minutes to get us a table - and this is with a reservation. On other recent sailings (Harmony, Allure, Oasis, etc) they had a table ready and we were seated in minutes. Also, on those ships we were at the same table each night and therefore after the 2nd night the receptionist just gave us a head-nod and we headed right for the table. That is a Wow.

 

Not Anthem. When arriving at check-in the staff starting scrambling on their radios as if they did not know we were even coming. First night it took them 22 minutes to just find us a table. The next morning I met with the Head of Dining Services and a Head Waiter and was assured that this would not happen -- "Please come back tonight to see improvement." But sadly, no better. On the second night it took them again 18 minutes to find us a table - which happened to be table for 8 - not 6. OK we can live with that but again it was like - Surprise! - we're here. Actually amusing to watch the staff on the radios talking into their lapels - "Alert - Alert try and find a table for these guests". Looked like the Secret Service.

 

In addition, the service is very slow. 15 minutes to take your orders, 10 minutes until appetizers, with dirty plates while we wait for main course which took 16 minutes. Assistant waiter disappeared and had to flag down help to get water and tea re-filled.

 

Our group, for the 1st time on any cruise, decided to go to the Windjammer for dinner for the rest of the cruise until lobster night. Fantastic! Great food, great seating. (Note: Tables are left dirty for much longer periods during every meal - more on this later).

 

Going back for lobster night was better - but because I was given a business card by a headwaiter when we arrived they called him to the front immediately upon our arrival - we were accommodated personally. During dinner we had 3 head waiters stop to ask how was our experience. (I was on their radar) As always I told them we are all big RCCL fans and we only brought our concerns to their attention so that they can improve as I know they want.

 

Two headwaiters to told me privately that they feel that the dining room set-up, because of the 4 different venues (from the Dynamic Dining experiment), have made coordinating reservations and tables very difficult. They also said they are understaffed and the experience level is in the dining department is about 5 years vs.15-20 years on many other RCCL ships. The under-staffing in the Windjammer is very apparent when it comes to the long, long time to clear the tables - I would say they are least 10-20 waiters short every seating.

 

Important!!! Everyone on the staff with whom I spoke was very, very receptive to our criticisms. They want it to be better and wanted to hear our concerns. Kudo's! The staff wants our feed back and they told us so at every opportunity. The staff wants to be able to go back to management with our concerns because they see it and live it everyday.

We had reservations for each night at 6:30pm on our Anthem cruise in April. We were a large party (16). The waiter told us to sit at the same table each night, so we bypassed the line and just walked in to our table each night at 6:30.

I'm guessing we were allowed to do that because we were a large party, but it might be worth it for future cruisers (who have a reservation for the same time each night) to ask if they should just sit at the same table each night. If the waiter/head waiter says it's ok, you could bypass the long check in line.

We had reservations for each night at 6:30pm on our Anthem cruise in April. We were a large party (16). The waiter told us to sit at the same table each night, so we bypassed the line and just walked in to our table each night at 6:30.

 

I'm guessing we were allowed to do that because we were a large party, but it might be worth it for future cruisers (who have a reservation for the same time each night) to ask if they should just sit at the same table each night. If the waiter/head waiter says it's ok, you could bypass the long check in line.

As I already posted we tried to get the same table every night, forget it, also as I said, the table we wanted usually remained vacant the entire time we were dining. Gave up! Did not ruin our wonderful cruise one bit. Just could not understand why such a simple request couldn't be honored when you have reservations

Marg

We were on the same sailing and had pretty good results with our reservations and being seated immediately. Now we did not ask for the same table, we took whatever they would give us.

We found it odd that some tables had a waiter and assistant - others only a waiter. This definitely played a hug factor in the pacing and quality of your service.

That said - I tried Windjammer for dinner - never again... :(

Hello everyone. One thing we have always done is late traditional seating at 8:30 PM. But right before or after lifeboat drill I always go to the maître d' and confirm our table for two for the entire time we are cruising. It has always worked out very well for us. Should give it a try.Do the walk-through with the maître d' before sail away and it usually works 99% of the time good luck and safe cruising .

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

I have sailed on Quantum 3 times and Anthem 9 times. I must just be very lucky, as I've nver had to wait for a table. When they had true Dynamic Dining where you made a reservation for each night, not the rotation, I never had any of the problems that people complained about. I never did the rotational, so I can't comment. Now I book MTD with reservations between 6:30 and 7:30 and have never waited more than 10 minutes, and that was only once. Usually we are seated withing 5 minutes. I have aslo changed reservation times last minute, also without a problem. We never had a group more than 4, so maybe that's where sometimes there could be a problem.

I hope my luck continues in 12 days.

Unless there is enough waitstaff, you will not get prompt service...and that goes for ANY eating venue, anywhere. If they are short-staffed, there is simply no way to make dinner service "flow".

I get the flexibility but think you're rolling the dice with large parties and MTD.

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

We had reservations for each night at 6:30pm on our Anthem cruise in April. We were a large party (16). The waiter told us to sit at the same table each night, so we bypassed the line and just walked in to our table each night at 6:30.

 

I'm guessing we were allowed to do that because we were a large party, but it might be worth it for future cruisers (who have a reservation for the same time each night) to ask if they should just sit at the same table each night. If the waiter/head waiter says it's ok, you could bypass the long check in line.

Did all 16 people sit at one table?

OP mentioned that the buffet had a long time clearing tables. ive never been on anthem but the Breakaway excels at clearing the tables. they do constant sweeps and are very quick to clean the tables. i was pretty impressed but id never leave my partially eaten food to get a drink because i have a feeling it would be taken away by the time i got back

Yes, Dynamic Dining was like Norwegian's Freestyle dining, which I had come to love. Go eat when you feel like it.

We were a party of two on Anthem on two cruises and we really didn't have a long wait for dinner either at the check-in desk or for our food, BUT also we usually went around 6 or 6:30. Lines got longer after that.

I'm not a cheerleader for any cruise line in particular (they all have their excel areas and ways they can improve) but it seems to me that if RC is cutting wait staff, everyone will be affected.

I think Anthem's Windjammer is by far better than Allure or Explorer's layouts.