Traditional Dining Gone - Very Disappointed

Hi Everyone,

Although the new dining options look to be of very high quality, I am very disappointed that there is no transition dining.

We cruise Royal Caribbean for the traditional, yet quality and innovative cruising experience. If we wanted freestyle dining where we pick a different restaurant each night with a new waiter or waitress, we would cruise Norwegian.

We like getting to know our waitstaff and others around us at dinner. By no longer offering both options, Royal Caribbean has truly disappointed us.

Hope traditional dining remains on all other ships so we can continue to cruise with Royal Caribbean.

I can somewhat agree with you.

I have nothing against changes if they are interesting and well done, but I think for me at this time of life and after nine cruises that fixed dining schedule fits me the best.

I'm a traditionalist and have enjoyed MTD once. We asked for the same wait staff every night and loved it. What concerns me is having only 4 MDR menus for 19 nights this fall. I was expecting to repeat 8 menus twice, but not 5 times.

I agree. Enjoying traditional dining each evening is the highlight of our cruise experience. We have never tried NCL because of the free style dining. I am very disappointed! Will we have many options if we don't want to spend extra to eat at specialty dining venues? Bummer!!

One of the main reasons that we book traditional dining is that as a couple we like to meet other couples and talk to them each day of the cruise. We can talk about our plans and activities of the days. With this new dining experience there is no way that we can get together with the same couples every day. We lose the chance of making new friends as we've done in the past. We do not want to go back to NCL as we were on the Dawn on our first cruise and we left their freestyle concept behind. We're probably going to cancel our Quantum cruise.

Rich

I am kind of disappointed at this concept on Quantum. Originally had hoped to sail on her, but now I'm not so sure. We sailed Norwegian last year, experienced their freestyle dining, and are now back booked with Royal. And really, I don't understand what is so "new and innovative", it is basically the same as NCL, but with a few more free main dining areas. IMO, bad decision Royal, there could have been a way to meet in the middle with both traditional and this dynamic dining. Yes, the food and dining rooms look very nice and the options are nice, however, we enjoy the same waiters and I feel the personal experience will be lost.

I understand the disappointment. Change is difficult. But with Oasis class we sort of saw this coming.

I'll say it again. I am excited!!! :D

Deeply depressed over the loss of the traditional MDR experience. We like set dining times, assigned tablemates and formal nights. Really, this is my worst nightmare, and we will likely be changing our Quantum reservation to a more traditional cruising experience. In fact, if I didn't already have RCI next cruise certificates, we would just move over to Princess and Celebrity exclusively. RCI has lost its appeal to me.

I've always been a traditional diner, but after sailing on Celebrity in Aqua Class (dining at Blu) last year we saw the virtues of anytime dining. I just went through all of the menus for the new Quantum Class restaurants and I am thrilled, I LOVE the new concept.

One of the main reasons that we book traditional dining is that as a couple we like to meet other couples and talk to them each day of the cruise. We can talk about our plans and activities of the days. With this new dining experience there is no way that we can get together with the same couples every day. We lose the chance of making new friends as we've done in the past. We do not want to go back to NCL as we were on the Dawn on our first cruise and we left their freestyle concept behind. We're probably going to cancel our Quantum cruise.

Rich

And yet RCCL is calling this their revolutionary dining concept, when in fact this is NCL's concept. The free style dining is the only thing that I do not like about NCL so I am not liking this either.

I am kind of disappointed at this concept on Quantum. Originally had hoped to sail on her, but now I'm not so sure. We sailed Norwegian last year, experienced their freestyle dining, and are now back booked with Royal. And really, I don't understand what is so "new and innovative", it is basically the same as NCL, but with a few more free main dining areas. IMO, bad decision Royal, there could have been a way to meet in the middle with both traditional and this dynamic dining. Yes, the food and dining rooms look very nice and the options are nice, however, we enjoy the same waiters and I feel the personal experience will be lost.

I would have been much happier if they had 3 traditional restaurants and rotated them with completely different menues for each as on Disney, and left the remaining restaurants for the dynamic (free style) dining.

They should have the waitstaff rotate to stay with you, similar to the DIsney model, 3 restaurants with 3 set menus but set dining times and set waitstaff and tablemates, still get the experience of the traditional dining room with the experience of new surroundings and menus.

Most of the time over the last few years, when I eat in the MDR it's half empty, so this change isn't exactly a surprise to me. I myself only go to the MDR maybe 2 or 3 times on a 7 day cruise, people just aren't using it the way they used to. Probably because in the past you didn't have the restaurant choices you have on today's ships. I still like dining with friends and family every night, the way I see this change, it gives everyone more options and variety. If you don't like it, you don't have to eat in a different restaurant and get served by a different staff every night. If you like a certain wait staff, then eat at that restaurant and request them each night. It's an easy thing to do. I've done it many times when using MTD.

The way I see this change, it give everyone more choices and variety, it's as simple as that to me. If "traditional dining" to you means you eat at the same place with the same staff each night, you can still do that too.

I would have been much happier if they had 3 traditional restaurants and rotated them with completely different menues for each as on Disney, and left the remaining restaurants for the dynamic (free style) dining.

Agreed! Would have been a little different, but still the traditional and personal experience. Its not like Royal thought of something completely new; its NCL's concept, so really they could of easily just used disney's concept.

Agreed! Would have been a little different, but still the traditional and personal experience. Its not like Royal thought of something completely new; its NCL's concept, so really they could of easily just used disney's concept.

I guess since they are already using Disney's virtual concept, they thought they should use NCL for dining. LOL

Never cared for traditional dining...mainly because of the set times.....6:00 is too early and 8-8:30 is too late. We actually chose Princess for our first cruise because at the time it was only them and NCL that had "anytime dining" available. Now every line has some form of it. There is also more complains about how pax who have traditional seating are left alone at larger tables. Seems like some pax show up first and second night and never return.

I can understand the disappointment however the rest of Royal's fleet has the traditional dining concept so it is not totally gone just not available on their two latest new builds.

Have only been to a MDR twice in the last five years. During that time I have taken a total of 12 cruises. Not a fan. This move doesn't surprise me.

Haven't read everything yet but does this mean everyone must prepay gratuities now when booking?

Haven't read everything yet but does this mean everyone must prepay gratuities now when booking?

I haven't seen that in any of the materials I've read, so I don't think it's been confirmed yet. It is a very good question to ask in the coming days.

I didn't vote, as we do prefer Traditional dining, but this new concept seems like fun and a great change of pace. If we want traditional, we will cruise Celebrity! Oceania and Azamara have open seating and it's fine.

Enjoy!

Kel:)

One of the first thoughts I had....my husband and I can never agree on where to go for dinner on a *normal* night out. Cruising on Quantum, that's going to be every night! Oh dear lol.

Haven't read everything yet but does this mean everyone must prepay gratuities now when booking?

When I booked my Feb. 2015 Quantum cruise this past Monday, my travel agent said you have to prepay gratuities on this ship.

When I booked my Feb. 2015 Quantum cruise this past Monday, my travel agent said you have to prepay gratuities on this ship.

We had to prepay as well; I'm thinking 100% of the people booking will have to prepay with this new dining setup.

Wish I knew what everybody is talking about. How about a link to something?

Thanks.

Kathy

Most of the time over the last few years, when I eat in the MDR it's half empty, so this change isn't exactly a surprise to me. I myself only go to the MDR maybe 2 or 3 times on a 7 day cruise, people just aren't using it the way they used to. Probably because in the past you didn't have the restaurant choices you have on today's ships. I still like dining with friends and family every night, the way I see this change, it gives everyone more options and variety. If you don't like it, you don't have to eat in a different restaurant and get served by a different staff every night. If you like a certain wait staff, then eat at that restaurant and request them each night. It's an easy thing to do. I've done it many times when using MTD.

 

The way I see this change, it give everyone more choices and variety, it's as simple as that to me. If "traditional dining" to you means you eat at the same place with the same staff each night, you can still do that too.

You can't do this because then you'd be stuck with the same exact menu each night. Although we dislike Freestyle Dining on NCL, at least you can have the same staff while being able to have a different menu. Now it's difficult to do this given the permanency of the menu per restaurant. So this is worse than NCL, and we stopped cruising NCL because of the Freestyle and traditional dining and great entertainment was one of many reasons we've stuck with RCCL.