SoCalCruisin65

Well I am going to weigh in here. We just came off an Alaskan Cruise on Ovation of the Seas. All other issues aside I will share my opinion on the food on our cruise. This was our first cruise since covid lockdowns. We went with our oldest daughter and her partner, stayed in outside balcony cabins a few doors from each other. They have been on multiple cruises since the lock down. I have to say that it might be unfair to RCL due to all the issues with this first cruise of the Alaskan season with Ovation, she ran into a multitude of delays and issues just getting into port so it soured the experience right from the get go for our party. But I digress, getting to the question and opinions at hand, the food. We did not eat in the MDR any nights of our cruise. We enjoy getting off the ship at the ports and only had 3 not counting the first day, at sea days which we had bought the 3 night specialty dining package. The port days we spread out between the other options available on the ship. So here is our collective opinion of our specialty dining. Chops - our first specialty dining and it was far below expectations. The wait staff was exceptional as one would expect. But the food was subpar at best. We kind of ate it but to be honest we wouldn't do Chops again. We had better steaks out of Windjammer then we did the specialty dining offerings at Chops. Wonderland - this was our second specialty dining, it was excellent. Food was delicious, all 5 courses of it. I tried everything we ordered. Everyone enjoyed every dish we had at the table and dessert was excellent. Service was excellent. Specialty cocktails were ok, but we all had the premium drink package so we had a number of drinks during dinner and we simply ordered what we knew to be good. Jaimies Italian - Our final specialty dining. Again service was absolutely top notch. Food was excellent, I love Italian food and I am pretty particular about my pasta. This was absolutely delicious. Our deserts were top notch. On the the rest of the food. Room service for breakfast is just not worth it anymore, your choices unless you pay extra are pretty much continental and its cold when they do get it to you. So for the three women I was on the cruise with, I simply went and got coffees for all from Starbucks and grabbed muffins and fruit. I am always up early so easy for me to do so. On at sea days we would sometimes either do cafe270 or even windjammer. Food was pretty much ok, not great but not bad either, lots of choices so don't get anything you don't think looks good. PIzza was pizza, it's good cause it's whats available at midnight lol. We did one of the bars that serves pay appetizers one day for lunch after getting back from a short port day. It was well worth the 20 bucks we spent to get a bunch of great food. For all specialty dining, and for the bar etc we always cash tipped the wait staff, bartenders. For specialty usually 20 bucks cash, for the bar tenders it was always at least 10 bucks for the 4 of us each time we went. We one, appreciated how hard these guys and gals work, and two our service was spot on always. We got to know our bar tenders in all the various bars on the ship. Overall I would say the offerings were ok, not what they used to be pre-covid and pre-inflation. You pay an awful lot for what you get and to be honest it just doesn't equal what you pay over all. But hey as someone else said earlier in this thread, we enjoyed not having to cook anything or clean up anything so it kind of balances out. Service in all areas was damn good for us. Even the buffet I got to know a couple of the chefs there as my wife was not feeling well one night and the chef made her a steak, loaded bake potato, grilled veggies and a brownie dessert covered with a warmer lid and sent me on my way, he got tipped 10 bucks just for that. That was the steak that was actually better then the one we got at Chops earlier in the cruise go figure. I would say that RCL needs to up it's game, desserts were just not worth grabbing outside of specialty dining. They tasted fair to poor, more like not freshly made, frozen and unwrapped was the impression we got for nearly all of the offerings, rock hard cookies etc. You mileage may vary but it won't keep us from cruising. Our next cruise will be with Celebrity and we are going to do the Med next year. For this year we are done. Alaska was a bust for us due to so many factors beyond our control. But that's a story for another thread. Cheers.