Anthem eliminates Dynamic Dining

[foxgoodrich]

Does Disney have both fixed and variable (My Time) times for dining?

 

I don't think Disney has MTD, though having had only one cruise with the mouse I'm hardly an expert on this! When we booked we had to choose our seating, but I don't remember any MTD option. We had a fixed dining time and we rotated among 3 restaurants. Our wait staff were the same each night.

 

Judy

Edited September 9, 2016 by foxgoodrich

[Defender1158]

I am on the 27 November Anthem cruise, and just received my call from Miami. The rep seemed knowledgeable. She stated that the fourth floor restaurants, American Icon and Silk, would become MTD. There will be a single check-in station in the hallway between these two, and guests will be sorted to one or the other depending on availability. The third floor restaurants, Grande and Chic, will become standard first or second seating with assigned tables. The venues will remain the same physically, but the menus at all four will become traditional MDR, including a lobster night as appropriate. She stated that changes would start showing up in Cruise Planner in the next week to ten days. We were offered a choice of leaving our existing times and being converted to MTD, or selecting first or second seating in the MDR. We went the MTD route, as I had already scheduled around shows and the late night San Juan departure.

[gaylemh]

I've been on Quantum 3 times and Anthem 4 times, only had a slight problem with DD Choice on Quantum once which turned out very well for us. We were in the only line I ever encountered on any of my sailings for Grande, and the head waiter came and asked people if they would like to dine in Coastal Kitchen instead. Four groups in front of us said no. We jumped on it.

 

I just got off Anthem yesterday and there was nothing mentioned about the change. Didn't even hear any rumors. I hate to see DD Choice end.

[Mel8730]

Wow I am sorry to read this. Glad I got to experience Dynamic Dining Choice which seemed to be working well on our recent cruise. How boring to have the same menu in every restaurant. I thought having Dynamic Choice and Classic would satisfy everyone, but apparently not.

[CarpeCerevisi]

I hope people like eating elbow to elbow. The only way this is going to work is if they squeeze in more tables. In my opinion, the biggest mistake they made was trying to implement DD Classic with the limited table space in the four restaurants.

[Tracy Po]

On Disney the menus are all the same each night, no matter which one you're in. You just rotated through with your waiters to get different décor and such.

 

I don't think that's what we had on the Fantasy; I think it was similar to what's on the Anthem right now: all the menus have a few dishes that are available all nights and in all venues, but also have different ones that reflect the theme of the restaurant. It seems to me the Cinderella-themed one (I can't remember the name right now--Royal Palace mayhaps?-- ETA: Nope! Royal Court!) had slightly fancier items than the Animator's Palate did.

Edited September 9, 2016 by Tracy Po

[adiamay]

Never realized the menus were the same on Disney and only the decor was different. Seems like a bother just for a difference in decor.

 

Each restaurant has its own menu, with the exception of Pirate night and Formal night on a 7 night. Pirate Night and formal night, every restaurant has the same menu.

[TeeRick]

I am on the 27 November Anthem cruise, and just received my call from Miami. The rep seemed knowledgeable. She stated that the fourth floor restaurants, American Icon and Silk, would become MTD. There will be a single check-in station in the hallway between these two, and guests will be sorted to one or the other depending on availability. The third floor restaurants, Grande and Chic, will become standard first or second seating with assigned tables. The venues will remain the same physically, but the menus at all four will become traditional MDR, including a lobster night as appropriate. She stated that changes would start showing up in Cruise Planner in the next week to ten days. We were offered a choice of leaving our existing times and being converted to MTD, or selecting first or second seating in the MDR. We went the MTD route, as I had already scheduled around shows and the late night San Juan departure.

 

Thanks- its good that others on our sailing have started to receive these calls. The information is entirely consistent with what I was told. They are calling people with existing DD reservations first to get their preference on MTD vs Traditional. I think there will be confusion but I do give credit to their customer service for calling us and giving us a choice. I imagine there are quite a few people to call and it might take a few days.

[hansolosmom]

Having sailed on Disney only once ..............they got rotation dining to work.

 

 

Wonder why RCI cannot get a grip on it.

 

Do not get me wrong......we like early dinner and do not want it to change for us, just an observation thats all.

 

Safe travels.

 

Thanks, that would seem to make logistics easier than mixing MTD with Traditional.

 

I agree I don't see how/why RCI can't get rotational dining to work either!

 

Bob - I don't think adding in MTD would be an issue for Disney. They would just keep a set of tables open in each restaurant for the my time diners. All the dining rooms have the same number of tables with the same number of seats. As long as they know how many people are doing the my time they should be able to work it out schedule-wise. The issue they would run into would have more to do with the dining activities - for example in Animators Palette they start everything in black & white, then the walls and the waiters vests change as the dinner happens. That's the type of stuff that I could see being more of a challenge for them. Of course it's been several years since we've been on DCL so I'm not even sure Animators Palette is still there

[Clarea]

Each restaurant has its own menu, with the exception of Pirate night and Formal night on a 7 night. Pirate Night and formal night, every restaurant has the same menu.

Thanks for the clarification.

[hansolosmom]

Really sad to hear about the death of dynamic dining and glad we'll get to try it in Oct.

 

Personally (and only my opinion) I am really disappointed in all the changes to Anthem. It was supposed to be this cool new ship with the WOW bands, dynamic dining etc and now it's pretty much becoming a clone of the rest of the fleet.

[reallyitsmema]

Really sad to hear about the death of dynamic dining and glad we'll get to try it in Oct.

 

Personally (and only my opinion) I am really disappointed in all the changes to Anthem. It was supposed to be this cool new ship with the WOW bands, dynamic dining etc and now it's pretty much becoming a clone of the rest of the fleet.

 

Other than the change from Dynamic Dining to the more tradition dining model, what are all the changes you are talking about?

[shopperwhite]

we just booked for sept 22nd.

only choices for dinner times are 9 or 9:15

absolutely unbelievable.

[nelblu]

Well, that's certainly bucking the trend of people not wanting to schlep formal wear on cruises, although if "formal" for these nights turns out to be what's been allowed in Grande (no ties or dress shirts required for men, pick up a loaner jacket and carry it to your chair), it may not matter much. I did like that Anthem had no formal nights....

 

Separately, I'd hate to be stuck with the decor of Silk for an entire cruise.

 

I think Dynamic Dining --- the original "Choice" concept, not the shoehorned back in, retrofitted "Classic" -- was a great idea to which RCI never committed enough staff nor trained them sufficiently.

 

What are you talking about, there was no shoehorn effect in the 4 restaurants on the Aug. 25th sail. as a matter of fact there was more room between out table and other diners.

[Turtles06]

What are you talking about, there was no shoehorn effect in the 4 restaurants on the Aug. 25th sail. as a matter of fact there was more room between out table and other diners.

 

Clearly in the context of what I was saying it was not meant physically but as something done after the fact, never intended for this ship. Anthem was designed to NOT have "classic," traditional two-seating dinners. Instead of sticking to the original concept around which the ship was built, RCI made a mess of things by introducing "classic" after-the-fact on a ship not built for it, and now the entire system apparently has cratered.

[Lawhouse]

Hated dynamic Dining best thing they have ever done in getting shot of it

 

 

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[finz2u]

If you look at the Anthem cruise reviews, a lot of the reviewers complain about the meal reservation system. Who knows what comments were made in the passenger surveys? May RCL does listen.

 

As long as I find something on the menu that's interesting and I am not cooking it, I'm happy whether it's called MTD, MDR, DD, or DD Classic.

[cruiserking]

I didn't get a call and what, they wait for final payment of the Nov 27th cruise to announce this. We loved DD on Quantum and all our dinners and shows have been linked with friends so very unhappy about this whole thing. There was no problem with DD when we sailed Quantum. It's Classic that's messing things up.

 

 

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We had Dynamic Classic and it worked flawlessly. There was was never a wait, unlike Choicem We had superb waiters Amin and assistant Gerald. All the meals were excellent, beautifully prepared and delicious. Steak Tartar at American Icon the tastiest I can remember.

 

While many of us veteran cruisers know the ropes of planning ahead for Anthem, there are many people who are clueless and this leads problems and complaints.

 

Very sorry to see Dynamic Dining disappear, it is unique and among the highlights of these high tech Quantum Class ships.

 

Jonathan

Edited September 9, 2016 by cruiserking

[beachbuddy]

Hope you are ready for comments on this.

 

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And why would there be comments on this? This ship was made for DD but some people complained because they wanted traditional times and didn't want to do their own bookings. So, they created Classic. That does not work on a ship designed for DD. There's plenty of other ships with traditional dining that they could have sailed on. DD was new, exciting and different!! I think it's a darn shame that Royal is giving up on it.

 

 

 

 

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[OfTheSeasCruiser]

I'm on the fence about this decision.

 

On one hand, I'm fine with it because I like traditional dining.

 

But on the other hand, this was the only class of ships with this concept and they were designed for it. If Classic was causing problems, I would've rather them eliminated that option and stuck with all Choice (like the original DD).

 

I have a feeling this is more than just guest dissatisfaction though. Maybe DD costing a lot more than expected? Not worth the effort? Or are post-cruise surveys really that bad?

[beachbuddy]

I'm on the fence about this decision.

 

 

 

On one hand, I'm fine with it because I like traditional dining.

 

 

 

But on the other hand, this was the only class of ships with this concept and they were designed for it. If Classic was causing problems, I would've rather them eliminated that option and stuck with all Choice (like the original DD).

 

 

 

I have a feeling this is more than just guest dissatisfaction though. Maybe DD costing a lot more than expected? Not worth the effort? Or are post-cruise surveys really that bad?

 

 

 

Totally agree with you!!!

 

 

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[beachbuddy]

Clearly in the context of what I was saying it was not meant physically but as something done after the fact, never intended for this ship. Anthem was designed to NOT have "classic," traditional two-seating dinners. Instead of sticking to the original concept around which the ship was built, RCI made a mess of things by introducing "classic" after-the-fact on a ship not built for it, and now the entire system apparently has cratered.

 

 

 

My thoughts exactly!!! Classic is what should be going away, not DD.

 

 

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[little britain]

And why would there be comments on this? This ship was made for DD but some people complained because they wanted traditional times and didn't want to do their own bookings. So, they created Classic. That does not work on a ship designed for DD. There's plenty of other ships with traditional dining that they could have sailed on. DD was new, exciting and different!! I think it's a darn shame that Royal is giving up on it.

 

 

 

 

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+1. I totally agree. Thank goodness I got to try DD on Quantum and Ovation and loved it.

 

So now we have several ships with randomly decorated dining rooms all serving the same boring menu....JMHO.

 

 

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Edited September 9, 2016 by little britain

[BillOh]

Having sailed on Disney only once ..............they got rotation dining to work.

 

 

Wonder why RCI cannot get a grip on it.

 

Do not get me wrong......we like early dinner and do not want it to change for us, just an observation thats all.

 

Safe travels.

 

I've never sailed Disney, but isn't the difference you have no choice, you just rotate? I guess Royal is trying to accomodate everyone?

[Guest maddycat]

I'm going to miss DD, loved it on both the Quantum and the Anthem. I really enjoyed going to the all of the complimentary restaurants. I definitely did not miss having ship-wide formal nights. We have an Oct. cruise coming up so we will get to experience DD choice one more time before it is eliminated. After that we'll be back to MTD.