Royal Caribbean Ditches Dynamic Dining
by Cheryl Rosen /Photo: Royal Caribbean
Royal Caribbean International’s Dynamic Dining plan is no more.
The cruise line yesterday said the plan, which split the main dining room on many of its ships into three or four themed restaurants, will end effective Nov. 23 on Ovation of the Seas and Nov. 27 on Anthem of the Seas.
The ships then will begin serving the same menu in all restaurants, changing it each night. Silk and American Icon will switch to the My Time Dining format, where passengers pick their own time and table for each meal, while Grande and Chic will offer set early and late seatings.
Guests booked on Anthem and Ovation who have already selected the Dynamic Dining Classic option will be assigned to the early or late seating that most closely matches their original time, while those who opted the Dynamic Dining Choice will be switched to My Time Dining. Guests on the flexible option will dine in American Icon and Silk; those on early and late seatings will eat at either Chic or Grande.
Launched in 2014 as a way to make the dining experience more intimate, Dynamic Dining proved to be too complicated for both guests and travel professionals, forcing them to make reservations every night.
Donna Carlin, owner of Stepping Out Travel Services in Brick Township, NJ, told TMR she thinks doing away with it “was a wise decision on the part of Royal Caribbean.”
Dynamic Dining “was quite a nuisance, especially for families traveling together. Every time we had a group in more than one cabin it was an issue correlating their dining reservations with the entertainment and they would call us to fix it,” she said. “We mentioned it to our reps and I know our clients have written directly to Royal Caribbean about it. And I’m happy to see they are listening to us.”
Cosmopolitan Dining, a version of the plan on the Ovation of the Seas in China, also will be scrapped effective Nov. 23.