Dynamic Dining is "Future of Cruising," Says Royal Caribbean CEO

[LauraS]

Check out the latest Royal Caribbean News from Cruise Critic:

 

Dynamic Dining is "Future of Cruising," Says Royal Caribbean CEO

[Doc2725]

It's the future of cruising, and here to stay....until it's not.

 

Profit drives industry, especially the cruise ship industry. If people keep complaining about Dynamic Dining, and if RCI keeps doing a poor job with it, you will start to see booking drop. If this turns out to be significant, you will see them go back to the traditional dining model.

[mcatmcat]

"“We are seeing new to cruise customers who love the idea, and this is the way cruising is changing.”

 

In other words, we want to attract new cruise costumes. I'm so glad to like royal but not really loyal to them

[ladylemondrop]

I am just off Anthem, and attended a press briefing with the CEO's and they said they have introduced traditional dining times, and set table, and waiters for those who prefer the 'old way' heres the twist (which I love) - you will rotate around the four dining rooms allocated to dynamic - Grande, Silk, Icon and Chic.

 

I dined in Chic, it was a beautiful room, so elegant, with amazing table ware, and fabulous food.

 

I think they have a great new concept to be honest.

[Polarbear Pa]

Was on QOS hated the DD concept. If this is the way they are going for all ships then I guess its time to go elsewhere.

[Maraprince]

"“We are seeing new to cruise customers who love the idea, and this is the way cruising is changing.”

 

In other words, we want to attract new cruise costumes. I'm so glad to like royal but not really loyal to them

 

 

 

 

Royal "loves" the first time/new cruisers! Why? They have nothing to compare it with.:(

 

 

MARAPRINCE

[SherriZ366]

I am just off Anthem, and attended a press briefing with the CEO's and they said they have introduced traditional dining times, and set table, and waiters for those who prefer the 'old way' heres the twist (which I love) - you will rotate around the four dining rooms allocated to dynamic - Grande, Silk, Icon and Chic.

 

I dined in Chic, it was a beautiful room, so elegant, with amazing table ware, and fabulous food.

 

I think they have a great new concept to be honest.

Sounds like they are still keeping the Classic Option for DD, which I love too. That is what the rotation style dining is called.

[John Reid]

And Dippin' Dots was the future of ice cream!

[Missus Makkem]

As others have stated no more Dynamic dining on Anthem but now called Classic dining with 2 sittings and a rotation of complimentary dining venues.

Worked well for us.

Food was great.

[Spurschick]

As others have stated no more Dynamic dining on Anthem but now called Classic dining with 2 sittings and a rotation of complimentary dining venues.

Worked well for us.

Food was great.

 

:confused: I thought DD still an option but you had a choice of DD choice or DD classic

 

http://www.royalcaribbean.com/anthemoftheseas/dining/restaurants/

 

Welcome to Dynamic Dining — a world of culinary exploration onboard Royal Caribbean®. Dynamic Dining is a new take on the main dining room, reimagined to give you a culinary experience at sea as vast, varied and eye-opening as dining in the world’s most cosmopolitan cities. Discover the culinary curiosities of Wonderland Imaginative Cuisine. Savor the handcrafted fare and craft beers of Michael’s Genuine® Pub. Experience it all with our signature personal service as we elevate the concept of dining at sea. When Anthem launches this April, you can choose one of two different ways to experience Dynamic Dining.

 

Dynamic Dining Choice gives you the freedom to pick and choose your restaurants and dining times each day and night. Our unique venues feature menus that change throughout the cruise, with guest favorites and new specialty dishes to ensure everyone at the table will find something they love.

 

Dynamic Dining Classic is a new option for those who prefer the traditional main dining style with the same dining time each night, with the same wait staff and dining companions throughout the cruise. Dynamic Dining Classic is available on a first come, first serve basis.

Edited April 23, 2015 by Spurschick

[SaintL]

Couldn't agree more, send those loyal customers that probably don't spend a dime at the alternative restaurants and only care about having some sort of diamond status that gives them nothing really.

 

NCL is making a killing, royal is basically going freestyle dining and good for them, carnival is adding more restaurants too and I'm sure going the same route.

 

No one wants to sit in the same restaurant every night, I can care less if the waiter knows me, I want to eat different foods in different places.

 

Glad to see the old days of cruising going away, this crowd can go to Holland I think that's the only ones left

Edited April 23, 2015 by SaintL

[SaintL]

And Dippin' Dots was the future of ice cream!

 

I do love dippin dots

[richstowe]

Couldn't agree more, send those loyal customers that probably don't spend a dime at the alternative restaurants and only care about having some sort of diamond status that gives them nothing really.

 

NCL is making a killing, royal is basically going freestyle dining and good for them, carnival is adding more restaurants too and I'm sure going the same route.

 

No one wants to sit in the same restaurant every night, I can care less if the waiter knows me, I want to eat different foods in different places.

 

Glad to see the old days of cruising going away, this crowd can go to Holland I think that's the only ones left

Your post is hostile and contemptuous towards those who love traditional cruise dining .

Having said that I mostly agree with your position . I like choice and flexibility . We would never willingly accept fixed dining times .My principal worry is that this is designed only as a cash grab where there will be less and less included dining and more and more supplemental fee food options . I believe this is $ driven and realize that's a "well duh" comment .

[Dinkachu]

I am just off Anthem, and attended a press briefing with the CEO's and they said they have introduced traditional dining times, and set table, and waiters for those who prefer the 'old way' heres the twist (which I love) - you will rotate around the four dining rooms allocated to dynamic - Grande, Silk, Icon and Chic.

 

I dined in Chic, it was a beautiful room, so elegant, with amazing table ware, and fabulous food.

 

I think they have a great new concept to be honest.

 

Rotating dining rooms is NOT a new concept. We first encountered this on Disney Wonder back in 1999. You keep he same waiters and table assignment and rotate each night. We enjoyed that on Disney and will be glad to see how it works on RCI.

[PLEIKU68]

Was on QOS hated the DD concept. If this is the way they are going for all ships then I guess its time to go elsewhere.

 

I was on the Quantum and hated it . I did like the Dining though.:)

[Biker19]

:confused: I thought DD still an option but you had a choice of DD choice or DD classic

 

 

It's all marketing. The term Dynamic Dining is not off to a good start, so what do you do to ward off the poor image? You take a page from Disney and brand it Classic Dining (with no mention of the word Dynamic).

 

Then to keep the theme going, you take the original DD concept and rebrand it as Choice Dining.

 

See, probelm solved. Every one loves it then.:cool:

[LoisGriffin1]

I like how NCL do their Freestyle dining. I don't find their dining room experience anywhere near as good as Royal but I love their speciality restaurants (great choice of dining and great food). I factor the price of speciality dining into the price when comparing cruises.

 

With Royal I have not felt the need to use speciality dining because their whole main dining room experience has been great. I assume they are making the changes to get more people to use their speciality dining? For European cruises Royal tend to cost a lot more than NCL even factoring in eating every night in speciality dining on NCL.

 

NCL have been doing their freestyle for a while now and personally I think they do it well. If Royal want to do a similar thing I hope they get it right quickly.

[GUT2407]

Gee and I thought RCI's CEO would say DD what a joke.

[beachnative]

We sailed on the Quantum on a Back2Back in early December and loved Dynamic Dining.

 

We do NOT like MyTimeDining on the traditional ships and always book Early Traditional in the the Main Dining Room.

 

However, the variety and convenience offered via Dynamic Dining on the Quantum helped us decided to book 3 cruises on the Anthem.

 

Although Dynamic Dining worked for us on the Quantum and would probably work on the Oasis, Allure, and Harmony (which we have already booked with Dynamic Dining) I do NOT believe it would work well on the smaller, older ships.

 

I am glad they are also offering Dynamic Dining Classic for those who want the traditional routine.

[Spurschick]

It's all marketing. The term Dynamic Dining is not off to a good start, so what do you do to ward off the poor image? You take a page from Disney and brand it Classic Dining (with no mention of the word Dynamic).

 

Then to keep the theme going, you take the original DD concept and rebrand it as Choice Dining.

 

See, probelm solved. Every one loves it then.:cool:

 

I get your point. But they are still marketing it on their website as DD classic or DD choice. The Dynamic is still in their wording on their webpage I posted a link to. Also the post I responded to only mentioned classic available not choice? My understanding was the original concept of DD still an option, but they had ADDED classic as an alternative, not got rid of DD.

 

If they just reworded it to choice or classic then they run the risk of confusion on ships that don't offer dd, as people MAY assume traditional is classic and MTD is choice, but still expect all the variety of restaurants and options that dd entails. IMHO just using choice or classic won't differentiate the difference in dinning experience between ships currently offering DD and those that don't. Eventually, if/when all the ships fleet wide get, then they can go for a generic name.

Edited April 23, 2015 by Spurschick

[Biker19]

If they just reworded it to choice or classic then they run the risk of confusion on ships that don't offer dd, as people MAY assume traditional is classic and MTD is choice, but still expect all the variety of restaurants and options that dd entails. IMHO just using choice or classic won't differentiate the difference in dinning experience between ships currently offering DD and those that don't. Eventually, if/when all the ships fleet wide get, then they can go for a generic name.

 

Are you kidding me? People are already confused and are clueless about what's going on with the Quantum class in terms of dining (and other things) - do you think what RCI calls it makes a difference? (Rember that the motto for Quantum class is - "this changes everything")

 

Dynamic Dining Classic and Dynamic Dining Choice is too long so they'll just shorten them to Choice Dining and Classic dining - and someone in marketing will get a raise for it when all of a sudden people like it (when in reality not much changed to the actual product).:cool:

Edited April 23, 2015 by Biker19

[Spurschick]

Are you kidding me? People are already confused and are clueless about what's going on with the Quantum class in terms of dining (and other things) - do you think what RCI calls it makes a difference? (Rember that the motto for Quantum class is - "this changes everything")

 

Dynamic Dining Classic and Dynamic Dining Choice is too long so they'll just shorten them to Choice Dining and Classic dining - and someone in marketing will get a raise for it when all of a sudden people like it (when in reality not much changed to the actual product).:cool:

 

I agree a name is a name, and the concepts behind the names will remain the same, for now:D. At the moment though, from what I can tell, the only name change is adding a word at the end to make it two versions of a concept. If they were going to rename it completely then why not do it when they added the alternative. ?

 

The whole point of my original post was to respond to someone that made it sound like DD is not on anthem, and my point was it is, that they had just added an alternative version of it in addition to the original version of DD and that DD is still being marketed in the name of both versions.

Edited April 23, 2015 by Spurschick

[Stateroom_Sailor]

Norwegian still has a MDR, and their freestyle options seem very popular. Disney has really utilized these rotation dining rooms in the right way, with unique alternating themes. "This is the future of RCL", would be fine, but "This is the future of cruising", sounds a bit arrogant.

 

Did Norwegian and Disney have the same growing pains, the companies that actually reinvented the wheel? I don't know that I'll consider a CEO's words as gospel when he's (incorrectly) stood on the shoulder's of other lines. I'll take the other two companies designs any day over what I see here, as a land based example:

 

Let's say I go to Chilis, and Chilis is offering "dynamic dining". Instead of being one big restaurant, they put up walls dividing the dining area and have different colored booths and carpet to create 4 mini restaurants themes. Now you chose if you want the TexMex area, the steakhouse area, the Soup & Salad area, and the Burger area. The Chilis CEO comes out and saying, "We're having some problems and complaints, but all the Freshman college students love it! This is the future of casual dining."

Edited April 23, 2015 by Stateroom_Sailor

[Carguylee]

Let me start by saying that I think I know how DD works, basically like you would do on land? You walk up to the restaurant, wait to be seated and eat. Is that correct?

 

I was on Navigator last week with a total of 8 of us. There were times when several didn't want to go to MDR because it was so quick after getting back on the ship exc. Other times some felt it was to long (which I was actually surprised they were keeping it to a little over an hour, very nice). Anyway the point being I have been on 6 cruises now and almost always went to the MDR every night, this was the first time where I felt it was somewhat of a burden. I found myself wishing we had went with anytime because of the 'freedom' to go whenever.

 

I have no experience with anytime or DD so who knows what I would think if I tried it next time, however I know we will be trying it.

[LoisGriffin1]

I like the evening meal to take time. That was a problem I had with NCL where it felt very rushed. My only experiences with Royal have been Europe so far and the waitstaff have always been excellent with keeping the meal more relaxed and less rushed.

 

My next cruise has a very port intensive section (8 ports in a row with no sea days) and has a few ports leaving at 6pm and 2 at 8pm. If DD is in place by them I do hope they are prepared for days like that. The next port days are early so I imagine there wont be many wanting to start eating after 9pm.