Royal Caribbean International announced new dining options today for its newest class of ships, Quantum of the Seas and Anthem of the Seas. “Dynamic Dining” will feature five new main restaurants along with both old and new specialty dining favorites, as well as new reservations tools to help ensure you can dine when you want.
According to Royal Caribbean’s press release, “Dynamic Dining” is a completely new culinary experience that gives guests on Quantum of the Seas and Anthem of the Seas a landscape of 18 restaurant concepts as vast and varied as dining in the world’s most cosmopolitan cities. With a new take on the main dining room, guests can choose from five complimentary, full service restaurants, offering more choice and flexibility than ever before. Guests will also be in full control of their own epicurean journey via a smart, new reservations system that empowers them to decide when, where, with whom to dine, and how to dress each evening.”
New main dining options include:
- American Icon Grill, a take on the classic American road trip, pulling together best-loved regional favorites into one comfort-style menu
- Chic, where the height of contemporary cuisine is realized and the freshest ingredients, such as proteins that pack a punch and sauces made from scratch, are evolved for a modern palate
- Silk, a vibrant and exotic destination where the spices of the Far East bring new flavor to adventurous palates through a Pan-Asian menu
- The Grande, a luxuriant nod to a bygone era of classic European ocean liners when dining was a time honored ritual, featuring timeless dishes, and where every night is formal night. (emphasis mine)
- Coastal Kitchen, a concept created exclusively for suite guests, fusing Mediterranean influences with the unmatched riches of California’s bountiful farmlands.
On the specialty dining side (meaning extra charge), old standbys like Chops Grille, Izumi, and Chef’s Table will return, but there are some pretty interesting new choices as well.
- Wonderland, an elaborate feast for the senses in a setting where Royal Caribbean chefs twist their culinary kaleidoscopes to invent a dreamscape of never-before-seen fare
- Jamie’s Italian, featuring rustic Italian favorites, handmade – using seasonal ingredients and Jamie’s tried-and-tested crowd pleasers
- Michael’s Genuine Pub, the first American gastropub at sea and the next evolution of Royal Caribbean’s relationship with James Beard Award-winning chef Michael Schwartz, offering simply-prepared food and drinks made with quality ingredients from the best artisanal producers
- Devinly Decadence at Solarium Bistro, Royal Caribbean’s fittest dining destination, serving the foods you love all under five-hundred calories, designed by Devin Alexander, media personality, New York Times bestselling author and chef of highly-rated television show, “The Biggest Loser”
Of course, more casual options remain, but with a twist. Old favorites like Johnny Rockets, Cafe Promenade, and Sorrento’s remain along with:
- Windjammer Marketplace, a Royal Caribbean dining mainstay gets a new twist on Quantum class as a global culinary pavilion that invites guests to explore the world, dish by dish through enticing food islands, interactive stations, made-to-order specialties, an on-site bakery and a 24-hour station called The Grill
- The Café @ Two70 ̊, a new gourmet marketplace serving savory hot-pressed sandwiches, salads made to order, handmade soups and more
- SeaPlex Dog House, the first food truck at sea offering gourmet hot dogs for all to enjoy in SeaPlex, the largest indoor active space at sea
My Take
Dynamic Dining represents a big change for Royal Caribbean. Their other ships offer flexible dining times as well as the more traditional early and late seating at fixed times. Frankly, I like the old way just fine. MrsMJ and I book the late dinner seating, period. We have a set time to show up somewhere, a schedule to build our day around. Sometimes we choose available specialty offerings, and more often than not, we book those at the same time as our traditional dinner seatings.
But that’s not to say Dynamic Dining is not intriguing to me. I really like the multiple restaurant main-dining concept, and I am looking especially forward to the increased specialty options. A successful implementation of the new reservations system will be key to making all this work. I’m excited to try as many of these new options as possible during our December Quantum of the Seas cruise. Color me pleased with all these new options.
-MJ, March 26, 2014
Dynamic Dining has been a Royal Pain! Booked restaurants 4 months ago and tried to modify reserve times when they released shows. No can do. The whole booking site is a mess and calling up RCCL for help proved fruitless. Th Nov. 2nd premiere voyage is not even full and they have all restaurants booked to the max. Hopefully there will be some availability for those guests who did not prebook restaurants or there will be a lot of complaints on board, I’m sure.
If it’s like the other RCL restaurants that require reservations, they hold slots for onboard booking. I haven’t had any issues, but my travel agent managed all of my bookings for me. I just sent her a list of desired restaurants, days, and times. I have left some nights open just to test how things go onboard as well.
My mistake intimating they would completely lose a million guests. That would require RC to do nothing as they see their ships sail with vacant staterooms which obviously won’t happen. No matter how bad dynamic dining is viewed by a guest there is still going to be price that they’d accept it. Potentially 20% of guests paying reasonable rate is replaced by 20% heavily discounted guests (like Florida residents for Caribbean cruises). Of course RC won’t make this information public but if you see partial reversals or even no further role out of dynamic dining I’ll take your $20.
Deal. 🙂
I acknowledge I have not experience dynamic dining on RC. I have on NCL and I have friends who have on Oasis. There is no question that some will like and some won’t. The point is that right now nearly everyone is at least somewhat happy with dining. Introducing radical dynamic dining is likely to lose guests even if it does attract others. I think the initial indications are that by far a greater majority aren’t in favor and that doesn’t bode good for RC. In 2007 RC carried 3.9 million passengers and in 2013 4.8 million It took six years to add a million. If just 20% of passengers are put off RC by dynamic dining they’re going to lose nearly a million. I don’t see dynamic dining being that appealing which means RC are going to take a hit on their bottom line as they have to discount to sell their vacancies.
If 20% of their customers leave over dynamic dining, I’ll give you $20. 🙂 If it turns into that big of a disaster, they’ve got bigger problems. I actually liked rotational dining on Disney, but they handle it quite differently. You keep your same server team throughout all the main dining restaurants. And I’ll admit, the dining service team connection is one thing I’m going to miss for sure with RCL Dynamic Dining.
There are so many reasons why dynamic dining isn’t going to work for Royal Caribbean..
1) Solo travellers make friends in dining room – dynamic dining will upset them
2) Large groups – ever tried getting a large group to agree on a restaurant – dynamic dining introduces this problem
3) Large groups – logistic nightmare of trying to select times to dine and shows – expect disappointment
4) Taste – who knows what kind of food they’re going to like next Tues – dynamic dining needs advance planning
5) Meeting people – dining room consistency is something a healthy percentage of cruisers like. Consistency of waiters and diner companions especially. Dynamic dining eliminates this
6) Revenue opportunities – cruise owners might like the idea of having more opportunities to sell to their captive audience but many cruisers feel the constant bombardment of sales has gone over the top. Dynamic dining might be the straw
7) Variety of choice. Where in the world can you enjoy an Asian starter, an Italian main course and an French dessert? This is a pleasure cruise ships uniquely offer. Dynamic dining removes this
8) Formal dress- Some enjoy some don’t. However, removing the main dining and formal night to replace with one formal dining venue is bound to upset many who like the formal dress up night. (might even reduce photo sales!!!)
Of course dynamic dining will appeal to some.
Reading the forums, cruising ships and asking people it’s patently obvious that far more don’t like it than do. Expect at least a partial reversal at some point in the future. Royal Caribbean you’be been warned!!
I agree with everything you said to a point. Only problem being that no one has actually tried Dynamic Dining yet. So I’ll reserve judgement until I’ve done so. Like anything, I expect there’ll be some who don’t like it, some that do, and some that just don’t care. I’ve reserved about 3/4 of the dining for my upcoming Quantum of the Seas cruise, leaving a little open to experiment with. I’ll be sure to post my experiences here.
I’m indifferent to this Dynamic Dining business. I’m looking forward to all the different restaurants, but a part of it reminds me of NCL’s freestyle dining (which I didn’t like). I enjoy coming to my 2nd seating 2 person table, seeing my same waiters everyday and having my glass of ginger ale waiting for me. A part of me wishes RCCL would do the rotation dining that Disney does. I enjoyed that a lot. I guess we’ll see how it goes when I go on her in 2015!
With that said, I am looking forward to Wonderland! That looks like it has a lot of potential.
PS – I will be going on the Azamara Quest next week for the first time and I am so excited! It’ll be good to be able to compare RCCL/Celebrtiy/Azamara against each other.
I’m anxious to hear about Azamara! So want to take a small ship cruise. As for Dynamic Dining, I do like the concept, but like you, will miss the personal relationship with the wait staff. I quite enjoyed the way Disney handled rotational dining.
While I am excited about the prospect of smaller restaurants leading to higher quality meals (making 3,000 entres of the same anything can only be so good), I will miss building a relationship with my dining room table. One of the things that makes me so loyal to Royal is the fact that their employees are trained to make me feel welcome. This is especially true in the dining room. I will also miss the opportunity to make new cruising friends at dinner over the course of the cruise. My first few cruises, I picked up numerous great tips from more experienced cruisers that we dined with. I love the social aspect of cruising – it’s hard to replicate that when I take non-cruising vacations.