Any talk of RCI offering Anytime Dining?

[zackiedawg]

I do not think it is a compromise, it is a sound business decision

 

Well I think it is a compromise...and so do many others. Opinions. We all have them, and often they differ. Since there are many cruise lines offering every conceivable dining option between them, there is plenty of room in the sea for traditional dining lines to sail beside combination dining lines and freestyle dining lines. Those that prefer each style can book those lines...and we all sail happily. If one of those dining models causes a particular cruise line to fall behind and start to lose passengers and money, you can bet it will change. So far, cruise bookings are doing just fine on all three types of lines.

 

... if you are losing out on a particular group in the cruising market, I would expect you should do something to gain them as customers. Especially those that cruise frequently and are loyal to certain brands.

 

Quite true. But how do you weigh the newly lost business against the gains you attempted to make? Because I can assure you that I, and likely many others, would look for a line which offers traditional dining - and not a compromised traditional dining wedged into a third dining room at certain off hours in a half-empty room on a ship full of people who prefer freestyle dining...but TRUE traditional dining. If RCCL changed their dining style, Celebrity, Holland America, or some other line would likely be picking up my business.

 

Open your eyes to the possibility that RCCL is offering something increasingly rare in today's cruising world...true traditional dining. By doing so, they are actually pulling in a particular client base and a loyal fan base that other cruise lines, such as Princess and NCL, are LOSING because of their dining model. So if you think that a cruise line needs to react to the loss of a particular group in the cruising market...then I guess Princess needs to get traditional dining back, because they certainly have lost many traditional diners who will not cruise with them anymore.

 

The difference is - I choose not to cruise with Princess because I don't like their dining style, but I am not calling for Princess to change their mode and see the light. I can perfectly well accept the choices out there, and make the one that best suits me.

 

I fit this category. I think RCI has a fantastic product, but I have a problem with have to eat at one of 2 times. So I choose Princess.

 

And I think Princess has a great product, but I have a problem with NOT being given two dining times which will be participated by all passengers interested in dining in the main dining room. I have a problem with getting a beeper, and strolling into a standard land-based restaurant system, even if the wait is only 10 minutes. I have a problem with not being able to get into an empty dining room when the chimes ring, and watching the grand entrance of my many hundreds of fellow passengers resplendent in their finest wear, and the hushed din of a full house and the rythmic choreography of hundreds of waitstaff hustling about performing a magical ballet of food and drink. and so I choose RCCL. (Or HAL or Celebrity)

 

I, too, do not understand the defensive track people take on the matter of traditional dining. If it can be offered to you with your choice, I do not see how it would effect you at all.

 

See post #84 above.

 

To those that are so defensive, have you ever even tried it?

 

No. But I can take many different types of vacations with many different dining options - I choose cruising because I LIKE traditional dining. It isn't closed-minded...it is HAPPY. An opinion apparently shared with lots of people...which is why there are so many different cruise lines with so many various options, to satisfy all types of people.

 

I do not understand how people can be so closed minded to something they have not tried. If you have and do not like it, you can stick to traditional. If you have and liked it, you can stick to having all kinds of options.

 

It might be considered closed-minded to not respect other people's opinions and desires, and expect them to all feel the same way you do. It is wonderful that you tried something you didn't think you'd like, and now you like it. But it isn't wonderful to decide that everyone else should share your enthusiasm for something, and eliminate one of the key features of RCCL that makes it a desirable choice for so many others. If traditional dining was an outdated, horrible dining mode which was hurting RCCL's business and costing them passengers, they probably would consider a change. But RCCL isn't struggling. Their ships are full. Their past passengers are loyal. And a very large number of us LOVE traditional dining.

 

Why can't we have what we want, and you have what you want? Why should you choose from 10 cruise lines with exactly your dining preference and I choose from none? Why should all cruise lines change their dining model to match your newfound preference?

 

Another poster said earlier that they prefer the Princess dining option so they could plan their own day. Whereas I prefer the RCCL traditional dining for exactly that purpose - to plan my day. I don't want to be caught up doing something late, bump dinner till 9, and stay in dinner too late to catch the show. Part of what I find most desireable about traditional dining is that it is the one thing I can rely on. It will always be there, at the same time. The chimes will ring, and I will head to dinner. And it will be perfectly timed to let out in time to catch other ship activities. I will always have the same reliable table, and waiters, and staff. I will enjoy the same folks accompanying me. I always know it will be a full room, not full of empty tables and seats. There won't be people hanging out at the next table, finished with their meal and loudly bantering over wine and desert while I'm waiting for my salad. There will be a wonderful uniformity to the process - something so inherently 'Cruiselike' about it. It will provide something entirely DIFFERENT from normal life, and normal restaurants, and normal hotels. It's why I choose cruising over staying in a hotel and waiting in line at Outback with a beeper.

[negc]

An excellent and well-reasoned response which reflects my sentiments exactly. I have tried both Princess' anytime dining and NCL's freestyle dining and they were unsatisfactory to me. I wouldn't presume to demand that they revert to totally traditional dining and don't feel that those who like the other styles should insist RCI must adapt to satisfy them.

When Princess first announced their personal choice dining, I was of the opinion that it was an excellent compromise that should satisfy both the traditionalists and those who wanted more flexibility in choosing their dining times. However, as is so often the case, the devil is in the details, and even after a few years of implementing personal choice, they haven't found a way to accommodate those who request traditional dining by adjusting their dining room assignments and there are long waitlists for traditional dining and many who request it are forced into accepting anytime dining.:)

[grangermom]

Kkorman - Thank you.

[kkorman]

Well I think it is a compromise...and so do many others. Opinions. We all have them, and often they differ. Since there are many cruise lines offering every conceivable dining option between them, there is plenty of room in the sea for traditional dining lines to sail beside combination dining lines and freestyle dining lines. Those that prefer each style can book those lines...and we all sail happily. If one of those dining models causes a particular cruise line to fall behind and start to lose passengers and money, you can bet it will change. So far, cruise bookings are doing just fine on all three types of lines.

 

I think a compromise would be asking you to give up traditional dining, which I am not. An opinion would be I like traditional over personal choice. I do not think it would have to affect you.

 

With Celebrity doing traditional 2 times/night dining as well, RCI as a company only offers 2 seatings. Why not try it on one brand? Or even trying the staggered times like HAL does would be a start.

 

Quite true. But how do you weigh the newly lost business against the gains you attempted to make? Because I can assure you that I, and likely many others, would look for a line which offers traditional dining - and not a compromised traditional dining wedged into a third dining room at certain off hours in a half-empty room on a ship full of people who prefer freestyle dining...but TRUE traditional dining. If RCCL changed their dining style, Celebrity, Holland America, or some other line would likely be picking up my business.

Hey, as long as you were switching to Celebrity, you would not be hurting RCI at all... lol.

 

Open your eyes to the possibility that RCCL is offering something increasingly rare in today's cruising world...true traditional dining. By doing so, they are actually pulling in a particular client base and a loyal fan base that other cruise lines, such as Princess and NCL, are LOSING because of their dining model. So if you think that a cruise line needs to react to the loss of a particular group in the cruising market...then I guess Princess needs to get traditional dining back, because they certainly have lost many traditional diners who will not cruise with them anymore.

 

RCI is in the majority... last I checked only Princess and NCL offer this option and only Princess offers both.

 

Believe it or not, Princess cruisers are as loyal as RCI cruisers... and I do not think that it has anything to do with dining options.

 

It might be considered closed-minded to not respect other people's opinions and desires, and expect them to all feel the same way you do. It is wonderful that you tried something you didn't think you'd like, and now you like it. But it isn't wonderful to decide that everyone else should share your enthusiasm for something, and eliminate one of the key features of RCCL that makes it a desirable choice for so many others. If traditional dining was an outdated, horrible dining mode which was hurting RCCL's business and costing them passengers, they probably would consider a change. But RCCL isn't struggling. Their ships are full. Their past passengers are loyal. And a very large number of us LOVE traditional dining.

 

 

Last I checked RCI is at a 52 week low. With bookings down this year (on all cruise lines) I would be trying to get anyone I can get on my ships.

[wrp96]

The people who keep saying that RCCL should do like Princess and turn one dining room into Personal Choice are forgetting that while RCCL may say it has multiple dining room, the main dining room is ONE dining room on multiple levels (except on the Sovereign class). Princess actually has separate dining rooms so people coming in and out at different times is not going to disturb the traditional diners. Turning one dining room into personal choice would disrupt the entire dining experience for those to us that prefer traditional.

 

I too won't sail Princess because I can't be guaranteed traditionald dining. At this point I'm wary of HAL because I prefer late seating which is when they've gone to the staggered seating on some of their ships, even that does not appeal to me.

[negc]

 

Last I checked RCI is at a 52 week low. With bookings down this year (on all cruise lines) I would be trying to get anyone I can get on my ships.

 

As you say, bookings are down on all cruiselines and stock prices for all those lines are also at a 52 week low. There are a lot of reasons, primarily the economy, for this situation but I doubt that high on the list of reasons is the style of dining each line offers. I don't really think that you believe that to be the case either.

 

Perhaps when Princess figures out how to satisfactorily offer both traditional and anytime dining, we might revisit this question, but until then, I, and many other RCI loyalists, hope that that RCI sticks to the principles and practices that have proven successful in filling their fleet of ships. Let RCI be RCI and don't try to make it be something else.:)

[jmcdon7230]

We found this to be true, they give you a beeper and the wait is very long. It seems that most people want to eat at 7:00 or 7:30 so it was the most crowded then. We did not like it at all, never knowing your table or wait staff, different wait staff every night. RC please don't change.

 

This is the heart of the problem...."It seems that most people want to eat at 7:00 or 7:30 so it was the most crowded then."

 

The early seating is "too early", and the late seating is "too late".

[madforcruising]

Last I checked RCI is at a 52 week low. With bookings down this year (on all cruise lines) I would be trying to get anyone I can get on my ships.

 

Well I don´t have an overview over alllines and all cruises, but the ones I´m looking at the bookings don´t seem to be low. It´s just the opposite and they are almost booked way in advance. However this is not representative.

 

Regarding the stock price. It´s not only RCL thats at a 52 weeks low. it´s CCL (Mother Company to Princess:rolleyes: )too. BTW the stock price of both dropped after CCL was giving out bad news about expected earnings. No bad news from RCL. But the stock market has not much to do with hard facts only. It´s a lot psychological things involved too. So bad news from one cruise line may drop the price of others too.

 

It surely has nothing to do with dining preferances.

[negc]

This is the heart of the problem...."It seems that most people want to eat at 7:00 or 7:30 so it was the most crowded then."

 

The early seating is "too early", and the late seating is "too late".

 

Even if that were true, and I am not sure that it is, Princess, with their "anytime dining" where you supposedly can eat when and where you want, won't take reservations for that time period and can't accommodate those who want it because they have forced so many people who requested traditional dining into anytime dining. Instead they issue beepers and make the cruise ship dining room experience more like what we can experience anytime at a popular land-based restaurant. I liken it to the time when Coca Cola® came out with the new Coke® which tasted much like Pepsi. Unfortunately it never occured to them that if customers wanted to drink a soft drink that tasted like Pepsi, they would buy Pepsi. Fortunately for them it didn't take them long to get the message and correct the situation by coming back with Coke Classic® and removing new Coke from their inventory. If I wanted the land-based restaurant experience I would be not be on a cruise ship. PC or Princess' Choice doesn't work and Princess isn't flexible enough to make it work.

[cruisersnorkler]

My vote is definately RCCL and traditional dining. We will not sail on the ship lines promoting the choice dinning. I fiqure, if you don't like it, eat in the buffet. We plan our day to fit the dining time. It is also reasuring main shows are around dining times--so we know we won't miss anything. We would not have it any other way--It is part of the cruise experience.

[kkorman]

As you say, bookings are down on all cruiselines and stock prices for all those lines are also at a 52 week low. There are a lot of reasons, primarily the economy, for this situation but I doubt that high on the list of reasons is the style of dining each line offers. I don't really think that you believe that to be the case either.

 

 

And that was not my point... my point is with competition to fill up ships and RCI have the biggest ships to fill, with even more big and bigger ships to come... they should be trying to attract everyone, at least on one of their brands.

[kkorman]

My vote is definately RCCL and traditional dining. We will not sail on the ship lines promoting the choice dinning. I fiqure, if you don't like it, eat in the buffet. We plan our day to fit the dining time. It is also reasuring main shows are around dining times--so we know we won't miss anything. We would not have it any other way--It is part of the cruise experience.

 

This is exactly the close mindedness I was talking about. "if you don't like it, eat in the buffet"... that is certainly going to attract people.

 

Shows are early and late... so you do not miss anything. Service, in general, is quicker because not every server is getting the same course at the same time, so you are not in the dining room for 2 hours. So you can eat at 7:30 adn make the 10:30 show or go to the early show and eat dinner at 8:45. So you do not miss anything.

[TexasMom2]

I think a compromise would be asking you to give up traditional dining, which I am not. An opinion would be I like traditional over personal choice. I do not think it would have to affect you.

 

This is the major flaw in your theory.

 

On my Princess cruise in December that I booked 11 months in advance, I could not get traditional dining and didn't clear the wait list even after boarding.

 

I didn't get my personal choice, which was traditional. I had to give up traditional dining. And believe me, we were affected by it.

 

The hybrid dining plan WAS a detriment to my experience. We could have made a standing reservation at 5:45 p.m. or 8:45 p.m. (this is what we were offered) and we declined. Those two times even were earlier and later than the traditional dining times.

 

Our longest wait was 30 minutes standing in high heels with a beeper, the shortest was about 5 minutes, but that was at 6:00 p.m. on a sea day. The most uncomfortable part of anytime was getting behind unhappy passengers who got in line a second time to complain that they had been waiting 30 minutes. Some were VERY unhappy and vocal and made the wait even longer to get your beeper.

 

The service just wasn't up to the quality that I had experienced on RCI. Night and day. One evening I asked for iced tea 3 times after the initial glass of wine and never got it. At times the gaps between courses could last 20 minutes or more. Our waiters were serving multiple tables that were at various stages of the meal and were harried, so I didn't blame them for the poor service. I blamed the anytime dining.

 

We don't normally eat in the specialty restaurants but we did twice on this cruise and the service was wonderful.

 

Truly, if Princess would make an effort to adjust the dining room setups based on passenger's requested preference, it just might work. However, I can only imagine the extra work involved to notify 900-1200 people that an anytime dining room was being converted to traditional.

 

OK, I've rambled on enough. You guys be sure to comment on your cards that you don't want RCI to entertain the idea of anytime dining.

[time4u2go]

I think the choice should be offered as long as it would be done in such a way as to provide everybody with their choice. If this is not possible, then don't change it.

 

Gotta go watch Idol!

[isujim]

I posted this earlier in the thread.

 

RC economic data released for the 1st quarter showed bookings at 104% (which includes 3rd and 4th persons booked......thus over 100%). Bookings are not down. Profit taking from RC highs and the cost of oil are probably the two major reasons why RC is low right now..........people that have stock due take their profits from time to time, or count their losses as the case may be.............it has nothing to do with bookings being down.

[flvol77]

It sounds to me that "anytime" dining translates to "reheats," in other words, your food is sitting around in a kitchen, and when something's ordered, they simply heat it up.

 

A friend of mine did an Alaskan cruise with NCL and he said that on a few occasions the gravy had a "skin" on it, indicating that it had been sitting out for awhile.

 

Sorry but I couldn't let this one go....you are wrong on this, everything is made to order. Maybe not on NCL but I know for a fact it is on Princess.

 

Anytime dining is what brought me into cruising....I would love to go on a RCL cruise but not until they add anytime dining. If they never do oh well, nothing lost from them or myself.

 

I just don't like someone telling me when I need to eat....sometimes I eat luch at 3:30 and want to eat dinner at 9 pm and sometimes I want to eat right at 5:30 its all depends on the day....Btw I was on the caribbean princess 6 weeks ago and we never waited more than 5 mins and that was only once, and that during that 5 mins I went and bought my wife some jewerly, so waiting isn't all that bad ;)

[Cruising89143]

As long as RCI has the nice selections in the Windjammer for the evening meals, then I could care less about the "Freestyle" or "Anytime" dining. I can still eat when I like between 6-9 and the choices are great.

[negc]

And that was not my point... my point is with competition to fill up ships and RCI have the biggest ships to fill, with even more big and bigger ships to come... they should be trying to attract everyone, at least on one of their brands.

 

You assume that changing their dining room policy would attract more passengers than it would lose and that they could offer both styles of dining with no detriment to either. I'm not sure how you can prove your premise. Princess hasn't been able to make it work well despite years of experience, so why should RCI adopt a flawed system? One way in which RCI distinguishes itself from Princess and NCL is by offering traditional dining. Your suggestion would blur that distinction. RCI has chosen not to be like the other two lines and would not gain an advantage by copying the others.

Cruiselines that seek to be all things to all people usually end up satisfying neither.

[negc]

duplicate post

[PhoenixCruiser]

As long as RCI has the nice selections in the Windjammer for the evening meals, then I could care less about the "Freestyle" or "Anytime" dining. I can still eat when I like between 6-9 and the choices are great.

 

You make a good point G! I read earlier that you ate most if not all of your dinners in the Windjammer on your last cruise. Would you be willing to tell me how it worked and what your typical choices were?

 

On our last two cruises we didn't eat one meal in the MDR because we don't like to eat with strangers, and for dinner we like to eat when we want to, not on a set schedule. We always did room service or ate in the speciality restaurants in the evening.

 

We are on the Jewel in October, this is a chartered ship and in the past they (vacation outlet) had "attempted" freestyle dining, I'm not sure if they intend to do the same thing on this cruise. My parents are taking my 3 sisters, their husbands and us to celebrate their 45 wedding anniversary. I more or less convinced them to do a cruise instead on an AI, I'm stressing and really hope that we all have a great time :D Even if we end up in Canada :p

 

Thanks!

 

###

[PhoenixCruiser]

You assume that changing their dining room policy would attract more passengers than it would lose and that they could offer both styles of dining with no detriment to either. I'm not sure how you can prove your premise. Princess hasn't been able to make it work well despite years of experience, so why should RCI adopt a flawed system? One way in which RCI distinguishes itself from Princess and NCL is by offering traditional dining. Your suggestion would blur that distinction. RCI has chosen not to be like the other two lines and would not gain an advantage by copying the others.

Cruiselines that seek to be all things to all people usually end up satisfying neither.

 

While we all know that the posters on CC are a small % of the overall cruisers several have posted that they don't eat in the MDR. And, since I'm one of them I haven't been able to view the dining rooms. Do you see a lot of empty seats? Just curious!

 

And, more importantly, did you book the Jewel repo (Boston to Ft. Lauderdale) for 2007? We did, the GS was only $400 more than the JS :D

 

###

[Cruising89143]

It worked out great. No need to hurry to get cleaned up and run to dinner. I like to be able to have a few cocktails up in the Viking Crown before dinner and this made it nice not to have to be on a schedule. The WJ is also much quieter than the dining rooms which is also nice.

 

They usually had most of the selections from the dining room menu for each night minus the lobster. Also a great salad bar with different types of salads. Jade was open for the Asian selections. Also they had baked potatoes each night along with french fries, pizza, a carving station, pasta station with someone to prepare it for you. Also many other vegetables and soups. I had no problem eating there at all. I guess I am just over the whole dining room thing. I too will not sit with strangers. I have had enough bad situations to last me a lifetime. :)

 

I do have to say that one night dinner was at JR's for a change and we also ate dinner one night in San Juan to break things up.

[PhoenixCruiser]

Thanks G! I think that will work great for my family. :)

 

###

[xpcdoojk]

The people who keep saying that RCCL should do like Princess and turn one dining room into Personal Choice are forgetting that while RCCL may say it has multiple dining room, the main dining room is ONE dining room on multiple levels (except on the Sovereign class). Princess actually has separate dining rooms so people coming in and out at different times is not going to disturb the traditional diners. Turning one dining room into personal choice would disrupt the entire dining experience for those to us that prefer traditional.

 

I too won't sail Princess because I can't be guaranteed traditionald dining. At this point I'm wary of HAL because I prefer late seating which is when they've gone to the staggered seating on some of their ships, even that does not appeal to me.

 

I recently was on the HAL Rotterdam and I was really happy about the 4 times 6:00 upper early 6:30 lower early 8:00 upper late and 8:30 lower late. However, after choosing 8pm which I thought was a perfect improvement over the too late late dining option. The problem is that you get done 45 minutes before the show, which made it way too easy for me to go to bed instead of killing 45 minutes until the show starts. If I do HAL again, I will revert to the late lower 8:30 time. On our 16 day cruise we only went to the shows that were before dinner. It really is impossible to improve on traditional seating for most passengers, and yet everyone wants to have their fast food habits while on a cruise. I think the tradition and pomp of dining on a cruise ship to be one of the positive vacation aspects of a cruise.

 

jc

[negc]

While we all know that the posters on CC are a small % of the overall cruisers several have posted that they don't eat in the MDR. And, since I'm one of them I haven't been able to view the dining rooms. Do you see a lot of empty seats? Just curious!

 

And, more importantly, did you book the Jewel repo (Boston to Ft. Lauderdale) for 2007? We did, the GS was only $400 more than the JS :D

 

###

We have never noticed a "lot"of empty seats in the dining rooms. Because of the popularity of Chops and Portofino, we have attributed most of the empty seas that we have observed, to the possibility that diners were in one of those specialty restaurants. In such instances, the seats were usually occupied on other evenings. Since you eat in the Windjammer, I guess I would ask if you find it very heavily utilized each evening? On those occasions when we were going to Chops or Portofino, we have always informed our wait staff and our tablemates of that fact in advance.

Haven't got to the point of considering the 2007 repositioning, but have looked at the 2007 transatlantic from Harwich to Boston. Have never been to Dublin or Newfoundland and find the itinerary attractive.