Anthem of the Seas. UK season....no MDR and no Club Dining! What will Brits ...

[kevinyork]

In case people have not seen the news release from RCI today, Anthem of the Seas whos maiden season consists of sailings from Southampton next year, will have no MDR. Instead there will be a total of 18 eateries, 6 of which are included in the cruise fare. All are flexible dining with a state of the art booking system. Only one if them is formal, in fact its apparently formal every evening, but no formality anywhere else.

 

Its being discussed at length on the RCI boards but I wondered how this is going to go down with British cruisers more used to the P&O or Fred offering? Whilst they may attract a new market, will it alienate Brit cruisers?

 

Anthem goes up against Britannia next year from Southampton and this change certainly presents a different choice.

 

More info incl menus here:

 

http://www.royalcaribbean.com/quantumoftheseas/dining/restaurants/?wuc=USA

 

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Edited March 27, 2014 by kevinyork

[Certa_Cito]

Looks great to me. Why would it alienate Brits? This compared to boring English food served on P&O gets my vote, thanks for sharing.....;)

[Presto2]

Hate the design of the ship and this does it no favours.

 

We sailed with IOS for the first time in October and noticed that everyone seemed to join in with the formal night (and enjoy it) more so than on Celebrity.

 

Wouldn't touch it with a barge pole - but horses for courses and some will love it. Not us - just booked Britannia and we are now even more convinced that we've made the right choice.

Edited March 27, 2014 by Presto2

[Thejuggler]

Subject to seeing the menus it sounds a brilliant concept to me.

 

Celebrity had a huge range of different foods in the buffet at the stations. Indian, Chinese, Mexican, carvery, pasta, pizza, fish and chips, but it was always a cafe atmosphere and in the evening populated by those who didn't believe in dressing up. To have this food available in different restaurants is something which would appeal to us.

[kevinyork]

Subject to seeing the menus it sounds a brilliant concept to me.

 

 

 

Celebrity had a huge range of different foods in the buffet at the stations. Indian, Chinese, Mexican, carvery, pasta, pizza, fish and chips, but it was always a cafe atmosphere and in the evening populated by those who didn't believe in dressing up. To have this food available in different restaurants is something which would appeal to us.

 

 

If you click on the link, you can click on each restaurant and view the menu.

 

 

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[tartanexile81]

We sailed on IOTS for the first time last year and we didn't like it at all. We just didn't feel we met people and chatted to them in the same way as we do on P&O cruises and for which is one of the best things about cruising. Certainly it was in the Autumn so not getting out on deck might have made a difference but we just felt the whole thing was too bitty and so crowded with too much around the Royal Promenade. We love larger ships and we're looking forward to Britannia and Ruby Princess later this year but AOTS sounds like it lacks a 'heart' even more than Independence, with too many different eateries (and I never thought I'd think that) so it's not for us.

Edited March 27, 2014 by tartanexile81

[Thejuggler]

If you click on the link, you can click on each restaurant and view the menu.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

 

Having now looked I am even more convinced its an excellent idea on the very large ships.

[louhun88]

My last two cruises have been RCI but after a very disappointing cruise onboard adventure of the seas last year (worst food we've had on a cruise and ridiculously expensive drinks and shuttle buses!!) we decided to try the new Britannia next year instead :)

 

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[terrierjohn]

Some people will like the idea of less formality, others won't; however I suspect the pricing of the cruises will be more likely to influence potential passengers, and in this Britannia will win the launch hands down. Anthems launch has been outrageously overpriced by RCI, and I suspect they will need to make substantial reductions nearer to cruise date in order to fill this ship.

[Britboys]

Not for me at all - I am in the "why on earth would you want bumper cars and a strange pod-thing on a cruise ship" :). I also cruise solo much of the time and like the traditional club dining meeting up with the same people each night. Freedom or any-time dining on its own would be enough to put me off any ship. I am sure however that others will find the concept very attractive.

[scifimonkey]

The interesting thing will be how well the booking system works. It also means that it will be imperative to make reservations or you could find yourself being forced to scour the ship for a restaurant with space or stand in line for the most popular. To ensure that everyone has a reasonable freedom of choice they would need to dramatically increase the number of covers available compared to the number of passengers. That takes up space and therefore they are unlikely to do it.

In principal it sounds great but if you give everyone a free choice of time and location there is always a danger that a disproportionate number will want the same time and the same location.

I will certainly wait at least a season before booking to observe how well it works and in the meantime book a ship where I can choose freedom dining secure in the knowledge that I will not be competing for location or time of dining with more than a third of the passengers.

[Denarius]

Apart from some reservations about the ability/need to book tables in all restaurants (how will it work in practice, Celebrity get around it by putting a limit on the number of tables that can be booked in advance leaving some capacity for impromptu diners, will RCI?) it all seems good to me. I have long believed that in the era of multiple choices Club dining would eventually be discontinued; it seems wasteful of resources to leave tables empty, reserved for diners who have chosen to dine elsewhere. It is also logical to discontinue mandatory Black Tie evenings in favour of restricting this code to certain restaurants, leaving those who wish to dress formally able to do so in the company of like minded people and those who do not to dine elsewhere; this is effectively the case at present.

[pete14]

Apart from some reservations about the ability/need to book tables in all restaurants (how will it work in practice, Celebrity get around it by putting a limit on the number of tables that can be booked in advance leaving some capacity for impromptu diners, will RCI?) it all seems good to me. I have long believed that in the era of multiple choices Club dining would eventually be discontinued; it seems wasteful of resources to leave tables empty, reserved for diners who have chosen to dine elsewhere. It is also logical to discontinue mandatory Black Tie evenings in favour of restricting this code to certain restaurants, leaving those who wish to dress formally able to do so in the company of like minded people and those who do not to dine elsewhere; this is effectively the case at present.

 

It seems a little silly to radically change a system that does not seem to be broken. Unless this new system is fully thought through, I can see people wandering around looking for a restaurant that has a table, loads of people sitting in bars with pagers waiting for their table to be ready, diners rushed in order to free up their table for somebody else and people having to use restaurants they would not normally want to use because there is nothing else left. All in the pursuit of choice!

 

It may be slightly wasteful to have empty tables in club dining restaurants but in order for this new system to work, there will have to be extra capacity built in which means empty tables. If there are 3000 diners, I guess there must be at least 3500 covers needed across the restaurants as a whole to allow it to offer a realistic choice.

 

I only wear formal dress on cruises. One of the great things about formal nights is that the large majority are dressed in this way. If this becomes a small minority, it won't be long before it disappears completely and take away one of the traditions of cruising.

[jeanlyon]

Yes agree, wouldn't be for me even if I did like the bigger ships, which I don't. We love meeting our tablemates in the evening and the formal nights. We have never bothered with the pay-for restaurants, although we have been to one or two of the themed evenings in the buffets. I imagine the waste of food will be much worse than in the MDRs

[NauticalMiss]

Not for us, I'm afraid. We don't like the bigger ships so would never have considered Anthem anyway. However I do hope that it doesn't take off. The image of families scouring the ship aimlessly seeking somewhere to eat, squabbling over whose turn it is to choose the venue, does not fill me with delight. Sometimes, too much choice is a bad thing. Maybe I'm a simple creature at heart, but when I'm on holiday, the less I have to think about, the better.

[davecttr]

Current dining systems on ships work so why change it?

 

It is all about revenue, with multiple restaurants most of which have a cover charge there is more opportunity to make money. Are there sufficient seats in the 'free' restaurants to feed all the passengers with the equivalent of 2 sittings? If not, they are forcing some people to pay money or go hungry. Are most of those 'free' restaurants 'burger bars' etc etc?

 

I can see a future where passengeres have been eased into paying for ALL the food aboard. The fare won't reduce either. :mad:

[Britboys]

Apart from some reservations about the ability/need to book tables in all restaurants (how will it work in practice, Celebrity get around it by putting a limit on the number of tables that can be booked in advance leaving some capacity for impromptu diners, will RCI?) it all seems good to me. I have long believed that in the era of multiple choices Club dining would eventually be discontinued; it seems wasteful of resources to leave tables empty, reserved for diners who have chosen to dine elsewhere. It is also logical to discontinue mandatory Black Tie evenings in favour of restricting this code to certain restaurants, leaving those who wish to dress formally able to do so in the company of like minded people and those who do not to dine elsewhere; this is effectively the case at present.

 

It may seem logical to you Denarius but not to me. If all cruise lines discontinued traditional 'club' dining and mandatory Formal Evenings, I would stop cruising. Fortunately, I don't think this will happen. I am a 53 year-old who is very happy to wear jeans & a t-shirt down the pub or to the supermarket but I like my cruises ships to have a different atmosphere/ambience to the daily grind.