I've cruised RCCL twice before, never on NCL. I really like the idea behind "Dynamic Dining" (and understand it is a take on NCL's "Freestyle" cruising). My one concern would be, and some of the posts here confirm it, about it being executed smoothly.
What I like:
- That they designated one restaurant as formal every night. This way, the people who like that crap can go there as much as they want, and folks like me can avoid it (and forml wear) altogether.
- The idea of not being tied to the same dinner time every night. A given day's schedule might make your dinner time very incovenient. For example, what if you have a lot of time in a particular port, and don't have to be back onboard the ship until the evening? Normally, you'd feel like you need to rush back to the ship early to make your dinner time. In that scenario, you can make your reservation later for that night. With the standard dining times, sometimes your daily schedule gets a little monotonous.
- I like that if you know you enjoy a particular restarant or a particular dish (and aren't the most adventurous eater), you can return multiple days for what you know you will enjoy. And you can avoild certain restaurants/cuisine you know you do not like.
I'm also not that hung up on the whole "same servers every night" thing. I don't get attached to them. I've never become pen pals or Facebook friends with my servers like some people on these boards have done.
I was serously considering a cruise on Quantum, especially since they were supposed to only sail from NY/NJ. But then they changed their minds on that. Plus, there was a little sticker shock anyway on the sailings they are doing out of here. Same thing happened with NCL's breakway. I was hoping the competition of having a second big, new ship sailing exclusively out of NY/NJ would allow for some better pricing. But now that may have to wait until the Anthem comes to town.