Dynamic Dining postponed for Oasis & Allure

[OfTheSeasCruiser]

I don't think RCCL is having a good laugh because I think they're too busy straightening up this mess. However, I am having a good laugh if you think someone needs to experience DD when so many people are posting such negative reviews. If someone burns themself touching a fire I don't need to go touch it also to know its hot. It's one thing if everyone was complaining about different things but not in this case they're all mentioning all the various problems DD brings.

 

I agree with you. I don't need to try DD to know that I'm not going to be a fan. We've tried freestyle on NCL and didn't like it. I'm not saying it is a deal maker, but it definitely does not seem that its going to be a positive part of my cruise.

 

Also, if you're like me and can only cruise once a year, I want my cruise to be as perfect as possible. So at this time, I really don't want to try DD.

[SF]

No! We're on Oasis in September. How about 2016?

 

2016 suits me fine as we're on Oasis October 2015. Meanwhile we have nothing to worry about with our upcoming Allure cruise this February.

Edited December 29, 2014 by SF

[LoveyHowell]

No! We're on Oasis in September. How about 2016?

 

I know people sailing for the holidays in 2015 (a year from now) and they are TICKED OFF being in limbo. They figured with 8 months on Oasis they would get it right. If it is three months or less they will bail, and they want to know sooner rather than later so they can book something else before holiday prices increase.

 

It's not really so much to ask what the new anticipated date of roll out is so people with money on the line can decide what they want to do while they've got options.

[SF]

I know people sailing for the holidays in 2015 (a year from now) and they are TICKED OFF being in limbo. They figured with 8 months on Oasis they would get it right. If it is three months or less they will bail, and they want to know sooner rather than later so they can book something else before holiday prices increase.

 

It's not really so much to ask what the new anticipated date of roll out is so people with money on the line can decide what they want to do while they've got options.

 

Agree. :) I said something similar several posts back as we are in the same situation with our Allure cruise. We weren't too keen on having DD for our sailing but like you mentioned we also figured if it came out in March at least there were several months until we sailed. We were hoping things by then would be running smoothly. When you mentioned being in limbo that's exactly how we feel. Our group decided to just wait and see but if nothing is mentioned in a few months we're thinking of canceling as our other options are filling up even though it's not a holiday sailing.

[mechcc]

We have booked the Oasis for Oct 15 & really not excited about Dynamic Dining but figured the bugs would be worked out by the time we sailed & we should try it before we totally rejected cruising with Dynamic Dining. We have done MTD & did not like it. Add that I don't do fish & the menus are so heavy fish that we have considered cancelling this cruise.

 

On the other hand we got a fab price by booking in early May & got the perfect cabin. This will also be our first diamond cruise & looking forward to the new amenities. But if we are going to be on one of the first cruises to try Dynamic Dining, we will save the airfare & cancel our cruise. Not willing to form a personal opinion based on something that is in experiment stage & spend hard earned money on it. JMHO.

[Grandma Petania]

Frankly, I wonder if they'll wind up bagging DD for Oasis & Allure (and any others). If it isn't working out well on Quantum - which was specifically fitted for it - what are the chances that they're going to be able to make it work on the other ships. I would not be the least bit surprised if they wind up rebranding American Icon, The Grande & Silk, all back to three levels of MDR. For our cruise in 2 months, it will seem kind of silly to see that signage & decor in the 3 levels, when all will have the same MDR menus.

[karmacats]

Frankly, I wonder if they'll wind up bagging DD for Oasis & Allure (and any others).

 

I was wondering the same thing. And that got me wondering what they'd do with oasis 3, which supposedly is being built with dynamic dining in mind, like quantum was. It would be a bit strange to have traditional dining on oasis and allure, and dynamic on the new ship of the same class.

 

Some of the quantum threads are reporting that this current quantum cruise finally has assistant waiters, so maybe that will make the service more workable.

[crayon78]

This is not what the RCCI website states. The three inclusive restaurants will have their menus change midweek on a seven day cruise. Therefore, you can dine in those inclusive venues with a different menu each night over six evening meals. Noting, two of those will be in Grande with formal dress code.

 

Maybe on the Oasis, but that is not the case on the Quantum. The menu on every night of our 11 night cruise was exactly the same. We would have a better opinion of Dynamic Dining if there was a midweek change. The same menu for 11 nights was not enough variety for us.

 

If Oasis is indeed doing menu changes midweek, that is something that, as far as I know, they aren't testing on the Quantum and could mean that whenever it gets to Oasis, they have to work out any new kinks that could come with that too.

[twindaddy]

Is it just me or is anyone else breathing a sigh of relief about the "postponement" of DD? We're booked on Oasis, for a 2nd time, in August 2015. When I was informed by my Cruise Planner I was automatically optimistic. The idea of DD accommodating 4000+ passengers seemed an impossible task. Me and my sailing "crew" enjoy the MDR, formal nights, the same waiter, etc. Hopefully DD will be implemented Sept. 2015...

 

It is not just you, I am breathing a huge sigh of relief. When the horrid reviewes from the quantum started rolling in, I looked into switching to another ship or line. Our flights are locked in, but I could not get a decent cruise fare anywhere else, so I was crossing my fingers. I am very happy DD is delayed.

Frankly, I wonder if they'll wind up bagging DD for Oasis & Allure (and any others). If it isn't working out well on Quantum - which was specifically fitted for it - what are the chances that they're going to be able to make it work on the other ships. I would not be the least bit surprised if they wind up rebranding American Icon, The Grande & Silk, all back to three levels of MDR. For our cruise in 2 months, it will seem kind of silly to see that signage & decor in the 3 levels, when all will have the same MDR menus.

 

 

If they ditch DD, they will probably just leave the rooms how they are. Many ships and lines have different dining rooms based on where you are on the ship and whether you are MTD or traditional.

[CptSticky]

No! We're on Oasis in September. How about 2016?

How about 2028. Hopefully I'll be too old to cruise by then. Or at least not remember how cruising used to be.:p

[KJL53]

I am going on Quantum in February and I am looking forward to DD. I am tired of the same old menus in the MDR. I have looked at the menus of the 4 free restaurants and have found 2 to 4 things I would like in each restaurant. With that many choices why would the menus need to be changed.

 

I am so tired of the MDR and the same old food I now only eat in the Windjammer or specialty restaurant.

 

I thinks we just need to give it a chance.

 

I did wait to sail on Quantum for 3 months after she was released. I would not like to try DD until the kinks have been worked out.

[TravelerThom]

I am going on Quantum in February... I would not like to try DD until the kinks have been worked out.

There are some optimists out there who think DD might improve by February, but IMO getting ALL the kinks out by then is REALLY optimistic. Perhaps the best thing about RCI was how smoothly the waiters worked; the worst thing by a wide margin was how screwed up their land based website and computer reservation system was (RCI's agents are noted for wrong answers, which I attribute to lack of accessible proper info on their computers). RCI hasn't been able to fix their land IT in many years, so their bright idea was to move this problem onto their ships. Do you really expect them to fix this by February?:confused:

 

Thom

[poncho1973]

Sorry not at all premature. The vast majority of DD reviews are extremely negative. The problems arise from inherent problems with the concept not issues that can be tweaked.

 

Hopefully, RCL will send DD the way of the blimp on Oasis and both will disappear never to be heard from again.

 

How many people on an average cruise are from CC?

 

You can't always extrapolate global feelings from a small test group.

 

Sometimes it's the nature of the crowd:

"Everyone I spoke to in the Coca-Cola convention disliked Pepsi! Thus everyone in the world dislikes Pepsi!"

Duh.

 

And sometimes the sample size is just too small:

"There were 6,000 people on the cruise and I talked to 2% of them on an online message board. Of that 2%, at least 2/3 of them hated it!"

That's like 75 people out of 6,000.

 

And sometimes, whether the person REALLY admits it or not, the sample pool is extremely biased:

"I was totally standing in line to complain about this and 3 other families in the same complaint line had the exact same complaint!! We're were talking and comparing our complaints and it was awesome. My mom also says that I'm a good person!"

This isn't admitted to very often.

[American Bear]

Well, I would just point out that I don't have to give birth to a baby to know it hurts!:eek::D

 

Some think a little pain is worth it!

Maybe Dynamic Dining after its rolled out will be good!

But we'll never know if its not tried!

[hummy0605]

Just spoken with a Travel Agent in the UK who said they can still book cruises from April 8th onwards with the option for Dynamic Dining.

 

Prior to April 8th they say the system is showing traditional dining. After the April 8th sailing its showing Dynamic Dining when booking.

 

We booked or august sailing on the allure back in feb 2014 and had late traditional. Friends booked on in april and we linked all our bookings. All have only ever shown as traditional. This is what we wanted so glad dd is postponed. Not saying we would never try it but i plan our ship, excursions etc and like knowing we have our time for dining and if we want to use specialty restaurants thats fine. I don't want to spend months before having to get our party together to try to book dd and show times etc. was seriously considering changing allure but really want to experience the ship so call me a fuddy duddy but i am glad for traditional dining and 2 formal nights

[hummy0605]

The RCI website shows TD and MTD for cruises departing on or before 7 March and DD for cruises departing 14 March and beyond. I guess 14 March maybe "later this year" and 7 March is not.

 

Ours has always said traditional 8.30 even when dd was meant to be rolled out

[LuCruise]

I don't want to spend months before having to get our party together to try to book dd and show times etc.

 

But don't you still have to do this with traditional dining and My Time...or at least on ships like Allure and Oasis...since the shows are not always at say 8pm (or vice versa for late dining)? I noticed that the shows are at different times ranging from like 5pm to 11:30pm and these have to be booked.

Edited December 29, 2014 by LuCruise

[hummy0605]

But don't you still have to do this with traditional dining and My Time...or at least on ships like Allure and Oasis...since the shows are not always at say 8pm (or vice versa for late dining)? I noticed that the shows are at different times ranging from like 5pm to 11:30pm and these have to be booked.

 

Our booking won't let us prebook shows yet but would have thought if they have early and late traditional at least we would be able to get in at some point

[Haber]

We will be on the Oasis in February and booked last July. The ship was to have early and late traditional dining and MTD in the dining room. It was scheduled to be remodeled for DD at that time, but in February, we would still have traditional dining.

 

From the start, we were told early traditional dining was full and were put on a waiting list and put into MTD. My brother booked at the same time and he was not put on a waiting list and MTD was his only choice. We were diamond and he was platinum status. We were eventually given early traditional dining, but he was not though our reservations were linked. In calling about this, both my brother and I were told that there was a long wait list for both early and late dining and the dining room was closed at both times.

 

There has to be a reduction in seats available.

 

I don't think it's a reduction in seats so much as what amounts to a strong vote against MTD. If the Oasis has one level of the MDR dedicated to MTD and the other two traditional, they need 1/3 of passengers to book MTD for everyone to get what they want. If 7 months out, when there were still plenty of rooms left, traditional dining was completely full already, that must mean that practically every passenger who booked before you must have booked traditional dining.

 

So...knowing these numbers, why would Royal think that DD is exactly what customers are looking for to enhance their cruise experience?

[LMaxwell]

So...knowing these numbers, why would Royal think that DD is exactly what customers are looking for to enhance their cruise experience?

 

DD is cheaper for the cruise line, most likely. DD more closely represents family resorts and vacations that non-cruisers take. Never read that DD was supposed to enhance the cruise experience for seasoned cruisers.

 

DD is designed to appeal to those that are comparing to a Disney World vacation, not designed to appeal to those who are seasoned cruisers. I've been to Disney a few times; why don't I return more often? Because I don't like waiting in a line for every.single.thing.

[steamboats]

This is not what the RCCI website states. The three inclusive restaurants will have their menus change midweek on a seven day cruise. Therefore, you can dine in those inclusive venues with a different menu each night over six evening meals. Noting, two of those will be in Grande with formal dress code.

 

Haven´t found this on the RCI website. Maybe you an provide a link.

 

But fact is that on Quantum the menu doesn´t change. And the VP Food & Beverage told us that they won´t change the menu on a 7 night cruise but they are thinking about it for longer cruises.

 

steamboats

[jticarruthers]

I believe the menu changing was mentioned in connection with dining on the Allure/Oasis since they were to have one less restaurant than Quantum.

[LuCruise]

Haven´t found this on the RCI website. Maybe you an provide a link.

 

But fact is that on Quantum the menu doesn´t change. And the VP Food & Beverage told us that they won´t change the menu on a 7 night cruise but they are thinking about it for longer cruises.

 

steamboats

 

When I spoke with an RCL representative, he said the menu would be the same all week on the Allure. But who knows...another representative may have said that it would change if they are still working out the details.

[1ParticularHbr]

How many people on an average cruise are from CC?

 

You can't always extrapolate global feelings from a small test group.

 

Exactly! At a past Meet & Mingle someone asked the host what % of cruisers are cruise critic members. He estimated it no higher than 2%. Of course, there's no way to tell for sure but if most active CC members register for M&M, that's a very small % on any given cruise. The biggest M&M I went to was on Allure, and I think we had just over 100 people sign up. 100 out of 5000+ cruisers is just that and, as much as we'd hate to admit it, Royal probably considers us statistically insignificant.

[TravelerThom]

Exactly! At a past Meet & Mingle someone asked the host what % of cruisers are cruise critic members. He estimated it no higher than 2%. Of course, there's no way to tell for sure but if most active CC members register for M&M, that's a very small % on any given cruise. The biggest M&M I went to was on Allure, and I think we had just over 100 people sign up. 100 out of 5000+ cruisers is just that and, as much as we'd hate to admit it, Royal probably considers us statistically insignificant.

I have had M&M groups as large as 400 on Freedom class TAs. That is still only about 10%, and there were at least twice that amount of Diamonds on board (not a direct correlation between D and M&M, but both represent experienced cruisers). We may be a small group, but we try to make up for it by being loud and cantankerous.:p

 

Thom