Dining on RCCL

[CamColt]

We just booked our first RCCL cruise on the Anthem and I really went into it blindly. I chose the "My Time" dining option over traditional basically because having flexibility seemed like a good thing. For those of you who are familiar with this, what do you feel are the pros and cons of both options?

 

[Denise W]

We just booked our first RCCL cruise on the Anthem and I really went into it blindly. I chose the "My Time" dining option over traditional basically because having flexibility seemed like a good thing. For those of you who are familiar with this, what do you feel are the pros and cons of both options?

I have sailed on Anthem twice and signed up for My Time dining both times. I went online before the cruise and signed up for dinner for every night of the cruise (we arbitrarily picked 5:30). They have two dining rooms for My Time, one for people with reservations, one for people without reservations. We waited at the most 5 minutes to get to the front of the reservations line and were seated immediately. We were asked if we wanted to share a table, or be at a table by ourselves. We always asked to share, and had dinner with a wide variety of people! We had no cons, but perhaps people who don't make reservations beforehand might have a wait to be seated if they go at a popular time.
Denise

 

[OKW Lover]

Hi Katie! Val & i have been on RCL a bunch of times (we are Diamond) but normally don't dine in the Main Dining Rooms. The times we have darkened the doors of the MDR on My Time Dining (MTD) our observations were that initially it felt odd not to have the same servers or table mates throughout the cruise.

Once you adjusted to that difference (think of it as dining in a different restaurant each time) the real "issue" is that your servers never get to know you and your preferences. So you kind of have to be pro-active in making sure they bring you that chocolate caramel martini at the start of the meal, not half way through.

We found that the servers don't seem quite as interested in pleasing you because their tip is not really dependent on establishing a personal connection. Otherwise, you'll find the quality of the food to be similar to what you experience in the MDR's on DCL.

 

[HappilyEverAfter80]

We also did My Time Dining on Anthem last year and while we chose a time in our cruise planner, we mostly didn't show up at the reserved times... never had to wait more than 5 min. We were a party of 2 or 3, maybe larger parties experience some wait.
They often asked us which dining room we wanted (choice of 2), but we were never asked if we wanted to share.. didn't know it was even an option.
Always had great service, fairly speedy too. We thought the waiters wouldn't care, but we had great service.
Con might be you don't get same servers every night, no drinks waiting for you like on DCL... but we were ok with that. Loved MTD.
Be sure to try Jamie's Italian though too ($) and Chops Grill if you like steak.

 

[CamColt]

Thanks everyone! This is helpful as I have a lot to learn.

So am I understanding right, that even with My Time, you have to book reservations? I've sailed on NCL with Freestyle dining when we just went whenever we felt like it.
Which 2 restaurants do you get to choose from?

With Traditional, do you get the same servers each night? Can you do that without getting table mates? We prefer to dine with just our family.

 

[HappilyEverAfter80]

Thanks everyone! This is helpful as I have a lot to learn.

So am I understanding right, that even with My Time, you have to book reservations? I've sailed on NCL with Freestyle dining when we just went whenever we felt like it.
Which 2 restaurants do you get to choose from?

With Traditional, do you get the same servers each night? Can you do that without getting table mates? We prefer to dine with just our family.

You don’t have to choose MTD reservations ahead of time, but you can... we did because we thought we had to but never showed up at the times we picked Just go when you want but you may have a bit of a wait.
If you know in advance ok Monday I want to eat at 7 and Tuesday at 6:30, see a show at 8 etc - go ahead and choose those times to hopefully minimize your wait...
On Anthem there are 4 main dining rooms, American Icon Grill, Silk, Grande and Chic.
I think 2 are on deck 3 do 2 on deck 4.
They are right across from each other.
Two are designated for MTD and two for fixed (early and late) dining.
If you are on fixed it will say which restaurant and table on your room card. Yes same servers too. I bet you can request own table.

MTD you just show up to the designated deck and will be seated where they have availability. As I said though they asked us if we had a preference - for us it was Silk and American Icon Grill as MTD venues.

In the end with MTD we ended up eating in each of the main dining rooms anyway because had dinner in both Silk and American Icon Grill.
Grande had menu breakfast daily... and we did the character breakfast at Chic...

 

[CamColt]

I believe I read Grande is the more formal restaurant with a stricter dress code. We would like to dine there once but if we get the Traditional will we have to dine there multiple times? It's a 9 night cruise. And if we do MT do we not get to dine there at all? I'm so confused by all this.

 

[HappilyEverAfter80]

I believe I read Grande is the more formal restaurant with a stricter dress code. We would like to dine there once but if we get the Traditional will we have to dine there multiple times? It's a 9 night cruise. And if we do MT do we not get to dine there at all? I'm so confused by all this.

That was when Anthem had rotational dining in the beginning where you rotated between all restaurants.
Grande does not have a formal dress code anymore. There is simply formal night like on Disney and it would apply to any dining room that night.
Anthem did away with rotational dining, now Grande is one of the main dining rooms if you are on fixed dining time, early or late.
But they also have breakfast.
If you choose MTD the only way to dine in th Grande is to go there for breakfast.
Unless something changes between now and when you cruise.
If you like MTD then you will get to have dinner in either American Icon Grill or Silk.
You can have breakfast in the Grande.
With 9 nights I would do 2-3 in their specialty restaurant too. Maybe buffet if you like that. Windjammer has a buffet dinner and so does Solarium Bistro (that one is buffet/a la carte combo).

 

[Dblumy1]

Hi, We will be on our first RCCL cruise in March. We have only been on Disney. This info makes me much less confused about Royal Caribbean’s dining. One other thing I am not clear about are the menus. I think I read they are they same in all MDR restaurants on a particular night. Is that right? Also, does the menu change from night to night, or is it the same for the entire cruise?
Thanks!

 

[CamColt]

Thank you! Good to hear they have a formal night as I have read otherwise. That makes more sense now knowing what I had seen was old info, LOL! I was thinking I was either destined to have 4 or 5 formal nights or none at all. 1 would be nice!

Hi, We will be on our first RCCL cruise in March. We have only been on Disney. This info makes me much less confused about Royal Caribbean’s dining. One other thing I am not clear about are the menus. I think I read they are they same in all MDR restaurants on a particular night. Is that right? Also, does the menu change from night to night, or is it the same for the entire cruise?
Thanks!

I had found some menus on line. It seems they had standard things that are the same every night but then a handful of different items each night too. And some for an additional charge too. Now, I don't know if that is current info or old but hopefully it is current. I liked the menus a lot!

 

[CamColt]

I found the site and it does say 2018, so hopefully this helps.
www.beyondships2.com/anthem-menus.html

 

[starvenger]

So basically each night has a theme or a motif, and the featured dishes more or less reflect this. And there are some staple dishes that are available every night like a steak and salmon.

Kids menu does not change either, but kids are not obligated to order from there.

 

[Dblumy1]

Great, thank you!

 

[AlohaNow]

This is super helpful! We too recently booked on RCL for October and don't really know anything about it. When prompted to choose a 6pm dinner time or the My Time Dining, I liked the sound of MTD better! One thing I do not like about cruising is having a specific dinner time. Good to know that we can perhaps eat alone, or with others, and get to know more people on the ship. Thanks!