Dynamic Dining Disaster ?

Anthem of the Seas has not even arrived in Southampton, for her maiden voyage on 22nd April, but already things are changing on board.

Prices been slashed dramatically on her 8 night Mediterranean debut with a balcony now available for the same price as an inside at £ 899pp. Admittedly this doesn`t include any ” extras “, such as drinks packages and on board credit, but another £ 100pp will get you both offers, and a choice of cabin too. On a maiden cruise this is really unusual, but she is a very large ship.

A Pink Polar Bear and a Bionic Barman are some of the very different features on this ship, purpose built for the British market but is she really more ” Space ship ” than cruise ship – it remains to be seen. Is she more suited to, I hate to say it, the American market rather than British cruisers who do actually want a cruise not a floating Las Vegas style hotel? One of the biggest new features was the Dynamic Dining, no fixed seating , dine where you want, with who you want. Lots of choice – some free some not. However this is where the biggest problems seem to be. One comment I have heard, from  a colleague who went on her sister ship, Quantum of the Seas, is that there are lots of food venues but the menu is the same every night,  each restaurant has different types of food but the menu does not change daily as it would on other cruise ships with traditional dining.

Royal Caribbean made an announcement last week that it was introducing ” Classic Dynamic Dining” on Anthem, to bring a more traditional dining experience to passengers following ” teething problems ” on Quantum. Passengers will now have the choice of 2 seating times throughout the 4 main restaurants, hopefully ensuring they will be able to dine with the rest of their party and keep the same waiting staff throughout their cruise. Menus will offer much more choice and there will be more staff to look after clients.

The move follows complaints and poor feedback from customers who actually like meeting people on their cruise, and building up a rapport with their waiters. They like dressing  up and formal nights too, and they want good food as apparently the quality has been criticised too. Not being able to get a table at the time you would like is also a big issue which will be solved with  the introduction of fixed seating times. So lets see what happens because if Royal don`t get it right I suspect Britannia will steel the limelight!