Are Waypoints and Alternative routes mutually exclusive?

[MymsMan]

Does specifying a way point always result in a single route being returned by the directions service?

I have never seen more than one route returned when I have a waypoint even if the waypoint is the same as the start address and shouldn't affect the choice of routes.  

So if I want route alternatives on a multi-leg route do I need to submit each leg to the directions service separately?  Is there any problem with having multiple instances of DirectionRenderer objects simultaneously displaying on the same map?

Bob