RCL - rotational dining. Is this true?

[little britain]

20 minutes ago, BND said:

With DD, your tablemates and servers moved with you.

No with true DD you went to which ever restaurant you wanted whenever you wanted or you could book…. Just like a restaurant on land. 
Then to pacify the complainers they introduced the bodged system of where you rotated around the 4 restaurants and your table mates and waiters moved too… 

[nelblu]

17 hours ago, Hogbay said:

You have missed it it was called dynamic dining and like the dinosaurs is been and gone .😇

I loved it when introduced on Quantum.

[nelblu]

4 hours ago, RobInMN said:

We did a Disney cruise years ago with a bunch of families, the rotating dining was fun, but the ship was designed for it. The don't have 1 main dining room, they have 3, each holding 1/3 of the guests, and all themed totally differently.

Unless you build the ship to specifically do this, I don't see either how you could have rotational dining with 1 main dining room and a number of smaller venues, or what the point of rotating between main dining room floors would be.

If you're going to go "Dynamic Dining", then I think you have to go how I understand Virgin Voyages will operate where you don't have any "main" dining rooms, you just have a bunch of different restaurants/venues, and even no set dining times. But again, you have to specifically build the ship to operate that way, you really can't retrofit it. Well, maybe if you chop up the main dining room space into a bunch of smaller venues that all share the main kitchen.

 

Quantum class has 4 different restaurants and DD was exceptional, IMO.  I loved the Grande where lobster tails were served every night, but you only ate there every 4th night.  

 

If I'm not mistaken, wasn't The Grande formal wear.

Edited July 7, 2021 by nelblu

[BND]

51 minutes ago, little britain said:

No with true DD you went to which ever restaurant you wanted whenever you wanted or you could book…. Just like a restaurant on land. 
Then to pacify the complainers they introduced the bodged system of where you rotated around the 4 restaurants and your table mates and waiters moved too… 

Um, no.  We were on Anthem in April 2016 (and again in 2018) and had DD and we were assigned a restaurant for each night along with our tablemates (friends) and our waiter moved with us as we rotated.  We had set dining time. Our waiter was always waiting for us.  

Edited July 7, 2021 by BND

[BND]

53 minutes ago, little britain said:

Anthem goes over the side again now but only if you pay $29 for the extended ride! A straight up and down is still complimentary! 

The first time onboard, we got the side to side. Second trip a couple of years later, they were only doing the up and down.  I have some great pics from those rides.

[Darkingnj]

Sailed on Quantum in Nov. '14, didn't mind the change in restaurants but felt different without the expansive main dining room.

[little britain]

18 minutes ago, BND said:

Um, no.  We were on Anthem in April 2016 (and again in 2018) and had DD and we were assigned a restaurant for each night along with our tablemates (friends) and our waiter moved with us as we rotated.  We had set dining time. Our waiter was always waiting for us.  

Um, no… when true DD was introduced in Nov 2014 it was any restaurant you wanted… you could eat in the same one every night if you wanted 

[little britain]

33 minutes ago, nelblu said:

Quantum class has 4 different restaurants and DD was exceptional, IMO.  I loved the Grande where lobster tails were served every night, but you only ate there every 4th night.  

 

If I'm not mistaken, wasn't The Grande formal wear.

Yes Grande was formal.

[Hoopster95]

3 hours ago, Biker19 said:

There were many DD hater threads on CC in 2015 about it. @Merion_Momstarted one as I recall to defend DD, but like many other CC threads, they descend into endless post whoring bickering.

 

Unfortunately for DD a majority of the cruising public I have witnessed are not adaptable and acceptable to change. Have you ever tried traditional dining in the past and decided to change seats at your table so that you faced a different direction? I did... wow, what a reaction from table mates.

I've seen people show up at My Time Dining and still get pissed off when "their table" and "their servers" are "given" to someone else.

 

18 minutes ago, BND said:

Um, no.  We were on Anthem in April 2016 (and again in 2018) and had DD and we were assigned a restaurant for each night along with our tablemates (friends) and our waiter moved with us as we rotated.  We had set dining time. Our waiter was always waiting for us.  

 

Uhm, no , you are 100% incorrect.

The original DD which lasted the entire lifespan of Quantum in Bayonne was exactly like Little Britain said it was. 

[nelblu]

22 minutes ago, Hoopster95 said:

 

Unfortunately for DD a majority of the cruising public I have witnessed are not adaptable and acceptable to change. Have you ever tried traditional dining in the past and decided to change seats at your table so that you faced a different direction? I did... wow, what a reaction from table mates.

I've seen people show up at My Time Dining and still get pissed off when "their table" and "their servers" are "given" to someone else.

 

 

Uhm, no , you are 100% incorrect.

The original DD which lasted the entire lifespan of Quantum in Bayonne was exactly like Little Britain said it was. 

Are you sure, I seem to remember Quantum sail on February 13, 2016 we were assigned an initial restaurant and then rotated.  Don't recall having to make any reserves.

[kwokpot]

56 minutes ago, BND said:

Um, no.  We were on Anthem in April 2016 (and again in 2018) and had DD and we were assigned a restaurant for each night along with our tablemates (friends) and our waiter moved with us as we rotated.  We had set dining time. Our waiter was always waiting for us.  

I think your recollection is incorrect. I was on the Anthem on Oct 1st, 2016 and had DD which DID NOT have the waiters following us.  WE chose the restaurants to eat in, and IT WAS NOT a set dining time.

[nelblu]

1 minute ago, kwokpot said:

I think your recollection is incorrect. I was on the Anthem on Oct 1st, 2016 and had DD which DID NOT have the waiters following us.  WE chose the restaurants to eat in, and IT WAS NOT a set dining time.

My comment was on the 11 night Quantum sail on February 13, 2016.

[BND]

3 minutes ago, kwokpot said:

I think your recollection is incorrect. I was on the Anthem on Oct 1st, 2016 and had DD which DID NOT have the waiters following us.  WE chose the restaurants to eat in, and IT WAS NOT a set dining time.

DH and I were just talking about this.  Our waiter most definitely followed us and was waiting for us at our table each night.  We had set dining time.  We always do late. I also remember when we got to our cabin,  there was a piece of paper with which restaurant we were in each night, and at the same time each night.

Edited July 7, 2021 by BND

[nelblu]

1 minute ago, BND said:

DH and I were just talking about this.  Our waiter most definitely followed us and was waiting for us at our table each night.  We had set dining time.  We always do late. I also remember when we got to our cabin,  there was a piece of paper with which restaurant we were in each night, and at the same time each night.

Yes, and I loved the different menus/decor/ambiance and waiter's uniforms.

[Hoopster95]

6 minutes ago, nelblu said:

Are you sure, I seem to remember Quantum sail on February 13, 2016 we were assigned an initial restaurant and then rotated.  Don't recall having to make any reserves.

 

So you sailed in China on Quantum in 2016?

Quantum was only in Bayonne from Nov 2014 to April 2015.

[kwokpot]

Just now, BND said:

DH and I were just talking about this.  Our waiter most definitely followed us and was waiting for us at our table each night.  We had set dining time.  We always do late.  We may have chosen the restaurants, but we did rotate through the same time each night.  

It could have already been the modified DD which they had installed. There was a period where there was both My Time Dining where you could choose where and when to dine and also a modified Set-Dining time where the waiters rotated with you. That was most definitely NOT what we had. 

[Hoopster95]

9 minutes ago, kwokpot said:

I think your recollection is incorrect. I was on the Anthem on Oct 1st, 2016 and had DD which DID NOT have the waiters following us.  WE chose the restaurants to eat in, and IT WAS NOT a set dining time.

 

His, and your, recollections are both correct.

Anthem tried to provide both a true DD option as well as a bastardized version of Traditional Dining on the same sailings. You as the cruiser had an option to choose which you wanted.

 

edit: I see your post above just now... you're correct. Both versions of dining were available.

Edited July 7, 2021 by Hoopster95

[nelblu]

1 minute ago, Hoopster95 said:

 

So you sailed in China on Quantum in 2016?

Quantum was only in Bayonne from Nov 2014 to April 2015.

Check your facts as I'm looking at my sea pass card.

[BND]

We had DD classic which is what I was talking about.  I found a blog about it.  Our waiter definitely followed us.

[BND]

2 minutes ago, Hoopster95 said:

 

His, and your, recollections are both correct.

Anthem tried to provide both a true DD option as well as a bastardized version of Traditional Dining on the same sailings. You as the cruiser had an option to choose which you wanted.

Hers, but thanks.  I just googled and found out we were both right.  There is an old blog about it.  Just google Anthem 2016 Dynamic Dining.

Edited July 7, 2021 by BND

[Hoopster95]

2 minutes ago, nelblu said:

Check your facts as I'm looking at my sea pass card.

 

You'd better look at your sea pass again.

Quantum was immediately re-deployed to China after only 6 months in Bayonne.

 

Anthem was in Bayonne in 2016 when you sailed

[kwokpot]

4 minutes ago, nelblu said:

Check your facts as I'm looking at my sea pass card.

Quantum was in Asia starting June, 2015

Anthem sailings in Bayonne started November, 2015.

Edited July 7, 2021 by kwokpot

[nelblu]

4 minutes ago, Hoopster95 said:

 

You'd better look at your sea pass again.

Quantum was immediately re-deployed to China after only 6 months in Bayonne.

 

Anthem was in Bayonne in 2016 when you sailed

Sorry, you are right.  Just had Cataract surgery and the 2015 looked like '16.🤪

[Rogueperson]

20 hours ago, BND said:

Hers, but thanks.  I just googled and found out we were both right.  There is an old blog about it.  Just google Anthem 2016 Dynamic Dining.

Yeah, it was the DD Classic.  I remember the choice.  I also remember passing the line of pissed off diners who didn't have Classic and hearing stories that if you didn't get reservations as early as possible, your "my time dining" was relegated to 5:00 or 9:00 as almost all the times after 6:00 and 8:30 were picked clean.  They had some serious issues trying to manage it.

[BND]

14 minutes ago, Rogueperson said:

Yeah, it was the DD Classic.  I remember the choice.  I also remember passing the line of pissed off diners who didn't have Classic and hearing stories that if you didn't get reservations as early as possible, your "my time dining" was relegated to 5:00 or 9:00 as almost all the times after 6:00 and 8:30 were picked clean.  They had some serious issues trying to manage it.

MTD had the same issues at first, but they worked those out.  I like knowing what time dinner is and not having to wait.  Some people expect to just walk in and eat at prime dining times without reservations, but that has never worked well, except of course in the WJ.