When will all the ships go to Dynamic?

[awhcruiser]

Bingo. If RCCL is still providing food 24/7 what difference does it make?

Exactly.

 

It seems like so many make threats to take their ball and go home. If people are so dead set on cancelling cruises over a dining concept that hasnt been rolled out just leave. Trust and believe RCI does not care and neither does most people you are announcing it to online.

[abridalmaven]

You missed the point. Yes, there is lots to book with all cruise lines. More than enough, actually more than too much. Have you never heard of the straw that breaks the camel's back? Well that is what I was talking about. I thought that was clear.

 

BTW, if your TA is booking your shows, and dinners, and excursions and spa treatments for you, in additions to air,hotel and transfers, with out additional compensation, well then you have found one real gem. Hang on to her.

 

 

Amen. This last cruise we were on we made lots of plans for car rentals and private excursions along with the ordinary stuff like air and ground transportation for our small group. Some days I was ready to pull my hair out because so and so decided that they did not to be part of the car rental and some excursions thereby driving up the cost per person. If shows and dining times were added into the mix I would have just given up. My husband and I were even at odds over some of the details. If others were not involved so close to sailing I would have cancelled the whole thing. So something like this can be that last straw for some of us.

[abridalmaven]

How are you so sure?

 

Several members of the crew brought it up.

[waterbug123]

something like this can be that last straw for some of us.

 

Maybe so. But for plenty of us it won't be. I suspect plenty of people will be willing to make those reservations if that's what it takes to enjoy additional dining opportunities. I recall that when specialty dining really started to expand there were those who proclaimed that it would all be a big failure because not enough people would be willing to pay extra to maintain all the additional options. Somehow that didn't turn out to be the case though. ;)

I suspect DD will be the same.

[ryano]

I recall that when specialty dining really started to expand there were those who proclaimed that it would all be a big failure because not enough people would be willing to pay extra to maintain all the additional options. Somehow that didn't turn out to be the case though. ;)

I suspect DD will be the same.

 

Exactly! Just like Oasis and Allure were going to "sink" Royal Caribbean and they would NEVER be able to fill those "huge amusement parks at sea" :rolleyes:

 

Blah blah blah. Ive said it once and will say it again. If a dining concept that hasnt even been rolled out yet is going to cause some around here to quit RCI then just leave already. Broadcasting it on a message forum to a bunch of people that could not care less isnt going to solve anything.

 

I cant wait to experience the new concept and venues.

[Folk Singer]

Here is the explantion for Quantum:

 

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

 

Dynamic Dining has not been announced for Indy yet.

 

thank you for the link. Not sure if I will like this option. do prefer to sit down same table and same folks each night to really enjoy the dining experience.

[TC1957]

With all these dynamic dining threads the last few weeks, I've come to realize that many many CC'ers value their dining experience as a determining factor as to whether they will ever sail RCL again. I can only assume that dining is the #1 factor of cruising for them. Is this true? For those of you who have posted that the change to Dynamic Dining will be the end to your cruising RCL, I would love to read why dining is your #1 criteria? If that's the case, shouldn't you be sailing Oceana (supposed to be the foodie ships, best food on any cruiseline) or any other cruiseline more known for it's excellent dining?

 

I ask the above because I cruise primarily for the destinations, the amenities of the ships, price/value vs. land vacations, site seeing, relaxation, meeting new people or having that time with my significant other, but primarily to get away from my work reality and the absolute rat's race of life/work while feeling the ocean breeze and watching the seas go by. MDR vs. Dynamic is so very low on the list of what's important for cruising for me personally.

 

Then you assume incorrectly as far as I am concerned.

 

We enjoy cruising but also enjoy other types of vacations just as much...and sometimes more. When deciding wether to cruise or chose a different type of vacation the timing is the most important factor. We have a list of cruises we want to take and a list of other destinations on a list. We check several options given the time and resources available and decide which option...but lets say we decide we want to take another cruise. The first factor is the part of the month...because of my job I cannot go during certain times. Second would be the ports of call...we are not the type that cruise because we want to be on a certain ship. Once we have a list of cruise options that interest us we look at the pricing and try to determine the best "bang for the buck" by reviewing the excursions available through the line (even though we may not book through them)...are there things that sound exciting in some ports that are not available in others? All of those things are more important than the dining options...but we can get ALL of that on most ships. However, since we are not interested in wasting our hard-earned and limited vacation dollars on something that does not offer one of the things we do rate as important we will simply EXCLUDE any ship or line that does not offer the MDR experience. We can get the things that are more important on other ships as well AND get the dining experience we want.

 

It really is not that difficult to understand. That is one of the oddities of a discussion board (especially this one)...if someone voices a dislike for something many jump to the conclusion that it is the most important factor in a decision. But, jumping to conclusions may be the only exercise someone gets so more power to them. :p

[TC1957]

They currently hold some excursion reservations for booking once on board, so it seems likely they will at least do that. But to hold for walk ins, doesn't seem likely.

 

Don't bet on that. We wanted to book an excursion through RCI for our last cruise to get priority on a tender. When we tried online it would not go through so I call (and suffered the LONG wait) to be told it was closed because they were holding spots for onboard purchases. We were the first in line on the day of embarkation and was told the excursion was sold out. Further, we were told they MAY have another so we could go on a waiting list...which we did. We also booked our third choice...which was necessary because we assumed the bimb...err...woman that told us they held spots knew what she was talking about...just in case they did not open a second excursion. By the way...the second never opened. Moral of the story...DO NOT BELIEVE A WORD ANYONE WITH RCI TELLS YOU. Most of them have no clue...just my opinion.

[BamaGuy44]

Doubtful. Anyone ready to jump on board, is already jumping. DD is not likely to pull in any new non cruisers, to try it. It will on the other hand, scare off many long time traditional cruisers , to say nothing of scaring off lots of potential newbies who may well find this maze of booking dinners for every night, booking excursions, booking spa treatments, booking specialty restaurants, booking shows, and lessons of various types, booking gym classes, adding that into booking your airfare, and booking your pre-cruise hotel, and booking your to-hotel, to ship and ship to airport transfers. This may be the one last thing that scares some off of ever trying cruising altogether.

 

Partial list of things that would "turn off long time cruisers" and be the doom of RC and/or the cruise industry:

 

Upcharge specialty restaurants (What?? Nobody will pay extra for food on a cruise, it's supposed to be all-inclusive! Horrible idea!)

 

More restrictive smoking policies (What? you're gonna run off all the smokers, they'll go sail other lines! Stupid RC!)

 

Oasis class (What? spending billions on these giant monstrosities? Nobody wants to sail on these giant floating theme parks! RC is run by morons!)

 

MTD (What?? Nobody wants to make RESERVATIONS on a cruise! Plus how can you cruise without bonding with your tablemates and becoming facebook friends?)

 

I understand your last straw theory but all these things are not turning people off cruising so there's no "last straw"

 

For better or worse, the traditional MDR experience is already on the way out, with or without DD. All the different dining options means a whole table meeting up for dinner each night like the old days is getting more and more uncommon.

[waterbug123]

We have a list of cruises we want to take...We check several options given the time and resources available....The first factor is the part of the month...because of my job...Second would be the ports of call... we look at the pricing and try to determine the best "bang for the buck" by reviewing the excursions...we will simply EXCLUDE any ship or line that does not offer the MDR experience.

 

LOL, we are the complete opposite, in that I can't begin to imagine putting that much thought into figuring out what cruise to go on. Don't get me wrong, those are valid points for many people and I get that there are folks who put a ton of time and effort into deciding on a cruise. We just happen to be much more care free I guess.

For instance, our 3 upcoming cruises were decided on in the following manner:

Quantum in November: We had done the Oasis and Allure inaugural with friends, so when they announced booking was open for Quantum, we said amongst the 4 of us, "Are we doing the first US sailing for Quantum?" We all agreed and that was that. Booked the cruise! Total decision making time? about 1 minute. :D

 

Brilliance in March: A couple we often travel with announced to a big group of friends that they had booked the Brilliance in case anyone wanted to join them. We looked at the calendar, saw no conflicts and that was that. Booked the cruise! Total decision making time? about 1 minute :D

 

Equinox in July: A friend organizes a big group cruise every year and that's the one they picked. They sent an email saying so and that was that. Booked the cruise! Total decision making time? Ok, this one was technically about 20 min worth of thought, as we were privy to the final 2 or 3 cruises being decided on and we said we preferred this one since it went to several ports we'd never been to. But the friend made the final decision, and even if they'd chosen another itinerary, we'd have booked it without a another thought. :D

[notsomadhatter]

LOL, we are the complete opposite, in that I can't begin to imagine putting that much thought into figuring out what cruise to go on.

 

We're the complete opposite of you AND the previous poster. I do a ton of research in deciding what cruise to take but the ship is what gets all the attention. The ports are just a bonus. If they're ones we haven't been to before? Great! If they're ones we have? Oh bummer, more ship time! :D

 

After doing all of my research I present my honey with one or two options and she does the 10 minutes of considering. Then we book.

[Gayle V]

Sure, because their website works so well so often.......:rolleyes:

 

Yes, exactly what I was talking about in the next paragraph of that post.

 

And FWIW, today has been one of the Royal's most "system glitched" days ever. They had me pulling my hair out. At this rate I'll be bald by the time I get all our excursion's booked.

[Jeanine&Jim]

Obviously, we have different priorities.

 

We are drawn to the traditional dining experience, where we do not have to make plans or reservations, and we know that there is a table waiting for our family to gather together at the end of the day. We like having the same wait team, tablemates, and a rotating menu. We never book specialty dining and we never eat in the buffet for dinner. While the food isn't top quality, it is excellent in our opinion (and not merely acceptable), so I wouldn't call ourselves foodies who need to cruise with Oceania, nor could we afford that.

 

Entertainment is our #1 priority, and the traditional dining experience (again, not necessarily the food) is #2. What draws us to cruising is that we don't have to make any plans. We just show up at the MDR or dining room at the designated time, and there is no work or preparation that I need to do.

 

We love traditional dining! for all the same reason as above and add this point. I have to have a low sodium diet and the wait staff/ maître-de take my order the night before and insure my meal is low sodium. And it always is. Just adding my 2 cents.

[insulationbabe]

Well said Donna - I agree with you 100% - To be a relaxing holiday Dynamic Dining is not for us either - we love a set time, set place - and hate going through a lot of stress to book dinners and have to co-ordinate the shows with dinner. I hope it doesn't work out and that they don't start re-vamping the other ships to accommodate Dynamic Dining. I sure hope Royal listens to the passengers that prefer traditional dining. We have no problem with the Windjammer and can always find something to have for dinner. We plan on a few nights on the Quantum to eat there - because of dining times in one or the other restaurants as well as some of the menus that we aren't fond of

[insulationbabe]

Of all the cruises we've on and it's lots - Chops and Portofino's weren't what you call packed - we don't go the first night because of the Bogo coupons that they give out. Our concierge books two nights for us on the first day onboard and they will accept the coupons for the both nights. We each get a coupon so there was never any way us, as a couple could use both the first night.

The best idea as far as we are concerned would be to drop the price per person - fill out the restaurants currently and be done with it. When we started cruising the price per person was 20 dollars each - now it's up to 35.00 each - we don't get it. We will not usually spend the extra money for specialty restaurants and have not booked them on the Quantum for next April. A few nights on our cruise, we'll just simply go to the Windjammer to eat, which we don't mind - we call it My Time Dining lol

[insulationbabe]

I beg to differ about Royal sending emails regarding the dining scheduling - we booked 6 nights on our Quantum trip and although our friends received emails, we didn't. A few of the reservations we were told the times were unavailable, so over the next few days I kept checking and low and behold on my dining reservations the two that they said weren't available miraculously appeared on our list and for the times we requested. I was happy and a little upset at the same time.

Some of us "older" folks - at least the ones we hang out with are not happy campers. My booking information has said on line for two days that I can't access it because it's being modified.

Personally, I think there will be a huge back up once on the ship unless they get this booking thing under control. We don't cruise til next April and I certainly hope that Royals computers don't crash - bedlam will ensue.

Well I am off to try to access my reservation again - to see if they've changed anything again.

Please stop this Dynamic Dining thing Royal - too many people are already upset with it.

[ryano]

Please stop this Dynamic Dining thing Royal - too many people are already upset with it.

 

I dont think you can get a good idea of this just based on what is said about it here on Cruise Critic. Im also thinking RCI did EXTENSIVE research on how their customers would receive it and have decided to roll on with it based on feedback.

 

It seems to me, and Ive been on quiet a few cruise related social networking sites lately, that the only ones upset over this are the traditional cruisers who are a "dying breed" for lack of better term. Its obvious RCI is going after a new group of cruisers.

 

With that said, most of you traditional cruisers will likely not have to worry about this being implemented on anything smaller than Voyager class. :) I dont see how that could possibly work on smaller ships.

[Sianli]

I have never seen the bogo coupon for specialty restaurants? Are you diamond plus or pinnacle to get those? We enjoy both traditional dining and specialty restaurants every cruise.

[jticarruthers]

I keep seeing the comments that RCI has obviously done extensive research .... with who?

 

Has anyone ever participated in anything that could vaguely be considered market research that would have led to DD as a result? Just curious to know if anyone in this subset of generally frequent cruisers feels they participated in forming RCI's opinion.

[ryano]

I keep seeing the comments that RCI has obviously done extensive research .... with who?

 

Has anyone ever participated in anything that could vaguely be considered market research that would have led to DD as a result? Just curious to know if anyone in this subset of generally frequent cruisers feels they participated in forming RCI's opinion.

 

Personally, I have not been asked anything. I just highly doubt they decided to roll something out so major with the thought of "we are doing this no matter what, all of our passengers be damned"

 

Even if NO ONE in this group has ever been asked, this group is still likely less than 1% of their customer base.

[Bobal]

Personally, I have not been asked anything. I just highly doubt they decided to roll something out so major with the thought of "we are doing this no matter what, all of our passengers be damned"

 

Even if NO ONE in this group has ever been asked, this group is still likely less than 1% of their customer base.

 

If they'd put the idea of Dynamic Dining to me I would have said that sounds like a great idea - and one that will keep me coming back to RC :D

[time4u2go]

I keep seeing the comments that RCI has obviously done extensive research .... with who?

 

Has anyone ever participated in anything that could vaguely be considered market research that would have led to DD as a result? Just curious to know if anyone in this subset of generally frequent cruisers feels they participated in forming RCI's opinion.

I was thinking the same thing.

Edited September 17, 2014 by time4u2go

[BamaGuy44]

I keep seeing the comments that RCI has obviously done extensive research .... with who?

 

Has anyone ever participated in anything that could vaguely be considered market research that would have led to DD as a result? Just curious to know if anyone in this subset of generally frequent cruisers feels they participated in forming RCI's opinion.

 

There are more ways to do research than asking people questions, though I'm sure they have done that too either through surveys or focus groups or whatever. The percentage of people participating would be tiny though, they can't talk to everyone.

 

But their main form of research is one thing: data. They know exactly how many people use specialty dining, how often, what they order, how much they spend, what their age/sex/hometown is, what percentage of them are first time cruisers vs veteran cruisers. They know how many people use MTD vs traditional seating, what the demand is for each, etc etc and a hundred other data points I'm not even thinking about.

 

They can read cruise critic and think nobody likes the idea of doing away with traditional dining, or they can look at the patterns of how people actually spend their money and what they do when they're actually on board, which clearly tell a much different (and more reliable) story.

 

That may seem like a cold impersonal way to do it but it works. If they listened to cruise critic there would be no MTD, no specialty restaurants, no Oasis class, and a bunch of other things that turned out to be pretty good for them.

 

Could they be making a mistake? sure but it won't be because of a lack of research and data.

Edited September 17, 2014 by BamaGuy44

[ryano]

If they'd put the idea of Dynamic Dining to me I would have said that sounds like a great idea - and one that will keep me coming back to RC :D

 

Ditto! :) In fact, now that rumor is floating around about Freedom getting DD during the January dry dock, I think I will be a little disappointed if it doesnt happen.

[BamaGuy44]

Ditto! :) In fact, now that rumor is floating around about Freedom getting DD during the January dry dock, I think I will be a little disappointed if it doesnt happen.

 

Agree 100%. I'm on Freedom next May and I'm hoping for DD. I'm cool with meeting and talking to new people as I dine, keeping my waiters, etc. but I'll certainly trade it for more choice and flexibility.

 

The "style" of dining is about 247th on my list of what will make or break my cruise. I respect that it's a big deal to a lot of people, but to a lot of other people it's not.