Engineroom Snipe

I had to make an effort to take them as I try to disconnect from technology and focus on quality time with my wife. I have a few more to go. I am doing a bit each day as I have time. I went to Park Cafe specifically to get a Jamaican wrap as well as the specialty Roast Beef sandwich for you. I will provide pictures of the jerk wrap in my next post, what a disappointment. I went to local supervisor at Park Cafe and he just kind-of shrugged his shoulders. I went to C&A Loyalty ambassador with it on my plate. I think the ambassador was embarrassed. This is when a picture(s) say everything.

Breakfast was our favorite meal onboard. The yogurt area had multiple nut toppings, minced honeydew, watermelon, and pineapple. Salmon was good. I enjoyed the large cut chunks of fruit. Bacon was cooked well but sausage was a hit or miss. Some days good but two days were dry, almost freezer burn. I only tried one piece of bacon and sausage on most days. Precooked omelettes looked "wet" and had liquid surrounding them on serving tray. Omelettes could be made to order. We arrived early and on most days, had our largest meal at breakfast. Pictures were taken over multiple days. You get the idea. Staff were doing their best to keep things clean and clear tables ASAP for new arriving guest.

This was WJ later on Monday Lunch, September 4. Fruit is cut for breakfast but sliced in sections at lunch. Better variety this year, The pineapple and watermelon were very good the whole week. The cantaloupe was good but sweet some days and ok on others. As you can see, some plates are almost the same from Solarium lunch day before.

Some more pictures from embarkation day from Solarium Bistro. I noticed that none of the descriptions get specific about the type of meat or fish. In most cases, the fish itself is very light and flaky so it is not salmon, sole, halibut, or a dense filet. I had to use my fork underneath the fish to pick it up. If I tried to "stab it" with the prongs, it would fall apart. Overall, the offerings were good. The barbecue chicken was very good by itself. It was not drowned in some sauce and soggy. Some of these dishes were repeated later in the cruise.

No code, pure wonderfully coded algorithms by a person in a basement who has no life. The airlines started this system, the hotels have followed suit, and now most vacation systems are trying to optimize the churn of seats, rooms, and suites for maximum profits. As any gambler in a casino knows, "The house always wins in the end." But every gambler that loses money to the house thinks, "Every time I lose, I am one gamble away from winning. One more gamble and I will win the big one." The thought does not change probability. Probability stays the same in every gamble. The odds of losing or winning stays the same with each roll of the dice. Casinos do not lose money. Royal Up does not lose money. Every step is calculated to maximize profits for RCI or it would not exist. Capitalism at its best. 🤑

Some good news from the Solarium Bistro last Sunday, September 3, 2023, on the Oasis: The salad bar stepped up its game to include tuna fish, hard boiled eggs, black olives, feta cheese, tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, croutons, and more to include four dressings.

I think thinner slices would have been much easier to bite. Enjoy your cruise.

Delayed posting from one week ago on Oasis out of Bayonne. Arrived at about 9:50am on Sunday (9/3/2023) with personnel vehicle. Parking lots were not open until 10:30am. What a mess! Not enough people to direct cars waiting. VERY disorganized! And they are charging $5 more per day (parking was $25 per day and increased to $30 per day) and it was the worst I have encountered after five times at Bayonne. I will describe the police response as we were trying to leave today, at 7:40am, 9/10/2023, one week from now to keep it in context. In parking spot by about 10:50am but yelled at by multiple attendants about where I should go but no one is there to help direct (AKA Disney World who has this down to a science). Once we made it through the entrance way, the whole experience was completely different. We had an 11:30am check-in time but walked directly into security lines at about 11:00am. Less than five minutes at boarding check-in and immediately processed for boarding with luggage in tow. Checked into muster station immediately. In the Solarium and relaxing by 11:20am. I relaxed with my wife and made a specific attempt to get a special sandwich from Park Cafe as promised for another prominent poster. This is a picture of the second time I tried it on Tuesday which was identical to the first time on Sunday. The presentation was great. Looks well cooked, juicy, and good to go. The roll was great, 10 out of 10, the 30lb piece of beef looked perfectly cooked. The horseradish sauce was perfect. I noticed something only chefs notice, the server, used a serrated knife and was using force to cut the slices thicker than I would expect, he was "working" at cutting the meat. A good piece of beef should only need a good standard knife and be able to cut it wafer thin just gliding through. My wife and I took the perfect roll tops off and bit the meat with our fingers because it would not separate cleanly. I have a good set of chompers. The bite was stringy. I would have given it a ten but it went down to 6.5 on that first bite. I could not bite a piece off of the meat without pulling the whole slice out in one piece. This happened twice on our cruise as I wanted to make sure it was not just a "one-off". Identical each time. The meat tasted great, juicy, medium to medium rare, well flavored, and so "chewy" I left pieces behind because they would not chew. Not all is lost, at 12:10pm, I ventured into the Solarium Bistro and was pleasantly surprised. A posting for tomorrow. 🫢

I am going to provide pictures and detailed descriptions of non MDR food per my promise to many faithful posters next week. The good news, Windjammer has stepped up their offerings. Breakfast is very good. Not 2018 but MUCH better than my Oasis cruise last September, 2022. Lunch has improved noticeably. Dinner is good. Still want for more quality beef protein but improved. Pictures and descriptions will be provided on a one week delay so I can do justice to the review and not take too much time from my current cruise. El Loco Fresh, improved and moving in the right direction. So far, the worse thing I can find is extremely watery sour cream. Five out of six is not bad. At least an 8 out of 10. In general, some stupid issues with trying to get a cup of ice without staff support. I will go into detail next week. Sigh, Park Cafe had many misses so far this week. Hoping to find it improved before I leave. All in all having a great cruise but not visiting Nest Cruise this trip. Will post next Monday with lots of pictures so you can judge for yourself. At Crown and Anchor event, about 2,000 repeat cruisers, cannot find a reliable number for total pax onboard yet. Seems less than last year. Aqua show was spectacular but very loud as reported by others. Starboard stern vibration which gets more noticable with height. No stern vibration amidship or on port side. A glass placed on a table will show a vrarion ripple. I could care less but not quite how this feels in a cabin in that area. I am in forward inside cabin deck nine. Only one cabin to my starboard and I think it is empty. I have a private hermit cave. Very good steward. Life is good. I could be bias. 🤣

There is so much "noise" surrounding RCI right now. I respect your decision making. Until your next cruise.......

I had an assigned inside cabin on the Oasis tomorrow. Bid minimum plus a bit for inside spacious, exterior view spacious, and panoramic spacious view. I was happy to be informed today I was unsuccessful on all of my bids. Why would I be happy? I was informed more than 24 hours before boarding that I was denied. I have no expectations of an upgrade and fully prepared to accept the original room that I picked. This is the way it should be. I have rarely been informed that I was unsuccessful until after the ship had left port. This is a step in the right direction for RCI.

I cannot add anything to this quote."I think it just depends on what your like." Regards.

I am of the camp, "pick the cabin you really want," and be careful what you wish for during your Royal-Up bid. For instance, I could pick the perfect balcony room near the elevators and stairs on a deck one or two levels below the pool deck. I get upgraded to a Junior Suite that is at the very end (stern) of the ship. At first glance, a JS is a huge upgrade but look at the Jewel of the Seas for example, the nearest elevator is midship. You have to walk half of the distance of the ship each and every time to get to your cabin from the elevator. Depending on your mobility, this could be a huge consideration.

I, like yourself, just want a good, solid cruise. Pay attention to the little things and I do not care about any perks. I was a "nothing" before they even invented Crown and Anchor on my first cruise and I think I enjoyed everything about it more than all of the "points" they have given me since then.

Yeah, show up at the equivalent of their "Diamond Lounges" and physical altercations would follow the verbal arguments. I would chalk the "high spirits" of passion being caused by liquid spirits. 😬

Will do. If I find anything outstanding in a good or bad way, I will try to take pictures to allow readers to make their own opinions.

I am in the same dilemma. I still have four more cruises booked from 2022: two this year and two next year. I am trying to keep an open mind but my last experience on the Oasis in September, 2022, before the announced dining and room service changes, was subpar. I got a good price on the cruise and still felt it was a fair value. I made more reservations at that time for 2023 and 2024 at what I felt were very good prices. I enjoyed my Enchantment of the Sea out of Baltimore last April. MDR and Windjammer food selections were reduced and quality of food did not seem normal. I had problems for two days trying to even find my cabin steward. Still a good cruise. Going on Oasis this weekend and only eating in Windjammer so I can make a full week of evaluations. On the Jewel in November, 9 days. We have reserved second seating in MDR and will eat all nights in the MDR for over 9 days of evaluation. These cruises are going to help me determine my future with RCI, especially if they keep future base cruise prices elevated from what I paid. I am hoping for the best. I will have a good time no matter what. I am now starting to ponder other cruise lines. I might have to pay more for those cruisers. I want to go back to an experience which includes more with the basic fairs and do not play games with add-ons. This "a la carte" airline type of pricing is confusing and starting to affect my desire to cruise with RCI.

For not being good at math, you do money percentages extremely well! 🤑😁

Yes, the Windjammer Sushi station would open early at 5:30pm which allowed time for a 6:00pm MDR and was a great snack if you had 8:00pm main dining.

I have doing Royal since my first honeymoon cruise in 1988. I enjoyed all of my cruises. My main point is that I take into consideration the price points when I critique. You are OK for the price you paid. You will have a great time. I am OK with the prices I PAID (emphasis past tense). If the prices stayed the same as I paid, I would book more even knowing some of the cutbacks. I am not paying 2 to 3 times more for the exact cruises with the cutbacks. That simple.

I have made comments about how a majority of repeat, regular cruisers, book years in advance. I am one of those cruisers. I booked my 2023 cruises (three) around July, 2022 when the prices were half of the current 120 days before departure prices this year. In some cases these prices are almost three times more than what I paid. That is not inflation or the cost of operations. That is supply and demand, I got it. I would be paying almost three time more ($3000 versus $1000) to select an interior room. My balcony rooms are a minimum of half the current prices in premium locations which I picked. I booked two cruises for 2024 in September of 2022. Again, one cruise is almost 1/3 of the current asking price and the other is between 1/2 and 1/3 and these again were selected rooms. This is the scenario. Regular repeat cruisers snapped up very good prices last year for reservations for 2023 and 2024. Combine this uptick in reservations with "revenge cruising vacations" where money was no object" at the end of covid situation. No vaccine requirement or testing after about December, 2022. Cruisers were informed that they had to use their future cruise credits that they might have had for two years. I believe that this year will be a banner year and next year will be a good year for RCI occupancy. The current prices being offered in 2024 are substantially higher than what I have paid. Add to the continuous money saving cuts to meals and service (my opinion after thirty-five years of cruising, mostly on RCI), I am holding off on any more 2024 reservations and not making any 2025 reservations at this time. RCI will only start to see people like myself disappear about February of next year (2024) because I normally would have at least three more reservations for later 2024 and 2025. They will try and hold the prices up as long as possible. If more cruisers, like myself, start doing the same thing, there is going to be a big hole in confirmed future reservations. The prices will probably start coming down in 2025. RCI needs to lure those cruisers who commit in advance so they can raise prices as the cruise gets closer to embarking. This has been the cruise model, early reservations get the best price but one must commit money up-front for years to get that price and the room location of choice. I do not mind doing that but I am not committing early money on a deposit for a price I feel is not proper. I feel these prices will go down in 2025 and I have nothing to lose by waiting. If they go up from now, than I was not going to purchase them anyway. No loss. I spend the money elsewhere. I am not committing to pay existing prices for the quality of food now being offered. If you are going to offer me lower quality food offerings as part of the base price, I want a lower price than they think it is worth. That is my reasoning.

For 2023, the CEO thinks things are great and going in the proper direction. https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/royal-caribbean-just-raised-earnings-guidance-for-the-second-time-this-year-heres-why-im-bullish-on-the-stock/ar-AA1fucMR One especially pertinent quote to the small add-ons addressed in this economic post: Despite an encouraging increase in onboard guest expenditure, the amount passengers spent on experiences aboard Royal Caribbean cruises "remains lower than the long-term trend line," according to Liberty. (CEO Jason Liberty) They need to get more money out of the passenger during the cruise using any method possible. RCI is already charging more for the items that have an additional fee. The only way to make more money is to start charging for items that were previously included in the cruise price. Supply and demand. I cannot wait until 2025. This is going to get interesting.

Yes, It was late 1960's, many larger discount stores, (Garwood, at Race Track Circle, in Cherry Hill, NJ) did the same thing at the time. I remember it so many years ago because I had to do the same thing you did. I hope we do not go back to those times again. 🫣

I am one of those frequent cruisers. I am thinking along the same lines. I feel that RCI is targeting younger families with their newer ships which is a great thing for them. I just do not need all of the bells and whistles of the newer ships to enjoy myself. I do appreciate good food. I do not need large quantities but I appreciate quality. I am holding off on RCI future cruise reservations for the year 2025. I have my 2023 and 2024 reserved. I am going to use my remaining cruises as a test of RCI quality versus pricing against some of the competitors.

You have read many of my previous ideas on this subject. We are going to have to wait about two years for the backlog of long term cruise reservations to reflect these decisions. By the time RCI notices the lack of reservations which are not occurring one and two years in advance, it will be too late to "balance" the prices and then they will finally have the supply being greater than the demand.