Engineroom Snipe

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.

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.......