Royal Caribbean...the "new" NCL

[Truckersar]

Want to know where RCI is headed

I predict that by June 2016 there will be no free or as they put it complimentary options.

And yes this includes windjammer.

Also this will move to the entire fleet with a charge for the MDR also!

[ryano]

Want to know where RCI is headed

I predict that by June 2016 there will be no free or as they put it complimentary options.

And yes this includes windjammer.

Also this will move to the entire fleet with a charge for the MDR also!

 

You are certainly entitled to that opinion but I dont believe that in the least. No way, no how. I cant possibly see how you arrive at that opinion based on dining options on two ships.

 

Not only will that not happen fleetwide in 2 years, it wont happen in 10. You read it here first :)

Edited March 27, 2014 by ryano

[richard8]

Had to be a bit amused. Not surprised you like RC going the direction of NCL, since you've cruised them 23 times!

 

I have been on NCL 4 Times. They do not compare to Royal in any way. I do go on other ships and compare. Loyal to Royal until further notice.

[richard8]

Want to know where RCI is headed

I predict that by June 2016 there will be no free or as they put it complimentary options.

And yes this includes windjammer.

Also this will move to the entire fleet with a charge for the MDR also!

 

Hopefully, This will not occur, as I will Probably not do what I love doing.

CRUISING!!

Edited March 27, 2014 by richard8

[stompy]

Wonderland's menu looked absolutely disgusting to me...

 

The other's looked interesting. For RC the benefit will be that they will make the same thing every night. This allows them to control the food cost much better and have a more consistent product than having a rotating menu.

 

It'll be interesting to see which places are packed and which have crickets chirping

[katydyd]

I'm most excited about Wonderland.

 

It looks to me that they're going to be featuring molecular gastronomy. I've had some exposure, but don't have any restaurants locally that feature it, and have been dying to try a full meal.

 

See...lots and lots of options to suit everyone's tastes.

[deedeetoo]

What I find shocking is that the highest #s by ship belong to the cruise lines that are supposed to be "upper tier" and WOW! Look at Carnival at the bottom! Maybe its that way because Cunard, Celebrity and HAL have fewer ships and Carnival has the most? :confused:

 

Like you said, nothing to do with this thread really. Just an observation.

 

I wonder if it has something to do with the age of the passengers. Those cruise lines near the higher end of the range attract an older demographic, on average, than those on the lower end. Maybe the older folks just get sick more easily. Maybe when they do get sick, they suffer more and therefore report more. Its an interesting question.

[my_crib_too]

I mainly look to NCL for our cruise vacations. After reading an artical on the USA Today website about the new Royal program, I came here to read more about it. The few times I stopped here, on the Royal CC forum, the conversation didn't seem to be a good fit for us.

 

Royal is now on our list of vacations to consider. Formal venue and a casual venues. Sounds great! :)

[waterbug123]

Have you seen the Windjammer on Allure? First glance tells you it's way too small for the number of passengers, I've never seen one so congested, with waits for tables- I just hope the same person who designed that isn't involved with the Dynamic Dining......

 

Yes I have. The biggest issue is generally embarkation day. People can't go to their cabins yet, so they hang out in the Windjammer. People don't have their luggage to change into swimwear, so they hang out in the Windjammer. People are meeting up with friends arriving a little later, so they hang out in the Windjammer til the friends join them. And so on. It's generally not nearly as bad later in the cruise.

[Irene7]

Had to be a bit amused. Not surprised you like RC going the direction of NCL, since you've cruised them 23 times!

 

LOL. It pretty much proved the OP point!

[DrD]

 

It'll be interesting to see which places are packed and which have crickets chirping

 

And therein lies the problem.

 

In my admittedly limited experience with this type of dining, some restaurants were popular and had long waits, some not so much. So your choices were to plan everything ahead and make reservations (like weeks ahead), wait a long time to eat (like an hour), or settle for a restaurant that's not your first or even second choice. And this included MDR, we were not impressed with our meal there. We did the first option, we had reservations for 4 of 7 nights. But it added more complexity to the whole thing.

[Irene7]

We'll you have to admit, RCCL knows what their doing. They seem to really be gunning for NCL and I'm sure a lot of passengers that like to cruise like a norwegian will be answering the sea royally!

[Maraprince]

Seems like Royal caribbean is following in the footsteps of Norwegian cruise line with their "dynamic dining" aka freestyle cruising with no set seatings and different waiters every night. This is the approach for the new quantum class ships.A lot of the places on their restaurant list are for fee. This is ashame because most loyal royals prefer to have the same waiters every night and the same table. With this,you will not be able to meet new people as tablemates. This is a bad direction for royal to follow the footsteps of NCL. They will lose many of their loyal customers if they turn the entire fleet this way. I feel like RCCL has been copying NCL for the past few years and losing its image in the process.

This is RCCL answer to passengers who wanted to see an end to formal nights?

 

At least when NCL started freestyle they introduced it on their smaller ships, found where it needed to be adjusted and added beepers to the mix. But Quantum is over 4,000 passengers! Even on Explorer with MTD there were lines if passenger hadn't reserved for a particular time. Imagine how many passengers will board not knowing about the changes and having made no reservations? Could get ugly especially if you have a large group that you are sailing with, booked late, or have some language issues.

 

Glad we decided not to follow through with our 12/1 sailing on Quantum. Trusted my gut that there had to be some reason why so little info about the ship was available other than bumper cars, etc. but nothing else.

 

MARAPRINCE

[stompy]

My question is the menus in the "free" dining rooms. Are they set or do they change daily?

 

From the website it looks like the menu is set for each restaurant. It stays the same every night.

 

This allows for better control of food costs and provisioning for the ship.

 

Most of the places looked like there'd be a standout item that I'd order each time I went there.

 

My concern will be the overall pricing. We used to love going to JRs but once the price was added we go once per cruise and that's it. JRs used to be full and there was a long wait which is what the service charge was for. Now they are mostly empty on the cruises we've been on.

 

I'm sure there will be a shakeout for the new venues and if no one goes they will change things up. Wonderland looks particularly horrible although other posters seem eager to try it.

[linedancer]

Want to know where RCI is headed

I predict that by June 2016 there will be no free or as they put it complimentary options.

And yes this includes windjammer.

Also this will move to the entire fleet with a charge for the MDR also!

 

I agree with you, Did anyone else notice the three casual for a FEE are, Johnny Rockets, Sorrento's and Café Promenade? If they add a fee to Sorrento's and Café Promenade will the fee be fleet wide????

 

It's nice to have a choice, but not when you start to have to pay for everything.

[stompy]

I agree with you, Did anyone else notice the three casual for a FEE are, Johnny Rockets, Sorrento's and Café Promenade? If they add a fee to Sorrento's and Café Promenade will the fee be fleet wide????

 

It's nice to have a choice, but not when you start to have to pay for everything.

 

Cafe Promenade and Sorrento's are both still free.

[SJS]

I've been on a NCL cruise and did not like anytime dining. The reason I did not like it was the choices in the main dining room. In order to find the items I got in a RCI dining room (such as crab cakes, shrimp cocktail) it was necessary to go to a specialty restaurant which was just not in our budget. There was just no comparison to the two dining room experiences. I do not plan on taking another NCL cruise. It will be very sad in my opinion to have this happen on RCI. But it looks like changes are coming and specialty restaurants are a good source of extra income for the cruise lines. But I will miss the dining experience you now have and hope the changes do not occur fleet wide.

[KuffMUp]

I have to admit yesterday when I heard about this, I was shocked and miffed. Then I started thinking about it. Our first 3 cruises, we ate at the buffet to avoid formal night. Then, when MTD came about, we tried it and liked it. Early seating was too early for us and late was too late. So, this actually may work.

 

For those that think Royal is making a mistake, perhaps they have been listening to the masses. It seems as if MTD has been very popular on the ships we have been on, especially with the younger crowd. This may very well be the way consumers want to be headed.

[ERIE 13]

Any thoughts on the Quantum of the Seas new dinning areas. I think I might miss the set time and table. I didn't see a restaurant listed that had the normal dishes that were normally served in the main dinning room.

[OBX-Cruisers]

RCI............not a bad idea to try.

 

Hope the logistics go as you plan because your MTD plan now is NOT the greatest...........hope you think that you can manipulate the 4000+ people better than you handle many fewer on smaller ships

 

We will all be watching and I hope it goes well as we are stock holders

[Stateroom_Sailor]

So...you feel that a business model that makes as many customers happy as possible is a bad approach?

 

Would having a MDR as one of the 5 free restaurants, make people unhappy?

[dz9yvr]

I'm sorry but I don't understand the concept. What's the difference between having 5 unique restaurants where the menu doesn't change and having 1 MDR that has different menus every night? Dynamic dining just seems more cumbersome. :confused::confused::confused:

[TravelerThom]

ahecht did a better analysis than I did on Noro per ship. hence I have removed my comment

Edited March 27, 2014 by TravelerThom

[Dick and Jane]

RCI............not a bad idea to try.

 

Hope the logistics go as you plan because your MTD plan now is NOT the greatest...........hope you think that you can manipulate the 4000+ people better than you handle many fewer on smaller ships

 

We will all be watching and I hope it goes well as we are stock holders

 

 

Stock is heading up today!

 

 

Jane (from the duo Dick and Jane)

Chicago, Illinois

[summersigh]

Banquet style dining is more a historical relic. They simply were not able to feed thousands of people at once any other way.

 

Today, people are more used to quality and variety. We'll accept banquet food at weddings and conferences, but don't necessarily want banquet food for an entire week. I think moving away from the banquet model is good overall. If they have worked out the issues that required it in the past, then it's probably time to move into the future with quality and variety.

 

If you're really into banquet food, then maybe you can crash weddings once in a while.

 

Do you actually believe that the dining rooms where the food in included in the price of the cruise will be any better quality than now? It sounds like no more that "staggered banquet" service :D:D

On existing ships MTD is no better than Traditional seating IMHO