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Open Seating?

flvol77

By flvol77,
in Royal Caribbean International

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Bakincakes

Bakincakes

Posted
Posted
They obviously did 'poll' and the results showed that there were enough people that wanted anytime dining to justify testing it.

 

 

I don't think it took too much prodding for them to begin this "test". They have already established that pax are more than willing to pay extra for good food and if they are indeed still filling their ships it has also been established that they can serve substandard meals in the main dining room and the po' folk will eat it right up. Who cares what time the cattle show up for the call... Win, win for the cruiselines.

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BobBeaSea

BobBeaSea

Posted
Posted

I'm another who would like to try open seating for the main dining rooms. RCI isn't saving any money by doing this, they are attempting to try something that their findings have indicated a trend to, not to mention at least blunting a perceived competitive advantage one or two other lines might have. I do believe the end is coming for traditional dining on mass market cruise ships, not in the near term perhaps but certainly at some point in the future.

 

They use full open seating on full ship charters and have done so with great success, works like clockwork. It will probably be more difficult combining open seating with traditional however I think RCI has the skill to pull it off.

 

As for us, if we sail with RCI again, we will do open seating most nights in Chops/Portofinos :), really not into the food and menus that RCI offers in the main dining room.

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Tranquil Waters

Tranquil Waters

Posted
Posted
I'm another who would like to try open seating for the main dining rooms. RCI isn't saving any money by doing this, they are attempting to try something that their findings have indicated a trend to, not to mention at least blunting a perceived competitive advantage one or two other lines might have. I do believe the end is coming for traditional dining on mass market cruise ships, not in the near term perhaps but certainly at some point in the future.

 

They use full open seating on full ship charters and have done so with great success, works like clockwork. It will probably be more difficult combining open seating with traditional however I think RCI has the skill to pull it off.

 

As for us, if we sail with RCI again, we will do open seating most nights in Chops/Portofinos, really not into the mediocre food and menus that RCI offers in the main dining room.

 

I do agree with most of what you say. Except the part about preferring open seating.

 

And the part about RCI not saving money with this. RCI makes all its decisions based on cost versus revenue. That is why the current mediocre food. They gave it, people accepted it. Now - with open seating - you move people in and out more quickly, go through less quantity of this lower quality food. And many people will accept it.

 

I do see it as an inevitable change that is coming. But those that kid themselves that it will all be to the good are not paying much attention to history........

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Tranquil Waters

Tranquil Waters

Posted
Posted
Offering more options is a good thing!! When it is just the two of us we would prefer open seating. If we were traveling in a group, we would probably select the traditional dining.

 

###

 

I do agree that more options should be better......

 

My concern is that this change will be like so many of the more recent food changes with RCI dining. We have certainly not seen an improvement in quality or variety in food in the main dining room over time - and I fear that this change will continue that slide. Hopefully I am wrong. :) And I fear that they will slowly try to edge out the traditional seating option. Think Princess and waitlists for traditional option.

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ottmar

ottmar

Posted
Posted

>>>>you move people in and out more quickly, go through less quantity of this lower quality food. And many people will accept it.<<<

 

As I said in my previous post about open dining on the Sapphire Princes, the five dining rooms were used as the demand required, sometimes one, sometimes three would be given to open seating, depending on how many folks at the time of making reservation would ask for it. Open diningdoes not preclude conventional seatings, and BTW, we often showed up around the same time as the conventional diners and stayed as long also.

 

.....Ott

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Jeka

Jeka

Posted
Posted
I don't think it took too much prodding for them to begin this "test". They have already established that pax are more than willing to pay extra for good food and if they are indeed still filling their ships it has also been established that they can serve substandard meals in the main dining room and the po' folk will eat it right up. Who cares what time the cattle show up for the call... Win, win for the cruiselines.

 

Oh my, seems a cloud covered the sunshine for this post.;)

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Ohunion Cruzers

Ohunion Cruzers

Posted
Posted

Anytime dining does not work on RCI. Count the number of people in the main dining room and then count the number of people in the Windjammer. The Windjammer offers anytime seating, and yet it is never as popular as Traditional Seating in the main dining room. And those are real numbers from any given cruise, which are not all CC members.

 

If RCI wants to add anytime dining, they could very easily convert half of the Windjammer with waiters (similar to the main dining room). There is plenty of room to experiment in the Windjammer.

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willysgrandma

willysgrandma

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Anytime dining does not work on RCI. Count the number of people in the main dining room and then count the number of people in the Windjammer. The Windjammer offers anytime seating, and yet it is never as popular as Traditional Seating in the main dining room. And those are real numbers from any given cruise, which are not all CC members.

 

 

You can't use that as a comparison. I hate traditional dining and had to eat at the Windjammer one nght because our waiter was so slow in the dining room we wouldn't have made the show. We could control how long dinner took eating int he WIndjammer. The Windjammer has many more people eating there that don't want to dress up, not because they prefer anytime dining.

 

The dinner food in the Windjammer was awful. Had I had a choice I wouldn't have eaten at the Windjammer, but could have eaten at an Anytime area and made it to the show and had a decent dinner.

 

Most of the people in the Windjammer for dinner were dressed in shorts and casual wear so I believe most of them just dont' want to dress up to eat int he dining room not because they want to eat when they want.

 

And when the Windjammer opened at 6:30, it was mobbed. They could have been seated in traditional dining at that time if they just wanted to dress up.

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Jeka

Jeka

Posted
Posted
Anytime dining does not work on RCI. Count the number of people in the main dining room and then count the number of people in the Windjammer. The Windjammer offers anytime seating, and yet it is never as popular as Traditional Seating in the main dining room. And those are real numbers from any given cruise, which are not all CC members.

 

If RCI wants to add anytime dining, they could very easily convert half of the Windjammer with waiters (similar to the main dining room). There is plenty of room to experiment in the Windjammer.

 

First, I'm in total disbelief at your analogy, and secondly are you privy to the 3 week results of the Freedom trial?

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willysgrandma

willysgrandma

Posted
Posted
Sometimes you just have to make a choice. And this is probably evidence that IF RCI converted to anytime dining, the food quality would go even lower.

 

Why is the food quality on Princess the same whether you are eating Anytime or Assigned?

 

We love Anytime Dining and there was NO difference in the food quality we found on Princess.

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Ohunion Cruzers

Ohunion Cruzers

Posted
Posted
Why is the food quality on Princess the same whether you are eating Anytime or Assigned?

 

We love Anytime Dining and there was NO difference in the food quality we found on Princess.

 

Answer:

NCL's food (in the dining room) is just flat our horrible

 

Apparently, on NCL, both options are awful. Why bring down the quality that exists on RCI today, to an even lower standard.

 

Fast forward: RCI is marketing to families and younger people. Ships are full or near full. They know they have the business of frequent cruisers like those on these pages but are going after cruisers from their competitors. What do those lines offer that RCI doesn't, freestyle.

 

And which cruiseline currently has the most repeat customers? Which cruiseline does not offer any time dining?

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Albert Ross

Albert Ross

Posted
Posted

The Traditional Dining 'Bullies' on this board will continue shout down any reasonable arguments that any person who has 'dared' to raise their head above the parapit and admit that they have cruised Princess or NCL or Windstar or Seabourn or Azamara or HAL or Oceania - and heaven forbid, say that they actually enjoyed the Open Dining/Freestyle experience, and no, the food quality was actually as good or in fact, even better then RCI........

 

The 'bullies' do not allow or permit any reasoned representation of thoughts or opinions. Please remember it is a free world out there. Allegedly.

 

And remember less than 1% of the cruising population know about or contribute to CC - so any discussions are not really a valid representation of the cruising community anyway.

 

But to my Open Dining loving 'brothers and sisters' out there - just keep your heads down, keep quiet, keep your fingers crossed and hope...!;)

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Tranquil Waters

Tranquil Waters

Posted
Posted
....The 'bullies' do not allow or permit any reasoned representation of thoughts or opinions.......

 

Talk about a misrepresentation of fact..... :eek:

 

First of all, no one is a "bully" for having an opinion or preference. It could just as easily be argued that the freestyle "bullies" do not permist any reasoned representation of thoughts or opinions concerning traditional dining. :(

 

To the best of my knowledge CC has not granted any of its members the ability to deleted or alter anyone else's comments. :confused:

 

You are, therefore, allowed to post any "reasoned representation of thoughts or opinions" concerning freestyle that you wish - as long as you do it in a way that does not abuse community guidelines (ie without flaming, etc.)

 

But by the same token, traditional dining fans should - and do - have the same right. :)

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cheaptravel

cheaptravel

Posted
Posted

I'll dine either way. But if we were to choose, I'd pick open dining. I don't think a poll on this board will change the future of what will be or not be. I didn't vote, must have missed it. Everything else on the ship is flexible, I'd like my dining time to be as well. But if not, I'm not gonna cry.

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