sanchoucsb

I can think of two more possibilities: 1. Individual RCL employees didn’t take a pay cut but more expensive employees found their contracts weren’t renewed and less expensive employees replaced them. 2. If gratuities are excluded from these labor costs, then increasing daily gratuities while keeping employee pay flat would result in a lower labor cost for RCL. My guess is some combination of all of the above.

Your readers demand more financial analysis! Anyone can write a trip report. We are here for the financial analysis and the bad jokes.

Love your reports! I hope you find time to delve into RCL’s 10-K again!

Two of four days you have had inedible entrees? We all have our own expectations but I would be very disappointed with that ratio.

We noticed this with several appetizers and desserts. I suppose it's either a nice treat to have it in the MDR, if you think it is speciality restaurant quality food, or it could be seen as a disappointment to have MDR food in a speciality restaurant. Either way, I agree that it's odd and reduces the uniqueness of the speciality restaurants.

It feels like someone at RC headquarters walked down the hall to the head of dining and told them, “we are cutting your food budget in half but we aren’t changing our marketing so figure out a way to prepare food we can pretend is gourmet at half the price.”

Exactly, and it's not like any of us are asking the MDR to deliver the same quality as the best restaurants on land. We are just looking for the same quality as 12 months ago. Nothing about the logistics of preparing meals for large numbers of people has changed in the past 12 months.

I know this has been discussed ad nauseum, but until I saw it for myself I wasn't prepared for the decline in quality of the food in the MDR since I last sailed on Navigator on only 18 months ago. At least 50% of the dishes in the MDR are now barely edible impersonations of what you might get at a nice restaurant. Sure, you can order prime rib, but it's sliced as thin as deli meat. You can order pea risotto, but you are going to get soggy rice with some frozen peas thrown in. It goes on and on. My wife works at a large hospital and when I said to her, "It's like we are eating at your cafeteria," she said, "Oh, our food is much better than this." A few of the dishes are decent, but they tend to be the more casual options - the fried chicken, the enchilada, and the spinach and artichoke dip appetizer were all something I would order again. Also, the Indian option was consistently good. Overall, the entire concept is a failure now. There is still formal dining room ambience - massive chandelier, white linen table cloths, and the assistant waiter who comes to your table before dessert to wipe your crumbs away. But budget cuts have resulted in food that has no place in such an upscale setting. There is a reason that upscale casual restaurants on land don't try to offer risotto or escargot - it's impossible to provide at high quality at the price point they need to hit. Yet RC seems to insist on offering these options even though they are incredibly disappointing when they are placed in front of you. If RC is going to insist on this new, lower cost per meal, they would be better off abandoning any pretense of formal dining (perhaps except for formal nights) and converting the MDR to a nice, upscale casual restaurant. It would be unfortunate, but at least we could have consistently good food, even if we lose the formality of a three-course meal. It would also distinguish RC from other cruise lines and allow people to "vote with their pocketbook." If a formal dinner every night is important, people can choose Celebrity (which recently recommitted to the MDR and added certain dishes back). If people want a more casual experience while on vacation, they can choose RC. Because at the moment it's just smoke and mirrors - the illusion of fine dining.

I think the OP and I were on the same cruise but for anyone who finds this thread later, as of December 2023, the green tint and low quality remains...

Thank you. What I found online says the same but the phone agent stated that children are treated differently when booked on the same reservation, under 12 years old, and booked in an adjoining room. Logically this makes sense but unfortunately, I can’t seem to find it written down anywhere.

I've searched a lot for the answer to this question but I can't quite find this exact scenario discussed. My wife and I looking to book a Magic Carpet Sky Suite on Edge along with the "connecting" interior room - it shares an alcove but isn't directly connected. We would be with our two young children - ages 7 and 10. Will we have any trouble going to Luminae as a family? I see a number of posts stating that adults booked in the connecting interior room don't have access to the retreat and have to pay extra for Luminae but the Celebrity phone agent assures me that this isn't the case when two young children are booked in the interior room. Does anyone have any experience with this? Even better, is there anything in writing on Celebrity's website that addresses this so we don't have to rely on the representation of a phone agent? Thanks!

1. Card counting is nothing like the movie Rainman and does not require you to be a genius or savant. It only requires you keep a single number in your head and then add or subtract one as you see high or low cards come out. It requires concentration and quick arithmetic but that’s all. It is not about remembering every card that has been played like in Rainman and other movies. 2. Card counting tells you when you are more or less likely to win a particular hand. But it usually (see #3, below) doesn’t help you win that hand. That means that to take advantage of knowing the count, you need to vary your bet quite a bit and bet more when the deck is in your favor. It’s the varying bets, not the counting, that is noticed by the casino. 3. Occasionally, card counting might actually help you win a hand by suggesting that you should hit when basic strategy says to stand, or vice versa. Unfortunately, this kind of obvious error is also easily noticeable by the casino, especially if you seem to be “guessing” right more often than not, and especially combined with the variable betting discussed in #2, above.

Thanks for writing this awesome review. I’m a dad sailing with my family on Navigator in December. We will also be in two interior promenade connecting cabins so this review is perfect for me. It’s great how much detail you give!