Engineroom Snipe

I noticed that RCI updated the app this morning on my Galaxy Android phone. For what ever reason, the deck plans for my November cruise were correct for the first six decks (Jewel of the Seas) and then changed to another ship. I mean the elevators were port side midship and the then mysteriously changed to center midship. After the update, everything was correct. Many strange things seem to be occurring for some reason.

Almost looks like the transition from the unlimited drinks in the Diamond Lounge during "Happy Hour" to 4,5,6 per day. Many pluses and minuses as posted by thousands of reviews. Some people do not want nor need two or more specialty coffees per day. RCI saves money by not trying to attend to a specialty coffee maker for hours during the cruise for hundreds of Diamond, Diamond +, and Pinnacle users. I would rather have the specialty coffee maker working in the Diamond Lounge instead of one specialty coffee per day. I fret the bean counters (pun intended) have been watching me make two or three specialty coffee drinks per day in the morning Diamond Happy hours. I apologize to everyone, maybe I abused the system and now you are being denied access because of my abuse of the system. Sigh, ....., I will go with my card to be punched once per day. The sun will rise on the first morning of my cruise and I WILL salute it with a cup of coffee, not matter where it comes from. It will be a great day!

"But Mom and Dad, I do not take up that much room......." 😞

No argument from me about your observations. I can and will keep documenting what is being served now so cruisers can make up their own minds. I have observed and documented some of the items you describe in my recent evaluation of non-mdr food on the Oasis, September, 2023. Some things are improving but nothing is like per-pandemic let-alone the 1980s or 1990s.

Today's posting is about trying to get self service ice. I and my wife enjoy cold water and we also bring onboard our qty 12 1L bottles of soda which we enjoy with ice. We do our best to limit the sugar in general while we are onboard knowing we are eating more than normal. Last September, 2022, on the Oasis, the self serve soda dispensers would provide ice even if you did not purchase a soda package. On this trip, none of them provided ice if you did not have special soda cup. The only way to get ice is to ask a bartender for a glass of ice on Deck 5. There is cold water available but no ice. Park Cafe has limited hours on Deck 8 but when it was open, the self serve ice maker was often out of ice (about 1 out of every 2 times I attempted to get ice). Room service is once a day and my ice bucket was filled but one never knew when the service would happen (I asked for AM service and my room was never made before 1 PM). It was difficult to find my cabin steward and I rarely saw him. The Windjammer had self service ice but now I have to go to deck 16 aft to get ice. Something I would try to avoid in a wet bathing suite. The Solarium was one of my go to places during the day for self serve ice. Loco Fresh was another place to get self serve ice but it required both hands to dispense. The cup push dispenser was broken and I guess they did not want to order repair parts or the parts were no longer available for the machine. A push-button was installed on the side of the machine. The dispenser had to be broken for a long time because a custom engraved label was made for it and rubber button cover had been worn-off. How many fingers touched that button before you? I tried using my knuckle but it would not fit inside the button to activate the small switch. ☹️

The sun will still rise. You have plenty of time to fret over where your first meal comes from. It is a tough life. 😁

@OCSC Mike On this cruise, September 2023, both the Park Cafe and Windjammer normally opened at 7am. Last year, in September 2022, on the Oasis, they both opened earlier at 6:30am. Do not know why the times changed. Just giving you a heads-up.

My last post had a typo. Yes, that was a typo, "my wife thinks I am worth more dead than alive." Should that have not been a typo, I probably would not be posting right now!!! 🤣😁😧

In general, the Solarium Bistro had consistent food offerings that were a 'cut above" other non UDP or MDR options. The Windjammer was very good for early morning risers. We would advise you to go to the Windjammer early (we were there when it opened at 7am) and then go to the Solarium Bistro at about 12:30pm before it closed at 1pm for brunch. Then go for a snackeral at Loco Fresh late afternoon. There were some days we just skipped dinner or had a one plate shared meal out of the Windjammer on deck 16 outside as we watched the sunset.

No, I wanted to explore and try it for myself. I had it on the Enchantment of the Seas in April of this year and found it very disappointing. The roll was not fresh, the meat was not even prepared well as it was served on a dish that came out of the back room of the aft Solarium. The Solarium hours of operation were only when the Windjammer was closed so there was limited opportunity. Maybe two hours between 12pm and 6pm when you could get in line but you could not see the meat being carved. On the Oasis, this roast looked FABULOUS on the cutting board. I watched the server cut it. I was so psyched to get my taste buds on it and then, FAILURE, 😭. I really wanted it to be good. It is what it is, I will try it one more time on my next voyage this November. Sooner or later, even a blind pig finds an acorn. 🤣

I have been cruising on RCI since 1988. I can absolutely listen to your argument that we are being slowly heated up in warming water like frogs, claims, oysters, and lobsters that we no longer struggle with mediocre offerings. You are absolutely correct that maybe my two pounds of weight gain each cruise is because of increased sodium intake both water and food. I have to admit, I cannot eat like I could in my younger days and my wife is trying to encourage me to watch what I eat (I guess I am still worth more dead than alive 🤣). Do not think I am a cheerleader. I have not gone to Next Cruise on my last two cruises. I do not think that my past three cruises reflect the level of price point that I want to pay double or almost triple of what I paid. What I am trying to do now is document why I think the quality is lower and the experience is not positive enough to purchase a higher cruise price. You and I know that nothing changes unless it can be documented. Write a review with pictures and explain how it does not meet expectations or exceeds expectations. I am trying to understand your ideas and viewpoints. I think we are on the same page but for semantics and interpretations which are hard to understand with mere words. Regards, 😁

Forgot to mention other items on plate, fried chicken (very good), lamb stew (very good), and vegetables (salad and califlower).

A surprise on the last cruise day for brunch that ended at 1:00pm in the Solarium Bistro (September 9, 2023). They served steak and eggs. I asked some cruisers next to me what they thought of the steak. They said it was hit or miss as one person thought it was very good and one person got a piece of gristle. The person who said it was gristle gave great accolades about the NY strip steak he had in the MDR earlier in the week. I carefully picked a piece which was about 4 to 5 ounces after cooking. It was cooked medium to medium rare, very moist, tasteful, and tender, 9/10. It was the best piece of meat I had onboard all week only challenged by the ribs I had the day before. What a treat!

@CruiserQ123

Omelettes to order are definitely available in Windjammer. I did not notice them in the Solarium Bistro. Lox (smoked salmon) was offered everyday at Windjammer without asking. I do not have the main dining menus. I will check later today to see if we kept the recent showtime menu schedule which printed and in our cabin on arrival.

My fault, I am of your generation but how soon I forget what a daily printed paper meant to my generation as I delivered it to many a household in my youth. I did not request a printed daily Cruise Compass which is offered upon request. I used the available RCI App. For my November cruise, I will request a printed daily and post it per your request. Apologies. 😉

I have been trying my best to describe what I thought were day by day but this is a "one week delayed" postings of pictures. Do you have a specific request? I could not even begin to try to describe all of of the "non-MDR" food on a daily request. There are the Solarium Bistro menus, Park Cafe menus, Loco Fresh Menus, Wind Jammer, and more.😁

Ease up and take a breathe. I do partake in a piece of pizza once or twice during the cruise and it is not gourmet but is a nice "snackeral." The food is not comparable to the times of 2018. I want it to be better. I will do my best to review MDR in November this year exclusively on a nine day cruise. Just saying the food is horrible does nothing to describe why it is horrible or good. Take some pictures of the presentation, describe what you think are the shortcomings or good things about it and enjoy your cruise. Despite my criticisms or accolades, I always seem to put on at least one or two pounds of personal body weight per cruise. 🤣

That you found a specific description was unique. Almost all of my non-mdr menus just listed "fish" with no other descriptors but the type of seasoning. The type of fish was very flaky, light, and easily destroyed with a light touch of the fork. I could make anything "fish" I wanted with some flavorings or batter coat. My problem would have been trying to keep them in one piece before serving and have some density about them. I could not be a RCI cook right now being provided a raw material to taste better than what they do. I do not blame the cooks or the preparers, they cannot "make a sow's ear into silk." I found no descriptions that said cod, halibut, salmon, sole, or tuna on any cooked fish during my last cruise as I was looking for specifics. Thank you for posting.

Thursday (September 7th, 2023, last week) Lunch at WJ: Chicken spread at top of plate: not watery but very little flavor. Egg spread at 11 o'clock upper left: not watery and had flavor. I never saw any type of seafood salad or spread during the week. Fried fish tasted like store bought fish-sticks: very predictable with tarter sauce at 3 o'clock under fried fish. Not bad but it was tasteless without tarter sauce. Again a very light, white, neutral tasting, flaky fish held together by the coating. Chunk tuna inside of fried fish. This is a step-up from last year. The rests are salad makings to include feta cheese and chopped hard boiled eggs. Again, a step-up from last year. We never went hungry for something to eat. I was just happy to have more of my go to salad items available. RCI is still far short of the salad table offerings they had on my last trip in March, 2020, by at least ten items at a minimum. Almost all included non-mdr meals were lacking in pure proteins that were not in sauces or heavily breaded or battered. Occasional, baked or barbecued chicken, blackened pan seared fish, and barbecued ribs would be presented but they used to be staples of most lunch and dinner menus. Most meals were presented with at least one protein at the carving station. In a majority of cases, it was a pork meat. Most of the cuts were tender and I found non of them to have gristle or high levels of fat. There were some notable exceptions which I will post tomorrow.

Interesting tid-bit on the Crown & Anchor supplied bottled water: Standard average amount of sodium is 1mg per 16.9 oz bottle. Standard micron particulate matter is less than 2 microns. This is achieved with a reverse osmosis process, not distillation. These are very good standards. Just about the most you can get without some very expensive equipment or taking much more energy to distill. The maximum recommended level of sodium in drinking water is about 250mg/ per 16.9 oz or liter. People on low sodium diets should drink water with less than 20mg of sodium per 16.9 oz or liter. This water is tested and is extremely low in sodium. No need to buy more expensive water onboard.

I did quickly mention that I did see chunk tuna and chunk hard-boiled eggs sometimes at the salad bars. They had black olives the first two days and then they disappeared. My wife and I agreed after trying the "sliced" and "cubed" cheddar cheese that it was definitely Velveeta. Like the Black olives, it disappeared after two days and we never missed it. My server was like, "NO wrap for you!" Like the parallel universe in the Seinfeld episode. 🤥

WOW! I did not feel like there were so many onboard. School was in session so maybe there was just a bit less activity on the top decks. The casino was full every time I went past. At least I was not hallucinating on the sizes. The display food looks SO good but nothing compared to what was on the serving plate. 😬

That is the perfect word to describe the scene, it was bizarre. I almost thought at first the server was just joking with me. It did not make any sense and the Loyalty Ambassador agreed with me.

I took all of the pictures last week and I am using no vacation time adding the commentary this week. Just a bit delayed. I went to the Park Cafe at around 5pm on Monday, the 4th, to get a "snackeral". I saw the prepacked wraps in the display so I asked for a QTY 2, one for my wife and one for me. The server quickly snaps up one finger, "Only 1 at a time." She then does not go into the case to get the prepackaged wrap (which looked to be at least 8 inches long, more than enough to cut in half and share for a taste). She goes behind the counter into a small refrigerator, and drops this on a plate. I used my sea pass card to indicate how small the piece was. I saw multiple people in front of me ask for two and three Kummelwecks on one plate for one person and I could not get more than one piece of wrap which smaller than the long side of a sea pass and less diameter than the short side. The manager that I talked to about it just shrugged their shoulders. I guess this was their policy. I was not even hungry but there seems to be no rhyme or reason to some of the policies that are enforced. The Park Cafe seemed to be out of ice every time I wanted to fill up a cup. I went a few times during the first two days and was able to get ice about 1 out of 2 visits. I did not go back after the third day. Park Cafe was only one floor down from my room so I really wanted to make it work. I would not need the elevator to visit. Needless to say, they got a "0" on my guest evaluation.